THE 
 
 PANG-YANGER 
 
 ELM A A TRAVIS
 
 THE 
 
 PANG-YANGER 
 
 By 
 ELMA A. TRAVIS, M. D. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 
 MCMV
 
 Cof)ri[ht, 190S. by 
 
 McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 
 
 Publiihed Oitobtr. 1905
 
 STACK 
 ANNEX 
 
 PS 
 
 " Enslaved, illogical, elate 
 
 He greets the embarrassed Gods, nor fears 
 To shake the iron hand of Fate 
 Or match with Destiny for beers." 
 
 KIPLING
 
 THE PANG-YANGER
 
 THERE was the tang of a blizzard in the March 
 gale whirling through the mountains, and the 
 clear, star-lit air was filled with tingling particles 
 of the driven snow, which was swept from peak to val 
 ley, only to be caught again and carried swirling upward 
 when some keen counter-blast struggled out of a blind 
 gorge of the hills. On the desolate uplands, the gale, 
 with shrill shrieking, waltzed with this wan ghost of the 
 winter s snow, but at the foot of the mountains it fell 
 alone down upon the clean-swept railroad tracks, to race 
 madly with each passing train. 
 
 Kelley s Junction is a flag-station, where the Hurstville 
 mountain road crosses the main line, and all the local trains 
 stop in their hill-climbing and wait with imDortunate puff 
 ing for the main-line trains. The " 9 105 " only slowed 
 down while an agile passenger swung himself off into the 
 March gale. The man carried, with careful awkwardness, 
 a closely muffled child upon his arm, and he seemed famil 
 iar with the atmospheric and other conditions of the 
 place, for notwithstanding the impatient admonition of 
 the local s whistle, he deliberately waited, bent shoulders 
 to the gale, until the wind and the express went roaring 
 down the track together, before he crossed the clean-swept 
 frosted rails to board the mountain train. 
 
 The conductor, beside the steps, flashed the inquisitive 
 
 light of his lantern upon the approaching passenger. 
 
 Take yer time, Bijah," he adjured sarcastically, and 
 
 waving the signal for starting, as the newcomer leisurely
 
 4 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 mounted to the platform, he followed him into the car and 
 the train lurched heavily into the upgrade pull. 
 
 The last passenger was a large man of about thirty-fire, 
 with the thews and sinews of the natural athlete, and the 
 bronze of out-of-doors. His features, large and regular, 
 possessed a peculiar faculty of inexpressiveness; a very 
 straight and black moustache concealed his mouth; his 
 clean-shaven jaw was firm without aggression, and his level 
 eyelids half concealed the sombre mockery of a pair of the 
 most eloquent eyes in the world. 
 
 Wat in time hev yeou got there, Bijah? " demanded 
 the conductor, peering around the shoulder of the big 
 man, who had paused for a cursory survey of the car: 
 
 This is my son Rob," said Abijah Bead absently, his 
 raucous voice as level as his unfluttering eyelids, and Silas 
 Mason squinted nearsightedly up at him, and down at the 
 child on his arm. 
 
 " Oh, yeou get eout! " he scoffed incredulously. 
 
 The delicate aspersion did not appear to reach Mr. 
 Bead s abstraction. 
 
 " Wat kind of a joke yeou tryin tew work off, neow? " 
 the conductor persisted, a knowing leer on his sandy, 
 weather-beaten features. He was a most unpleasant per 
 son, but Hurstville had wondered why it tolerated him 
 until he had become an institution on the mountain road. 
 
 Mr. Bead brought his eyes to a sharp focus of his in 
 sistent interlocutor. 
 
 " I have told you, this is my son. And you better take 
 my word than search for proof," he said brusquely, and 
 strode down the car, while the conductor, with a muttered 
 scurrility, went about his official business, slamming the 
 car-door behind him. 
 
 Abijah s son roused sleepily as they passed down the 
 aisle, and the undivided attention of the passengers was 
 fixed upon them. Heads turned, questing, meaning
 
 CHAPTER ONE 5 
 
 glances were exchanged, and a buzz of conversation arose 
 as Abijah, composedly selecting two vacant seats, turned 
 one, deposited the boy upon it, and removing his overcoat, 
 tucked it beneath the child s head, as a pillow. He said 
 something to the boy as he made these arrangements, and 
 observers were quick to note the softening of the man s 
 face, as he spoke ; but his usual inscrutable expression re 
 turned as he settled back in the seat opposite and fixed a 
 steady gaze on space. 
 
 A young man turned to a large, fair elderly lady beside 
 him as Abijah and his son settled down. 
 
 " Looks uncommonly mulish to-night, doesn t he? 
 Wonder what he s up to," he remarked, and Mrs. Palmer 
 sighed. Regarding Abijah Bead, conservative people 
 felt it safest to expect the worst. 
 
 Now don t! please! Aunt Lois!" young Deyo pro 
 tested. You know it s meat and drink to him to get a 
 rise out of the community. See folks looking at him out 
 of the corners of their eyes. He feels them through the 
 back of his head, the stiff-necked beggar ! Don t you go 
 puckering up that nice smooth forehead of yours because 
 he has suddenly accumulated a red-headed kid. Isn t he 
 a red-head? I m going over to see about it." He rose 
 from his seat. " Don t you wish you could see Mrs. Bead s 
 face when her unexpected grandson is presented?" he 
 murmured, and chuckling heartlessly, went on toward Mr. 
 Bead. 
 
 1 Bijah, old man how are you? " he said, and they 
 shook hands heartily, for the two had been confederates in 
 boyhood, and life-long; friends. 
 
 ; First-rate ! Glad to see you ! Sit down," said Mr. 
 Bead, hospitably kicking his valise under the seat. He 
 leaned forward to push it further, and the brim of his hat 
 struck sharply against the head of a young lady in the sent 
 before them. Her hand flew to her hair with unmistakable
 
 6 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 annoyance, and his curt " beg pardon " was so openly un- 
 conciliatory that she shot a surprised half-glance back 
 ward as she made an indefinite acknowledgment of the 
 scant apology. 
 
 Mr. Deyo s brows were interrogative as she nestled back 
 against the shoulder of her companion, a mulattress of 
 unusual stature; but Mr. Bead shook his head indiffer 
 ently. 
 
 4 Well, then, in the name of celibacy whom have we 
 here? " enquired Deyo, turning his attention to the sleep 
 ing child. 
 
 Mr. Bead obliterated every trace of expression from his 
 face, as he replied succinctly: "This is my son Rob." 
 
 " Ah! Might have introduced me before he was quite 
 grown up, seems to me. How old is he? " enquired Deyo, 
 in a tone of casual interest. 
 
 " Five," said the inflexible jaws. 
 
 "Small for his age, isn t he? Do him good to run 
 wild on the farm, I should say. Going to have him out 
 there, I suppose? " 
 
 " Yes, take off his shoes, and turn him out to grass this 
 summer," replied Mr. Bead, relaxing a trifle. 
 
 Deyo communed with himself a moment, and broke into 
 frank, boyish laughter; Bead turned unsmiling eyes upon 
 him. 
 
 " Oh, nothing much. I was thinking er does your 
 mother expect him? " 
 
 " No reason to." 
 
 Deyo gave an appreciative glance, but Bead only 
 shrugged. 
 
 " I was always sorry for my family," he said doggedly, 
 " but I never felt personally responsible for being a mem 
 ber of it, and I don t ask them to recognise the fact unless 
 they want to." 
 
 " You bulk too large for a negligible factor and
 
 CHAPTER ONE 7 
 
 you re repudiating family responsibility yourself, aren t 
 you, in great shape? " sarcastically. 
 
 " This little chap s going to have things on the square 
 as far as I can make the deal." 
 
 " That s a commendable resolution, but to the casual 
 observer it will appear somewhat tardy." 
 
 The insurgent parent shrugged his massive shoulders. 
 
 "Appearances be damned! " he said contemptuously. 
 
 " Oh, all right! All right, old man! You know why 
 I m boring you, of course? " 
 
 " Sure," said Abijah cordially. " Are you on for any 
 time this trip? " 
 
 " No, this is only a flyer." 
 
 There comes Benji," observed Bead, as a rubicund 
 and amiable old young man, best known as the son of his 
 father, rose from his seat and came up the car: his pince- 
 nez was turned upon them inquisitively. 
 
 Just saw you, Bill Hen; how are you? " he exclaimed, 
 jovially extending his hand to Deyo. 
 
 " Oh, just able to be out, thanks. You look as fresh 
 as usual. Folks all well? " 
 
 Yes, thanks, but I say, Bije, whose carrot-top you 
 got here? " exclaimed young Phelps, catching sight of the 
 child. 
 
 " Mine," responded Abijah, meeting the quizzical eyes 
 of his townsman calmly. 
 
 " Aw ! Say now ! " Phelps protested feebly. 
 
 "Certainly! and Bead s voice expressed the liveliest 
 surprise at any incredulity. 
 
 Well, you can t expect a fellow to find a, presumably, 
 bachelor friend trotting out a four-year-old, and not be 
 surprised, can you? It isn t er usual you know," re 
 turned Phelps defensively. 
 
 " The bachelors of Hurstville ought to mob him for 
 establishing such a precedent, hey, Benji? " quizzed Deyo.
 
 8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Tickets ! " The conductor s voice broke briskly upon 
 the trio, and as he punched their cardboards he scrutinised 
 Abijah s son, who had rolled over, and presented only the 
 back of his flaming head to the inspection of his future 
 townsmen. " This looks like a kidnappin , ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 doesn t it? " he exclaimed. " A kid nappin , you know! " 
 he explained affably. 
 
 Now, Abijah Bead and Bill Hen Deyo had as boys dis 
 covered that Silas Mason s facetiousness was a degree more 
 unpleasant than his ill-temper, and had acted on the dis 
 covery ever since; Deyo fell faintly back in his seat, and 
 Phelps solicitously fanned him with his ticket. 
 
 You ll do that once too often some day, Si. Bill Hen 
 isn t used to it any more," admonished Abijah severely. 
 
 Silas fell back on his stock repartee for all occasions: 
 " Oh, yeou git eout! " he muttered angrily and passed to 
 the next seat. 
 
 " Captain, is the next station Hurstville? " enquired the 
 young lady, leaning across the lap of her companion with 
 the nervousness of the unaccustomed traveller. 
 
 Yes m," responded Silas curtly, and passed on. 
 
 " Oh, dear! I wanted to ask him what time we should 
 get there! " the girl exclaimed to her companion, who 
 thereupon reached forward and touched the conductor 
 lightly on the arm. He frowned back at her, and ignor 
 ing her signal, stepped across the aisle. 
 
 The black Amazon did not rise. She extended her long 
 arm like a tentacle, grasped the delinquent official firmly, 
 and drew him, resisting, backward. The trio behind 
 watched the manoeuvre with the liveliest delight. 
 
 " Leggo my arm, you black 
 
 " Beg pardon, sah, my mistress am mighty anxious 
 teh speak teh yeh," said Mam Lilly blandly, as she 
 released him. The girl was in an agony of embarrass 
 ment.
 
 CHAPTER ONE 9 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, but I only wished to enquire the time 
 the train reaches Hurstville," she said, trying to ignore the 
 contretemps. 
 
 " Haven t yeou a time-table? " snapped Silas. 
 
 Yes, but I er understood we were behind time." 
 
 " Wai, we ain t! " he snarled and walked away. 
 
 Mr. Phelps started impulsively to follow, but Deyo, con 
 sumed by silent laughter, restrained his impetuous towns 
 man. 
 
 " Steady, Benji," he adjured. 
 
 He ought to be thrashed," said Phelps savagely. 
 " Miss Hurst will think she has come among barbarians." 
 
 " She doesn t seem in need of a champion as long as that 
 old nigger is around," said Bead, with grim enjoyment. 
 
 ; Is that Madam Hurst s granddaughter?" enquired 
 Deyo. 
 
 Yes; must be. Sarah told me she was expected to 
 night. Let go my coat-tail, Bill Hen, I m going to speak 
 to the girl," said Phelps, assuming the benevolent expres 
 sion of a married and therefore privileged townsman and 
 neighbour. 
 
 Deyo half rose from his seat. 
 
 Take me too, oh, my father!" he whispered, but 
 Phelps smiled broadly and pushed him back. He had not 
 quite recovered his gravity when he bowed before Barbara 
 Hurst. 
 
 " I beg pardon, Miss Hurst I think I am right? " 
 
 Barbara Hurst bowed gravely. 
 
 " I am a neighbour of Madam Hurst s; my wife said 
 she was expecting you to-night. I beg to inform you that 
 we are about half an hour late, and to apologise to you in 
 my father s name (my Dad s the distinguished president 
 of this lovely road) for the rudeness of the conductor. I 
 promise you he shall never have another chance to air his 
 insolence on this track."
 
 io THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Oh, please please don t mention it ! Didn t you see 
 what Mam Lilly did?" exclaimed Miss Hurst, casting a 
 glance of keenest reprobation at the offender. 
 
 " No one ever travels on this road without acquiring an 
 ardent desire to lynch Silas Mason," said young Phelps, 
 with gallant indignation. 
 
 " But really, I d rather you did nothing about it, as 
 Mammy was certainly to blame," said Miss Hurst decid 
 edly, and Mr. Phelps, enjoying the sweet touch of the 
 South in her speech, wondered if the men behind could 
 hear it. They could; Abijah was reminiscitory. 
 
 4 Yes, I had forgotten : the Post had a column last week 
 about the expected arrival of Madam Hurst s grand 
 daughter: Jim just laid himself out on her pedigree. She s 
 a beauty and a belle, of course ever hear of a Southern 
 girl who wasn t both? and I m credibly assured that 
 her presence will give ton to the provincial society of 
 Hurstville. Personally, I don t pretend to know why 
 Hurstville shouldn t be provincial, but it seems it s a fact 
 to be deplored. Mother and Emily privately calculate 
 that this Hurst girl s going to mitigate the condition about 
 twenty per cent. She s rich, you know. Madam divided 
 up the estate with her when the old captain died; re 
 member? " 
 
 " No, I forget some of the old wives tales." 
 
 " Captain Hurst cut off his son with something less than 
 the proverbial shilling when the young man joined the Con 
 federate Army. Her folks down there must be the most 
 cantankerous fire-eaters; they ve never let the girl come 
 north before. I believe they are all dead now, or some 
 thing. Anyhow, here she is, and the high monky-monks 
 of Hurstville await her with open arms. She s probably 
 come up to make sure of the other half of her estate when 
 Madam dies." 
 
 "Probably! She looks capable of dark and deep de-
 
 CHAPTER ONE n 
 
 signs, don t she? Is undoubtedly prepared to poison 
 Madam if she don t get it soon. Why don t you follow 
 your suggestions to the logical conclusion?" enquired 
 Deyo irritably. 
 
 u It isn t necessary with a rational person, and she is 
 certainly dark enough for anything," retorted Bead, coolly 
 surveying the girl s face. 
 
 It was certainly not pretty, and it was as certainly charm 
 ing, with a peculiar piquant bright darkness; the grey eyes 
 were luminous as stars in a dusky sky, and even the sombre 
 garb she wore could not subdue the vibrant life of the 
 slender figure. It ran in tapering, rosy flames into her 
 very finger tips, and rang in delicious, unexpected cadences 
 through the short scale of her fresh young voice. Mr. 
 Deyo s appreciative glance went from her to his friend in 
 eloquent reproof. 
 
 " She is no end a jolly little girl! Pity to be thrown 
 away on Hurstville ! Now if I neighboured her, as 
 that idiot of a Benji does ! " His modesty refrained from 
 finishing the sentence, but he regarded the genial Benji 
 with unfeigned envy. 
 
 It is a pity you do not. Miss Palmer would enjoy it 
 so much," said Abijah, mentally trying to calculate the 
 dynamic effect of a girl like this in their quiet town : he 
 knew it would be appreciable. 
 
 " Marcia is not of a jealous disposition," retorted Mr. 
 Deyo, complacently watching the vivacious face in front 
 of them. 
 
 " Lucky thing," Abijah observed drily. 
 
 It looks to me" said the young lawyer pointedly, 
 " that as a censor He leaned forward and looked 
 
 down at the sleeping child, who had turned his face toward 
 them, and as he looked, his scrutiny became more search 
 ing. The little face was slumber-flushed, and grimy from 
 long travelling; the lashes lay upon the roseleaf cheeks,
 
 12 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 in a long golden fringe; damp ruddy locks clung 
 round the white forehead, and the red lips were delicately 
 moulded and very firmly closed. A lovely child, a deli 
 cious baby that female relatives would rave about, but 
 in all the flower-fair features and rose-tinted flesh, there 
 was no line, no tint, no hint, presageful of his sire s dour, 
 dark physiognomy. Another likeness was distinct, equally 
 familiar, and the young lawyer s self-possession was not 
 proof against the surprise of its recognition. He raised 
 a startled, anxious gaze to the unconscious and happy 
 Mr. Phelps, and turned perturbed, enquiring, half-accusa 
 tive eyes upon Abijah. 
 
 Abijah, in absorbed contemplation of Mam Lilly s coif 
 fure, was apparently oblivious of interrogation, but his 
 friend knew better. He mentally reviewed the local his 
 tory for five years without the least satisfaction. " Bijah," 
 he remonstrated earnestly, " how the devil can you do 
 this?" 
 
 Mr. Bead turned a face of blank enquiry. 
 
 "What?" he demanded blandly. 
 
 Take this boy to Hurstville! Why, good Lord, man, 
 it makes you look an utter cad ! " 
 
 The candid criticism did not disturb Abijah s equa 
 nimity, and his massive shrug implied an insolent indiffer 
 ence to public opinion, an attitude which always exasper 
 ated his friend to futile expostulation. 
 
 No man has a right to rest under an imputation so 
 contemptible ! There are things no fellow can do ! " 
 Deyo began hotly. " Hurstville is not a citadel of chiv 
 alry, but a vaunt like this is sure to excite sympathy for 
 others." 
 
 " I fail to recall that / have ever asked the sympathy or 
 approbation of Hurstville," said Abijah. " I never did 
 measure up to the sentimental requirement of my towns 
 men; I m destitute of the finer sensibilities; but I want
 
 CHAPTER ONE 13 
 
 my son in my own house. Between you and me, I have 
 no conquest to boast of: you ll have to take my word for 
 this, Bill Hen, I can t explain. The boy s nurse has just 
 died. There was no one else I could trust him to, and you 
 may not credit the fact, but I m devilish fond of the little 
 tad." 
 
 There was an unconscious pathos in the big man s de 
 fiant attitude, but his friend was obdurate. 
 
 " You re not obliged to live in Hurstville, and you might 
 have some consideration for the innocent who will suffer 
 from this expose," he admonished severely. Mr. Bead 
 looked reflectively at Benji Phelps ruddy, fatuous face. 
 
 " I don t seem to have," he acknowledged stolidly, and 
 Deyo understood a tacit demand upon his confidence. 
 
 " All I m afraid of, Bije," he said confidentially, after 
 a pause, " is, that this thing will prove a boomerang! " 
 
 " That," said Abijah piously, " is upon the knees of the 
 gods." A rollicking defiance lit the sombre eyes as he 
 added, " And I don t know but I d as soon take my spank 
 ing now, as later." 
 
 Deyo smiled reluctantly. " I hope you will get it, good 
 and plenty. I don t pretend to understand your attitude, 
 and I m damned sorry for Benji," he said emphatic 
 ally. 
 
 " He don t know he s hurt," Abijah retorted grimly. 
 
 " He ll find it out soon enough. The likeness is dam 
 natory! " replied Deyo, and Abijah only shrugged again. 
 They fell silent, and Barbara s girlish chatter reached 
 them, and Phelps fatuous replies. 
 
 " Hurstville! " yelled the brakeman, opening the doors 
 to the icy outside air, and all the passengers prepared to 
 disembark. Phelps went jauntily back to his seat for his 
 overcoat and valise, and Abijah made a compact bundle of 
 his son, by the simple process of wrapping his coat firmly 
 around him instead of putting it on properly.
 
 14 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Oh, say by Jove you know, Bijah, oughtn t you to 
 put his arms in, or something? I ll er help," Deyo 
 exclaimed as Bead laid the still sleeping child back on the 
 seat, while with one general movement he got into his own 
 ulster and turned up the collar in a business-like way. 
 
 No use. He s just as warm and it s less trouble so. 
 He won t wake up. Come out, if you can, while you re on, 
 this time. If you can t good-bye until next time," said 
 Mr. Bead, cordially extending his hand. 
 
 " I can t this time; and, I say, Bijah 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 The boy may not inherit your fondness for butting up 
 against things. Don t make it too hard for the little chap. 
 I m self-constituted godfather to the boy, and I ll fight if 
 you do." 
 
 " All right, thanks. But don t lose any sleep on our ac 
 count," replied Bead drily, and Deyo went back to his 
 Aunt Lois, while Mr. Phelps, sumptuously enveloped in 
 a fur-lined overcoat, waited in the aisle between Miss 
 Hurst and Abijah, and, overflowing in good-fellowship, 
 addressed them alternately, to their mutual disgust. 
 
 We is sut nly gwine to freeze to def and perish to def, 
 lady," exclaimed Mam Lilly, hovering over the red-hot 
 stove in the empty waiting-room, where Mr. Phelps had 
 left them while he went in search of the Hurst equipage. 
 
 Barbara Hurst laughed blithely, her long dormant 
 Northern blood aflame in her cheeks at the first rude kiss 
 of the cold. 
 
 " It s fine! " she said, waltzing towards the door, but 
 paused decorously, as steps approached, and Bcnji Phelps 
 entered, followed by a hulking youth, coated several deep, 
 and hugely gloved. " Here s Mike. Now we must get 
 you well wrapped up at the start. Is this your first sleigh- 
 ride, Miss Hurst?" asked Mr. Phelps, as the boy led 
 the way out to the sleigh.
 
 CHAPTER ONE 15 
 
 " Yes, we never have enough snow for practical pur 
 poses at home." 
 
 " Miss Zillah sent ye this cloak," said Mike, presenting 
 a long fur-lined garment, which Barbara handed to Mam 
 Lilly. 
 
 " Put it on yourself," she said, shaking it off as Mam 
 Lilly laid it across her shoulders. 
 
 You will need it, Miss Hurst," adjured Mr. Phelps, as 
 he helped her into the sleigh. 
 
 ; Not as much as she will. They feel the cold so, and 
 I have furs," said Miss Hurst, drawing an inadequate neck 
 piece closer. 
 
 Well, put your feet down on the soapstone. Find it? 
 That s right. I hope you are not frozen before you reach 
 home. Good-night. Remember we are neighbours," 
 and Mr. Phelps offered his hand. 
 
 Yes, indeed: please bring Mrs. Phelps to see me right 
 soon," said the girl, frankly cordial. 
 
 I certainly shall. All ready, Mike; make good time! 
 Good-night." 
 
 " Good-night," echoed Barbara, and the bells flung out 
 a sudden jangle as the horses sprang forward. 
 
 The road from the station to the village lay for a mile 
 at the bottom of a deep gorge in the hills, protected 
 from the full force of the wind; but as it debouched 
 from the ravine the gale swept down upon it; Barbara 
 gave a gasp as the wind caught away her breath and 
 involuntarily bent her face downward upon the robes, 
 Mike settled deeper into his collar, and the runners of the 
 sleigh skirled on the dry snow. The horses were white 
 with their own congealed breath, and as their feet fell 
 into rhythmic measure with the jangling bells, the un 
 familiar accompaniment wrought a semi-oblivion in which 
 Barbara became submerged for an entirely indefinite length 
 of time. Then, suddenly, everything came to an end
 
 1 6 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 at once, and she raised her head drowsily to find the sleigh 
 had stopped, close at the foot of steps leading up to a 
 broad porch. As Mike lifted her from the sleigh the door 
 of the house opened, and in the red glow of firelight leap 
 ing out around her, a tall, stately woman held out her hand 
 as Barbara stumbled toward her. 
 
 " I m afraid you are half frozen," she said, and 
 Barbara, too benumbed to notice the restraint of the greet 
 ing, clung to the warm fingers like a child, without a 
 word. 
 
 " Come in quickly," said Zillah Hurst. She made no 
 pretence of detaining the clinging fingers, but she drew 
 Barbara into the hall and led her to a seat by a great open 
 fire which was making all the cheer a good fire should. 
 Barbara sat where she was placed, dumbly thawing and 
 conscious only of the painful process, as the heat lapped 
 her around. After a moment s scrutiny Zillah stooped, 
 and began to pull off her gloves. 
 
 " I suppose you are Cousin Zillah," said the girl dully, 
 and the elder smiled circumspectly. 
 
 " I am Zillah. The relationship is remote enough to 
 be optional," she said, and Barbara stared. She came 
 of a people who make much of kinship. 
 
 1 Would you like a cup of hot coffee? It is all ready," 
 enquired Zillah, kindly enough. 
 
 Thank you. Before I see grandmother? " 
 
 " I think you better," said Zillah decidedly, and lifting 
 a portiere beside a huge old clock, she suddenly disap 
 peared, very much as if she had stepped into it, and the 
 full-faced timepiece began counting the seconds aloud in a 
 non-committal tone. 
 
 The wind, raging furiously in the trees outside, intensi 
 fied the quietness within, and the apartment in which she sat 
 seemed at first familiar to the girl. The hall was large and 
 square, like many Southern hallways; but it was furnished
 
 CHAPTER ONE 17 
 
 like a museum. High, plain, glass-framed cases lined all 
 the available wall space, and were filled with curios instead 
 of books; and in the niche formed as the winding stairway 
 followed a spindling mahogany balustrade upward, there 
 stood an enormous Chinese vase man high and embel 
 lished by a swarming green dragon of malignant aspect. 
 There was an air of orderly solitude upon the place ; a cer 
 tain nautical snugness of arrangement suggestive of the 
 sailor grandfather, of whom the histories made men 
 tion as a factor in the fame of our early predatory 
 marine. After a cursory survey of her surroundings, 
 Barbara s eyes came back to the present cheer of the blaz 
 ing fire; and as its warmth released her brain from the 
 lethargy of cold, the formality of her reception produced 
 a secondary chill. Involuntarily she drew her feet back 
 from the comfortable glow, and raised herself from the 
 abandon into which she had sunk. The fire continued a 
 hospitable murmur, but the solemn old clock tick-tocked a 
 warning, and in the flickering light the dragon on the tall 
 vase took on active demonstrations of malignancy and 
 ramped outrageously, leering obscurely towards her. Bar 
 bara was very glad when his performances were put to 
 an end, by the sound of footsteps above ; unseen footsteps 
 at first, but stepping downward with a quiet heaviness of 
 reassuring materiality, to the weary girl, half hypnotised 
 alone in the firelight. 
 
 A very stately dame, old, stern, and wrinkled exceed 
 ingly, came slowly down the curving stairway. Silvery 
 curls escaped her cap, and touched her cheek and forehead 
 lightly, but the grim expression of the small old face was 
 unsoftened by this halo, and there was no saving grace in 
 her attire. Straight and scant her black skirt fell down 
 from her broad, gaunt hips, and a little triangle of a 
 shawl reached exactly the point on her shoulders to in 
 crease their stoop. A very long arm, in a wrinkled
 
 1 8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 sleeve, touched the balustrade in her descent, and the cal 
 culated precision of her movements made their awkward 
 ness seem irritatingly intentional. 
 
 She stopped deliberately on the stairs just above the 
 green dragon, and looked down at Barbara with keen, 
 faded eyes. 
 
 " How do you do? " she said in a low, cold voice, like 
 Zillah s, and without waiting for reply she came on, step 
 ping quietly, heavily downward. 
 
 " If this is my grandmother, I shall go back home 
 mighty soon. But she looks like Zillah ; it is Aunt Helen, I 
 suppose," thought Barbara, getting hastily upon her feet 
 and advancing punctiliously to the foot of the stairs. But 
 there was no spontaneity in the act; cordiality seemed 
 somehow a frivolous affectation; and she felt her own 
 smile set and stiffen into something like Zillah s, as she 
 summoned hardihood to extend her hand. The austere 
 old lady took it loosely on her way to the fireplace, and 
 Barbara watched her deliberately step out of her route to 
 displace a couple of comfortably disposed chairs. She 
 took her stand upon the hearthrug and faced Barbara with 
 the air of one in authority. 
 
 " Won t yeou have a chair by the fire? Yeou must be 
 dretful tired and cold coming way up north here this 
 time of the year," said Mrs. Helen Hurst, warming her 
 own long skeleton hands before the blaze, and looking 
 sidewise at Barbara sharply. 
 
 The awkwardly displaced chairs did not invite repose, 
 even if the old lady had not been standing, and Barbara 
 made a little furtive gesture of negation. Something made 
 her vaguely conscious of unknown derelictions. Perhaps, 
 for some reason, she ought not to have " come way up 
 north at this time of year " ? And the next moment she 
 didn t care. 
 
 " I assure you there is no occasion for concern on my
 
 CHAPTER ONE 19 
 
 account," she murmured, and, to her surprise, there seemed 
 some occult cause of offence in the conventional words. 
 Mrs. Helen Hurst gave her a suspicious glance, and there 
 was a moment s strained silence. 
 
 Did yeou jest get here? " the old lady enquired stiffly. 
 
 " Yes," said Barbara. 
 
 "What has Zillah left yeou alone for? I don t see 
 why she didn t take yeou right in to Felishie; come right in 
 neow," and Mrs. Hurst went down the hall and uncere 
 moniously opened the door into Madam Hurst s apart 
 ments. 
 
 Well, Felishie, here she is! " The announcement dep 
 recated any undue expectation of the event, and Barbara 
 had to follow the introduction with what of grace she 
 could. 
 
 She paused on the threshold of a large apartment, lit 
 softly, like a dim old religious picture, by lamps in sconces 
 upon the walls, and half involuntarily swept a courtesy to 
 the stately little lady who sat eagerly erect among the 
 cushions of an invalid s chair. A faint flush tinged the 
 delicate old face, the eyes were suffused, and the little out 
 stretched hands were tremulous. 
 
 " My darling! my daughter! " cried Felicite Hurst in 
 thrilling tenderness, and Barbara went swiftly across the 
 room, knelt down and put both arms around her. This 
 was the veritable fairy godmother of her imagination, 
 only daintier, lovelier; and they held each other close 
 these two in a passion of tenderness. 
 
 The sun was filtering through the heavy crimson cur 
 tains, filling the dim room with a rosy glow when Bar 
 bara awoke for the first time in Hurstville. 
 
 Time to get up?" she breathed softly to the dark, 
 familiar figure in the rosy light between her and her strange 
 surroundings.
 
 20 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " I don reckon tis, lady. I ain yeah a soun yet, re 
 plied the mulattress, and crossing to the window she caught 
 back the curtains, letting in a flood of sunlight through 
 crystal etchings of the frost. The sight was novel to them, 
 and the girl sat up in bed with a low cry of delight. 
 
 " How lovely! " she said, but Mam Lilly put a cau 
 tious finger on the coated glass and shuddered. 
 
 " Dis suttenly am de norf pole," she said, and walked 
 to the other window, where a bit of clear glass gave her a 
 glimpse of the outside wintry world. 
 
 "Oh, honey, come yere ! " she exclaimed in wonder, 
 and Barbara scrambled out of bed, and pattering across 
 the room in her bare feet, knelt up on a chair beside her 
 to peer out of the unfrosted space. 
 
 A scintillant, resplendent world, fair blue and white 
 beneath a crystal film, flashed back the sunlight to the far 
 pale sky. Winter s last frosty suspiration lay on every ob 
 ject. The trees and shrubs around the house glittered in ice 
 enamel, an opalescent sheen bent down the level hemlock 
 boughs, and every tiniest blade and twig above the drifted 
 snow was spangled and sparkling with hoarfrost. The 
 old Hurst house stood well back from the street, and the 
 lawn was fence-deep under crested drifts, swept in, the 
 night before, from the street and opposite lawn, where 
 now the bare, brown earth had crystallised in shining 
 rhombs and prisms. Barbara s nose almost froze fast to 
 the window as she gazed, for the first time, upon the 
 splendours of the Northern winter. 
 
 " My king, ain t it gran ! Jes like yo Christmas 
 cards, lady; di mond dusty an w ite," said Mam Lilly, 
 who had breathed a place of observation on another 
 pane. 
 
 " It s it s inexpressible! I m going out! I am going 
 to get out into the splendour of it! Help me dress, can t 
 you?" cried Barbara, and she seized the comb, while
 
 CHAPTER ONE 21 
 
 Mam Lilly sat down on the floor before her and drew 
 the long limp stockings over the slender limbs. 
 
 " Quality feet mus be des tute of sensibility," she com 
 mented drily, dodging the hairbrush, as she buttoned the 
 snug-fitting shoes. 
 
 "Where are my wraps?" demanded Barbara, when 
 their united efforts had finished her toilet. 
 
 ; I see dern down in the hall las night; honey, I s afraid 
 you gwine to freeze to def and perish to def ef you go out 
 do . It s splendid, but, my king, it mus be dead col ," 
 said Mam Lilly uneasily, as Babara started. 
 
 " But I m just obliged to go out and see it ! " said Bar 
 bara, and she softly closed the chamber door behind her. 
 
 No hint of the outside splendour reached the dusky hall. 
 Barbara thought the solemn timepiece had an incoherent 
 moment as she tried to fall in step with it coming down 
 the winding stairway, but afterwards it beat on regularly 
 again, and the quiet of the place was less impressive than 
 it had been the night before. So much so that, when the 
 green dragon glared at her reappearance, she had him by 
 the head and curling tail in a twinkling, dismembered from 
 the rest of his squirming anatomy upon the jar. A faint 
 aromatic musty odour, unlike any she knew, suggest 
 ing mummies or some uncanniness, crept up out of the un 
 covered vase, to the inquisitive little nose thrust over it, 
 and Barbara hastily replaced the cover. As she turned 
 the big brass knob upon the big black lock of the great 
 Dutch door, only the lower half came open. 
 
 For a moment she stood in the flood of cold air that 
 rushed in upon her feet, looking up at the formidable iron 
 bolt of the upper section. It was far above her reach, 
 and, it was undignified, but she caught up the tail of 
 her gown and ducked under the upper portion of the door. 
 
 Blinded by the radiance, she shaded her eyes with her 
 hand, and looked away to the mountains so softly, radi-
 
 2i THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 antly blue, shadow and substance indistinguishable as 
 they melted upward in the turquoise sky. The frosty, 
 exhilarating air set her blood tingling, and she stood 
 with uplifted head, drinking deep draughts of the chill 
 elixir. 
 
 " Go back into the house! Do you want to have pneu 
 monia, first thing? Yes, yon! " cried suddenly a gruff 
 voice from the street, and Barbara dropped her eyes from 
 the mountains. An irascible old gentleman, standing be 
 fore the house, shook his hand at her so that there was no 
 mistaking the object of his adjuration; and in confirmation 
 of his warning, and although she struggled to suppress it, 
 she was convulsed by a violent paroxysm of sneezing. 
 
 " There now ! Take liberties with a strange climate, 
 will you? You go in and tell Miss Zillah I say you are to 
 have a dose of quinine! " said the old gentleman, executing 
 an involuntary quickstep on the slippery pavement, and 
 saving himself by clutching at the gate. This gruff neigh 
 bour amused Barbara; she replied recriminatingly : 
 
 " It s a case of suggestion. I hadn t the remotest idea 
 of taking cold until you came along and mentioned it." 
 
 Old Dr. Pomfret s eyes twinkled beneath the visor of 
 his fur cap. His eccentricities received the polite toler 
 ance of the ladies Hurst, but here was a recrudescence of 
 a time when bluff old Captain Hurst had been his friend 
 and patron. 
 
 " What business have you to know anything about sug 
 gestion ?" he growled. "You go in and take some 
 quinine, as I told you. I ll come in and say howdy-do to 
 you when I get time. You make me think of the old cap 
 tain, my girl," and his tone was more conventional. 
 
 " Thank you, sir. Glad to see you whenever you have 
 time " the girl responded airily. 
 
 " But you ve no business out without your wraps! I ve 
 promised Madam daily, for six weeks, that I d look
 
 CHAPTER ONE 23 
 
 after you until you get acclimated; and I m a man of my 
 word." 
 
 " Acclimating will be easy, I imagine. I like this ! It s 
 simply magnificent this morning. My Yankee blood re 
 sponds to its native air." 
 
 Your Yankee blood will respond to a good old- 
 fashioned cold if you don t mind me," growled the doctor, 
 and Barbara smiled bewilderingly down upon him as she 
 retreated backward, and with a deep involuntary courtesy 
 disappeared under the half-open door. 
 
 " Chip of the old block devilish attractive! " thought 
 the doctor as he trudged up the street. He prided him 
 self upon a vigour which enabled him, at threescore, still 
 to carry on the largest practice in the county, and several 
 times during the day, as he went from bedside to bedside, 
 the vision of the brightened portal of the dismal old 
 Hurst homestead brought a rejuvenating thrill. 
 
 From the long French-windowed dining-room of the 
 house across the way, the rencontre had been witnessed and 
 enjoyed by Mr. and Mrs. Benji Phelps, at breakfast. 
 
 ; Is she pretty, Benji? " enquired Mrs. Phelps with in 
 terest, as she filled her husband s cup from the silver coffee 
 urn. She was herself a woman of that splendid Titian 
 type which the gods at rare intervals vouchsafe the world, 
 lest the standard of perfection be forgotten. 
 
 " Nothing to kill, but she s awfully jolly. She ll wake 
 up those three old ladies! " chuckled Mr. Phelps. 
 
 " Miss Zillah is not an old lady, unless / am one." 
 
 Different case! She s mothered those other two till 
 she s older than they are." 
 
 " I imagine Zillah Hurst has had no easy life, between 
 a French Catholic and a primitive Methodist; and Mrs. 
 Helen tells me this girl has been brought up a regular 
 atheist by her Southern grandfather." 
 
 " Gee whiz, what a conglomeration! That poor girl
 
 24 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 will be bored to death. Let s go over soon, Sally," said 
 Mr. Phelps, who, though tremendously enamoured of the 
 beautiful woman who handed him his coffee each morn 
 ing, was of a social disposition. 
 
 Mrs. Phelps smiled a languid assent. She was slow in 
 movement and deliberate in speech, and in the fraternising 
 of old county families like the Hursts and Phelpses, bore 
 herself with a reserve the source of which was a profound 
 mystery to her husband. She went around the table now, 
 and sitting down on the arm of his chair, slipped her arm 
 around his neck. Whatever her attitude towards the rest 
 of the world, she was a winsome woman in his house, and 
 her husband put his arm around her with a realising sense 
 of his high privileges. 
 
 " I wonder what that poor girl will do for the next two 
 hours, alone in that old house? They never get up till 
 nine or ten o clock," she said, gazing absently across the 
 street. " I always thought Southerners were lazy, but this 
 one don t seem to be that way." 
 
 " You ll like her, Sally; she is just your sort," said the 
 discriminating Mr. Phelps. 
 
 His wife gave him a queer look. " I suppose she will 
 be an acquisition in this humdrum place. Oh, Benji, boy, 
 I m so tired of it. In an hour all that " (pointing to the 
 glittering splendour outside) " will be gone, and then 
 think of the mud! I wish you would take me abroad this 
 spring." 
 
 Mr. Phelps held his wife back at arm s length and 
 looked at her significantly without speaking, until she 
 flushed to the tips of her pretty ears, and struggled back 
 into his arms. 
 
 u I don t care! It wouldn t do a particle of harm, and 
 I want to go! " she said. 
 
 " I ll take you south for a month or so, but I don t 
 think you ought to think of going abroad this year."
 
 CHAPTER ONE 25 
 
 " I won t go south ! I want a change ! Everything s 
 alike in this country. I want to dress up and go to court, 
 I want to see some of the old rural inns of England. 
 One hotel is just like another here, and I hate them all. 
 Don t you ever feel as though you d like to get rid of 
 everybody and everything you ever knew? " 
 
 " Nope. I like the people and places I know, best; and 
 I guess you do too, only you don t know what you want 
 just now." 
 
 I do. I want a change. This monotony is getting on 
 my nerves, and you know that s bad for me." 
 
 I ll take you over next fall; though you know I m on 
 the brink of the grave if a zephyr blows." 
 
 " But you always feel so much better after you get over 
 it, Benji! Let s go over this spring. I want to see the 
 spring in England that Browning writes of." 
 
 Want your son to be a Hinglishman, do you 
 ma am? " 
 
 " Oh, nonsense! Will you go, Ben? " 
 
 " I ll talk to Dr. Pomfret about it." 
 
 " Then you won t go. He s an old fogy, and he ll 
 shout no! just from habitual crustiness. I never did 
 like Dr. Pomfret. Use your own common-sense, dear, 
 and talk to mother. How can it hurt me, when I was so 
 perfectly well at sea? " she pleaded in her most irresistible 
 manner. 
 
 Mr. Phelps weakened. " I never heard of such a 
 freak," he grumbled, " and what Dad 11 say I can t im 
 agine. The work s piling up, and he depends on me 
 more than you seem to think. I ve no business to cut the 
 shop just now." 
 
 " Oh, he can get some one else to look after the bank," 
 replied his wife with a comfortable assurance which piqued 
 him. 
 
 " Thanks! I m not of much account, I know, but Dad
 
 26 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 and I put up a good bluff about it, and tfi ^rybody isn t 
 so sharp to call us. Some of the fellows in the bank really 
 stand in fear of my eagle eye, and we can t trust every 
 body in the position I m holding down, even if we can 
 easily fill the place, as far as ability goes," he said huffily, 
 and Mrs. Phelps put both arms around his neck in a quick, 
 strangling hug. 
 
 " You goose! " she whispered.
 
 II 
 
 IF Abijah Bead outraged his own as he did his neigh 
 bours conscience, he should have been habitually 
 hag-ridden or sleepless o nights; whereas his slum 
 bers were unvisited by any of the impish crew supposed to 
 frisk around the sinner s pillow. Either a robust moral di 
 gestion effected a comfortable assimilation of his sins, or 
 the neighbourly opinion of his turpitude was ill-founded; 
 for, that he slept, and that right soundly, was proclaimed 
 abroad by the nasal trumpeting wherewith he accompanied 
 his enjoyment of a repose not always possible for better 
 men in earshot. 
 
 He slept as usual, or better, during the first night his 
 son passed beneath his roof, but at early dawn a whimper 
 like a lone puppy s wakened him, and he lay blinking at 
 the pallid frost-blurred window, and drowsily wondered if 
 one of the dogs had gotten into the room, until the whim 
 per changed to a sob, and he remembered Rob, and 
 glanced across the room. A small figure sat huddled on 
 the floor beside the bed, crying softly. 
 
 " Hello! wasn t that bed big enough? " demanded Mr. 
 Bead. 
 
 The boy scrambled to his feet and peered across the 
 dusky chamber. 
 
 "Is it my father?" he asked dubiously; he lisped 
 slightly, and spoke slowly to obviate it. 
 
 " Bet yer life," said Mr. Bead heartily. 
 
 Rob advanced into the middle of the room and took 
 stock of his surroundings. He had been asleep when put 
 to bed. 
 
 27
 
 28 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " What makes you sleep in such a little bed? " he de 
 manded. 
 
 Mr. Bead cautiously stretched himself, and the cot he 
 had set up hastily the night before creaked ominously. 
 
 " I thought perhaps you wouldn t fall out of the bed 
 in the bed-sink. What s the matter? Did you hurt your 
 self? " for Rob was trying to view himself posteriorly. 
 
 " My nightie is on hindside before," the child announced 
 in surprise. 
 
 " Maybe that was what made you fall out," suggested 
 Mr. Bead lazily. 
 
 " Oh, no! I most usually do fall out. Did you un 
 dress me? " 
 
 Yep." 
 
 What made you put my nightie on this way? " 
 
 " My nightshirt buttons in front why don t yours? I 
 should think you d be liable to wrench yourself climbing 
 for buttons behind." 
 
 " Mrs. Kemp always buttons me up, an this is a nightie, 
 not a nightshirt. Didn t you ever undress a little boy be 
 fore?" 
 
 Yes; but it was a long time ago." 
 
 Where is he? You said you hadn t any little boys 
 but me." 
 
 11 I haven t." 
 
 14 Is he dead, like Mrs. Kemp?" 
 
 " No, he escaped hanging and grew up, more s the 
 pity." 
 
 Was he a bad little boy? " asked the wondering voice. 
 
 " I rather think he was. But see here, young man, 
 you re taking advantage of your size to wake a man up in 
 the night for his biography. Besides, you ll freeze stand 
 ing there. Get back into bed. There s time for another 
 snooze before breakfast." 
 
 Rob hopped blithely toward him, and laying hold on
 
 CHAPTER TWO 29 
 
 the bedclothes clambered over him into the cot, an ar 
 rangement Mr. Bead had not contemplated: but he stoic 
 ally made room at his side, and as the child snuggled 
 down against him and took his neck in a choky embrace, 
 the feel of the soft little body against his own, the parental 
 office thus confidently requisitioned, afforded him an un 
 expected and defiant satisfaction. Unlike other fathers, 
 who assume parental responsibility as a matter of fact 
 or force, Abijah Bead had been at special pains to appro 
 priate his. And now he lay for the first time with his son 
 on his arm and faced the dawn, grimly complacent. There 
 had been many looks of baffled recognition the night be 
 fore. His son s extraordinary likeness to the woman 
 whom he hated, would bring her sin home to her without 
 a word of his. His sombre eyes glowed with the thought 
 as he held their child to his breast. 
 
 The regular soft breath against the sturdy column of 
 his throat was broken. Rob pushed back and looked up 
 at him, so like, so very like, that other face of melting 
 roseleaf hue, which had lain there on his arm! Mr. 
 Bead did not regret the past, nor curse the present, but he 
 wondered greatly about the future, as he looked down at 
 his son. 
 
 Do you think Mrs. Kemp has got to heaven yet? " 
 Rob whispered reverently. 
 
 " I suppose she has," replied Mr. Bead, hastily ascend 
 ing from the nether regions. 
 
 Didn t she get there pretty quick? " 
 
 Mr. Bead, formulating a provisional creed, opined that 
 such rapid transition was not exceptional for the exceed 
 ingly righteous. 
 
 I don t understand you. I miss Mrs. Kemp drefful," 
 said Rob with a heavy sigh. 
 
 In his unwisdom Mr. Bead did not change the subject. 
 He attempted consolation and reasonably pointed out that
 
 30 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the dead, being dead, were irretrievably departed: but that 
 there remained yet sources of consolation on the earth, 
 which he hastily enumerated as Rob s lips quivered 
 " Horses! You can ride, you know! and cows! and pigs! 
 and chickens! and dogs and cats! and 
 
 "I want Mrs. Kemp! I want Mrs. Kemp!" wailed 
 Rob, suddenly bursting into resounding lamentations. 
 
 "My God, Rob, don t cry!" adjured Mr. Bead so 
 vehemently that Rob caught his breath and stopped a 
 moment. 
 
 You forget you re with father now, I guess. I tell 
 you we re going to have more fun than a bag of monkeys 
 together, here on the farm. On the farm 
 
 But Rob s attention was not distracted : he gave way to 
 unrestricted grief, which echoed through the silent house. 
 
 Mr. Bead promptly squelched the uproar beneath the 
 blankets, patted the small bundle underneath until the sob 
 bing ceased, then raised the corner carefully and peeped 
 under. Rob was wiping his eyes and nose on the front 
 of his nightshirt, and trying to swallow his sobs. 
 
 " That s right," Mr. Bead approved heartily. " That s 
 like a man! I can t have my pard a cry-baby! I think 
 we better get up, don t you ? Don t you want to ride 
 horseback? " It was his own panacea for many an ill. 
 
 Yes," assented Rob in a subdued voice, and the dis 
 cordant tooting of a horn at the foot of the stairs made him 
 listen in wonder. 
 
 That s breakfast, and we d better tumble out," said 
 Mr. Bead, setting the example in a way that delighted Rob. 
 There came the sound of mighty yawnings and unsup- 
 pressed, from the next room, and the deep murmur of 
 men s voices. 
 
 " What s in there? " Rob whispered. 
 
 Mr. Bead s head was half submerged in a bowl of icy 
 water.
 
 CHAPTER TWO 31 
 
 " Just the boys," he spluttered, spattering water 
 right and left. 
 
 " Boys? " queried Rob, watching the vigorous towelling 
 with fascination from his seat on the cot. 
 
 " The men who work the farm, you know." 
 
 " Oh, can I see them do it? " 
 
 Why, certainly. We have to help." 
 
 You said I could have a little chicken for my ownty 
 own." 
 
 " Well, what I sez I stands to; you can have most any 
 thing, if you ll promise never to cry any more." 
 
 "Not ever!" 
 
 No, never. You see, old fellow, it embarrasses me 
 awfully to have my pard cry. Really, I don t think I can 
 stand for it." 
 
 Well, I won t cry any more." 
 
 " That s the stuff," commended the senior partner, bang 
 ing away at a stubborn lock atop of his big head. He 
 was a large man, and he looked gigantic to his small son, 
 watching the process of a man s toilet for the first time. 
 
 " Are you very old, father? " he asked after a long in 
 spection. 
 
 " Oh, yes, a regular patriarch! Why? " 
 
 " Do you think you ll last till I m a man? " 
 
 Abijah grinned. 
 
 " I guess I ve got gimp enough to hang on till you can 
 vote. That is, if you don t do me up by crying. I feel 
 pretty limp this morning. There is nothing which ages 
 one like crying," said Mr. Bead impressively. 
 
 " I won t then," said Rob, suddenly philosophic, and he 
 rolled over on his little belly and slid backward out of bed, 
 his gown rucked up under him and his bare, pink body 
 dangling until his toes touched the floor. Then he turned 
 round and scampered past his father to a pile of his own 
 clothing.
 
 32 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " You d better get back into that bed," said Mr. Bead, 
 struggling with his shoestring, but Rob sat down on the 
 floor and began to crowd his pliant pink toes into a pair 
 of diminutive boots. Permission to wear these boots to 
 the funeral the day before had temporarily assuaged his 
 grief for his nurse. He paraded with mighty strides 
 around his father, holding up his gown, which impeded 
 progress, until an incautious step brought him within reach 
 of the parental hand. Then he was scooped up and tossed 
 with a grand tumble, boots and all, into the middle of the 
 big bed. 
 
 " Hi ! " he shouted with delight, bouncing on the 
 springs. 
 
 4 You mustn t cut around like this. It s chilly round 
 the edges this morning," said Mr. Bead. He ruefully re 
 flected that he should require a stove in his room now, and 
 sighed, foreboding other effeminate concessions in his 
 bachelor menage. As he sat down on the bed and took 
 the boy between his knees, Rob shivered and snuggled up 
 against him : he advised upon the sequence of his gar 
 ments, and Mr. Bead was patient, but the souls of both 
 were tried by an illogical arrangement whereby one button 
 served for several buttonholes. 
 
 " It s a regular fool way ! We can t be pestered like 
 this, pard. The tailor will have to build you a sensible 
 suit as soon as possible," said Mr. Bead, inspecting his son, 
 and earnestly praying that his habiliments were not con 
 spicuously misplaced. Rob hung an arm over each of his 
 father s knees and hung suspended while his necktie was 
 tied. 
 
 " Do you mean pants, father? " he enquired with deep 
 interest. 
 
 " Betcher life I do. No petticoats around this she 
 bang." 
 
 "Hurrah for pants!" cried Rob, skipping with glee,
 
 CHAPTER TWO 33 
 
 and " Hurrah for pants! " shouted Mr. Bead in a voice 
 which echoed through the house, as he swung his son to his 
 shoulder. Rob shouted with delight of the breath-catch 
 ing whirl, and seized his father s head in a close embrace 
 as he came to rest beside it. Mr. Bead held him by one 
 leg and started for the door. 
 
 I haven t said my prayers," said a small voice close 
 at his ear. 
 
 " By Jove! " Mr. Bead tumbled his son gently, heels 
 over head, to the floor, and Rob went soberly and knelt by 
 the bed. 
 
 When I awake and see the light, he said, and 
 stopped. 
 
 When I awake and see the light, " he repeated, but 
 Mr. Bead had reached his limit, and maintained a stolid 
 silence. 
 
 ;< I don t know this prayer very well," suggested Rob, 
 but there was no answer. 
 
 " When I awake and see the light. What is the next, 
 father?" 
 
 " I know that I have slept all night," responded Mr. 
 Bead, who had never turned a rhyme before in his life, and 
 felt proud of the improvisation. 
 " Oh, no, that isn t right at all." 
 
 " Well, my son, I m sorry I cannot wrestle in prayer 
 with you any longer this morning, but my duties, not to 
 mention appetite, are imperative. You better finish up 
 somehow, and get downstairs as soon as your conscience 
 will permit, for it s considerably warmer down there," and 
 Mr. Bead walked to the door. Rob did not stir. 
 
 4 When I awake and see the light, " he murmured as 
 his father caught the lintel of the doorway and lightly 
 swung himself under it, into the hall. Abijah Bead s 
 old house was a snug fit for its stalwart owner, but as he 
 lived out of it most of the time, its inconvenience did not
 
 34 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 annoy him. An odour of griddle cakes from the kitchen 
 greeted him pleasantly on the narrow stairway as he went 
 down, three steps at a time, and the clatter of dishes min 
 gled with men s loud voices. 
 
 The kitchen was filled with smoke, through which the 
 lamplight was paling as the sun crept in at the uncurtained 
 windows. Four men sat at breakfast around an oilcloth- 
 covered table, ruthlessly demolishing piles of smoking buck 
 wheat cakes as fast as they could be stacked before them, 
 by a fifth man, who presided as an expert at the griddle. 
 Mr. Bead declared no one but a Pang-Yanger could bake 
 cakes as fast and as brown as he wanted them, and Pete 
 prided himself on filling the requirements. 
 
 There was a chorus of " Hello, Boss ! " as Mr. Bead en 
 tered, but no one stopped eating for an instant; and he sat 
 down where there happened to be a vacancy, for it was a 
 round table anyhow, incapable of expressing the invidious 
 distinction of the salt. 
 
 Where s the kid, Boss? " enquired a square-shouldered 
 man, as he spread flour-gravy thickly over a fresh plateful 
 of cakes. 
 
 " Upstairs, saying his prayers. Pete, the boys are get 
 ting ahead of you this morning," said Mr. Bead, appro 
 priating the last cakes on the plate nearest. 
 
 " Here s some hot ones, Mr. Bead," said the cook, ex 
 tending a plateful at arm s length across the room, as he 
 greased the griddle. Mr. Bead tipped back in his chair 
 and reached for the plate. He possessed an appetite pro 
 portioned to his size and no nice scruples about satisfying 
 it in the speediest fashion possible. 
 
 "How s the wood coming on, Ez? All out?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Most all," replied Ezra, the square-shouldered man 
 who had asked for Rob. 
 
 " I thought you d have it all out, the goin s been so good.
 
 CHAPTER TWO 35 
 
 Got a corner on eggs, Gid? " enquired the master crisply, 
 looking across the table at a smooth-faced country boy of 
 extreme length and lankness, who smiled sheepishly and 
 pushed a platter of fried pork and eggs toward him. 
 
 " I m going to the woods this morning, Ez. How s 
 things been going your way, Rud? " Mr. Bead looked 
 sharply at a sullen man who ate ravenously and did not 
 raise his eyes, as he grunted an inarticulate response. 
 
 " Oi m afther thinking, sur, tis no manner of use at all, 
 at all to be over pious," suddenly observed old Jerry after 
 a busy silence, and all the men looked up at him, expect 
 ant. 
 
 " That s one thing I have never been accused of," re 
 sponded Mr. Bead firmly. 
 
 Thrue for ye, sur ! But your bhoy s prayer is as long 
 as Father Varney s hinseP, and he s over young to be 
 afther fastin the morn," said Jerry, with a twinkle in his 
 merry old eyes. 
 
 " Here he is now," said the cook, and baked his next 
 cakes a size smaller, with a vague idea of the gastronomic 
 needs of childhood. 
 
 " Good bhoy ! Good bhoy ! no bether ! " said Jerry en 
 couragingly as the child advanced into the room full of 
 men. 
 
 I can t remember it, but I didn t cry," said Rob, look 
 ing at his father. 
 
 4 That s right, pard ! Perhaps you ll remember after 
 breakfast," and Mr. Bead pulled a chair to his side and 
 motioned his son into it. "Have some cakes?" he 
 enquired as the cook placed the small ones before the 
 child. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " What you like on them? " 
 
 " I don t know. I never had any cakies like these," 
 said Rob.
 
 36 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Mr. Bead laid down knife and fork and pulled dubiously 
 at his big moustache. 
 
 " I think I dimly recall hearing they were a pernicious 
 diet for youth," he said ruefully. 
 
 44 We always have them to home," testified Gid stoutly. 
 
 44 Sure there s not their equal for the childer," said old 
 Jerry reassuringly. 
 
 44 Bread and milk," began Mr. Bead. 
 
 44 Tis the hoight of nonsinse, Mr. Bead ! He s been 
 fed on pap long enough by the look of him," insisted 
 Jerry. 
 
 4 Them cakes won t hurt him," urged the cook. 
 
 44 What do you usually eat at breakfast? " enquired Mr. 
 Bead. 
 
 14 Everything. Oranges and oatmeal (I don t like oat 
 meal) and buns. I want some of those cakies," said Rob, 
 who was hungry. 
 
 44 Good bhoy, good bhoy; no bether," murmured Jerry 
 with approval. 
 
 44 I guess you ll have to worry along with them this 
 morning anyhow. Pete, we ll have to change our bill of 
 fare a little. Fix him up something right for dinner, 
 can t you? " 
 
 44 Guess I can manage to rustle for him. You ought to 
 a said he was coming," said Pete. 
 
 44 Tis no manner of sinse coddling childer," said old 
 Jerry absently. Mr. Bead looked up at him sharply. The 
 old man was gazing at the boy with a puzzled intentness. 
 Suddenly a flash of recognition swept his face, and he raised 
 his eyes and encountered Mr. Bead s level gaze. 
 
 " Coming," thought the young man, but old Jerry only 
 rose in haste and left the room. 
 
 Mr. Bead s glance followed the retreating figure quiz 
 zically, and then, with sombre mocking in his eyes, he 
 looked down into the valley where Hurstville lay,
 
 CHAPTER TWO 37 
 
 snow-bound between the mountains, and still in the shadow 
 cast by them. Wavering columns of smoke rose up into 
 the gilding rays that had just touched the top of the 
 highest steeple, and the town awoke in silence like a 
 pantomime. He saw the stage start on its way to the 
 depot to meet an early train, the jangling sleigh-bells mute, 
 and a little dog barked at it till he rose in bounds from 
 the ground, without sound. Through the thin, pure moun 
 tain air the puppet figures, coming from the houses, 
 seemed within hail, but the road meandered upward for 
 a mile from the village before it reached the Bead place, 
 which lay all along the steepest hillsides, far up on the 
 slope of the mountain.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE rocky acres of Abijah s farm had been the 
 heart-breaking possession of the Bead family for 
 generations, but at the death of her husband Mrs. 
 Bead exchanged them for a cosey cottage in the village, and 
 her judgment was commended. No one blamed her when 
 Abijah, afterward reverting to the savagery of the abo 
 riginal Beads, bought back the farm. He had the faults of 
 his family, his mother s ability in their execution, and from 
 his childhood had thwarted her efforts in his behalf, by 
 virtue of her own qualities. If his sister had been like 
 him, Mrs. Bead s efforts to maintain the tenets of gentility 
 on her limited income, would have been frustrated; but 
 fortunately, Emily was a very nice girl. People who en 
 tertained quite an opposite idea in connection with Abijah 
 said so, and she never in her life gave any one occasion to 
 say or think otherwise. Pretty, pliant little Emily was 
 born with an instinctive reverence for appearances, and for 
 their preservation she dutifully submitted to the exercise 
 of the remorseless economy necessary in their case. Great 
 efforts in great causes are heroic, but these ladies had no 
 leaning to heroics. Their obvious duty was to make the 
 most of Hurstville s opportunities, and this they did reli 
 giously. Now, Hurstville was a community to appreciate 
 efforts of this sort. There was a mutual awareness of 
 little makeshifts among them, tacitly ignored by decent 
 people, and the Mesdames Bead were received into the 
 inner circle, and once admitted, helped valiantly to raise 
 
 38
 
 CHAPTER THREE 39 
 
 the standard. It was by no wish of his that Abijah 
 was excluded, for though he mocked at the banalities of 
 genteel poverty, and harassed his family by an ineradi 
 cable tendency to exploit the unvarnished verities, he se 
 cretly admired the success of their finesse, and would 
 have put his best foot forward with them had he not 
 been handicapped for life by an unprofitable sense of the 
 ludicrous. This sent him howling into outer darkness, 
 where society is not. It took years for him to appreciate 
 that humour is a rare and deplorable mode of perception, 
 by which time it was too late for him to join the antics 
 of the majority. Fate, too, conspired to make an Ishmael- 
 ite of the boy from childhood, and he never quite adjusted 
 himself to the existent scheme of things. 
 
 Mrs. Bead s indefatigable industry kept her daughter 
 daintily attired, but her son s necessities were beyond the 
 resource of her nimble needle. He was outfitted, as best 
 might be, by the half-worn garments of a city cousin, and 
 these he hated, because their fashion differed from that of 
 other boys, occasioning invidious comparison. By one 
 who enters into the real feelings of a boy doomed to wear 
 strange habiliments, Abijah could not be blamed for out 
 growing his cousin s clothing, but under the circumstances 
 it seemed innate depravity for him to set about it quite so 
 rapidly. It was a hazardous experiment too, and of this 
 he became aware when he touched the circumference of his 
 clothing and still expanded. Anything was liable to hap 
 pen then, and his sufferings became acute. His garments 
 disintegrated often with appalling suddenness, and a haunt 
 ing distrust of his trousers made him, for the only period 
 of his life, walk circumspectly before all men, and espe 
 cially women. One day an irrepressible sneeze burst out 
 his coat in school, and he hastened home as fast as his 
 plump restricted legs dare take him, and before his 
 harassed mother declared his intent of going into the busi-
 
 40 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 ness of piracy on the high seas, unless relief was afforded 
 then and there. 
 
 Mrs. Bead was in despair. If Abijah had been content 
 to remain within the compass of his cousin s clothing (and 
 excellent clothes they were, she always affirmed) he might 
 have continued his education therein for several years. As 
 he did not choose to do this, her income was stretched to 
 the limit : there was but one thing for it he must go to 
 work. Abijah whooped with delight at the prospect. He 
 held the opinion that work was far more interesting 
 than school, and though naturally preferring something in 
 the line of piracy, he had no natural prejudices against any 
 active occupation. All he stipulated was for one new 
 suit, of comfortable dimensions, and when he got it, he 
 immediately turned handsprings all around the yard, to 
 strain and stretch it thoroughly. It stood the test, and 
 perfectly content, he went in and sat in the family council 
 on himself. 
 
 Aside from a direct interposition of Providence, 
 yclept by the irreverent Abijah luck, there really seemed, 
 after an exhaustive and unprejudiced family discussion of 
 the matter, no factor of hiscomposition making forsuccess. 
 " But if he could only get a good chance," repeated Mrs. 
 Bead vaguely, and Abijah squirmed restlessly in his loose 
 clothes. He had cause to feel himself incapable of bene 
 fiting by the best of chances, and said so; an attitude repre 
 hended firmly by a mother who, Mrs. Bead was careful 
 to point this out to her children, had made the most of 
 every chance life offered. Her son was a chance, and she 
 meant to make the most of him, both for his sake and her 
 own. She dilated on the necessity of making the absolute 
 best of whatever faculties we possess, and Abijah listened, 
 impassive, and offered practical suggestions. He said the 
 position of locomotive engineer would satisfy his ambition, 
 and he thought he could get a job at " firin ." He had
 
 CHAPTER THREE 41 
 
 talked with men at the station, and that was the way you 
 had to begin, and the pay was good. Mrs. Bead ex 
 changed despairing glances with her daughter Emily, and 
 objected to the occupation, on the ground of dangers. 
 
 " Well then, say, mother, what s the matter of Lute 
 Bead? He has a lot of men at his tannery, hasn t he? 
 Wouldn t he give me a chance? " the boy asked eagerly. 
 
 " I m sure I don t know. I could write and ask him; 
 maybe it would be better for you to be with some member 
 of the family. He has no children and he can, undoubt 
 edly, give you a good chance if he wants to. Buckskill 
 isn t far away, either; but do you suppose you would like 
 the business, my son? " asked Mrs. Bead, with some com 
 punction at the prospect. 
 
 Abijah grinned. 
 
 " Beggars can t be choosers," he said vulgarly. 
 
 " Luther Bead has made money in the business," Mrs. 
 Bead reflected. 
 
 " But a tanner! " protested the girl. "Think of his 
 hands!" 
 
 " Well, we needn t speak as we pass by, you know," 
 suggested her brother soothingly. 
 
 " I don t see why you couldn t have been content to 
 wear Cousin Charlie s clothes and fit yourself for some 
 decent position in life ! " Emily was almost tearful. 
 
 Be content! Anybody d think I grew a purpose" 
 said Abijah in disgust. 
 
 " Of course no one blames you, my son ; I wish I could 
 see my way to keeping you in school ! " sighed Mrs. Bead. 
 What s the use to keep on talking, when you can t? " 
 muttered Abijah, and he slouched out of the room, leaving 
 his fate to the disposal of the family. For the poor, har 
 assed, masculine life of him, he could not understand why 
 women harped so on impossible things; and he went 
 across rfie street and got Jerry Dowd to go gunning with
 
 42 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 him. Ultimately he went away cheerfully, to work some 
 how he neither knew nor cared greatly how at Luther 
 Bead s tannery in the hemlock mountains back of Bucks- 
 kill. 
 
 " Good-bye, Bijah. Use something to take the stain off 
 your hands before you come home, and don t get into the 
 ways of the rough class you must meet," admonished 
 Emily, putting her arms around his neck as he was de 
 parting. 
 
 " God bless you, my son ! write often and come home 
 soon! " said Mrs. Bead, kissing him, and the boy walked 
 away with a queer lump in his throat at the first realisa 
 tion of leaving home. 
 
 Bead s tannery stood in a desolate, half-cleared space, 
 well up the side of a mountain, surrounded by a few 
 miserable weather-stained board shanties, fungus-like 
 growths upon the rocks around. Locally known as Pang- 
 Yang, the place was a sort of " no man s land," on the dis 
 puted boundary of two townships, the inhabitants descend 
 ing to vote in either, and frequenting the jails of both, be 
 cause their ideas of dissipation were utterly uncivilised. 
 It was not a worse element than exists in every community, 
 but it was undilute and consequently pungent. In the 
 matter of labour, Luther Bead held his employees to a 
 strict account for six days in the week, so that regular 
 drunkenness was only a sabbatical observation, or a holi 
 day celebration with them ; but on every pay-day, gambling 
 extended to bankruptcy, which is as far as it can be carried 
 anywhere, and the few women who came to Pang-Yang 
 were frankly professional. The elemental vices, naked 
 and unashamed, disported themselves hideously, and 
 Luther Bead s burly figure barred the way of experimental 
 sociology. So far from condoning the morale of the place, 
 he claimed special civic virtue in segregating vice from a 
 virtuous community; and once, the corporate conscience of
 
 CHAPTER THREE 43 
 
 Bucksville clamouring for the strict prohibition of carnal 
 gratification, he summarily discharged every man at the 
 tannery and published as an election notice a call for a 
 complement of virtuous labourers. Applicants were shy; 
 Buckskill eyed askance the advent of the Pang-Yangers, so 
 that Luther Bead laughed, being a man of a robustious 
 humour, bailed his Pang-Yangers out of jail (as usual 
 after an election), and sent them all whooping back up 
 the mountains to work again. He explained the economic 
 principle, that it was better they should earn their board 
 six days in the week, than be supported in jail all the 
 time, and Buckskill ceased to argue with him on the matter, 
 sincerely hoping that his prognostication that " they d run 
 out ef yeou let em alone " would be fulfilled speedily. 
 
 Unfortunately the natural is a slow process, and though 
 child life did not flourish at Pang-Yang, the status of the 
 place remained practically unchanged for years. When 
 Mrs. Bead wrote asking for a position for her son there, 
 Luther Bead knew her ignorant of the reputation of the 
 tannery gang, and it pleased his peculiar sense of humour 
 to accede promptly to the good lady s request, never dream 
 ing that Abijah would remain a week. 
 
 But he did. For all the boy knew to expect of life 
 any condition might be normal, and if all the snakes in 
 the forest about the tannery had stood up on their tails 
 and accosted him, he would have followed the ancestral 
 example, and replied, without a blink, lest surprise be 
 tray him to derision. If Luther Bead saw nothing re 
 markable in conditions at Pang-Yang, his young kinsman 
 was certainly not the lad to remark them; and his assumed 
 attitude of easy familiarity with phenomena to surprise a 
 veteran, afforded his employer every bit as much amuse 
 ment as the shocked sensibilities he had expected of the 
 widow s son. Like all well-instructed youth, being duly 
 warned of the enticements of evil, Abijah was expectant
 
 44 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 of attraction, and not wholly averse to a little bout with 
 the world, the flesh, and the devil; but the carnal trio at 
 Pang-Yang was without embellishment or accessory, 
 primal, besotting, bestial, and the boy had to contend with 
 actual nausea as he schooled himself to look with level lids 
 on the repulsive foulness of his surroundings. 
 
 At first he kept aloof, reading at night in the tan 
 nery where he slept, and gunning alone in the forests, for 
 Buckskill, though lying plainly visible in the valley, was 
 too far for frequent visits; and shut in by miles of 
 heavy hemlock forests, the boy was thrown entirely upon 
 his own slender resources. A savage resentment against 
 circumstance intensified his isolation, and it was inevitable 
 that, when custom dulled the edge of his disgust, he should 
 participate in whatever life was around him. He felt no 
 slightest attraction towards it, but the foul monotony ex 
 asperated him to give it a fillip of some kind, and his special 
 daemon of restlessness inciting him, he plunged into the 
 slough. 
 
 Then shamed and frightened by his own temerity 
 the big child shed a few fierce tears of unavailing regret. 
 He was far too honest and too bold to saddle indulgence 
 upon docile opportunity; but he did not feel entirely re 
 sponsible for the results he deplored, in bitter loathing 
 of all things created, as he lay long, moody hours on the 
 mountain, under the down-swaying hemlock boughs, or 
 tramped aimlessly through the woods, his gun a decent 
 pretext for his absence from the settlement. 
 
 One clear autumn day, when billowy white clouds drifted 
 far above the earth in a keen, sun-warmed breeze, which 
 mixed an elixir as it stirred among the fragrant evergreens, 
 he climbed a gigantic chestnut tree, far up on the crest 
 of the mountain, and from the upper branches unexpectedly 
 glimpsed the spires of Hurstville. Very drearily he sat 
 there, far above miles of undulant forests, looking home-
 
 CHAPTER THREE 45 
 
 ward, faint bitter lines about his mouth scoring life s first 
 encounter; a cruel one for a boy. He had no desire to go 
 home, honestly deeming himself too vile to seek its sanc 
 tuary, but he yearned toward it with a young poignancy 
 of feeling which is fortunately lost in the recurrent shocks 
 of life. His regrets, however, were too fatalistic to be 
 deterrent, and although he afterwards resorted frequently 
 to the lofty eyrie of the chestnut, it was apt to be 
 after a scene of dissipation which drove him from the 
 settlement in disgust. His reluctance to go home kept 
 him away until a peremptory letter from Mrs. Bead sum 
 moned him to report himself, that she might be satisfied 
 of his well-being. He had been away six weeks. Six 
 weeks? Abijah knew it was six years as he went back, 
 strangely shy and sullen, keeping his stained hands in his 
 pockets in mocking deference to his sister s sensibilities, 
 and pointedly avoiding women of all ages and conditions. 
 The popularity of his family kept him dodging continually, 
 and in retreat he often abruptly encountered an old play 
 mate who lived next door. Sarah Silliman quickly dis 
 covered that the advent of visitors at Mrs. Bead s front 
 door meant her son s flight from the rear one, and timed 
 her own exits in accordance. She thought the big lad a 
 most personable youth, and was chagrined that she could 
 not detain him as she had done when they were children. 
 But Abijah stayed for none. Jerry Dowd was his especial 
 resource during this trying period, for Jerry was a mighty 
 hunter of small deer, and the twain went gunning many a 
 day during this and subsequent visits. 
 
 " By this and thot, Bijah, tis a tough lot entirely, Oi m 
 thinkin ," said Jerry, summing up the impression derived 
 from Abijah s reserved communications, on one of their 
 hunting trips. 
 
 " Oh, there s worse people unhung than the Pang- 
 Yangers. Lute Bead says they differ from the high
 
 46 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 monky-monks only in veneer," said the boy smartly. He 
 had no inclination to make a confidant of any one, but the 
 Irishman had not been brought up in the sheltered system, 
 and knew Pang-Yang s reputation. 
 
 " Lute Bead should take shame to hinsil , talking non- 
 sinse to a bhoy. Sure there do be good and bad ivery- 
 where in the world, of course, but tis all bad at 
 Pang-Yang, Oi m thinkin . Does your mother know, 
 Bijah?" 
 
 " Know what? " demanded Abijah sullenly. 
 
 " Know the divil s hole yer in up there? " said Jerry 
 sturdily. 
 
 Who said twas? Your imagination will run away 
 with you some day. I guess a tannery gang is about the 
 same anywhere, and I ve told you that there are worse 
 folks in the world than the Pang-Yangers." 
 
 " In jail tis loike. Whist ye, Bijah, tis no place for 
 a bhoy loike ye. Your mother should know." 
 
 " See here, Jerry, you just mind your own business, 
 will you?" enquired Abijah, threatening in sullen boyish 
 pride. 
 
 " Oi m thinkin I will not," said the little Irishman 
 calmly. 
 
 Abijah looked down at him angrily from beneath his 
 black brows. 
 
 " As I intend to stay anyhow until I get ready to go, I 
 don t see the sense in your making mother uncomfort 
 able, all for nothing; I am quite capable of taking care of 
 myself at Pang-Yang, or anywhere else, I think," said the 
 boy proudly. 
 
 He saw no reason to disturb his mother by a knowl 
 edge of the misadventure of his Pang-Yang experience. 
 He did not include her in the bitter scope of his resent 
 ment, gauging her innocence rightly by what his own had 
 been. After his brief inglorious tussle with the world,
 
 CHAPTER THREE 47 
 
 her purity and goodness seemed ideal and inspired him 
 with a chivalrous desire to shield her. 
 
 " I had no idea the people would all be of that rough 
 class, Bijah. Aren t there any nice folks you can associate 
 with up there? " Mrs. Bead enquired, moved to a sense of 
 maternal responsibility by her son s reticence. She had sat 
 down by his bed one night inviting confidence. 
 
 Abijah looked up at her with disarming ingenuousness. 
 " Say, mother, I hadn t an idea you would want me to as 
 sociate with any one in a tannery," he said. 
 
 " Why, of course not intimately, but what do you do 
 nights? " 
 
 " I put in a pretty good share of the time sleeping, I 
 guess. Of course it s rather lonesome; that s what I sent 
 for the books for, you know. And say, mother, there s a 
 big chestnut up on the top of the mountain, and I can see 
 Hurstville from the top of it. There s a jolly seat on a 
 crooked limb, and I shin up and take a bird s-eye view of 
 you every once in a while," said the boy shyly. 
 
 " I had no idea that the view from Buckskill mountain 
 was so extended," murmured Mrs. Bead politely, and 
 Abijah, vaguely conscious of misplaced sentiment, tum 
 bled from his lofty eyrie to the ground. 
 
 " Don t you go down to Buckskill? Doesn t Luther in 
 vite you to his house? " she enquired anxiously. 
 
 " Buckskill s six miles down, and up the mountain, and 
 the going isn t anything extra. I ve been down twice. 
 Cousin Nan s nice enough, but I see bout all I want of 
 Lute every day without visiting him between times." 
 
 " Don t you like him?" 
 
 The boy stirred impatiently. 
 
 " Oh, mother, you don t understand. It don t make 
 any difference whether I like him or not, and where else 
 can I make as much as Lute gives? " 
 
 That is very true, my son," thoughtfully, " but "
 
 48 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Well, that s the whole size of it. Lute s all right. I 
 ain t kickin ! " 
 
 " But, Bijah, the wages do not outweigh everything. I 
 wouldn t have you get dissipated for all the money in the 
 world." Mrs. Bead, as president of the W. C. T. U., 
 considered drunkenness, and not the love of money, to be 
 the root of all evil. 
 
 " Don t give yourself a moment s uneasiness on that 
 score. It isn t a family failing, and anyhow, I don t like 
 the stuff." 
 
 " Oh, Bijah, then you have tasted it? Unless you 
 promise never to touch it again, I shall not permit you to 
 go back to the tannery," said Mrs. Bead, with gentle in 
 flexibility. 
 
 " But, mother, haven t I told you I don t care for it? 
 Honest injun, I don t! " 
 
 Then why not promise not to touch it? " reasonably 
 enquired the mother, the tears in her dark eyes. 
 
 Well, if you want me to, I will," Abijah said unex 
 pectedly, and laughed. " Temperance is, like honesty, the 
 best policy." 
 
 Why, of course it is ! but I do not see anything amus 
 ing in the idea. You are taking a solemn pledge." 
 
 Abijah rolled over on his pillow to stifle a wild yell, and 
 Mrs. Bead waited patiently until he lifted his flushed face 
 and looked at her helplessly. 
 
 You are just like your father. He frequently found 
 amusement when it was not apparent to any one else," she 
 said. 
 
 " It s a very great disadvantage," sighed Abijah, wiping 
 his eyes on the lavender-scented sheets. 
 
 " Where is your handkerchief, Bijah? " severely. 
 
 11 In my pocket. I didn t expect to need it." 
 
 Mrs. Bead rose with dignity and went through the 
 pockets of his clothes. The handkerchief had served as
 
 CHAPTER THREE 49 
 
 guncloth that afternoon, and she tossed it aside m disgust 
 and brought him a fresh one from his bureau drawer. 
 
 " You are getting into most untidy habits, Bijah! I 
 shall seriously consider the advisability of your remain 
 ing at the tannery," she said, as she kissed him good 
 night. 
 
 But he remained there two years without any very strenu 
 ous opposition on her part. She told him she had 
 prayed over the matter, and having his promise of ab 
 stinence, felt she might trust him anywhere. And Abijah 
 knew that fate was playing him tricks, but felt it behooved 
 him, as the man of the family, to grin and bear it. 
 
 It was in the autumn of his third year at Pang- 
 Yang, when he had grown stoic to accept the place as his, 
 that a terrific wind-storm swept the country from the moun 
 tains of the northwest to the sea. It came in great aerial 
 waves, foam-crested by the tossing cumuli, and the sub 
 merged forests strained and bowed and broke beneath the 
 mighty torrent which carried fogs and mists and noisome 
 vapours into far-off space. Throughout the wholesome, 
 wind-scoured earth, magnetic currents tingled, and strange 
 responsive thrills stirred all of life upon it. It blew for 
 days. The voices of the forest rose, tumultuous in silent 
 places, and living creatures thrilled with nervous excita 
 tion. Abijah could not stay indoors. He was restless 
 until he got into the open, and ran into the gale, hallooing 
 an answer to its challenge and prancing like a satyr 
 through the forest ways. Breast to breast he leaned 
 against the rushing current, and fought with it, rejoicing 
 in his strength as he went up the mountain; but at the 
 summit, lying under his chestnut tree, a strange content and 
 exultation filled him as the wind swept over him; he 
 opened his arms to it like a triumphant lover, and smiled as 
 he felt its kiss upon his eyelids. 
 
 When he arose the wind came with him down the moun-
 
 50 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 tain and had its will of him in happy, headlong flight. 
 Close at heel it kept, at breakneck speed, over ragged 
 ledge and fallen tree-trunks, down steep declivities, where 
 he plunged over traitorous moss-grown rocks, and leaped 
 and caught short holds of bush and shrub to break the 
 breathless speed; landing with him pell-mell in the clearing 
 with a shout and a rush that carried him halfway across 
 it to the tannery. 
 
 " See d a bar, Bijah? " called old Meg from her shan 
 ty s doorway as he rushed by, but he only waved his arm to 
 her, and without slackening his pace, called back, as the 
 idea came to him : " Tell all the boys to come over to-night. 
 We ll whoop her up in great shape," the invitation 
 as unpremeditated as his wild rush down the mountain. 
 Then in as purely frolic mood as ever creature frisked, 
 from sheer exuberance of young life, he set about the 
 rough arrangements for a night s debauch in the old wind- 
 shaken tannery. His brain was curiously alert and full of 
 wind-blown fancies, and he moved without volition, with 
 out ulterior purpose, as one in pleasant dreams. He 
 knew he should play, play all he knew to win that 
 night, and as a great gust hurled itself upon the tan 
 nery, he suddenly laughed aloud, remembering it was pay 
 day. 
 
 At daybreak, he stood up in the reek of alcohol and 
 nicotine, and the Pang-Yangers money was in his pocket. 
 His companions had slunk away to sleep off their dissipa 
 tion, all save old Meg, who, prone on the floor in the cor 
 ner, snored in stifled suspirations. Automatically he tried 
 to rouse her, and failing, went somnolently out into the 
 morning air. 
 
 Grey dawn still lingered in the valley, but the mountain 
 tops were rosy; a great star pulsed low down in the red 
 dening east, and the wind now bore the ineffable breath of 
 the morning on its strong wings. The boy s tense nerves
 
 CHAPTER THREE 5! 
 
 were vibrant to its touch, and he yearned to its mysterious, 
 insistent will. Suddenly he stretched his arms above his 
 head like one awakening. 
 
 " I ve been here long enough, now," he said decidedly, 
 and without intention or reflection, he let the wind have its 
 way with him again, and it urged him down the mountain. 
 In the valley it left him, a little dazed, but quite content, 
 and with a dawning purpose, he trod on sturdily toward 
 the Buckskill railroad station. It was closed and solitary, 
 but, as his excitement cooled, his purpose crystallised, and 
 he sat on the bench outside to wait, realising with amuse 
 ment, but without concern, his inadequate equipment for 
 a journey. Gazing back up the mountain he saw the 
 tiny panes of Pang-Yang s windows catch the crimson of 
 the rising sun. He had not thought the place so clearly 
 visible from town, and did reflected light flame out, and 
 spread like that? 
 
 A moment s startled gaze, and then he sprang into the 
 road and with elbows close, mouth shut and head well up, 
 went racing through the village streets toward Luther 
 Bead s. That gentleman had just climbed into his car 
 riage at the gate, and Abijah sprang in after him, explain 
 ing the situation breathlessly, as they raced into view of 
 the burning hamlet. Luther Bead drew rein and stopped 
 his horses in the middle of the road, as he saw the extent 
 of the conflagration. 
 
 " Go on ! go on ! Don t stop, Lute ! I tell you Meg s 
 asleep in the tannery, and they re all too dead-drunk to 
 move ! " cried the boy, his brown cheeks pale with the 
 horror. 
 
 We can t do any good by the time we get there," said 
 Luther Bead, his eyes on the spreading flames. 
 
 " Ain t you going up ? " 
 
 " No, there ain t a damn bit of use." 
 
 " Well, I am! " exclaimed Abijah, but as he would have
 
 52 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 leaped from the carriage, Luther caught his arm roughly 
 and jerked him back into his seat. 
 
 " Yuh young fool, yuh! " he said kindly. 
 
 Abijah faced him with indignant eyes. " I can t sit 
 here doing nothing and know they are being burned to 
 death," he said in a choked voice. 
 
 " Yeou can t git up there, near enough to do any good. 
 See there ! The woods are ketchin all around. We re 
 lucky if we don t have some fires in the village from the 
 sparks, with the wind this way. I ll drive over to the 
 engine house and tell the boys to git ready for business. 
 But say, Bijah, you better git eout and go back to the 
 house. Yeou look like bekunjer! " 
 
 " I m going with you," said the boy doggedly, struggling 
 for composure. " I ll get somebody to go up with me. 
 We may find some of the folks ahead of the fire and needing 
 help. See there where the smoke lifts! I don t believe 
 there s a vestige left of Pang-Yang," and he craned for 
 ward for glimpses of the blazing forests down the brief 
 perspective of the streets they passed. 
 
 " Jes what I said! Everything s like tinder in the 
 woods, and this wind s fannin the flames. There won t 
 be anything for the coroner to set on, ef they were all as 
 drunk as yeou say. There goes the fire bell. The boys 
 have caught on, so we ll go up the mountain, ez fur s we kin 
 go, ef yeou say so. But tain t a bit of good, I tell yeou." 
 
 " Go on. If I d stayed I might have put it out at the 
 start, or waked up the boys, at least." 
 
 " How d jew happen to come down this morning, any- 
 heow? Don t yeou drink?" 
 
 " No, I can t afford to muddle what brain I ve got. 
 I don t know how I happened to start off this morning. 
 Hadn t thought of it till I felt this money in my pocket; not 
 specially, I mean. Of course, I hadn t settled down to 
 spend my life in Pang-Yang."
 
 CHAPTER THREE 53 
 
 "Huh! Guess yeou made more there n I have the 
 past two years. Dunno ez I ll come eout even." 
 
 " Shan t I whack up? " enquired Abijah drily. 
 
 " No, never mind. Whack up when yeou re held up. 
 Yeou ll find that frequent enough in this life." 
 
 " I m inexperienced. Never was ahead of the game be 
 fore; couldn t help being last night, the hands I had." 
 
 "Huh! Well, money s money, however yeou git it, 
 an yeou ve got to get it in some sort of a hunk to be any 
 good." 
 
 " Is this going to be a bad loss for you? " 
 
 ; Not so very considerable, unless the wind shifts. 
 My timber is mostly to the west ard, and the tannery ain t 
 sich a terrible loss, for it hasn t much more than paid ex 
 penses for some time, and I couldn t sell. By God, though, 
 Howell s ketchin it. Way he s allus talked, though, he 
 oughten to kick, seeing Pang-Yang s gone." 
 
 Don t you suppose any of them got out in time? It 
 don t seem possible some of them wouldn t wake up ! " 
 
 Luther Bead coughed as the first whiff of smoke swept 
 into their faces. 
 
 Yeou couldn t wake Meg up, yeou say. Had she 
 taken more than the rest? " 
 
 No, they kept it up long after she dropped out." 
 Yeou must have been having a night of it, Bijah." 
 
 It wasn t exactly a class-meeting. Don t bluff, Lute. 
 You know it was hell." 
 
 Well, I dunno as I thought Pang-Yang was in danger 
 of any sich Sodom and Gomorrah business ez this. 
 Howell did, though. He s said so. Wonder if he ll 
 debit that timber to special divine interposition or sue 
 me? " and Luther Bead choked and coughed again, as the 
 smoke drove down upon them heavily. His horses 
 stopped, quivering as they scented the burning. 
 
 We ll have to take the team back a ways, and climb
 
 54 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 around north, on foot," he said, and Abijah assented. The 
 futility of all attempt at rescue was apparent to him as 
 they approached the burning tract, but they pushed on, and 
 by a wide circuit reached a view of the tannery clearing 
 from the windward. Not a building remained; the glow 
 ing embers, fanned into intermittent blazing by the wind, 
 baffled approach, and hid whatever tragedy they held, 
 but in the acrid odour of the burning forest mixed a some 
 thing noisome. Abijah weakened in the legs and dropped 
 against a tree, while Luther Bead sat suddenly down upon 
 a nearby rock and clutched at his throat. 
 
 " Let s git outer this. I told yeou we couldn t do a 
 damn thing," said the man, and they went back miserably 
 down the mountain, meeting men and boys coming up with 
 curious faces. 
 
 " I wish you d do me a favour, Lute," said Abijah, after 
 driving in silence into the town beneath the wind-borne 
 smoke. 
 
 " All right." 
 
 Take me over to the station, and then drive over to 
 Hurstville and tell mother I ve gone west." 
 
 " So yeou stick to that idee? But what s the rush? " 
 
 " I think a change of climate will do me a world of 
 good." 
 
 Luther Bead coughed suddenly and moistened his dry 
 lips as a stronger breath of smoke swept over the town. 
 
 " I guess it would me too," he said. " My God, wasn t 
 it awful ! I don t feel as though I could ever eat again." 
 
 "Oh, shut up! " exclaimed Abijah savagely. 
 
 " If yeou re bent on going, of course I ll but where 
 yeou going? Out West ain t no address." 
 
 " I don t know till I get to the station. I m going as 
 far as my money 11 take me. I ll write mother on the 
 way, but I m going to start on the first train that comes in 
 here."
 
 CHAPTER THREE 55 
 
 " Well, by God, Bijah, I don t blame yeou. I believe 
 you ll land on your feet somewhere, an I ll tell your mother 
 so." And Luther Bead, as he turned down the street 
 from the railroad station, stayed to wave his hat to his 
 young kinsman as the train pulled out. 
 
 Two thousand miles from Pang-Yang, on the grim 
 Wyoming plains, tree-barren, vast, monotonous, Abijah 
 stepped off the train into the middlemost of " No-man s- 
 land," and concluding it was his fate to be a life denizen 
 of some portion of that undelectable country, grimly pro 
 ceeded to qualify for the position. 
 
 The cattle war of the Northwest was raging fiercely at 
 this time, and the very face of the country was being 
 changed from fertile plains of grass, pasturing enormous 
 herds of cattle, to deserts, bare of every living thing ex 
 cept the spiny cactus. Incursions of sheep-herds from the 
 southwest devasted the land, for sheep- will eat the very 
 roots of vernal things, and as no other creature can or will 
 graze after them, the cattlemen s reprisals were fero 
 cious. 
 
 At first and by necessity, Abijah became a herder, which 
 is the pariah caste of the Northwest: the shepherd of pas 
 toral history is not the prototype of this caste; it is sui 
 generis distinctive of new countries, and in no degree 
 poetical. Abijah buckled on a couple of business-like re 
 volvers, thanking Jerry Dowd that he was a fair shot, 
 and laying his rifle across his saddle, rode after his herds 
 into a wilderness very far from still waters, and solitary 
 with the solitude that drives men mad. 
 
 There alone as day after day orbed to its slow ful 
 ness, and loitered into twilight, the silence of the plains 
 grew near and palpable, a thing of weight, unbearable; 
 the pulse of life beat only in the monotone of chewing 
 sheep. Abijah dreamed of sheep, never of anything but 
 sheep, sheep innumerable, chewing over illimitable
 
 56 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 plains, and smelled them, sleeping or awake, until he 
 hated them with a malignancy inexpressible, and shot a 
 few wantonly as a slight relief to his pent feelings. 
 
 At the end of days, each as a thousand years, the boy 
 deliberately forsook his herd and galloped sullenly back 
 to town ; a little boom town, casually set down on the 
 wide plains, and long since obliterated. He did not feel 
 the exhilaration of the wondrous clear upland air, as he 
 rode doggedly back across the ninety miles of intervening 
 sagebush. The smell of sheep was in his nostrils and he 
 meant to go home, even if he had to walk every step of 
 the two thousand miles ; but, finding the town full of cow 
 boys and picturesque profanity, anent some extraordinarily 
 cool aggression of the despised sheep-herders, he joyously 
 allied himself with an avenging party, delighted with an 
 immediate opportunity to help exterminate a pestiferous 
 breed from off thq face of the earth. 
 
 He was well back across the sagebush with a troop of 
 furious cattlemen, before it dawned upon him that his 
 herd had been the depredating one, and he the uncon 
 sciously impudent herder they were pursuing. For a mo 
 ment his heart stood still, realising that the truest shot 
 made law, in " No-man s-land," and that each accounted 
 for his act to no one but the better marksman. To 
 stampede or shoot a flock of sheep, their herder shot upon 
 the plains behind, was no unusual reprisal of exasperated 
 cattlemen, and impending fate was close upon the daring 
 herdsman : but he was an unknown man. 
 
 " Some damn Dago likely," it was thought, had en 
 croached closer with his pestiferous herd than any yet had 
 dared, and despite his danger, Abijah doubled over his 
 saddle-bow in an irresistible paroxysm of laughter, as they 
 came upon his own forsaken flocks. 
 
 "What s the joke, kid?" asked the nearest man, but 
 Abijah spurred to the front with a wild yell, as the woolly
 
 CHAPTER THREE 57 
 
 marauders, shepherdless, scattered before the stamped 
 ing force. 
 
 Followed untrammelled years of natural impulse and 
 its swiftly following act, in which he half forgot the East 
 and home-bred way in a wild joy of this " no man s land " 
 in which he found his place. The big black youth rode 
 straight and shot precisely, and the brute courage of un 
 shaken nerves gave him a fellowship beyond his years, 
 notwithstanding a curious and deplorable penchant for 
 sobriety. But his status on the plains, though flattering 
 to the simple savage instincts strong in this man, did 
 not alter his mistrust of his abilities on lines more 
 complex and conventional. He found his powers ade 
 quate enough to elemental conditions of life, but the finesse 
 to win fortune in a civilised community required a special 
 order of intelligence, and this he was unalterably con 
 vinced he did not possess and could not cultivate. At first, 
 the frugal East, not far behind, suggested the accretion 
 of small savings, but this was a prospect so remote he 
 soon declined to sacrifice necessities upon the altar of 
 a tricky goddess, especially as there were pleasant deities, 
 inviting gifts. So half his money went the way of most 
 in frontier towns, and half went duly East for many years, 
 and Abijah contrived a fairly decent scorn of Fortune s 
 frown, until, without an effort on his part, the sly jade came 
 to him with sudden open palms, while brighter, better men 
 entreated her in vain. 
 
 ; Fool s gold " at first Abijah thought, and scarce be 
 lieved the competence a careless venture brought him, but 
 with the assurance of possession the canny Scot in him 
 awoke, and the homing impulse sent him back to Hurst- 
 ville. 
 
 He walked in on his mother as she sat alone at tea in 
 the lamplight, kissed that astonished lady lightly, and 
 dropping into his old place opposite, fell to upon the
 
 58 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 widow s bread and butter with the same appetite as in the 
 years when he outgrew his cousin s clothing. 
 
 His mother looked at him through briefly tearful glasses, 
 but being neither sentimental nor hysterical, she kept, as 
 usual, a firm hand on herself in the matter of emotion, so 
 that there were steady nerves on both sides of the cosey tea- 
 table, notwithstanding the surprise, and the meal was a 
 livelier one than the widow s house had known for many 
 a year. 
 
 Abijah spoke freely, if not frankly, of his life, and had 
 a fund of anecdotes to cover reticence; but after he was 
 snoring in his room upstairs, his mother thought their 
 conversation over, and was dissatisfied. Somehow she had 
 neglected to enquire of most important things; Abijah had 
 become so entertaining a conversationalist ! She deter 
 mined to get at facts at breakfast, and she hoped Abijah 
 had been able to save something in all these years. 
 
 Hurstville had not changed. It had only grown older. 
 There was a new set of boys playing ball in the same field 
 near the schoolhouse, but they looked so perfectly familiar 
 Abijah could not resist sitting on the fence to umpire the 
 game. Children, he was told, had grown up during his 
 absence, but he insisted he did not remember the children 
 and the old people looked just as they always had. 
 
 Emily, of course, had " married well." That was a 
 thing preordained of fate and her mother, and seeming to 
 please every one, except Abijah, who nourished a secret 
 pity that his pretty sister could not have a " free hand " 
 in her marriage. He forgot she would have chosen riches 
 above all things; and even after she had made it evident to 
 him that she considered herself most fortunate, he persisted 
 in avoiding the wealthy octogenarian, her husband; re 
 treating, in his old fashion, by the kitchen door. 
 
 Quite in the same old fashion, too, he encountered 
 Sarah Silliman there, running in and out on neighbourly
 
 CHAPTER THREE 59 
 
 intents, but now he stayed to talk to her and often his re 
 treat ended in her garden. She still thought the young 
 man personable beyond all the village youth, and no man 
 with eyes in his head could have two ways of thinking 
 about Sarah s beauty. It held the cowboy captive from 
 the first encounter, and Mrs. Bead listened to their blithe 
 young voices dubiously. For some inscrutable reason Abi- 
 jah did not disclose the fact of his prosperity, and this, in 
 the end, was what made all the trouble. For Sarah had 
 unalterably made up her mind to " marry well" also.
 
 IV 
 
 MURREY S drug store on the village main 
 street, opposite the post-office, was the real dis 
 tributing centre of Hurstville news; the Hurst- 
 ville Post, casually edited by the postmaster and his wife 
 in the intervals of a leisurely federal business, being mainly 
 a confirmatory publication of items previously canvassed 
 by the public-spirited habitues of Murrey s. At times 
 the editor came apologetically across the street, with a 
 harassed expression and the damp sheet of a current issue 
 omitting some item of current interest; but his derelictions 
 were received with a whimsical tolerance, and, unless 
 Abijah Bead was in a hectoring mood and made him pass 
 around the box of Murrey s best cigars, he suffered only 
 the well-worn ponderous rural badinage. 
 
 Whenever the power of speech descended upon Abijah 
 Bead he spoke without fear or favour of man or woman 
 kind, and the rest of the group at the back of the drug 
 store tipped back their chairs and listened, with more or 
 less understanding and enjoyment of his picturesque dis 
 sertations. Mr. Murrey always came from behind his 
 counter and joined the listeners when Abijah was in par 
 ticular fettle, and his presence was felt to dignify an other 
 wise casual gathering. Not that his proper vocation of 
 chemist gave the unassuming gentleman professional pres 
 tige. It was too well known that he had only " picked up 
 his trade," in long years of clerking for the old druggist, 
 and that he satisfied the ever increasing legal requirements 
 of the profession by importations of fledgling pharmacists, 
 
 60
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 61 
 
 of degree, who abode with him successively. He had 
 grown up in the store from a shock-headed youngster to a 
 level-headed business man, and though Hurstville backed 
 John Thomas against any of his assistants to " put up " 
 the crabbedest prescription ever written, his technical handi 
 cap was clearly recognised, and it was for his rare knowl 
 edge of simples, a knowledge recondite, almost occult, and 
 unknown to your mere chemist, that Mr. Murrey received 
 honour of his townsmen. Local faith in Murrey s pro 
 prietary remedies exasperated old Dr. Pom fret to the verge 
 of apoplexy, but the steady sale of " Murrey s Spring 
 Tonic" and "Murrey s Mandrake Pills" was not affected 
 by the irascible old doctor s diatribes on quackery. 
 
 Personally they were always the best of friends, but as 
 Mr. Murrey was not to be bullied from the vending of his 
 exceedingly vendible commodities, and as friendship was 
 never known to stand in the way of the doctor s brusque 
 strictures, professional amenity was at strain between them. 
 Abijah Bead, arguing from the well-known moral char 
 acter of John Thomas, propounded a bland theory of the 
 perfect innocuousnessof his specifics, and finding it received 
 no favour of either, declared them in collusion. The 
 doctor snorted: when it came to professional ethics he did 
 not jest, an exemption Abijah gleefully made note of for 
 future use. 
 
 On the evening of the day after Abijah had brought his 
 son home, Silas Mason sauntered into the drug store to 
 wait for the stage. Old Mr. Deyo was there, in conver 
 sation with the doctor, who was waiting for Mr. Murrey 
 and the assistant to compound a prescription. 
 
 " I s pose yeou re tellin Doc th noos," said Silas, join 
 ing them, and addressing Mr. Deyo. 
 
 " I dunno s I ve heard any news to tell," replied the 
 old gentleman, with a deprecating expression of reflec 
 tion.
 
 62 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 "Huh! Yeou mean Bill Hen ain t told yeou abeout 
 Bijah Bead s boy?" 
 
 " I don t remember s he did. He was only home a 
 few hours, you know." 
 
 " Hez he gone already? " 
 
 " Yes. I had to take him over the mountains to ketch 
 the train at Dunham. The goin s awful bad." 
 
 " He s in an all-fired rush! An he didn t say anything 
 abeout Bijah s kid?" 
 
 " See here, Si, how many times d you want a man to 
 answer a question? If you ve got any news, relieve 
 yourself, or you ll need a blue pill. You look a little 
 jaundiced already," said the doctor, who never allowed 
 any one else to do the badgering if he was around. 
 
 " Then I ll get a box of Murrey s Mandrake before I 
 go eout this afternoon," retorted Silas smartly. 
 
 " All right," replied the doctor, and Silas spat copiously 
 into the sand box of the store. 
 
 " Jew really mean yeou ain t heard the noos yet, Doc? 
 Why, they come in on the 9:05 las night," he volun 
 teered, failing to evoke interrogation. 
 
 " But you didn t post a bulletin after you got in, and 
 you ve been asleep since." 
 
 " Oh, yeou git eout! I guess I ain t the only one t kin 
 talk or see, even if he did sneak home with him after dark. 
 Now, honour bright, Doc, jew ever know Bijah had a 
 kid?" 
 
 The doctor maintained an impassive countenance. 
 " Don t ask professional secrets," he said, his swift brain 
 searching in forgotten things. He knew Abijah inti 
 mately, he thought, but Abijah had not confided in him. 
 Mr. Murrey came around from behind the counter and 
 stood beside the doctor, and the assistant triturated the 
 prescription softly, to listen. Old Mr. Deyo moved un 
 easily.
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 63 
 
 " The train was pretty late las night," he observed, as 
 pointing out a possibly extenuating circumstance. 
 
 " Twould a been dark when that train got in any 
 how," snapped Silas. 
 
 " Well? " demanded the doctor sharply. 
 
 " Well? " mimicked Silas hardily, unconscious of the im 
 minent violence he often provoked, " is he married? " 
 
 " Bah! " said the doctor witheringly, and the assistant 
 grinned unseen behind the counter. 
 
 " Well, some folks 11 wanter kneow, even ef yeou ain t 
 particular. OF Mis Bead, for instance. I don t believe 
 she kneows a thing abeout the hull durn business." 
 
 It oughtn t to surprise his mother, or any one else, if 
 Bijah rejects the conventional way, even of acquiring a 
 family. For all you know he may bring the mother in on 
 the 9 105 to-night. As reversing the usual procedure, that 
 might appeal to him." 
 
 Well, I guess I shan t bring his wife in to-night; or 
 any other time," said Silas significantly. 
 
 No? Of course she may be dead." 
 
 Silas put his tongue in his cheek. 
 
 " I think he ought to take care of the boy, if he s got 
 one, whether he s married or not," ventured Mr. Deyo 
 with surprising decision, for he was a man who loved 
 peace, and seldom obtruded an opinion. 
 
 " Good for you, Deyo ! My sentiments to a T. 
 Bijah s a brick! " exclaimed the doctor heartily. 
 
 4 Well, he allus seemed to be a good-hearted feller," 
 and Mr. Deyo smiled with gentle geniality around the 
 circle. 
 
 Silas was utterly disgusted. 
 
 " Charity s all right," he said, " but Bije Bead s too 
 darned queer for most folks to stomach. I don t believe 
 Mrs. Bead 11 be eout looking for veal when this prodigal 
 gran son is sprung onto her. If it s all right, why don t
 
 64 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 he say so, insteader jes this is my son s if that was all 
 twas anybody s business to kneow? He oughter hev some 
 respect fur public opinion, fur the kid s sake, ef he ain t 
 fur his eown." 
 
 Why the devil has any one a right to suppose that 
 there s anything disreputable about this freak of Bijah s? 
 As far as I know (and if I don t know Hurstville I don t 
 know who does), he s got as clean a record as any man; 
 cleaner than most of your church members," said the doc 
 tor hotly. " Good-afternoon, Mrs. Palmer," he continued 
 in a level voice, as that lady entered the store. Mr. Mur 
 rey went behind the counter to wait upon her. 
 
 It was beginning to rain. The stage slid slowly through 
 the cold twilight of the village street and stopped at the 
 post-office opposite to take up the mail. 
 
 " So long," exclaimed Silas, abruptly starting for the 
 door. As he reached it, Abijah Bead dashed up on horse 
 back, holding Rob before him, bundled in his great storm 
 coat, which flopped damply about them as they rode. 
 Their faces, wet with the rain, were bright with the joy 
 of their headlong gallop, and the boy laughed aloud in 
 sheer glee as his father swung from the saddle and set 
 him upon his feet. 
 
 " Run up into that doorway," said Abijah, and paused 
 to throw the useful storm coat over the broncho, before he 
 bolted after. Several people in the stage peered curiously; 
 Silas volunteered information as he took his seat, and 
 neighbourly speculation was soon agog, concerning Abi- 
 jah s son. 
 
 "This looks a lot like sneaking now, don t it?" 
 growled the doctor to Mr. Murrey as the big man entered 
 the store, the boy clinging tightly to his thumb. 
 
 Abijah s greeting was as casual as usual. " Hello ! " he 
 called, pausing by the cigar case, " gimme a smoke, 
 Tommy John," and Rob watched him with absorbing in-
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 65 
 
 terest cut and light a cigar, and followed close at heel as 
 he sauntered nonchalantly to the gathering place around 
 the stove. 
 
 " Well, Doc, anybody broke the record since I left? " 
 he enquired as he took a seat. 
 
 " Not unless you have," replied the doctor significantly, 
 glancing at the child. 
 
 " Search me," was the serene answer, and Rob made a 
 place for himself against his father s knee. 
 
 "Usual thing, hey?" 
 
 " Perhaps not, exactly. Gentlemen, my son, Rob." 
 A note of dignity in the careless voice discouraged rib 
 aldry, and the child went to each man present and held 
 out his hand. 
 
 " Well now, he s a nice little feller, anyhow," said Mr. 
 Deyo, retaining the hand he clasped, to draw the child 
 between his knees. 
 
 " How old? " demanded Dr. Pomfret, still searching 
 memory blindly for forgotten things. 
 
 " Five. Hope he won t make you as much trouble as 
 Bill Hen and I did, Mr. Deyo." 
 
 Well, you two did get into most of the scrapes layin 
 around; but I believe in boys bein boys," and the old 
 gentleman s face was irradiated with his gentle smile. 
 Rob snuggled up to him confidingly. 
 
 " I m going to have pants, and a pony. Father says 
 so," he confided ecstatically, in the kindly attentive ear 
 bent over him. One day of life with his wonderful father 
 had been dazzling with the joys of masculinity. 
 
 " I guess he s a chip off the old block, Bijah," inanely 
 chuckled old Mr. Deyo, patting the boy approvingly. 
 I m sure of it," promptly. 
 
 The confidence of the reply irritated the doctor, who, 
 having defended Abijah s eccentricities ever since the young 
 man had set up his solitary penates in the neighbourhood,
 
 66 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 was disgruntled to find that he had been included in 
 Abijah s general reticence. 
 
 Think you re wiser than most men, do you?" he 
 growled, still studying the child s face, in the fast-gather 
 ing dusk. 
 
 " I back my opinion, you see," was the response. 
 
 The dripping broncho, hunched up beneath the in 
 sufficient shelter of his storm coat in the rain outside, was a 
 hint of perturbation on Abijah s part which did not escape 
 the observation of a dapper elderly gentleman who, ap 
 prised of the owner s return by the presence of his horse, 
 entered the store and came directly towards Abijah, hold 
 ing his wet umbrella gingerly out from his side. There 
 was some evident understanding between the two men, 
 for Abijah replied to an unspoken question in a low voice. 
 
 " Rotten, Senator," he said calmly, whereat Mr. Ten 
 Eyke appeared greatly disconcerted and held his umbrella 
 in dangerous proximity to the glowing stove. 
 
 "You er investigated thoroughly, then?" he en 
 quired, and Abijah laughed sarcastically. 
 
 " There wasn t much to investigate. It was just as I 
 told you, one of the bummest get rich quick schemes ever 
 sprung on a confiding public. I wouldn t have believed 
 it would get a nibble from a conservative banker of your 
 standing, if you hadn t mentioned it yourself, Senator: 
 hope you weren t in very deep? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! No-o-o. Not at all ! It appeared so espe 
 cially I may say uniquely accredited, and on first im 
 pressions not, er impossible that was all. Of course 
 I hardly need say I do not embark on any enterprise 
 without exhaustive investigations. There is too much at 
 stake in my position to take any chances too much at 
 stake. I am very much obliged to you for looking into it; 
 it saves me er time. Your judgment of course 
 and er discretion "
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 67 
 
 " Of course! " Abijah echoed the pompous assurance, 
 but he cocked his eye at the uncomfortable banker 
 and ex-Senator, whose heart was as water within him, real 
 ising that the discretion would in no degree interfere with 
 caustic innuendoes. He had given hostage to a cynic, be 
 guiled thereto by his own confidence in Abijah s financial 
 shrewdness and that young man s insinuating address and 
 delight in sheer deviltry. Privately execrating his own 
 complaisance, he turned from the unreliable guardian of 
 his future peace of mind, and addressed the other men, 
 who had drawn apart from them as they talked. 
 
 " Whom have you there, Mr. Deyo? " he enquired, at 
 tempting his usual condescension. 
 
 The old gentleman hesitated, feeling vaguely accessory 
 to the fact. 
 
 This is Rob Bead," he answered very slowly. 
 
 " Ah ! What relative of yours, Bijah ? " Mr. Ten Eyke 
 enquired carelessly, preparing to leave the store. 
 
 " My son," Abijah responded, and the Senator sud 
 denly became aware of the unusual atmosphere. 
 
 "What is the er joke?" he asked, looking 
 around enquiringly. 
 
 " Rob, come here," said Abijah, the ring of parental 
 authority in his voice, and Rob responded with expectant 
 eyes. The assistant was lighting the lamps about the 
 store, and the glow from one overhead fell full on the 
 boy s eager, roseleaf face and halo of ruddy hair. In 
 the sudden illumination the doctor blinked incredulously 
 from father to son, and then retired abruptly behind the 
 prescription counter, where he stood with lowering brows, 
 staring blankly at the neat packages of drugs Mr. Mur 
 rey placed in his hands. Abijah was calmly saying: 
 
 This is my son Rob. His old nurse died the other 
 day, and I didn t know any one else to trust him to, so I ve 
 got to take a whack at his upbringing myself. Rob, this
 
 68 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 gentleman is Mr. Ten Eyke, in whose judgment and er 
 discretion of course 
 
 The situation dawned slowly on the Senator, owing to 
 an ever present sub-consciousness of Abijah s propensity to 
 jest. 
 
 " Er how d do? " fumbling helplessly for his glasses. 
 " Isn t he rather young to bring out in such weather ? Why 
 don t you take him to your mother? " 
 
 " Fact is," said Abijah with an air of confidence, " I ve 
 heard, by and large, a good deal of criticism anent 
 mother s way of bringing up a boy. Now I ve got a the 
 ory, it isn t crystallised yet and I hope I m amenable to 
 suggestions. What would you think of just reversing her 
 process? " 
 
 Mr. Ten Eyke did not immediately reply. He had got 
 ten his glasses on his nose, and was staring, undisguisedly. 
 It required no second glance for him to recognise the re 
 semblance which had at first baffled the doctor, and hard 
 ened old sinner though he was himself, the discovery 
 shocked him inexpressibly. The maternal physiognomy 
 was stamped upon the child, in unmistakable colour and 
 contour. There might well be question of his paternity, 
 and as that occurred to him, he glanced sharply at Abijah s 
 inscrutable countenance. Abijah certainly did not look 
 like an ass, but the chances were his conduct was repre 
 hensible. 
 
 " On general principles your theory would appear to be 
 a perfect one," said the Senator with deliberate severity, 
 and his endorsement appeared to afford its recipient a 
 modest satisfaction. 
 
 " Now, about the exposure you spoke of," he resumed, 
 expansively, " in the first place he wasn t exposed, and 
 in the second, I believe in being blooded to the soil. 
 Thanks- 
 
 " I m looking for that husband of mine. He has es-
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 69 
 
 caped with my umbrella. Has he been in here, Mr. Mur 
 rey? " 
 
 The familiar voice startled every one except Abijah, 
 who, facing the door, had seen Mrs. Benji Phelps hesi 
 tating on the threshold. 
 
 " No, he hasn t been in, Mrs. Phelps," said Mr. Mur 
 rey, scudding hastily forward, " but I can lend you an 
 umbrella if you wish to get home," and the good little 
 man urgently presented a huge loose gingham affair belong 
 ing to Mr. Deyo, which he had caught up with some vague 
 idea of intercepting the lady s entrance. She, however, 
 appeared serenely oblivious of the contretemps of her ar 
 rival, and smiled lightly at his uncouth offering. 
 
 11 I thank you, but I ll wait a few minutes for Mr. 
 Phelps. I guess he ll find me," she said with the playful 
 assurance of the woman who receives continual adulation. 
 Her expression was perfectly natural as her negligent 
 glance sought covertly for the child whose presence her 
 fear divined; Mr. Deyo s inert bulk intercepted her vision, 
 and Abijah laid a restraining hand upon his son, and drew 
 him closer. Only he realised, as she stood in dainty non 
 chalance before them all, her roseleaf face abloom, the 
 raindrops sparkling in the glorious halo of her ruddy hair, 
 that her presence there was not an accident, but a defiance : 
 a characteristic determination of a brave woman to face 
 the worst at once, and have it over. And ah ! how lovely 
 she was how utterly lovely! The hurt of it clutched 
 the heart, and to the others, the old life-long friends and 
 neighbours of them both, seeing the calamity impending, 
 her unconsciousness seemed innocent, and even nature s evi 
 dence failed to smirch at once the living, present woman : 
 so fair, so familiar; the little Sarah Silliman who had 
 come in confidingly among them, as she had been doing all 
 her life. The hearts of the men rose up as one against 
 the outlaw who proclaimed his triumph; the thing was
 
 70 THE PANG-YANGEK 
 
 monstrous, futile, cruel, and Abijah was quick to feel him 
 self in Coventry. The denouement was something more 
 dramatic than he had designed, but he enveloped himself 
 and progeny in clouds of smoke and awaited events with 
 the impassiveness of the Sphinx. Having propounded 
 the question, he waited the mortal answer, cynically sure, 
 in his own mind, what it would be. 
 
 Mr. Ten Eyke proceeded down the store with pompous 
 alacrity, and a chivalrous impulse to throw the protection 
 of a distinguished citizen about beleaguered beauty. It 
 was disconcerting, certainly, to find his gallant intent al 
 most nullified by the lady s perfect aplomb, but he stood to 
 it doughtily. The little matter of peccant speculation of 
 which Abijah had contrived to get an inkling, rankled at 
 the back of the banker s head, and inclined him to succour 
 any one suffering from the young man s machinations. He 
 told himself that this was all some devil s jest, some special 
 atrocity of the abandoned Abijah, and the wild phantas 
 magoria evoked by Rob s resemblance almost faded in the 
 level gaze of the lady s wide, serene brown eyes. 
 
 " How does it happen you are wandering about in this 
 storm alone like a lost angel ? " he enquired with more haste 
 than happiness, but the lady took it not amiss, and smiled 
 upon him brilliantly. 
 
 " Oh, I was over in the post-office with Benji. writing 
 for time-tables, and when I looked around, lo! there was 
 no husband there. I think it will serve him right to look 
 for me, now, don t you? " 
 
 " Precisely right. But time-tables, say you? Whith 
 er away, fair lady? " 
 
 " Oh, a long way. At least I wish so. We re trying 
 to coax father Phelps to let Benji take me abroad this 
 spring. I ve never been, you know. There will be six 
 weeks more of bad weather here, and somehow, it s gotten 
 on my nerves. I want to go and find the spring right
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 71 
 
 away. Is that Dr. Pomfret back there? I want to see 
 him." 
 
 " Pomfret, you re wanted here," called the Senator, and 
 the physician responded with inscrutable professional ur 
 banity. 
 
 " Oh, Dr. Pomfret, I want you to be on my side," cried 
 the lady. 
 
 The doctor bowed profoundly. 
 
 " Command me, madam," he said grandiloquently, and 
 they all laughed a little hysterically. 
 
 No one glanced at Abijah. He was cut off from the 
 sympathy of his kind. 
 
 " I knew I could! Well, isn t this weather enough to 
 drive one melancholy mad? " 
 
 " It certainly is." 
 
 " Then don t you think I need to take an ocean voy 
 age?" and Mrs. Phelps held up her charming face and 
 laughed in consciousness that its perfect health refuted her 
 plea completely. 
 
 " I think a woman s wishes are her necessities," said the 
 doctor gallantly. 
 
 ; I thought I could depend on you for a sound profes 
 sional opinion. Now, if you can only persuade father 
 Phelps ! I am so tired of this little narrow valley of the 
 Kills. Why, I ve scarcely been out of it all my life, you 
 know," and Mrs. Phelps made this reference to her daily 
 walk and conduct, with an air of ingenuous innocence, 
 which moved the doctor to internal laughter. Neverthe 
 less, he liked her pluck one woman against the world 
 and meant to help her. 
 
 " I imagine I can impress Phelps with a proper sense of 
 his duty as a man and a father," he said drily, and stepped 
 to the door as a sleigh jingled up and stopped. " That s 
 my rig. You better let me take you home, Mrs. Phelps. 
 Benji s off on some wild-goose chase or other, and there s
 
 72 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 no use waiting for him anyway, and walking home through 
 this slush. I thought you had better sense than to come 
 out on a night like this; the walks are ankle-deep in 
 slush ! " 
 
 " Oh, I do not mind the walking. But are you sure it 
 won t be out of your way? " said Mrs. Phelps, rising. 
 There was a suspicion of relief on her face, which was 
 slightly paler than when she came in. 
 
 " No. I m going out to Dunham to-night. Come on 
 with that umbrella of yours now, Murrey. Mrs. Phelps 
 is ready to use it." 
 
 A blast of wind drove the rain in upon them at the 
 threshold, and anything less weather-worthy than the 
 stout umbrella would have afforded no protection. The 
 Senator did not attempt to raise his own, but faced 
 the storm close-reefed. 
 
 " Good-night," he called. u I don t wonder you desire 
 to escape from this inclement climate." 
 
 " Good-night, good-night," cried the doctor, and his 
 boisterousness covered Mrs. Phelps silence. She had ut 
 terly collapsed beside him, suddenly convulsed by dry sob 
 bing, without a sound. The queer old doctor felt his 
 heart go out to this poor soul, who in her prosperity had 
 not appealed to him at all; and he laid his hand on hers, 
 kindly, and sent his horses racing towards her home. 
 
 " I m coming in, Sarah," he said, when he had lifted 
 her from the sleigh, and still she did not speak; nor after 
 ward, when he had half carried her into the house and 
 laid her on her bed. Only the hard, convulsive sobbing 
 went on, and racked her through the night, even under 
 the narcotics he administered. Dawn found him at the 
 bedside, and in the dim hours a little life, without a soul, 
 slipped back into the void, while he wrestled on the verge 
 of a deeper void to retain the fullborn, sinful soul on earth.
 
 V 
 
 IT had rained continuously from the first day of Bar 
 bara s arrival, and she had passed most of the time 
 with Madam Hurst, striving to repress a cough, 
 and disguise the homesickness which consumed her. In 
 the latter effort she was completely successful. Madam 
 detected no undertone of dreariness in her vivacity, and so 
 childishly delighted in her that she did not note the mean 
 ing of the girl s flushed cheeks and brilliant eyes, until 
 Aunt Helen laid a bony hand on Barbara s forehead and 
 grimly pronounced her " feverish." 
 
 Now there is an obvious propriety in the suggestions of 
 some excellent people, which invariably produces antago 
 nism, and places the rest of the world in a contrary and 
 perverse frame of mind. Barbara vaguely resented any in 
 terposition of her Aunt Helen s, as superfluous and unwar 
 ranted, and controlled her irritation by an effort. She 
 attributed her languor to fatigue, scoffed the idea of a doc 
 tor, and only retired to her room when bodily carried 
 there by Mam Lilly, who was wild with anxiety. 
 
 I m homesick! That s all the kind of sick I am, and 
 I shall not be dosed for it ! You ought to understand, I 
 can t break poor little Maman s heart by even hinting 
 such a thing," Barbara told her, and instead of going com 
 fortably to bed, as Aunt Helen recommended, she curled 
 up on the couch by the fire, and tried to read. Big tears 
 of unavailing childish resentment filled her eyes, when the 
 doctor s presence was announced. 
 
 Whatever stuff he gives me, you ll have to take, I 
 
 73
 
 74 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 shan t, that s certain ! I never was bullied so in my life ! " 
 she sobbed, throwing herself upon Mam Lilly s bosom, as 
 Aunt Helen left the room: and Mam Lilly patted her, and 
 crooned comfort, and brought the comb to arrange her 
 hair. Barbara wiped her eyes, to look in the mirror, and 
 the brilliant piquant face reflected brought a smile. The 
 dark hair clung in little curls around her face and neck, 
 and she further dishevelled it, with an artistic touch, evad 
 ing Mam Lilly s ministrations. 
 
 " I m going down just as I am; I m almost beautiful to 
 day; I never knew a fever was so becoming, or I d have 
 had one before," she said perversely. Talking to Mam 
 Lilly was only thinking aloud : Barbara had no more than 
 a wholesome share of vanity. 
 
 She found there was a curious, far-away feeling in her 
 head, and an unaccountable unsteadiness in her knees, when 
 Mam Lilly set her down outside Madam s door; and 
 she hesitated a moment on the threshold, her hand on the 
 doorknob. The doctor was buried in the depths of a great 
 armchair near Madam. 
 
 " Excuse my not rising," he said carelessly, as Madam 
 pronounced an introduction, and held out his hand as to a 
 child. 
 
 "Oh, certainly, sir! Age has its privileges," Barbara 
 murmured, and seated herself in a chair near the door 
 with languid dignity. 
 
 The doctor stared. His brusqueness was generally con 
 doned, and Madam put her fan to her lips to hide a 
 smile, as he rose briskly to his feet, executed a profound 
 and mocking bow, and advanced gallantly across the 
 room. Barbara was on her feet in an instant, and laid 
 her hand in his with the gracious air of accepting an 
 apology. 
 
 " And so has youth its privileges, it seems. I seldom 
 claim mine, but I think even Southern punctilio might slur
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 75 
 
 ceremony, after fifty miles of such roads as I have ridden 
 to-day," he said grimly. 
 
 " Then, why did you rise? " enquired Barbara demurely, 
 trying to withdraw the hand he was retaining. 
 
 "Oh, I rose to a question of privilege, didn t I? 
 Thank you for reminding me of it," he replied coolly, and 
 stooping, his white moustache lightly brushed her fore 
 head in a kiss. 
 
 " Ah ! The standard of values, North and South, does 
 not differ so much after all," murmured Barbara com 
 posedly, and Madam regarded the scene with lively in 
 terest, but Aunt Helen s knitting needles clicked impa 
 tiently, in the long black stocking she was always 
 knitting. 
 
 The doctor s eyes twinkled behind his spectacles. 
 
 You are wonderfully like your grandfather, my girl, 
 and he was a venturesome man ! " he said drily. 
 
 Barbara smiled up at the portrait above her, and the 
 line of her firm little chin and delicately curved throat 
 was thrown into relief by the movement. Perhaps for 
 the only time in her life she was brilliantly beautiful, but 
 she had entirely forgotten the fact now. 
 
 That picture gives me the feeling of belonging, 
 she said dreamily. 
 
 " Family likenesses are a rare study." The doctor s 
 eyes were on Barbara s face, he still retained her hand, but 
 his thought had travelled from the individual to the general 
 aspect of the subject as usual, and his voice betrayed his 
 abstraction. 
 
 " I wish you would permit me to sit down, sir! I am 
 very tired." Barbara s plaintive tone recalled him, and he 
 led her across the room and seated her in a low chair op 
 posite his own, with most unheard-of gallantry. 
 
 You are about sick. Our standards of climatic values 
 are coming near, too, by this time, aren t they? " he asked,
 
 76 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 and laid a finger on her pulse, before finally releasing her 
 hand. 
 
 " Oh, peccavi! " she said impatiently, sinking back in her 
 chair. 
 
 " Umph! Nature doesn t offer absolution upon confes 
 sion," he observed experimentally, and the rosary began to 
 slide through Madam s fingers, and Barbara s eyes glowed 
 an instant answer to the challenge, as she enquired quickly: 
 
 Then what of your office, High Priest? " 
 
 " It gives nepenthe sometimes," said the doctor, de 
 lighted with the wide-eyed eager child before him. 
 
 "Oh, the waters of Lethe! They have been flowing 
 through the centuries. Is that the best science can do for 
 us yet? " 
 
 " Before you have gone very far through this world, 
 my girl, you will be abjectly grateful for even lethal 
 mercy," said the doctor dogmatically. 
 
 "Abject, certainly, if grateful! that the rack should 
 cease ! I don t acknowledge the justice of the Inquisi 
 tion." 
 
 Justice. There s no question of justice in the matter: 
 though, if you put it that way, most of us wouldn t want 
 it, if there was any surety of pardon. Remember, Jew, 
 that in the course of justice the doctor was watching 
 the girl with growing interest. 
 
 That s mere chicanery, with or without the context. 
 Portia was a fraud ! Who wants mercy? We must work 
 out our own salvation. It s a matter of individual re 
 sponsibility; don t you think, sir? " 
 
 Aunt Helen s knitting needles struck sparks. " Scandal 
 ous," she muttered, looking imperatively towards Madam, 
 but the eyes of the gentle devotee were fixed on the ivory 
 Christ across the room, and the rosary sped faster through 
 her prayerful fingers. The two disputants were per 
 fectly oblivious to a disparaging audience : Barbara had,
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 77 
 
 as usual, thrown herself heart and soul into the conversa 
 tion, and the doctor was doing her the honour of paying 
 her respectful attention. The keen interest and quick in 
 sight of this absurdly frivolous-looking girl, her range 
 of thought and familiarity with abstruse subjects, were 
 piquantly incongruous. 
 
 " Responsibility," growled the doctor. " The line of 
 demarcation overlaps. Matter remembers: and, as it is 
 a fixed quantity, it becomes of necessity a mixed quantity. 
 It s impossible to draw a sharp line of individual responsi 
 bility." 
 
 The Sphinx problem," mused the girl. 
 
 "Oh, that old windmill !" 
 
 Her eyes were interrogative. 
 
 The ages have ridden a tilt at it," she said, surprised. 
 
 ; Nevertheless, there is no such problem," the doctor in 
 sisted. 
 
 Barbara reflected. 
 
 " Do you mean," she asked slowly, " that it s all Maya, 
 Illusion? I m not an adept." 
 
 "Umph! Read a good deal, don t you?" asked the 
 doctor. 
 
 " Why yes, sir! I suppose I do. It was one of my 
 grandfather s fads : he liked me to keep up with him in 
 that, as well as in riding cross country," admitted Barbara 
 with some diffidence. 
 
 " I thought so ! You ve got mental dyspepsia from 
 over-ingestion of excellent matter. Fast a while and as 
 similate: think for a change! " the doctor advised in his 
 most overbearing manner. 
 
 The pink shot in fine lines to Barbara s temples: 
 Colonel Haygood had always triumphantly refuted criti 
 cism of his peculiar method of her upbringing by results, 
 concerning which no one was much disposed to cavil, and 
 Barbara had a reasonable conceit of her own perspicuity,
 
 78 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 and faced her antagonist with level-lidded and serene in 
 souciance, bred of an assurance equal to his own. 
 
 " They that are whole need not a physician : since you 
 are here to prescribe, pray read the riddle of the painful 
 earth to me," she drawled. " Demonstrate the little prob 
 lem of the eternal why of things." 
 
 A smile lurked beneath the doctor s grizzled moustache, 
 but his brows drew down formidably on this audacious 
 young creature. No one ever ventured to address him in 
 his own manner, and it tickled him that this slender slip of 
 a girl was browbeating him. 
 
 " I ve told you there is no such question," he said in a 
 less domineering tone; "you can t state the problem. 
 There s the key: use it! " 
 
 Her wide, thought-darkened eyes looked at him 
 earnestly. 
 
 " I do not understand," she acknowledged, with a be 
 guiling air of discipleship to superior knowledge. 
 
 " You cannot predicate cause of infinity," said the doctor 
 impressively. 
 
 Barbara caught her breath: there was a curious little 
 catch of excitement in her voice. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, her face illumined, " and I never saw 
 that before! " The import of the tremendous idea de 
 stroyed all girlish pique and consciousness, and the blase 
 physician studied her absorption with a kindling personal 
 interest. 
 
 "You cannot state an equation between finite and infinite 
 in terms of cognition : and a problem which cannot be 
 formulated is non-existent; to rational beings a palpable 
 absurdity," he said. 
 
 " And I never saw it before," repeated Barbara wonder- 
 ingly. Why, Doctor, it settles everything). " 
 
 He smiled benignly on her young enthusiasm. 
 
 " There is something about the formula, as you give it,
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 79 
 
 which is illuminative ! It is so simple ! so obvious ! I have 
 read and heard it without grasping it before. Of course 
 it s Spencerian " 
 
 It is the formula of a Vedantic monk. His working 
 philosophy was satisfactory, but he ignored this question, 
 the object of creation, and I asked as you did why? 
 His answer crumpled up my Occidental conceit." 
 
 " But it is such a relief when you take it in ! " 
 
 Yes, it makes the gabble of the Creeds ridiculous : a 
 thing unthinkable is so clearly beyond our province, 
 whether it exists, or not. The vision of the Oversoul is 
 not cognition; it is dreaming. Visions may be comforting 
 and helpful to the mystic; but clear-eyed, stout-heartedmen 
 and women of to-day depend on the deductions of their 
 brains. Faith is an intellectual impossibility: Hope is the 
 sheet anchor of this world; and you may rationally hope 
 for anything you wish, I suppose. I m glad you use your 
 brains; not many do." 
 
 Yeou d better tend to yeour patient, Doctor! " Mrs. 
 Helen s admonition cut sharply into the conversation and 
 the doctor sprang to Madam s side. Her face was livid, 
 and her delicate hands clutched at the chair-arms in 
 agony. Aunt Helen calmly handed the doctor the remedy 
 always kept at hand for these paroxysms, and Barbara in 
 motionless terror watching the intolerable anguish of the 
 hapless lady. Zillah came swiftly and silently into the 
 room, warned by some vague premonition, but finding the 
 doctor in charge, she stopped by Barbara. 
 
 There is nothing you can do; you had better go to 
 your room," she said kindly, and led the girl away. 
 
 It was growing dark in the wide old hallway as the 
 doctor toiled wearily upstairs beside Zillah. 
 
 " Such a damn fool! " he growled self-accusatively, and 
 not understanding the circumstances, Zillah did not com 
 mit herself to consolation.
 
 8o THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Barbara was pacing the floor, Mam Lilly following 
 her, one step behind, and they stopped in the middle of the 
 room as the door opened. 
 
 " How is she? " the girl demanded in a strained, un 
 natural voice, and the doctor hastened to reassure her of 
 Madam s present safety and comfort. 
 
 " Zillah, I shall go back home to-morrow, before I kill 
 her! " cried Barbara, turning to her cousin in passionate 
 self-denunciation. 
 
 " Absurd ! Every one has to learn how to treat such an 
 invalid as Aunt Felicite. Probably you really had very 
 little to do with this attack," replied Zillah kindly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I had. I was going on irresponsibly, just as 
 the colonel and I always talked. I forgot all about her 
 being a religieuse, and she doubtless saw me headed 
 straight for the bottomless pit. Oh, the poor, poor lit 
 tle thing! " and Barbara suddenly turned and laid her 
 head upon Mam Lilly s arm, and burst into a passion 
 of tears. 
 
 " I assure you, Miss Zillah, there was no one to blame 
 but me, and I haven t any better excuse than that cur, 
 Adam ! I followed this will-o -the-wisp." 
 
 "What did we say?" demanded Barbara, lifting her 
 tear-stained face from Mam Lilly s arm. 
 
 " Well, we didn t stop at trifles," admitted the doctor 
 so ruefully that Barbara laughed hysterically. 
 
 " A cross-country run, Zillah " (they both seemed to 
 feel it incumbent to confess to Zillah, and she listened dis 
 passionately) , " and we took everything in the way until 
 Aunt Helen stopped us! Oh, Doctor! Doctor! " Bar 
 bara broke off, stretching imploring hands towards him 
 over Mam Lilly s encircling arms. Her lips quivered piti 
 fully. " I can t bear it ! / can t bear it! She is tortured! " 
 and the tears streamed unheeded down her face, as she 
 looked at the old man beseechingly.
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 81 
 
 " Poor thing! Poor thing! " The doctor s voice was 
 very pitiful. 
 
 " There ought to be euthanasia ! It is cruel to let her 
 keep on suffering. I can t bear it! " 
 
 " She is a brave soul. You must not stay with her in 
 another attack, my girl." 
 
 "What difference will staying make? I shall see it, 
 just the same. The little saint ! Zillah, how can you bear 
 it?" 
 
 Zillah did not answer: she walked to the window, 
 and stood with her back to them. She was shaken with 
 suppressed sobs. 
 
 " My girl," the doctor s voice was husky, and so low 
 Zillah did not hear the words, " it has been harder for 
 that good woman, than for Madam. Considering both 
 temperaments, far harder. In the intervals Madam for 
 gets pain. That woman, never!" 
 
 ; If there is a God, he s devilish," said Barbara between 
 her teeth. 
 
 11 It is too bad, too bad you saw this; though I suppose 
 it was unavoidable sometime. And you are half sick with 
 your cold too. I ll send you up some medicines from 
 Murrey s. Put the child to bed, Mammy," said the doc 
 tor in his authoritative way. 
 
 Mam Lilly lifted Barbara like an infant, sat down with 
 her in her lap, and began rocking quietly, and the tendance 
 seemed a thing so natural and fitting, that the doctor nod 
 ded his approval. 
 
 I ll come in in the morning to see how both you and 
 Madam are," he said, turning to the door. 
 
 14 Doctor," said Barbara, like a spoiled child, " don t 
 make it very nasty! " 
 
 He looked back over his shoulder indulgently, but 
 
 4 I m not a confectioner, miss," he said gruffly, as he 
 left the room.
 
 VI 
 
 OH, I say, Sally, where d you get em? " cried Mr. 
 Phelps as he entered his wife s apartment 
 Easter Eve, and found her languidly arrang 
 ing a profusion of roses, heaped on the table. 
 
 Your mother," replied Mrs. Phelps, lifting her face 
 to his caress. 
 
 The Mater! Why, she has robbed the sanctuary! 
 She always cuts her Easter roses for the church ! " he ex 
 claimed, selecting a pale pink tea rose and sniffing it 
 luxuriantly. 
 
 That s exactly what she said. She thought I needed 
 them, as I couldn t go to church. I m sorry she s too 
 poorly to come over to-morrow." 
 
 " Never saw the Mater so broken up ! Nervous, you 
 know, fidgety as a witch ! Don t seem to be anything 
 the matter either, as far as I can find out: I quizzed Dad, 
 too. Dr. Pom fret says she d better lie low and keep 
 quiet a bit. Don t think the racket here would be very 
 distracting," grumbled Benji Phelps, vaguely disturbed 
 by a growing restraint upon all his social impulses, but 
 utterly unconscious of the scandal which harassed the rest 
 of his family. His own faculties were of the order which 
 made him ever the last to discern the obvious, and in this 
 important instance, he had had no opportunity to do so. 
 He had but glimpsed Abijah s son the night of his arrival. 
 This freak of Abijah s, by the way, afforded a capital 
 chance for retaliation for past raillery, and young Mr. 
 Phelps had availed himself of it to the full. For the un- 
 
 82
 
 CHAPTER SIX 83 
 
 suspicious life of him, however, he could not understand 
 why Abijah s other victims were so loath to join him. 
 
 "What train does Maude come on?" enquired Mrs. 
 Phelps, who had been alert during her convalescence for 
 the reflection of the gossip she knew was raging around 
 them, and felt it already in the infrequent visits of her 
 husband s kin. 
 
 " Well, it s a queer thing, but she isn t coming home. 
 She s gone off to New York with her chum, when she knows 
 how hipped we are. Beastly selfish of her, I think: 
 Mater says she advised it; because we re bound to have a 
 dismal Easter anyhow, and no use spoiling Maude s. By 
 Jove ! I think Maude ought to be ashamed of her 
 self ! " exclaimed Mr. Phelps with frank fraternal indig 
 nation. 
 
 There s a folio of music she has sent us as an Easter 
 remembrance." 
 
 " Classic stuff, I suppose." 
 
 " Oh, she condescends a little to us Philistines. I envy 
 her the New York Easter music." 
 
 "Oh, gee! That reminds me, I ve got some ripping 
 news, Sally. Guess what the governor told me to-day; 
 it s his Easter gift, I suppose." 
 
 Mrs. Phelps wearily refused to guess. 
 Well, it 11 liven you up a trifle if anything will." 
 
 " Oh, Ben, he didn t say " 
 
 Yes, he did. Says I can draw on him for a reasonable 
 amount if the doctor thinks you ought to cross the pond 
 this spring." 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad! " Mrs. Phelps put her hand for 
 a moment to her eyes to hide their expression of unutter 
 able relief. 
 
 Why, dear, if I d thought you felt so bad about it, 
 we d have gone anyhow," said Mr. Phelps, bending over 
 her anxiously; " Dad seemed concerned because you were
 
 84 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 not getting around faster. Say, Sally you are getting 
 
 around all right, aren t you? " 
 
 His wife lifted her beautiful eyes to him, they were 
 inscrutable now, and the roseleaf colour came back to her 
 face. 
 
 I haven t hurried my convalescence, Benji, boy! I 
 thought the Dad wouldn t see me languish much longer! " 
 she said with a ripple of amused triumph. 
 
 Mr. Phelps stared and then threw back his head with 
 a hearty guffaw. 
 
 "What a lark! I say, though, I was awfully down 
 when I thought the doctor might have told him some 
 things he wouldn t tell me; for Dad wouldn t hear of it 
 when I touched him for this trip at first." 
 
 " Oh, I shall be well if I can get away from this dismal 
 hole in the mountains for a while. It s so monotonous! 
 Benji, we ll go to court! " 
 
 " Be jibbers an we will thot same, if me Oirish cousins 
 are still kin to me ! " replied Mr. Phelps. " But, by Jove, 
 shan t I have a time of it, going over this season of the 
 year! " he added ruefully. 
 
 " Oh, the worst weather is over, and we ll take a 
 fast liner, and Dr. Pomfret ought to give you some 
 thing." 
 
 " Nothing s any good but champagne, and that isn t," 
 groaned Mr. Phelps in doleful reminiscence and appre 
 hension. 
 
 Mrs. Phelps arose deliberately, and crossed the room to 
 the window. She had an excellent disposition, which she 
 preserved by the simple expedient of avoiding strain; and 
 Mr. Phelps maunderings were a trial. After a moment s 
 comparative solitude he lounged after her, and put both 
 hands around her, above the heavy golden cincture which 
 confined the loose folds of her gown. 
 
 " Looks good to see that old place open, don t it? " he
 
 CHAPTER SIX 85 
 
 murmured, as the lights began to gleam from the windows 
 of the Hurst house. 
 
 " Y-e-e-s-s." Her assent was languid and she turned 
 in his arms and leaned against him, with an abandon that 
 stirred his pulse. 
 
 "Oh, you perfect thing! " he breathed as he looked 
 down at the face against his breast. 
 
 She rested so a moment to content him, and then raised 
 her head. She had had a good deal of his society of 
 late, and to-night it palled on her unbearably. 
 
 " Do you suppose Zillah Hurst would come over and 
 play some of her Easter music for me? " she asked sud 
 denly. 
 
 Why, of course she would; but don t you feel as if 
 you could go downstairs and play some yourself?" said 
 Mr. Phelps, who had little joy of Zillah. 
 
 I want some good music, dear." 
 
 Well, I think your music s all right," affirmed this in 
 fatuated young man, and Sarah smiled indulgently and 
 waited. 
 
 " Shall I go over and ask Miss Hurst to come? Don t 
 you want Miss Barbara too? I bet she s as jolly as a 
 sandboy." 
 
 Mrs. Phelps gently released herself from his arms, 
 and stood a moment over her roses, in swift reflec 
 tion. Yes, she would see if Zillah Hurst would visit her! 
 She drew a large bunch of the roses from their jar and 
 handed them to her husband. 
 
 Yes," she said slowly. " Take these to Madam with 
 my kind regards, and ask both girls to come over, if they 
 will be so good as to humour an invalid." 
 
 Mr. Phelps ring was inaudible to the occupants of 
 Madam s parlour above the measured cadence of a pecu 
 liarly accented and stately piano accompaniment Zillah 
 was playing; and when Mam Lilly admitted him, he
 
 86 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 stood unobserved for a moment in the doorway, looking 
 in upon a dainty and impromptu scene of gaiety. At the 
 upper end of the room Madam and the doctor sat side 
 by side, and before them in the ancient splendour of an 
 old brocade court gown of Madam s, too short, too low, 
 and very much too tight for her, Barbara was gracefully 
 posturing a minuet, with a clear-voiced recitative to Zil- 
 lah s music. A little at one side Helen Hurst knitted her 
 long black stocking and looked on with qualified appro 
 bation : Barbara s frivolity at least mitigated Felicite s 
 " papistry," and Holy Week bore hard on the good 
 Methodist. 
 
 Madam beckoned the newcomer to her, and Barbara 
 managed to convey a greeting with her great fan quaintly 
 swaying. The girl had the pliant grace of a young wil 
 low, and when the dance was finished, Mr. Phelps sprang 
 to his feet with jovial enthusiasm. 
 
 " Brava ! Brava ! " he shouted, and with the gestures 
 of aiming over the heads of an audience, tossed Sarah s 
 roses to her feet. On the instant s cue, Barbara was be 
 fore the footlights, turning with a professional affectation 
 which was in turn hilariously applauded. 
 
 "Encore! Encore!" cried the doctor, but Barbara 
 shook her head at him. 
 
 " Oh, don t stop, Miss Barbara, or I shall think I ve 
 spoiled the fun. Really, you know, er er " protested 
 Mr. Phelps, but the doctor cut him short. 
 
 " Give us one more dance, Barbara, please! " said he. 
 
 " Very well, then, I like contrasts. Zillah, will you 
 play me a cake-walk?" she asked. 
 
 " Why I can t, I don t know any," said Zillah, who 
 had improvised for the recitative. Barbara reached over 
 her shoulders and played a few inspiriting bars to give her 
 the idea, and Zillah, after a tentative measure or so, struck 
 into a strangely spiritualised syncopation. " That s the
 
 CHAPTER SIX 87 
 
 time," said Barbara, and went into the hall in search of 
 Mam Lilly. They made a professional stage entrance 
 which of itself reduced Mr. Phelps to helpless laughter, 
 and the doctor joined him before the couple had advanced 
 a dozen steps. The ladies were at first appalled by the 
 grotesque procession, and every step grew more absurd; 
 Barbara managed to transform herself into an unmis 
 takable darkey; Mam Lilly had no compunctions what 
 ever in burlesquing her race, and before the two had danced 
 into the middle of the room, Madam and Zillah were dis 
 solved in tears of mirth, and even the grim old Puritan 
 dame went off into an irresistible gust of laughter. 
 
 " There! We ve made Aunt Helen laugh! Now I ll 
 stop," cried Barbara in glee, and she sank into a chair and 
 caught up her fan and roses, as a demure and proper 
 maiden should. 
 
 " It s a sin! It is a sin! But the child draws one s 
 heartstrings ! " exclaimed Madam, touching her eyes 
 daintily with her handkerchief. 
 
 " Oh, Maman, Lent is over! It s Easter Eve," Bar 
 bara coaxed. 
 
 It s been an awful Lent. You don t know how I ve 
 enjoyed this," interjected Mr. Phelps to Barbara, who 
 smiled with a courteous reserve so unlike the frank cor 
 diality of their first meeting that Mr. Phelps thought he 
 detected the stiffening effect of her short sojourn in the 
 precise Hurst household. 
 
 His unexpected call was embarrassing the family greatly. 
 Gossip penetrated even their seclusion, and they severally 
 resented this abrupt presentation of the social problem for 
 their solution. They had each a vague idea that, in time, 
 it might be met with less embarrassment. The joke was 
 too jrood, however, when the young man turned directly 
 to Zillah, of all people, with his innocent request. Bar 
 bara s eyes ran over with suppressed amusement as she
 
 88 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 glanced from Madam to Zillah. They two were looking 
 at each other and did not see her, but the doctor did. The 
 whole thing was as good as a play to him. 
 
 "Oh, my music! " Zillah deprecated, and in her con 
 fusion the colour softly flushed her faded cheeks, and she 
 made an unconscious gesture of the hands she usually kept 
 severely inconspicuous; for Zillah s hands were the particu 
 lar trial of her life. They were like her Aunt Helen s, 
 large, bony, and ungraceful, though so skilful. She 
 glanced at Madam for intervention and that dear lady did 
 not fail her. 
 
 " It is triste, but the fete is of a fatigue, chere Zil 
 lah ! " she murmured gently, and the entire family looked 
 that Zillah should escape by the loophole of her pro 
 fessional engagements the next day. She was organist and 
 choir-master in a large church at Kelley s, and obliged to 
 take an early train to reach there. The excuse was per 
 fectly valid, but to her own, as much as to any one s sur 
 prise, she hesitated, her conscience in acute opera 
 tion. She felt no obligation to formulate general theories, 
 as Barbara was prone to do: she dealt strictly in the 
 concrete, and the present was for her a personal question 
 only. 
 
 " I do not think it will tire me in the least, to play a 
 little by-and-by for Mrs. Phelps entertainment, if she 
 wishes such a rendition of the Easter music as I can give," 
 she said, her chill hauteur of speech and manner accentu 
 ated by embarrassment. 
 
 " That s awfully good of you, Miss Hurst. Won t you 
 waive formality and come too?" asked Mr. Phelps to 
 Barbara as he rose. 
 
 " I m afraid not: I m in hospital yet, I suppose? " said 
 Barbara, and although she put the question, she did not 
 request leave by it. The doctor was somewhat surprised 
 by her evident decision; he thought Sarah was getting all
 
 CHAPTER SIX 89 
 
 she deserved, but he confirmed his prohibition, since Bar 
 bara wished it. 
 
 " It s only across the street, Doc," pleaded Mr. Phelps, 
 but the doctor was obdurate. 
 
 " I shall be out the first warm day, but if I do not meet 
 Mrs. Phelps before you leave, I bid you both bon voyage," 
 said Barbara, dismissing importunities with serene com 
 posure. 
 
 " I m a total wreck all the way across," said Mr. Phelps 
 tragically, as he bowed himself out. 
 
 " Chere Zillah, I make you my homage," murmured 
 Madam, beaming affectionate approval upon Zillah. 
 
 ; It s just dear of you ! " added Barbara enthusiastically. 
 Zillah did not raise her eyes from the music she was sorting. 
 
 " How about yourself? " demanded the doctor abruptly. 
 
 " It just isn t dear," responded Barbara serenely. 
 
 " It is well they remove themselves," Madam remarked 
 with unheard-of severity. 
 
 " Yes, poor Ben ! " 
 
 " It is in the hands of le Bon Dleu! " returned Madam 
 piously. 
 
 " I suppose," said Barbara, wide-eyed, absorbed, speak 
 ing out her thought in the startling way she had. I 
 suppose she may be one of those who have loved much. 
 
 " Good Lord! " The doctor stared a moment at the 
 innocent speaker, and then threw back his head and shouted 
 with laughter. He thoroughly appreciated the mental 
 process which had led to the remark, but no one else did. 
 Zillah s face expressed undisguised disgust, and Madam 
 was gently pained. There is no telling what Mrs. Hurst 
 might have done, if she had not fortunately left the room 
 the moment previous. 
 
 " I ve garbled the context, I presume," said Barbara, 
 looking around. " I was only trying to think what Zil 
 lah s excuse for Mrs. Phelps could be."
 
 90 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " I am not aware of making any," declared Zillah 
 frigidly. 
 
 " Would you regard a grande passion as an extenuating 
 circumstance? " enquired the doctor soberly, and Zillah was 
 thoroughly shocked by this improper conversation. 
 
 44 I might, for myself," confessed the girl honestly, 
 " only- 
 
 44 Only what? " enquired the doctor, to whom Barbara s 
 originality was a sheer joy. 
 
 44 Only it would be perfectly ridiculous, you know. To 
 care so much for any one who would let you go to 
 the- 
 
 Devil ! Yes. It favours the general theory that 
 your sex is deficient in humour," drily. 
 
 Zillah closed her music roll with a vicious snap. 
 
 " Well, I wish those who go, would go, and not stay, 
 and embarrass their neighbours," she remarked resentfully, 
 as she left the room to undertake her unaccustomed mis 
 sionary labours. The eyes of the doctor and Barbara met 
 mirthfully, but the girl s mobile face lapsed into thought- 
 fulness. 
 
 14 It s a pariah of a possession," she murmured rue 
 fully. 
 
 14 Humour? We pay the price for everything we have. 
 Personally I m satisfied to do so," replied the doctor. 
 
 14 It s lonesome, though," objected Barbara with a pre 
 cautionary glance toward Madam; but Madam had, as 
 usual, lapsed into her devotions. " I do miss the colonel 
 so. He always understood," she added with wistful con 
 fidence. 
 
 For a long moment the silence was filled only by the 
 ticking of the old clock in the hall. Then 
 
 44 So do I," said the doctor with marked deliberation, 
 and Barbara looked up suddenly and beamed on him. 
 
 14 I always feel you do. It is such a comfort! You
 
 CHAPTER SIX 91 
 
 seem more like my grandfather every day, sir," she said, 
 with an expression of bland and childlike confidence, which 
 somehow abruptly reminded the doctor that there were 
 other calls on his list besides the Hursts . Madam mur 
 mured " Bonsoir " without missing a bead, and Barbara 
 slowly sauntered to the parlour doors, and watched him 
 struggle into his greatcoat in the hall. She proffered him 
 a rose from where she stood in the doorway one of 
 Benji Phelps roses, at the end of a very long stem. He 
 curtly declined the gift. 
 
 You ve got vigilant chaperons," he observed sarcastic 
 ally, glancing at Mam Lilly, asleep at the foot of the 
 stairs. Barbara s pretty brows went up. She was ex 
 actly the height of the doctor, but she managed an effect 
 of looking up at him, which was particularly captivating to 
 a short man. 
 
 "Chaperons?" she remarked. "Oh, I do not need 
 them. I ve the ever-present saving grace of humour, you 
 know." Her eyes danced. 
 
 The old gentleman regarded her from beneath his grey 
 bent brows, as he drew on his gloves. Don t presume 
 on your immunity, girl," he cautioned, and went out into 
 the gathering gloom. 
 
 Barbara immediately fell upon Mam Lilly. 
 
 " Get me out of this gown, quick," she gasped. I 
 want to laugh, and it s too tight! " 
 
 Dr. Pomfret found the familiar Bronk slumbering at 
 his gatepost and Abijah in an attitude of long-suffering 
 patience, smoking before the office grate. His hat and 
 coat were on the floor beside him. He was evidently 
 in his most irresponsible mood, and after a greeting of 
 familiar brevity lapsed into silence, while the doctor got 
 into his lounging coat and slippers, and lighted his pipe. 
 
 An unwonted impulse of domesticity had moved Abi 
 jah that evening to descend from his mountain and call
 
 92 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 upon his mother for the first time since his son s arrival. 
 The presence of the child already bound the father to the 
 rites of home and common customs of the earth, and his 
 mood had been conciliatory. Unfortunately Mrs. Bead s 
 was not. Consistent with herself, she utterly repudiated 
 the irregular relations thrust upon her, and more, de 
 manded their obliteration. Abijah listened in filial silence, 
 but his attitude was uncompromising. He was hurt as 
 well as angry; the fibres of the man s heart were thrilling 
 to the touch of childish fingers. 
 
 " All right, mother," he said grimly, when Mrs. Bead 
 finished in tears. " Don t strain a point of etiquette for 
 us, but if you don t recognise my son, don t recognise me. 
 If you see this thing differently after a while, we ll be 
 glad to see you up at the farm ! " Then he went away 
 and sat by the doctor s fire, and waited for his friend. 
 
 "Long drive?" he enquired carelessly as the doctor 
 stretched himself in his easy-chair, feet to the blaze. 
 
 " Long! " The accent was indicative of leagues, and 
 Abijah s smile was enigmatic. 
 
 " I ve been waiting a couple of hours for you," he re 
 marked, and the doctor deplored the exigencies of a pro 
 fessional life by an eloquent gesture, as he lighted his pipe. 
 They smoked in companionable silence for a while, and 
 Abijah still wore his inscrutable half-smile. 
 
 " I m glad you waited," began the doctor slowly. 
 14 I ve wanted a chance to talk with you Abijah 
 
 looked about as encouraging as a griffin, and the doctor 
 hesitated. Suddenly the young man s expression changed 
 and there was a warm sympathy in his voice, which should 
 have roused suspicion of him. But the doctor was pre 
 occupied. 
 
 " I thought you might." Abijah s tone was friendly 
 and encouraging. " With all this talk. Of course 
 Hurstville isn t morbidly curious, but it s got a healthy in-
 
 CHAPTER SIX 93 
 
 terest in itself, and when the high monky-monks get into 
 a mix-up, it s nuts! Go ahead, Doc. It s a delicate per 
 sonal matter, and I didn t want to chip in first. I thought 
 you had the horse-sense to see for yourself, after a while, 
 that you re making the mistake of your life." 
 
 " I ve always had confidence in you." The doctor 
 spoke with feeling. He did not see the expression of Abi- 
 jah s face. 
 
 Well, I m giving it to you straight; you re letting the 
 woman make a fool of you," Abijah said emphatically. 
 
 You re wrong there, Bijah. I m simply her physi 
 cian," said the doctor gravely. 
 
 "Bosh! Of course I ve nothing to say against her, 
 except that she is a woman. Now," he broke off sud 
 denly, " that objection would scarcely have applied if it 
 had been Zillah Hurst." 
 
 What the devil has Zillah Hurst got to do with the 
 case?" snapped the doctor,>who perceived he had been 
 hoaxed again. 
 
 " Oh, nothing nothing whatever ! I always had a sort 
 of fellow-feeling for that estimable person, but of course 
 every one knows you wouldn t fall in love with her. She 
 wouldn t permit such a liberty." 
 
 You d better stick to your own affairs." 
 
 Abijah smiled broadly, ecstatically. 
 I was afraid you d feel that way about it when it 
 got simmered down," he said reproachfully, " but I 
 couldn t get the consent of my mind to go back to my 
 happy home and leave you to your fate without a word. 
 When I hit the trail a couple of hours ago (by the way, 
 mother s cut me off with a shilling), I was all broke up 
 I was for a fact, Doc, to round up your outfit at the 
 Hurst ranch." 
 
 The doctor did not condescend to make any remark; 
 his expression was strictly and warily professional.
 
 94 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " That s just what I said to myself, after I d waited 
 about an hour or so, and thought it over; What of it? 
 said I. He was visiting the widows and orphans; and 
 by this time he s off in the country soothing the sick and 
 afflicted some more, while I m waiting here like a damn 
 fool. So I started for home." 
 
 " Why didn t you get there? " 
 
 " Because I was anxious, Doc," responded Abijah ear 
 nestly, " and you can thank me if you have a well horse to 
 morrow, if you don t thank me for anything else. That 
 cayuse of yours was trying to keep step with the high 
 jinks inside, and he d worried his blanket under his feet, 
 and exposed himself to the rigours of this inclement 
 climate, as Ten Eyke says; I unlimbered and did what I 
 could to soothe him, and make him comfortable. Two 
 hours is too long to let a horse stand like that in the cold ! " 
 Abijah dodged the bootjack as it whizzed past his head, 
 and swept on with an appearance of deep and unselfish con 
 cern. " You re sure locoed, Doc," he said sadly. " I hate 
 to think these peaceful, happy times of ours will soon be a 
 thing of the past. Good Lord, man, how you d rave if it 
 were some other old duffer sacrificing a virgin! Sis and 
 Brink are a sweet spectacle, aren t they? " 
 
 You better go home, if you can t talk sense. Miss 
 Hurst is 
 
 "Infatuated old man spare me! I can imagine, but 
 I can t stand the details. I ve done my duty. I don t 
 expect thanks yet. My feelings overcome me ! Doc, I 
 shan t be able to come here afterwards, but my house is 
 open to you as a refuge, whenever your soul needs 
 peace ! " 
 
 "You infernal idiot!" 
 
 " Try and look at this thing calmly," pleaded Abijah. 
 " Why, you know that though you may gentle a filly to 
 stand and be hitched, when it comes to pulling double,
 
 CHAPTER SIX 95 
 
 the old horse has got all the load. She ll get hot in the 
 collar, and kick over the traces, and tangle up the outfit, 
 and try to get away; and it won t be because she s vi 
 cious," Abijah warmed to his theme, " it s because 
 she s unequally yoked with a bally old saw-horse, when 
 she naturally wants to kick up her heels with the best of 
 the other three-year-olds." 
 
 " Seems to me you re working your imagination over 
 time, Bijah, when there s lots of interesting facts waiting 
 explanation. For instance, do you think it s a creditable 
 thing to crow over a man of Ben Phelps calibre? " 
 
 You are too modest: / never classed you with him! " 
 protested Abijah. 
 
 " Oh, go to hell ! " ejaculated the doctor, and there was 
 silence. It was broken by Abijah, and he spoke seriously. 
 
 I suppose I do look like a hound, bringing the boy 
 here," he admitted slowly. 
 
 " Of course no one can help being sorry for the woman 
 who trusted you," the doctor retorted sharply. 
 
 There may be more to this than meets the eye. 
 
 There s enough obvious to stir up the town." 
 
 I can t give you the circumstances for publication, as 
 you ll see, but " began Abijah. 
 
 Better keep your own counsel, then. She does! " the 
 doctor growled, but the compulsion of speech was on 
 Abijah. 
 
 " I m merely human, and I may burst," he said whim 
 sically. 
 
 " Well, then," said the doctor impatiently, " tell me 
 why under heaven you didn t marry the girl! She s the 
 loveliest thing from crown to toe 
 
 Abijah s rigid face stopped him. His eyes were brood 
 ing, and lines of pain dug into his face. The doctor s 
 heart yearned to the lonely man, fighting with sorrow. 
 
 " Are you sure he s yours? " he suggested gravely.
 
 96 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Strawberry mark on his left shoulder blade, and six 
 toes on his right hind foot. Regular thing, isn t it? " 
 Abijah jeered. " Think I can t swear to my own brand, 
 eh? Well, wait till he sheds his first coat, and you ll see* 
 it stamped all over the hide of him. Besides, she isn t that 
 kind." 
 
 " She never seemed to be. Why didn t you marry her, 
 Bijah?" 
 
 Abijah deliberated. 
 
 " I did," he said slowly. 
 
 The devil you say! Who got the divorce?" The 
 sharp judicial tone stirred Abijah s habitual resentment 
 of misconstruction. 
 
 " No one. She s my wife wow," he said, and met the 
 doctor s involuntary exclamation of incredulity with 
 dogged defiance. " Oh, I can t prove it," he sneered, 
 his morbid sensibilities alert, but the doctor knew his 
 man. 
 
 "How s that? Records lost or destroyed?" he en 
 quired quietly, and Abijah relaxed. 
 
 " Neither. The minister died before he could register 
 the iniquitous deed, and the only witness, his hired girl, 
 has apparently vanished from the face of the earth. At 
 least I can t find her, and I ve spent some money hunting 
 the critter." 
 
 "Hidden away?" 
 
 " Doubtful! The Sillimans hadn t the money, and be 
 side, I don t believe they know about the marriage. No, 
 it was just a fortuitous conjunction of circumstances, 
 and it was too much of a temptation for Sally; especially 
 as Benji Phelps appeared on the scene at the psycho 
 logical moment. In point of fact, he came the moment 
 previous. He could be depended on to blunder somehow, 
 even in a critical thing like that." 
 
 "Poor Ben!"
 
 CHAPTER SIX 97 
 
 " Yes, I ve been sorry for the poor brute myself. You 
 remember Sally and her mother went to New York soon 
 after he came from England." 
 
 " Yes. Then her mother knew " 
 
 " Not about the marriage, I think. Sally was ashamed 
 to have married a pauper. She didn t till she had to, 
 and then I wouldn t tell her I had any money until she got 
 ready to acknowledge me without. I followed them to 
 New York and Brooklyn. Brooklyn is laid out on the gen 
 eral ground plan of a labyrinth, you know, and I had to 
 have the police follow every white horse in the town clear 
 through it, before they found the maternity place. It was 
 an awful place ! I cut out the kid from the bunch of two 
 weeks old, after she left him. The nurse said I picked the 
 right one, and there wasn t any chance of a mistake; the 
 rest were all half-breeds, or off colour some way. It was 
 a hell of a place; and she left him there! " 
 
 We must have all been purblind! Why, / never 
 suspected anything wrong ! " mused the doctor in bewilder 
 ment. 
 
 There won t be any women in hell. They ll hood 
 wink the devil somehow. I never dreamed of my wife s 
 little scheme, even when I saw her engagement to Ben 
 announced in the paper. I had gone out west again, and 
 I thought it was a dodge to get me back : until the marriage 
 was announced too. Then I came back and went for the 
 records. There weren t any. It sounds like a fairy story, 
 but it s a fact. I haven t a shred of evidence to back my 
 word. Sally of course froze to the certificate-thing the 
 dominie gave us, and I thought that was proper : the usual 
 arrangement. I never felt so respectable in my life! It 
 never occurred to me that I d ever need a duplicate. I 
 was too tickled to think she had finally married me." 
 
 "What did she say?" 
 
 " Say! do you suppose I interviewed her? I have never
 
 98 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 spoken to her since I knew why she was going to New 
 York." 
 
 " Then she didn t know you had the boy? " 
 
 " I don t know: probably not. She thought I d gone 
 west again, and she wouldn t be apt to make enquiries 
 about the child she deserted, would she? " 
 
 " And you never got a divorce? " 
 
 " What in hell do I want of a divorce? Think I want 
 to try another matrimonial venture? Not on your life! 
 I d have enjoyed having a wife and home as well as the 
 next man at one time; but I ve got over the hankering. 
 Besides, I can t get a divorce even under the Arizona omni 
 bus bill; that will give you one on any pretext you can 
 imagine, but you can t annul a contract until you prove 
 there is one, can you? " 
 
 " Don t you suppose Sally has gotten one? " 
 
 " No, I ve had the records searched." 
 
 "Good Lord! how did the girl ever dare to do it? 
 Why, Bijah, she was a good girl! I d dare swear Sallv 
 Silliman was as good a girl as ever lived in Hurstville," 
 said the doctor sadly, and Abijah s shrug of sardonic ac 
 quiescence infuriated the choleric old man. 
 
 " That s a pretty insinuation for a man with a mother 
 and sister," he said furiously. 
 
 " My sister was brought up to sell herself to the high 
 est bidder, and did it. That s the morality of good 
 women. Perhaps you can draw the line between that and 
 what Sally has done ! I can t. Talk about women being 
 better than men! If they had our passions they d be 
 worse ! As it is, I don t believe there s one on earth who 
 considers her soul and body anything but assets to her am 
 bition. I despise the whole sex." 
 
 " You must feel good inside," said the doctor. 
 
 " I don t; insides being your specialty, you might pre 
 scribe."
 
 CHAPTER SIX 99 
 
 " I d like to give you something drastic. Do you know 
 you nearly killed the woman, bringing the boy here? " 
 
 " I should have regretted that: it wouldn t have half 
 satisfied me," retorted Abijah, and the malignancy of his 
 voice was horrible. The doctor looked at him anxiously. 
 
 " Drop it! Life s revenge will satisfy any sane man," 
 he said earnestly. Abijah laughed jeeringly. 
 
 Then all the world s insane, for it isn t satisfied. 
 Eternity has been imagined for the express purpose of 
 giving compensation anything like a fair working chance, 
 and personally, I don t expect it there. I don t believe 
 there is any general scheme of things. They just happen." 
 
 " I can t much wonder. But you aren t taking a healthy 
 view of the situation, Bijah; you shouldn t force the boy 
 into it." 
 
 We ve got a right on top of the earth, I suppose, and 
 I happen to like this particular spot of it." 
 
 " He may not inherit your warrious." 
 
 " Oh, he won t need to," sneered Abijah. " He ll 
 have money, enough to make him welcome anywhere." 
 
 As Abijah had never been any more communicative 
 about financial than personal affairs, the doctor s expres 
 sion indicated the surprise this revelation caused. 
 
 " Of course I knew you were doing well, but " 
 
 " But and of course no one ever expected Abijah 
 Bead would ever be able to buy up the whole Phelps tribe, 
 root and branch. Joke, isn t it? " Abijah s expression 
 was anything but jovial. The doctor turned on him hotly. 
 
 " And why should any one expect it, you blithering 
 idiot? " he shouted. " You carefully disguise all symptoms 
 of ability, and then snarl because we re not mind-readers ! 
 There isn t any measure for latent capabilities in this world, 
 my son. Success is the quantivalent of the dynamic force 
 of a man. What doesn t show doesn t count here." 
 
 " Keep your shirt on, Doc! What you jawing about?
 
 ioo THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 There isn t such a thing as a latent capability con 
 cealed about my whole worthless carcass. Don t blame 
 that on me. I told you I was the victim of luck, and 
 nothing proves it better than the fact that I ve made 
 money." 
 
 "As how?" enquired his curious friend. 
 
 " Why, the providence that watches over children and 
 fools doesn t extend to change, and whenever I take a lit 
 tle flyer, I bull the market: now, as I don t know a thing 
 about finance or speculation, that can t be anything but 
 luck, can it? Then I took hold of a little bankrupt rail 
 road once. It started from nowhere and had a similar 
 terminal, and I didn t know but I d have to go as 
 engineer on the darn thing, to get my money back, till 
 some fool prospector found silver near the hinder end of 
 the route, and then I was all hunky : thanks to luck again. 
 Naturally things boom thereabouts, and there s a town; 
 and of course, you own most of the realty; and pretty soon 
 you realise on that spec. Then you get out before the 
 vein peters out, and 
 
 The doctor struck his chair-arm with his fist. 
 
 " And you call that luck, I suppose? " he snorted. 
 
 " I don t call it anything else," retorted Abijah indig 
 nantly. " That damned old silver vein might have run 
 to Tophet for all I knew about mines, but I d a right to 
 infer it had a bottom somewhere, though most men don t 
 until they strike it. That appears to be almost always an 
 unpleasant experience, so I leave a margin for casualties." 
 
 " And you call that luck also? " 
 
 " Certainly; I shouldn t have cut it so close if I had any 
 sense about it. It was a close shave for me, and the 
 other fellow didn t make money. The only business I 
 know anything about is stock, cattle, I mean, and I 
 couldn t afford to carry on that, if luck didn t make up the 
 deficit somewhere else."
 
 CHAPTER SIX 101 
 
 Abijah was rather more than half sincere in discounting 
 his brain as a factor of success. He had experienced from 
 his youth a thoroughly chastened self-conceit which, while 
 it may have some salutary effects, certainly destroys the 
 zest of living. Knowing the petty harassments which had 
 ingrained this morbid self-distrust in the boy, the doctor s 
 pity equalled his impatience with the puerile attitude of 
 the man, but experience had shown the utter futility of 
 friendly attempts to arouse a wholesome self-conceit. 
 
 Why don t you let any one know of your success? " 
 he enquired. 
 
 " Because a couple of millions would make a difference 
 to most people." 
 
 ; Is that why you have never told me before? " 
 
 ; No. That was because a couple of millions wouldn t 
 make any difference to you," Abijah replied doggedly. 
 
 ; Is it as much as that? " 
 
 ; It was a couple of years ago when I made a will for the 
 boy, and I guess it hasn t depreciated any yet," Abijah 
 admitted reluctantly. This freak of confidence was un 
 usual to him, but an irresistible need of sympathy and 
 understanding had swept away the barriers of his habitual 
 reserve. 
 
 " That s a lot of money, here! But it don t help you 
 out of your troubles, does it? You can t do a thing unless 
 you find that woman? " 
 
 " Do anything! Aileen Mahan, you mean, I suppose? 
 I don t know as I would do anything if I could. I cer 
 tainly want no legal interference. A man ought to be able 
 to settle his domestic concerns himself; I don t object to 
 being Sally s husband," and here a gust of sudden passion 
 swept furiously over him, his voice grew tense, and he 
 clenched his big hands fiercely; " but sometimes I d give 
 millions to make her realise it! " he said in his teeth. 
 
 The unexpected outburst betrayed the tension he was
 
 102 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 under, but before the doctor could frame a word of sym 
 pathy he turned savagely upon him. 
 
 " Where are all the moral reflections you were charged 
 with when you came in, a little while ago? " he sneered, 
 sullen with the sense of useless self-revealings, and champ 
 ing on the bitter herbs of life with a morbid satisfaction in 
 extracting their full flavour. You d better trot em out 
 right here. Here s the place to tack a moral to the tale." 
 
 " I haven t discovered yet that life has any moral," 
 replied the doctor, inexpressible sympathy in face and 
 voice. 
 
 "Oh, well, damn! " said Abijah comprehensively, and 
 he heaved himself up from his chair impatiently, and stood 
 in all his big negligence, cynical, savage, whimsical, and 
 pathetic, before the little doctor; " I didn t come here to 
 sit up with you, and sob on your shoulder, Doc," he ob 
 served in a shamefaced way, " but I wanted some one 
 to understand about the boy, in case I should accidentally 
 shuffle off." He knocked the ashes out of his pipe as he 
 spoke, and reached for his coat and hat. 
 
 " All right, I understand," the doctor acquiesced, and 
 Abijah knew he tacitly accepted a trust: "Ben said to 
 night they were going to England; for a long trip, I 
 imagine." 
 
 Abijah settled his sombrero at a comfortable and becom 
 ing angle, and jammed his hands deep down into the 
 pockets of his riding coat. 
 
 4 They d better stay" he remarked, in the casual tone 
 of an entirely disinterested person. 
 
 " Do you expect he will allow you to settle your domestic 
 concerns er extra legal? " enquired the doctor signifi 
 cantly. 
 
 Abijah was ready to depart, but he paused and looked 
 down at his interlocutor with his pseudo-serious expres 
 sion.
 
 CHAPTER SIX 103 
 
 If he comes back looking for trouble, I ll just take 
 little Benji apart, and reason with him by sections. A man 
 of his calibre shouldn t try to grapple with the intricate 
 problems of life. And he can t prove anything by me! 
 Good-night, Doc." 
 
 The doctor rose up wearily, when he was left alone. 
 It was midnight, and he was very tired, and as Abijah s 
 vigorous footsteps died away, he reflected that the only 
 wholly tragic situation in this world is, after all, old age. 
 
 Abijah came back from the street, upon a sudden 
 thought, and thrust his head in at the door again. 
 
 " Say, Doc," he called, and in response the doctor ap 
 peared at an inner doorway, in his shirt-sleeves, struggling 
 apoplectically with his collar. 
 
 Well," he demanded on the verge of strangulation, 
 as he gave a final wrench at the refractory button. 
 
 I don t want to leave you with the impression that I 
 wasn t in dead earnest about your trying to gentle that 
 little filly. You ll certainly 
 
 But the doctor made a surprisingly agile and pugilistic 
 spring towards the speaker, the loosened ends of his col 
 lar flapping wildly about his ears, and Abijah s head was 
 promptly withdrawn, and he slammed the door, chuckling. 
 
 The merest reference to that rejuvenates the old boy," 
 he thought, as he mounted the Bronk, and loped off toward 
 the mountain. " I wonder if he will make such a dodder 
 ing fool of himself? "
 
 VII 
 
 IT was a late spring. Patches of grimy snow lingered 
 for weeks upon the mountains, while the streams 
 shouted in vain for the general vernal rally. It 
 seemed as though the earth had stuck at this most inop 
 portune point in its revolution, and it was the last of 
 April before there appeared any prospects of getting be 
 yond the equinox. Then a few warm days, balmy as 
 June, and the northern spring rushed into the mountains. 
 The breath of life, mysterious, irresistible, quickened the 
 earth, sun-warmed and brooding, and the insistent smell 
 of the germinant soil mingled with the fainter odour of 
 the budding foliage. An evanescent mist of delicate 
 colours spread over the brown landscape; all the sodden 
 fields took on the tender greenness of young grass, and 
 winter grain, and in low sunny places, and on the warm 
 side of knoll or fence, frail scentless wild flowers broidered 
 a faint tracery of colours around the barren greyness of 
 the rocks. 
 
 The streams were jubilant; all the night they called, 
 and clapped their hands across the narrow vale, and in the 
 morning, dashing on obstructions, foamed over rocks and 
 bent the green flags under their swift current: and over all 
 the glad sunshiny world, far, far up in the pale blue sky, 
 thin white clouds floated on the vernal air, which embraced 
 the willing earth, with the mystery and the magic of 
 spring. 
 
 Spring in the North is a season of dangerous blandish 
 ments to which its people dare not yield; they stick to fires 
 
 104
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 105 
 
 and flannels. In the South they trust their seasons, and 
 blithely ignore a little general chilliness so that the sun 
 shines, and the good smell of the earth is in the air. A 
 restlessness and longing for this habit of semi-outdoor 
 life set Barbara haunting sheltered corners of the 
 piazza, as spring coyly advanced; but the horrified protests 
 of the family obliged her to withdraw her chair from a 
 sunny southern nook where she had ensconced herself to 
 watch the struggling daffodils. 
 
 She was awakened one delicious morning by the clear, 
 high joyous choral of the birds outside her open windows. 
 The long curtains sailed in on the breeze, and she opened 
 her arms and let the soft wind break in lovely waves upon 
 her warm young body. An unutterable tenderness and 
 longing evoked the feel of tears and smiles as the caress 
 embraced her: there was a calling; an insistent influence 
 moved her, and she yielded wholly, gladly, to the com 
 pelling power which drew her out into the heart of spring. 
 
 Now Abijah Bead was moved by no less subtile and 
 resistless influences when he awakened at dawn of the 
 same day, but as he had experienced these sensations a 
 good many times, he had lost the essence and experienced 
 only the coarser combination of effects. He thought it 
 was a fine day, and that he had slept all it beseemed the 
 head of a well-organised farm to slumber, so he got 
 up without any gentle ceremony of invocation, and, loosely 
 habited in his usual costume of top-boots, riding-breeks, 
 and wide-necked negligee shirt, strode forth into the open 
 and enjoyed the keen sweetness of the upland air sub 
 consciously, while inspecting his stockyard with practical 
 interest. 
 
 He turned from a survey of his own property to the 
 observation of things in general, and leaning on the 
 bars of the pasture, looked down upon the town. In the 
 morning s quiet the movement of a curious cavalcade, is-
 
 106 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 suing from the gate of the Hurst place, immediately at 
 tracted his attention, and he laughed with consuming 
 amusement as he perceived that Barbara had mounted her 
 self and Mam Lilly on Madam s sedate carriage horses! 
 The girl had the seat of an expert equestrienne, and kept 
 turning and gesticulating her companion, who had some 
 what less success in getting under way. Abijah watched 
 them with a lively interest as they came toward the moun 
 tain and turned into a sequestered road leading along its 
 base, and then, a frolic impulse seized him. He leaped 
 the bars, gave a low peculiar whistle which brought the 
 Bronk racing to him, mounted without bridle, spur, or sad 
 dle, and was off in breakneck pursuit. Over fence and 
 ditch they rushed, crashing through obstructions in the 
 forest, straight down the mountain, and over the stone 
 wall into the road, landing somewhere between Barbara 
 and Mam Lilly, who was outdistanced. The heart of 
 him was merry as a satyr with the fluting of old Pan 
 among the hills: he had chased coyotes on the plain in 
 the same exuberance of spirit with which he now pranced 
 down the forest-road. Barbara heard the sudden thun 
 der of hoofs behind her, and glanced back, a sparkling 
 face with the wind-blown tresses of a wood-nymph, as 
 she fled on into the morning. Some vernal memory 
 of his own waked in her staid old horse, and as 
 he warmed to her requirements, he took the bit in 
 his teeth, and was forging ahead at a galvanic 
 canter, enjoying the spirit of the freakish race as much 
 as any one. Barbara was embarrassed by her comic 
 mount, and summoned dignity, as Abijah should overtake 
 and pass her: but to her surprise, at a stride behind he 
 slackened his headlong pace to hers, and head to haunch, 
 the two horses cantered for a rapid mile or two. The road 
 led through the " Green Vlei," a stretch of swamp land 
 where the light absorbed a greenish tint from the rank
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 107 
 
 vegetation: a dryad laughed behind each tree-trunk, and 
 the shrill pipes of rural deities echoed in the wind which 
 boomed softly in the treetops, and swept their faces with 
 the keener breath of flight. They rode through billows 
 of it, rejoicing in the jocund life of elemental being. Bar 
 bara lost the strangeness of her peculiar tendance as the 
 solitudes took them in, but the magic of the hour was 
 suddenly dispelled when Abijah rode abreast, and laid 
 his hand below hers on the bridle. The horses came 
 abruptly to a walk, Barbara sat quite still, her eyes on the 
 big hand that restrained her, until it removed itself. Then 
 she turned upon the adventurer with the liveliest indigna 
 tion. He almost thought she would have struck him with 
 the riding crop she clutched. 
 
 " What did you do that for, sir? " she demanded, and 
 the obvious threat of the question tickled Abijah s risi 
 bilities. 
 
 He bowed low over the neck of his broncho, 5n mock 
 apology. He was bareheaded, and the deviltry behind 
 his sober eyes was perfectly unshadowed. 
 
 " Your horse was bolting," he informed her with calm 
 mendacity, and a condescension which impugned her 
 equestrianship. 
 
 " He was doing nothing of the kind, sir. And if he 
 was, it wouldn t matter if he did it all day at that rate ! 
 I d have you understand I had been at some trouble to 
 work up the gait, and now you ve spoiled it. As a horse 
 man you might have seen I could manage him," said Bar 
 bara, whose indignation was apt to ooze away in some 
 whimsical conceit. She felt that her own prank de 
 barred her from criticising Mr. Bead s wild morning 
 ride; but she knew her course was not so peculiar as to 
 justify his extraordinary interference; and above all, she 
 did not intend to be patronised on the score of horseman 
 ship.
 
 io8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Ah! you don t know that horse! Even / should not 
 attempt to ride him," said Abijah darkly, which was so 
 probably true that Barbara s mutinous mouth twitched 
 with amusement. "I ve known him from my youth up; 
 he used to climb trees." 
 
 The absurd pretence was a piece of the prankish frolic 
 of the hour: neither of them really felt excuse was neces 
 sary. Barbara gave him a straight boyish glance of com 
 prehending fun and camaraderie, and frankly laughed 
 at him, and before the compelling good-fellowship of 
 this young girl, the man s habitual sophistry and suspicion 
 fled. He smiled as he did at Rob when they were 
 romping. 
 
 " Well," he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders, 
 " don t blame me if he goes pawing up the next tree trunk 
 with you." 
 
 "I shall not; I appreciate your neighbourly concern; 
 you didn t happen to pass Mam Lilly, did you?" en 
 quired Barbara, as he still kept beside her spent and pant 
 ing palfrey; her address had the easy assurance of any 
 chance encounter of the road. There was not a particle 
 of coquetry in her attitude. 
 
 " I rather think I cut in between." By a touch of his 
 knee he turned the broncho, as she did her horse. I 
 don t think there is much danger for any one on that horse 
 of hers," he suggested, in protest at the termination of their 
 ride as they trotted back; Barbara s horse would only trot 
 now, and the motion would have disconcerted a less expert 
 rider. 
 
 " Oh! he hasn t the habit of climbing trees, too? " 
 
 " No, this one is the trick horse of the town." 
 
 Barbara laughed, a little scale of tuneful joy. 
 
 u I m concerned for the horse, not for Mam Lilly. 
 She may be killing him for not keeping up, and it would be 
 difficult to find another mate to this." She touched the
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 109 
 
 respectable animal she rode, as though it were a stray 
 from Noah s Ark, and her drollery brought another of 
 Abijah s rare spontaneous smiles. They were perfectly 
 at ease together these two dissimilar strangers and 
 Abijah was talking without his usual touch of sarcasm as 
 they came upon Mam Lilly at the roadside. She was pre 
 paring an enormous goad. 
 
 " Nothin lessen a club gwine to make dis ol skate go ! " 
 she explained serenely when her occupation was discovered. 
 
 ; Do you ride much? " This enquiry by the only rider 
 in the countryside suggested a suspicion of loneliness, which 
 Abijah had been very far from feeling. With the effer 
 vescence of his mood he was rather disgusted with the 
 prospect of having his prerogative invaded; but this was 
 not evident to Barbara ; she shook her head sorrowfully. 
 
 " I always have," she said, " But I haven t my horse 
 any more, and I shall not try this experiment again." 
 
 Abijah felt relieved. 
 
 ;< If you are in any hurry to get back, you had better 
 hitch those two together. They ve forgotten how to travel 
 single. Good-morning," he said abruptly, and putting 
 the Bronk at the roadside wall, he rode back up the moun 
 tain at a steady gait. 
 
 " Well, I never! " gasped the astonished girl, and with 
 out another word led the ignominious procession home, 
 with the hateful consciousness in the back of her head that 
 the eccentric Abijah was observing them from the vantage 
 of his mountain eyrie. 
 
 Zillah evinced an undisguised enjoyment of her chagrin. 
 
 "That s just like Abijah Bead! You didn t expect 
 he d see you home, did you? " she enquired, when Bar 
 bara recounted her adventures at the breakfast table. It 
 had never in her life occurred to Barbara to conceal her 
 misadventures. Clearly it was no fault of hers, if things 
 went wrong, and she expected sympathy, not criticism.
 
 no THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 The latter always astonished her: but Mrs. Hurst did not 
 spare a just reprimand when it was needed, in consideration 
 of any one s pampered sensibilities. 
 
 " You ll get your name up, if you don t exercise a little 
 caution," she admonished coldly, and Barbara s patience 
 suddenly gave way. 
 
 " My name! my name! " she flamed. Thank Heaven, 
 I have men in my family not too far away still to look 
 after my name, whatever freak I perpetrate." 
 
 Barbara had found rather to her surprise her horizon 
 narrower than formerly. Not only did the sun subtend a 
 shorter arc from neighbouring peak to peak, than on the 
 long low levels of the South, but she missed the scope 
 of interest afforded by association with a broadly cul 
 tured man of Colonel Haygood s stamp. She quickly 
 discovered the limitations of the college girls she met, by 
 comparison with this masculine standard, and lost the awe 
 with which their degrees at first inspired her. As for the 
 Hurstville girls, their admiration for the Southerner was 
 in direct proportion to the inflexible Northern character. 
 There was not a bachelor of them, who would not have 
 sacrificed an academic letter or so of her degree for 
 Barbara s facile social talents and cordial manners, the 
 traditional inheritance of a long line of hospitable an 
 cestry. The tide of village life set toward the old 
 Hurst house, as soon as she had entered it, and the old 
 clock in the great hall fell, after a trip or so, into the 
 pace of a younger pulse, and began to reel off time for the 
 ladies Hurst at a rate none of them had ever travelled. 
 The dull procession of old days was broken; time fell 
 a-dancing to the mystic rune of youth, and monotony 
 fled its long-established habitation. Nothing of the or 
 derly routine of the household life was or could be changed, 
 but the stagnant air was stirred and broke in ripples as 
 she stepped into the silent place. In an unusual flight of
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN in 
 
 poetical imagination Zillah likened Barbara to a brilliant 
 intermezzo a description she would have been loath to 
 have Barbara hear. 
 
 Madam was delighted with the change from the cloister- 
 like seclusion of her life, and notwithstanding Mrs. 
 Hurst s dark prognostications, benefited by it. The 
 Papist lady had never shared Captain Hurst s popularity 
 as she did Barbara s. Her religion and strange foreign 
 ways offended the provincial prejudice of the early inhabi 
 tants of the town her husband s wealth and influence 
 founded; but when, after long retirement, her house was 
 opened by the girl s arrival, time had rendered the com 
 munity abler to appreciate the fair French grande dame. 
 There was an aristocratic dignity at Hurst House which 
 made a picturesque background for Barbara s easy social 
 habits. Her cordiality embraced all castes, with an uncon- 
 sidered assurance of her own which aroused Zillah s aston 
 ishment and envy. 
 
 As the season advanced Madam and Barbara lived 
 much out of doors, for Madam indulged a horticultural 
 mania whenever able to be wheeled into the formal box- 
 hedged garden paths, and under her inspiring supervision 
 Mam Lilly dug and planted " like a co n fiel han ," 
 averred Barbara, whose enunciation melted in hot weather 
 into the sweet lazy speech of the South. 
 
 Nothing in the world, however, could induce Barbara 
 herself to dig or plant. She sat on the ground and made 
 gruesome collections of all the bugs and creeping things 
 that came incautiously within the radius of her trowel: but 
 dig she would not, not one trowelful; and when Madam s 
 exposition of the joys thereof became pressing, the en 
 thusiast found herself beguiled into time-consuming his 
 tories of old gardening days, wherein the golden hours 
 slipped away without a stroke by the incorrigible idler. 
 Barbara s capacity for doing nothing with a serene un-
 
 H2 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 consciousness of any dereliction was little short of genius. 
 Colonel Haygood had disliked to see her fingers busy while 
 she talked, and it was really not the poor child s fault 
 she had no small employments to fill her leisure up and 
 hypnotise her brain: and that this was active, as she sat 
 with pretty folded hands, any one discovered who at 
 tempted to arouse her to physical exertion. Such indolence 
 was intolerable to her Aunt Helen, whose own aimless 
 peregrinations about the house brought her inevitably 
 around to its disapproval, with that long black stocking 
 (it appeared to Barbara s casual observation always to be 
 at the stage of " heeling off ") in furious progress, as an 
 object lesson. Barbara mystified and exasperated this 
 lady by expounding the theory of ecstatic contemplation in 
 the most recondite terms she could remember: and finished 
 by singing to a queer little lilt of her own, " It is enough 
 for me, not to be doing, but to Be." 
 
 It was an enchanting spot, this old formal garden, with 
 its revel of sweet savours and its carnival of bloom. 
 The same plants had blossomed in trim profusion year 
 after year for half a century; and the narrow, long 
 box-bordered beds overflowed with fair old-fashioned 
 flowers. On the old plaisance, with its gentle movement 
 of reviving human interest, the great closed house across 
 the street stared blankly down across its smoothly shaven 
 lawns, half shutting off the mountain with an incongruous 
 French roof, and four tall chimney-pots. 
 
 " Foila! " exclaimed Madam, one day in an unprece 
 dented outburst not entirely provoked by contemplation of 
 the house itself; "it is of a grotesqueness ! When the 
 chateaux of France are seen it reveals itself! impossible! 
 But what would you? " and her shrug was eloquent. Bar 
 bara looked surprised, and Father Varney, who sat with 
 them on the piazza, smiled indulgently. 
 
 " Does it not suit its mistress? I only saw her as she
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 113 
 
 was leaving but she looked distinctly mondaine," sug 
 gested Barbara lazily. 
 
 " Did you not admire her? " enquired the priest. 
 
 " I never saw as beautiful a woman! " 
 
 " But it is understood what it is to be without grand 
 fathers," persisted Madam, and both her listeners smiled 
 at the venom of the gentle lady. 
 
 " Maman s prejudiced," drawled Barbara, " because as 
 a family, you know, we make rather a specialty of em : 
 I ve never had any intermediate relations. How did you 
 ever come to marry a man without any, Madam mere? 
 You established a dangerous precedent." 
 
 "But no! It excuses itself! He was an exception 
 extraordinary! " said Madam, and Barbara and the priest 
 smiled together again. Father Varney held the cure of 
 souls which had not yet outgrown the chapel, built and 
 endowed for Felicite, by Captain Hurst. He had never 
 known the captain, but was naturally indulgent with the 
 widow s estimate of him. 
 
 ; I think Mrs. Phelps is rather an extraordinary char 
 acter," he observed suavely. 
 
 " But surely! " ejaculated Madam with empresse- 
 ment. 
 
 " God s ways are not our ways, my dear Madam 
 Hurst. He may cause our very sins to redound to His 
 own glory; I had several conversations with Mrs. 
 Phelps last winter. I saw there was a struggle, even then. 
 For the weary, sin-sick soul there is no refuge but in 
 Mother Church; and it draws her, Madam," said the 
 Cure triumphantly, but Madam Hurst was silent. Bar 
 bara had gone down to the gate to meet Maude Phelps, 
 and the two young girls loitered along the winding walk 
 to the house, chatting gaily. 
 
 You, whose sweet charity extends to all the world, 
 would not refuse it to this penitent," murmured the priest,
 
 ii4 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 but the little lady was at her stateliest, and entertained her 
 own ideas on social ethics. 
 
 You require the impossible, Father," she replied with 
 the gentle superiority of the grande dame to her confessor, 
 a meaning glance toward Barbara the only explanation 
 she vouchsafed, as she graciously welcomed the newcomer 
 Barbara brought to the porch. 
 
 " Can I do anything for any one at Kelley s Junction 
 to-day?" Zillah made enquiry from the doorway behind 
 them, drawing on her gloves for the drive to the adjacent 
 town. She carried her music roll beneath her arm, and 
 her attitude was that of reserve toward the garden group. 
 Madam turned a face full of affection toward her. 
 
 " Ah, the music class, chcre Zillah? But, no. I have 
 no commands: have you, my Brownie? " 
 
 " Nothing, thank you ! " replied Barbara, with an enig 
 matic expression. She was beginning to wonder where 
 her summer gowns were coming from, for there had been 
 no reference to money matters since she had come to 
 Hurstville, and her own purse was nearly empty. That, 
 however, having been its chronic condition as long as she 
 could remember, did not greatly trouble her, but she rather 
 shrewdly expected less inconsequence in Yankee dealings, 
 than in the large vague South. Zillah disbursed supplies, 
 and she had seemed on the point of some suggestion several 
 times, but hesitated. Barbara could not imagine why, and 
 waited with quite an impersonal curiosity. She naturally 
 inferred that Madam Hurst was conversant through their 
 lawyer s correspondence with her financial straits, and was 
 only too glad to escape discussion of Colonel Haygood s 
 unlucky stewardship. 
 
 " Don t you wish to go down to Kelley s shopping next 
 week with me? " enquired Maude Phelps, as Zillah passed 
 down the garden-path to the gate, where Mike waited 
 with the carriage for her.
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 115 
 
 Maude had come from college to be with her mother, 
 after her brother s departure for Europe, and a girlish 
 friendship had at once sprung up between her and Barbara 
 Hurst. 
 
 "Do you shop in Kelley s?" enquired Barbara tenta 
 tively. 
 
 " Certainly, whenever that natural inclination becomes 
 irresistible. We usually buy our things in Albany or 
 New York, but we can lunch at the Mansion House, and 
 attend some kind of a mat, and generally indulge in 
 riotous urban dissipations. Do come, we can have a lark! 
 Do you object, Madam? " 
 
 Not at all. By all means have what you call the 
 lark. You can return on the evening train with Zillah. 
 She goes again on Wednesdays, you know," said Madam 
 with serene obliviousness to the sordid limitations upon 
 which Barbara was expending frantic mental calculations. 
 
 " I shall enjoy going ever so much," the girl an 
 nounced blithely, having decided that her remaining funds 
 would suffice for the programme. Possible contingencies 
 did not trouble her, as she recalled a remark of the colo 
 nel s: " When there are only a few dollars left, the sooner 
 they re spent, the sooner something must happen." Penury 
 had been at one time almost a mark of distinction among 
 Southerners, and in no way abated their pride and inde 
 pendence. 
 
 Barbara s purse was, however, temporarily saved from 
 depletion, by a letter and telegram which arrived together 
 on the morning of the proposed jaunt. Zillah in the lower 
 hall was giving a last touch to the dusting, when she heard 
 an exclamation of delight from Barbara, who came in a 
 wild dance from her room. She accomplished the lower 
 flight upon the banister in a breath-catching slide, caromed 
 against Zillah in landing, held her fast, and tried to make 
 that stately lady dance.
 
 u6 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 "Donna s coming! Donna s coming! Cousin Dick 
 has bought her back, and sent her to me! " she chanted 
 jubilantly. 
 
 Zillah stood passive in the embrace, but refused to move 
 a foot in dancing, and when released, went swiftly on with 
 her dusting. 
 
 44 Who is Donna? " she enquired with a faint smile of 
 sympathy for the girl s enthusiasm. 
 
 44 Why, she s my horse, my own darling beastie, bred 
 and broken for me, and never ridden by any one but me, 
 until I had to sell her. It nearly broke my heart to let 
 her go, and she understood I know she did for she 
 threw the man who came to get her, and she is always gen 
 tle as a kitten with me." 
 
 44 And your cousin Dick has sent her to you here? " 
 
 4 Yes, isn t it lovely of him? And he ought not to. 
 He cannot afford it, you know. That s why he hasn t 
 written until she was nearly here. He knew I would not 
 let him do it if I had known, but, oh, I m glad he did! 
 I never imagined what it would be like not to have a 
 horse. I can t tell you how I ve missed her, Zillah ! " 
 
 44 You have not mentioned it," said Zillah. 
 
 4 Well, under the circumstances you would not expect 
 me to, would you ? " 
 
 Zillah smiled with her peculiar reservations. 4 Why, 
 yes, I confess I should," she said deliberately. 
 
 4 Then you do not understand me very well yet," said 
 Barbara with dignity, and sauntered to the front door. 
 
 14 It s a lovely day I m sorry I can t go to Kelley s 
 with you and Maude," she remarked after a moment s 
 silence. 
 
 4 Why? " enquired Zillah in surprise. 
 
 44 Oh, I wouldn t think of such a thing! I must be at 
 the station when she comes in. I know just how nervous 
 she will be after a long lonesome journey, and no one can
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 117 
 
 gentle her as I can. I ll put on my habit and go down 
 with you, when you go. She may be on that train." 
 
 " Maude will think it a peculiar proceeding." 
 
 " Oh, I reckon she will understand. Isn t it time we 
 were getting ready? " 
 
 " I m going up to dress as soon as I finish this dusting." 
 
 "Oh!" Barbara realised the other s occupation for 
 the first time. " Why don t you let Mam Lilly do that, 
 Zillah?" 
 
 " Mam Lilly isn t a scientific duster." 
 
 " Isn t Philena either?" 
 
 " Philena is baking to-day." 
 
 " Then let me. You will be all tired out before you 
 start." Zillah held the duster far above Barbara s head. 
 
 " I m quite accustomed to doing it," she said coldly, 
 but Barbara was too happy to accept the usual rebuff of 
 her proffered services, and made a playful struggle to ob 
 tain possession of the duster. To her surprise, her efforts 
 met with serious resistance. With one firm sweep of her 
 long arm Zillah put her aside, and resumed her employ 
 ment with an utterly uncompromising expression of coun 
 tenance. Barbara was silent from astonishment and, the 
 effervescence of her enjoyment much subdued, went in, to 
 inform Madam Hurst of the unexpected addition to her 
 stables. 
 
 I suppose you will not have much use for these horses, 
 now you have your own," Zillah remarked as they rode 
 toward the station. Mike was putting his team over the 
 road at their best pace, and Barbara regarded the fat car 
 riage horses respectfully. 
 
 " Of course," she said half apologetically, " of course 
 I shall use Donna more." 
 
 Your Donna is a very fine animal, I suppose? " 
 
 "Oh, yes; she is by Hannibal out of Kentucky Belle, 
 very fast and gentle."
 
 n8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Zillah looked shocked. She was not accustomed to 
 hear pedigree discussed by ladies. 
 
 44 I have often advised Aunt Felicite to sell this team, 
 they are so little used: but she has kept them on, always 
 hoping you would come," she said casually. 
 
 4 You always have kept carriage horses, have you not? " 
 Barbara enquired, looking puzzled. 
 
 44 Aunt Felicite has; / was not brought up in such 
 state." 
 
 14 But you use them a great deal. It would incom 
 mode you not to have them." 
 
 14 Not at all; I could just as well go to Kelley s by train 
 and ride up in the stage; as becomes a country music 
 teacher." 
 
 Barbara felt quite helpless to meet Zillah s bitter moods. 
 
 44 Is it a question of economy? " she enquired anx- 
 ously; " because, if so, I shall send Donna back again, of 
 course." 
 
 4 You know how that would affect Aunt Felicite," 
 Zillah remarked inflexibly, and Barbara looked at her wist 
 fully. 
 
 44 Maman is obsessed about me. I wish you would tell 
 me what I ought to do. I never know. Will Donna em 
 barrass her financially? " 
 
 14 Not the least in the world," responded Zillah with 
 convincing emphasis, but in a tone so peculiar that Bar 
 bara was but half reassured. 
 
 " I am very glad of that," she said with a sigh. " It 
 was hard enough to give Donna up the first time." She 
 interrupted herself to bow to Mr. Ten Eyke. 
 
 14 Do you like Mr. Ten Eyke? " Zillah enquired. 
 
 4 Why-y-y I reckon so. Howdy, Doctor? " and Bar 
 bara waved her hand at Dr. Pomfret, as he passed 
 them in his gig. 44 I don t like him as well as I do Dr. 
 Pomfret! Why?"
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 119 
 
 " Oh, nothing: only he wears so much hair oil." 
 
 Barbara laughed gaily, and bowed to a young Italian 
 youth, carrying a large basket. 
 
 The circle of your acquaintance is certainly elastic. 
 How did you come to know him? " enquired Zillah. 
 
 " He picked up the whip the other day, don t you re 
 member? " 
 
 " Yes I gave him a dime for it," drily. 
 
 " My traditions are different," with spirit. 
 
 " I was not aware that the Hurst tribe inherited any," 
 acrimoniously. 
 
 Then I should think you would have found it per 
 sonally convenient to adopt a few," said Barbara, whose 
 patience was not inexhaustible. 
 
 " Ef yer thinkin of ridin horseback, Miss Barbara, 
 how s this now? " enquired Mike, turning in his seat to 
 look back as the sound of a galloping horse approached 
 them. Mr. Bead swept by on the Bronk, without so much 
 as a glance of recognition. 
 
 He had pointedly avoided Barbara s recognition since 
 their escapade, which by some strange chance had escaped 
 publicity, and the fact gave Barbara an irritating sense 
 of conniving at a secret. Zillah s smile in answer to her 
 look of indignation was not soothing. 
 
 " Quite characteristic, I assure you ! " murmured the 
 elder lady. 
 
 "Characteristic conceit! He acts like I should take 
 advantage of that absurd rencounter," fumed the girl. 
 
 You haven t said what you think about selling this 
 team," Zillah said presently. The subject seemed to be 
 on her mind. 
 
 That s what it means," replied Barbara, with a shrug 
 toward the lumbering village stage, as they left that 
 vehicle behind. 
 
 " Oh, of course, if you object! It s a question between
 
 no THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 you and me, you know, as Aunt Felicite can t, and Aunt 
 Helen won t use the carriage." 
 
 " You need it, Zillah; if you will not ride Donna." 
 " I think I see myself doing that! But as I have told 
 you, my convenience is really not affected." 
 " I suppose we could hire upon occasion." 
 " Certainly. It really doesn t seem worth while to keep 
 them, does it? " 
 
 " I suppose not," Barbara acquiesced as she stepped 
 from the carriage at the station platform. She was met 
 effusively by Maude Phelps, to whom she began apolo 
 getic explanations. 
 
 To the surprise of both girls Zillah left them and walked 
 deliberately down the platform to enter into a conversa 
 tion with Abijah Bead, who was idly propping up a cor 
 ner of the freight house. Having decided to sell that 
 team, she took advantage of the first opportunity to ne 
 gotiate the matter, and the stockman accorded her proposi 
 tion the most courteous attention, and offered her his best 
 advice upon the matter. He had always greatly respected 
 Zillah Hurst. She never seemed to have much more use 
 for people than he did, and she never pretended. He 
 made a point of escorting her to the train, when it came 
 in, and handed her into the car with the most punctilious 
 politeness. Barbara was furious; she did not know the 
 purport of the extraordinary colloquy, and she did not care 
 what it might be. Zillah clearly should not recognise 
 a person, for any purpose, who had slighted her. Bar 
 bara was a loyal soul herself, and she was so angry she 
 ignored Zillah s adieu from the car-step, and walked down 
 towards the freight car. They had put up a gang-plank, 
 and Donna was sliding down it on her haunches. When 
 she reached the ground she promptly stood on her hind 
 legs, and began walking around the frightened trainmen 
 who held her while the train waited. Mr. Bead was an
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 121 
 
 interested spectator, but before he could lend a hand, 
 there was a clear bird-like whistle, a slender habited 
 figure whisked by him, and Barbara was at Donna s side. 
 She spoke in a low voice to the trembling animal, who im 
 mediately came down on all-fours respectably, hung her 
 head over the girl s shoulder, and received an affectionate 
 hug. It was a pretty scene, and as the girl and her horse 
 walked away, thus caressing each other, there were heads 
 at all the car windows watching them. Mr. Bead was 
 not visible when they reached the carriage. 
 
 " There is a saddle too. Com a an signa de book, 
 plees," said Tony Giacoso, the general factotum of the 
 Hurstville depot. 
 
 " Certainly," said Barbara, and she went back with him 
 to the freight house, leaving Mike in charge of Donna: 
 Mr. Bead was at the mare s head and Mike at a respect 
 ful distance when she returned. 
 
 " Your man couldn t hold her," explained Mr. Bead 
 briefly, resigning the bridle to her hand. 
 
 " I thank you ! " she said icily, looking at Mike. Do 
 you suppose you can bring the saddle? " she enquired cut 
 tingly, and Mike went after it; Mr. Bead walked away 
 also. 
 
 Barbara spoke severely to the mare in the few moments 
 they were alone, but although Donna drooped her ears 
 contritely, and manifested every intention of being good, 
 when it came to letting Mike come near enough to saddle 
 her, she really couldn t do it. She was hysterical from her 
 long journey, and not quite responsible. Barbara real 
 ised this, but the consciousness of Mr. Bead s critical 
 observation made her determined not to be defeated. 
 She took the saddle herself, and Donna let her throw it 
 on her back, and stood like a lamb while she tugged at the 
 girth. 
 
 " If you intend to ride the mare, that girth must be
 
 122 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 cinched up tighter! " Mr. Bead s voice was quite grave 
 and authoritative. He drew up the girth several notches 
 beyond Barbara s efforts, took the bridle from Mike, and 
 buckled it upon the mare s pretty head. Barbara stood 
 beside her, silent. 
 
 " She s very nervous. Better let me give her a turn 
 up the road before you mount," he suggested when he had 
 finished. 
 
 " I thank you, sir, but I believe I do not need to trouble 
 you further," said Barbara distantly. 
 
 Mr. Bead regarded her calmly. 
 
 " I ll give you a mount then," he said, and waiting 
 for no permission, placed both hands about her waist, 
 and lifted her into the saddle, as though she were a child. 
 His touch was a revelation to the girl. A vague, sweet 
 yearning thrilled her, a mad, impossible impulse to slip 
 back again into those strong hands which had held her for 
 a moment. Her breath was hushed and laboured, her 
 eyes glowed softly, and the pallor of her face startled Mr. 
 Bead, who looked up when she made no motion to place 
 her foot in the stirrup he was holding. He thought her 
 frightened, and lifted her quickly to the ground again. 
 Barbara leaned heavily against Donna, clutching a hand 
 ful of her mane for support. 
 
 " If you are afraid, you must not ride that horse 
 to-day," he said with decision, searching the girl s face 
 curiously. 
 
 "Afraid! " It was infinite relief to find her inexpli 
 cable, ridiculous conduct thus attributed; but the word 
 stung, and " Afraid! " she repeated slowly, devoutly hop 
 ing her voice sounded better than it felt, " how per 
 fectly ridiculous! If you will kindly assist me to mount 
 again No, sir, not that way! Your hand, please!" 
 She was up like a bird, her foot scarce pressing on the 
 hand he held for her.
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 123 
 
 The little piquant face was pale no longer, but baffling, 
 bewildering with an elusive light, the light of faerie : 
 not quite " the light that lies in women s eyes," but 
 Abijah was wary. For a moment she swayed toward him, 
 seemed about to speak, but her crimson lips only parted 
 in a mystic smile, and " An revoir " was all she said 
 and fled away toward home. 
 
 " Not on your life, my lady! We shan t meet again, 
 if I can help it," mentally ejaculated Mr. Bead, conscious 
 of the curious eyes around him. 
 
 : Now fwhat the divil should ony gurl be afther wantin 
 to roide a baste loike thot for? " wailed Mike, as Donna, 
 gathering speed, swept out of sight, but Mr. Bead only 
 shrugged his shoulders, and sauntered toward his patient 
 Bronk. 
 
 "Nose kinder eout of joint, neow, ain t it, Bije?" 
 drawled the stage driver, lounging in his empty vehicle. 
 
 " Looks so! " said the erstwhile solitary equestrian of 
 Hurstville shortly, and Bronk fell into the long, easy lope 
 which carried him over the ground with such surpassingly 
 little exertion.
 
 VIII 
 
 DR. POMFRET sat on the front porch of his 
 house, enjoying the interlude which a July Mon 
 day often affords a country doctor, thanks to a 
 rural custom of attending to spiritual and physical repairs 
 on the first day of the week, whenever possible. The doc 
 tor was verifying the local items in the latest edition of the 
 Hurstville Post, with frequent interruptions, for his porch 
 was within easy conversational distance of the street, and 
 he kept a keen eye upon the thoroughfare. It was very 
 quiet; down on the next block, the business section, a ram 
 shackle team and lumber wagon had stood for a long time 
 before " the store," but there was no movement on the 
 street, and between the local items, it s likely the doctor 
 dozed occasionally. 
 
 Abijah Bead came out of the bank, and stood negli 
 gently in the sunlight on the steps, listening to the banker, 
 who followed him to the threshold and held him in im 
 pressive talk. Mr. Ten Eyke s manner had undergone a 
 complete change; he was obsequious to the younger man, 
 who had almost to shake him off finally; Abijah s face was 
 more inscrutable than usual, as he lounged up the street, 
 stepped easily over the doctor s gate and sat down on it, 
 a contumacious back to Hurstville and all its ways and 
 works. 
 
 His advent into the yard aroused the doctor. 
 
 " News seems to be wildly exciting," observed the visi 
 tor, striking a match on the gate-post and lighting a cigar. 
 
 "Hello, where d you come from?" enquired the doc- 
 
 124
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 125 
 
 tor, glancing down the street, where there was nothing 
 equine visible except the somnolent team before the 
 store. 
 
 " From going to and fro on the earth, and walking up 
 and down in it, " responded Abijah piously. 
 
 " Anything happened to the Bronk that you ve turned 
 pedestrian? " 
 
 "The Bronk 11 be along by-and-by; I m keeping my 
 eye skinned for him : but I m not anxious about the Bronk," 
 said Abijah; the doctor had picked up his paper, and its 
 rustle obscured the dark significance of the last words. 
 
 " I guess you re going to get the nomination all right, 
 Bijah." The doctor spoke with cordial confidence, as he 
 skimmed a political forecast, but the amateur politician 
 on the gate looked dejected. 
 
 Well, that will show you never can tell the luck of a 
 lousy cat, " quoth he sententiously, and the doctor laid 
 aside his paper and sent a withering glance across the yard 
 at his friend. 
 
 u Luck ! I saw Birdsell last week ! He says you ve an 
 uncommon faculty of organisation; I m something of a 
 dabster at wire-pulling myself, and I must say you don t 
 seem to have overlooked many details; I ll admit your 
 methods are not obvious. Just between ourselves, how d 
 you go to work? " 
 
 Abijah smoked reflectively. 
 
 ;< I happened to go fishing with Birdsell once " 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Oh, a long time ago; years! I was just a kid. Then 
 I met up with him in a God-forsaken corner of the North 
 west and we went fishing some more. We ve been in one 
 or two little deals together since. He has somehow ac 
 quired the idea that I m a financial phenomenon. Being 
 one of the old wheel-horses in this county, I naturally put 
 myself in his hands, when it occurred to me I wanted
 
 126 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 to go to Albany. Whatever he says goes at the caucus, 
 and I ll take care of the polls myself." 
 
 " Of course I knew you couldn t have squared Birdsell 
 in the usual way." 
 
 " No, no more than I could you. Who you going to put 
 up for assemblyman, Doc? " 
 
 The bland suggestiveness of the ingenuous question was 
 promptly scored by the blunt old doctor. 
 
 "Humph! your indirection travels pretty straight; I 
 suppose you re after a joint nomination." 
 
 " Betcher life! " responded the political debutant, and 
 securing a firm hold on the gate with his feet, he wagged 
 his huge hand at his friend, and launched into the spec 
 tacular declamations of a cart-tail orator, oblivious of ob 
 servation. 
 
 " But feller-citizens let there be no misapprehension 
 of my position. To the superficial observation I may ap 
 pear to be on the fence, but I deny the allegation, and defy 
 the allegator! Yes, sir! It is my unalterable determi 
 nation to stand for all the people of the Steenth Assembly 
 Deestrict, regardless of party, place, or power! (By 
 gosh, Doc, get onto the alliteration ! Does it mean any 
 thing in particular?) At least, feller-citizens, I want to 
 stand for all of you, and if the Democratic Convention 
 entrusts their interests to my care, I shall be ahem ! very 
 careful of em! Therefore, Doc, gimme your vote! 
 (You darned old Jacksonian, you might as well as to throw 
 it away on a Democratic nominee.)" 
 
 You lunatic ! get off that gate and come up here ! 
 What s the reason you didn t come to me with the first 
 symptoms of this political fever? " 
 
 Thought I d better see how my own party cottoned 
 to the idea first," said Abijah, retaining his seat. 
 
 Well, I suppose I can swing our delegation over to 
 you, if only Ten Eyke does not "
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 127 
 
 There s no trouble about Ten Eyke," serenely. 
 
 The doctor s bushy brows lowered suddenly above his 
 gleaming eyes. 
 
 " If you don t tell me how you did that, Bijah Bead, 
 I ll turn you down in the delegation, and work against 
 you at the polls," he said with emphasis. 
 
 Abijah pulled on his cigar reflectively. 
 
 It was nothing but a bluff at first," he said, and 
 dropped his voice as he proceeded, until the doctor was 
 leaning forward in his chair to catch the pregnant, low- 
 spoken words across the narrow lawn. 
 
 " I experimented with his nibs. Put him next to a 
 specious scheme; a perfectly rotten thing; a thing no de 
 cently conservative man would touch with a ten-foot pole ; 
 but this honourable Christian gentleman was all ready 
 for a go at it and, Lord! I wanted to let him go the 
 limit." 
 
 The old hypocrite ! And I ve banked with him for 
 thirty years," snorted the angry doctor, but Abijah waved 
 a soothing hand as he continued. 
 
 ;t I haven t! I have an instinctive mistrust of the oil 
 of bergamot, but it s no part of mine to destroy the touch 
 ing confidence of my fellow-townsmen in each other; so 
 I just devilled him on my own hook, and you may take my 
 word I ve kept him on the anxious seat the most of this 
 fiscal year. He never knew what damaging insinuation 
 I d spring on him in public, and I ve kept him guessing, 
 until the other day, in a spirit of pure philanthropy, 
 I dropped down on him at the bank, and offered to take 
 up any old blocks of stock he had lying around loose. I 
 guess I timed it pretty fine, for he wanted to fall on my 
 neck. I reared up, of course, and he hit somewhere 
 about the belly-band, and then I sat the little runt down 
 hard, in his presidential chair, and talked to him like a 
 Dutch uncle. Oh, no ! There isn t going to be any trou-
 
 128 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 ble with Ten Eyke when my name comes up in the Con 
 vention; or elsewhere. You go ahead and try it." 
 
 " Then the rascal s damn peculations have crippled the 
 bank? He ought to be ridden on a rail," stormed the 
 indignant depositor. 
 
 " I shan t have my scented figure-head treated that im 
 proper. He has violated the federal banking laws at his 
 own sweet discretion, under Phelps nose, but he s useful 
 now and harmless; and you can bank with us and Co. as 
 long as my luck lasts. I m going in as a director shortly. 
 Ten Eyke s given up everything he has, to straighten 
 things out; and glad to do it. He didn t mean to be dis 
 honest, but he wasn t the calibre for a speculator. Know 
 what gave me the cue to drop on him finally?" 
 
 " No of course not." 
 
 " I nearly had a fit and fell in it, when I heard by chance 
 that you were treating him for insomnia. A bank presi 
 dent and insomnia ! and everybody so sympathetic over 
 poor, dear Mr. Ten Eyke! Oh, Doc! oh, Doc! " and 
 Abijah lifted up his voice in shouts of laughter until the 
 shameless echoes of it filled the quiet street. The doctor 
 made no pretence of sharing his amusement. 
 
 The whole community is under very great obligations 
 to you," he began pompously, but was interrupted by a 
 diabolic chuckle from the gate. 
 
 " Oh, damn the community! I ve had more fun than 
 a goat," averred Abijah, but he was disconcerted by his 
 friend s gravity. 
 
 Well, then, I m probably personally in your debt, for 
 about all I ve got," the doctor persisted, " but if you 
 imagine that s going to influence me in the Convention," 
 hotly, u you overestimate your powers of ridicule. I in 
 tended to have you nominated, and I m not to be intimi 
 dated, confound you! If you can get any satisfaction in 
 thinking you ve squared me, you re welcome to it."
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 129 
 
 " Your noble sentiments are a credit to you, Doc, and I 
 guess I can stand em, if you can," said Abijah, and the 
 eyes of the two men laughed together, for they under 
 stood each other very thoroughly, the old and the young 
 man. 
 
 " One good thing," exulted the doctor, " you ve had to 
 display some of your hidden lucre." 
 
 Yes they re getting onto me," said Abijah dejectedly. 
 
 : If you mean to roost out there on that fence much 
 longer, you had better send for your saddle," the doctor 
 suggested hospitably, and Abijah gave him a reproachful 
 glance. 
 
 " You don t sabe, Doc. Perhaps it looks as though I 
 were grilling out here for the fun of the thing; my posi 
 tion is always being misunderstood; but I d have you know 
 I m here entirely out of a delicate consideration for 
 you." 
 
 Much obliged." 
 
 " I didn t suppose you d like me to compromise the 
 belle of Hurstville by my disreputable society, so I sent 
 Murrey s understudy back with her mare. If you hadn t 
 been asleep a while ago, you would have seen me cavort 
 through the town like a Comanche on the warpath, after 
 that darned mare. Don t turn pale, fond lover, the lady s 
 safe; and a most uncommonly lively young woman she 
 is, too. I wish you d teach her something about the laws 
 of trespass when you get time. I hope the Bronk hasn t 
 bucked that boy off, but I m getting anxious." 
 
 What on earth are you talking about? Where is 
 Miss Hurst?" 
 
 " God knows ! " ejaculated Abijah. " I left her in the 
 middle of my ten-acre meadow, with Giuseppe Giacoso; 
 they were strawberrying. It didn t seem to faze her to be 
 caught red-handed in the act; though I cut loose and in 
 voked some lurid penalties on trespassers; skinning was
 
 130 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the mildest thing I think I mentioned. You see, there was 
 nothing visible in the high grass but a derby hat beside 
 Giuseppe s old straw sailor, and I didn t happen to know 
 he was pals with your girl." 
 
 The doctor lay back and chuckled fatuously. 
 
 ;< What did Barbara do? " he asked with interest. 
 
 " Barbara stood up in the middle of my meadow, and 
 withered me with a glance. I was certainly abashed, and 
 there wasn t anything but a grin under that Dago s hat. 
 Wait till I catch him alone! It was a mighty relief to 
 me when her mare hit the trail for home, and distracted 
 her attention. She d been standing behind some bushes, 
 and I hadn t seen her till she streaked past me. In the ex 
 citement of the moment your Barbara condescended to 
 address the cowering wretch before her. Peremptorily 
 ordered me to get a move on, and catch that mare before 
 the family was thrown into a state of mind, by seeing her 
 come home riderless. I moved on, I assure you. Briskly! 
 In fact, the Bronk had to hump himself, and I only cor 
 ralled the little brute by taking a cut through Storms 
 barnyard, and heading her off on the very homestretch. She 
 went like smoke, and I could have lathered her good for 
 parading me through the village at her tail! I saw Mur 
 rey s understudy in the store door, looking wistful, and as 
 I happened to remember some pressing business engage 
 ments, I sent him back with her. She wouldn t let him 
 up, so I gave him the Bronk. It seems hard I cannot 
 lead a peaceful life, try as I will! If the Bronk hasn t 
 bucked the tenderfoot off, they ought to be back. Rob 
 ought to be here, anyhow." 
 
 The doctor found the story entertaining. 
 
 " Were they down in those valley meadows of 
 yours? " 
 
 " They were. The belle has a hankering for wild straw 
 berries, and I suppose she can devastate all the crops
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 131 
 
 in the vicinity, and the humble agriculturist mustn t say a 
 word, but I draw the line at the Dago; I will skin him! " 
 said Abijah vindictively. 
 
 " What a girl she is! " said the doctor admiringly. 
 
 " She is indeed," answered Abijah with deep feeling. 
 " That expresses it all." 
 
 " I wish she were my daughter," defiantly retorted the 
 doctor, meeting the pitying regard Abijah turned upon 
 him. 
 
 " I hate to see you in this state, Doc," Abijah said with 
 feeling. " Better marry her and get it off your mind as 
 soon as you can." 
 
 " Drop those idiotic insinuations. She s a mere child 
 to a man of my age, but I would adopt her if I could." 
 
 " I d adopt a wild-cat cub first. If you want comfort, 
 adopt a likely boy like mine. Hear him come ! " and 
 they listened as a sound of a pattering gallop broke the 
 stillness of the street. Abijah leaned back on the gate, 
 and gave a view hello, as Rob rode into sight. The 
 boy waved his hand and came on at a hand gallop. He 
 threw himself from his pony with a fine affectation of his 
 father s dashing manner. 
 
 " Where s the Bronk? " demanded Mr. Bead. 
 
 The druggist is riding him back with the lady. Didn t 
 you catch her horse, father? " asked Rob. 
 Yes. Bronk going along peaceable?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 What kept you so long? " 
 
 I had some strawberries. The lady in the man s hat 
 made the boy give me all he had in his pail. I didn t want 
 to take his berries: I was going to pick some myself, but 
 she made me take his; and the boy laughed." 
 
 That was very kind of the young lady," said Abijah 
 gravely. 
 
 " May I go down the street and play? "
 
 1 32 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Yes; just bring the Bronk up when he gets back, will 
 you, pard? No guess I would not take the pony to play 
 on the congested thoroughfare of this metropolis. Leave 
 him here." 
 
 " You see yourself as others see you ! " laughed the doc 
 tor as the tiny figure sauntered down the street. His air 
 of abstracted observation was his father s very own 
 until some object of interest started him into a dead 
 run. 
 
 " And I tell you what, it makes me sit up I " replied the 
 father gravely, and the doctor nodded. He was a lonely 
 man himself, though he seldom had time to realise it. 
 
 Your mother and sister are coming down the street," 
 he admonished, breaking up a little silence that fell on 
 them. 
 
 "Well, I can t help it it s a public thoroughfare; 
 but if you send me to Albany, I ll introduce a bill in the 
 parliament for the corralling of all women of a certain 
 age," said Abijah persuasively, and he did not turn his 
 head as the doctor bowed to his relatives. 
 
 " I wonder what you will do. As a practical politician, 
 I would suggest that your attitude at present lacks the 
 bland obsequiousness we have come to expect of political 
 aspirants," remonstrated the doctor. 
 
 4 No one expects bland obsequiousness of a Pang- 
 Yanger, and women can t vote. If they could, I wouldn t 
 run for anything but the woods." 
 
 " I d hate to nominate a man to run against the silent 
 vote; besides, several of the proletariat have passed with 
 out your recognition." 
 
 Think I m going to give them a chance to gloat 
 over my bland obsequiousness on the verge of nomi 
 nation? " 
 
 No; but I hope you won t make it a point to be any 
 more mulish than usual," said the doctor mildly. " I ve
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 133 
 
 had to confess you re a better judge of men than I am; 
 but you don t know a damn thing about women, Bijah! " 
 
 " Don t have to. I told Birdsell when we talked this 
 thing over, I thought I could poll a good vote, and I think 
 I can. I make no pretence of popularity, but I ve dealt 
 with the men of this county somewhat extensively, and 
 not with the women, and there s no kick coming from any 
 where, as far as I know. No, the proletariat isn t giv 
 ing me any uneasiness: I ve devoted my attention to the 
 nomination, and I ve told you something about that. 
 Happen to have a little influence with several of the lead 
 ers; on both sides. I guess you needn t hesitate to put me 
 up. My political assets aren t what they re quoted, but 
 you re the only one who suspects that what I don t know 
 about finance fills the books. I m rated Ai ! Birdsell 
 thinks I m a phenomenon. Birdsell draws his own con 
 clusions, bless his heart and I let him. He wants 
 shrewd business men in the Assembly to finance up-state 
 affairs. Oh, Lord! And he is sending me to Albany 
 to hold the up-state delegates together, and balk the 
 iniquitous city contingent. And I m going, Doc, simply 
 on my thundering luck! If the thing don t peter out, I m 
 going to Washington later. Chairman of the National 
 Finance Committee, and hold your breath while you 
 watch me do it." 
 
 What a damn fraud you are!" The doctor s fist 
 came down on his chair-arm in a smashing blow. 
 
 I m the helpless victim of circumstances; I repudiate 
 any personal responsibility for it," said Abijah. 
 
 " A damn fraud ! " reiterated the doctor. " You know 
 your financial ability is as much a talent as the ability to 
 paint, or write, or sculp." 
 
 Tisn t in the same class at all; those fellows always 
 show that the brainwork tells on em, and I m as husky 
 as I was when I herded sheep."
 
 134 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Oh, you make me tired," said the doctor in disgust. 
 
 You come up to Albany next winter, and I ll wear 
 you out. We ll have a sheol of a time! I m going to do 
 the thing up scrumptious, once I start with it. My boy 
 shall see his dad s no slouch at the high monky-monk busi 
 ness when he gives his mind to it. Know why I hate to? " 
 
 " Have to wear a b iled shirt, I suppose." 
 
 Abijah wriggled ruefully within his comfortable neg 
 ligee at the suggestion. 
 
 " It isn t so much that. But do you know what my 
 mother will say? That is, when she gets so she speaks 
 to me at all. I m cut off with a shilling, you know, since 
 I brought the boy home." 
 
 " My son, the Congressman! laughed the doctor; 
 " but how can you expect her to speak to you in that posi 
 tion?" 
 
 "I ll turn around next time; then she will say you 
 know her deliberate way Abijah, if you had cultivated 
 the right people, you might have occupied a creditable 
 position in the world always! Position ! there s been 
 solid satisfaction in being a black sheep! " 
 
 Why forsake so conspicuously successful a role? " 
 
 u The kid of course," said Abijah simply. " Having 
 snared him into life, I owe him the best life affords. That 
 is only dead-sea fruit, of course, but he may not be like me ; 
 I hope he won t. He may not taste the ashes of success." 
 
 " The rule of thumb is what the most go by," said the 
 doctor. 
 
 He broke off abruptly, to watch with undisguised inter 
 est the equestrians coming up the street, through the blaze 
 of summer sunshine. Abijah saw them too, out of the tail 
 of his eye, without changing his position. Barbara bowed 
 to the doctor across the encumbrance on his gate, as they 
 swept past, and the young gentleman accompanying her 
 called apologetically:
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 135 
 
 " I ll be back in a moment, Mr. Bead! " but Abijah 
 only acquiesced in this arrangement by a backward move 
 ment of his hand. 
 
 " Some one ought to knock you off that gate," said the 
 doctor wrathfully, and Abijah got up. 
 
 " You haven t been real hospitable about it since I sat 
 down there," he remarked reproachfully, " and I shan t 
 sit on your gate any more ! " 
 
 Rob was coming up the street, his cap far back on his 
 ruddy curls, his roseleaf colour aglow beneath a promising 
 crop of freckles impartially distributed all over his coun 
 tenance. 
 
 Abijah opened the gate; he was thinking of the woman 
 whose beauty was captivating London : whose social tri 
 umphs, recorded in the Associated Press, filled half the 
 first page of the current issue of the Hurstville Post which 
 lay beside the doctor. 
 
 " He-wouldn t-let-me-have-the-Bronk! " gasped Rob, 
 his eyes wide with amaze that any one should ignore his 
 father s orders, and Abijah drew the little panting figure 
 close to him. They made a picturesque and striking 
 group, the powerful dark man and the fair child. 
 
 I forgot he would naturally want to go on up to the 
 Hurst house," said Abijah in the courteous intonation he 
 invariably adopted towards his son. " We must accom 
 modate our neighbours, you know." 
 
 Contrary to his custom, he made a leisurely detour that 
 day through the exclusive residential section of the village 
 on his way home, and as their horses clattered through the 
 drowsy streets, they set the gossip of veranda groups agog. 
 Abijah felt the breeze of the fluttering pages of the Hurst 
 ville Post follow in his wake. 
 
 " Print the news," he had said, curtly declining the 
 censorship offered by the distracted editor. ;< Print all 
 the news. Facts won t hurt me." And it followed, the
 
 136 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 editor being a literal-minded man, that this last edition 
 was embellished by Sarah s picture on the title page " the 
 most beautiful woman in London " and contained on the 
 second page, an editorial on Abijah s Bead s political pros 
 pects. 
 
 His bearing was urbane and debonair as he chatted with 
 the gallant child, riding beside him, and his absorption 
 was such as to preclude all salutations. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff observed her brother s approach from 
 a distance, and was at the gate, a pretty figure in flutter 
 ing summer finery, to intercept him as he rode by. 
 
 " Oh, Bijah! " she called, and Mr. Bead hastily drew 
 rein at the sound of the ladylike voice, and looked around, 
 so blandly at loss for any reason for his detention, that 
 his sister somewhat lost composure. 
 
 " How de do, Emily? " he said and waited. 
 
 " Oh, Bijah, I wanted to talk to you ! " she said, coming 
 daintily out to the edge of the shady sidewalk, and looking 
 up at him confidentially; Rob was staring at her with all 
 his might. 
 
 " I wanted to tell you how glad I am of your success. 
 We were all so surprised about the bank. I cried when 
 John told me; " there was a mist in the lady s dark eyes 
 now; she had borne in secret her husband s tendency to 
 family animadversion, and Abijah s affluence meant more 
 to her than he guessed. He looked down on her now, 
 kindly, quizzingly. After all Emily was a good little 
 thing within her limitations. 
 
 " Expect I d fill a pauper s grave if I wasn t hung for 
 a horse thief, didn t you, Em? " he teased. 
 
 "No, of course not!" Mrs. Brinkerhoff repudiated 
 any such reflections on the family, " but this is different. 
 John says you are almost sure of getting the nomina 
 tion too; Bijah, I shall be so proud of you, if you are 
 elected."
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 137 
 
 Abijah, impassive, flicked a fly from the quivering 
 shoulder of Bronk. 
 
 " John has a great deal of influence," continued Mrs. 
 Brinkerhoff, " and he is, of course, doing all he can for 
 you." 
 
 " Can t you stop him, Em? " enquired Abijah, affecting 
 consternation. " If you have any desire to cut a dash in 
 Albany next winter with me, you d better inveigle your 
 old man into a trip somewhere, until after election." 
 
 " You can scarcely hope that all your family incum- 
 brances will betake themselves to trips," retorted Emily, 
 who was, after all, Abijah s own sister. 
 
 " By the way," he said carelessly, " I have not intro 
 duced my son to you yet. Rob, this is your Aunt Emily." 
 
 Rob plucked his cap from the back of his incriminating 
 rubescent pate, and rode his pony close to the walk, to offer 
 a grimy paw. The lady s jewelled fingers closed loosely 
 upon it; there was just a moment s hesitation, and then she 
 bent forward and kissed him. The merry little face was ir 
 resistible, and the embarrassment of recognition less than 
 her schooling had led her to expect. Abijah had taken the 
 boy on all his business trips since bringing him to Hurst- 
 ville; his presence was not thrust upon the community 
 when they were home, and really since his hair was cut, 
 and his freckles masked his face, there wasn t such a 
 dreadful resemblance as at first ! Already the impress of 
 the paternal expression was moulding the maternal fea 
 tures : in a few years casual observation would not de 
 tect 
 
 Abijah was watching her with his inscrutable, mocking 
 expression. 
 
 " Bring bring him over to see me some day," she said 
 vaguely, and her brother laughed. 
 
 Yes be nice for him to come over and play with his 
 little cousins, won t it?" he jeered, and the childless
 
 138 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 woman winced. Personally she did not regret her barren 
 ness, but she objected to her brother s open strictures on 
 her marriage. 
 
 The recognition of his affluence and importance in the 
 community seemed to drive Abijah Berserk-mad; and dur 
 ing the summer which preceded his election he ran amuck 
 of the sensibilities of his would-be constituents, by ribald 
 carping at conventional standards, social, civic, and theo 
 logical, in season and out. From his seat at Murrey s in 
 the long dusty afternoons, he flouted their foibles, or 
 worse, in the face of a decent community, with spe 
 cially virulent jeers at the shortcomings of church 
 members, dignitaries, and powers, until by midsum 
 mer every political wiseacre in the home district dis 
 counted his chances of nomination by the ratio of his own 
 castigation. He seemed deliberately to challenge and 
 defy defeat, and his very friends, his warmest advocates, 
 grew dubious: even Dr. Pomfret would not speak to him 
 at one time, which apparently afforded the recalcitrant 
 candidate exquisite amusement, and at an informal con 
 ference of the powers, only the unexpected advocacy of 
 old Mr. Deyo saved his nomination. The old gentleman 
 arose, and in his anxiety was utterly unconscious of mak 
 ing a political speech until the thing was done. 
 
 Bijah allus was a queer sorter genius," he urged ear 
 nestly, rising unconsciously to his feet, " but he don t mean 
 half he says! He s a smart feller and he s honest: and 
 them regular politicians up at Albany won t get the best 
 of Bijah Bead very easy. I d sorter like to give em a 
 chance to try! " 
 
 A yell of laughter and applause disconcerted the gentle 
 old man and he sat down, bewildered but smiling faintly; 
 and the native humour of his countrymen, which has es 
 pecial joy in the expose of meretricious schemes, carried 
 the delegation for the eccentric candidate. It was expected
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 139 
 
 that Abijah s career would furnish delectation in that par 
 ticular direction. 
 
 Soon after this, an article in the Hurstville Post turned 
 his own weapons against the candidate; ridiculing his atti 
 tude so ably and so subtly that Abijah, wincing as he read, 
 was forced to restrain his sardonic humour. 
 
 He attributed the article to Dr. Pomfret; and it was to 
 his perplexed and exasperated friend that its inception was 
 due, but a lighter pen helped out the doctor s laboured 
 efforts. Barbara Hurst had come upon him in the throes 
 of composition, possessed herself in a trice of his anxieties 
 and desires, and throwing herself into the spirit of the 
 thing, dashed off the article which convulsed the com 
 munity, while the old gentleman sat and nibbled his big 
 pen. Barbara was not quite a tyro in the political arena, 
 her pen having aided Colonel Haygood in several of his 
 campaigns; and with an intuition for which she blushed 
 hotly, she saw the very soul of this strange man writh 
 ing in humiliation before the people whom he mocked 
 and feared. Her own pride was contending with 
 strange insurgent emotions, and she understood the sav 
 agery of the defensive impulse. She was very cheerfully 
 prepared to die rather than betray her despicable weak 
 ness for this cad who vaunted a woman s frailty: as 
 suredly the colonel would have challenged such a man be 
 fore breakfast, on the general principles of the code; and 
 Barbara felt debased that he possessed an almost irre 
 sistible attraction for her. In the face of his obvious in 
 difference, this influence was simply maddening, and Bar 
 bara raged against herself and him; and yet and yet 
 the bitter sweetness of it! She tingled with it, as her 
 pen scored and helped him secretly; excusing herself on 
 the secret plea that it would be a remarkably good thing 
 for several people if he were elected, and left Hurstville 
 for at least part of each year.
 
 1 40 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 She put a laugh in every line she wrote; catch phrases, 
 for slower wits to fence his badgering withal, but not a 
 word to rankle afterwards. " Fractious " effectually de 
 prived Abijah s bitterest gibes of venom, and " tantrums " 
 made his humours trivial; he was put to the defence by a 
 suggested repartee which lost no zest for his long-suffering 
 townsmen by threadbare repetition ; and only he discerned 
 (and roundly cursed) the penetration of a friend which 
 had taken measure of his weakness, and rallied him to its 
 defence. He knew that his outrageous flings evoked a 
 dim perception in his victims that he jeered not them, 
 but Fate, whose puppet he was one with them, and he 
 shrewdly counted on the practical result of being somehow 
 held to champion the masses against entrenched aggres 
 sion. This was, in truth, far from being his case, but 
 as he scornfully assured his anxious political sponsors, 
 " he did not fear the proletariat." Nevertheless he did 
 fear, was panic-stricken, by the possibility of a failure he 
 did not anticipate; and he had no stomach to make light 
 of his unreason, even with his most sympathetic friend. 
 Barbara s article forced him, when all other remonstrances 
 had failed, to face the logic of the situation; to pay the 
 cost or relinquish the design. He could not, with any de 
 gree of truth, be said to grow obsequious, but he became 
 approachable: occasionally suffered an influential citizen 
 (his erstwhile censor, or his butt) to converse with him 
 and was even known to endure congratulations on his un 
 looked-for prosperity, without casting about for a weapon, 
 though, in the latter situation, the strain of complaisance 
 was obviously at the limit. As the season of his nomina 
 tion approached, the doubts of his political well-wishers 
 vanished, but Abijah only shared their confidence publicly. 
 
 Hitherto, he had held himself grimly aloof from the 
 discipline of life, which comes inevitably with competition, 
 and now for the first time, having challenged appraisement^
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 141 
 
 he was afraid, horribly afraid of a " fiasco." Money he 
 had made or lost indifferently, an impersonal affair and 
 no exponent of a man s real worth; but now he felt the 
 official measure of the world, and the ingrained defect of 
 his character was a distrust of his own qualities. 
 
 Throughout that interminable summer he awoke o 
 nights with sudden starts to read the doctor s careless for 
 mula in the darkness: " Success is the quantivalent of the 
 dynamic force of a man." His big hands clenched them 
 selves until the tendons creaked in the silence as he looked 
 into the abyss of failure, and comprehensively cursed the 
 pertinacity which held him to his purpose, and all con 
 tributory sources of his extreme discomfiture, back to the 
 very beginning of things. 
 
 And the curious part was, he had no sympathy whatso 
 ever with this coward who almost betrayed him. His 
 conviction of success remained: but it was a trying 
 summer.
 
 IX 
 
 ALONG drought had seared the vegetation of the 
 mountains to a prer.iature and sombre semblance of 
 autumnal colouring, and the day was windless. 
 The still dry air was surcharged with electricity, and 
 Nature held her breath, tensive, expectant of elemental 
 violence. 
 
 During a long drive, Mrs. Brinkerhoff had alternately 
 harassed and soothed her horses, until the staid and gentle 
 creatures were as nervous as herself. When she turned 
 toward home, Barbara, who had watched her with languid 
 interest, sighed in relief. Warm weather never made Bar 
 bara restless, but she had accompanied Mrs. Brinkerhoff 
 through inertia, a refusal being more effort than acqui 
 escence. 
 
 As they drove listlessly through the still forest, a sudden 
 breeze dropped into the road ahead, and a cloud of dust 
 scurried toward them, to die down before it reached them. 
 The forests crowded close on either side, and all the visible 
 sky above was blue and cloudless: but while the sun still 
 shone brightly, there was a dimming of the luminous air 
 which betokened a fast-gathering tempest, and a low growl 
 of thunder in the northwest came on another breeze a 
 little stronger which lapped against their faces and set 
 the surrounding treetops whispering. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff brought down her whip with utter 
 disregard of that delicacy which usually inframed her every 
 action, and the horses sprang forward into the face of a 
 rising wind. 
 
 142
 
 CHAPTER NINE 143 
 
 " Maybe we can get to Bijah s! " she said wildly, and 
 though this would have been no refuge of Barbara s choos 
 ing, she was not consulted, and her companion s terror 
 would have rendered the most valid protest unavailing. 
 
 The storm burst in swift fury as they turned into the 
 driveway of the old Bead place, and the reins dropped 
 from Mrs. Brinkerhoff s nerveless hands. She cowered 
 back, and hid her face on Barbara s shoulder. Barbara 
 shook her off, caught the lines, and raced for the house, 
 through a blinding swirl of rain. 
 
 The storm enveloped the mountain; dazzling blue 
 flames zigzagged on the darkness, while the reverbera 
 tion of the thunder was almost a continual roll. The 
 tumult drowned the sound of their approach, but 
 as Barbara brought the horses to a stand before the 
 house, a flash revealed them to Abijah, who, with Rob 
 astride his shoulder, stood in a group of his men, in the 
 wide barn door. He dashed out in the downpour toward 
 them, and tossing the boy into the porch, leaped toward 
 the carriage, and lowered the top. Thereupon his sister 
 fell limply forward into his arms, and was almost carried 
 into the house. 
 
 One of his men had followed Mr. Bead, and stood at 
 the horses heads, stolidly watching Barbara, who de 
 scended from the carriage without haste or assistance. 
 Being already drenched, her best and most becoming gown 
 a ruin, there was a certain savage satisfaction in a total 
 wreck; and she proceeded to the house with a deliberation 
 which allowed the elements to complete their devastation. 
 Her hat collapsed in pulp above her eyes, as she reached 
 the steps, and she jerked it off, and threw it as far as she 
 could send it. 
 
 I m very glad to see you," said Rob politely, coming 
 down into the rain to offer an umbrella he had not had time 
 to open, and the cordial little face somewhat dispelled
 
 144 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 her swift exasperation. She took his hand, and they 
 ran up the steps together. Mr. Bead was at the door to 
 meet them. 
 
 " Come right in," he said hospitably as the two drenched 
 figures paused, dripping, at the threshold. 
 
 " I m in a state of solution," she announced with the 
 calmness of desperation at the contretemps which again 
 presented her at a disadvantage before this man, and there 
 appeared good grounds for her apprehension. Her gown, 
 a filmy black thing, of unsubstantial fibre, seemed dissolving 
 on her as she stood. Mr. Bead s countenance expressed 
 the sympathy of a wooden Indian. 
 
 That s bad: can t you er wring it out, or some 
 thing? " he suggested vaguely. His own clothing had ab 
 sorbed a considerable amount of moisture, but it did not 
 drip. Barbara caught up her skirt, and gave it an im 
 patient shake, but the clammy feel of the clinging folds 
 was the last touch. With a quick impatience she 
 ripped off a yard or so of her limp train, and threw the 
 stuff out of the door. Mr. Bead s impassivity was such 
 as though the rending of garments was a customary social 
 rite of entrance at his home. 
 
 " I don t know the modern equivalent for sackcloth, but 
 there are ashes," he remarked tentatively, and Barbara 
 flashed a glance of indignation into the quiet, mocking face 
 above her. 
 
 " I don t care!" she exclaimed, exactly like a spoiled 
 and unrepentant child, but her host s expression of stolid 
 resignation was convulsing, and she laughed until she cried, 
 while he looked on, helpless. 
 
 This meeting was not of her seeking: she would not 
 have condescended to manoeuvre for the sake of her im 
 mortal happiness, and although she could not subdue a 
 humiliating tendresse for this queer Yankee, pride in 
 stinctively defied the weakness. She was palpitant with
 
 CHAPTER NINE 145 
 
 the joy of this chance rencontre; he thought her perfectly 
 insouciant. 
 
 An anguished wail from the room behind her checked 
 Barbara s laughter. 
 
 "Oh, Bijah!" adjured his sister s voice, and Mr. 
 Bead started for the stairway with visible relief at the 
 escape. 
 
 " Just a minute, Emily," he called apologetically, and 
 mounting three steps at a leap, looked back at Barbara, in 
 her clinging tatters. " Sister s in there," he observed in a 
 tone of general invitation, pointing to an open doorway as 
 he disappeared. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff was prone upon a couch, her hands 
 pressed upon her ears, and Barbara had only made out 
 her location in the gloom of the storm-darkened room, 
 when Mr. Bead reappeared, carrying a plump feather bed, 
 which he proceeded in a matter-of-fact way to spread 
 smoothly over his sister s prostrate form. 
 
 " Thank you, brother," said a smothered voice, and 
 he turned to meet Barbara s face of liveliest amusement, 
 and Rob s wide wondering eyes. 
 
 " Usual performance," he explained with a shrug; 
 " guess that struck pretty near," he added, as a vivid flash 
 was followed by a crash which shook the house. Rob 
 crept up to him and slipped his hand in his. 
 
 " Bad storm, pard," said Mr. Bead, clasping tight the 
 warm little fingers, and looking toward the window. 
 
 The storm was furious: sheets of driven rain shut off 
 the valley from their view completely; broken branches 
 hurtled past on the blast as the great trees bent and strained 
 against the wind, and the roar of the tumult filled the old 
 farm-house with that empty echoing sound so indescribably 
 haunting and suggestive to the imagination. 
 
 Barbara stood by a large desk in the centre of the room, 
 alert, lightly poised with head uplifted, and eyes fixed on
 
 146 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the rain-dashed window panes. She was conscious of an 
 elemental force swaying her toward Abijah, just as the 
 trees swayed in the wind, and a delirious, joyous desire to 
 yield herself to the influences; not that she meant for a 
 moment to do so. She was perfectly unconscious that she 
 met his casual glance with the starry, ineffable eyes which 
 had startled and baffled him once before. 
 
 " You you are not afraid? " he queried. It was not 
 at all what he had intended to say. 
 
 "Oh, no!" breathed Barbara, with such unconscious 
 but ecstatic fervour, that the hapless man before her was 
 stark with consternation, and ran his fingers wildly through 
 his sleek, wet hair. "This is the worst ever!" he re 
 flected, and clutched Rob as his only hope and safeguard 
 from effusive womankind. 
 
 " You are pretty wet, Miss Hurst; don t you think you 
 had better throw one of my coats around you? " he en 
 quired with a level unexpressiveness of voice and face 
 which aroused Barbara to conventionalities. Her dress 
 was clinging to her neck and arms in unpleasant sticky 
 pulp; but she laughed, a soft throaty little laugh in 
 describably feminine and touching. 
 
 " Oh, I reckon this gown of mine is going to stick by 
 me, literally," she said airily, and patting her seeping 
 sleeve, found her assurance utterly discredited; the traitor 
 ous gauze came away on her fingers in shreds and patches, 
 and she extended the horrifying exhibit toward her host 
 with a dramatic gesture of dismay. 
 
 Mr. Bead was resourceful. He made a prompt raid on 
 a chimney closet, where he kept convenient garments, and 
 extracting an enormous silk muffler from the pocket of an 
 overcoat, folded it shawlwise as he crossed the room, and 
 laid it lightly on her shoulders. The bright colours lent 
 a foreign piquancy to her dark face and curling hair, and 
 under the decorous protection of the silken drapery, she
 
 CHAPTER NINE 147 
 
 stripped off the unpleasant remnant of her sleeves and 
 wiped her round arms on her handkerchief. 
 
 " If you ll excuse me, please, I m pretty wet too, 
 and I guess I ll have a change," said Rob, and his father 
 saw him depart with dire misgivings. 
 
 But Barbara sat down and folded her hands, a picture 
 innocent of alarms, while her host prowled about the con 
 fines of the room. 
 
 " He has very pretty manners for a boy," she re 
 marked, adding the qualification as she watched Rob s 
 frantic efforts to ascend the stairway two steps at a time, 
 in emulation of his father s habit. Mr. Bead had come to 
 rest beside a window, and his reply was inarticulate. Sud 
 denly his figure, dim against the gloaming, was outlined 
 by a vivid flash of lightning, which played in vivid blue 
 light around the window; it brought Barbara to her feet 
 with a startled exclamation. Abijah did not move, and 
 for an instant terror held her rigid, then 
 
 " Mr. Bead," she cried, but still he did not move nor 
 speak, and she ran to him, and shook his arm wildly. 
 
 "Mr. Bead! Mr. Bead! The house is struck! I 
 heard Rob fall ! " she cried, but he only stared at her 
 dully. 
 
 " Oh, what shall I do! " she sobbed under her fright 
 ened breath, then called shrilly, " Rob ! " The name 
 aroused Abijah, and Barbara followed him, as struggling 
 with the stupor of the shock, his feet groped a way slowly 
 and paused at the foot of the stairs. 
 
 " Go on ! go on ! " she cried, and then, as he did not 
 stir, pushed past him and rushed up alone. 
 
 "Rob!" she called, "Rob!" A whiff of smoke 
 stopped her. " Fire! " she shrieked frantically. " Mr. 
 Bead, fire ! " But there was no answer from the inert man 
 below, and she dashed into a doorway from which floated 
 softly a faint wreath of smoke.
 
 148 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 The lightning had entered near the window, stripping 
 off the casing, and setting fire to it, and there was a 
 ominous crackling sound as the flame licked its way into 
 the room. Rob lay on the floor unconscious, and she 
 gathered him up in her arms, and staggered back to the 
 head of the stairs. 
 
 " Fire! fire! " she cried, sinking down on the step with 
 her burden, and Abijah looked at them somnolently. 
 
 " Fire ! " she shrilled again with all her strength, and he 
 heard at last. 
 
 It seemed to her that he came up those stairs and passed 
 her in one wild bound. Closing the door of the burning 
 chamber, he leaped to a window at the end of the hall, and 
 throwing up the sash, summoned his men with a shout that 
 brought them on the run. His directions for a bucket 
 line were concise and forceful, but Barbara s only sense of 
 his free and fluent expletives was a comforting assurance 
 of his recovered energy. 
 
 She felt no further responsibility for anything that hap 
 pened, and sat still on the stairs holding Rob, until he 
 came back to them, Rob opened his eyes as his father 
 spoke. 
 
 " Come down, the men will be up here in a moment," 
 Abijah said hurriedly, and lifting the boy from her arms, 
 ran down the stairs. Barbara got up, but there was no 
 more in her, and she was clinging limply to the banisters 
 when he glanced back. Although not yet fully realising 
 the strain she had undergone, her helplessness was obvious, 
 and there were heavy footsteps clattering through the 
 house; so back he dashed, and throwing one arm around 
 her waist, swept down into the hall with his double burden, 
 blocking the narrow passage just as the men rushed in 
 from the kitchen. A grin of ecstatic joy broadened Gid s 
 lantern jaws, and old Jerry s twinkling eyes lit up with the 
 fun of his master s predicament.
 
 CHAPTER NINE 149 
 
 "Hustle! " said Abijah brusquely, stepping hastily in 
 side the doorway, and they dashed past. 
 
 He deposited Barbara unceremoniously upon the first 
 chair, and thrust Rob back into her arms. Barbara clutched 
 the boy automatically. 
 
 " Stay here, in here, till I come back ! " he said with 
 authority, as he closed the door. 
 
 Snatching the pail of water from the nearest man, he 
 sprang toward the stairway, shouting his directions. It 
 was a brisk and stubborn fight to rescue the old farm-house, 
 for the inside woodwork burned like tinder, and only his 
 precaution in closing the door upon the flames had saved 
 it. There was a long-continued tramping of rough-shod 
 feet throughout the house, gruff orders from above, and 
 answering shouts along the bucket line. The old pump 
 sloshed and rumbled steadily, but Pete, who laboured at 
 the handle, was adjured, in any terms, to " pump ! " until 
 his patience failed, and he execrated all and sundry be 
 tween his laboured breaths. To Barbara listening in the 
 room beneath, the dash of water in the burning chamber 
 sounded at such infrequent intervals she looked up be 
 tween each swish, expecting flames to burst above 
 her head. Withal it never occurred to her to move, hav 
 ing a sense of perfect personal security, as long as Abijah 
 commanded the situation. 
 
 After an enormous interval of time (it was within the 
 half-hour, but her arms ached with their unusual burden 
 and she was very tired) there was a shout of " All right, 
 now, boys ! " re-echoed by each man along the line to Pete 
 outside at the pump. Then one and all must needs file 
 up the stairs, to stand and look, and comment on the dam 
 ages with that impressive masculine deliberation which is 
 so maddening to female nerves. They lingered, tramp 
 ing to and fro and talking for an unconscionable interval, 
 while Barbara waited wearily.
 
 150 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Abijah was begrimed with smoke, and the stinging smell 
 of it clung to him, as he bent anxiously over the two figures 
 huddled in the chair where he had placed them. It had 
 not occurred to Barbara to put Rob down, and he had 
 cuddled up to her, well content with this unusual petting. 
 
 " Isn t he all right? " enquired Mr. Bead, touching the 
 boy s face gently, and a fury of jealousy choked Barbara s 
 voice. 
 
 Yes I m all right, fa-a-ther," answered Rob, and 
 laid hold of the blackened hand, and held it close against 
 his face. 
 
 The fire has done but little damage, thanks to you, 
 Miss Hurst. I should have been too late. I must have 
 been badly stunned 
 
 You were," said Barbara unsteadily. His nearness 
 was so dear! so dear! She dare not lift her eyes lest he 
 should read her naked soul. 
 
 " Was Rob in that room? " Mr. Bead made a gesture 
 upward. 
 
 "Yes, I heard him fall! " Her lips were trembling, 
 but Abijah could not see that. 
 
 "And you went in and brought him out?" His 
 voice was very gentle now. Few ever heard the tone; 
 there was nothing in the world he cared for greatly but his 
 son, and he had been near death. 
 
 " Oh, dear! There was no one else to get him ! And 
 the fire frightened me ! " Her voice broke, she 
 yielded to the impulse, and laid her head upon his arm, 
 sobbing happily. 
 
 " By thunder, a man can t live a quiet life! " mentally 
 ejaculated Mr. Bead, and braced himself to bear whatever 
 more that day the gods intended to inflict. The muscles of 
 the arm on which the little dark head rested grew tense 
 as wire, as he looked down at the delicate nape uncon 
 sciously inviting a caress, but her abandon moved him to
 
 CHAPTER NINE 151 
 
 the self-restraint which a maid s utter innocence imposes 
 on a man s free impulses. 
 
 Her tears passed in a whirlwind gust and unexpectedly 
 she sat up and pushed him violently away. 
 
 Where s my handkerchief? " she sniffed in an injured 
 tone, and Abijah strode off again to that indispensable 
 chimney cupboard of his, and extracting therefrom an 
 ample linen one, shook it out, and extended it to her in the 
 tips of his grimy fingers. 
 
 It s all your fault," she averred vaguely, as she 
 mopped her averted eyes. Here, take him ! " she said in 
 sudden annoyance with the child, and Mr. Bead in grim 
 silence stooped and gathered his son up in his arms. 
 
 I was frightened! " Barbara explained in a severely 
 narrative style. " It was the fire; I m afraid of a fire, and 
 I heard it roar ! And you wouldn t come ! " 
 
 Although at a comparatively safe distance now, Abijah 
 was perfectly distracted by the prospect of a fresh out 
 burst of tears, but Rob intervened, leaning from his arms 
 toward the girl. 
 
 " Please don t cry any more," he said in his soft little 
 way, and glancing up at them, Barbara burst into hysteric 
 laughter. 
 
 " A St. Joseph ! " she gasped, and laughed again, but 
 there was no sanctimony in Abijah s villainous appear 
 ance. He set the Bambino down with decision and 
 opened the window. 
 
 " There s the reek of the pit in here, brimstone and 
 smoke. The rain is letting up a little; do you think you 
 could come out on the porch? " He hesitated. Barbara 
 sprang to her feet: did the man think she wanted to be 
 carried again? and they went out into the fresh electric 
 air. The rain was falling still, but the wind had ceased: 
 only a thin mist obscured the valley, and the smell of the 
 drenched earth rose refreshingly. Abijah sat down on
 
 152 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the railing, and drew a sigh of relief, while Barbara, hesi 
 tating a step or so, fell to a slow pacing back and forth, her 
 little hands folded demurely on the corners of her shawl, 
 pressing against the beating of her happy heart. The wide 
 grey childish eyes, looking into the misty space of the 
 earth around, were luminous with the trace of tears which 
 softened the riant face to a strange sweetness. 
 
 There s no use my trying to thank you! " Abijah 
 spoke after a silence, with unaffected earnestness and feel 
 ing. You saved the boy. I don t know what I should 
 have done if such a fate had overtaken him here! " He 
 drew Rob to him as he spoke, and held him close. " I m 
 aware of course that it s immaterial to you, but some 
 how I want you to understand I appreciate what you have 
 done; the bravery of it; not one woman in a thousand 
 would have done it." 
 
 Barbara stopped before him at a little distance, her 
 hands still folded on her heart her face irradiant, and 
 as their eyes met, he read the unconscious revelation of 
 her heart in hers. 
 
 " Good Lord! " he groaned, " tis loving time with 
 her, and like Titania her eyes have chanced to open on an 
 ass. Nevertheless there was nothing cynic in his large 
 comprehension of this passionate pure-eyed child. He 
 thought of her more humanly than he had ever expected 
 to think of womankind again. She was just a dear little 
 innocent child! But not for him her dearness! In hum 
 blest sincerity he mutely proffered her the best he had to 
 give: respect, and largess of parental gratitude; and 
 plain as though he heard the words, he saw her outraged 
 woman s pride repudiate such an alms, where she had 
 royal gifts to offer. 
 
 She stood quite still, shamed and hurt to the tender soul 
 of her by the chill of his grave kindliness. The rose of 
 love died out of the small pale face, but the sweet lips did
 
 CHAPTER NINE 153 
 
 not tremble, nor the slender fingers on the quivering heart, 
 and the brave eyes looked at him, and mocked to hide 
 their pain, as pride arose in quick defence against him, 
 herself, and all the malevolent maze of things created. 
 
 " Any woman in a thousand would have acted as I did! 
 It was merely an automatic impulse for the preservation 
 of the species. There was no question of bravery." The 
 gall tinged this evasion of his gratitude, and Abijah s 
 smile was that good one so few people ever saw. It showed 
 the real man beneath the cynic s mask. He could have 
 shouted for the pluck and the ready self-defence of this 
 slight creature. 
 
 That sounds perfectly scientific, but my personal ex 
 perience shows the average," he began largely. 
 
 Your personal experience has been prejudicial to 
 the average, if your ratio is only one to a thousand," 
 sharply. 
 
 Abijah s open gaze closed to the level of his usual out 
 look. How should a girl like this know to strike so un 
 swervingly? He shrugged his shoulders expressively. 
 
 11 Nevertheless, I cannot change the formula of my 
 thanks for your service," he said. 
 
 " And I cannot submit to the solitude of a minority 
 unit, notwithstanding the glory of the thing. So here s an 
 impasse. Suppose you see if Mrs. Brinkerhoff is dead. 
 The idea has just occurred to me," said Barbara. 
 
 Abijah sprang to his feet. 
 
 "By Jove! I had forgotten Emily!" he said, and 
 strode into the house, Rob close at heel. Barbara leaned 
 against the pillar he had left and turned her face to the 
 rain. 
 
 " Oh, you fool! you fool! you fool! " she thought with 
 utter self-contempt, and the bitterness, the folly of a love 
 unsought stung, as it ever stings a woman s heart. Youth, 
 however, is incredulous of pain, disbelieves the reality at
 
 i 5 4 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 first, and Barbara was not wholly without sustaining ex 
 pectations of the future. However, she could not endure 
 the solitude of her present reflections, and wandered rest 
 lessly into the house. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff had gone to cover wet and arose 
 steaming, as from a Russian bath, red, rumpled, and 
 utterly dishevelled : but she shrank back from her brother s 
 grimy offer of assistance, and looked in amazement at the 
 extraordinary appearance of her two companions, who, 
 having been oblivious of appearances for some little time, 
 were recalled to the consideration of them in confusion. 
 
 " Well, I never saw such a looking couple as you 
 are," repeated Mrs. Brinkerhoff, reverting to the subject, 
 after hearing an expurgated story of the storm from 
 Abijah. Her own insulation had been effectual, and she 
 would have considered Barbara and her brother rather 
 mad in professing a preference for the lightning, if she 
 had believed them. 
 
 " It didn t hurt" Rob explained. 
 
 You can certainly effect a great improvement in your 
 personal appearance, Bijah, by washing your face and 
 hands, even if all your clothing is smoked up, but Bar 
 bara ! " She was helpless of suggestion for the bare- 
 armed bizarre figure in the gorgeous shawl and tattered 
 skirts. 
 
 " Her face is dirty, too, an she looks like a Dago," 
 said Rob, taking an impartial observation. 
 
 " Rob! " said Mrs. Brinkerhoff reprovingly, and Bar 
 bara looked rueful. 
 
 " Is it? " she demanded in consternation. 
 
 " It is! " said Abijah dispassionately. " But don t you 
 care ! It s really quite in character with Rob s descrip 
 tion. All you need is a tambourine." 
 
 " Or a baby! " said Rob, who inherited the faculty of 
 observation, and had seen the Italians in the village.
 
 CHAPTER NINE 155 
 
 There was nothing for it but to laugh, and Barbara joined 
 them. 
 
 " Can t you get her a basin of water and a towel, 
 Bijah? " asked Mrs. Brinkerhoff, sweetly oblivious of her 
 own dishevelment. 
 
 " Recrimination, my dear sister," said Abijah nobly, " is 
 a thing I much despise. But " he stooped, and lifting 
 from the floor a long fair tress of hair, held it suspended 
 toward his horrified relative " in the words of our ex 
 pressive youth, Emily, you re another. He tossed the 
 " switch " into his sister s lap and retired precipitately in 
 search of toilet appurtenances. 
 
 Bijah! " gasped Mrs. Brinkerhoff, clapping a dis 
 tracted hand to her denuded poll, and Rob stared in open- 
 mouthed astonishment. 
 
 " Did it come off " Abijah heard him ask, and has 
 tened his retreat to join in Barbara s peal of infectious 
 laughter. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff twisted up her hair, and made a futile 
 effort to smooth out the wrinkles in her gown. Her com 
 plaisance with the situation of affairs between Barbara 
 and Abijah obviated all personal considerations. Never 
 had she seen Abijah so natural and at ease with any girl, 
 and Barbara Hurst was such an exceptionally nice girl. 
 Hopes for her brother s social regeneration waxed warm 
 as she mentally reviewed the stirring events of the after 
 noon. 
 
 " As a chaperon, Mrs. Brinkerhoff, you are a fraud! " 
 said Barbara, rubbing away at her features with Abijah s 
 handkerchief. 
 
 * I can t help it," replied her companion with shame 
 less unconcern. " Where did you get that handkerchief? " 
 
 Barbara stopped grooming and held up the yard of 
 cambric by the corners. One episode had been omitted 
 in Mr. Bead s account.
 
 i 5 6 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 u I was rather hysterical after the fire was out, and your 
 brother supplied me with all this to dry a tear or so. If he 
 would give me one more I could construct a whole suit. 
 Poor man ! He was simply distracted when my dress be 
 gan to go. The dressmaker evidently knew what she 
 was about when she put a good quality of silk in the lin 
 ings, and I was sustained by a confidence which must have 
 appeared brazen to him," and Barbara laughed softly in 
 the remembrance. 
 
 " It was a wonder he did not take to the woods. You 
 had met my brother before, hadn t you?" queried Mrs. 
 Brinkerhoff, who had heard a rumour of the depot 
 episode, and was eager for details, which Barbara was not 
 inclined to furnish. 
 
 " We have had casual equestrian encounters, but no 
 formal introduction," she replied, and welcomed Rob, 
 who came in with a towel draped across his shoulders, 
 carrying in both hands, very carefully, a large tin wash 
 basin of water. 
 
 Barbara performed her ablutions, thankful for the com 
 parative privacy afforded by her host s absence, but she 
 refused to lay aside her handkerchief and appear decol 
 lete, in her dress lining, as Mrs. Brinkerhoff suggested. 
 The soft tobacco-scented folds of silk suggested a caress; 
 she could not part with it, and when Rob had removed the 
 towel and basin, and Mrs. Brinkerhoff settled down to de 
 liberate, if subtle quizzing, the girl in self-defence fell 
 to browsing around the room, among Abijah s books, and 
 answered absently. 
 
 The books, a goodly number, were ranged in handy 
 places where a man could reach them easily from desk or 
 fireplace, without rising: and some were on the floor and 
 chairs, and had that familiar air of use which tells of fel 
 lowship. 
 
 " Your brother s tastes are catholic," she observed, and
 
 CHAPTER NINE 157 
 
 flushed as her companion looked surprised. " I beg par 
 don, but I never can help looking at books," she added 
 apologetically. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff glanced vaguely at the volumes whose 
 titles ranged from the stud-book to Guizot, and from one 
 Spencer to the other. 
 
 " Oh, yes, we all read a great deal," she said com- 
 plaisantly, and Barbara felt that she had done the family 
 intellect injustice, therefore. 
 
 14 Do you read Spencer? " she enquired, turning the 
 leaves of " First Principles," that lay face down upon the 
 desk; and Abijah paused in the doorway, joyfully appre 
 hending a slight misunderstanding between his guests. 
 
 "Spenser! Oh, that s very hard to read," said Mrs. 
 Brinkerhoff languidly, and Abijah beamed upon his sister 
 with the joy of an overgrown Puck. Barbara s eyes were 
 on familiar headlines, and she did not see him. 
 
 Yes," she said eagerly, " unless each word is digested 
 as you go along, chaos is come. 
 
 Yes ? I have only read it a little. Enough to get the 
 style, you know." 
 
 "Style!" said Barbara, amazed. "Why, he hasn t 
 any!" 
 
 " Why the rhythm," began Mrs. Brinkerhoff, but her 
 brother s great laugh filled the low-ceiled room. 
 
 " Oh, you mean Herbert Spencer! I did not suppose 
 you read those dreadful agnostic works, Barbara, though 
 I might have known you would find no others here." 
 
 Her reprimand, administered as a bounden Christian 
 duty, was pleasantly void of the usual acrimony of such 
 protests. If Abijah would go to hell, it greatly mitigated 
 her sisterly regret, that he should go in good society. The 
 Hursts were indubitably the social-elect here 
 
 Abijah dropped into the big chair at the desk beside 
 Barbara. It did not occur to him to see her seated first,
 
 i 5 8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 and she only smiled at the omission, and remained stand 
 ing. 
 
 " Emily," he said solemnly, " I hope you will not feel it 
 laid upon you, as a member, to publish Miss Hurst s 
 casual admission of dabbling in the Black Arts. She is 
 young to suffer persecution; and they ll be after you with 
 rack and thumbscrews if your practice comes to light." 
 He wagged his head at Barbara warningly. 
 
 " Any one can read those works without accepting 
 their teaching, I suppose," said Mrs. Brinkerhoff toler 
 antly. 
 
 " I don t see how any rational person can," said Bar 
 bara trenchantly, while Abijah washed his hands of her 
 temerity. He was vastly amused by the philosophy of 
 the girl who the moment previous had been dissolved in 
 tears upon his arm; whose eyes had betrayed a most un- 
 philosophical emotion for an oaf like him. He shook his 
 head at her again derisively. 
 
 " Do you court martyrdom? Because Hurstville will 
 accommodate you if you exploit your heretical views: you 
 may take my personal experience for that" he said grimly. 
 
 " Then you accept the scientific data ! " said the girl 
 with a little glow of scholastic sympathy, but Abijah 
 promptly cut away the common ground between them. 
 
 " Oh, when / rant and foam at the mouth it s thoroughly 
 understood to be an awful warning, not an example. But 
 with a Hurst noblesse oblige, you know. It isn t enough 
 for you to be right ! you ve got to seem so ! social preserva 
 tion demands it! " he exulted over her from his inacces 
 sible retreat in "no man s land"; and he reached auto 
 matically for a cigar, bit the end off in his strong white 
 teeth, and lighted it. Barbara had gone to his head, if 
 not to his heart, and notwithstanding the general dank dis 
 comfort of the situation, his sister saw he was enjoying 
 himself in his peculiar way, and craftily effaced herself
 
 CHAPTER NINE 159 
 
 with Rob at the other end of the room, that nothing 
 might distract her brother s hopeful interest in this 
 " nice " girl. 
 
 You are ultra-conservative for others," commented 
 Barbara, resenting his brusque sarcasm. 
 
 Yes," he answered imperturbably, " / have a good 
 digestion. There was a man down in Tarshish, some time 
 ago (and by the way, he wasn t afraid of the strenuous 
 life), who found the meats offered to idols a wholesome 
 and satisfying diet for himself. But the stuff fermented 
 on weak stomachs, and raised the devil there and else 
 where (excuse me). So he didn t advertise it as a health 
 food." 
 
 " And because it intoxicates the rabble, must / for 
 sooth eat no more meat till the day I die? " asked Bar 
 bara indignantly. 
 
 " Well," drawled Abijah, " if it makes you restive, and 
 you get to champing on the bit, I should say, the diet was 
 just a little stimulating for you." 
 
 Barbara s eyes danced. 
 
 " I certainly do champ, don t you? " she laughed. " I 
 come of a controversial stock." 
 
 " Me? " Abijah bit down on his cigar and suddenly 
 threw it out of the window. The confidential tone re 
 called him to realities, and he looked at her from a sombre 
 distance. 
 
 It ought to be accounted unto me for righteousness, 
 that I have never allowed my own personal convictions to 
 be prejudicial to the weaker brethren. I point a moral, 
 every clip; a humble but perhaps necessary function in our 
 present stage of civilisation. I leave it to you to adorn 
 the tale. He arose with a slight mocking inclination of 
 his tall head, as a horn was softly tooted from the kitchen. 
 There was a suggested relief in his alacrity; and Barbara s 
 quick resentment thereat merged into the dull subconscious-
 
 160 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 ness of pain which had all along underlain the happiness 
 of being with him. He had, then, been but tolerant of an 
 unavoidable guest ! an impression her host intended to 
 convey, being of no mood to foster the incipient infatua 
 tion he could not avoid recognising. 
 
 " Emily, I know you are dying for your tea ; I told Pete 
 to hurry, but he had to swab up the kitchen before you go 
 out. The boys slopped a good deal of water around." 
 
 " Oh, there is no hurry! We are not going home until 
 after dark, looking as we do." 
 
 You most certainly are, my dear sister. I ve sent 
 Gid Storms down the road to see if it s washed out, but I 
 shall not allow you to drive down after dark," replied Mr. 
 Bead, leading the way to the kitchen. 
 
 " I wish I had gone out in the rain and laid my head 
 against a stone wall, instead of his arm. He is the most 
 hateful man I ever knew! " thought Barbara passionately. 
 
 But Mrs. Brinkerhoff felt that the storm was a special 
 interposition of Providence in answer to her many prayers 
 for a wayward brother; and Abijah sat down on the wet 
 porch with a sigh of exhaustion, as they drove away, and 
 wondered why a man of reasonably good intent should be 
 so conspicuously singled out by chance for unfortunate en 
 tanglement with the sex.
 
 X 
 
 ONE morning Barbara sat down before her dresser, 
 and steadily stared her last dollar in the face, 
 having on the previous night pinned it neatly out 
 on the pincushion, for the express purpose of focussing her 
 attention upon her impecuniosity. The crisis had im 
 pended for as long as she could remember, but while 
 Colonel Haygood lived, and devised light-hearted expedi 
 ents of relief (temporary, of course, and entailing future 
 reckoning) , the problem in no wise disturbed their peace 
 of mind; had rather tended to enhance their gaiety, as a 
 spur to a merry rivalry of ingenious schemes for circum 
 venting the restraint of poverty. Alone, in a land of a 
 monetary conscience, the consideration became serious, 
 and Barbara settled her round elbows determinedly on the 
 bureau before that miserable dollar-bill, and clutched the 
 curly hair upon her brow, in a frantic attempt to finance 
 her affairs before breakfast, and have the wretched matter 
 done with. 
 
 What in mercy s name is the matter? " enquired Zillah, 
 catching sight of the half-clad figure in desperate con 
 templation, from the doorway, as she passed. 
 
 Barbara released one hand from her dishevelled locks, 
 and picking up a card of invitation, extended it to her 
 cousin. 
 
 " Come in, I want to talk to you," she said darkly, 
 and Zillah, immaculate from her crown of smooth, shining 
 braids to the tips of her neatly blackened shoes, crossed 
 the room and took the card. 
 
 161
 
 i62 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 44 Oh, yes; Mrs. Brinkerhotf s reception? What of 
 it? " she enquired, and Barbara threw herself back in her 
 chair, and pointed to the bill on the pincushion, with a 
 gesture so eloquent that Zillah had no need of further 
 question. 
 
 The faint, not unkindly smile relaxed her tightly closed 
 lips. " I appreciate the situation; fortunately I can let 
 you have a few more, of that denomination, if that will 
 help you out for this especial occasion," she said gener 
 ously. 
 
 Thank you, but it isn t the special occasion that trou 
 bles me; I can improvise for almost any special occasion, 
 give me a fig-leaf and a pin : I hate to bore you, Zillah, 
 but will you tell me what to do? You saw my letters 
 before I came north?" 
 
 Yes In her own confusion Barbara did not 
 
 notice Zillah s. 
 
 Then you know I haven t any money; Cousin Dick 
 wrote Mr. Phelps frankly of the colonel s unfortunate in 
 vestments. We are not financiers, you know. What am 
 I expected to do now I m here? I dare not steal, to beg 
 I am ashamed, and Donna and Mam Lilly are my only 
 assets. Either of them would object to being sold, and 
 unless I dance in the streets, I m sure I don t know any 
 way to earn money." 
 
 "And hasn t Aunt Felicite given you any yet?" Zil- 
 lah s exasperation was but half suppressed. 
 
 " Not a red ! She has given me her diamonds : but I 
 have an impression I am not expected to sell or pawn 
 them; I d write to Cousin Dick but for respect of the salt, 
 and he would come up, and he oughtn t, for he s been to 
 enough expense sending Donna. Should I see Mr. 
 Phelps?" 
 
 Zillah s lips were closed again in a straight, faint line. 
 
 " Aunt Felicite is the most absolutely irresponsible
 
 CHAPTER TEN 163 
 
 woman ! It s my fault, I suppose, but I did think she 
 would think of you without being expressly reminded to 
 do so. There is not a superabundance here, and I have 
 found I had to give her a certain sum : for whosoever 
 asketh, receiveth as long as she has a penny. Probably 
 Father Varney made a requisition first, and she may not 
 have a cent by this time." 
 
 " I cannot imagine myself attempting to outmanoeuvre 
 Father Varney," said Barbara haughtily. 
 
 " It will not be necessary, when I remind her to give 
 you a certain sum as soon as she gets her er money. 
 It comes quarterly, you know. It will be but a very small 
 sum, I m afraid, Barbara." 
 
 " I could rob a church without compunction," mused 
 Barbara, " but I would not like to detain Grandfather 
 Hurst in purgatory a moment longer than is absolutely 
 necessary, and Father Varney might curtail the masses for 
 his soul, if I appropriated the church funds. Why did the 
 dear urge me to come here to be an embarrassment? We 
 should have managed somehow at home. We never 
 asked her aid." 
 
 " She sent for you because, as you know perfectly well, 
 it is the delight of her heart to have you here. I am 
 sorry your expectations are not being fully realised." 
 
 Unconscious of any extenuating personal bitterness on 
 Zillah s part, Barbara s eyes blazed at what seemed a 
 gratuitous and deliberate insult. Her impetuous repudi 
 ation was emphasised by gleaming gestures of her bare 
 arms and hands. 
 
 " That was why I hesitated to come north ! That 
 was what I feared! I am glad Maman has no money 
 glad glad! If Maman s is gone too, no one can ques 
 tion the colonel s management of mine. I have feared 
 the imputation of sordid motives, but I did not expect it 
 from you! "
 
 1 64 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 The passionate resentment disconcerted Zillah, who, 
 however, had never apologised in set terms to any one in 
 her life. 
 
 " Unless we were expected to keep back the remnant 
 of the estate, when Aunt Felicite is gone, I fail to under 
 stand your fear of being thought mercenary in coming 
 north ! I am sure we all felt you were giving up a great 
 deal to come and live among infirm old women," she said 
 coldly. 
 
 " You all knew I had no home. I explained every 
 thing, but I was told, have been told nothing! At 
 home we do not think of relatives as strangers, even if we 
 have never seen them, and surely some one should explain 
 things. If Maman s means are limited I see now that s 
 why you sold the team when Donna came ! I tell you, 
 Zillah, I won t have it: you shall not do me this way: it 
 puts me in an abominably selfish position, and I m not 
 selfish!" 
 
 Zillah met the girl s indignant eyes with a baffling gaze, 
 and answered in a curiously impersonal way: 
 
 I do not pretend to be the best possible manager for 
 Aunt Felicite, but I am all the one there is; and I am doing 
 the best I can, for Aunt Felicite. If you do or say any 
 thing to make her realise the financial situation but you 
 shall not! You know the result of agitating her! 
 And whether you like it or not, you have got to submit 
 to having a good time, because nothing else will satisfy 
 Aunt Felicite." 
 
 Zillah relegated Barbara to this position of helpless 
 privilege with undisguised satisfaction. She grimly ar 
 rogated the duties, and abrogated the privileges of the 
 house of her adoption, made it unmistakable she was bent 
 on giving as much and accepting as little as she could pos 
 sibly manage, and Barbara, who might have suffered 
 martyrdom (but only if she could not help it), had wit-
 
 CHAPTER TEN 165 
 
 nessed with impatient wonder the daily exhibition of that 
 eager, needless self-immolation with which the Puritan s 
 descendant is prone to afflict an inoffensive and helpless 
 beneficiary. Barbara s insouciance naturally provoked 
 Zillah to heap the fagots higher, and the smoke of the 
 sacrifice rendered obscure to each the sterling qualities of 
 the other. 
 
 " Some," said Barbara whimsically, " have pleasure 
 thrust upon them. You have convinced Maman you enjoy 
 teaching music; I can make her think it s the jolliest thing 
 in life to dance on the streets. Picturesque, you know, 
 with a tambourine, and a handkerchief like that one of 
 Mr. Bead s." 
 
 u Barbara, you positively must not suggest doing any 
 thing. I know Aunt Felicite better than you do. It 
 would grieve her to death, and besides, there is no need, 
 now, of anything but a little economy. When she s gone, 
 you may do as you like." 
 
 " Oh, Zillah Hurst, what a fraud you are! " 
 What do you mean?" asked Zillah, startled. 
 4 Why do you act like you wouldn t care, except for 
 Maman, if I did dance through Hurstville with a tam 
 bourine? You would, you know you would you dear! 
 I wish you wouldn t be so good! The contrast is op 
 pressive. I don t want to be good all the time." 
 
 Zillah looked relieved. 
 
 " Oh, I do not think there is any immediate danger of 
 translation," she said coldly, moving toward the door in 
 deprecation of Barbara s effusiveness. ; But I hope you 
 will take my advice, because I know I am right." Bar 
 bara looked after her thoughtfully. 
 
 That s a great thing, to be sure of ; as I seldom am, 
 I ll do as you say; only," Zillah waited, her hand on 
 the door-knob " it just occurs to me; you are not running 
 this establishment on your own money, are you? "
 
 1 66 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 There was a scarcely perceptible hesitation, and Zillah 
 faced around. 
 
 u But 1 am partly; Aunt Helen s part and mine," 
 she admitted reluctantly. " Aunt Felicite did enough 
 for me, giving me my music, you know. I am abun 
 dantly able, thanks to her, to support myself and Aunt 
 Helen, and there is no reason why I should not do 
 it." 
 
 Barbara breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Zillah, as 
 the implication of this statement was unquestioningly ac 
 cepted. " If you want the details of Aunt Felicite s af 
 fairs, you can see Mr. Phelps, you know," Zillah added, 
 knowing the bluff a safe one, for Barbara was almost as 
 unsuspicious as her grandmother. 
 
 " The idea ! " she exclaimed, repudiating a suggested 
 interference ; nevertheless Zillah determined OH a precau 
 tionary visit to the lawyer herself. Madam Hurst s re 
 sources had been exhausted several years before, and Zil 
 lah had secretly supplied the deficit by her own exertions, 
 with Mr. Phelps reluctant connivance. It was an oppor 
 tunity of retaliation for the humiliation of her own aching 
 sense of gratitude, and her real generosity and fondness 
 for Madam Hurst were marred by the ungracious disposi 
 tion to place her unconscious benefactor under immeasura 
 bly greater obligation than she herself had accepted. If the 
 third and fourth generation were by necessity included in 
 the operation of her design, so much the more effectually 
 should she discharge her debt. A subconsciousness of 
 selfishness, an instinctive knowledge that either Madam 
 Hurst or Barbara would have risen to a fairer height, 
 made her secret triumph bitter-sweet. Zillah would, as 
 a matter of course, and a part of the day s work, have 
 died for any one she felt had need of such an offering; and 
 she would then, by preference, have died a second time to 
 escape expressions of gratitude.
 
 CHAPTER TEN 167 
 
 " Girls! " said a low, admonitory voice below, " when 
 are you coming to breakfast? " 
 
 ; Right away, Aunt Helen," Zillah responded, in the 
 hushed voice the family maintained while Madam slept. 
 
 "Don t wait, Zillah; I ll dress in a jiffy," said Bar 
 bara, and Zillah left the room. 
 
 Before she descended to breakfast, Barbara, as usual, 
 lingered a moment at her window, for a look at the moun 
 tain, now in the gorgeous panoply of autumn. Against 
 the pale blue morning sky, the gold of birches glinted 
 amid ranks of serried firs and junipers, the maples flamed 
 above great sanguinary blotches of the sumach, and pur 
 ple asters blurred the spaces on the slope between grey 
 rocks and vivid herbal tints. Screened by the slow- 
 swaying boughs of an old maple, Barbara s window 
 framed the daily vision of her girlish dreams. Through 
 it she had watched the quaint, low-gabled farm-house on 
 the uplands break into blossom, as the gnarled old apple- 
 trees wreathed over it their flowering branches in the 
 spring; had lost it for a while in summer s heavy foliage, 
 save for a thin curl of smoke above the treetops, and 
 now, through the thinning leaves of autumn, saw it emerge 
 again, a staunch old rooftree, grey with a century s 
 storms, as homely and indigenous a growth as was its 
 owner s love for it. The old " Bead place " was in the 
 bleakest, coldest spot in all the county; not a gale had 
 missed it in a hundred years, but in the girl s eyes, wistful 
 with dreams, it was just the choicest spot in all the world 
 Abijah s home. She had distant glimpses of him, in 
 gravity-defying places, for the ancestral acres were on a 
 grade not far from perpendicular, and on the previous 
 day he had been ploughing a parlous hillside, in the sight 
 of all the world. As Barbara put aside her curtains now, 
 the hazardous operation had been resumed betimes, and 
 a tiny figure, perched on one plough horse, presumably
 
 1 68 THE PANG- Y ANGER 
 
 assisted in the frugal strife to wrest a living from the 
 grudging soil. Ploughing was a thing which Mr. Bead 
 apparently enjoyed, for more than once Barbara had been 
 near enough to catch the uplift of his voice in a lusty lilt 
 of song; often some old long-metred hymn of vigorous 
 refrain, whose martial rhythm set a swinging pace along 
 the furrows, notwithstanding the interjectional measure of 
 the time he kept. The primal bond between us and the 
 earth had this man by the heel. He loved the farm and 
 all the homely, sane realities of it, and spent his leisure 
 there. As the seasons passed and the year rounded to 
 maturity, the unseen girlish face watching him from the 
 valley grew lovely with the growth of an absorbing 
 passion. Barbara ceased to struggle against the inevi 
 table; if he were unworthy so was she, for whatever he 
 was, her heart had gone out to him irrevocably. Not for 
 the world would she have had her secret glimpsed, but in 
 a half-involuntary gesture of surrender now, she out 
 stretched her arms to him. The overwhelming sweetness 
 of her emotion shamed her to instant repression of it, and 
 she turned away, not all unhappy, or unsatisfied by furtive 
 glimpses of the man she loved. 
 
 Softly radiant from her morning s vision, she fronted 
 Zillah at the table, and the elder woman studied her in 
 fresh amaze at her mutations. She had left a dishevelled 
 and defiant figure facing penury, above stairs, and now the 
 bien-etre of this girl s swimming eyes, and dreamy smile, 
 was quite beyond her comprehension. 
 
 You look quite ecstatic," she commented, somewhat 
 sympathetic in the overflow of the girl s lovely mood, and 
 Barbara laughed, a low note of the pure joy of life, which 
 our elders have forgotten and regard askance, at times. 
 
 " It s the dance; Maude says Mrs. Brinkerhoff always 
 has up an orchestra, and there will be a platform on the 
 lawn for dancing! I hope it s fair! What bliss! " and
 
 CHAPTER TEN 169 
 
 the girl exaggerated her anticipated pleasure in a generous 
 effort to enthuse her staid companions. 
 
 " What wicked extravagance! " interjected Mrs. Hurst, 
 who invariably assumed an attitude of general denuncia 
 tion in the face of any special festivity. I can t under 
 stand how a member, like Emily Bead, dare countenance, 
 let alone encourage such defiance of the church discipline." 
 
 " Mrs. Brinkerhoff understands herself quite thor 
 oughly. She has given those entertainments ever since 
 she was married, and I have not observed that her stand 
 ing is questioned," said Zillah quietly. 
 
 " Well, it ought to be," declared Mrs. Hurst, with the 
 irritating finality which challenged any but the meek. 
 Zillah, herself a passive member of the same robustious 
 community of souls as her aunt, was occasionally moved 
 to a private protest when Mrs. Hurst s inflexible propa 
 ganda disgusted and antagonised Barbara; but to-day the 
 girl seemed buoyantly oblivious of trivial stings, and 
 Zillah hoped her Aunt Helen might desist, but had no 
 great expectation of it. 
 
 " My last dance was with the colonel," Barbara said in 
 dreamy reminiscence. " It was at the Capitol City Club, 
 and he was the finest man and the best dancer in the room. 
 No one will ever get my step as he did. He taught me to 
 dance, standing on the table by him, when I was too little 
 to reach down to." 
 
 " He took his death a cold, going home from that dance, 
 didn t he?" Mrs. Hurst enquired pleasantly, and Mam 
 Lilly, who was passing through the room, stopped sud 
 denly behind Barbara and waited for her answer. 
 
 Zillah s lips shut hard, but Barbara s parted in a smile 
 of polite, conventional incredulity, which was as a red rag 
 to a bull. Mrs. Hurst perfectly understood the intangible 
 accusation of rudeness, and resented it as well as she knew 
 how. Nothing exasperated her as much as the subtile in-
 
 i yo THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 definable exhibition of superior breeding, and Barbara 
 used it with the relentless precision of the young disputant, 
 eager to score a point, no matter where. 
 
 On this occasion she tilted back her head, and spoke to 
 the great black woman towering over her. 
 
 " Mam Lilly," she drawled, " if the colonel could hear 
 that question himself, what would he reply? Precisely! 
 What would he reply? Think!" 
 
 Mam Lilly s slumberous dark eyes laughed down into 
 the light orbs raised to her, then rolled prodigiously, 
 and fixed themselves on Mrs. Hurst, who, unable at the 
 moment to voice a reproof suited to the occasion, looked 
 the disapproval she felt it merited. 
 
 " Be gad! ma am! Mam Lilly broke forth 
 suddenly, in imitation of the old fire-eater s pompous 
 manner. " Be gad! ma am; any gen leman who 
 wouldn t be willing to die fo de sake ob dancing with 
 Miss Barbara Hurst, deserved to be shot, ma am! an be 
 gad! I d take pleasure in shooting the damn rascal my 
 self, ma am! " 
 
 Barbara s lips twitched. " Very good. That would 
 be about it. You needn t wait She turned a 
 
 shoulder to Mrs. Hurst. " Do people dress much here, 
 Zillah?" 
 
 " I really cannot inform you, never having attended 
 an affair of the kind." Zillah had retreated into her 
 shell, but Mrs. Hurst had not. 
 
 They expose their nakedness all they dare if that s 
 what yeou mean by dressing; I should call it undressing," 
 said the old lady with an aggression not to be ignored by 
 one of the same belligerent brood. 
 
 "Oh, decollete? We are ashes and dust, but I con 
 fess I enjoy a chance to show my arms and shoulders. 
 They are er rather nice you know," responded Bar 
 bara wickedly.
 
 CHAPTER TEN 171 
 
 That s no reason for making a scandalous display of 
 yeourself." 
 
 "But it isn t scandalous! The colonel was quite a 
 connoisseur in art, and he assured me I have an excellent 
 figure," Barbara persisted. 
 
 " And I suppose Abijah Bead enjoyed the exhibition 
 yeou made the other day." 
 
 Barbara flushed hotly from brow to chin. She was 
 exceeding wroth, and yet, there was a queer, tremulous 
 gratification in having Mr. Bead classed with the colonel, 
 even in the criminal calendar. 
 
 " Evil to him who evil thinks, " she said lightly. 
 " Colonel Haygood s status was beyond cavil. As to 
 your o d neighbour s son, perhaps you know best; but 
 if my elbows had hinged forwards, I do not think Mr. 
 Bead would have noticed it. This is a wicked world, how 
 ever ! Most of your neighbours seem more or less dis 
 reputable ! I shall hie me to a nunnery." 
 
 That would not be any improvement. I ve always 
 heard the goings-on in those places beat the dancing and 
 card-playing, and drinking, and indecent dressing in so 
 ciety. Yeou needn t think, Barbara, that I am going to 
 countenance such things as these, no matter who does 
 them," said the uncompromising old woman sternly. 
 
 u Perhaps you are not quite er conversant with the 
 customs prevailing in either place," suggested Barbara 
 politely. 
 
 " Customs! " snorted Mrs. Hurst, with a withering in 
 flection on the word, "customs! I guess I know what 
 yeour customs lead to ! Would yeou bow down to Baal 
 because it was custom! " 
 
 " I confess I never saw much to choose between Baal 
 and the red-handed Jehovah of the half-savage Israelites," 
 retorted Barbara, suddenly losing patience and throwing 
 down the gauntlet.
 
 172 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Mrs. Hurst was always ready to engage; and the gleam 
 of battle lit the sunken caverns of her eyes. 
 
 " Blasphemy! " she said in an awful tone, naming the 
 thing with unction. " I should think yeou would be 
 afraid the anger of the Lord would strike yeou dead in 
 yeour chair, Barbara Hurst! " 
 
 " Oh! if I believed in a God who got mad at a little 
 thing like that, I dare say I should be in a blue funk all 
 the time. But I don t, you see." 
 
 Whether yeou believe in Him or not, every knee 
 shall bow and every tongue confess the Lord He is God. 
 
 " I shan t unless He tortures me until I lose my rea 
 son, and babble senselessly. Your personal fetish is as 
 hideous to me as any of the old idols out in the hall." 
 
 " Infidel! " gasped Mrs. Hurst, holding up protest 
 ing bony palms of horror. " Yeou are worse than Inger- 
 soll! " She meant a more ancient personage, but used a 
 synonym much in vogue among Christians of that date. 
 
 We found Colonel Ingersoll a most delightful gentle 
 man, but the colonel and I thought him limited decidedly 
 limited in his outlook. He does not go far enough to 
 satisfy the scientific mind," said the girl airily. 
 
 " Stop ! " cried Mrs. Hurst in a deep tone of authority; 
 " the pit yawns before yeou ! Take heed take heed ! 
 It is bottomless! " 
 
 Barbara went very white and rose from the table with 
 an abruptness which betrayed the affectation of her languid 
 drawl. 
 
 " I shouldn t mind, you know, at any other hour, but 
 I hate to taste sulphur in the coffee! I ll have a ride. 
 And you may consign me and all my friends, living and 
 dead, to everlasting damnation at luncheon, Aunt Helen, 
 and I shall not turn a hair. I shall be too hungry," and she 
 sauntered from the room. Mrs. Hurst wept angry tears 
 into her coffee, but drank it afterwards, likewise another
 
 CHAPTER TEN 173 
 
 cup, and munched her due amount of toast, while Barbara 
 upstairs administered self-castigation, fasting. She threw 
 herself into a chair before the window, trembling with 
 anger, and miserably watched the slow progression, back 
 and forth, across the mountain meadow. She was deeply 
 humiliated by her own lack of self-control, and did not 
 spare herself. 
 
 "Same old bigotry!" she thought in self-scorn. I 
 could rend that wretched woman, poor old thing! And 
 the worst of it is I wear myself to a frazzle and I know it 
 does not matter, and she honestly believes it does; tre 
 mendously. I suppose I should apologise." The last 
 words aloud were to Zillah, who stood beside her with a 
 supplementary breakfast neatly arranged upon a tray. 
 
 " Not unless you wish to renew the scene. She would 
 not understand," replied Zillah drily. " An apology 
 confirms a sense of injury in Aunt Helen." 
 
 " Merci! But I might well have left the room be 
 fore, instead of after answering her." 
 
 " You will probably have frequent opportunity to do 
 so, if you think it s practical." 
 
 That s an alluring prospect! Can t you make her 
 understand 
 
 " I decline to attempt to make Aunt Helen under 
 stand anything: nothing but death or palsy ever prevents 
 a Hurst expressing his mind. It s a hereditary prerog 
 ative." 
 
 " She seems to possess a special faculty of irritating 
 me." 
 
 It seems to be reciprocal." 
 
 I know it," said Barbara, abject and whimsical. " I m 
 really no better than a Christian 
 
 That must be a truly humiliating reflection to a 
 superior mind," said Zillah curtly, and turned away. " I 
 would advise you to eat something before you go to ride."
 
 174 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Zillah," protested the girl, with rather a forlorn 
 gleam of humour in the eyes she raised to the averted face, 
 and then she laughed, the little irresistible, whimsical 
 laugh which softened Zillah, despite her effort to resist the 
 girl s beguiling. 
 
 " You needn t flatter yourself, my dear, that you have 
 no savour of the salt which seasons the rest of us." Zillah 
 slightly shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " As a family, we are rather difficult," she admitted. 
 
 "Do you ever quarrel with Aunt Helen?" Barbara 
 enquired hopefully, but Zillah refused to be more of a 
 partisan than strict necessity demanded. 
 
 " I cannot imagine myself quarrelling with any one," 
 she replied with crushing dignity, and Barbara suspected 
 she ought to feel abashed by her own pugnacity. 
 
 You should have been a Quaker, Zillah. I don t be 
 lieve you believe the awful tenets of your own church, do 
 you? " she asked. 
 
 " Now see here, Barbara Hurst, you shan t discuss 
 theology with me. If I got to thinking of those things, 
 I d go crazy," said Zillah. 
 
 " But how can you help thinking? " enquired Barbara 
 curiously. 
 
 " I let down the trap-door in my brain, as I do when 
 Aunt Helen nags." 
 
 " But I have no such convenient mechanical contriv 
 ance," laughed Barbara. 
 
 Then so much the worse for you," retorted Zil 
 lah. 
 
 ;< What this family needs," Barbara declared oracu 
 larly, " is a man in it! Let us flip up a cent to see which 
 of us shall sacrifice to Venus." 
 
 " Thanks ! I draw the line at men ! " 
 4 Your cordon prohibitive must embrace me. At least 
 no one else has manifested any propensity to do so since I
 
 CHAPTER TEN 175 
 
 came here. I never saw such a place ! " Barbara s tone 
 was very pensive, and Zillah smiled. 
 
 " I am exceedingly sorry my eccentricities deprive you 
 of your customary entertainment." 
 
 " You do not quite understand. I m only afraid I 
 shall forget how to refuse if some one does not propose 
 pretty soon, and fall into the arms of the first man who 
 asks me. However, I have hope of this reception of 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff s. If God is good, there should be a 
 moon before it s over. Maude and I consulted the al 
 manac yesterday, and with moonlight and music, some 
 thing of the sort ought to happen even among your cold 
 blooded Yankees. I bet Maude that last dollar of mine 
 it would, to one or the other of us; but if it does not, I 
 might propose to Dr. Pomfret myself. He could swear 
 Aunt Helen quiescent, couldn t he? " 
 
 " I doubt it. And we do not want any more old people 
 in the house. You had better marry Bijah Bead. 
 How clearly you can see his place from this window ! Is 
 that he ploughing this morning? " 
 
 Barbara took an observation. 
 
 " If it is, he is wasting the morning hours in a frivolous 
 occupation, when he might be down here making love to 
 me." 
 
 " Barbara Hurst! The idea that you would have any 
 thing to do with a man like that! " 
 
 " On the contrary, I consider it a duty to my outraged 
 sex to refuse that man, and I should like to know how I 
 ?m to perform that duty without having a preliminary 
 something to do with him? There certainly is no pros 
 pect of his proposing offhand; I shall have to work him up 
 to it." 
 
 What outrageous things you do say! " 
 
 " I can t help it. I always feel like being as bad as I 
 know how, after a bout with my venerable aunt. I m
 
 1 76 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 capable of going up and forcibly eloping with Mr. Bead 
 and his son this morning." 
 
 " I think you would find that operation difficult with 
 out chloroform. Are you going to ride this morn- 
 ing?" 
 
 Yes, but I promised to stop for Maude, so I shall not 
 take along an anaesthetic to-day. Thanks for the sug 
 gestion, though; it is ingenious. I was trusting to mere 
 hypnotism, at long range, and the process has promised 
 to require several eternities." 
 
 " Mrs. Brinkerhoff seems more sanguine. Her sisterly 
 attitude towards you is really touching, since your visit 
 to Mr. Bead." 
 
 " She deserves to be slapped! " said Barbara hotly. " I 
 would not go to her old reception, if if I did not feel like 
 I must have a dance." 
 
 " Oh, you need not be afraid of meeting Mr. Bead 
 there. Oxen could not drag him into a thing of that 
 sort." 
 
 " I suppose not," said Barbara absently. 
 
 She put her head inside Zillah s door when she was 
 habited for her ride. 
 
 " If I m not back for luncheon, don t worry. I shall 
 not have eloped with the Bead family, but we are going to 
 call on Marcia Palmer, and if Maude dismounts, there s 
 no telling how long it will take me to get her up again, un 
 less there is a man around to help." 
 
 You take the mountain road, of course?" Zillah 
 asked suggestively. The mountain road led past Abi- 
 jah s farm. 
 
 " Of course! " said Barbara with a defiant moue. She 
 explained casually to Maude the deplorable condition of 
 the mountain highway, and they went several miles around 
 to avoid it, however. 
 
 Mr. Phelps greeted Zillah cordially when she entered
 
 CHAPTER TEN 177 
 
 his office late that afternoon. The old lawyer was one 
 of the few men she esteemed, and he understood her pecu 
 liar character, and admired her thoroughly. 
 
 "Why did not Miss Barbara come in too?" he en 
 quired, for Barbara had passed the door, and gone on 
 down the street. 
 
 " She has another errand; and I did not wish her to 
 come in to-day. Mr. Phelps, she may ask you about 
 er our affairs, and I am afraid she may object to my 
 arrangements." 
 
 " I should hope so." 
 
 You promised not to interfere." 
 
 " But how much further is this to go? The burden 
 was enough for you before this girl came on, with her 
 horses and servants." 
 
 I can manage, thank you, and I wish to do so." 
 
 You have no right to place your cousin in this posi 
 tion. From what I ve seen of her she will resent it when 
 she knows." 
 
 " She need never know. She would most certainly 
 resent it. That is what I fear; I can take no chances of 
 disturbing Aunt Felicite." 
 
 " I know by experience there is no use arguing with 
 your quixotism, but you ought at least to have the dia 
 monds. I understand Madam has already given them 
 to Miss Barbara." 
 
 ; It is all she has left to give; I would not deprive 
 her of the pleasure for many times their value. Now, 
 here is the interest on the mortgage, but if you will be so 
 kind as to take my note until the end of the month, I 
 should like to retain part of the money." 
 
 " Certainly. Extra expense for Miss Barbara, I feel 
 confident." 
 
 " Aunt Felicite would be miserable if Barbara did not 
 attend this reception," and Zillah took up the pen to sub-
 
 178 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 scribe her name to the note, while the lawyer looked on 
 helplessly. 
 
 " If Barbara questions you, Mr. Phelps, please ex 
 plain, in technical terms! Barbara will never try to fol 
 low you. She counts her change on her fingers." 
 
 The old gentleman chuckled. 
 
 " She is a dear girl, but I hate to see you working 
 for her. It is not right." 
 
 " It happens to be an unavoidable detail. I do not 
 pretend I would do it otherwise, but I never can repay 
 Aunt Felicite s kindness to me." 
 
 " I think you have, many, many times over, my dear 
 Miss Zillah. Very few of us receive so many fold for 
 bread cast upon the waters. You are quixotic, but I can t 
 help admiring your quixotism." 
 
 Zillah arose promptly, drawing on her glove. 
 
 " I promised to follow Barbara directly and look at 
 some lace-making of the Italians down in Dublin. Thank 
 you very much, Mr. Phelps. Remember if Barbara 
 comes to you she counts on her fingers." 
 
 " Yes, yes! A wilful woman will have her way. I ll 
 confuse the opposition with legal technicalities, but not 
 that I approve the method or the object, remember." 
 
 He stood at the door, watching her straight, uncom 
 promising progress down the village street, and sighed, 
 as he turned back into his private office, and confronted a 
 large unopened packing case. It contained the portrait 
 of his son s wife, by Sargent. Doubtless a masterpiece, 
 but the old gentleman did not know exactly what to do 
 with this particular masterpiece, and his sigh was for the 
 unequal distribution of integrity among the daughters of 
 men. There is plenty of it to inform a decent average if 
 only it was equally apportioned, and Zillah Hurst, the 
 lawyer knew, had enough to supply some whole families. 
 
 Barbara sauntered slowly toward the lower portion of
 
 CHAPTER TEN 179 
 
 the village, where sundry disreputable acquaintances re 
 tarded her on the way to the house of Giacoso. She 
 heartily and hastily endorsed Dr. Pomfret s treatment of 
 the McCallahan s club-footed boy, whose mother rushed 
 out from the washtub to consult her about it; and escaped 
 only to be detained by a garrulous old dame, whose grand 
 son, Madam s former coachman, spent his wages at the 
 saloon. Barbara promised to speak severely to Mike 
 Coffee and to tell Father Varney to forbid the saloon 
 keeper to sell him more than a moderate amount of whis 
 key thereafter. 
 
 " For tis no manner of use, Miss Barbara, dear, thry- 
 in to prevint him gettin a drap ov the crature entoirely, 
 whin he s wearied wid the work. Sure I nade the same 
 mesil ," said Granny Coffee charitably. 
 
 Giuseppe met Barbara at the door with radiance gleam 
 ing from every one of his twenty-four shining teeth and 
 dancing eyes. 
 
 " Mother is setting with the sick woman; come in," he 
 said, and would have led the way into the house, but Bar 
 bara had had pathology enough for one day, and paused 
 abruptly on the threshold. 
 
 "What sickness have you here? " she demanded, and 
 Giuseppe supplied effusive sanitary reassurance. It was 
 no " sickness " really, no disease, no fever or catching 
 illness. Giuseppe exhausted his English. It was merely 
 that the woman was dying. 
 
 " But what woman? Any of your own people? " Bar 
 bara asked, putting a tentative foot across the doorsill. 
 
 Oh, no; it was none of the Giacoso. A strange woman. 
 They did not know her. She was dying when she came. 
 Then how did she come?" enquired Barbara natu 
 rally. 
 
 4 Bijah Bead brought her. He found her in the road 
 before the house one night, and brought her in to us. The
 
 i8o THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 doctor and the priest say she will die, but Bijah Bead gives 
 us money for her care, and we pray she may live many 
 day. My mother has gone in to pray now," said Giu 
 seppe piously. 
 
 Barbara could no longer doubt her visit was ill-timed. 
 
 " I wouldn t disturb her devotions for the world. I ll 
 call again and see the lace," she said, turning hurriedly 
 to leave the house, but she counted without her host. 
 Giuseppe barred the way, abject, beseeching, but per 
 sistent; assuring her his mother s prayers could wait; that 
 nothing was of consequence in comparison to the honour 
 and pleasure of her visit. His importunities were so sin 
 cere (he nearly wept with chagrin that she should leave), 
 that Barbara consented to make a hasty inspection of his 
 mother s work before she left. 
 
 Tell her to make haste and bring it out here," she said, 
 and as Giuseppe joyfully disappeared, she selected the 
 cleanest chair in the room, tucked her skirts well around 
 her, and sat down, keeping an apprehensive eye on several 
 sleek, brown, dirty babies, who swarmed upon the floor. 
 She had just repelled the advance of the boldest infant, by 
 gently upsetting him, and rolling him over with her foot, 
 when the light of the sun was suddenly obscured by Mr. 
 Bead, whose brawny figure blocked up the doorway. He 
 was in conventional attire, instead of his usual rough 
 riding coat and breeches, and in lieu of a riding-crop, car 
 ried a well-rolled umbrella. 
 
 " Good-afternoon," he said, and the derby hat was re 
 moved as he recognised the other visitor. His face was 
 hidden in the dusk of his own shadow, but his voice ex 
 pressed everything uncordial, and with a poignant sense 
 of intrusion, the sangfroid which Barbara had sedulously 
 rehearsed for their subsequent meeting deserted her; and 
 in consternation she heard herself exclaim : 
 
 " Why, I thought you were ploughing! "
 
 CHAPTER TEN 181 
 
 Every line of Mr. Bead s proportions expressed a mad 
 dening resignation. 
 
 " I finished my stunt," he explained painstakingly, and 
 Barbara was wild at her inadvertence. 
 
 You must know your er operations are spectacu 
 lar," she said in defence. 
 
 Well, I can t help it," retorted Abijah as he smoothed 
 a rampant lock at the crown of his sleek and shining head, 
 " I m naturally of a retiring disposition, but the very ele 
 ments conspire to prevent my retiring. Lightning rips up 
 my sanctum sanctorum, I ve had to bunk in with the boys 
 ever since, and there s such a glaring publicity in every 
 endurin thing I do, that sometimes I m plumb discour 
 aged." 
 
 The field of politics may afford a refuge," Barbara 
 suggested sympathetically, but Abijah s mood was pes 
 simistic. 
 
 I hope so," he said gloomily, " but I m afraid I m 
 capable of blundering into notoriety even there." 
 
 " As to blundering," a slight incomparable gesture in 
 cluded her surroundings, " Giuseppe told me his mother 
 made the real point d Alencon lace, and I came to see it, 
 not knowing there was any one dangerously ill. I would 
 have gone away, but the boy begged me to stop a mo 
 ment." Barbara wished to impress Mr. Bead with the 
 commercial aspect of her visit. 
 
 " How is the woman to-day? " he enquired. 
 
 " Giuseppe says she is dying. I have never gone among 
 the sick. It is not my vocation. And I loathe babies! 
 Oh, take this one away, won t you! " she wailed, shrink 
 ing in undisguised repulsion from the clutch of a maraud 
 ing infant who had climbed up beside her. 
 
 Abijah reached into the narrow room, plucked off the 
 offender, set him howling in the farthest corner, and 
 vouchsafing no further word or glance in Barbara s di-
 
 1 82 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 rection, marched to the door of the sick-room, and 
 knocked imperatively. Giuseppe opened the door, and 
 closed it behind the visitor. 
 
 " Well, I declare! " gasped Barbara, to the astonished 
 babies, who stared as hard as she did. 
 
 In about three minutes Abijah emerged, followed by 
 the stout, smiling little brown mother of Giuseppe, who, 
 with eloquent gesticulation, laid a specimen of her handi 
 work on Barbara s knee, and stood aside, as who should 
 say triumphantly, "Behold!" The girl bent her head 
 above the exquisite fabric, and did not lift it when Mr. 
 Bead, after an instant s hesitation, came and stood beside 
 her, and bent down to speak. As a mentor of young 
 ladies Abijah Bead was not at his happiest, and as he hesi 
 tated there came through the thin partition of the ad 
 jacent house a high lamenting Irish voice, rising cres 
 cendo and punctuated by an infant s pin-point wail. 
 
 " Och, Nora ! Nora ! Ye wouldn t take yer father s de 
 vice, nor yer mither s device, but ye took Mick Coffee s 
 device and ye see what s come of it!" 
 
 An internal convulsion shook Abijah, but after an in 
 stant s struggle he steadied his voice gravely. 
 
 " I I wouldn t stay if I were you," he said in the im 
 personal tone of a reluctant father confessor. 
 
 Thank you, sir! " responded Barbara coolly, without 
 lifting her head, and Abijah straightened up at the unex 
 pected rebuff, and with a curt and general " Good-after 
 noon " strode out of the house. 
 
 As the sound of his carriage wheels died away, Bar 
 bara rose in a panic to depart. 
 
 "Is the woman worse, Giuseppe?" she asked nerv 
 ously, and the boy shook his head. 
 
 " She is better," he responded with confidence. " She 
 talked and seemed to understand while Mr. Bead was 
 here."
 
 CHAPTER TEN 183 
 
 " I mind him now! I mind him now! I mind him 
 now ! " babbled the dying woman s voice in the next room, 
 and a pathetic note of conscious satisfaction in the low 
 monotonous murmur caught the girl s attention. 
 
 What is she saying?" she asked curiously, moving 
 very slowly, almost automatically, toward the inner room. 
 
 I don t know; she said it to Mr. Bead," replied 
 Giuseppe. 
 
 Barbara held her breath, as she reached the doorway 
 and looked in. 
 
 The skull-like head was rigid on the pillow, and the 
 wasted hands groped constantly, and reached toward Bar 
 bara, who shrank back, doubtful if eyes so glazed and 
 deathly still retained the sense of vision. 
 
 " I mind him now," the husky voice confided, and as 
 Barbara swayed toward her, Giuseppe s mother thrust 
 a rosary into her hands, and gently pushed her for 
 ward. 
 
 "Whom do you remember?" asked the half-dazed 
 girl, and her young vibrant voice held the vague spirit to a 
 moment s thought. 
 
 " Abijah Bead, I mind him now," muttered the woman, 
 staring with horrible fixity at the girl, and reaching aimless 
 claws to touch her. Barbara never afterwards under 
 stood what impelled her to the ghastly interrogation, but 
 standing quietly, just out of reach, she caught the dying 
 woman s conscious gaze again, and held death back for 
 her to answer. 
 
 Who are you?" she demanded, and with failing 
 breath came the slow answer. 
 
 "Aileen Mahan I mind him now! Abijah Bead! 
 I saw him married The voice trailed off in 
 
 silence. Mona Giacoso dropped suddenly to her knees 
 beside the bed, and in a nightmare of horror Barbara 
 saw the rigid head upon the pillow twitch back, the eyes
 
 1 84 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 roll up, and the jaws set. Then she fainted, for the only 
 time in her life. 
 
 With the return of consciousness, her first impulse was 
 to escape from something very wet and sloppy on her fore 
 head, and summoning all her strength for the effort, she 
 feebly turned her head. The frightened face of the 
 Italian lad looked down at her, and he valiantly splashed 
 more water on her dripping head. 
 
 " Don t! " she muttered irritably, and Mona Giacoso 
 rippled off a prayer of praise for her recovery. 
 
 " I m all right. Help me up," said Barbara, and 
 Giuseppe put his arms about her with a right good will, 
 and dragged her to a sitting posture. 
 
 "Brace up!" he adjured encouragingly, but Barbara 
 leaned against his shoulder dizzily before she made the 
 effort. 
 
 Zillah arrived upon the scene as Mona Giacoso was 
 drying Barbara s hair, and Giuseppe herding the babies in 
 a corner, out of the way of this erratic visitor. Barbara, 
 though rather pale and limp, was in complete command of 
 the situation. 
 
 " I never saw any one die before," she explained, de 
 voutly hoping the Italians had not understood the dying 
 woman s words, " and I shall be right vexed with you-all 
 if you say anything about my fainting. It was no one s 
 fault but my own, Zillah, that I went in to see her. I 
 can t imagine what possessed me." 
 
 " Neither can I ! " responded Zillah, distinctly dis 
 gusted with the entire performance, and she took the 
 towelling summarily from good little Mona Giacoso, who, 
 in a hospitable, frantic effort to effect a respectful quiet 
 for her distinguished guests, caught up two infants, and 
 nursed them both at once.
 
 XI 
 
 HELLO, Assemblyman ! " 
 The jovial hail out of the starlit silence roused 
 Mr. Bead from reverie, and he uprose from his 
 seat on the porch, baying a prompt response. 
 
 i( Hello, yourself, Bill Hen! " he called, and went at a 
 long stride down the driveway, toward the shadowy figure 
 approaching between the Druidic rows of hemlocks. 
 They met with a brief hand-grasp, and Abijah hospitably 
 possessed himself of his friend s valise as they walked to 
 ward the house. 
 
 " How d you come up? Just in? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes. Walked the last half-mile. Your good old 
 neighbour, Philo, consented to give me a lift fur s he 
 was goin , but he manifested no disposition to accommo 
 date me an inch beyond; so I gave him warm thanks for 
 his neighbourliness, instead of a dollar, and stumped it the 
 rest of the way. Does the old curmudgeon lay it up 
 against us yet for the time we locked him in his corn- 
 crib?" 
 
 "Oh, no! He thinks considerably better of our 
 chances of escaping the * gallus than he did then, and 
 he s been real friendly with me since my nomination; 
 comes over and borrows anything he wants as free as can 
 be. I haven t figured it out yet, but at a rough estimate, 
 Philo s vote has cost me, in the use of farm-horses and 
 implements, pretty close to ten dollars already." 
 
 Deyo shouted like a boy, and as they mounted the steps, 
 Abijah guided him to one side, Rob having gone to sleep 
 casually in the middle of the porch floor. 
 
 185
 
 1 86 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Hello! Night air good for the kid? " enquired Mr. 
 Deyo. 
 
 " I hope so, for half the time it s the only kind we can 
 get up here," replied Abijah deprecatingly. 
 
 " You should bring him out to Chicago," admonished 
 Mr. Deyo, feeling for the familiar bench at the side of 
 the porch. Abijah paused in the yawning darkness of 
 his unlighted doorway. 
 
 " Lives there a man with soul so dead, and so forth," 
 he quoted. 
 
 " That s all right; but if you were thinking of order 
 ing supper, don t let me detain you," observed Mr. Deyo 
 politely. 
 
 " I ll tell Pete to hustle the grub," said Abijah, and dis 
 appeared into the dark interior. Deyo put his back 
 against the house, and stretched out his legs on the bench, 
 breathing deep, contented breaths of the crisp, aromatic 
 mountain air. 
 
 " Have a drink? " enquired his host, reappearing in 
 the doorway. 
 
 No, thanks; Marcia won t kiss me if I do; I m going 
 down to your sister s, as soon as I ve had supper and 
 dressed." 
 
 " How did you know about the doins to-night? " 
 
 " Silas put me next; so I made him dig up my suit-case 
 from the baggage car; I knew all my folks would be 
 asleep, and I knew it did not matter if you were, old 
 man. Will your sister admit an uninvited guest? " 
 
 " Sure thing! " Abijah said cordially. 
 
 " I flattered myself she would, but Silas did not en 
 courage the conceit, so I thought I d better come up and 
 bring you down with me." 
 
 " Not on your life! " Abijah said, still more cordially. 
 
 "You confirmed old misogynist! Well, how does 
 politics agree with you, far as you ve got? "
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 187 
 
 " It s hell! " said Abijah, and his friend chuckled. 
 
 " Give me your vote! Oh, Bijah, I wish I could 
 be here for the fun ! Father wrote you were doing the 
 Coriolanus act, and the old gentleman is red-headed about 
 the way you revoke and trump your partner s trick." 
 
 " I thought I could venture to go it alone ! " quoth 
 Abijah coolly. He had no intention to confide the weak 
 ness which had almost betrayed him, to this man, who 
 gaily challenged all comers in the professional arena, and 
 enjoyed pitting himself against competitors. 
 
 " Gaul," Deyo reflected aloud, " was never divided 
 into three parts. You got the whole of it, Bijah Bead! " 
 
 "Supper!" called Pete, opening the kitchen door at 
 the end of the hall, and the glow from the lamp on the 
 dining table fell in a broad pale beam through the front 
 doorway upon the sleeping child. 
 
 I might as well take him up to bed now. Don t 
 wait, Billy, go right in to supper," said Abijah, and he 
 knelt with a supple movement, and gently gathered the 
 child into his arms without awakening him. 
 
 " I ve a jewel of an appetite," remarked Deyo, but 
 he lingered, half wistfully watching Abijah, who revealed 
 a depth of tenderness never hitherto glimpsed or sus 
 pected by his oldest friend. There was no question of 
 his affection for his son, and the realisation of it gave 
 the young lawyer a queer spasm of jealousy. 
 
 After supper, while his guest dressed for the recep 
 tion, Abijah smoked comfortably, and scoffed the idea 
 of accompanying him. 
 
 We only got home yesterday from a trip to New 
 York, and my neck s raw yet; I had to wear a collar and 
 a b iled shirt for a week," he averred when Deyo became 
 urgent. 
 
 " Oh, confound your neck! " said Deyo, and by a quick 
 flank movement he upset Abijah s chair. Abijah escaped
 
 1 88 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the ignominy of a downfall, by a lithe spring to his 
 feet. 
 
 "I ll iron you out, Billy!" he exclaimed, and they 
 grappled like boys. 
 
 " Will you go if I throw you? " panted Deyo, as they 
 wrestled around the room. 
 
 Yep! " said Bijah. He was the larger and heavier 
 man of the two, but his friend was in training, and scarcely 
 had he uttered the assent, when his feet slipped, and they 
 fell together upon Rob s bed, Abijah undermost. 
 
 The crash awakened Rob, who sat up bewildered. The 
 next instant he had scrambled up and was pummelling 
 Deyo valorously. 
 
 The men rolled apart in helpless laughter. "Foul! 
 foul!" gasped Deyo, and Abijah sat up and drew his 
 son within the circle of his arm. 
 
 " That s right, pard," he said reassuringly. " You 
 did perfectly right to come to the rescue when your dad s 
 in trouble." 
 
 " I thought it was a real scrap," murmured Rob apolo 
 getically, and Deyo offered his hand. 
 
 " I m proud to make your acquaintance, young man. 
 You re a dead-game sport. I hope I shall be able to 
 say as much for your dad," significantly; and Abijah 
 groaned. 
 
 " He s a bully, pard. I wish you had blacked his eye," 
 he said. 
 
 Well, he didn t, and I threw you; your own son is 
 witness. You get into your glad rags in a hurry, or we 
 won t get down till midnight." 
 
 " I haven t any! I never had an evening suit in my 
 life," said Abijah triumphantly. 
 
 " Wear anything you have; wear your pajamas, if you 
 like, but go you shall if T have to lav you out and carry 
 you down on a shutter," answered Deyo remorselessly,
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 189 
 
 and he made a raid upon Abijah s closet; Abijah made a 
 rueful toilet of such things as were laid out for him, em 
 phatically repudiating any responsibility for his appear 
 ance or conduct therein. 
 
 As they started off behind the fastest trotter in the 
 stables, it occurred to Deyo that long and intimately as 
 he had known Abijah Bead many of the commonplaces 
 of acquaintance were unknown to him. 
 
 " Do you dance, Bije? " he asked curiously, as they 
 sped down the mountain road. 
 
 " Not particularly; but I had to learn to pick up my 
 feet somehow out at Red Bluffs, when Long Sam marked 
 time with his revolver. It was a favourite entertainment 
 of his, and though there was nothing original in the per 
 formance, I danced a few sets for him. Want to see me 
 do it again to-night? " 
 
 Not at all," said Deyo, who knew better than to try 
 Abijah too far in his present mood, and they drove 
 through the cool shadows of the forest in silence, for a 
 while; then Deyo spoke again. 
 
 I m going to be married this winter," he announced 
 carelessly. 
 
 ; Don t be hasty. You and Marcia haven t been en 
 gaged more than a decade yet. How s Rosie? " 
 ( Rosie has gone with a handsomer man. 
 
 "The devil!" 
 Yes ! Nelse Lehman I hear." 
 
 " Good Lord! What was the row? " 
 I don t row. I think she suspected I meant to be 
 married. She just left." 
 
 Too bad! Poor little Rosie! He s a mean cuss, 
 Billy." 
 
 I can t help it. Rosie knew it, and she knew, too, I 
 wouldn t have thrown her over. But I m done. Perhaps 
 it s just as well."
 
 190 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " For you. But Rosie wasn t really vicious, and that 
 gorilla- 
 
 " I m not interested in sociological problems. She evi 
 dently had the professional instincts, after all. I thought 
 better of Rosie," said Deyo regretfully. 
 
 Abijah s square jaws set in silence. His keener sensi 
 bilities discerned the desperation of an ignorant, heart 
 broken woman s frantic act, but he recognised the hope 
 lessness of argument, and only sent his horse forward 
 with a sudden acceleration of speed as he whirled into the 
 turnpike. 
 
 What s the rush?" inquired Deyo as he recovered 
 from the jerk. 
 
 " Best get a bad job over," said Abijah, and held his 
 trotter to the steady pace of a machine as they approached 
 the village. 
 
 Mrs. Brinkerhoff directed Deyo where to find Marcia 
 when they presented themselves, and her brother relieved 
 her of all responsibility on his account, by seeking the 
 maternal protection. Mrs. Bead was in a group of dow 
 agers near a window and Abijah took his place behind 
 her chair, watching the dancers. His sufferings were so 
 acute she did not venture to address him, when he first 
 appeared, and when she finally turned her head to do so, 
 he had lapsed silently out of the window, and was smok 
 ing a solitary cigar in a secluded corner of the veranda, 
 from whence he could look in at the window unobserved. 
 
 " Emily," said Mrs. Bead, a serene composure dis 
 guising her discomfiture, " sometimes I wish I had taught 
 you children to dance. Did you ever see any one so out 
 of his element as Abijah? " 
 
 " I think he might have dressed properly if he were 
 coming," replied her daughter, smiling sweetly across the 
 room at some one. 
 
 " Where is he? " asked the mother anxiously.
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 191 
 
 " I m sure I don t know, and if he thinks I m going to 
 coax him to play, as I used to when he was a boy, he s 
 mistaken. Lucky the Phelpses are in Europe," and Mrs. 
 Brinkerhoff swept gracefully away. She came unex 
 pectedly upon Barbara Hurst, sitting alone in a bay 
 window. 
 
 What in the world has happened? Where s your 
 partner? Why are you not dancing? " she demanded, 
 pausing in surprise before the girl. 
 
 " I ve danced every set, and am having a perfectly 
 lovely time, Mrs. Brinkerhoff. The music is delicious. 
 Mr. Augivine has gone to look for my fan, and I m wait 
 ing for him. It s an old Watteau fan of Maman s, and 
 I should not like to lose it." 
 
 : No, indeed! Where did you miss it? " 
 
 Why, I missed it right here," replied Barbara de 
 murely, and smiled a greeting to the doctor, who had 
 found her out and was drawing a chair to her side. 
 
 " I ll see that it is found," said Mrs. Brinkerhoff, 
 " Come, Mr. Ten Eyke, help me in this quest. Miss 
 Hurst has lost her fan, a lovely thing of Madam Hurst s." 
 
 Mr. Ten Eyke bowed in acquiescence. He had in 
 tended otherwise, but submitted himself to his hostess 
 demands. 
 
 If I am successful, I shall return for the eh re 
 ward, Miss Barbara," he said aside, and Barbara nodded, 
 dimpling mischievously. Her expression aroused the doc 
 tor s suspicions. 
 
 Where is that fan, Barbara? " he demanded, and the 
 girl s eyes danced. She drew her skirt aside the merest 
 trifle, and disclosed the fan upon the floor. The doctor 
 laid it on her knee without remark, and she unfurled it 
 with composure. 
 
 * I couldn t endure that man another moment," she 
 explained, and the doctor nodded. " He couldn t dance,"
 
 192 THE PANG-Y ANGER 
 
 continued Barbara indignantly, " and he couldn t talk, 
 and yet he had the assurance to be taking up my 
 time." 
 
 14 Perhaps he came to eat," suggested the doctor. 
 44 The " 
 
 What an escape ! I had not detected the cannibal 
 istic intent. You suggest the last horrible possibility of 
 that young man. I ll never forgive you if you forsake 
 me when he comes back." 
 
 The collation, as I was about to say, is always an 
 important feature of Mrs. Brinkerhoff s entertainments; 
 and you need not expect me to help spoil you with com 
 pliments. Have you had a good time? " 
 
 4 Yes till the cannibal king got me. Don t you like 
 my gown, doctor? " 
 
 " It s an excellent gown." 
 
 Barbara pouted. 4l Aren t you going to dance with 
 me, either? You may have all of Mr. Augivine s dances," 
 generously. 
 
 14 I d rather sit here and talk to you." 
 
 " But this is not a conversazione; my brains are all in 
 my heels to-night, and they are eloquent 1 pleaded the 
 girl. 
 
 4 You must have a dance with Bill Hen Deyo; where 
 are they? " and the doctor scanned the room. 
 
 " He took his cousin away from her partner and they 
 began this waltz, but they disappeared a moment ago," 
 replied Barbara. 
 
 The doctor picked up her card, and scanned it doubt 
 fully. 
 
 44 This is a glorious two-step," she murmured suggest 
 ively. 
 
 44 As you are young, be merciful! I have not danced 
 since I was a boy. If you wouldn t mind, though, we 
 might polka "
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 193 
 
 " Anything," exclaimed the girl, rising, " only do not 
 let us lose this delicious music," and they took their 
 place on the floor. 
 
 " Do you see that? " whispered Mrs. Silliman, and her 
 neighbour had indeed observed with equal wonder, but 
 would not admit it. 
 
 " Dr. Pomfret is not decrepit. There is no reason why 
 he should not dance if he likes," Mrs. Bead replied 
 quietly. 
 
 " Oh, I suppose he has a right to let that chit of a girl 
 
 make a fool of him if he wants to, but I must say " 
 
 and she turned to a more congenial gossip. 
 
 Mr. Deyo had led his cousin Marcia from the ball 
 room, and swathing her in a wrap, they had sought the 
 comparative seclusion of the veranda. The night grew 
 colder as it waned, and in the white rays of the rising 
 morn the hoarfrost sparkled on the lawn, and the Japa 
 nese lanterns under the trees waved in a chill, solitary 
 breeze. The veranda was deserted, and they sauntered 
 slowly down the length of it, through the light and music 
 streaming from the long window, and entered the shadows 
 at the farther end. Here Deyo put his arm round his 
 fiancee, and drew her to him. 
 
 " Sweetheart! " he murmured. 
 
 "Now, this is crowding the mourners! Go away 
 confound you, Billy!" said an aggrieved voice in the 
 deepest shade behind them, and Miss Palmer would have 
 fled incontinently, but her lover stood to a point of privi 
 lege, and held her fast. 
 
 " Go away yourself, Bijah ! Any place is good enough 
 for you, and I haven t seen Marcia for six months," he 
 retorted, laughing, and Abijah beat a retreat by the way 
 he had come. The humourous parentheses were scored 
 deep about his mouth, as he leaned against the window 
 frame inside, but when he saw the doctor dancing away
 
 194 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 for very dear life, a preternatural gravity settled upon 
 
 his features. 
 
 Dr. Pomfret was perfectly indifferent to the criticism 
 he knew he was exciting, and Barbara lent the rhythm of 
 her grace to his unpractised steps in blissful ignorance of 
 it; but Abijah promptly imputed to her a wanton malice 
 in the expose of his friend s infatuation. He could feel 
 the stir of comment in the room, as observation focussed 
 on them: but he was obliged to reverse his opinion as he 
 watched them. Music etherealised this girl. There was 
 a quality of faery in her dancing which transformed the 
 functions to a mode of being, wherein consciousness was 
 sustained by harmony. She floated like a sprite upon the 
 doctor s arm, and her dainty joy compelled participation 
 in all beholders. The good doctor was dancing with 
 an unconscious abandon which aroused Abijah s solicitude. 
 He turned his face to the casement, and sent a stealthy, 
 sepulchral whisper out into the dusk of the veranda. 
 
 " Bill Hen! " he called, and Miss Palmer prepared for 
 instant flight. 
 
 You wait till we get home, Bijah Bead ! " warned 
 Deyo s voice. 
 
 u Come in here ! You ve got to lend a hand," said 
 Abijah with insistence. 
 
 What do you suppose that awful man wants, Billy? 
 I don t want to go near him," Marcia whispered to her 
 lover. 
 
 " He s bound to make it interesting for me, because I 
 made him come. I suppose we d better go in and see 
 what he wants. . . . Congratulate me, Bijah, we 
 are going to be married at Christmas," Deyo announced, 
 as they confronted the figure in the window. 
 
 For an instant Abijah hesitated, then extended his hand 
 in benediction toward them. 
 
 " In that case, let us pray," he said solemnly.
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 195 
 
 "You old heathen!" exclaimed Deyo, and Marcia s 
 beautiful Madonna face flushed softly. Abijah assumed 
 a forced cheerfulness. 
 
 " I will dissemble ! " he announced. " Let joy be un- 
 confined! On with the dance! And so forth! Miss 
 Palmer, he does not deserve his luck; though he has been 
 a fairly decent sort of friend. May my loss be your 
 gain. We should always hope for the best His 
 
 voice trailed off, with the sound of tears, and Marcia was 
 forced to smile. 
 
 " Maybe you will not lose, but gain a friend," she sug 
 gested very sweetly and gently, and she offered her hand. 
 
 Abijah held it for the briefest instant possible. 
 
 :< I am not optimistic enough to expect that" he mur 
 mured with perfectly expressionless conventionality. 
 Turning, he wrung his friend s hand as though in ever 
 lasting parting. 
 
 " I wish you had a life sentence in Utah," ejaculated 
 the outraged lover, but Abijah had turned a harassed 
 countenance to the assembly. 
 
 " I don t suppose there s any use now asking you to 
 head Doc off," he suggested dubiously, and stood aside to 
 give them a view of the room. 
 
 By Jove! " exclaimed Deyo, stepping into the room, 
 and Marcia s eyes followed his. 
 
 " Isn t she bewitching! They polka to the two-step," 
 she observed, smiling. " Isn t that sweet of her? " 
 
 I thought they didn t have just the same action as the 
 rest of the bunch! Does this easy motion favor Doc 
 any? He s saving his wind; lets the girl talk; but you 
 can see he s stale, and he s getting pinker than it s safe 
 for an apoplectic man to be. I didn t feel real anxious 
 till it reached his bald spot. Bill Hen, if you can cut 
 him out of the bunch, without stampeding the herd, you 
 ought to do it. I don t know how, but I hate to see a
 
 196 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 valuable life sacrificed to a moment s infatuation. Cut 
 
 him out, Billy, if you know how " 
 
 " Is that Miss Hurst? " Deyo asked brokenly, 
 and Marcia nodded helpless with laughter. 
 
 Abijah was taking another observation, and announced 
 the result with some show of excitement. 
 
 " It s around behind his gills now ! Bill Hen, aren t 
 you going to cut him out? " he demanded anxiously. 
 
 " I never boast! " said Deyo modestly. He was look 
 ing with a good deal of interest at the radiant figure across 
 the room. 
 
 This is no time for persiflage! " Abijah said sternly. 
 " If I am thrown upon my own limited resources, I can 
 only choke off the music," and he made off in the direc 
 tion of the orchestra, and suffered no casual greeting to 
 deflect his course. 
 
 " Will he do it? " enquired Marcia curiously. 
 
 " Oh, yes; unless he thinks of some other deviltry on 
 the way there. He s too late for this number, though," 
 replied Deyo, as the closing measures sounded. 
 
 Barbara and the doctor sought their old places in the 
 window alcove, and the doctor wiped his face and head 
 without the least attempt to disguise his warmness. 
 
 "Wh e e w!" he said. " But I enjoyed that, 
 little one ! " 
 
 " So did I," said Barbara, who by nature was of a con 
 tented mind. She folded her hands softly in her lap, and 
 sat in motionless silence, a way she had in curious con 
 trast to her speaking vivacity; and the doctor, assuring 
 himself that the window behind was closed, draped his 
 handkerchief across the back of his neck, as extra pre 
 cautionary, and leaned back in his chair. Their little 
 silence of good-fellowship was broken by the girl. 
 
 Why wouldn t it be a good thing to dance when we 
 are whappy? " she propounded dreamily.
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 197 
 
 " It is used successfully in lunatic asylums," the doctor 
 said drily, but Barbara went on : 
 
 " Yes, music is hypnotic. When I dance I m part of the 
 lovely rhythm : whether in the body or out of the body 
 I m never quite sure, and certainly don t care as long as it 
 goes on. Consciousness is drowned in a stream of melodi 
 ous sensation. Aunt Helen says it is wicked dancing! 
 It isn t, is it? If wicked people dance, I believe they re 
 better, not worse for the dancing. Don t you think so? " 
 
 The doctor was regarding her from beneath his down- 
 bent brows. 
 
 I think," he said slowly, " you re the queerest little 
 girl I ever knew. Are you imp or angel, nineteen or 
 ninety-nine? Your cursed trick of knowledge and your 
 blessed ignorance are a proposition to make a man doubt: 
 till he looks at you ! Then a man knows! " 
 
 Barbara flashed around upon him, amazed. " Knows! 
 What do you mean, Dr. Pomfret? What did I say?" 
 she demanded in consternation. 
 
 " How Colonel Haygood must have enjoyed you, Bar 
 bara," sighed the doctor. 
 
 " But of course ! I was never called a proposition 
 till I came north. He understood me. Not that there s 
 so much to understand." 
 
 I envy him his insight." 
 
 " You might try his method. He 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " He just loved me you know." There was no mis 
 taking which element was active in the girl now. Bar 
 bara had the charms which allure, and the doctor knew 
 she was not always innocent of their employment. 
 
 I have considered the advisability of such a pro 
 cedure, but Oh, Barbara ! Barbara ! what a witch you 
 are. See here now, I ve been scowling till my head 
 aches to fend off two or three young cubs. They ll mob
 
 198 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 me presently. Which of em are you going to dance 
 with? I m through! " 
 
 The young lady swept the hovering youths with a 
 glance more effective than the doctor s scowling. " A 
 regular Hurst look," one of the unfortunates remarked; 
 her girlish insolence delighted the doctor hugely. He 
 had never in his life enjoyed any one as much as he did 
 Barbara Hurst. 
 
 " Boys are so tiresome! " she murmured with a blase 
 air. " I shall not dance this set. Now tell me what did I 
 say so very dreadful? " 
 
 You informed me that this was not a conversazione, 
 for one thing. Do you realise I am jeopardising my best 
 practice to let you make a fool of me? " 
 
 She shot him a sidewise speculative glance. Thrift, 
 Horatio, thrift, " she drawled. " Yankee ability to get 
 value received is proverbial." 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " And a Southern woman s tenacity of her inalienable 
 rights is equally so. You would make a graven image 
 compliment you." 
 
 " I wonder! Could I make that big one over there 
 against the wall do so? " 
 
 "Who? Bijah Bead?" asked the doctor, following 
 her glance. " I should enjoy seeing you attempt it." 
 
 Very well. I wish to speak to Mr. Bead, please." 
 Barbara had come to one of her impulsive decisions. The 
 secret of Aileen Mahan distressed her. It had seemed to 
 her that it would be an unutterable relief to dispossess 
 herself of it to Mr. Bead. It was his. She had no right 
 to it without his knowledge, and she had suddenly de 
 cided to tell him what she had learned. 
 
 " Do you mean it? " asked the doctor curiously. 
 Yes! " said Barbara quietly, though her heart began 
 to beat tumultuously.
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 199 
 
 I didn t know you knew him," said the doctor, and 
 he motioned to Abijah, who, marooned against the wall 
 where the music had left him stranded, received the sig 
 nal with surprise, and hesitated appreciably to respond 
 to it. He had no desire in the world to meet Barbara 
 Hurst again. 
 
 ;< I really wish to speak with him. I do not in the 
 least care whether he wishes it or not," said Barbara, in 
 censed by the hesitation. 
 
 " He s coming," announced the doctor, and though 
 curiosity consumed him, he got heroically to his feet as 
 Abijah started toward them. 
 
 : I reckon this is some reckless," reflected Abijah as 
 people moved aside for him to pass. ; But if he wants me 
 to cover his retreat I suppose I ve got to do it. I don t 
 believe she dare cry in a crowd, that s one comfort; but 
 if worst comes to worst, I ll back myself to outpace her, 
 after Doc gets a head start." 
 
 He bowed a trifle stiffly, but with a grave composure 
 when he stood before them. People were watching the 
 movements of the young millionaire with unaffected in 
 terest. 
 
 " So that was what Barbara Hurst was after the 
 doctor for! Every one knows how thick he and Bijah 
 are. Aren t those Southern girls cute? " commented Mrs. 
 Silliman, following the byplay with an eagle glance. 
 
 " I asked Dr. Pomfret to call you over. I wished to 
 speak to you," said Barbara with nervous precipitation. 
 The glaring absurdity of her intention had burst upon her. 
 It was sheer delirium to conceive it either necessary, de 
 sirable, or decent to disclose a chance knowledge of his 
 personal affairs to this very imposing and truculent 
 young man. Blackmail " would certainly appear to 
 him the only rational motive for such a proceeding. What 
 if she did know he was married? Oh, what of it? She
 
 200 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 could imagine his sarcasm; the impulse had been a night 
 mare; it remained only to be evaded. 
 
 " Take my place, Bijah," said the doctor, moving 
 away, and Abijah, turning the back of the chair squarely 
 to the spectators, sat down facing Barbara.
 
 XII 
 
 AL the dainty wiles of feminine allurement, the 
 pretty piques and coquetry of girlhood, forsook 
 her utterly, and before this man of all men, most 
 needing her savoir faire, Barbara sat trembling so she 
 dared not speak. His attitude of cynical expectancy was 
 maddening, and all her courage just sufficed to keep her 
 eyes unflinching as she met his mocking interrogation. 
 " Do you ever act on impulse?" she asked desperately, 
 thankful for the screen of his broad shoulders between her 
 and the rest of the world. 
 
 ; Never! It wouldn t be allowed," was the grim re 
 sponse. 
 
 I have to offer you an apology, sir! I acted under a 
 misconception in in thinking I had anything to say to 
 you. I am very sorry. I will not detain you." 
 
 Mr. Bead appeared to consider this no more than was 
 to be expected from feminine indirection, and waited for 
 the denouement, with an air of patient resignation. Bar 
 bara fluttered up from her chair, but escape was im 
 practicable while he stolidly blocked the way, and she 
 stood, in nervous indecision, her slender fingers franti 
 cally clutching at the chair-back. 
 
 " Hadn t you better sit down, Miss Hurst? This isn t 
 quite fair," he said imperturbably. He did not mean to 
 be played fast and loose with like this, and besides his 
 curiosity was aroused; her intent, whatever it was, had 
 manifestly not been a mere subterfuge to compel his at 
 tention. Her distress was too genuine. 
 
 901
 
 202 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Please allow me to pass, Mr. Bead! I have apolo 
 gised." The words were imperative, but her eyes were 
 suppliant to his, and he used his power mercilessly. 
 
 " Sit down! " he said with a quiet assumption of au 
 thority, and she slipped like water back into her chair be 
 fore him. For a moment he was silent, looking down at 
 her speculatively, and the band began to play a ravishing 
 mazourka. Barbara knew her subjugation was complete 
 and simply waited. Neither of them noticed her partner 
 for the dance making furtive efforts to attract her atten 
 tion, and presently he went away to smoke in sulky soli 
 tude on the veranda. Abijah Bead in the astonishing 
 capacity of squire of dames was not a person to interrupt, 
 and the palm-banked bay window in which they sat, was 
 given a conspicuously wide berth by all the curious com 
 pany. Mr. Bead leaned slightly forward, and his dark 
 figure almost hid the rose-clad girlish one before him. 
 
 " You were going to tell me he prompted. 
 
 " I stayed that day, at Giuseppe s," Barbara con 
 fessed, as simply as a child, and the man smiled. 
 
 " I rather expected you would, after I told you to be 
 good and go home." 
 
 " Then what did you tell me for? " asked the girl, and 
 the reproachful unreason reminded him of Rob. For 
 some inscrutable reason Abijah never quite accorded Bar 
 bara the status of an adult. 
 
 " I expected it after I spoke," indulgently. " Before 
 doing so I was actuated by a humanitarian impulse to 
 shield a delicate young lady from an unnecessary and 
 painful scene. I saw the woman was at the point of 
 death; I hope you did not encounter anything particularly 
 ghastly." 
 
 "I saw her die!" said Barbara with an involuntary 
 shudder, and she could not have looked more guilty if 
 she had murdered the unfortunate creature.
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 203 
 
 " Giuseppe told me all about it, yesterday, when I 
 came home. I don t want to rub it in, Miss Hurst, but I 
 can t help reminding you that you wouldn t take my 
 device, and ye see what s come of it. The reminiscence 
 did not amuse Barbara. 
 
 "He had no right! I forbade him strictly!" she 
 flashed, and Abijah shrugged, irresponsible for the 
 treacherous Italian. 
 
 " Then you know who she was? " she said in a low 
 voice. 
 
 "Who she was, that woman? No! Do you? 1 1 de 
 manded Abijah, searching his conscience for forgotten 
 derelictions toward this miserable one, and finding it void 
 of offence, in any particular. Barbara did not answer 
 verbally, but her face was a transparency. He fell back 
 in his chair, dropping his arms beside him in limp resig 
 nation. 
 
 " Don t prolong the dramatic suspense," he mocked, 
 " don t hesitate to bring my villainy right home to me. 
 I dare say I did it, whatever it was, but by the great horn 
 spoon, I ll see that her grave is kept green if I can 
 imagine who she was, or what you re driving at ! " he 
 averred, and Barbara believed him. 
 
 " Her name was Aileen Mahan," she told him, with a 
 sense of relief in confession. 
 
 Mr. Bead had cultivated self-possession at the expense 
 of several of the cardinal virtues. His face was in 
 scrutable now, but his large, loose figure knit tensely, as 
 he resumed his former posture leaning slightly towards 
 her, and beneath the massive quiet of his attitude seethed 
 a sudden, sullen anger and the impotent bitterness of de 
 feat. Fate mocked him, and his mouth, hidden by the 
 drooping moustache, was shut in a savage line. 
 
 The histrionic possibilities of the situation appeal 
 strongly to my imagination, but I m afraid I can t act
 
 204 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the part you ve apparently cast me for. Unfortunately 
 (I assure you I regret it deeply) I never knew Aileen 
 Mahan. Will you gratify a natural curiosity, and inform 
 me why you thought her identity would interest me? " he 
 inquired with biting sarcasm. 
 
 u I I thought you would wish to know whom you 
 had befriended," murmured Barbara lamely. 
 
 That isn t good enough, Miss Hurst; I m sorry, but I 
 insist on the whole story," he said firmly. 
 
 You must positively excuse me, sir! " she said, with 
 a last flicker of defiant dignity. 
 
 "No." The definitive was remorseless; his eyes com 
 pelled her, though she struggled and drooped away from 
 him, with a little tremulous sigh, as he held her, like a 
 fluttering bird in a strong hand. He had the force which 
 bent men to his will, and this slight girl swayed to it and 
 obeyed. 
 
 " I heard her talking; it was pitiful! Over and over 
 she was saying, I mind him now! It was like she had 
 almost laid hold on consciousness, and I asked her who it 
 was she remembered; I don t know what made me, only 
 it was so pitiful, Mr. Bead, to die all alone! She an 
 swered, coherently: Abijah Bead, I minds him now, I 
 saw him married. That was all, except the name, and 
 then Oh, it was awful ! " Barbara put her fan to her 
 lips to hide her agitation, and Abijah looked at her cynic 
 ally, unfeelingly. She was part of the world he raged 
 against. 
 
 " I am sorry you had a bad quarter of an hour for 
 nothing; I suppose you imagine I shall wish to refute 
 this remarkable testimony? " The sinister humour of 
 the idea moved him to ironic laughter. Barbara laid her 
 fan upon her knee and raised her head haughtily. No 
 one had ever laughed at her like this, and it stung her 
 to defend the most impossible position.
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 205 
 
 Refute ! " Her brows were incredulous, insolent. 
 But why? You misunderstand. There is no one 
 cognisant of this but me" It was a fierce, blind, little 
 thrust, but it found the joints of his defensive cynicism 
 shrewdly. 
 
 " And Miss Hurst s er investigations are unmis 
 takably in the interests of science only! Oh, if my per 
 sonal equation will assist in the solution of any cosmic 
 problem, I hope I recognise your right to use it. As the 
 unconsidered factor, I am only humbly anxious to lend 
 myself to whatever worthy purpose you have condescended 
 to use me. Perhaps it is not necessary I should under 
 stand; I certainly do not." 
 
 For one instant Barbara sincerely regretted the con 
 veniences of the Borgia period! There was something 
 of his own fanged savagery in the girl who loved and 
 hated him, and she met the mocking devil in his eyes with 
 a steely flash of her own. 
 
 It is not necessary. It is not possible" she said, and 
 her lips set on the words in a slow scorn. 
 
 Abijah rose abruptly. There was a necessity upon 
 him to get where he could swear. 
 
 "Can I be of further service to science?" he de 
 manded. 
 
 " Not at present," said Barbara coolly, and he turned 
 to leave her, oblivious to the obligations of the social pact. 
 
 "Mr. Bead!" 
 
 He paused and looked back with a growing apprecia 
 tion of her as a belligerent. 
 
 " Please take me over to your mother and Dr. Pom- 
 fret," commanded Barbara, rising with graceful noncha 
 lance. 
 
 Mr. Bead hesitated. 
 
 " What for? " he demanded roughly. 
 
 "Because!" said Barbara, moving to his side with
 
 io6 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 the composure of conscious observation. The music had 
 ceased, and they were conspicuous against the palms. 
 
 " I assure you, Miss Hurst, it s no honour to you," he 
 protested grimly, but Barbara laid her fingers lightly on 
 his arm, and with a shrug of his shoulders he strode along 
 beside her. His face was a study. 
 
 " Did he do it? " demanded the doctor. Abijah had 
 vanished instantly. 
 
 44 Do what?" 
 
 " Compliment you." 
 
 " I do not feel like you were entitled to that sort of 
 confidence," remarked Barbara airily. 
 
 Honour a physician with the honour due unto him 
 for the use which thou mayst have of him, " the doctor 
 quoted warningly. 
 
 Barbara turned a riant, wilful face to Abijah s mother. 
 
 " Is that fair? " she appealed. 
 
 " No, but it s always safest to humour him," said Mrs. 
 Bead. 
 
 "I m shocked to hear you counsel expediency! Not 
 to save a pound of flesh even will I resort to it ! " de 
 clared the girl. 
 
 " As your future husband I think I have the right to 
 your entire confidence," observed the doctor pompously. 
 
 We re engaged for the next incarnation ! " Barbara 
 explained to Mrs. Bead s look of astonishment, " but I 
 haven t entire confidence in a man -who can wait so long! " 
 Her caprice, brilliant, daring, provocative, was a mood 
 unlike her usual unconsidered girlish mischief, and the 
 doctor stared. 
 
 " If you become much more bewitching / shall not!" 
 he muttered, and her smile was audacious. 
 
 " It irks me that I never dare to be as bewitching as 
 I know I can be," she confided dreamily. 
 
 " Why not? " he asked brusquely.
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 207 
 
 " Oh, the remnant of hereditary conscience, I suppose. 
 In another incarnation this may not inhibit me," she added 
 hopefully. 
 
 " It s rather in abeyance to-night, isn t it? " He was 
 studying her critically. Some pent excitement was evident 
 in her diablerie. She was surcharged with a tingling 
 magnetism which, he saw with rage, already attracted at 
 tention toward her. 
 
 She swayed ever so slightly toward him, with no diminu 
 tion of her naughtiness. Don t scold ! " she coaxed. 
 Her eyes glistened with a feverish brilliancy. 
 
 What is the matter? " he asked gently. 
 
 Why, nothing, nothing whatever! Only I m nervous 
 to-night. Don t worry, dear, I ll dance it off." The 
 " dear " was unconscious and inexpressibly touching, but 
 the doctor knew it only gave him Colonel Haygood s 
 place, and sighed. 
 
 You ought to go home: you are tired and hysterical," 
 he said, but Miss Palmer was introducing her fiance, and 
 his advice was ignored. 
 
 Barbara met young Deyo s glance of open admiration 
 with a challenge unmistakable. The doctor groaned when 
 he saw it. 
 
 " Do you care to dance this set, Marcia? " asked Mr. 
 Deyo, and his indifferent air misled his cousin. The band 
 was playing a most delicious waltz. 
 
 "Why, no; I believe I am rather tired," Miss Palmer 
 said, and Deyo looked at Barbara. 
 
 " Are you? " His voice softened strangely, and they 
 both smiled at the superfluous question. They went on 
 the floor together, and to the scandalisation of the com 
 pany, together they remained for the rest of the evening. 
 Miss Palmer received them with entire good nature, when 
 they returned to their seats after the first dance; she was 
 a phlegmatic blonde, and accustomed to her lover s de-
 
 208 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 flections, but the doctor was acutely conscious of the com 
 ments rustling through the room. 
 
 " What a flirt that girl is! " 
 
 " I guess she s met her match now anyhow with Bill 
 Hen Deyo!" 
 
 The Hursts always think they may do anything." 
 
 Bijah got away, and now she s carrying on with Bill 
 Hen Deyo. It s scandalous!" said Mrs. Silliman vi 
 ciously. 
 
 " I did not observe anything like carrying-on ! Miss 
 Hurst danced in a perfectly ladylike manner," retorted 
 Mrs. Bead. 
 
 "Humph! Well, she s going to do it again. Will 
 you see the way Bill Hen s looking at her? " and as the 
 music began again, Mrs. Silliman nudged her neighbour 
 sharply. Mrs. Bead arose, a polite rebuff of the famili 
 arity. 
 
 " I think I must bid you good-night. It s getting late 
 for old folks like us," she observed, and made her way 
 to her daughter. 
 
 "Are you supposed to chaperon Barbara Hurst? " she 
 enquired severely. 
 
 " Chaperon quicksilver! " retorted Mrs. Brinkerhoff, 
 with unfilial rudeness, but she circled round the room 
 and sat down by Miss Palmer and the doctor, as the 
 dance drew to a close. 
 
 " It s beastly close in these rooms; let s get a breath of 
 air," said Deyo to Barbara as the music was dying away, 
 and they spent the interval until the next dance out in the 
 frosty moonlight. Miss Palmer passed them on her way 
 out to the carriage. 
 
 " I believe she would dance with a satyr to-night. She 
 acts like a little devil! " growled Dr. Pomfret, as the cul 
 prits approached him after the next dance. 
 
 " You are looking a trifle fatigued, dear," said Mrs.
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 209 
 
 Brinkerhoff sweetly. I wouldn t dance the next set if I 
 were you." 
 
 " Very well," said Barbara, deferring prettily to au 
 thority; and she sat down before her tried and helpless 
 friends, and openly held court, the undisputed belle of the 
 occasion. Men crowded around her, contending for 
 fractional divisions of the few remaining dances, and 
 she laughed at them and dazzled them and held them 
 by a power she only dimly understood. The lancers 
 forming occupied but half the floor, her hostess was in 
 censed, and the doctor watched her with a thunderous as 
 pect. 
 
 " Your dances are all mine, remember," Deyo bent to 
 breathe at Barbara s ear, and although his words were 
 inaudible to the others, his proprietary attitude was more 
 than the doctor would tolerate. Rising from his chair, 
 he descended among the suitors, carried Barbara away to 
 the dressing room, and sternly bade Mam Lilly take her 
 home. Very much to his surprise, she accepted his in 
 tervention without protest, with something like relief. 
 
 Mam Lilly chuckled as the wrathful gentleman 
 marched away down the hall. 
 
 " It looks plumb pistolly, lady," she observed, and 
 Barbara slapped her. Mam Lilly hugged her in re 
 taliation. 
 
 " Ain yo had a good time, honey? " she asked tenderly, 
 and Barbara laid her head against the faithful creature s 
 breast. 
 
 " No, I haven t! I ve had the worst time of my whole 
 life. And if you ever tell any one I ll I ll send you 
 home ! " she sobbed. 
 
 Young Deyo was waiting at the foot of the stairs, 
 exhilarant with a draught which had gone to his well- 
 seasoned head. 
 
 "I wish I could thrash you, you darned jackass!"
 
 no THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 muttered the doctor, and he hooked his arm in that of the 
 young man and carried him, protesting, out of the path of 
 the siren. The doctor was nothing if not thorough in his 
 executive offices. 
 
 " That girl understands the game, Doc," laughed Deyo, 
 "and isn t she a witch? I suppose all the old cats in 
 town will be yowling about her to-morrow, and there isn t 
 an ounce of harm in the little thing." 
 
 They were out in the moonlit street, and the doctor 
 
 dropped his arm, and glared at him through his glasses. 
 
 " By the Lord! " he exclaimed, in a towering rage, " I 
 
 will thrash you publicly, if you aren t seen out with Marcia 
 
 Palmer before noon to-morrow." 
 
 ; Whew ! Say, Doc, that isn t reasonable, you know ! 
 Give me till one o clock, at least. You can t expect me 
 to get a sulky woman out of bed by noon, the day after a 
 ball. I mean to square Marcia, of course. We re to be 
 married Christmas. Awfully sorry I poached on your 
 preserves; s posed Bijah was just gassing as usual, you 
 know. Seriously, she s the dearest little girl in the world. 
 I envy- 
 But the doctor flung away from him, and went on alone. 
 It was St. Martin s summertide with him.
 
 XIII 
 
 NOTHING at all was heard of the Delaware as 
 semblyman until after the holidays, and then 
 things began to happen in all sorts of unex 
 pected and, for the most part, effective ways, and at 
 tracted attention to the house. 
 
 Abijah Bead was elected chairman of a somewhat im 
 portant committee at the beginning of the session; and he 
 worked, no one dreamed how he worked, to familiarise 
 himself with the details of legislation. He wore out one 
 private coach, and went on with another, and the library 
 clerks drudged to supply the demands of the insatiable as 
 semblyman. He could work eighteen hours to the twenty- 
 four, and he did; and his work on the committee attracted 
 favourable attention. His methods were bound to be 
 original, and his faculties, unstaled by routine work, gave 
 an impression of latent ability altogether deceptive, for 
 he was doing all there was in him, and he knew it. He 
 never lost the feeling of a charlatan which haunts all men 
 of ideals: the work a man can and does do, compared to 
 the work a man thinks he should do, is such a miserable 
 thing to palm off as success ! Yet the world applauds and 
 envies. Abijah s world did, the world of men without 
 the artistic perspective; and he could not always resist his 
 natural propensity to exploit their shortsightedness. Leg 
 islative debate affords scope for Homeric jesting. Abijah 
 made, at first, short, swift incursions into it, by caustic com 
 ment and demoralising questions harassing friend and foe 
 with a direful impartiality which speedily aroused his 
 
 211
 
 212 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 party leaders to deal with the erratic young man in the 
 interest of party polity. 
 
 The Delaware assemblyman was crudely academic. 
 They demonstrated this to him, pointed out that his 
 scathing criticism had jeopardised an important party 
 measure. This all happened far back at the beginning of 
 corporate aggressions, when Trusts were first anathema 
 and the party was accused of collusion with them. A bill 
 had been carefully framed ostensibly to limit monopoly, 
 and Abijah held it up to contumely; denounced it as petty 
 class legislature, and declared it unconstitutional. It was; 
 but the bosses tried to make it clear to him that it was no 
 part of his business to pick flaws in his own party meas 
 ures, and the metropolitan press published his picture at 
 the top of screeds on " A Tool of the Trusts." Abijah 
 objected to that picture, and he dealt with the syndicate 
 agents who thereafter confidently approached him to 
 effect " arrangements," in a manner which was, to say 
 the least, inconsistent with his protest against the bill. 
 
 There happened to be a man in the Executive Chair 
 that term, and he sent for the insurgent assemblyman. 
 The Governor (Mrs. Bead had not allowed this point to 
 escape her son s attention) was a family connection, but 
 the two men had never met. 
 
 We re relatives; cousins of some sort, I believe," re 
 marked the Governor affably as they shook hands. 
 
 " So the women say, but don t you care," said Abijah 
 soothingly. 
 
 The Governor was amused. 
 
 " Oh, we have to have em, you know, relatives; can t 
 in decency ignore them, domestic or political," he said 
 suavely, motioning his caller to a seat. 
 
 " I m a sort of Ishmaelite," said Abijah discouragingly. 
 
 " Oh, no, no, no ! " protested the Governor lightly. 
 41 That s only a phase of political adolescence. Boys at a
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 213 
 
 certain age, you know, always want to run away and take 
 to the open. You ll find us a fairly decent sort of folk 
 all around, when you grow old enough to appreciate family 
 ties. Better make up your mind to recognise and make 
 the best of us, Mr. Bead; you ll find yourself more er 
 effective." 
 
 " I ve just come from a heart-to-heart talk with Platt. 
 He makes the man on the fence feel like thirty cents, 
 but " 
 
 " He isn t worth thirty cents; he s an unmitigated nui 
 sance if he stays there! Strong men don t; they get 
 down into the field, on one side or the other, and we want 
 you on ours. By and large the party s an instrument for 
 good, and, at any rate, it s all the one we have to use, 
 and there are things to do! We get them done, some 
 how ; and considering what we have to work with, it isn t 
 such damn bad work after all. If you dull a useful tool 
 before you ve forged a better, your efforts are nugatory, 
 destructive." 
 
 I d like to destroy about six out of the seven hundred 
 statutes annually enacted." 
 
 I ve vetoed over two hundred of them this session 
 so far," observed the Governor wearily, " but this 
 anti-Trust Bill now; of course your sympathy as a capi- 
 talist- 
 
 I play a lone hand," said Abijah curtly. 
 
 You agree that the aggression of monopolies should 
 be limited? " the Governor enquired suavely. 
 
 " Certainly, but this bill won t do it; it will only 
 harass em and give that inchoate unleaven increment, the 
 labour trust, a pull, while the courts are setting it aside. 
 And the labour trust is a greater menace than capital." 
 
 Not yet," said the Governor quietly; " and you can t 
 expect to legislate for all posterity in your first session, 
 Cousin Bijah."
 
 214 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 There is no use framing a statute we know will be 
 repealed." 
 
 The Governor smiled serenely. " Sometimes there is," 
 he said. Do you happen to know who drafted this 
 Trust Bill?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 The Governor named a legal luminary of the first 
 magnitude, and then for a few moments he spoke ear 
 nestly, and to the point. He went into detail; and his 
 explanation, bald, terse, cynical, and practical above all 
 things, revealed intricacies of policy which staggered his 
 attentive listener. When he had made an end, he 
 had very neatly and quietly flayed the presumptuous 
 tyro. 
 
 " Some such bill was bound to go through this term. 
 We needed the prestige of it. It was carefully drafted; 
 it couldn t do any harm, and our friends, the opposition, 
 did not discover the flaw," he concluded. 
 
 " I guess I ve strayed out of my course a whole lot. 
 I d better make a break for the mountains and raise buck 
 wheat," said Abijah, rising. The Governor rose also, to 
 lay a detaining hand on the young man s shoulder. 
 
 That s easy and satisfactory raising buckwheat ! 
 This work is neither, but we must do it; and not as we 
 would, but as we may. You re all right, Mr. Bead, and I 
 claim the basic civic virtues myself, but we must bargain 
 and compromise, and, at the best, outwit pernicious activ 
 ity, that a little good may come of it. It s casuistic; but I 
 tell you, when a man bruises his own consciousness, to save 
 weaker folk alive, the scars are honourable. This isn t 
 a tract." 
 
 " Each must decide on his own degree of vulnerability, 
 however." 
 
 " Yours may be decreased materially without making 
 you pachydermatous."
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 215 
 
 " I am not thin-skinned, and I hope I haven t con 
 veyed the impression that I broke out of the corral to 
 avoid the branding. G. O. P. is good enough for me; I 
 didn t catch onto the reason for this bill, and when I saw 
 the rest of the bunch taking it so damn docile, I had to 
 break out somewhere, on general principles." 
 
 The Governor laughed. 
 
 " Oh, I understand that. And you stampeded the 
 herd! You have the gift of leading, and you have al 
 ready defeated several of those six hundred objectionable 
 measures. Where do you get the gift of gab, Cousin 
 Bijah?" 
 
 ; I wonder," said Abijah significantly. 
 
 ;< It s my trade," said the Governor simply. " I m a 
 lawyer. I tell you my experience frankly, and we re 
 clansmen. We both have a strong individualism (we 
 won t call it egoism), but it lacks the quality to leave a 
 shining mark on history. Submerged in corporate effort, 
 it can dominate, direct, and raise the average. The qual 
 ity is strong enough for this. You don t like it? But you 
 can t help it. I learned to use the party machinery when 
 I found out I could not stand alone, and I think the 
 result justifies the means. I ve done one or two good 
 things, not the ideal best, but good; that s better than 
 doing nothing at all. It s a co-operative era ; I want to 
 help you if I can. I know you have no obligations to 
 respect, no factions to serve, and never will have, but 
 you must not be impolitic, or you might as well go back 
 and raise buckwheat." The Governor s hand slipped 
 from Abijah s shoulder to his hand. " You ll stay here 
 to-night to dinner? I want you to know the domestic 
 family as well as the family politic. No? Why not? " 
 
 " Oh, the strain of the wild ass, I suppose; but thank 
 you, Governor, I m some gentled, but not quite broken to 
 family use."
 
 216 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 "You are hot in the collar, aren t you? But you ll 
 settle into it and pull with the best of us yet," said the 
 Governor with confidence, and the two men shook hands 
 and parted in mutual amity and respect. 
 
 Abijah wanted to be alone that evening. Coming in 
 from a solitary gallop through a driving sleet storm, he 
 dismissed his coach, and threw himself into a chair before 
 the library fire. The sleet dashed in gusts against the 
 windows, a deep-throated bell in the neighbouring steeple 
 told off the hours toward midnight, and the noises of the 
 street were muffled by the storm. The house was very 
 still. Rob lay asleep upon a couch; this was his preroga 
 tive of nearness during his father s study hours. It had 
 been explained to him that his father needs must learn 
 to make the laws, and he abode a tedious process patiently, 
 but he was very lonely. Old Jerry and the horses they 
 had brought from the farm relieved the tedium some 
 what, and his grandmother and aunt had essayed his 
 entertainment during their visits. Rob was polite, but 
 bored; he wanted his father, and he wanted him alone; 
 and he lay and watched him wistfully in the evenings, sel 
 dom interrupting, as long as he could prop his eyelids 
 open. 
 
 The ponderous figure, supine in the great chair, scarcely 
 stirred as the hours passed. A little steam arose from his 
 drenched clothing, a very horsy steam, for Abijah had 
 only changed his coat after his wet ride; and he had 
 stretched his great legs to the glow of the fire. His 
 thoughts were pleasant, flavoured with the first success 
 he ever called his own, and he let them follow the 
 smoke of his cigar into all sorts of desultory bypaths. 
 They frisked about the Governor s exhortation sportively. 
 A good fellow, the Governor; game! Took his chances 
 like a man. Abijah saw his, these interviews, the inter 
 est focussed on him and well he knew he meant to take
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 217 
 
 them, too ! Scars ! Scars were inevitable, whether 
 honourable or not; and he grinned at the Governor s 
 casuistry, a family trait which he had not inherited. 
 He wanted success; he craved the assurance of per 
 sonal ability, as one defrauded of his birthright; but for 
 his soul s satisfaction he was fain to view his motive stark 
 and unashamed, without sophistry. Its quality did not 
 affright him, and he rather thought it would improve; 
 meanwhile he was as near complaisance as a man of ideals 
 could be. He wished old Dr. Pomfret was at hand, with 
 his sometimes irritating confidence. The picture of a 
 woman at his side to sympathise with his success, did not 
 occur to him. It was a man s world he lived in, and he 
 had found that he could lead men. 
 ; Lady to see you, sir! " 
 The announcement shattered his reverie. 
 
 What ! " he demanded, looking around, but the 
 servant had stepped aside, and the visitor entered. In 
 voluntarily Abijah rose to his feet, but he took no step to 
 meet her, spoke no word, only stood and looked at his 
 wife. With a superb movement Sarah slipped the long 
 cloak from her shoulders, and the sudden splendour of her 
 beauty in the quiet room held both men at gaze. She 
 was magnificent, in evening dress, with many jewels, and 
 her poise was perfect. With a gracious gesture of dis 
 missal she handed her wraps to the reluctant and curious 
 servant, and, as the door closed upon him, she advanced 
 slowly, unspeaking, unsmiling, but with serene assurance, 
 until she stood at the opposite side of the hearthrug. 
 Then she looked up at her husband, and shrank involun 
 tarily, for his face was devilish. 
 
 * This is so kind, m dear! " he said; and he made one 
 stride to her, swept her off her feet, and held her to him in 
 a brutal, licentious embrace. Not to the lowest woman 
 on the earth would he have proffered the insolence of such
 
 2i 8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 caresses; and Sarah screamed, screamed shrilly in sheer 
 terror of him; and he crushed her voice against his breast, 
 which heaved and trembled under her. 
 
 " Let me go! Bijah! let me go! " she panted, cowed, 
 horrified, and struggling to escape. 
 
 " So kind! " he repeated hoarsely, beside himself with 
 passion, lust for this recreant wife of his, lust for revenge. 
 His hot breath scorched her face, her bosom. 
 
 The odour of violets, a perfume of the past, floated 
 up to his closed brain, and wakened memory and reac 
 tion; an indescribable loathing of her. He dropped her 
 to her feet, and stepped back suddenly. 
 
 "Curse you, what are you here for, then?" he mut 
 tered, with rigid lips; and Sarah sank down in his chair, 
 spent, frightened out of self-control by his unexpected 
 burst of violence. She had not imagined anything like 
 this, and she was afraid, horribly afraid of him. He 
 might so easily kill her here alone in his great, silent 
 heuse. The same thought was in Abijah s mind as a 
 vague, incumbent duty. His hands clinched, and the 
 great cords in his neck swelled ominously. She was his, 
 this perfect flower of beauty ! his to caress, his to kill ! 
 The blood roared in his ears, he was blinded by fiery 
 scintillation, and caught at the mantel for support. 
 
 Wild-eyed, enchanted, Rob sat up on the couch and 
 watched the scene. He could not see his father s face, 
 and all his gaze was fastened on the lovely angel in the 
 chair. Without doubt he was sleeping; he often dreamed 
 of angels, and he held his breath for fear he should 
 awake. There was the golden halo of her hair, and a 
 face whose loveliness the child had never dreamed. It 
 had no strangeness for him, only a blissful content. If 
 he were very, very quiet, he might dream for a long time. 
 In the morning he would try to tell his father. 
 
 u I came," said Sarah, with heroic effort at composure,
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 219 
 
 " I came because I could not see you in Hurstville. I wish 
 to make some arrangements. We can t go on like this." 
 Becoming conscious of the ecstatic dreamer on the couch, 
 she hesitated. 
 
 Only her voice reached Abijah, the import of her 
 words escaped. Something was happening in his brain, 
 and he fought against a sluggish helplessness, for vision 
 and a ray of lucid thought. It was very curious, would 
 pass, of course. He waited. His bloodshot eyes would 
 have alarmed his son, but Rob was looking only at the 
 angel of his dream. She seemed disturbed; perhaps be 
 cause she did not have a harp. His ears were wonder- 
 deafened to the import of her words. 
 
 I can t talk with the child here," said the angel pet 
 tishly. 
 
 The child! Abijah s brain responded to the word. 
 He made a desperate effort and spoke, his words thick 
 and slow. 
 
 -Where is he?" 
 
 "Why, he s on the couch of course! " she said. "Are 
 you ill? " He had frightened her so thoroughly that she 
 looked for any horror. It was borne in upon her slowly 
 that the man was helpless. You look very strangely, 
 Bijah, shall I what shall I do?" 
 
 ; Nothing! " The cloud was lifting. He released his 
 hold upon the mantel, and, clasping his head in his hands, 
 staggered across the room to a window, fumbling with the 
 catch. 
 
 " Do you want to open it? " Sarah followed him in 
 trepidation and threw the sash up. The sleet dashed in 
 upon them, and he thrust his head far out in the storm, 
 taking long quivering breaths of the cold air. p< I guess 
 that was a close shave," he reflected. " God! I m glad I 
 didn t croak before her! Wonder if she knew she was so 
 near bereft."
 
 220 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Sarah realised it. She had gone to his assistance only 
 in pure fear of him, and she went back to her chair, pray 
 ing fervently to whatever power in the universe had her in 
 its keeping: 
 
 "Oh, God let him die! Let him die! Let him 
 die! Dear God, let him die now! " 
 
 Everything would be so easy, if Abijah only died. 
 Such an idea of relief had not before occurred to her, he 
 was so large, so very vital ! The hope of his immediate 
 demise was dissipated as the window closed. She heard 
 him plod heavily over to Rob s couch. 
 
 " It s bedtime, pard! " he said in a thick voice. He 
 did not stoop to lift the child, he dared not, his head was 
 throbbing so tremendously; but Rob climbed up into his 
 arms and the little hands went around his neck confid 
 ingly, but the wondering eyes were fixed upon the angel 
 till they left the room. 
 
 " Was it a dream, fa-father? " Rob whispered as 
 they went up the stairs. He was not sure he was awake 
 yet, because his father never leaned upon the banister 
 and went so heavily as now. Was it a dream?" he 
 repeated softly at his ear. 
 
 " It was a regular nightmare," said Abijah grimly. 
 
 u Oh, was it? I thought it was an angel! " said Rob 
 drowsily, for the vision had faded. 
 
 Abijah s big head was uncommonly sleek and damp 
 from copious applications of ice water, when he returned 
 to the library, but despite the pain which threatened to 
 disarticulate his cranium, he had himself in hand, and took 
 his stand again beside the mantel with a curious sense of 
 personal remoteness from the situation. Sarah also had 
 recovered her composure in his absence, but she was ever 
 a woman slow and scant of speech, prone to act and not 
 discuss the act, and she waited now for him to break the 
 silence.
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 221 
 
 " Has Ben sent you back? " he enquired brutally, as he 
 lighted a cigar. 
 
 : He insisted that we should come home, I preferred 
 to remain in England," she said steadily, ignoring the 
 insult. 
 
 That was not exactly my meaning. I m wondering 
 why you are here, in my house." 
 
 We must come to some understanding, Bijah; we 
 simply can t all go back to Hurstville." 
 
 Abijah smoked in silence. Evidently he meant to be as 
 difficult as possible, and Sarah perforce continued, un 
 questioned. 
 
 I know you are determined to disgrace me, but if you 
 care for the child, that is not showing him much con 
 sideration." 
 
 We re doing as well as can be expected, thank you, 
 ma am," he said comfortably. 
 She bit her lip sharply. 
 
 Why do you persecute me? I have not harmed 
 you, being the mother of your son; and I shall never come 
 back to you, no matter what happens." 
 
 Abijah took his cigar from his mouth and stared at 
 her in sheer astonishment. 
 
 Why good Lord, Sally, I don t want you ! " he ex 
 claimed. I wish I did; I d have you somehow or other, 
 if I toppled down the universe for it." 
 
 She simply did not believe him. She had the woman s 
 pitiful belief in dead love s resurrection, and thought the 
 glamour of old days must sway him yet. 
 
 Then what do you want? " she asked. " Your life 
 has broadened out, you never need go back to that hole 
 in the mountains, and I must." 
 
 Yes, gossip has it that Ben is obsessed by a determina 
 tion that his son shall be born at home." 
 
 Sarah flushed like a girl.
 
 222 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " You never can depend on managing a fool ! " she said, 
 quite without heat, but as a pertinent and portentous mat 
 ter of experience. " I wanted to remain abroad, but he 
 got his head set to come home; that s why I ve come to 
 you. You must not confront me with that child. What 
 good will it do you to ruin me? I shall never interfere 
 with anything you wish to do. You can marry; there is 
 no proof, no proof of anything, except the child. And 
 that only counts against me." 
 
 " How about Aileen Mahan? " he asked slowly, curi 
 ously watching the effect of the words. 
 
 " I am sure the woman must be dead. And anyhow, 
 why should it ever occur to her to trouble us? She was 
 an utter stranger to us both. I dare say she went back 
 to Ireland after Mr. Sewell died." 
 
 " And do you mean to tell me," he demanded, incredu 
 lous, " that you had the temerity to go ahead without being 
 sure of her? " 
 
 " I tried my best to find her, but I could get no trace 
 of her." 
 
 Well, by Jove! " he ejaculated; then after a moment 
 of amazement, " I ve had better luck," he said maliciously, 
 and watched results. They should have satisfied an in 
 quisitor, for she blanched slowly, until her face was colour 
 less, and livid imprints of his savage fingers stood out upon 
 the palid whiteness of frfer breast and shoulder; but she 
 held herself erect and very still, and did not flinch nor 
 tremble. 
 
 Where is she? " she asked, after a long pause. 
 
 " In the potter s field at home," he answered, each de 
 tail a lash of self-contempt he would not spare himself. 
 I buried her, and put up a sweet thing in monuments. 
 As I didn t know her age, I just put In Memoriam 
 under her name, and the date of our marriage; I suppose 
 that date is down in the book of the Recording Angel,
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 223 
 
 but that isn t real accessible, and this is. The monument 
 is conspicuous. He who rides may read. 
 
 Oh, a very cur, he felt, a very cur! And her acceptance 
 of his retaliation as a thing to be expected, made him 
 wild. Sarah never spent herself upon reproaches or re 
 criminations. She faced the inevitable with a practical, 
 deliberate survey of the probabilities, which seemed like 
 patient resignation. 
 
 I suppose you will divorce me," she concluded, and 
 Abijah burst out in savage fulminations, blasphemous 
 and irrelevant, as far as she could see, for he only cursed 
 the nature of things in general. " What s the use, what 
 in hell s the use of doing anything now?" he ended un 
 expectedly. 
 
 She did not scruple to accept the benefit of his con 
 temptuous magnanimity. 
 
 " Of course, what is done cannot be undone; and I will 
 never interfere with anything you wish to do." Her evi 
 dent good faith in the unholy pact she offered struck 
 him with a helpless sense of her moral obtuseness. She was 
 one to whom desire is vindication; and after all, sin is rela 
 tive. If executive clemency does not extend to the extrem- 
 est moral variation, creation s stultified. Abijah did not 
 consciously bring this general principle into their personal 
 relations. Instead, he told himself, derisively, he could 
 not punish her, because he could not bear to see her suffer. 
 Curiosity, however, prompted him to brace himself, and 
 give the rack one last experimental screw before he let 
 her go. 
 
 You are certainly one of the Lord s irresponsibles ! 
 But unfortunately for your little arrangement, Aileen 
 Mahan made her deposition in the presence of a third 
 party," he said. Sarah stood it admirably. She deliber 
 ated on this complication before she asked: 
 
 "Who was it?"
 
 224 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Never mind who. No one who will ever interfere 
 with us." There was something in his tone, as he thought 
 of the unwilling recipient of their secret, which caught his 
 wife s attention, and he dumbly cursed a woman s intuition 
 when she asked : 
 
 "Was it Barbara Hurst?" 
 
 " Lord no!" he exclaimed, lying with fluent automa 
 tism. " How on earth could you imagine a Hurst mixed 
 up with such a dirty village scandal ! " 
 
 Now this, reasonably enough, convinced Sarah that she 
 was superseded; which was humiliating, but might be 
 profitable. 
 
 " I have heard that she is decidedly mixed up with 
 your affairs; that you are, in fact, paying her marked at 
 tention. You can marry her without divorcing me. It 
 isn t as if there was any proof." 
 
 "Drop it!" thundered Abijah peremptorily. He lit 
 a fresh cigar and smoked furiously. " Damn it, Sally, 
 I m sick of this whole business!" he said, tossing his 
 cigar into the fire. How a headache knocked a man up, 
 to be sure ! And women had them often ! He looked 
 down on his wife with a curious compassion for the sex. 
 He reflected that, if he had been a woman, he would have 
 been so mad about it he would have done the worst he 
 could. Will you help me set things straight, as far as 
 may be? " he asked gently. 
 
 " I shall be the only one to suffer if you use your 
 power," she said with significance. 
 
 " I haven t any power to harm you, if I wished; and 
 the Lord knows I don t, though I thought I did, until 
 to-night. Aileen Mahan gave me no legal proof, only 
 a half-delirious recognition. You are safer than you ever 
 have been, because, she s dead." 
 
 Her relief was visible. 
 
 "Then, you won t take the child back home?" she
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 225 
 
 said. Sarah never lost sight of her objective, nor swerved 
 from it. 
 
 Abijah leaned his elbow on the mantel and rested his 
 aching head upon his hand. The pain was well-nigh in 
 tolerable. " The boy has homestead rights, and I mean 
 to maintain them. It s asking a trifle too much to re 
 quest us to become Ishmaelites on the face of the earth, 
 and spend the rest of our natural lives dodging Ben 
 Phelps. He s seen him, anyhow, and if he didn t catch 
 on then he won t now, for the boy s growing homely as 
 fast as if he gave his mind to it. Another year, and he 
 will be nothing but the son of Abijah Bead. I hope he 
 will not be ashamed of that." 
 She arose and faced him calmly. 
 
 Then, after all, you mean to do the worst you can." 
 She stated the proposition simply, not accusatively. Acts 
 were all that counted in her philosophy. 
 
 You ll have to take your medicine, if Ben cuts up 
 rough. The little runt! I ll pulverise him if he does, 
 though 
 
 What good will that do?" asked Sarah, who, al 
 though insurgent, was not vindictive, and never wasted 
 effort on frivolous side issues. 
 
 It would do me a world of good, to have it out with 
 some one, and I can t very well hurt you; not deliberately." 
 He reached and touched the bruises he had left upon her 
 breast and shoulder with a gentle finger. " I didn t do 
 that with malice prepense," he said contritely. 
 
 She thought his resolution faltered, and his touch, his 
 nearness, reasserted the old mastery over her. She was a 
 woman without natural affection, and she had remorse 
 lessly jugulated passion to the exigencies of ambition, but 
 the inhibition melted in a vivifying flame. The face she 
 lifted to him was warm, sweet, surrendering. There was 
 no mistaking the expression, but Abijah did not move.
 
 226 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 You deliberately, and with malice prepense, hurt me 
 worse in going back to Hurstville. Oh, Bijah, how can 
 you treat me so! " she murmured, and the inarticulate, 
 elemental note of longing, touched him only as a dream- 
 remembered pain. His arms hung flaccid at his sides as she 
 stepped close to him and laid her hands upon his shoulders. 
 For a long moment they looked into each other s eyes, 
 and then, gently, inflexibly, he removed her hands, and, 
 stepping back a space, held her at arm s length. 
 
 " I don t want you, Sally," he repeated wearily. : I 
 almost wish I did, but I don t. You killed desire when 
 you forsook the child." 
 
 " The child was a disgrace," she said bitterly. 
 
 " Some men s sins come to judgment beforehand," he 
 murmured. " Mine have, every sin of em. Being a 
 mere man, this one did not seem heinous. All the love 
 of my heart for women had gone out to you, and you 
 would not have married me at all, otherwise." 
 
 " No," she said quite simply. 
 
 He crushed her hands in his unconsciously. 
 
 " My fault! Of course it s all been my fault! You 
 can t be held responsible. You haven t any soul; nothing 
 but beauty. And you gave me all of you your beauty. 
 Why, that was worth the ransom of a king, and I oh, 
 a fool ! I felt it sacrilege to purchase it with anything 
 but love ! I thought you understood, and God ! the sweet 
 ness to a famished man ! No man had ever craved appre 
 ciation so, and I gave you an infinitude of love, you soul 
 less phantom ; oh, you loveliest illusion of the sense ! I see 
 nothing but beauty in you still. Nothing but beauty; a 
 law unto itself, inscrutable! Why, it s obviously absurd 
 to hold you to the common law of men with souls ! and 
 I have set them yelping after you, not knowing, not realis 
 ing, till to-night. I ll help you, you poor, pretty, petty 
 thing; be sure I ll help you! I honestly believe that
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 227 
 
 beauty s just the one condition of your being; and I can 
 not tell you," he released her hands, and again with 
 gentle fingers touched the darkening bruises on her breast 
 and shoulder, " I cannot tell you how these marks hurt 
 me. Forgive me ! " 
 
 His voice was shaken with the stress of grief and tender 
 ness, and her bewilderment confirmed the bitter truth of 
 his perception. 
 
 "Do you mean" she hesitated; Abijah was always 
 so peculiar "that you ll help me as / wish?" 
 
 The man s eyes were haggard. 
 
 Try and understand," he said patiently. " I ve 
 shirked my responsibility a long time, and now it looms 
 large. We must untangle this somehow." 
 
 She fronted him with immutable obstinacy. 
 
 There is no proof ! You said there was no proof, 
 and why should I incriminate myself? To save the soul 
 you say I don t possess? I have intelligence, at any rate, 
 Abijah Bead, and all I ask of you is, not to interfere with 
 my affairs hereafter." 
 
 He struggled for composure before he spoke, and the 
 veins on his temples swelled with the restraint he put upon 
 himself, his voice was rigorous although he meant it kind. 
 
 We can be divorced quietly; it need not be known to 
 half a dozen people; and then you can legally marry 
 Ben," he said quietly. 
 
 We are legally married," she answered steadily. 
 
 " And legitimatise his children." 
 
 They will be legitimate." 
 
 " And you do not care ! You do not care! " he said. 
 
 " I do not care," she said inflexibly. 
 
 He looked at her for a moment in careful speculation. 
 
 I will deed over every cent of property I own to my 
 wife, Sarah Silliman Bead. Will you execute the deed?" 
 he asked deliberately.
 
 228 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 "No! What prestige would your money give me, 
 now? I tell you, Bijah, there is no power in the uni 
 verse to make me acknowledge our relations." 
 
 Abijah crossed the room and rang the bell sharply. 
 
 " Get a cab," he ordered, when the man appeared. 
 
 "Yessir! But I ll have to go round to some stable. 
 They won t be no cabs at the cab-stand sich a bad night." 
 He glanced suggestively at the telephone on the desk. 
 
 "Get a cab!" roared Abijah irritably, and the man 
 fled. 
 
 They waited in utter silence for his return, and in 
 silence Abijah escorted her out to the cab. 
 
 Where to?" he asked, standing bareheaded in the 
 icy storm, and she named the hotel. 
 
 When the drear-eyed dawn looked in at the windows 
 it found him sitting by the ashes of his desolated hearth 
 stone. 
 
 " Sure now," said a familiar voice from some vast dis 
 tance, "an ye haven t bin to bed at all, at all?" He 
 opened his eyes, and old Jerry stood beside him. 
 
 " I ve had a rip-tearing headache all night. I ll go 
 now," said Abijah, trying to rise. 
 
 Consciousness revealed nothing clearly, but Rob, who, 
 with his back to the footboard and his feet outstretched 
 toward his father, was turning the leaves of a large book 
 carefully, without a rustle. 
 
 "Hello, pard!" said Abijah feebly, and Rob nearly 
 fell off the bed. 
 
 " Nurse! " he called in alarm, but swift steps were at 
 the bedside, and a firm hand slipped beneath Abijah s 
 head. 
 
 Take this," said a cool, peremptory voice; and Abi 
 jah swallowed meekly, and thereupon lost track of things 
 again.
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 229 
 
 While he slept, Rob rode over to the Capitol, and in a 
 moment of official abstraction walked unhindered into 
 the Assembly Room. He carried his cap and riding whip 
 in his hand, and advanced to a clear space on the floor, 
 before he spoke. 
 
 ;< I thought you d like to know my father ith better," 
 he announced in a shrill little voice which reached every 
 member present. He was exceedingly gratified, not sur 
 prised, by the applause which followed. Naturally they 
 would be glad. He retired with a beaming face, his 
 childish dignity untouched by any reprimand, and in the 
 course of the day he rode around to several other of his 
 father s haunts with the news, and received a like recep 
 tion everywhere. 
 
 He told his father and Dr. Pomfret about it the next 
 day, when the patient had awakened, limp but lucid. 
 
 Rob and Jerry are having the time of their lives," 
 laughed the doctor, " receiving dignitaries and powers. 
 The Governor has called twice, and old Jerry sets it up to 
 em all wine and cigars. Good stuff, Bijah, you needn t 
 worry. But Jerry made the medical faculty sit up. Had 
 seven of em in the house, and the rest coming when I ar 
 rived. They seemed relieved to hand the case over to me, 
 for he had made them work overtime. I wish you had 
 seen the telegram he sent me; I couldn t imagine what the 
 matter was, but it was unmistakably imperative." 
 
 "Was it?" asked Abijah, vaguely curious. 
 
 " Oh, so, so! Don t do it any more, that s all. I al 
 ways thought you had a soft spot somewhere, and now 
 I know where it is. But you needn t worry. Especially 
 if you keep old Jerry at hand." 
 
 " He isn t likely ever to be far away," said Abijah 
 gratefully.
 
 XIV 
 
 THE May sun beamed down on the old plaisance 
 and the green-starred stems of budding bush and 
 tree were all a-tremble with the fluttering of nest 
 ing birds. Mam Lilly slowly wheeled Madam s chair 
 along the narrow box-edged paths with leisurely investiga 
 tion of perennial favourites, and Barbara loitered along 
 with them. 
 
 Each growing thing in the wide parterre of her dear 
 garden was a joy to Madam Hurst. She reached eagerly 
 from her chair to prod the germinating earth with a long, 
 slender bamboo cane she carried, and the pathos of her 
 helpless enthusiasm moved even Barbara at times to per 
 functory attacks upon the soil, though the operation was 
 productive of more satisfaction to the hungry robins than 
 to the hapless chatelaine. For Barbara s interest was at 
 best sympathetic and always evanescent. Beyond the prim 
 confines of formal walks and narrow garden beds, the tall 
 hills lifted up their rugged foreheads to the sky and from 
 their heights the dryads leaned and beckoned, entreating, 
 enticing; and the voices of the streams were calling from 
 afar. 
 
 In the set order of the garden ways, the girl moved with 
 languid restlessness, haunted by the wistful memory of a 
 wild spring ride along a wildwood road. The pungent 
 fragrance of the forest came to her on the breath of the 
 morning, and the pleasant, bitter tang of trampled fern, 
 the dream-elixir of dewy boughs brushed in swift passing, 
 returned with overwhelming power. Far up among the 
 
 230
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 231 
 
 hills, the roof of the old Bead farm-house was as white 
 with the drifting petals of the apple blossoms as it had 
 been with the winter snows, in the long silent months of 
 the master s absence. To-day Barbara had a feeling he 
 was there, although there was no news of his arrival. 
 She dreaded, with a delicious fear, their future meeting. 
 for her love had grown a thing beyond reason, and she 
 feared, beyond restraint. Whatever humiliation fol 
 lowed, she knew the joy of love s expression would be in 
 effable. She said to herself, exultant: " I love you, I love 
 you, I love you ! " Then she glowed with shame, as any 
 proper girl should do, and swore by the honour of her sex 
 she would abate no jot of dignity for love! No, not if 
 she died for it! Like all introspective souls she watched 
 the antics of her heart with a subconsciousness of superi 
 ority to the poor frail thing; and she hoped very much that 
 Barbara Hurst was not going to make a fool of herself 
 when Abijah Bead came home from Albany. 
 
 ; * My tulips are not as fine as Mrs. Phelps ," admitted 
 Madam, with an impartiality which cost a pang, and Bar 
 bara promptly stood on tiptoe to make comparison and 
 disparage their neighbour s gorgeous showing for her 
 comfort. 
 
 "Hike the old-fashioned kind best," she announced; and 
 Mrs. Phelps parted the curtains at an open window, and 
 waved her hand to them. The ladies Hurst returned the 
 salutation, Madam with a delicate hauteur entirely ab 
 sent in the girl s frank recognition. As long as the scandal 
 only smouldered, an acquaintance with their much-talked- 
 of neighbour was inevitable; but that Barbara permitted 
 something like intimacy was attributed by Madam to her 
 granddaughter s innocence, while Zillah blamed her own 
 misguided initiative, and the public thought the presence 
 of Sir Benjamin Phelps, the Irish cousin, who had stood 
 social sponsor for his American kin in London and accom-
 
 232 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 panied them home, was sufficient to explain Miss Barbara 
 Hurst s complaisant attitude. And the slander only 
 smouldered. When a person of Sarah s force of will de 
 termines that a fact shall be ignored, that fact becomes to 
 all intents and purposes non-existent for him, unless to the 
 passive power of memory is conjoined the active force of 
 a personal antagonism. And this was peculiarly absent 
 in the general reprobation of Sarah Silliman. Her natural 
 reserve saved her alike from either friend or foe; and as 
 she had conducted her machinations entirely without 
 animus, there was no reciprocal malice to contend with. 
 Barbara alone knew that her own complaisance was de 
 fensive. She was furiously jealous of the woman Abijah 
 Bead had loved, perhaps still loved. How could any man 
 help loving such exceeding beauty? It fascinated the girl, 
 and her vivid imagination built a bewildering phantasma 
 goria of romance upon the hint chance had revealed to her. 
 But the misery of it all told on her; shadows lurked in and 
 around the wide young eyes, and the curves of the fine 
 sensitive mouth began to stiffen in the family line. They 
 took life hard, the Hursts; Barbara did not mean to do 
 so, but it was constitutional. A whimsical devil tugged 
 retardingly at each grim line, but there was a growing like 
 ness to Zillah in the thin, dark little face. The girl suf 
 fered, but she grew hilarious when Aunt Helen pursued 
 her with prognostications of " spring fever " and un 
 savoury decoctions of " yarb tea." Madam feared the 
 rigours of the North were trying the girl s constitution, 
 and Dr. Pomfret came, and jested while he watched 
 her shrewdly, but he did not prescribe. He thought that 
 she was pining for the South, and the very last thing that 
 any of them thought, was that she was pining for Abijah 
 Bead. 
 
 The little procession in the Hurst garden turned into a 
 path parallelling the street, as Father Varney came along,
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 233 
 
 and he fell into step and conversed over the sweet, billowy 
 syringa until they reached the gate. Entering, he saunt 
 ered for a while by Madam s chair. 
 
 " How lovely it is ! " he said blandly, looking up into 
 the soft blue sky. 
 
 " How very wwpleasant! " ejaculated Barbara, who had 
 dropped behind and was contemplating the struggles of a 
 stout robin, to drag a wriggling and reluctant luncheon 
 from the ground. The robin was successful, and she 
 turned her eyes away. They met those of the priest, who 
 had left Madam to proceed alone, and was waiting for 
 her. The girl in some mysterious fashion always at 
 tracted attention. Her own ardent interest in life aroused 
 the interest of the most blase, whether they commended or 
 condemned her. 
 
 What can you find unpleasant on such a day as this? " 
 enquired the priest, who enjoyed sparring with the trucu 
 lent young heretic. 
 
 " See that nice fat robin? There, on that bough above 
 Mam Lilly s head, singing. He just made a most re 
 pulsive repast, and now he is singing, like clear-voiced 
 cherubim, while the wriggling segments of that worm 
 squirm on his little inside and stimulate the vocal centres, 
 I suppose." 
 
 " He passed in music out of sight," laughed Father 
 Varney, " from a worm into melody, from material to the 
 immaterial; glorious metamorphosis!" 
 
 " Psyche, the soul; a breath; a song? Yes; but, alas, 
 poor Yorick, I saw him squirm ! he preferred to be a 
 worm rather than a melody. And the transformation 
 was most painful." 
 
 The dumb resistance of matter to the spiritual forces 
 which mould it, quoth the priest with an amused 
 side glance at the slender, white-robed young philoso 
 pher.
 
 234 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " It hurts usually," said the girl sententiously, looking 
 straight ahead, " and the details are disgusting." 
 
 " Contemplate the magnificent ensemble, then," advised 
 the priest soothingly, a wide sweep of his hand including 
 all visible phenomena. 
 
 " Unfortunately I m not on the right plane," replied 
 Barbara crossly. 
 
 " True. Only religion gives the broad outlook," com 
 placently. 
 
 " Into the fog ! You cannot orient infinity," quickly 
 defiant. 
 
 " I shall not argue, on a day like this, with a creature 
 of fire and dew. What has set your sweet bells jangling 
 out of tune with spring? " he asked with kindly, shrewd 
 solicitude, and the girl turned a quick, defensive gleam 
 of mockery upon him. 
 
 " I want a ride," she confided maliciously. 
 
 "Then why is anything the matter with Donna?" 
 
 " No, but Maude Phelps and Sir Benjamin started a 
 while ago." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " It would look like I was lonesome if I started out 
 now in the opposite direction alone. I wish some one 
 else in Hurstville rode. Why don t you, pere ? " and she 
 laughed softly with him as he made a circumferential 
 gesture, for his rotund figure ill-beseemed equestrian feats. 
 
 " I cannot understand why you-all up here have such 
 a penchant for the buggy," she sighed, as Dr. Pomfret 
 swung around the corner in his and stopped at the gate. 
 
 " Make Pomfret take to the saddle," teasingly sug 
 gested the priest as Barbara left him and moved toward 
 the gate. 
 
 ; I shall," she said over her shoulder. 
 
 What shall you do now ? " enquired the physician, with 
 a general salutation to the other occupants of the garden.
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 235 
 
 " As I choose ! " said Barbara absently. 
 
 That s of course. I think I saw some arbutus on the 
 mountain yesterday. We can lunch in Middleburg, you 
 know," he said suggestively. 
 
 It was no unusual thing for Barbara to accompany the 
 doctor on his rides, but to-day she hesitated. It was not 
 at all what she wished, but it would take her into 
 the hills. Mam Lilly had wheeled Madam to the 
 gate. 
 
 " Glad to see you out this morning. It means you 
 slept better?" the doctor enquired of the invalid. 
 
 " Ah those powders incomparable ! I haf rest so I 
 can dig," replied Madam, gaily brandishing the long stick 
 wherewith she had prodded the germinating soil, for the 
 sheer joy of it. She glanced at Barbara, smiling. " Ma 
 chere Barbara loves not to dig," she said roguishly. 
 
 Barbara awoke to the realisation that their eyes were 
 expectant and fixed on her. 
 
 " I thank you; I think I should like to go," she said 
 hurriedly. 
 
 " Quite sure of yourself? " grumbled the doctor sar 
 castically. 
 
 " No, but I am of you" laughed the girl, and, open 
 ing the gate, approached the carriage. 
 
 " Ma chere! figure to yourself! To ride without your 
 hat! " exclaimed Madam. 
 
 " Oh, ma petite Maman don t fuss; Doctor does not 
 care!" 
 
 You get a hat," growled the doctor, but Barbara ex 
 tended her hand, and he could not refuse to assist her to 
 a seat beside him. 
 
 " All the same, girl, we will have the hat before we 
 start," he said decidedly. I m going to meet a dis 
 tinguished colleague, and must maintain my dignity. The 
 best hat, Mam Lilly! "
 
 236 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Mam Lilly started for the house swiftly, without 
 haste. Barbara chirruped to the horse, and made a sud 
 den grab for the whip, but the doctor caught her hand, 
 and the horse paid no manner of attention to her excita 
 tion. 
 
 " What have you been doing? " asked the doctor, look 
 ing in surprise at the grimy member he held restrained. 
 
 " Digging. I ll wash in the first branch we come to, 
 but it s no use now, for I am going to get the arbutus, you 
 know. Mammy, let us have the trowel," said Barbara, 
 stuffing her hat under the seat with temporary disregard 
 of chiffons. 
 
 " Now, lady, you do an want a trowel any mo n a 
 ha nt," remonstrated Mam Lilly. 
 
 " I do. It s in the hyacinth bed or somewhere." 
 This is not, primarily, a botanising trip," remarked 
 the doctor, and gathered up his reins. Barbara caught at 
 them. 
 
 " If I can t dig arbutus for Maman, I m not going," she 
 announced. 
 
 If the doctor had hesitated for one moment she would 
 have been out of the carriage, but he did not. He started 
 the horse on the jump, and Barbara subsided with a grace 
 ful acceptance of defeat, and waved her hand backward 
 to the group in the old garden where Father Varney stood 
 like a benediction in the background. 
 
 "What a pretty day!" she murmured, looking up 
 at the smiling atmosphere through her long lashes. 
 
 " Hump ! I ve said yes to that a hundred times. 
 Here s the only decent stretch of road we ll have. Just 
 see what we make of it," the doctor suggested. She 
 reached under his arm, and dragged his watch from his 
 vest pocket, while he worked his horse into pace. 
 
 " Now," he said, at a certain landmark, and Barbara s 
 eyes were on the dial when he said " Now! " again.
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 237 
 
 3 130 " she announced, snapping shut the case, and 
 he dropped the watch back into his pocket complacently. 
 
 " Good enough, hey? " he enquired. The girl nodded. 
 
 " Is Mr. Bead selling off the whole stud? " she enquired 
 carelessly. 
 
 " Oh, no; just superfluous stock. He has to go west 
 this summer, and old Jerry does not want more on hand 
 than he can manage. He wouldn t sell me this horse. 
 Asked me to keep him as a favour. Wish all my pa 
 tients were as grateful as he is. Understand, young 
 lady? " he enquired pointedly. 
 
 " Merci! have you fixed a covetous eye on Donna, too? 
 Because, you know, I was never half as ill as Mr. Bead 
 was." 
 
 You were a great deal more trouble. He was scared; 
 didn t want to leave the boy alone, and he did as I told 
 him, which you were never known to unless forced." 
 
 ; Is Mr. Bead liable to such attacks as he had last 
 winter? " Barbara had waited months for the chance to 
 ask this question casually. The doctor had found her 
 half ill with anxiety when he returned from Albany, but 
 had never suspected the cause. 
 
 Not unless he lets his angry passion rise. He under 
 stands he s got to keep a hand on himself, and he ll do it, 
 for the boy s sake." 
 
 u Has he such a violent temper? " 
 
 Well, Bijah s no saint; and he had the provocation 
 to arouse one last winter." 
 
 Her interest in Abijah made her shy of talking of him, 
 and she dropped the subject. She was heartsick waiting 
 for him, and he was going west for the summer ! 
 
 I made a little tune last night," she remarked in- 
 consequently, and began to hum. 
 
 " Another." The doctor assumed resignation. He did 
 not, to be sure, always like Barbara s little tunes, but he
 
 238 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 always liked to hear her sing them, and she knew it. She 
 caught illusive melodies in the air, and disclaimed all 
 responsibility for them : forgot them unless Zillah worked 
 the phrases out on the piano. 
 
 " When Love is kind, 
 
 Gentle and free, 
 Love s sure to find 
 Welcome from me. 
 
 But when Love brings 
 
 Heartaches and pangs, 
 Tears and such things, 
 Love may go hang! : 
 
 She sang just above her breath. She had a small pipe, 
 but her lilting of old-fashioned songs was quite delightful. 
 " Did Miss Zillah get that down? " asked the doctor 
 when the tune was over. 
 
 Yes, and wondered what it was begun for, since so 
 soon it must be done for; I could offer no reasonable ex 
 planation. There it is, and that s all there is! I had an 
 idea its brevity was an extenuating circumstance, but it 
 seemed to exasperate her. 
 
 " But when Love brings 
 
 Heartaches and pangs, 
 Tears and such things, 
 Love may go hang! 
 
 Barbara hummed the phrase again with special em 
 phasis of its praiseworthy sentiment. 
 
 " Sing Phyllis, " said the doctor, to whom the girl s 
 old-fashioned repertoire was a continual joy. " Phyllis " 
 was his favourite, and he boomed into the refrain with 
 vast enjoyment of their performance. Their vocalisation 
 silenced the astonished birds in the trees along the road. 
 
 There s Maude and Sir Benjamin," said Barbara, 
 breaking off at a glimpse of two equestrians far down the
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 239 
 
 road. The doctor immediately urged his horse into a 
 trot. 
 
 " I m in something of haste, you know," he remarked 
 significantly. He did not like the Irishman. 
 
 " Oh, stop a moment, please, Doctor; I want to speak 
 to Barbara ! " cried Maude Phelps, bending from her 
 saddle, as the doctor would have passed with his custom 
 ary bluff nod. 
 
 " Benjamin and I are going to ride up the mountain 
 to-morrow to see an immersion. Will you come too?" 
 asked the girl, while the doctor restrained a restive steed 
 with obvious effort. 
 
 " Why I suppose so. What time? " asked Barbara. 
 
 " Oh, we must start early. It s miles back of every 
 thing, a place called Pang-Yang; you know, Doctor! 
 They ve had revivals there all the winter and spring." 
 
 What under heavens do you girls want to see such 
 an exhibition as that for? " demanded Dr. Pomfret with 
 undisguised disapprobation. 
 
 " Curiosity, Doctor, curiosity ! Got just as much as 
 you have, and not half the chance to gratify it. You 
 come too," said Miss Phelps, who, in emulation of Bar 
 bara, affected an ease with Dr. Pomfret which she was 
 far from feeling. 
 
 " I ll go of course, if you do. Will your father er 
 object? " asked Barbara, the doctor ignoring the invita 
 tion altogether. 
 
 Not unless he knows about it. Benjamin wants to 
 see the performance, and I made him promise to take 
 us." 
 
 I shall report you girls," said the doctor severely. 
 No, you won t, any more n a ha nt, Doctor dear; 
 what time, Maude?" asked Barbara. 
 
 * Ten," said Miss Phelps, making a moue at the doctor, 
 who was not looking at her.
 
 240 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Extraordin ry ! " murmured Sir Benjamin, watching 
 his cousin with lively interest. He seemed by way of 
 being satisfied with a wife something less beautiful than 
 Sarah, notwithstanding his avowed intention to the con 
 trary upon his arrival in America. 
 
 The doctor s vigorous objection to the proposed out 
 ing quite stimulated Barbara s languid interest in it, and 
 they wrangled cheerfully along the road, and drove into 
 Middleburg before either of them remembered the hat be 
 neath the seat. There were curious glances cast at the 
 piquant, bareheaded girl in the doctor s well-known car 
 riage, as he drove up the main street. 
 
 " Oh, there s Zillah! I quite forgot this was her day! " 
 exclaimed Barbara, catching sight of the prim, familiar 
 figure on the sidewalk. The doctor drove up and stopped 
 beside her. 
 
 " This is lucky! " he said cordially, for he thoroughly 
 liked and respected the elder Miss Hurst. " You have 
 plenty of time for lunch before your train goes. Come in 
 with us. We are going to the Holland House." 
 
 Zillah made haste to decline. 
 
 " Oh, I could not think of such a thing, thank you; I 
 I have so much to do," she said. 
 
 " You can, if you will, Zillah, and I wish you would. 
 I m worn to a frazzle with the doctor s scolding, and if 
 you are there he won t scold," said Barbara coaxingly. 
 
 There goes Murrey into the hotel; come on, Miss 
 Zillah. We shall have quite a Hurstville party," said the 
 doctor, as the little druggist, with his identifying box of 
 specimens, mounted the steps of the hotel down the street. 
 
 " I cannot, really, Doctor. Good-bye," and Zillah, mak 
 ing her escape down the street, disappeared into a store. 
 
 " Now, in the name of the Commonwealth, and all 
 other respectable bodies of citizens, why wouldn t she? " 
 Dr. Pomfret demanded as they drove toward the hotel.
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 241 
 
 Barbara pantomimically expressed the inscrutability of 
 her cousin s conduct. : Because she won t; because she 
 won t do anything except the best and most exasperating 
 things. See this waist? Well, she made it and gave it 
 to me after I had wasted a whole day and lots of ma 
 terial trying to make one." 
 
 " For Heaven s sake, Barbara," expostulated the doc 
 tor, " I believe you are getting industrious ! Digging and 
 sewing ! Last spring Madam was deploring your dislike, 
 not to say refusal, to delve in her beloved garden, and to 
 day you fight for a trowel on a pleasure trip, and confess 
 to a day s sewing! Your fingers will lose their conversa 
 tional eloquence, child. I abhor a woman s busy fingers. 
 They distract conversation; they minimise your grandest 
 thought. I ve an idea Bluebeard s wives counted stitches 
 in their tatting while he was holding forth, and the mis 
 understood sequel was the logical outcome of any man s 
 feelings." 
 
 ; Poor ladies! But what should they do, if they had 
 only ten dollars a month, and went through their clothes 
 like I do?" 
 
 " Save up for a couple of months," said the provident 
 Yankee. " Can t you get some sort of er a dress for 
 twenty dollars? " 
 
 Why, of course; but I never have any luck saving. I 
 tried it last month. Deposited my ten dollars as soon as 
 I got it, and told Mr. Ten Eyke on no account to let me 
 have it till the first of the month. Now, how do you 
 think I came out? " 
 
 " Give it up." 
 
 " I had had to have things charged, of course. I had 
 five dollars after I paid my bills." 
 
 The doctor chuckled. 
 
 " That when you took to dressmaking? " 
 
 " Yes; I bought a pattern just like Zillah does, locked
 
 242 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 myself in my room, and simply slaved over that waist ! 
 I nearly had to swear at Mam Lilly to make her go away 
 from my door at dinner-time, and when tea was ready she 
 and Zillah both came up, and I had to open the door, or 
 Mammy would have burst it in. Doctor, you never saw 
 such a waist in your life! I was just trying it on, and 
 Zillah laughed until she collapsed on my bed. Mam 
 Lilly didn t say a word, but her big eyes just burned, and 
 she took that thing off me, and then she ripped and tore 
 it into ribbons, and carried me down to supper. Zillah 
 locked herself in my room while she cleaned up the debris 
 and put it in the rag-bag, and I reckon Aunt Helen 
 thought I was sick. No one told her; I could not have 
 borne it, then. She thinks I am so no count, but she is 
 awfully good to you if you are ill, you know. To-day 
 Zillah brought me this waist; she is always doing the 
 loveliest things like that ! But go anywhere, or do any 
 thing like folks? No she won t! " 
 
 " She is a good woman," said the doctor with hearty 
 approval: " her character is as upright as her figure, and 
 I can t say more for any one. Personally, I prefer a 
 few curves, even if they verge on the serpentine." The 
 eyes beneath the heavy brows laughed down at Barbara 
 as he handed her from the carriage. 
 
 The usual masculine preference for the daughters of 
 Heth," said Barbara magnificently. He handed her her 
 hat from beneath the seat, and they walked toward the 
 hotel, laughing. 
 
 You run upstairs and wash your hands, and tidy your 
 hair like a good child, while I see if there is any one here 
 we know besides Murrey," said the doctor as they entered 
 the house. 
 
 " This is my fete day, I m twenty years old," she con 
 fided, as they drove homeward in the late afternoon.
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 243 
 
 " You might have mentioned it a little earlier, so we 
 could celebrate. How did Madam ever let you come 
 away on your birthday?" enquired the doctor, who had 
 settled back in the carriage in his usual comfortable posi 
 tion, one foot on the dashboard, prepared for the long pull 
 up the mountain. 
 
 " She has forgotten. Because I am with her, I sup 
 pose, or she would have made a fete regardless of ex 
 pense." 
 
 " And quite right, too. I would have helped." 
 
 " I wish you would help me instead. It seems to me 
 you might; give her soothing medicine, you know." 
 
 " What on earth s the matter now? " 
 
 " Money! " said the girl with quite a fierce little air. 
 
 " Good Lord! Well, don t worry about a little thing 
 like that. With all my worldly goods I thee endow. 
 
 " Is that another proposal? " 
 
 " Yes, if you like." 
 
 " Some day," said Barbara warningly, " I shall accept 
 you when you least expect it. I ve been on the verge 
 several times, just to see what would happen." 
 
 " I should decline the sacrifice. * Youth and crabbed 
 age cannot live together; but if I were ten years younger ! 
 Do you want an advance on that next ten dollars? I ll 
 make it; but it s my duty as a practical man to point out 
 that financially that way ruin lies." 
 
 " I wish you would be practicable a few minutes. I m 
 in the most ridiculous position. Economy is becoming an 
 obsession. I wake up in the night and think of it some 
 times! " 
 
 " Horrible ! " ejaculated the doctor. 
 
 " But I do! It has become the chief aim of my life 
 to restrain Maman s infatuated generosity. If it occurs 
 to her I wish or need a thing she isn t happy till I get 
 it, and Zillah has to plan and contrive to pay for
 
 244 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 my extravagances. I have to do extravagant and selfish 
 things, or Maman thinks I am not having a good time, 
 and is perfectly miserable. And Zillah says I must go on, 
 or be responsible for the consequences! She won t. Will 
 you, Doctor? Couldn t you be at hand and tide her over 
 the excitement if I explained to her that her means are 
 er rather limited? " 
 
 You poor child! I m afraid Miss Zillah is right, 
 now. Madam is intelligent. She would require an ac 
 counting // she thought of it. But, by Jove! what a char 
 acteristic arrangement all round! " 
 
 "Characteristically exasperating! I have as good a 
 right to earn my living as Zillah, and as much need. 
 She says (I had to drag it out of her) that Maman s in 
 come ceases at her death. I don t understand the details, 
 she referred me to Mr. Phelps; but I do know I have at 
 least no right to such extravagance as Donna. I could 
 almost break the little beastie s neck, only Maman would 
 immediately buy me the best horse in Mr. Bead s stud if 
 I did." 
 
 Barbara s unconscious betrayal of Zillah s quixotic du 
 plicity, and her own ignorance of it, incensed the doctor. 
 Ever since Barbara s arrival he had felt a smouldering irri 
 tation with a certain arrangement whereby Zillah had 
 punctiliously made him the mortgagee of the Hurst estate 
 in payment for his services to Madam. He felt vaguely 
 and resentfully in league to hoodwink and defraud this 
 girl. 
 
 " Confound the woman ! " he exclaimed, half laughing 
 despite his annoyance. " She s a high-handed executive; 
 she hasn t any right to put you in such a hole. I m blessed 
 if I can see your way out of it at present, though, un 
 less you get married." 
 
 " I have a better contrivance than that" 
 
 " No you haven t; but what s the idea, little one? God
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 245 
 
 forbid that you should tussle with the world. You are 
 not the fibre for it." 
 
 " I reckon my fibre can stand it if Zillah s can. I ve 
 thought about this a good deal, and I am trying to 
 write! Poetry. I d just like to surprise Zillah ! I can 
 make one verse on almost any subject easily, and I think 
 in time I may evolve a few seconds to tack on: though " 
 ruefully " I confess they come hard, and show it." 
 
 The doctor roared. 
 
 " Poetry s a drug in the market, girl. If you want to 
 write you have a handy topical pen. That election ar 
 ticle was good. Ever think of trying seriously in this 
 direction? " 
 
 " No, nor in any other, seriously. Lightly what comes 
 to me that I set down, but if I try to coerce my brain it 
 goes dotty. Perhaps my writing will be like my little 
 tunes. I do not seem to be much more practical than 
 Maman, bless her heart! " 
 
 " Bless your heart! Do you suppose there is no use 
 in the world for impractical folks? I ll tell you what, I ll 
 make a will, so you need not worry your dear little head 
 any more. You are the greatest blessing life ever gave 
 to me, and it s no more than fair I should acknowledge 
 it. With all my worldly goods I thee endow. If I 
 can t do it before, I can after I m dead." 
 
 " Doctor dear! just imagine me squabbling with the 
 legitimate heirs," said Barbara between tears and laughter, 
 inexpressibly touched by his devotion. 
 
 There aren t any, and besides, I don t care if there 
 are. I shall do as I like with my own. I never had time 
 to enjoy what money I ve made (it isn t a lot), but you 
 shall." 
 
 "Not! Please, Doctor! this is utter folly. I shall 
 not accept, so why embarrass me with the gift? Not that 
 I couldn t kiss you for it."
 
 246 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 11 Well do." 
 
 Barbara looked at him with a speculative eye, as 
 though considering the proposition. 
 
 " Why don t you stop practising and spend your own 
 money? Did you never care to travel or or any 
 thing? " she asked curiously. 
 
 Yes, I d enjoy travelling, if I could choose my com 
 rade." 
 
 Barbara ignored the insinuation. 
 
 " I should like to travel all over the world. I think 
 I d go to Alaska first; I d like to see a glacier, wouldn t, 
 you ? " she mused dreamily. 
 
 " Alaska," said the doctor fervently, " is the place of 
 all places I long to explore." 
 
 " You never thought of such an outlandish corner of 
 the earth before." 
 
 " Maybe I didn t: but that does not invalidate my 
 present statement or desire," he maintained stoutly, but 
 the wistful note beneath his badinage awoke an echoing 
 need of love. He cared! She knew he cared! Oh, 
 Bijah! Bijah! why couldn t you! It was intolerable, 
 the thought of his indifference : the thought he was not 
 coming home. And she had had a part in sending him 
 away ! She yielded to a reckless impulse. 
 
 We are going straight toward Alaska now," she 
 said in a strained, peculiar voice, her eyes on the horizon s 
 verge, and the doctor glanced at her sharply, hesitated, 
 incredulous, beset by desire and doubt. Then 
 
 " Shall we go on, Barbara?" he asked gently. 
 
 His voice seemed to come from a vast distance; she 
 had a ghastly sense of unreality. 
 
 Yes," she replied mechanically, and he put his 
 arm around her, and this that she had done was 
 very real. 
 
 " Oh, I thought you said that you would not accept
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 247 
 
 me!" she exclaimed in panic, and the doctor instantly 
 released her. 
 
 ; I did not suppose you would jest of this. You know 
 I love you," he said sternly, and contrition overwhelmed 
 her. She had not meant to pain this loyal friend and 
 lover; she had a great affection for him, and life was all 
 awry, anyway! She thought she was as miserable as she 
 could be, nothing mattered farther, and she was swept 
 back to him on a flood of conflicting emotions. 
 
 ; I was not jesting," she faltered. 
 
 " Barbara ! " he protested gravely, " do not tempt me 
 too far with your innocent cruelty. I forget I am an old 
 
 man." 
 
 Then you refuse to take me to Alaska? " she said, 
 very low, and he kissed the rueful April face. 
 
 " Forgive me! I couldn t help it, though of course I 
 know you do not love me. I am old enough to be your 
 grandfather," he said, and sighed for his lost youth. 
 
 ; But I never loved any one like I did the colonel 
 until I came here," she murmured, and this was more 
 than mortal man of any age could bear. 
 
 " Oh, please! " she gasped, and he looked straight 
 down into her frightened eyes. 
 
 ;< Not kiss you ! " he demanded brusquely, and a ner 
 vous trembling shook her. 
 
 "Oh, no! At least " admonished by his look of 
 pained reproach " I do not really mind. I I ll kiss 
 you," and she did: the brush of a moth s wing. 
 
 "Oh, my little one!" he said with ineffable tender 
 ness for this young, wilful thing who feared the love she 
 had evoked. 
 
 The horse, unguided, trudged sturdily up a long hill, 
 and stopped at discretion when the road forked. The 
 doctor caught up the reins gaily. 
 
 1 Bijah must have had this horse in training for us.
 
 248 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 He has always predicted our marriage, darling," he said 
 
 fatuously. 
 
 " It is convenient to have perspicacious friends," Bar 
 bara said coolly. That Abijah could jest of it! She 
 was glad, glad she was to marry the dear doctor. She 
 broke a long silence restlessly. 
 
 " I want you to promise me something," she said, and 
 the bedazzled lover covenanted to, and beyond the verge 
 of the possible. 
 
 " If ever I should ask you to take me to Alaska, I 
 want you to do it." 
 
 " Bless my soul ! Why, you don t want to go to 
 Alaska ! " 
 
 Barbara sat up straight and indignant; she had made a 
 pitiful attempt to forefend disaster. 
 
 You criticise and question. I will not be criticised 
 or questioned! If I cannot do as I wish, why should I 
 marry you? " 
 
 There is just one adequate reason for such a sacri 
 fice, my darling." 
 
 " My reasons are my reasons," she said stormily. 
 " And it is not absurd for me to wish to go rfwywhere ! " 
 
 " When shall we start? " 
 
 Whenever I am bored and wish to get away from 
 every one and everything I ever knew. And it is not 
 absurd for me to wish to go ! " 
 
 " Most rational procedure I ever heard of. I only 
 wonder Alaska isn t more populous. May I venture to 
 enquire, my dear, if you are taking precautions against 
 boredom with me? " 
 
 He caught a glimpse of elfin diablerie. 
 Why, really, sir, considering I have just proposed 
 to you " she began, but he would not have it. 
 
 You have given me heaven ! " he said passionately. 
 " But if you mean what you have said, in pity do not
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 249 
 
 keep me waiting long. I have not long to wait, and, 
 I want my little wife." 
 
 " I will marry you whenever you wish," the girl said 
 quietly. 
 
 " Do you mean that? " 
 
 " Yes. I might want to go to Alaska suddenly, you 
 know. It s weU to be ready." 
 
 " Don t, dear! Barbara, your happiness is more to me 
 than my own. It is mine. If I thought this was not for 
 your happiness 
 
 But Barbara stirred in his arm like a fluttering bird, 
 and between tears and laughter sang the little wilful song: 
 
 " When Love is kind, 
 
 Gentle and free, 
 Love s sure to find 
 Welcome from me. 
 
 But when Love brings 
 
 Heartaches and pangs, 
 Tears and such things, 
 Love may go hang !
 
 XV 
 
 A PRELIMINARY skirmish with Aunt Helen 
 heightened Barbara s sense of escapade in riding 
 away with Maude and Sir Benjamin the next 
 morning. 
 
 " Mark my words, you ll rue this day," admonished 
 the old lady, following Barbara into the hall. The girl 
 pulled on her gauntlets slowly, and reflected. 
 
 " But you see, I ll rue it if I don t go; so there you are." 
 She spread her neatly gloved hands with a dramatic ges 
 ture, and next to her vernacular there was nothing nettled 
 Aunt Helen like Barbara s " French airs," as Barbara 
 knew. 
 
 " It is scandalous for you to treat a man like Dr. Pom- 
 fret with such disrespect ! He will expect to find you here, 
 whenever he is able to call," said the grim old dame, who 
 never neglected to impress the disadvantages of a situation 
 on any one. She had received the announcement of the 
 engagement without approval the night before. 
 
 11 If he were younger, or older, or richer! " she had 
 fulminated at Zillah, in private, but Zillah with locked 
 lips had promptly gone into her own room. No one 
 dreamed that the undemonstrative spinster cried herself 
 to sleep for the pity of it, and only Madam congratulated 
 the affianced pair with anything like cordiality. She was 
 delighted beyond measure. Voila! It was her own 
 romance again; the hand of le bon Dieu directing it. The 
 doctor gave her an extra sleeping potion for the night on 
 account of her excitement, and pointed out to Barbara the 
 advantage of a -physician in the family. 
 
 250
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 251 
 
 " Dr. Pomfret heard me make this engagement, and he 
 said nothing about calling," Barbara said wilfully as she 
 went down the steps. 
 
 " Have your will, though it carry you through the fiery 
 flames! " exclaimed Aunt Helen, who had a picturesque 
 vocabulary of her own, on the Dantesque order. 
 
 Sir Benjamin bowed profoundly to the venerable figure 
 in the doorway, and the cavalcade moved off. He had 
 not heard the conversation. Barbara made Donna prance 
 as a slight vent to her feelings. 
 
 I ll be no submissive wife! she hummed, while 
 Maude and Sir Benjamin resumed an interrupted con 
 versation. She began to listen only when she caught 
 Abijah s name. 
 
 Where did you meet him? I did not know he was 
 in Hurstville," Maude was saying stiffly, in a restrained 
 manner. 
 
 " Benji introduced us at the club last night; looked 
 rather a ruffian, but I like to hear him talk. Odd, 
 y know." 
 
 Yes, he is one of Hurstville s characters, " said 
 Maude carelessly. How could her brother be so blind? 
 Sir Benjamin s bland observation was an exceedingly acute 
 one. She knew he could not have seen Rob, but she 
 knew the dreaded expose was imminent, and wished her 
 self anywhere but in Hurstville. 
 
 "Cleverest fellow I ve met over here!" pursued Sir 
 Benjamin expansively. " Sorry I didn t hear him speak 
 in your er legislature. He was ill, I believe, when we 
 stopped in Albany. He says the most extraordinary 
 things, casually. Asked that queer little old fellow 
 banker, y know " 
 
 "Mr. TenEyke?" 
 
 1 Yes: asked him why he had on a face long enough 
 to eat oats out of a churn. Extraordinary descriptive
 
 252 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 phrase, wasn t it? Made me think of a horse, y know. 
 Couldn t help it." 
 
 The two girls dissolved in laughter, and Sir Benjamin 
 beamed complaisance. He was the most English of Irish 
 men. 
 
 " Oh, I m getting on to your American humour! Some 
 things he said, though, no one else appreciated. Some 
 one asked him how he liked his job, fancy! and he said 
 Legislation was more fun than a bag of monkeys. 
 Extraordinary way to refer to such a thing, y know, but 
 er that s it, y know." 
 
 The girls were rocking in their saddles: Sir Benjamin 
 was not usually discursive, but he felt repaid for his effort 
 by the results. 
 
 " I suppose you are accustomed to Mr. Bead s droll 
 ery, but it struck me as er extraordinary. He says he 
 knows Vance, Lord Lowden s youngest son, you know. 
 Met him up in the Northwest somewhere; and left him 
 there prospecting. He is takin a trip out that way again 
 this summer, and I told him I d like to go along and look 
 up Vance." 
 
 What did he say to the proposition?" enquired 
 Maude, reassured for the present: Sir Benjamin had evi 
 dently not encountered Abijah s son. 
 
 " Said he d wire me when he was to start, unless he 
 had to take a greasy jump to make connections. And 
 he invited me to come up and inspect his stock farm : 
 Seemed no end a good fellow, though most extraordinary 
 odd in some things, y know." 
 
 41 4 All the world is strange, Ben, save thee and me, 
 and sometimes thou art a little peculiar, " his cousin 
 quoted gaily. 
 
 " Oh, I say now. Of course! But 
 
 Barbara touched her horse. " We-all shan t get there 
 in time to see the washing if we plod like this!"
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 253 
 
 she cried, and led the way to Bucksville at a reckless gal 
 lop. 
 
 She was in the wildest spirits; she wanted to hurry, 
 hurry! to fly! Abijah had been near when some super- 
 subtle sense had told her so the day before ! She made 
 their frugal luncheon at the bare little Buckskill hotel a 
 symposium : a repast to be remembered. She fascinated 
 both of her companions. Sir Benjamin was fairly 
 dazzled. 
 
 I say, Maude, she s extraordinary y know," he said 
 impressively to his cousin as they remounted. 
 
 " She s a darling! I simply love her! " said Maude en 
 thusiastically, and they followed the graceful, buoyant 
 figure up the mountain road to Pang-Yang. 
 
 The mountain had reclothed itself in patched and 
 scraggly second-growth timber after the great conflagra 
 tion, and bare, burnt skeletons still upbristled above the 
 dwarfed green undergrowth; the erst hidden ledges were 
 revealed by scrub thickets of sumach and alder, and the 
 lusty stream, which formerly supplied the tannery pool 
 and overflowed its dam the year around, had dwindled to 
 a thread of its old volume, and made only a sullen semi- 
 stagnant pond behind the broken bank. It was still dark, 
 through the pool ! Dark as when the mighty hemlocks 
 arched their branches over it, and the ooze of the tan 
 nery discoloured the clear stream; but its darkness now 
 had a look of consistency, of stickiness, as though the 
 evaporation of the water had condensed it unwhole- 
 somely. 
 
 Pang-Yang was a new Pang-Yang; a place wherein 
 children, albeit of a somewhat pasty, protozoic type, did 
 manage to exist, and eke to get a schoolhouse. It stood 
 on the old tannery site beside the pool, a woeful little 
 shanty, but of a dignity withal, as indicative of family 
 segregation, an evolution from the homogeneous past.
 
 254 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 The squalid homes were shrines of pure domesticity, 
 and virtue shone on every slattern s face. They were 
 drunken, more or less, and poor altogether, but they stood 
 quite aggressively upon their respectability, as it behooves 
 a reformed community or individual to do; it would 
 have gone hard with any man who gainsaid it; Pang-Yang 
 femininity would have scratched his eyes out. There was 
 not a trace of anything to suggest an orgy of the past 
 or future: these people were too anaemic; and Abijah 
 Bead, seated contemplatively over against the schoolhouse 
 on a high rock, where the equestrian party did not at first 
 espy him, was putting it to himself as an honest man, 
 whether he would prefer to live under this or the old 
 regime. As an honest man the only conclusion he could 
 arrive at, was that he was glad he did not have to make 
 a choice of either. 
 
 The arrival of strangers distracted attention from the 
 waiting clergyman, and the little group of children who 
 had clustered around the girlish figure of the school 
 mistress in front of the schoolhouse were only restrained 
 by her official authority from swarming down to inspect 
 the visitors at close range. 
 
 This won t do," said Barbara, when they had sat 
 for a few moments looking over the scene, and she slipped 
 from her saddle and made Donna s bridle fast to a con 
 venient sapling. 
 
 " B Jove! that s so! Deuced bad form, y know," re 
 sponded Sir Benjamin, following her example. 
 
 "Are you going any nearer?" whispered Maude in 
 consternation, as he came to her side. 
 
 " Cawn t sit here and er stare at em, y know," 
 he said, and she dismounted reluctantly. They followed 
 Barbara, who led the way slowly toward the little group 
 collected on the brink of the pool, and sat down at a 
 respectful distance, before they perceived the other visi-
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 255 
 
 tor. Abijah was gravely assisting an ambitious young 
 ster to mount to a seat beside him, and he did not permit 
 his eyes to meet the recognition of the newcomers. 
 
 " We will sing," said the minister, an eager-eyed, gaunt 
 young ascetic, u we will sing that beautiful and familiar 
 hymn, Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
 I hope the strangers who have come among us to witness 
 the holy rite we solemnise, have come with the love of 
 Jesus in their hearts, to unite with us in our devotions. 
 Beloved, lift up your hearts and voices unto the Lord." 
 
 The rich, sonorous voice, a voice to glorify cathedral 
 services, made the poor song divine; but a half-resentful 
 consciousness of spectators embarrassed the congregation, 
 and dampened the usual spirit of the singing, and every 
 one was feeling most uncomfortable when a mighty and 
 reassuring bass joined the clergyman s in the middle of 
 the refrain. 
 
 " Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow, 
 sang Abijah with utmost devotion, and the rocks and 
 hills resounded, for his voice was big in proportion to the 
 rest of him, and he put no manner of restraint upon it. 
 
 Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow ! " he 
 sang, and the while shook an admonitory fist at the be 
 wildered group before the schoolhouse, until the little 
 teacher finally caught his meaning, and hurried a piping 
 treble chorus into the swelling strain of song. 
 
 His benignancy, upon her comprehension, made Bar 
 bara glance for a moment at the little country school-marm 
 jealously. 
 
 B Jove, y know! we ought to sing, Maude," ejacu 
 lated Sir Benjamin, who could not sing a note himself to 
 save his soul or others , and, as his cousin good-naturedly 
 complied with his suggestion, he glanced around to incite 
 vicarious tunefulness in the other member of his party. 
 A very English sense of responsibility for all decent cere-
 
 256 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 monials had Sir Benjamin, and it received a severe shock 
 when he discovered that Barbara s lively countenance was 
 exhibiting an expression of undisguised contempt. She 
 did not hear or heed his involuntary exclamation to at 
 tract her attention, and there was nothing more admoni 
 tory that he could do, save to deepen the cast of inperturb- 
 able reverence on his own features; which he did. 
 
 The effect was lost on Barbara ; her attention was 
 focussed on Abijah, who sang the verses as though ob 
 livious to, instead of much amused by, her evident dis 
 approval. 
 
 "Let us pray!" said the young minister, and every 
 head bowed reverently except Barbara s and the small 
 boy s, who sat aloft by Mr. Bead. Abijah tipped his hat 
 before his eyes, and did not see the dereliction of his 
 protege, but the glare of Barbara s reprobation could be 
 felt through the crown of his sombrero, and at the con 
 clusion of the prayer he removed it suddenly, and met her 
 withering contempt by a moment s calm unrecognising 
 stare; then he joined in the next hymn with undiminished 
 fervour. 
 
 Then the minister went down into the dark pool, and 
 stood waist-deep in the icy water, while one by one, with 
 out unseemly haste, the converts went out to him. The 
 first, a young man, came back limp and livid from the 
 arctic plunge, and his teeth chattered helplessly as he 
 resumed his place upon the bank; but the next to enter 
 was a pallid slip of a girl; and she waded back out of the 
 cold water with a look of ecstasy upon her thin face, and 
 stood beside her shivering comrade motionless, in a sort 
 of trance, while the shrewd mountain breeze wrapped her 
 dripping garments close around her slender figure. 
 
 There was an interval of preparation for the next 
 immersion, and the troubled waters around the celebrant 
 had time to fall into a glassy quiet, mirroring his still
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 257 
 
 figure, as he waited. Two young men brought an old 
 man in a chair down to the edge of the pool, and under 
 the curious eyes of observation, did something mysterious 
 to his legs. The operation was demonstrated as they 
 stood up on either side, for each held one of his artificial 
 legs, and the maimed body struck the water with a sudden 
 whop, as the old man craftily lowered himself from the 
 chair. He went through the water in a series of short, 
 rapid jerks, swinging his body forward between his arms, 
 his hands resting on the bottom. Barbara laid her hand 
 upon her mouth and bolted. She had to shut her teeth 
 on qualms of nausea as she fled, and she leaned on Donna s 
 shoulder, faint and sick. A long, swift stride came after 
 her. 
 
 " Oh, Sir Benjamin, let us get away from this awful 
 place ! " she gasped without lifting her head. 
 
 " Sir Benjamin is no quitter, " said a voice in reluctant 
 admiration, and Barbara raised her head, and faced 
 Abijah. 
 
 " I could not stand it," she explained vaguely. 
 
 " I know," said Abijah, and laid his hand on the general 
 region of his stomach with an expression of such sym 
 pathetic comprehension that words were superfluous. 
 Barbara dropped her face in Donna s mane and shook 
 with laughter. 
 
 We must not stay here," said Abijah, interposing 
 himself between the girl and observation as she wiped her 
 eyes. 
 
 I was going on down the road a bit and wait," she 
 said, glancing furtively back towards her companions. 
 
 " Oh, they won t leave till the show is over. You 
 could see John Bull sticking out all over that Englishman. 
 He is suppressing his private feelings for the public good, 
 bless his soul ! and you can see him doing it ! He means 
 to see this thing through to the bitter end; though what
 
 258 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 that end may be," concluded Abijah with lively appre 
 hension, " the Lord forefend that we should tarry to 
 behold ! Let us get hence." 
 
 He took her by the arm and hurried her across the 
 settlement, to a path winding precipitously up the moun 
 tain-side. 
 
 "Where are we going?" she enquired; not that it 
 mattered, not that she cared, where they spent this golden 
 unexpected hour together. 
 
 " Up to the top," said Abijah; " it s er wholesomer 
 up there." 
 
 "Is there time?" 
 
 "I guess so; serve that Englishman right to make 
 him wait; letting a girl go poking off by herself in a place 
 like this." 
 
 " Thank you ! " she murmured. 
 
 " Don t mention it," he replied gruffly, and Barbara 
 promptly resented casual attention. 
 
 " Oh, I shall not lose sight of the fact that your knight- 
 errantry extends to all sorts and conditions of distressed 
 females," she said with reassurance, and he stopped 
 short. 
 
 " If you object to the association, Miss Hurst," he said 
 sarcastically; but she did not reply. " Shall we go on? " 
 he demanded. 
 
 This is your excursion, Mr. Bead," she answered 
 blandly. 
 
 For a moment he hesitated, and then taking the little 
 round elbow in the hollow of his hand again, he pro 
 pelled her up the hillside at a rate not always limited by 
 the length of her stride; he did not scruple to swing her 
 bodily to otherwise inaccessible points of the breakneck 
 route he chose to follow, and Barbara s foothold was at 
 times fugitive, as he rushed her over the rocks. 
 
 " I d like to play poker with you," he said grimly.
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 259 
 
 " I d call you, no matter what the stakes," she said de 
 fiantly. 
 
 " I did not know you were such a dead-game sport." 
 His eyes laughed at her as he lifted her to a ledge and 
 climbed up after. 
 
 " Is there much more of this? " she asked rather breath 
 lessly. 
 
 " Of what? " He proffered her his hand to assist her to 
 her feet, and taunted her to a reply. She looked up at the 
 mountain. Evidently there would be considerably more 
 of it. 
 
 What s the use trying to bluff me?" he demanded 
 bluntly, as she stood beside him. 
 
 ; I beg pardon, sir! " 
 
 You came up here because you wanted to. Same 
 with me. Now we are going to the top of this berg to 
 gether, if I have to carry you the rest of the way." 
 
 His savagery provoked the subtler resources of civi 
 lised warfare. Barbara suddenly and calmly leaned 
 against him, and thrust out her foot for his inspection. 
 The dainty riding boot was already scratched and peeled 
 from its unaccustomed scramble over the sharp rocks. 
 She put him irretrievably in the wrong before she spoke. 
 You forget I am not a mountaineer," she said quietly. 
 I don t revoke, I play the game, sir ! " 
 
 He had begun to recognise and enjoy this fact. 
 
 " You take this trick, but you play just like a. woman," 
 he grumbled, amused. 
 
 " I thought that was the game," she flashed. You 
 led with a threat; I couldn t follow suit, and I had to 
 trump." 
 
 I guess you and I better have a new deal. But I 
 know you do not want to go back at present," he said, 
 carelessly confident; and Barbara tacitly consenting, they 
 went upward; since Fate thrust the cards into her hand,
 
 260 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 she would play. Surely, she told herself as they toiled 
 over the slippery rocks, she might play once for her very 
 life! She did not so much as think of Dr. Pomfret, and 
 if she had, it would not have mattered. Nothing mat 
 tered now. They were together. This day at least was 
 hers. 
 
 She puzzled Abijah. There was again the camaraderie 
 of their first casual acquaintance, which ignored the sub 
 sequent intercourse between them, and made the present 
 moment all in all. It was a fascinating mood. The ten- 
 dresse an unguarded moment had betrayed had aroused 
 his chivalry and regret; but if she loved him, she had 
 shown a constant self-control, exceeding any woman s he 
 had ever known a control so out of character with her 
 impetuosity as to baffle him and mock a vague quixotic 
 purpose to disillusion her. He had received the doctor s 
 announcement of their engagement the previous night with 
 ironic congratulations. Barbara was, then, like all other 
 women. The fact that she would not fit into a general 
 classification was annoying. The doctor was not wealthy, 
 and a girl like Barbara Hurst could never lack for suitors. 
 Then too, why had she fled her fiance to-day, the 
 day after her engagement? As man to man, Abijah s 
 sympathies went out to the doctor, but this girl was inter 
 esting : something more. 
 
 " It did not seem to me you entered into the true spirit 
 of the scene down there," he observed reproachfully, as 
 they climbed upward. 
 
 " Wasn t it awful ! " she exclaimed, and felt him shake 
 with stifled laughter. 
 
 " Did you think of the probabilities of confusion, when 
 they began to disarticulate themselves? " he asked; but 
 Barbara was laughing helplessly. 
 
 " You lost the best part; you did not see Sir Benjamin s 
 face! Oh, lordy! He did not turn a hair when the legs
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 261 
 
 came off; just showed a decent interest in an unfamiliar 
 ceremony. But when the old fellow launched himself 
 into the water, Johnnie Bull blinked! He did, for a 
 fact. Oh, I want to get up where I can lot a yell and 
 not disturb the meeting." 
 
 " I can t go any faster," sighed Barbara. " How 
 could you pretend to join in that singing? " 
 
 " Pretend! I didn t pretend: I sang. Should think you 
 might have heard me." 
 
 " I think the banality of such songs is absolutely blas 
 phemous ! " 
 
 "Blasphemy? Against whom? " 
 
 " Against the Good, the True, and the Beautiful ! " 
 
 " All relative, Miss Hurst; you must admit the ridicu 
 lous iteration and images of Whiter than Snow gave 
 those folks the same sensuous pleasure you derive from 
 Stabat Mater or The Blessed Damosel : and the 
 stars in her crown were seven I why not eleven ? It 
 rhymes. Not poetry? Why? How does the mystic 
 symbolism appeal to you? Tradition? Well, Whiter 
 than Snow is tradition ! Rossetti does not suit us all. I 
 don t care for him myself. If you knew what Pang- 
 Yang had been you would understand several things, 
 which, by the way, I m glad you don t. This revival 
 represents an enormous step in evolution. It tickles me 
 most to death ! That s why I sang Whiter than Snow 
 until I was black in the face; I had to buck up the 
 dominie. That pool is cold enough to shiver his timbers 
 (I know because I fell in once) ; and I was afraid he might 
 whimper and scare off the rest. And the Lord knows the 
 ducking will do them all a w-o-r-r-l-d of good : in several 
 ways! You had no business in a place like that, Miss 
 Hurst." 
 
 " Do you think this emotional religion does any lasting 
 good? " asked Barbara, ignoring the personal reproof.
 
 262 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 "Bless you, there isn t any other kind! Eliminate 
 emotion, and you have nothing but ethics. Religion is 
 essentially emotional, whether expressed in aesthetic rituals, 
 Quaker silence, or the hallelujahs of the primitive Meth 
 odists; and it s a persistent phenomenon; no use quarrel 
 ling with it. Besides, as long as we have to police the 
 earth, we need the angels of heaven to help us do it. You 
 can t deny the consolations of religion to the rest of the 
 world because you do not need them." 
 
 u Father Varney was insisting yesterday that I did. 
 Said I would be happier and better if I stopped thinking, 
 and er just gave up, you know. Like that poor girl 
 down there. Merci! " 
 
 " I don t believe you could, if you tried. A sense of 
 humour inhibits the operation of the emotions awfully. 
 You neither suffer nor joy in the absolute whole-hearted 
 manner of simple organisms ! I know that, for myself. 
 Now that girl is happier than she ever will be again, even 
 when she feels her lover s kiss. You would analyse both 
 sensations and enjoy the analysis, whether the sensation 
 was pleasurable or not." 
 
 " I object to vivisection, at this pace. What are your 
 lungs made of? You are almost carrying me along, and 
 you talk away like you were in an easy-chair." 
 
 " You are not much of a handicap. This ledge is the 
 last. I used to go up by this vine, but that s dead." He 
 stopped and pulled at a great convoluted bitter-sweet, 
 which came away in his hand, and he left Barbara at the 
 foot of the rocks, while he prospected for a way of ascend 
 ing them, for the summit of the mountain was bastioned 
 by a palisade of rock, not high, but of a sheer perpen 
 dicularity. 
 
 " Give me your hand ! I can pull you up here easier than 
 you can climb it," Barbara heard him saying overhead. 
 He was prone on the ledge above, reaching his arms over
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 263 
 
 the edge to her. She held hers up, but their hands did 
 not touch by several inches. She giggled as she heard him 
 mutter " Damn ! " 
 
 " That stone over there, then! Can t you roll it over 
 here and stand on it? " he asked, for the ascent was 
 difficult, and time was passing. Barbara deliberated, 
 sauntered over to the stone, and sat down on it. 
 
 " I don t feel like I have any responsibility about getting 
 up there. This as I have mentioned isn t my picnic." 
 She looked up at him, the quintessence of Eve s wilful 
 daughters, with the inherent charm for the sons of 
 men. Abijah acknowledged it for the first time, and re 
 luctantly. 
 
 ;< If you make me come back down there for you, you 
 will be sorry," he said darkly. 
 
 " Are you sure about that? " she laughed mischievously. 
 
 " Oh, if you want me to come and carry you up " 
 
 Barbara rose hastily and gave the stone a tentative 
 kick. As it half rolled over a large snake wriggled slug 
 gishly from beneath it, and with a shriek Barbara fled 
 toward the ledge. Abijah nearly fell off upon her, laugh 
 ing. 
 
 You ought to be ashamed," she told him, holding her 
 habit tight about her in an apprehension which sent him 
 off again. 
 
 It s only a black snake, and it s gone. Now roll that 
 stone over here, and up you come," he said encouragingly. 
 
 " An awfully alluring prospect, but I don t seem to care 
 for it. There won t be a button on my habit if I am 
 dragged up there, and how shall I ever get down ? " 
 she demurred. 
 
 " Oh, we ll go back by the road." 
 
 * Road! Is there a road? And you have hauled me 
 up over those awful rocks ! " 
 
 Road s further around, and anyhow, we arc here
 
 264 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 now." He held a sprig of pennyroyal in his lips and he 
 
 looked as gay and irresponsible as a satyr. 
 
 " I don t want to go any further, and I shall not touch 
 that stone again. There might be a nest of them," Bar 
 bara said with decision. 
 
 Abijah sighed. 
 
 " Oh, all right," he said, starting to swing himself 
 down. 
 
 " Mr. Bead, you don t dare! " she cried. He paused. 
 
 " Dare what? " he quizzed. 
 
 " Anything! " said Barbara, but she went back to the 
 stone and began rolling it toward the ledge. The exer 
 tion seemed out of all proportion to the labour, for her 
 hat fell off and her face flushed. Abijah was unused to 
 girls, and felt dubious when she stood poised on the un 
 stable footstool, and held up her hands to him. 
 
 Take off your gloves, they might slip," he advised, 
 but the feel of her soft little hands in his was not re 
 assuring. 
 
 Your arms won t come off, will they? " he enquired 
 anxiously, and a gust of laughter shook them as they clung 
 against the cliff together. 
 
 "But will it be all right?" he persisted, and Bar 
 bara s hands lay passive in his own. 
 
 " I m sure / don t know," she replied carelessly, and 
 her defiant irresponsibility goaded him to take the chances, 
 and he drew her up the ledge beside him. She staggered 
 dizzily, and made a wild clutch at him, and he put his arm 
 around her for support. 
 
 " I m an utter brute ! What did you let me do it for? " 
 he exclaimed contritely; but he reflected he was becoming 
 gradually inured to having this girl in his arms, and 
 rather liked it. He wondered if she did, and could not 
 decide. There was no coquetry in her abandon, and after 
 a moment she raised herself with unmistakable decision.
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 265 
 
 " Are you faint? " he asked, not immediately releasing 
 her. 
 
 " No, I was only dizzy and felt like I had been drawn 
 and quartered," she explained, and the words so vividly 
 recalled the disarticulated convert, that they both laughed 
 again, softly, for their mirth was spent, standing close 
 together in the strong sun and wind of the mountain-top. 
 Then Barbara stepped away from him and looked around. 
 
 A stony solitude, shut in by a dark line of conifers under 
 a softly booming wind and blazing sun ! The grey rock, 
 split in jagged fragments, and scoured to the grain by 
 the eroding elements, sustained no vegetation, save one 
 enormous chestnut, rooted far beneath. There was 
 a stern grandeur in the elemental bareness of the peak; a 
 charm in the wild rune of the never-ceasing wind. After 
 the first glance at the old landmarks, Abijah watched the 
 girl intently. 
 
 ; I m glad you brought me here! " she said, a little 
 hush in the words; and he took her arm again, and led 
 her to a seat in the shade of the old chestnut tree, for the 
 heat beat up from the bare rock, though the breeze was 
 cool and keen around them. 
 
 The view from the summit was shut in by crowding 
 peaks, except where the long valley of the Buckskill opened 
 a perspective straight into the clear north, whence the wind 
 drew its long suspirations; at their feet the white homes 
 of the village lay along the stream that wove a silver 
 thread across the landscape. Fenced farms and timber 
 patches checquered the steep slopes in green and brown; 
 long loops of the white roads criss-crossed upon the ver 
 dant countryside; and over all slid the light shadows of the 
 drifting clouds. It was a charming pastoral, but after the 
 first view the fascination of the lonely, wind-swept heights 
 reclaimed them. There was a sense of lesion from the 
 world; it was so still! the wind rustling gently in the
 
 266 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 branches overhead, and sounding a far-off asolian note on 
 the dark arc of hemlock circling them, but made the 
 silence and the solitude realities. The invisible waves of 
 an aerial ocean islanded the peak; they seemed cut off from 
 the whole world. 
 
 Abijah laid his long length down upon the rocks, and 
 tucking his hat beneath his head, looked up at a con 
 spicuously extended branch above him, while the surge 
 of a long silence swept him back into the past. Barbara 
 was drifting on a tide of utter happiness, unquestioning 
 past or future. 
 
 " If you were up on that branch, you could see Hurst- 
 ville; the steeples," he observed absently, and Barbara 
 cast an apprehensive glance into the treetop and was about 
 to expostulate on this suggestion, when he continued, rem 
 iniscent, in a rare mood of confidence. She scarce 
 breathed, lest she should interrupt it. 
 
 " I used to come up here often, when I was a boy; I 
 was a Pang-Yanger, you know; and I used to sit up there 
 and cry and cuss. I suppose I was only homesick, but I 
 didn t know it then, and a boy s such a blessed fool ! He 
 don t know how much he can or ought to stand. I got my 
 first job, made my first money down in Pang-Yang: made 
 it gambling, too. How does that strike your aristocratic 
 traditions, Miss Hurst?" The old bitterness rankled 
 anew. He did not see the pitiful small face above him, 
 and went on monotonously : 
 
 " It makes me proud of what I ve got since ! Every 
 dollar of it comes from a little low-down euchre game down 
 there: a skin game, too, for they were drunk, and I wasn t. 
 The poor brutes, they never knew that I cleaned out the 
 ranch. The place caught fire that morning, and the 
 mountains burned for weeks. If I had stayed I could 
 have prevented it. We couldn t get near the place, after 
 the fire started."
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 267 
 
 He lay rigid, the muscles of his face and neck tense; 
 Barbara had to clutch the roots of the old chestnut beside 
 her to keep from slipping down to comfort him. 
 
 " How old were you? " she breathed. 
 
 "A kid! sixteen! In Pang-Yang! Great Scott!" 
 The place has changed? " 
 
 Yes, it s only a mild purgatory now. It was hell, 
 deep hell before the fire wiped it out. A man can t suffer 
 as a boy does; life hardens us to live, but until scars ichor 
 the nerves over, pain s intolerable ! I wonder any of us 
 grow up ! Lute said I was a fool ; I haven t gotten 
 over it yet. The poor brutes ! " He lay silent, and the 
 great wind boomed softly over them. 
 
 "Were they all burned?" 
 
 Abijah rolled over suddenly, looked at her, and sat up 
 in consternation. 
 
 "Great Scott! Don t look like that, Miss Hurst; 
 Pang-Yang isn t worth it! I deserve to be thrashed for 
 raking up such a ghastly tale to tell you. Yes, the whole 
 place was swept away ; but see here, it was really a euthana 
 sia: intoxication s an anaesthetic. You ask Doc if it isn t. 
 They never knew they died." His self-reproach was 
 genuine; he could appreciate the horrors of a vivid imagi 
 nation. 
 
 You have had some hard experiences," Barbara said 
 gently. 
 
 " A man expects them. He s all sorts of an ass to go 
 blethering to women about it. You will think I am a 
 blatant idiot." 
 
 " If you regret your confidence, Mr. Bead, I have 
 forgotten it." 
 
 It wasn t a premeditated infliction, at any rate, if 
 that s any excuse. I wanted to come up here again, and 
 I knew Doc would not want me to leave you alone in Pang- 
 Yang."
 
 268 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 She went very white. 
 
 "Oh, that s all right! Doc and I were pals before 
 you were born. He told me last night, or I shouldn t 
 have taken the liberty of marching off with you like 
 this, on my own responsibility of course. I congratu 
 late you both. Doc s the best ever, and I have an 
 idea you will appreciate the fact as most women would 
 not." 
 
 The sudden pain of it was almost more than she could 
 bear. Her loosely clasped hands clinched upon each 
 other, and she looked blindly off across the stony waste, 
 with wide, miserable eyes, striving to be quiet; just to be 
 quiet: she could attempt no more, for if she moved or 
 spoke she knew that she should throw herself down on the 
 rocks and shriek out her agony like some wild wounded 
 thing. But repression was instinctive, and pride stronger 
 than love or pain. 
 
 " If I can but keep still ! escape making an utter fool of 
 myself; not fall at his feet," she thought wearily. 
 
 No such impulse was suggested by the still, upright 
 figure, staring with unseeing eyes across the wind-swept 
 peak, but Abijah could not misunderstand the passion he 
 had roused. Again he felt he knew she loved him ; 
 knew the surpassing sweetness of this flower of love was 
 offered him, and temptation took him by the throat. To 
 wash away the bitter taste of life in the sparkling draught 
 of this pure passion! To defy mischance; for her? A 
 sullen, brutal wish that she was a light woman, lightly to 
 be loved, swept over him; for what but a man s best 
 dared he offer this great-souled child? He dared not look 
 at her. He knew another glimpse of the proud, suffering 
 little face, and he should take her in his arms, and kiss 
 her eyes to rapture. As he knew he could; and, strug 
 gling with the sweet insidious impulse, knew he would 
 not. After all, he had lived his life. A great weariness,
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 269 
 
 of all things fell on him, and he sought refuge for them 
 both in speech, aimless. 
 
 I hope you don t mind Doc s telling me, even though 
 you don t wish it announced so soon. He knew it was his 
 last chance for a vent before I went west, and he needed to 
 talk ! He is about as far gone as a man ever gets ! I m 
 a safe depository for tender confidences, though not ex 
 actly sympathetic. You have taken my best friend, Miss 
 Hurst; Rob s the only crony I have left." 
 
 She sprang to her feet, and he rose and stood before 
 her. 
 
 The doctor s precipitation rather took my breath, but 
 I am very glad he told you, if he wished. I know what 
 friends you are, and you must not let me separate you. 
 Can t I arrogate his privileges instead? " 
 
 She made him take her outstretched hand, and meet her 
 eyes, both steady; and he marvelled at her self-control, 
 vaguely resenting it: as he felt her palm melt against his, 
 he held it in a close embrace. 
 
 " Barbara ! " he protested vaguely. 
 
 But her pride was welded in a shield of dazzling de 
 fence, and love would not again give him a moment s 
 vantage. She demanded an oblation greater than her 
 own : she wanted no one s pity. 
 
 It sounds strange to hear you use my name (what a 
 horrid name you have!), but I suppose I must give you 
 the standing of an old family friend," she said sedately; 
 she saw that he was moved, and looked up at him slowly, 
 countering the mute passion of his eyes with a bewildering, 
 baffling, elusive diablerie. She made no effort to with 
 draw her hand from his entreating grasp, but he might 
 as well have held a captive fay.
 
 XVI 
 
 THE mountain road was banked as for a bridal, 
 with wild pink azalias and dark plumy 
 ferns, and led through sun-flecked aisles of white- 
 stemmed birch and dusky hemlock into the " House of 
 Spring." Overhead the weird wind-whisper in the tree- 
 tops breathed of spring, and love, and gladness, and the 
 downward pathway was as easy as Avernal highways. 
 There was no necessity for assistance in the descent, but 
 Abijah took Barbara s arm in his hand again firmly. 
 
 " Perhaps you think this thing of being a family friend 
 is going to be merely honorary," he observed whimsically, 
 as he tried to shorten his long stride to her pattering foot 
 steps. 
 
 " Indeed! I did not suppose the position imposed either 
 duties, emoluments, or responsibilities," said Barbara, 
 meeting his mood bravely. 
 
 Then you have made the mistake of your life," he 
 replied coolly, and she did not refuse the support he gave 
 her, but they did not talk much on their way back to Pang- 
 Yang. The small boy who had sat on the rock by Abi 
 jah, was waiting for them near the horses. 
 
 " Th other folks have went on deown ; they sed yeou 
 could ketch up," he informed them, shrill, and shy. 
 
 " Kismet! " thought Abijah; but there were darkening 
 shadows under Barbara s eyes when he lifted her into the 
 saddle. 
 
 You forget my lesson to you in mounting," she said 
 listlessly, taking up the bridle. The boy had removed 
 
 270
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 271 
 
 himself a short distance, and was absorbed in counting an 
 unexpected largess that had just come to him. 
 
 Abijah put up his arms; his face was tender, his voice 
 was a caress. " Let me try again ! Give me another 
 chance ! " he murmured. He had thrown off restraint; she 
 knew it, and a wild longing tugged at her to yield. The 
 next instant the astonished and indignant Donna leaped 
 under a sharp cut of the whip, and Abijah was standing 
 alone. He threw himself upon the Bronk, and followed, 
 watching Donna dance and caper under a firm rein. 
 
 I m a crack-a-jack of a family friend! " he cogitated, 
 amused by his own chagrin, " and I think I just escaped 
 that whip across the face; the darling! How in blazes 
 can she go and marry Doc? She shouldn t if Oh, 
 
 damn everything! " He rode up moodily beside her. 
 Donna s subjugation had left her exhilarant. 
 
 I always wanted to race the Bronk, and now s the 
 chance! " she cried. " We will give you odds and beat 
 you to the foot of the mountain." She let the little mare 
 lead off at a sharp canter. 
 
 "Pull up!" called Abijah authoritatively, and some 
 what to his surprise she obeyed, looking over her shoulder 
 with pretty interrogative brows. 
 
 " On horseback, I have horse sense, plus my own, and 
 the Lord knows I need the addition: I ve made a poor 
 whack taking care of you so far, but the Bronk knows 
 enough to buck me off if I tried to race down this hill. 
 Are you anxious to break your neck, or mine? " 
 
 " He knows we would beat him, Donna dear! " taunted 
 Barbara in a reckless mood. 
 
 " Down below, it s level; I m no jockey weight, but I ll 
 race you, handicap, if you make the stakes worth while," 
 he said significantly. 
 
 u Mercenary! must a game be played for the sake of 
 pelf? " she quoted daringly, a little frightened by the
 
 272 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 look he bent on her, but thrilled to a defiant happiness 
 by it. 
 
 " That is usually what a man plays for, but with you 
 it would not matter to him," he said deliberately, boldly, 
 and then for a way they rode side by side through the 
 green woods in silence. 
 
 " Over hill, over dale, 
 
 Through brush, through briar, 
 Over park, over pale, 
 
 Through flood, through fire." 
 
 The song bubbled over from the girl s full heart, and the 
 elfin chant suggested a device to keep her with him, for a 
 little longer. Abijah s eyes lit. 
 
 Would you like to go that way? " he asked. 
 
 u Air-line? Yes. Let s follow Puck! " She laughed 
 softly. He checked their horses suddenly, and pointed 
 through a vista of the woods, down to the outstretched 
 valley at their feet. 
 
 You ride cross-country, don t you?" he enquired. 
 
 Yes." A comprehending, joyous " yes "; the spirit 
 of the wild caught them at unawares, for these two peo 
 ple loved the pleasant earth, and the wine of spring was 
 on their lips. 
 
 " Look straight ahead ; Hurstville is around the shoulder 
 of this mountain, to the right. We will take the road 
 where it runs parallel; but at the foot, down here, we will 
 cut off that long loop through Bucksville, take to the fields, 
 across that field of rye. If we don t come to grief any 
 where, we ought to be home before the rest. Especially 
 if they wait for us at Bucksville." 
 
 He watched her delicate nostrils dilate, her bosom heave 
 with long ecstatic breaths, as she leaned forward on her 
 horse s neck, following the route he pointed out. This 
 was a largess of the gods, this long ride through the glory 
 of the spring together, which neither could refuse.
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 273 
 
 " Do you think they will wait long? " she asked mis 
 chievously. 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 " I haven t had a run cross-country since I came north," 
 wistfully. 
 
 " Well, I wouldn t for the world persuade you, against 
 your better judgment but let s take it," he said drolly. 
 
 " You know perfectly well I can t refuse." She sighed 
 blissfully, and they rode on down the mountain. 
 
 This gives me a good chance for rehearsal," he ob 
 served reflectively. 
 
 "Rehearsal?" 
 
 " Yes. I am not designed by nature for the role of 
 family friend, and if I spring it on Doc without rehearsing, 
 there may be some misunderstanding before he catches on. 
 Now, while I think of it, I want to begin by giving you a 
 piece of advice, that s been on my mind some time : don t 
 make Doc dance. He s game, you know, but he wasn t 
 trained to it, and 
 
 They had reached the place where their projected route 
 deployed across the fields, and before he could restrain 
 her, Barbara put Donna at the fence, and was scampering 
 across the field of young rye. 
 
 " Don t you do that again," Abijah said sternly, when 
 he reached her side. " You don t know the lay of the 
 land." 
 
 " You overdo your part, Mr. Bead; you may have the 
 lead, if you can keep it," and she set the little mare a 
 faster pace, toward an embushed wall. The Bronk 
 slouched abreast, and Abijah laid his hand on her 
 bridle. 
 
 I can t let you lead," he protested reasonably. 
 
 " Perhaps you can t help it," was the mutinous re 
 sponse. 
 
 For answer he brought the horses to a halt.
 
 274 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Oh, you have the advantage of brute strength," she 
 said hotly. 
 
 That s a reproach to me, I dare say; but I have the 
 courage of my poor qualities. I shall not hesitate to 
 coerce you if you make it necessary." 
 
 She stole a rebellious look at him under her long droop 
 ing lashes, like a naughty child. 
 
 " Oh, I mean it," he answered, and she laughed up at 
 him. 
 
 I ll be good," she promised demurely. 
 
 Then come on," he said grimly, and led the way to 
 a broken place in the wall; and the way she negotiated the 
 fence after him, the svelt figure well back, lightly 
 poised and swaying to the stride of the able little mare, en 
 thused him mightily. Her eyes were sparkling like trans 
 lucent gems as they rode neck and neck across a newly 
 planted field of potatoes. 
 
 You see, I know every rod of land in the county," 
 Abijah explained, " and also the inhabitants thereof." 
 He chuckled, waving a nonchalant greeting to an irate 
 farmer, who grimly returned his salute and leaned upon his 
 hoe, watching them, estimating to the last possible frac 
 tion the damage to his crops. But the truant assembly 
 man expected to be mulcted for his escapade. 
 
 That man acts better than yon did, when Giuseppe and 
 I went strawberrying in your field last summer," Barbara 
 observed reproachfully. 
 
 " Oh, he probably recognised that it is some sort of 
 a ground-hog case with me. I ll explain, when I go back 
 to-morrow, that I had found a distracted young woman 
 wandering alone in the mountains, and was taking her by 
 a short cut cross lots to the doctor," he said imperturb- 
 ably. 
 
 " I thought you were going back to Albany to 
 morrow."
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 275 
 
 " The Empire State will have to worry along without 
 me a day longer. I ve got to see that little school-marm 
 up at Pang-Yang again before I go." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 "Yes," cheerfully. "We go into this woods ahead: 
 there s a road of sorts, and beyond, the turnpike for a 
 couple of miles. May meet your friends! Want 
 to?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 Abijah nodded complacently. 
 
 " But I like that Irishman," he said, " although his 
 touching air of expecting a good thing every time you open 
 your mouth strains me some to keep up to his anticipa 
 tion." 
 
 " You have, I judge by his eulogistic remarks, suc 
 ceeded admirably," responded Barbara with a touch of 
 irritation, but Abijah smiled quietly. 
 
 The green embrasure of the woods received them, and 
 the bitter fragrance of the trampled fern rose up to them 
 like incense. 
 
 " It is good to get close to the old earth, isn t it? " he 
 said, slouching contentedly in the saddle, as the horses 
 ambled side by side. The girl sat up, erect, eager, and 
 raised her two hands, like a cup together, high before 
 her. 
 
 ;< I pour libations to the old earth gods! " she cried, 
 and separating her hands slowly, the impalpable offering, 
 a spontaneous overflow of an impetuous gladness, was 
 poured out upon the green earth. Her hands dropped 
 carelessly upon the bridle after the quaint ceremony, and, 
 as natural and unaffected as a wood-nymph, she looked up 
 at Abijah, confident of his affinity with the elemental. She 
 did not misestimate his disposition in this respect, but he 
 knew she did not realise what her bewitching vagaries and 
 endearing wiles were to a mere mortal man; and because
 
 276 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 he must protect this darling child from her own sweetness, 
 he took refuge in his old mockery. 
 
 Why don t you use the proper invocation? " he en 
 quired. 
 
 ;i I think it is forgotten," she said softly. 
 
 " Oh, no, it isn t. I know it. Ducdame! Ducdame ! 
 Ducdame! he quoted unmercifully. 
 
 She flushed slightly. 
 
 "Pan lives, in our want of him; all the earth is his. 
 Why shouldn t we acknowledge it?" she demanded de 
 fiantly. 
 
 " I do not object to the spirit of the thing, only why 
 materialise it? Why must you have symbols? They are 
 for Pang-Yang ! We touch realities, here, now, you and 
 I, and you call out on Pan ! Why not live frankly 
 human lives, in frank enjoyment of our qualities, such 
 as they are? such as we have? They re not divine, but 
 they are sweet, beyond a man s expressing. Sweet as this 
 day has been. Can t you feel rapture, and be satisfied 
 without the symbol of it?" His voice was vibrant and 
 quick with overmastering passion, and this that he had 
 said astonished him, betraying his intent of self-repres 
 sion. 
 
 "I could, but I shan t," said Barbara coolly; "I m 
 Southern, and must express myself or die. I don t 
 in the least sympathise with your puritanic fear of 
 symbols. You Yankees would let slow fire consume you 
 and not squirm! I shouldn t! I d howl! If I love, I 
 love, and I want to say so; I want to show it every way I 
 can; and if I hate, I want to rend things, then and there! 
 and when I m happy oh, I want all the gods of the 
 pantheon to come skipping round me. Oh, Pan! Pan! 
 Pan! Why, the symbol s in the essence of the thing! 
 We try to find it, for we love it so! " 
 
 Her voice, at first cool as a dash of rain upon the face,
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 277 
 
 died in caressing cadence, and he saw the little hand 
 shut down upon the bridle rein, and roundly cursed him 
 self. 
 
 " Our temperamental difference puts us at cross-pur 
 poses sometimes, but not to-day. A ride s at least a ride: 
 a good thing in itself. Did you say you wished to race? " 
 He was keeping a firm hand on himself. 
 
 " Yes," indifferently. Oh, Pan ! Pan ! 
 
 " The turnpike is over that fence. It s a little later 
 than I thought, and we will make up time out there. 
 Come, you little pagan, before some old Druid snatches 
 you away, into the heart of the woods." 
 
 They rode at a hard gallop along the highway, and 
 when they left it, the sun was setting in a cloudless sky, 
 suffusing the atmosphere with faint nebulae of changing 
 hue. The dew brought out the scent of apple blossoms, 
 as they crossed an orchard; and a dog barked, and the 
 cattle scattered, as they made a swift incursion through 
 a barnyard. At Abijah s call a boy dropped his clatter 
 ing milk-pails and sprang to open the gate into a grassy, 
 stone-walled lane which led down to a creek. 
 
 The banks were fringed with alders, and the waters 
 lapped and murmured foolishly as the horses stopped to 
 drink in midstream. In the twilight the peepers began 
 their shrill cry, the basso of the frogs respondent; a thin 
 mist drifted on the stream, and the wet ground exhaled 
 a vaporous breath. Abijah had a weatherly eye for this 
 phenomenon. 
 
 It will give me an hour more," he thought; and aloud 
 mendaciously, " It s two miles nearer this way, but I don t 
 know as we shall save much time." 
 
 Time, " quoth Barbara, " * was made for slaves; 
 and as a young May moon climbed around the shoulder of 
 the mountain, they rode straight toward it at a swinging 
 pace, across low-lying meadows to a field-path skirting the
 
 278 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 base of the mountain. The fog followed them among the 
 trees, and the mist and moonlight blurred the forest spaces. 
 The road wavered through the soft opacity, unexpected 
 trees stood in their way, and unseen branches thrust out 
 arms and touched them as they passed. An impalpable 
 breath lay on their faces, and vision underwent strange re 
 fractions. 
 
 " Look out! " said Abijah sharply, quietly, but too late; 
 and they bowed to their horses necks, and were drenched 
 as a wet branch of ghostly dogw r ood swept over them. 
 Barbara s hat was brushed off, and the Bronk stepped 
 in it. 
 
 You darned cayuse, why can t you act like a gentle 
 man ! " exclaimed Abijah forcefully, and dismounting to 
 lead the mare, the disgraced Bronk dropped dejectedly 
 into the rear of the little procession which crept through 
 the soft luminous dimness. 
 
 " Do you know where you are? " Abijah asked as he 
 trudged through the underbrush at Donna s head. An 
 owl flitted before him with an eerie cry as he spoke, and 
 the sound of running water reached them from the dis 
 tance. 
 
 " No! Do you believe we are at all? I think we re 
 spooks. Even your shoulders are vague and unsubstan 
 tial, and Donna is no better than a little nightmare. Are 
 we lost? " asked Barbara. 
 
 " This is the Green Vlei." 
 
 "Oh, no! There is an emerald light in the Green 
 Vlei; remember? The sun flickers through green 
 branches, and the air s virescent. This smother of moon 
 lit fog is clammy as the nether-world. This is some 
 borderland we have got into; some no man s land, some 
 sort of astral plane where solids change to vapour. I 
 feel light. Say something ! Do you want to find the sad 
 dle empty when you turn round? "
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 279 
 
 "You sound like a little chattering ghost; I believe 
 you re frightened." 
 
 "No, I m lonesome! I wish you would ride; Donna 
 won t stumble." 
 
 " I shan t risk it. I d ask you to come down here, and 
 walk, but it s boggy. We re not far from the road. 
 Listen!" 
 
 If you hear anything come here! " she said with a 
 nervous, shivering laugh, and he stepped back beside her, 
 listening. There was the sound of horses driven rapidly, 
 and the rattle of a carriage on the road toward which they 
 groped. 
 
 I thought that was Doc! I ll shout for him to stop," 
 Abijah said. 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 To take you in, of course. Shan t I? Quick!" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Oh, all right. Of course he may be starting for the 
 back of yonder on a night call, but I ve an instinct he s 
 after you." 
 
 " It might not be he, at all." 
 
 Why, don t you know the travel of his ponies? Every 
 one else in Hurstville does. Doc is in a rush for some 
 thing. One horse can t keep up with him to-day." 
 
 An icy little hand touched his cheek softly. 
 
 I m cold! " said Barbara forlornly. 
 
 Why, you re frozen! Give me both hands: why 
 didn t you tell me, dear? " 
 
 The last word slipped out, and surprised him more than 
 it did Barbara, to whom expressions of endearment were 
 familiar things, but he did not regret it. Dear she was, 
 and growing dearer every moment that he held her little 
 hands against his throbbing throat. 
 
 I left my gloves at the foot of that ledge," she 
 shivered.
 
 28o THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 He stripped off his coat and folded it round her. 
 
 We ll get out of this before you get your death ! 
 You ll warm up with a good canter. I m sorry I didn t 
 yell at Doc now," he said, and led Donna toward the road 
 at a great pace. 
 
 " I m not. Think I want to ask him to get me out of 
 this scrape when he did not wish me to go to Pang- 
 Yang? " enquired Barbara. 
 
 "Oh, I see! I wondered how you happened to be 
 there!" Abijah smiled to himself, but his insinuation 
 was not refuted. He remounted on the highway and they 
 rode in silence, side by side. 
 
 The mist between them and the village rayed the town 
 lights with vague, wavering halos, the pallid moon but 
 just sufficed to make the dimness round them visible, and 
 the roar of the rushing kills drowned other night-sounds. 
 Barbara returned the coat when a few minutes headlong 
 gallop brought them to the outskirts of the town. At her 
 own gate, Abijah lifted her from the saddle in a broad 
 gleam of lamplight from the open door. A stalwart 
 figure loomed athwart the light. 
 
 Is yo all right, honey? " 
 
 Yes, mammy," called the girl. 
 
 " Is yo all right, honey?" echoed Abijah, in a voice 
 touched with ineffable tenderness. 
 
 "Hello!" called an English voice from across the 
 street, and a large, shadowy figure rose from among other 
 shadowy figures on the Phelps piazza. 
 
 " Hello! " Abijah s response was prompt if not cordial. 
 
 I say er did you meet with an accident, Bead? " 
 called Sir Benjamin. 
 
 "No. Why didn t you wait?" 
 
 We waited for you hours in Bucksville; we just got 
 in ! " called Maude Phelps accusingly. 
 
 " Is yo all right, honey? " Mam Lilly s query floated
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 281 
 
 again through the darkness, and Mrs. Phelps sweet, 
 languid voice was tinged by a faint raillery; Abijah 
 thought he felt the girl s figure stiffen at the sound. 
 
 " All right! " he answered for her. " What did you 
 think of the performance, Sir Benjamin?" 
 
 Why er it was really extraordinary, by Jove ! " 
 replied the baronet, and there was a soft ripple of laughter 
 around him. 
 
 Abijah turned his back to further enquiries in that 
 direction. 
 
 " You are coming in," said Barbara; " Mike, take the 
 Bronk to the barn." 
 
 " Oh, let him stand here, Mike," said Abijah, but he 
 followed up the pathway to the house. He had had no 
 such intention, but the situation clearly required that he 
 should go in. 
 
 Something of his childish veneration for the great house 
 of the village revived as he passed the portals. Barbara 
 introduced him, nonchalantly and immediately, into the 
 presence of the assembled family, and the social prepared 
 ness implied by this informality impressed him tremen 
 dously: it was so perfectly his ideal of the accustomed 
 family state and dignity, and Barbara s vivacity was not 
 incongruous with it. 
 
 The two made antiphonal explanations, standing, mud- 
 splashed and dishevelled, but in no wise abashed or dis 
 concerted, before the ladies Hurst, who dissembled, with 
 more or less success, the natural surprise Abijah s advent 
 caused them. At the same time and place the previous 
 evening Dr. Pomfret had come in with Barbara, announc 
 ing their betrothal. Precedent was lacking them: they 
 could only entertain a lively expectation of the unexpected, 
 and welcome the newcomer because Barbara presented 
 him. 
 
 Presently Mam Lilly led the way to the spare room,
 
 282 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 a great chamber which looked, such was Zillah s superla 
 tive housekeeping, as though it had been waiting for him, 
 and brought him water; and he found the other where 
 withals for cleanliness (except a boot-brush), and went 
 down the winding stairs with a queer sense of the un 
 reality of Abijah Bead kicking his heels in the old Hurst 
 hallway. He had scarcely time to accomplish this meta 
 phorical feat, before Barbara flashed out of her room 
 like a cardinal bird in a gorgeous little gown, and flew 
 down after him; and Mam Lilly swung her fan across 
 the balustrade to Abijah, who caught it; and accused Bar 
 bara of escaping half arrayed; contrasting her dew-wet 
 curly pate with the sleek order of his own straight hair, 
 as they rollicked past a mirror, and so on into the dining- 
 room, like children. 
 
 It was a merry meal. The lightest jest was vitalised 
 by the rapport between them, and suppressed excitement 
 gave a tingling interest to mere detail : Mam Lilly hovered 
 over them, and through the open doorway the elder ladies 
 listened and enjoyed with a vague apprehension. Barbara 
 was sparkling, irresistible, and withal as hoarse as a little 
 frog, and the man s laughter stirred the heavier echoes of 
 the quiet house; but their persiflage could not disguise a 
 tension, a suspense, a reckless lightness in their speech and 
 laughter. 
 
 "Doc s coming!" said Abijah, catching the far-off 
 sound, and as they listened he watched the girl s face 
 keenly, beneath his heavy, level lids. He might just as 
 well have looked at two fair stars in the dark sky, for her 
 eyes told him nothing. Men and women only understand 
 each other after an age prohibiting the personal use of 
 such knowledge; which perhaps is well, but retrospectively 
 exasperating : for while the ignorance of youth is defen 
 sive, safety is purchased at the loss of priceless opportuni 
 ties which do not recur.
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 283 
 
 " Zillah, did Doctor go to look for us? " asked Bar 
 bara, raising her voice to reach the ladies in the next 
 room. 
 
 "No o! " replied Zillah. 
 
 The doctor s ponies came pattering rapidly down the 
 quiet street. The Bronk whinnied hospitably from the 
 gate-post as they passed. 
 
 " By Jupiter! " exclaimed Abijah, and sprang up, 
 for the doctor did not stop. " Told you he wouldn t 
 catch onto my role," he exploded, and dashed through 
 the house, out at the front door, and across the gar 
 den. 
 
 Doc ! Doc ! " he shouted, and sprinted down the street. 
 The doctor stopped. "You damn fool! " said Abijah, 
 and climbed into the carriage. 
 
 Well ! " said Pomfret brusquely. 
 
 Your girl s waiting for you," said Abijah severely. 
 
 : I have got to go down to the office," the doctor ex 
 plained with such dignity as might be. 
 
 Nit! Here s where you turn around!" announced 
 Abijah, and his rapid explanation would have soothed 
 Othello. 
 
 She broke out of the corral and strayed way off to 
 Pang-Yang, but I recognised your brand and headed her for 
 home by a short cut. I ve held her on the snaffle all the 
 way: I m plumb worn out; but the dunderheaded counter 
 action of the rest of the world is always frustrating my 
 good intentions," he said pensively. " However, I have 
 tarried for the blessing, and, by gum ! I m going to bestow 
 it, if it busts a suspender. You come on back to your girl. 
 Sabe?" 
 
 Barbara heard his long stride leading the way through 
 the hall and called out to them from her place at the table. 
 She was eating bread and butter when they came in, and 
 the impish ruse did not strike Abijah until she held her
 
 284 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 hand out to the doctor, and then he could have shouted at 
 the absurd expedient. Obviously, no man could kiss a 
 maiden so voracious. The doctor did not attempt to do 
 so. His grizzled moustache lightly brushed her fingers 
 as he sat down beside her, and Abijah took refuge from 
 conflicting emotions under his mask of imperturbability. 
 The dear little hand that had nestled at his throat! He 
 could have shouted with demoniac irony! 
 
 "Bless you, my children!" He solemnly extended 
 his arms towards them across the table. Then he sat 
 down, and stolidly resumed his interrupted repast. He 
 was " one who was nourished by his victuals " even though 
 he were by way of being hopelessly in love. 
 
 "Oh, confound you, Bijah! " said the doctor testily. 
 You can t take that role after such a wild-goose chase 
 as you have led Miss Hurst to-day. You have taken cold 
 again," turning grimly to Barbara. 
 
 " Oh, no, it s just the fog in my throat ! I m sorry you 
 were worried. Please don t be vexed. I have had such a 
 glorious ride ! " It was simply adorable the naive apol 
 ogy, placating both men. She was too wilful sweet to be 
 gainsaid for any mischief, and they both looked at her 
 with indulgent fondness, and at each other sheepishly. 
 Beneath his breath Abijah swore fervently; a kind of in 
 choate prayer for all three of them. 
 
 He made his adieus in Madam s room almost immedi 
 ately after supper, and as he approached Barbara to say 
 good-bye, she fell into step with him, and paced deliberate 
 beside him, down the long vista of the parlours, through 
 the hall, and out to the very verge of the piazza. The 
 mist filled the garden, but they were in the lamplight, as 
 they stood between the great Doric columns. Barbara 
 was too miserable to be conscious of observation, but 
 Abijah glowered into the fog at unseen spectators, and his 
 gyves cut deep.
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 285 
 
 Will you go over the course again with me to-mor 
 row? " he asked, abruptly, recklessly. 
 
 " How can I? " she made answer very low. 
 
 "Would you like to?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then I am coming after you to-morrow morning." 
 
 "No!" 
 
 " Why not? " imperatively; but she was silent. It was 
 for him to speak. Would not his impetuosity sweep down 
 all impediments? If not, she would not help him, no, 
 not for her life. 
 
 ; It is our last chance for a ride this summer, dear," 
 he urged, bending toward her. 
 
 She was trembling very much. 
 
 " A last chance does not appeal to me, sir," she man 
 aged to say with some spirit. 
 
 What do you want? " he demanded helplessly. 
 
 She laughed. Why, really, Mr. Bead, it has not oc 
 curred to me to requisition you for anything," she re 
 torted defiantly, and he was silent, sullen, impotent. Per 
 haps she did not, after all, care greatly, and for himself, 
 what matter? What mattered anything in the world? 
 
 " I have no right to keep you out here," he said 
 brusquely, and held out his hand. 
 
 " Good-night," she murmured, and felt her hand 
 clasped for a moment in a tractile hold, but did not yield 
 to its imploring. 
 
 "God bless you, dear!" he said huskily, and went 
 striding down into the mist, where the Bronk awaited him. 
 A devil of unrest possessed him. He sought diversion 
 at the club, and took it, in an orgy of speechless smoke 
 and savagery: turning his back upon the room, with his 
 feet on the window-sill, and surrounding himself with an 
 impenetrable atmosphere of moroseness. 
 
 To him presently came the Irishman, fleeing sheep-
 
 286 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 ishly the hushed excitement of the natal hour at his 
 cousin s house, and, beaming through the smoke like a 
 full and ruddy moon, temerariously announced the event. 
 The room tingled with suppressed excitement as the ren 
 contre took place, and Abijah emerged from his cloud. 
 He received the opportune visitor with grave and por 
 tentous dignity, formally felicitated the house of Phelps, 
 and as an appropriate offering to the malignant demons of 
 a world of singular misrule, deliberately set out to intoxi 
 cate the bland and innocent Irish gentleman. This he 
 found no easy task : the baronet could drink steadily for 
 as long as he sat quiet;, without apparent inconvenience; 
 and his remarkable powers of absorbing his host s liba 
 tions would have defeated Abijah s shameless purpose, if, 
 to his disgust, others, joining in their quiet revel, had 
 not become convivial, so that a decent regard for his 
 birthplace made it necessary for him to inveigle them all 
 to accompany him to the next town, to complete the orgy. 
 The transit revealed Sir Benjamin helpless from the waist 
 down, and Abijah joyously supported him out, piled him 
 upon the all-enduring Bronk, and, with such others as 
 were able, set off on foot for the depot, three hilarious 
 miles below. No train being due until the next morning, 
 he coerced the protesting and almost weeping Giacoso to 
 help him start a hand-car down the mountain. He took 
 the brake, the hair-raising trip terminated without casu 
 alties, and their wild irruption into Kelley s Junction was 
 memorable in the annals of the town. 
 
 Leaving the rest to sleep it off, Abijah returned to 
 Hurstville by an early train next morning, and after a 
 sullen plunge into the swimming pool in the creek, 
 mounted the Bronk, and rode somberly back over the 
 route of the day before, with his cheque-book in his 
 pocket to forestall any possibility of subsequent annoy 
 ance to Barbara. His black mood was upon him, and
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 287 
 
 the little school-marm at Pang-Yang never connected the 
 ungenial visit of the big assemblyman with the new school- 
 house which was built that summer. As he automatically 
 prospected a site for the new building, his hand crushed 
 upon a little pair of well-worn gauntlets in his pocket, and 
 the feel of the helpless things stung him to the most ven 
 omous acrimony. He knew, as a man knows, that not 
 withstanding the refusal of the night before, he could lead 
 their owner anywhither, and a tumult of emotions stormed 
 through him. If he let himself go It was what all 
 
 the world would expect of him ; and he rode with a cruel 
 rein. . . . He offered gifts to no divinity, but that within 
 him held him bound; an old refrain re-echoed in his ears 
 till he repeated it aloud sardonically: 
 
 Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are pure ! Oh, damn ! let em 
 stay so ! I can t involve that girl in any relation 
 with the likes of me ! " and conscious of no high mood of 
 abnegation, he swore roundly at himself that mere decency 
 should be so difficult for him. For he dared not trust him 
 self with her again. Well, it was in a man s power to 
 stay away! And he set his big jaws savagely, and in the 
 privacy of the solitary highway, wrapped and addressed 
 the little gauntlets and sent them by mail without a word; 
 while by a circuitous and weary route he went from Bucks- 
 ville to Albany without returning home. 
 
 To Barbara s relief Dr. Pomfret was summoned to 
 attend Mrs. Phelps, a few moments after she had rejoined 
 him in the parlour; but he exhibited a brutal deliberation 
 in responding to the call. 
 
 I haven t had you a minute to-day; I want to know 
 why you ran away from me," he said, as the messenger 
 departed. 
 
 " I wanted to think. Doctor, how can you stay here, 
 and let that poor woman suffer? "
 
 288 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 The doctor chuckled. 
 
 The nurse is there. I can t help her suffering. You 
 want to think, Barbara? I judge you do not do much 
 deliberating. Do you want another twenty-four hours, 
 darling?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Sweetheart! I can t realise you mean it! " 
 
 44 If you are sure you want me 
 
 Want you, my love, my little wife ! " the doctor whis 
 pered, and Barbara wondered dully after he had gone 
 why she was not acutely miserable. Sensibility seemed 
 deadened by an overpowering weariness; she lay for 
 hours, staring at the lighted windows of the house across 
 the way. The mountain was obscured by their illumina 
 tion, and several times she saw the doctor draw back the 
 curtains and look toward her, across the darkness. 
 
 In the middle of the night Zillah was awakened by 
 her singing: a strange, hoarse voice, and one of the 
 strangest of her little tunes. 
 
 When Love is kind, 
 
 Gentle and free, 
 Love s sure to find 
 
 Welcome from me. " 
 
 Zillah went in swiftly, found the girl in a burning fever, 
 and Barbara left off singing, and told her she was cold, 
 very cold, and wanted Bijah to put his coat round her 
 again. 
 
 " It smells so nice and tobaccoy," she added with a 
 tender little laugh. 
 
 Zillah was inexpressibly shocked. She sat down on 
 the edge of the bed to reason with this scandalous de 
 lirium in the interests of decorum : but Barbara babbled 
 on with a circumstantial and complex account of a snake, 
 and v/ind-swept rocks, and shivering fogs, until the dis-
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 289 
 
 tracted listener called Mam Lilly up, and sent her across 
 the street for the doctor. 
 
 He came immediately, and in a few moments his pres 
 ence quieted the girl, who took the medicine he gave, 
 without a protest, and presently sank to sleep. 
 
 For the rest of the night he vibrated between his two 
 patients, and daylight brought rejoicing to the house of 
 Phelps, for a young son. 
 
 Barbara opened her eyes and looked at the doctor and 
 Zillah standing by her bedside in the grey of the morning. 
 
 " Is is Maman worse? " she whispered in alarm. 
 
 " Madam Hurst is all right. You have kept Miss 
 Zillah up all night, with your rough riding. You better 
 wait till you grow up before you ride with Bijah Bead 
 again. You get a fever every time you get tired out, just 
 like a child " 
 
 The doctor s scolding was abruptly terminated by a 
 quivering lip. 
 
 "There! There!" (Zillah discreetly left the room, 
 but Mam Lilly leaned, unregarded, on the footboard.) 
 "My darling! I did not mean to blame you; I m too 
 glad you are no worse. Go to sleep again. I ll come in 
 after I ve had a nap myself." He stooped and kissed 
 her gently. Her soft arms went around his neck. 
 
 " You are so good! " said the girl brokenly.
 
 XVII 
 
 A~IJAH BEAD presented himself unexpectedly at 
 his mother s house on the morning of the Fourth, 
 and constituted himself her escort for the fes 
 tivities of the day, as casually as though filial piety 
 was a specialty of his. Mrs. Bead was exceedingly 
 gratified, and in a suppressed flutter of excitement 
 trudged off beside him down the street, ignoring a 
 previous arrangement whereby she was to view the cere 
 monies luxuriously, from a seat in her daughter s car 
 riage. For Abijah was one of the speakers of the day, 
 was to sit on the flag-draped platform in the square, 
 among the dignitaries of his native place; and this was a 
 realisation of maternal ambition more tangible, and there 
 fore on the whole of a subtler satisfaction, than anything 
 which Mrs. Bead had hitherto enjoyed. Local reflection 
 of her son s achievements was more real than the reality. 
 Albany was a far cry to home-keeping folks; and as for 
 his money, he might as well not have it, for all the evi 
 dence of it in Hurstville. Witness their present progress 
 down the dusty village street; and he still further de 
 tracted from their dignity by carrying a camp-chair on 
 his arm, for her use during the speaking. Mrs. Bead 
 regretted her refusal of a carriage of her own. Although 
 she detested driving, she decided to speak to Abijah of 
 this matter, if he dined with her at the conclusion of the 
 ceremonies, and allow him to provide her with a proper 
 equipage. 
 
 " My son," she enquired, negligently trailing one side 
 
 290
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 291 
 
 of her best black silk, and agitating her sunshade ner 
 vously, " my son, have you got your speech by heart? " 
 
 " My speech? Oh, yes, certainly," said Abijah ab 
 sently. 
 
 ; I I declare, Bijah, I m as nervous as though I had 
 to deliver it myself. I want you to do credit to yourself, 
 here in Hurstville, of all places in the world." 
 
 I ll do my little darndest," answered Abijah soberly. 
 
 " I wish you had worn your Prince Albert coat, my 
 son. That blue suit looks very nice; but the speakers al 
 ways dress up, you know," Mrs. Bead continued anxiously. 
 
 Abijah looked reflectively down the length of him, and 
 made a vicious tug at his collar. 
 
 " Such weather as this, people ought not to wear 
 clothes at all," he declared, and his mother tactfully 
 changed the subject lest her erratic offspring should dis 
 card some superfluous garments then and there. 
 
 Hurstville always celebrated the Fourth with the pomp 
 and circumstance of established ceremony, and an in 
 gathering from the surrounding countryside came to wit 
 ness the festivities. There was a parade in the morning, 
 followed by patriotic speeches in the square; and at night, 
 fireworks. An essential feature of the parade was the 
 ladies float: a platform mounted on a lumber wagon, 
 drawn by four horses, and driven by Uncle Sam, who, in 
 his proper person, was old Pappy Terwilliger, a capi 
 tal impersonation, but becoming a decrepit Jehu, whose 
 erstwhile prancing steeds were now selected from the 
 steadiest plough-horses of the community. Even this 
 precaution on the part of the marshals no longer allayed 
 the apprehension of those whose friends or relatives were 
 selected for the perilous honour of the float. It was an 
 especially small one this year, representing the thirteen 
 original States, with Liberty atop, maintaining a pre 
 carious equilibrium by holding to her flag-staff for very
 
 292 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 dear life, as the springless vehicle bumped and swayed 
 over the rough road. 
 
 If Pappy Terwilliger is retained another year, we 
 shall witness a sacrifice of virginity which will be a sheer 
 waste of material," remarked Abijah: and his mother, 
 shocked, glanced around in fear that he was overheard. 
 
 "Hush h!" she said peremptorily, and Abijah 
 choked, and " hushed " obediently. 
 
 " I think the girls have made an unusually effective 
 presentation this year," she remarked aloud. 
 
 " M m m! " returned Abijah, lifting his hat as the 
 float passed. Of course he expected no return of recog 
 nition from the dramatis persona thereon, but he thought 
 that North Carolina appeared particularly oblivious. 
 
 This will be Maude s and Barbara s last appearance, 
 I suppose," Mrs. Bead observed. 
 
 "Good thing!" ejaculated her son heartily. It is 
 always to me a painful spectacle. The sun blisters all 
 their poor little noses; and did you notice Maude Phelps 
 arm twined around that flag-pole? " 
 
 " Not particularly." 
 
 " Of course I know she had to twine or tumble ! but 
 when I saw that arm, I shuddered." He did it again 
 retrospectively, as the float disappeared. 
 
 " Maude is thin," admitted Mrs. Bead judicially, " but 
 she is a sweet girl; I m sorry Sir Benjamin is taking her 
 out of our midst." 
 
 Think of that arm twined about a man s neck!" 
 soliloquised Abijah. 
 
 " Abijah! Do be more careful what you say, my son! 
 You know you would not want to be overheard. She and 
 Barbara wanted a double wedding, but the doctor vetoed 
 that pretty quick ! He has sense enough left not to parade 
 himself beside a young man like Sir Benjamin. He made 
 an awful fuss about Barbara riding on the float to-day.
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 293 
 
 He wants to keep her in cotton wool, but Barbara refuses 
 to be kept. She rides rough-shod over him, and he thinks 
 it s cute! There s no fool like an old fool. I did hope 
 you would take a fancy to that girl, Abijah. I believe 
 you could have had her if you had wanted to." 
 
 Is she the eighth? It s no wonder men are conceited 
 since they all have mothers. Can t you let me live a 
 quiet life? Politics is a serene and peaceful vocation com 
 pared to any matrimonial ventures I have watched." 
 
 Mrs. Bead sighed. 
 
 Where is Rob to-day?" she enquired. 
 
 I am not sure; but I think I recognise two pairs of 
 legs in that tree beside the platform. I told oft Jerry to 
 keep an eye on the kid to-day, and they are both sure to 
 be somewhere near." 
 
 " My son, Mr. Palmer is beckoning you! Have you 
 got your speech all right? I hope you won t break down 
 before all these people who know you." Mrs. Bead was 
 actually pale with excitement. 
 
 Abijah escorted her nearer to the speaker s stand, and 
 put down the camp-chair. 
 
 Don t you fret, mother," he reassured her, and 
 through glasses dimmed by tears of pride and happiness, 
 she watched him take his seat upon the speakers plat 
 form. 
 
 When he was required to speak he stepped to the front 
 of the speaker s desk, thrust his hands deep into his coat- 
 pockets, and deliberately let his eyes rove over the as 
 sembly before he began. He knew personally almost 
 every one of the few hundred people present, and each 
 individual acquaintance felt personally addressed. His 
 powerful voice enabled him to maintain a conversational 
 tone: it was very much as if he had come into Murrey s 
 and drifted into one of his unique disquisitions on things 
 in general.
 
 294 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Old Mr. Deyo drove for a mile toward home in silence, 
 after the exercises of the day were finished. 
 
 " I never see sich a feller as Bijah anyhow! " he an 
 nounced finally. il I been trying to think what to write 
 Bill Hen bout this speech of his, and to save my gizzard 
 I can t think of a thing he said. Yet he had us all 
 a-laffin , or most a-cryin all the time. What did he 
 say, mother? Your a good hand to keep track of a 
 sermon. Neow what did Bijah Bead say in this Fourth- 
 o -July-in of his?" 
 
 " It wasn t what he said, father, twas how he said it; 
 and I guess that s what makes eloquence. He made me 
 feel that Hurstville was the best place in all creation to 
 be born, and live, and die in. I wanted to hug folks, I 
 was so glad we all belonged to each other : I should say 
 his main point was local patriotism, though I dunno ez 
 I express it just right either. There wasn t anything nar 
 row about it; and anyway, I guess most folks feel to 
 trust Bijah Bead more n they ever did in their life. / 
 do, anyhow ! " 
 
 " Did you see the dominie shaking hands with him? 
 That was a lection speech all right. What I wonder is, 
 did Bijah mean it for that, or did he feel it? I never did 
 see sich a feller, anyway; you never know what he ll do 
 next; but I allus did say Bijah was a good-hearted fel 
 ler; " thus old Mr. Deyo. 
 
 " What do you think of the Glorious Fourth ? " en 
 quired Mrs. Phelps, when Sir Benjamin came in with 
 Maude that afternoon. 
 
 "I enjoyed it ever so! Plenty of saltpetre, y know, 
 and the eagle screamed in approved Yankee fashion. The 
 speeches were er quite up to the average English rural 
 efforts anywhere, and Mr. Bead was far beyond. That 
 young man will go far toward distinction in politics, I 
 should think. Did you not think he handled his subject
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 295 
 
 cleverly? " Sir Benjamin looked to Maude for confirma 
 tion. She nodded briefly. 
 
 What was his subject?" enquired Mrs. Phelps in 
 differently. 
 
 Why er Sir Benjamin hesitated. 
 
 " Patriotism, like charity, begins at home. * Lives 
 there a man, etc. who isn t proud and happy to be a 
 Delaware County voter? " suggested his fiancee. 
 
 Why er yes ! That quite expresses one aspect. 
 He developed the historical er idea y know. Family 
 to clan, clan to nation, and that, y know." 
 
 " Progress from incoherent homogeneity to coherent 
 heterogeneity." Barbara Hurst had come upon the ve 
 randa unperceived, and was leaning in at the open win 
 dow. 
 
 ; Nonsense!" exclaimed Maude sharply; "as if he 
 understands anything of abstruse science ! " 
 
 " I er rather think he does, though. He has a de 
 cent library and it s all er that sort of stuff," testified 
 Sir Benjamin. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! You none of you got onto Bijah s little 
 game then, did you?" laughed Benji Phelps. "I 
 never saw a trick done neater ! It was a heaven, home, 
 and mother kind of speech, Sally; and he had the old 
 lady along instead of the boy, by George ! You couldn t 
 understand his local hits, Benjamin, but you could see he 
 made the old women of both sexes sniff. Well, Dad says 
 his rooral constituents begin to suspicion Bijah s a 
 little too darn smart, the way he s handled things in Al 
 bany. So he had to prod Rube s emotional nature and 
 inspire a sentiment of confidence in himself before the 
 next election. And he did it. Oh, Bijah s a crack- 
 a-jack at anything he sets out for; isn t he, Miss Bar 
 bara?" 
 
 Barbara raised her pretty brows indifferently. Benji
 
 296 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 had teased her a good deal about Abijah s attentions since 
 the day at Pang-Yang. 
 
 "History! Science! Politics! It must have been a 
 Pentecostal outpouring, since each of you heard in his 
 own tongue," commented Mrs. Phelps, with unusual vi 
 vacity; she was suffused with a sudden sense of well- 
 being, of complacent safety; this was Abijah s second 
 visit to Hurstville without Rob, and her hazardous visit 
 to him in Albany was thus justified. 
 
 "Are you going to practise any this afternoon?" en 
 quired Barbara abruptly, and Maude, who had been 
 writhing under her brother s fatuous remarks, assented 
 with relief. 
 
 Though I don t suppose there will be a constellation 
 left in heaven, if we go shooting after jolting on that 
 float," she laughed. 
 
 You girls better anoint your noses with cold cream, 
 if you are going out again, or you will be sights to 
 morrow," Mrs. Phelps advised kindly. 
 
 " Don t the shooting disturb him, Sally? " interposed 
 Mr. Phelps, looking anxiously down at the babe upon 
 her knee. 
 
 " Oh, no ! He has no nerves, any more than his mother 
 has. Has him, baby? He is interested in the fire 
 crackers to-day, but he does not start, no matter how many 
 they put off," replied Sarah, and in an exuberance of 
 spirits most unusual, she leaned back in her chair and 
 tossed the lovely infant up in her strong beautiful hands. 
 
 " He isn t deaf, is he, Sally? " enquired Maude agree 
 ably. Sarah taxed the amiability of his family in a way 
 poor Benji could never understand, and he glared at his 
 sister. 
 
 " Deaf! " he ejaculated indignantly. " What are you 
 talking about, Maude? Hi! Boy!" He snapped his 
 fingers at his son, who looked up with a placid smile.
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 297 
 
 Deaf! " re-echoed the outraged parent, and a ripple of 
 amusement stirred the room. Sarah cuddled her babe 
 beneath her chin, and her lovely eyes smiled serenely over 
 him at them all. It was a ravishingly beautiful group, 
 the white-robed, gold-crowned mother, and her child! 
 A beauty in itself all-sufficient, satisfying. Maude turned 
 and led the way to the garden, struggling to sub 
 due a rebellious affection for her brother s family. She 
 hated Sarah, of course; but she was so perfectly beautiful, 
 and so sweet! She never retaliated, however sharply she 
 was thrust. And the child was undeniably a cherub. 
 
 Mr. Phelps sat down on the arm of his wife s chair as 
 the young people filed out of the room. 
 
 When nurse comes to take baby for his nap, I ll 
 come out and show you girls how to hit the bull s eye," 
 called Mrs. Phelps. 
 
 This is an amateur match," retorted Maude, over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Benjamin does not half coach you. I m coming," 
 insisted Mrs. Phelps serenely. 
 
 Do you think you really ought, Sally? " queried Benji 
 solicitously, and Sarah leaned against his shoulders and 
 slipped her hand in his with a feeling of real proprietor 
 ship. 
 
 You goose ! " she smiled, reassuring his vague con 
 cern for her; but he was bored by pistol practice, and when 
 the nurse came, he went up to his own room for a nap; 
 while Sarah, from a seat on a small side porch, shot 
 cleverly, and in a happy mood rallied Maude, whose shots 
 went wild at half the distance; and condoled with Bar 
 bara, whose best record at any time was a line shot four 
 feet above the mark. 
 
 Across the street at Barbara s window, Zillah busied 
 her fingers with some dainty piece for her cousin s trous 
 seau, and let her eyes wander occasionally to the bright
 
 298 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 group on the lawn. The sound of their shooting was 
 scarce discernible in the explosive celebration that was 
 going on all over town, but holiday merrymakers loitered 
 as they passed the Phelps " place " and stared curiously 
 over the low green hedge. The white-robed beautiful 
 woman, so much talked of, sitting on the porch, focussed 
 all attention, and she greeted the most casual acquaintances 
 graciously, cordially; almost effusive in the relaxation of 
 a long tension. She felt so safe, so content, so grateful. 
 
 Into the midst of her content broke the quick patter of 
 a pony s hoofs; a bright red head gleamed along the 
 hedge, and Rob s wonder-widening eyes gazed rapt 
 upon the angel of his dream. Her shot went as wide as 
 some of Maude s, who wrangling with Sir Benjamin 
 about it, did not see the boy, but Barbara did. Her eyes 
 went from him to his mother, and the rigid beautiful face 
 made her cold with fear. 
 
 "My turn again ! that was an accident !" announced 
 the clear, cool voice, and Barbara had only time to leap 
 and intercept the bullet aimed suddenly at Rob. She fell, 
 without a moan, face downward on the grass. 
 
 The horror that still-bound them all a moment was 
 broken by a terrific rush from the old house opposite. In 
 an impetus of fury that sent her forward like a catapult, 
 Mam Lilly hurled herself across the street toward them, 
 and all who saw, gave way. Foam flecked the tight black 
 lips; her eyes were lurid fire; and her great fingers worked 
 convulsively as the crazed negress rushed upon the mur 
 deress. One clutch, the black fingers buried themselves 
 in the quivering white throat, and lifted her, and shook 
 her, dumb, struggling, in that awful grasp. Sir Benjamin 
 leaped to the porch, and beat the frenzied woman on the 
 head with his revolver, but Mam Lilly drew up to her 
 full height, opened her foaming lips to laugh a little, 
 warded him off easily, sent him hurtling backward from
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 299 
 
 the porch with a left-handed blow: and never ceased to 
 shake and shake the limp, unconscious figure in her hand. 
 When the lovely roseleaf face grew black and horrible, 
 with protruded eye and tongue, the maniac laughed again, 
 a quiet happy chuckle, but never ceased to shake her 
 victim ruthlessly. 
 
 Then above the clamour that arose, sounded a child s 
 shrill, piercing cry, " Father! oh, father! Come quick! " 
 
 The Bronk took the hedge at a hand gallop, and Abijah 
 threw himself down by Barbara; Maude was kneeling by 
 her, sobbing wildly, and when they turned the prostrate 
 figure over, the blood welled from her shoulder in a 
 bright, pulsing stream. Abijah tore her dress aside and 
 stopped the hemorrhage with his fingers. 
 
 " Put your fingers where mine are, and hold them, 
 hard! Hard, do you understand ? That s it! That con 
 trols it! Don t relax an instant," he said rapidly, 
 placing Maude s trembling fingers where his own had been. 
 "Go for Pomfret, Rob! Ride like hell! " he shouted, 
 and leaped forward toward the porch. Sir Benjamin had 
 staggered up, prepared to shoot the negress. 
 
 There was just one thing to do. Abijah put his body- 
 weight behind the blow, and Mam Lilly crashed down 
 senseless, carrying Sarah with her. They had to prize 
 each finger from the mangled, bleeding throat; the two 
 faces were too dreadful to behold. 
 
 Benji Phelps rushed from the house, dazed, incredulous, 
 blinking from sleep. 
 
 " Oh, my God! Sally! " he cried, and tottered against 
 the railing. Abijah had his hand on his wife s heart. 
 
 " She s alive! " he said, and rising, cast one contemptu 
 ous glance at Benji and turned to the baronet. 
 
 Take the Bronk, and go for Newman ! Pom can t at 
 tend to both," he said briefly, and ran back to Barbara as 
 Dr. Pomfret tore up the street.
 
 300 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 "Doctor, come here! come here!" screamed Benji 
 frantically, but Dr. Pomfret heard, saw, nothing but the 
 girlish figure on the grass. 
 
 " Don t make a bally ass of yourself, Ben ! " advised 
 Sir Benjamin, and he mounted and dashed down the 
 street to the new doctor s office. 
 
 Dr. Pomfret did his work steadily, unfalteringly, his 
 terse, quick directions followed blindly by Maude and 
 Abijah, while Benji shouted for attendance on his wife, 
 and wrung his hands helplessly above her, and warded 
 off the efforts of the servants to do anything whatever. 
 
 "A board! Something to carry her on!" said the 
 doctor, never raising his eyes; and Abijah had one ready: 
 so hard a resting place for Barbara ! 
 
 Between them, they carried her across the street, into 
 the quiet of a deserted house, and up the winding stair 
 way to her room. Zillah sat beside the window, and did 
 not rise or speak as, between them, the two men laid Bar 
 bara on her bed. The touch of the soft, pathetic, help 
 less woman s body unnerved Abijah, and his big hands 
 trembled, but the doctor worked with the precision of 
 a machine, skilful, unhesitating, almost ungentle, it seemed 
 to his pitiful assistant. 
 
 When all was done, a gasping cry came from the win 
 dow, and Zillah rose up and threw herself upon her knees 
 beside the bed, with outstretched arms. 
 
 " If she dies, I want to die too! " she sobbed. 
 
 The doctor s fingers lay upon the feeble flutter at the 
 wrist; he did not even glance at Zillah. 
 
 Take that woman away," he ordered, quiet, peremp 
 tory, impersonal, and Abijah did not hesitate to obey. 
 
 " Come," he said, touching the heaving shoulder, and 
 Zillah let him lead her from the room. 
 
 " Aunt Felicite is dead, of course," she said dully, go 
 ing toward her own room.
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 301 
 
 " Hadn t you better go to her? " Abijah asked dubi 
 ously, backing from the threshold of the austere cham 
 ber. 
 
 " I can t! If she isn t dead now, she will be when 
 she hears of it, and I can t tell her," and Zillah deliber 
 ately lay down upon her bed, as though all things were 
 ended. Abijah closed the door, and went downstairs, 
 where he knocked at Madam s door. 
 
 " Entrezf " said a sweet, serene old voice, and, in 
 relief and consternation, Abijah entered. The two old 
 ladies looked up in alarm, and Madam turned deathly 
 pale. 
 
 " Mon Dleu! What is it? " she gasped, and clutched 
 her rosary. 
 
 Do not be alarmed! I came to reassure you. There 
 has been a slight accident, but nothing serious. The rest 
 are all busy making Miss Barbara comfortable, so I came 
 in for fear you would be alarmed by their absence. The 
 doctor thought Miss Barbara had better go to her room, 
 and er keep perfectly quiet for a while." 
 
 Madam did not follow him. Her eyes were on the 
 Madonna s face and her lips moved in prayer. Abijah 
 paused respectfully. 
 
 I told Barbara not to have anything to do with that 
 pistol ! " said Aunt Helen, and rose, trembling, to go up 
 stairs. 
 
 ;< I think you d better stay here," said Abijah authori 
 tatively, and the redoubtable old lady sat down again 
 obediently. 
 
 Madam raised her eyes beseechingly. 
 
 ; It is serious, I know ! I feel ! But the blessed Mary 
 will preserve my child to me. Oh, Mother of God, let 
 her not suffer pain! My little child! My little child! " 
 
 A rush of tears came to her relief, and Abijah, re 
 assured, went swiftly from the room. Rob s face looked
 
 302 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 up at him from the level of the piazza floor, as he sat be 
 side the steps, on his pony, waiting. 
 
 " Hello, pard! " said Abijah softly, going out to him. 
 
 " Is she dead? " whispered the child in a frightened 
 voice. 
 
 " No," replied Abijah, and Rob s composure broke. 
 
 Th th beautiful angel shot at me! " he sobbed 
 suddenly. 
 
 Abijah stepped down and put his arm around his boy. 
 
 You re mistaken, Rob," he said gently, but with de 
 cision. " It was entirely an accident. Do you under 
 stand?" 
 
 " I thought she shot at me," sobbed Rob, his face 
 against his father s breast. 
 
 Well, you mustn t say that, because you were mis 
 taken, you know. It was an accident, entirely an acci 
 dent." The father s face was set and stern, but his voice 
 was soothing. 
 
 " Now, pard, I think you better go down to Doc s 
 office, and wait for me. I ll come as soon as I can. Go 
 lie down in the office till I come: and if any one asks you 
 about this, say it was an accident, of course; but I d 
 rather you went right to the office, and did not talk at 
 all." 
 
 "All right!" said Rob pluckily. His face was 
 blanched beneath the big brown freckles, but he sat up 
 straight and rode away. Abijah watched the little fel 
 low as he himself strode across the street. The sheriff 
 met him at the Phelps gate. 
 
 " What t hell s been doin here? " enquired the official, 
 as they approached the still unconscious figure of the gi 
 gantic negress on the porch. 
 
 " Get the handcuffs on that nigger before she comes 
 to, Jim. She s plumb raving mad. You ve got your work 
 cut out, to git her to the asylum anyway," said Abijah.
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 303 
 
 The sheriff snapped the manacles on the ponderous 
 wrists. 
 
 "Gosh! what a fist!" he ejaculated. He gave her 
 a slight kick. " Don t look as if she was coming to in a 
 hurry," he observed and looked curiously at Abijah. 
 
 " Good thing for you if she don t. How s Mrs. 
 Phelps? " enquired Abijah. 
 
 That Englishman says she s coming to. How s Miss 
 Barbara? I hope to gracious that little thing ain t hurt 
 bad. It 11 break Doc all up if anything happens to her." 
 
 " I don t know," said Abijah, turning away. I m go 
 ing to take my boy home. There isn t anything I can do, 
 Jim?" 
 
 " Might stop at the jail and tell em to send up the 
 wagon for this critter." 
 
 " All right." 
 
 " I say, Bijah Abijah stopped, and the sheriff 
 
 followed him down the path. "This shooting, now?" 
 he said confidentially. 
 
 Abijah allowed the light of comprehension to break 
 slowly over his face. 
 
 " Good Lord ! No ! " he said emphatically. " I wasn t 
 here, but I know they re the best of friends. It was 
 just one of the regular Fourth of July fool accidents." 
 
 " Oh, all right! " said the sheriff in a satisfied tone, but 
 there was a sly expression on his face as he went back to 
 watch by poor Mam Lilly.
 
 XVIII 
 
 OCTOBER dreamed upon the mountains, and 
 under a veil of mist the first brilliance of au 
 tumnal colouring was subdued to exquisite tones 
 of soft gradation. Sepia tints replaced the vivid reds 
 and yellows of the first frost kiss, the asters paled, the 
 goldenrod was sere, the cloudy clematis smoked along the 
 stone walls with the bitter-sweet, and the sombre perspec 
 tive was accented by fading splashes of the crimson 
 sumach in the foreground. 
 
 But the haze upon the mountains had a deeper tint than 
 the diaphanous blue mist of Indian summer: there was a 
 sinister shade upon the mystic, mellow beauty of the hills, 
 the sun was lurid, and at night the vapours deepened: the 
 moon leered red in rising and reeled in drunken vapour 
 through a smoky sky, and on the murky heights the long, 
 red petals of the fire-flower bloomed in the darkness. 
 There was an acrid odour in the air, and when the wind 
 was in the west, the smoke hung heavy over Hurstville. 
 The mountains were afire. There was slight danger for 
 the village down between the Kills; though the volunteer 
 fire department slept literally with their boots on; but the 
 farms outlying on the mountain-side were jeopardised 
 each time the wind veered. 
 
 Barbara Hurst was convalescent after her long illness, 
 and the red line on the mountain opposite her mountain, 
 she called it exercised a nightly fascination for her. By 
 day the smoke, drifting with the wind, concealed the ad 
 vancing fire line, but the tale of the night was plain. 
 
 " I wish you would let me move you into my room to-day. 
 
 304
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 305 
 
 You ought to be enjoying the dahlias. They are gorgeous, 
 and we may have a killing frost any night now," said Zil- 
 lah, sure that the prospect from Barbara s window was not 
 exhilarating, though Barbara had refused to exchange it 
 for any other. 
 
 " When Philena comes up, you may move me in for a 
 while. How I do miss poor Mam Lilly! I hope Donna 
 is all right." 
 
 " The doctor sends his boy to exercise her daily. I 
 imagine she resents the rider, but she looks all right," said 
 Zillah soothingly. Barbara had been a fractious invalid, 
 but Zillah s store of patience was inexhaustible. 
 
 " Zillah," said Barbara abruptly, after a long abstrac 
 tion, " did I talk, when I was delirious? " 
 
 " No. Not much," replied Zillah. " There s the ex 
 pressman," she added, and left the room abruptly. She 
 returned with her arms full of white lilac. 
 
 Where on earth shall I put them? " she demanded in 
 calm desperation. " Everything is full, from the little 
 cream pitcher, to the big dragon vase in the hall. I wish 
 in mercy s name the man would stop ! " 
 
 Barbara smiled wanly. 
 
 I imagine he has forgotten all about it. It will make 
 him sit up when the florist sends his bill," she said in 
 differently. 
 
 " It s just what any one would expect of Abijah Bead! 
 His mother was calling yesterday, and remarked the doc 
 tor s extravagance! Do you wish these here? " 
 
 I don t care. No, leave Doctor s violets. Take 
 those into your room, Zillah. There must be enough 
 downstairs." 
 
 When Zillah sat down by her again, Barbara reverted 
 to her unanswered question. " You were going to tell 
 me what I talked about when I was ill," she said curiously. 
 
 Zillah hesitated. Then, precipitately:
 
 306 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 You talked about Abijah Bead," she said. 
 
 The devil you say!" exclaimed Barbara quaintly, 
 quoting from the colonel s expletives to cover her humilia 
 tion and dismay. " What did I say about him? " 
 
 "Nothing! " 
 
 " I do not understand." 
 
 " Neither do I, nor wish to! You said nothing but the 
 name." 
 
 The girl breathed a sigh of relief. " What did Doctor 
 say? " she enquired. 
 
 " Do you imagine we discussed the situation? " 
 
 " I did not suppose there was any situation under 
 heaven Charles Pomfret would not discuss," coolly. 
 
 " Not with me," frigidly. 
 
 " No? " provokingly. " So I mentioned Mr. Bead oc 
 casionally! Now that was too bad, wasn t it? I understand 
 why you dragooned my room and kept Aunt Helen out. 
 Thanks, awfully! I ll do as much for you whenever you 
 go off your head." 
 
 " I do not apprehend a similar contingency." 
 
 14 Neither did I, but you never can tell when the Hurst 
 conscience will break out. I never can flirt with any sort 
 of comfort when I m engaged. I suppose that s why I 
 babbled," said Barbara pensively. 
 
 " I should think you would be ashamed of yourself," 
 said Zillah indignantly, but Barbara laughed. 
 
 Why, bless your heart, honey, I didn t go fo to do it," 
 she exclaimed coaxingly. " I wouldn t hurt Doctor s feel 
 ings for the world." And Zillah gave her up in despair. 
 
 In her own peculiar fashion Zillah was fond of her 
 cousin; had worked for her in health, and nursed her with 
 devotion during her long illness, but she did not, and she 
 could not approve of her. The girl s natural coquetry 
 was an insoluble mystery to the frigid celibate; an of 
 fence to virgin modesty: and her delirious muttering of
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 307 
 
 " Bijah! Bijah! Bijah! " never anything but the name, 
 but that with a haunting sweetness of intonation, had 
 deeply shocked and embarrassed Zillah. For very shame s 
 sake, she was fain to interpose between it and the doctor, 
 but the well-meant effort was unavailing. They stood to 
 gether over the unconscious girl while the ceaseless mur 
 muring went on, and neither of them even indirectly re 
 ferred to it, except by the tacit exclusion of Aunt Helen 
 from the room. That indignant lady pervaded the corri 
 dors and made things interesting for Zillah outside, but she 
 did not quite venture to defy the doctor s authority, the 
 more especially as he remained at hand to enforce it. He 
 stayed at the house throughout the danger period, at 
 tended Barbara exclusively for weeks afterward, and his 
 devotion was untiring. When she was safely convalescent, 
 however, he sent for Abijah. "Come!" the telegram 
 read, and Abijah, in the midst of an energetic campaign 
 for re-election, at the far edge of the county, responded 
 by the first train. 
 
 Old Jerry met the doctor at the telegraph office, which 
 was, of course, the post-office. 
 
 Th fire s rampin down th mountains, and I ve sint 
 the wurred to Mr. Bead. Th ould place has got to go, 
 sorra th day, unless there s a miracle ! And the saints 
 (may they forgive me !) do not be working overtime these 
 days," said the old man sadly. 
 
 I knew it when the wind changed this morning. I m 
 sorry to see the old landmark disappear, but I do not be 
 lieve Bijah can do anything more than you have. I ve 
 just sent for him myself, though, so he will be here soon," 
 the doctor responded. 
 
 u An that same is pure folly savin yersil , Docthor 
 dear! For fwhat should a man watch throuble comin ? 
 Sure it 11 ketch him soon enough. / sint wurred hinsel 
 could do no good at all, at all," said Jerry regretfully.
 
 3 o8 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " I wished to see him about other things." 
 
 " Oh, thin, twill distract him, maybe ! He d hate to see 
 the ould place goin , th crathur! It s fond of home he is 
 as an ould cat, and hinsel sich a wan! " Jerry said with 
 feeling. 
 
 "Yes, I think Abijah will be distracted. / am!" 
 thought the doctor wearily, as he waited in his office. The 
 long strain of Barbara s illness had told on him, and he 
 had aged perceptibly. It was with a sense of relief he 
 heard Abijah coming up the stairs, three at a time, as 
 usual. 
 
 Their greeting was the habitual confidential one, and 
 the doctor eyed the young man wistfully. Abijah was in 
 magnificent condition, hard-muscled, clear-eyed, alert, the 
 untrained natural athlete; his very presence was instinct 
 with vital force. 
 
 Well, Doc? " he said tranquilly, as they shook hands. 
 
 " Have a seat," said the doctor hospitably, kicking 
 a chair toward him, and pushing the cigars across the 
 table. 
 
 " My house is afire, and my children astray, and Jerry 
 is prancing on the fire line! Talk fast, Doc," and Abijah 
 bit off the end of a cigar, glancing toward the smoking top 
 of the mountain visible from the window. 
 
 " Oh, go on, if that s what you came for ! " said the doc 
 tor gruffly. " You re late to be in a hurry, though. Jerry 
 has kept the gang at work, early and late, but this wind 
 settles the question, I m afraid. I ve been up there, and 
 should have sent for you, if you could have done any good. 
 I hate to see the old place go, myself." 
 
 Abijah sat down stolidly opposite the doctor. 
 
 What s doing here, or hereabouts? " he enquired. 
 
 " Nothing special. I wanted to talk over some things 
 with you. How s election? " 
 
 " I m going to best your man, but the beggar is making
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 309 
 
 me hump myself to do it. I ve choked off his knocking on 
 the Trusts, though, and posing as the friend of labour." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " With old Van Orden. You know Shaffer sold the old 
 man out, foreclosed on him when he was in a tight place. 
 His wife had been sick a long time, and after she died Van 
 Orden couldn t scratch his interest together. He s never 
 got his grip since he lost his little home. Well, I hire him 
 to attend Shaffer s meetings. All of em! He s a Demo 
 crat all right, and they can t very well fire him, for he 
 doesn t do a thing but look sad. He s having the time of 
 his life. He has naturally got a face on him long enough 
 to eat oats out of a churn, you know, and when he s paid 
 for it, he can squelch the enthusiasm of a whole crowd, 
 just sitting there, and looking sad, because Shaffer sold 
 him out! If the audience forget him, he blows his nose 
 trumpenjus, and wipes a furtive tear, and he gets a side- 
 front seat in view of most of the audience, at any price. 
 (It usually comes high, I find.) And he tells his little 
 story casually to little groups at the hotel, and in the sa 
 loons before the meeting. It works beautifully. Your 
 folks have caught on, but I think Van Orden s melancholia 
 is chronic. If you give this away, I ll make you take some 
 of Murray s specifics, Doc." 
 
 " I don t see what possessed you to meddle with the 
 labour question the first thing. You know that public 
 sentiment is all against the Trusts." 
 
 It was laid upon me," said Abijah piously. I ve 
 been up against the Unions. They hold allegiance to 
 themselves above the law of the land: the law I m helping 
 to make! Sabe? It is a personal matter." 
 
 They are the inevitable correlatives of capital combi 
 nations," said the doctor absently, and Abijah noticed his 
 abstraction with indulgence. 
 
 I can t see that. Trusts are the excesses of legitimate
 
 310 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 enterprise; they are corporate, and their abuses can be 
 legislated for, but Unions are incorporate, irresponsible as 
 fleas! An alien importation, anarchistic, and so contrary 
 to the American spirit of individualism I want to fight." 
 
 They have increased wages and improved the condi 
 tion of the labourer, who certainly needed a weapon of de 
 fence. You can t deny that." 
 
 " But I do. The marvellous industrial growth of the 
 past fifty years has improved the condition of the labourer 
 along with the rest of us, but I ve got the figures to prove 
 that in some of the best organised trades wages are ac 
 tually lower than they were twenty or thirty years ago. 
 They haven t been able to overthrow the law of supply and 
 demand; that s an equalising force as strong as gravity; 
 and wherever wages have been raised by artifice above the 
 natural rating, that increased wage is used up in dues and 
 assessments to support a worthless horde of agitators and 
 to prosecute strikes. Aside from the unrest and suspense 
 of the present state of things, the class antagonism and 
 anarchistic taint of labour unions, the labourer is an actual 
 money loser through them. I ve no objection to corpo 
 rate measures, though I play a lone hand myself, but I pro 
 test against coercion. I don t know that I ll be able to 
 hammer this idea into the voters of this county, but I m 
 going to try it. Simmer it down and it s a question of 
 ethnology and the Anglo-Saxon 
 
 " Shut up! " said the doctor brusquely. " I m not a 
 caucus, and I did not send for you to orate." 
 
 " I was only filling up the time with sapient reflections 
 on live issues of the day. You don t seem in a hurry to 
 come to the point," said Abijah with composure. 
 
 " Well, for one thing, I want to know if you are still 
 decided not to do anything about that shooting," asked 
 the doctor. 
 
 " Cut bono? " shrugged Abijah.
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 311 
 
 " It s an outrage to let a woman like that go scot-free ! " 
 
 " As I have pointed out, this is a confirmed habit of 
 Sally s," Abijah observed stolidly, then with earnestness, 
 " I know how you feel, but great nation, man, do you want 
 Miss Hurst mixed up with this any further? How is 
 she?" 
 
 " She does not get strong as fast as I wish, as she ought. 
 Bijah, with this attack on Rob as a lever, you ought to 
 bring that woman to terms." 
 
 Abijah eyed his friend askance. 
 
 The lever would have a little better fulcrum this side 
 of the Atlantic. I see they sail to-morrow," he said drily. 
 
 " Did you ever apply for a divorce, Bijah? " 
 
 " No, it s no use: she would perjure herself. I haven t 
 a ghost of a case." 
 
 " Are you sure? " 
 
 " Damnably!" 
 
 Thumbscrews," said the doctor savagely, " is the 
 only thing for this woman ! It s a perfectly incredible 
 situation." 
 
 " It s darned friendly of you to take such an interest, 
 Doc, but- 
 
 It s a matter of public interest." 
 
 The public (no offense) be damned! This is a pri 
 vate, family scrap, and the public must dodge the stray 
 bullets. It isn t as though Sally were really vicious. This 
 shooting was purely automatic; I explained my theory of 
 Sally last winter. She isn t vicious, she does not premedi 
 tate her deviltry, but she has a hair-trigger reflex for op 
 portunity. You know I promised to keep Rob away, but 
 the little tyke begged so, I chanced one last visit in the 
 crowd of the Fourth, and when his red head showed up, 
 over the garden wall, and the revolver was in her hand, 
 it just went off, at the rubescence. I suppose it seemed a 
 really providential opportunity to rid herself of trouble.
 
 312 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 She has taken advantage of several other such exceptional 
 opportunities, always with the most gratifying results. As 
 to the thumbscrews, I ve spent some thousands, and 
 came near an apoplexy trying to get a turn on her, and 
 I give it up. She knows that if she stands pat, no one can 
 harm her, and she will stand pat, don t you doubt it for a 
 moment. There s no use trying to do anything, Doc. 
 Personally I do not wish to do anything. If I put her be 
 hind the bars, I d never get another wink of sleep; I d 
 have to blow my brains out. I can t help being sorry she 
 is even scarred." 
 
 " I believe you care for the woman yet! " said the 
 doctor. 
 
 " No; but see here: when the thing is simmered down, 
 it isn t Sally s fault she s married to me. The Lord knows 
 she didn t want to be, and now she doesn t feel responsible 
 for it. The boy was a physiological blunder of mine. I 
 thought maternity would soften her; it does most women; 
 but it turned Sally to stone. All feeling had burned out 
 in one flame of passion. I ought to have let it go at that, 
 but I felt responsible. It s a risky thing to take the re 
 sponsibility of another human being in your hands, and the 
 result hasn t justified my interference." 
 
 You are an infernal fool ! It s a pity you did not let 
 Mam Lilly finish her! " the doctor said vindictively. 
 
 " It was, perhaps, a mistaken impulse on my parti- 
 Doc, you never saw or imagined anything so horrible as 
 that scene! I m not real tender of Sally any more, but I 
 couldn t stand for that, not if I d seen her shoot Rob. 
 How is Mam Lilly?" 
 
 " Just the same." 
 
 " That must be hard for Miss Hurst." 
 
 " She thinks she is dead. Her attitude is so strange! 
 When she learned of Mam Lilly s condition (I had to tell 
 her, she quizzed so hard), she ordered me to give her
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 313 
 
 her quietus as authoritatively as though she had been 
 Donna; when I explained the impossibility of this, she 
 nearly went insane herself; wouldn t listen to reason or 
 argument, brought on a fever and a relapse, and I had to 
 kill off the old nigger to satisfy her. I don t know what s 
 going to happen when she finds out." 
 
 " She must not find it out, until she is dead. It can t 
 be long, can it? " 
 
 " Unless she refuses food, there is no telling how long. 
 She rages like a wild beast, but her strength seems inex 
 haustible. And Barbara insisted on seeing her. Thought 
 she could soothe that raving maniac! " 
 
 Abijah shuddered. 
 
 I was afraid of her," he said simply. 
 
 You had cause to be. Evidently Mam Lilly thought 
 Barbara was the one attacked. Bijah, are you sure Rob 
 was shot at? " 
 
 " He is. I ve demonstrated to him, to his satisfaction, 
 that it was an optical illusion ; but all the same, you know, 
 he thought she aimed at him. What does Miss Hurst 
 say?" 
 
 " She has not mentioned it at all." 
 There was certainly no reason to harm her" 
 
 " Unless jealousy." 
 
 "Good Lord! I ve explained that Sally isn t emo 
 tional. Self-preservation is her only law, and that s an 
 automatic arrangement. Besides she hadn t any cause, 
 you know," said Abijah emphatically. 
 
 " Any attention on your part is conspicuous, be 
 cause " 
 
 "Next girl I find in Pang-Yang, I ll leave there!" 
 growled Abijah. 
 
 " Because it s so unusual." 
 
 " See here, Doc, you better see Schmit," interposed 
 Abijah soothingly. Schmit was a noted alienist. This
 
 3 i4 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 strain has been too much for you. You have got to get a 
 brace on. Let s go up and fight fire as a sedative. I be 
 gin to feel nervous myself." 
 
 This is a matter demanding serious attention," the 
 doctor said gravely. 
 
 " Well, I m sure I don t know how to be any more seri 
 ously attentive to you than I am ; unless I hold your hand. 
 What in thunder do you want, anyhow? " 
 
 " Abijah Bead, I want you to answer me seriously. Do 
 you care for Miss Hurst? " 
 
 Abijah appeared to sound his deeper feelings carefully. 
 
 " Nothing to hurt, I reckon," he announced cheerfully, 
 " why? " but he was disconcerted. 
 
 " Have you ever had reason to think she might care 
 
 " No! " thundered Abijah, because this was no time to 
 haggle over the truth. 
 
 " I think you are lying, Bijah," said the doctor sadly. 
 u I m much obliged, but I really think you re lying. Bar 
 bara was delirious, you know 
 
 Confronted suddenly by the illimitable possibilities of 
 this condition, Abijah tore his hair. 
 
 " I didn t do it! " he averred distractedly. " Whatever 
 it was, I didn t do it ! I ll plead guilty to any sane accusa 
 tion and throw myself upon the mercy of the Court, but 
 I m blamed if I ll stand for the vagaries of delirium ! This 
 is too, too much ! I m plumb discouraged. Hurstville will 
 never be a happy home for me ! Here s bigamy and as 
 sault, and arson, and now this old Turk! I m going to 
 leave!" 
 
 " If you were the only one concerned, you might go to 
 the devil," said the doctor so sadly that Abijah sobered, 
 and the doctor went on : " You you were the only one in 
 her mind all the time she was ill," he said slowly, reluct 
 antly. 
 
 Abijah swore fluently and comprehensively to clar-
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 315 
 
 ify thought. Where are your professional ethics? " he 
 stormed as soon as he became coherent. " What do you 
 mean by betraying a poor girl s delirium ? It was delirium, 
 wasn t it? Then why in time can t you let it go at that? 
 In her sane moments she never separated me and the 
 Bronk; considers me a sort of centaur, you know; that s 
 just it, Doc, the riding ! She is daft on riding, you know, 
 and we did rather go the pace a few times. It must have 
 been that on her mind." And Abijah regarded the doctor 
 anxiously as he advanced this specious speculation. 
 
 There was no word of riding or anything except your 
 name." It was a bald professional citation, but the doc 
 tor s eyes searched the young man s face. 
 
 Abijah s stoic training stood him in good stead. He 
 sat immovable, face and figure; a huge, half-recumbent 
 statue, but his heart-beats quickened. Deep in his sombre 
 eyes glowed romance and the poetic ideals which his firm 
 jaw was set to dominate. A passion, infinitely sweet and 
 tender, had crept into his lonely heart : this young girl had 
 become precious beyond word or thought; he feared to 
 think of her, lest he should harm her. For, beyond the 
 peradventure of a doubt, he knew she loved him. 
 
 He took his cigar from his lips, and slowly exhaled a 
 deep breath of smoke. 
 
 Why do you tell me this? " he asked slowly, as one 
 feels his way in doubt. 
 
 " Because the happiness of this dear child is more to me 
 than anything on earth. Because my love for her exceeds 
 a man s mere passion," said the doctor fervently. 
 
 Abijah s heavy lids drooped over his dreaming eyes 
 again. Did his? How this girl challenged men s chivalry ! 
 A tender half-smile touched the lips under the black mous 
 tache; he meant to defend her against herself. 
 
 " And still, I do not see why you should tell me this," 
 he repeated doggedly.
 
 316 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " Do you think I ll stand between, if you two love each 
 other? " asked the doctor wearily. 
 
 "If!" Abijah roused himself. "Under the circum 
 stances, yes, I should think you would. But see here, Doc, 
 since it s absolutely indispensable to your peace of mind, 
 I ll tell you : I made rather an ass of myself that day at 
 Pang-Yang. Nothing er nothing Oh, blazes ! Noth 
 ing! Only I did; and it wasn t her fault. Fault? Bless 
 her heart! It s her inalienable right that men should love 
 her, and they do. It s as natural as teething. She has a 
 magnetism that is irresistible, and I reverted to first princi 
 ples: I didn t give a cuss for proprietary rights, and I 
 was effectually squelched. So I lit out, and you needn t 
 be afraid I shall hang around your bailiwick after your 
 marriage. Always said I wouldn t anyhow. Doc, there 
 are things beyond a man s will or purpose; I hope you and 
 I shan t- 
 
 " No," said the doctor kindly, " we shan t, Bijah, but 
 this is not a question of you or me. I would give way for 
 no man, but I m not such a doddering old fool as to stand 
 in the way of Barbara s happiness. She knows I want 
 no sacrifice; would not accept it." 
 
 " But, Doc! Why, Doc, what s the use of discussing 
 this thing? What if we were both as mad as you are? 
 What then? You know my position," said Abijah bit 
 terly. 
 
 1 Bijah, we must look at things as they are, without fear 
 and without reproach," said the doctor with emotion. 
 l< I am an old man, the glamour of life is past, but age 
 knows better than youth the inestimable value of love. 
 When legal technicalities conflict with moral right, the 
 higher law prevails." 
 
 "Sure! Now you just go ahead and expound the 
 higher law in this particular case. I d be glad of a liberal 
 interpretation. Fortunately for the girl, Aileen Mahan
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 317 
 
 made her a confidante. I ve the decency to be glad of it, 
 for I m such a brute 
 
 " You stand upon a mere punctilio. The law takes no 
 cognisance of this marriage: it is null and void, and " 
 
 " My lawyer is not a sentimentalist; he decides that I 
 am in a very embarrassing situation. 
 
 " In spite of her young ardours and impulses Barbara 
 is a woman of unusual poise and character, capable of de 
 ciding on the requirements of her own nature," said the 
 doctor firmly. 
 
 " Decide! " exclaimed Abijah caustically, " she will de 
 cide nothing ! She has no more idea what life is, real life, 
 than Rob has. Why, good God, man ! would you let this 
 girl wreck her life for a passing whim ? " 
 
 I do not think that you would wreck her life, what 
 ever she decides. And I can trust my darling to do right: 
 because, whatever she does, is right, for her." 
 
 This triumphant syllogism was clearly incontrovertible 
 by logic. 
 
 " And in your sane and proper mind but you are not! 
 This is sheer dementia ! I thought she had decided to 
 marry you? " 
 
 " My fault! " the doctor said remorsefully. " She is 
 the only human being I ever felt a real affection for, and 
 I thought, no matter! I acquiesce, whatever she desires. 
 I don t know what that is, but, Bijah, if she cares for you, 
 she will wait for you all her life. I know the temper of 
 the child." 
 
 " And I have a reasonable knowledge of my own, and 
 it isn t the kind that waits. By the lord Harry, man, 
 what do you think I m made of? " 
 
 The right material, or I shouldn t be talking to you 
 of Barbara Hurst." 
 
 Public opinion differs with you. A platonic friend 
 ship with me would criminate a saint. Why, Doc, just
 
 318 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 try to imagine me hiking up to the Hurst house, to explain 
 
 to Miss Hurst (your fiancee) that, while I ve got a wife 
 
 o sorts, I stand ready to be a brother to her till death 
 
 us do part. Have they got a dog? " Abijah demanded 
 
 savagely. 
 
 " Perhaps not all your life! " the doctor said. 
 
 " Oh, Sally will come to eighty year," predicted Abijah 
 stoically. 
 
 " Bijah, there must be an understanding between you 
 two. I have a right to demand it, and I do! " 
 
 " Understanding of what? " Abijah demanded. 
 
 " Of your position and feelings." 
 
 " As to my position, I can t marry any woman on earth ! 
 As to my feelings, I wish to thunder you d leave em 
 alone. I m husky." 
 
 " I m not considering your feelings, damn you ! " said 
 the doctor, " but if I had not thought you cared for her, I 
 should not have sent for you." 
 
 " I care enough to keep away," retorted Abijah. 
 
 This fire is most opportune. The old place will go, 
 
 and so will I. If your diagnosis is correct, and mind it s 
 
 yours, not mine, this piece of girlish folly (it s sheer 
 
 perversity) will be forgotten." 
 
 " A man need not remember because he can t forget, but 
 women live in memory, haunted by ideals 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Abijah slowly, comprehendingly, " so 
 I m to shatter a girl s ideal! " He stopped a moment, 
 and laughed out harshly. u I suppose you think that 
 ought to be the easiest thing in the world for me. Well, 
 it isn t! " 
 
 " Under the circumstances, I m sure I wish you could! " 
 retorted the doctor. 
 
 " It s a damn ingenious scheme, Doc," reflected Abijah, 
 "you don t ask much of a man, do you? " He lapsed 
 into a long abstraction. Into his half-closed eyes came a
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 319 
 
 remote, rapt expression. It might be, after all, the only 
 way. But it was hard! 
 
 " I hope you understand," said the doctor with deep 
 emotion, " that all on earth I care for is Barbara s happi 
 ness." 
 
 " Which, as far as I ve observed, is a temperamental 
 impossibility," said Abijah, rousing. He got to his feet 
 abruptly, and thrust out his hand to his friend. 
 
 " It isn t exactly plain to me why I must make dog s 
 meat of myself, but tis no great matter. I m going to 
 see Miss Hurst," he said, that curiously remote expression 
 still in his eyes. 
 
 That s what I sent for you for," said the doctor, but 
 his hand shook as he gave it. 
 
 Then don t think any worse of me than you re obliged 
 to, whatever happens." 
 
 Whatever Barbara decides, is right! " the doctor an 
 swered staunchly, and the two men wrung each other s 
 hands. 
 
 " Dog s meat! " Abijah set his jaws on the word, and 
 no one ventured to accost the grim-visaged man as he 
 strode up the street; " I haven t but a shred or two of 
 self-respect remaining, but to antic shameless in your eyes! 
 Oh, Barbara! Barbara! "
 
 XIX 
 
 IT is Mr. Bead." 
 Zillah s careful modulation suppressed a world of 
 comment. It was as though she said, " Behold! " 
 and stood aloof. It was a tone and attitude which fre 
 quently incited her volatile kinswoman to crime and vio 
 lence, and Barbara responded now with animation. She 
 openly, defiantly brightened, and sat up among the crimson 
 pillows of the couch. 
 
 " Zillah, Doctor said I might move about a little. I m 
 going down." 
 
 " If you wish him to carry you back ! " responded Zillah 
 sarcastically. 
 
 " He could do it as beautifully as Mam Lilly ! " said the 
 girl dreamily. 
 
 " I ve no doubt he will be delighted. Shall I ask him ? " 
 
 " No. But I m going to see him. He isn t the man to 
 note the difference between a boudoir and a parlour. Bring 
 him upstairs," said the girl, and Zillah, in non-committal 
 silence, straightened a window shade, adjusted a screen, 
 and pushed a large chair within conversational distance of 
 her cousin s couch, while Barbara rummaged among the 
 cushions. " I can t find my other slipper; is my hair re 
 spectable?" she enquired, patting her short curls, as Zil 
 lah handed her the missing shoe. 
 
 "Now shall I bring him up?" Zillah s attitude ex 
 pressed the lively interest of an automaton. 
 
 Yes, please," said Barbara sweetly, and because Zillah 
 would be horrified, she gave him both hands gaily, when 
 he stood beside her. The thrill of contact shocked them 
 
 330
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 321 
 
 apart quickly: Barbara motioned to the chair, and Abijah 
 drew it nearer. 
 
 But what is he doing, the great god Pan, down in 
 
 the reeds by the river, when ! " She finished by 
 
 pointing through the window to the smoke-clouded moun 
 tain, behind his house. 
 
 " By Jove, how plainly you can see the old place from 
 here, and you so hidden in the trees! " he exclaimed, fol 
 lowing her direction. " I m afraid I can t do any good up 
 there : Jerry has had fifty men at work in the woods ever 
 since the fire started. We should have escaped if the wind 
 hadn t shifted last night." 
 
 Even as they looked, frayed edges of the smoke flapped 
 from the adjacent timber towards his house, tongues of 
 flame reached toward it hungrily, and as the wind lifted 
 the pall of smoke a moment, they saw some one on the 
 roof at work. 
 
 I ve watched it for two weeks, wondering why you did 
 not come home : I can t bear to see an old home destroyed," 
 said Barbara. 
 
 " Jerry was doing all that any one could do. I reckon 
 it wasn t intended I should live in Hurstville. If the trees 
 go, I had as soon the house went too. They are a part of 
 home. I could replace the house, but those trees were a 
 primeval growth. Did you notice them? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; it s horrible ! I understand what it will be to 
 you to see the old giants replaced by a scraggly second 
 growth of stunted things like Pang-Yang." 
 
 He turned and looked at her. " I shall not see it; you 
 have had to take root in a strange soil; I suppose I can. 
 But how are you really? Almost ready for another gal 
 lop through the Green Vlei ? You look light enough to 
 float on the fog now. I should be afraid of losing you." 
 
 " I cannot ride again for a long time. Months! " said 
 Barbara ruefully.
 
 322 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 That s rough ! It has all been. I ve wished " 
 
 A swift gesture disclaimed sympathy. 
 
 I m well now : only not strong yet. Please do not talk 
 of me. I am so tired of myself. Tell me of out-of-doors. 
 You bring the breath of it in with you." 
 
 Was that why you thought of Pan again? " he asked 
 idly. 
 
 Yes, I always do. Your altars and sanctuaries are 
 among the hills, you know. Oh, I can t imagine you at 
 Albany, shut in by walls ! " 
 
 " I hope you don t mention this impression generally," 
 said Abijah earnestly. Though my altars and sanctuaries 
 are very literally smoking, I desire to get back to Albany, 
 and I shouldn t have a show for it if the people realised 
 how I played the goat." 
 
 " How is the election? I hope you will win. Our 
 nominee is a disgrace to us. It was rank party treachery 
 to put him up. I told Doctor so. I think he betrayed his 
 party for your sake, doing it. Of course he does not own 
 it." 
 
 Abijah lounged back in his chair, a figure of reposeful 
 strength, and his vitality surcharged the atmosphere of the 
 pleasant, wide, low room. They both forgot the strange 
 ness of his presence there, and drifted into intimate and 
 friendly chat. Barbara s mentality inspired confidence, 
 and she was a vivid listener. Abijah found himself telling 
 of his political plans and ambitions like a callow youth, 
 and pulled up abruptly. This was no way to go about the 
 business in hand. In the pause Barbara thanked him for 
 the flowers, and he learned in consternation of his respon 
 sibility for the profusion he had seen below stairs. His 
 shout of laughter crashed through the listening house. 
 
 "Why didn t you throw them out? It must have been a 
 regular nuisance. I ll head em off to-morrow. You can 
 see I m not used to girls. In my capacity of family friend,
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 323 
 
 I told the florist to do the proper caper. Oh ! " he laughed 
 again, and wondered if the bowl of violets on the table 
 were his. Barbara saw his glance, and would not tell him. 
 
 " You cannot imagine how Maman and Zillah have 
 luxuriated! I think it s a conspiracy, but they will let me 
 have only a few flowers up here, else I d fill the room," she 
 added demurely. 
 
 " Ought I to go? " asked Abijah. " Doc said I might 
 come, but I plumb forgot to ask anything about staying. 
 Are you tired? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 * Will you tell me if you are? There was something 
 I wanted to ask you. Sure you are not tired? " 
 
 " Quite sure," said Barbara. 
 
 ; It is about this shooting. May I go on? " 
 
 u Is it worth while? It s all over now." 
 
 " I think so. Rob says the shot was not accidental." 
 
 " The child is, perhaps, clairvoyant? " He ignored the 
 bland suggestion. 
 
 Tell me what you thought ! " he insisted. 
 
 " That s immaterial, and I will not be cross-examined, 
 Mr. Bead." 
 
 Your sex loyalty is commendable, but I have the 
 right to know." 
 
 " Right! " she murmured with indignant courage. 
 
 Abijah hesitated. Then, " Give the devil his due, 
 Miss Hurst. The woman is my wife ! I don t know why 
 I m telling you this." 
 
 To his surprise her face became irradiant, her eyes as 
 luminous as the grey of summer dawn. 
 
 " Oh! " she breathed happily. " I don t know why you 
 are telling me, either, but Fm glad! I don t understand, 
 but you have somehow been trying to shield her? " The 
 shy girlish adoration was irrepressible. She had long 
 ceased to distrust him: her love and self-respect had re-
 
 324 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 course to unreasoning faith in him: Abijah promptly re 
 pudiated her adulation. 
 
 You are utterly mistaken. I gave voice like a baffled 
 hound : I brought the boy here : I set the pack yelping after 
 her ! It never occurred to me that anything like this could 
 happen. That you should suffer for for my contemptible 
 attempt at revenge ! Should interfere Rob tells me you 
 did. Is it so? TV// me!" 
 
 " I acted on the impulse of the moment. If I had had 
 time to think of Maman, I should not have dared. It is 
 wonderful the shock did not kill her outright." 
 
 " She was as brave as you were. Your impulses are 
 fortunate for Rob and me : this is the second time that you 
 have risked your life for him ! " 
 
 " Oh, life ! " She threw it from her with contemptuous 
 hands. 
 
 You know what it is worth to others, your life? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," wearily. " I can do a simple problem in 
 proportion. As long as the sum-total of misery would be 
 increased, not lessened, if I shuffled off my share, I shall 
 not do so, obviously. You look like Zillah does, like a 
 cross Yankee school-teacher. You know yourself you 
 could not bear it: you d go mad, only the door is open. 
 We can quit the scene; therefore we wait, decorously, for 
 the curtain bell to give us an exit which will not confuse 
 
 the scene. I rather hoped I had my cue, but She 
 
 shrugged daintily. 
 
 " Stop saying, stop thinking, such things! It s no won 
 der you are morbid now, but by nature you are the most 
 
 joyous thing in life ! I want you to promise me Rob 
 
 must take his chances: I ll keep him away from here: both 
 lives are so inexpressibly precious to me I wish I might 
 give you mine for the one you have saved ! " 
 
 Barbara was versed in the facile Southern conjugation 
 of the verb " amo," had listened to it from the time she
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 325 
 
 was in pinafores: but this brusque Yankee s declaration, 
 wrenched out of him by some inexplicable compulsion, she 
 did not understand: she waited with implicit confidence. 
 
 Your parental gratitude exaggerates the act, though I 
 do not belittle the result, to you," she murmured, as he 
 hesitated. 
 
 ; Now for it! " he thought desperately. " It isn t grat 
 itude alone. I love you, dear," he said, his voice guarded, 
 grave, kind: a most peculiar voice for such a declaration; 
 and there grew vague trouble in the great grey eyes; dim 
 ideas of divorce, scruples, repulsion ! There must be a 
 divorce somewhere ? She shrank, but her face grew warm 
 and sweet. 
 
 I ought not to have said that yet," amended Abijah 
 whimsically, " I m a chump : I ve made a misdeal. There 
 are a few preliminary explanations." 
 
 " Yes," murmured Barbara, dimpling, but frightened. 
 There does seem something of that sort necessary!" 
 Their eyes met in a gleam of laughter, but there was 
 flame beneath, and breath quickened. With sudden, over 
 whelming force, the sense of his great need of her swept 
 over him, his resolution wavered. She was in the mood 
 that women credit wildest sophistries: her confidence ob 
 vious, tempting. What strained and tortured sense of 
 rectitude obsessed him to betray it, and destroy the sweet 
 passion that was softening her to a loveliness irresistible? 
 The possibility of an expose was negligible, she need never 
 know; he would assume the burden of deception. And 
 then, with every instinct clamouring protest, he heard him 
 self rehearse the brutal facts, without extenuation, beyond 
 the possibility of retraction, and watched the rose of love 
 die in her face, her two hands clinch together. It was 
 hard, harder even than he had foreseen. He writhed be 
 neath her still contempt as he deliberately outraged her 
 hard-held confidence.
 
 326 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 " It is a truly anomalous position for you, sir," 
 she murmured, when he had finished, but the conventional 
 inanity was futile to disguise the storm of her darkening 
 eyes; her pride and will challenged him: his blood leaped 
 madly, refused his inhibition. He leaned forward 
 abruptly, and laid his hand firmly over the two small, 
 clinched ones. 
 
 11 Do you believe what I have told you? " he demanded 
 imperiously. 
 
 " About your marriage? Why should I doubt it, sir? 
 It is too grotesque for fabrication. Of course I m natu 
 rally at a loss to understand why I m your confidante," 
 haughtily. 
 
 " I love you," he said doggedly. 
 
 Yes? Still, that s entirely your personal affair, isn t 
 it? A thing requiring neither warrant, right, nor record. 
 What has the family skeleton to do with it? " 
 
 " The family skeleton s at large," he said, with a touch 
 of his old whimsy, but his eyes were glowing with a 
 sombre flame, " perhaps I should not reveal it, otherwise. 
 It can t be exorcised, but are you superstitious? Don t 
 you love me well enough to face it, dear? " 
 
 What possible reason have you to suppose I love 
 you at all, sir! " she flamed, anger overcoming her con 
 tempt. 
 
 " Dear, I know," he said, with tender dominance. ; It 
 is not of our wills that we are here, in this maze: things 
 have conspired to bring us two together. Accident, and 
 
 this He laid his other hand upon her shoulder, and 
 
 the wound there throbbed and beat beneath his touch. 
 
 " Oh, you can speak of that! " she panted furiously, 
 " you dare presume on such a thing as that? A mere 
 impulse! " 
 
 "Don t!" he pleaded. "I cannot tell you how it 
 brings you close to me: it is a sacrament between us! "
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 327 
 
 " You desecrate it," she said hotly. How her hands 
 trembled under his ! She wrenched them free. 
 
 " It s desecration, I suppose for me to love you, but / 
 do! " he said defiantly. 
 
 "Oh, no! no! no!" she said vehemently, and as he 
 bent nearer, her disdainful eyes checked him. You 
 disprove it every instant," she said bitterly. 
 
 " Love hurls a man beyond his own control," he mur 
 mured, and knew himself one in such case, reckless of his 
 resolution, swept on the ilood-tide of passion to win her if 
 he could, and love her into an oblivion of all else in earth 
 or heaven. 
 
 " Listen," he said masterfully, and she listened, breath 
 less, for him to show the way out of this labyrinth. 
 
 I know I shock and bruise your innocence : I must seem 
 like a libertine to you, and yet God knows I mean to do 
 the best I can in this cursed situation. You must know, 
 you must know, I would not expose you to any possibility 
 of mischance, but there is none. Barbara, your title, right, 
 and honour as my wife would be unquestioned, unquestion 
 able, in the open, captious eyes of the whole world. Mor 
 ally, I am divorced. Legally I should be, if the facts were 
 known : they never can be, but, if they could, it would only 
 enable us to fill all the letter of the law ! Isn t love worth 
 sacrifice? " 
 
 Yes," she said instantly, but met his fervent gaze with 
 an inscrutable expression that baffled and alarmed him. 
 
 It takes the greater love to ask the sacrifice, but, oh, 
 my darling, can t you understand? " 
 
 No," she said steadily, white to the lips, and he could 
 feel her whole form tremble, " no man that s worth the 
 sacrifice would ask it ! And for such a man, I would brave 
 anything! " 
 
 It was the result he had expected, but he could not let 
 her go.
 
 328 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 You dear absurdity! If the conditions do not daunt 
 you, how can my offering them do so? " he pleaded. 
 
 That makes all the difference in the world," she told 
 him wearily. 
 
 The difference between the man and the ideal ! I m 
 just a man, but with such qualities as I possess, I love you. 
 I meant to be punctilious: to see you just this once, for the 
 last time : but I cannot ! I m not ideal : my love is only real. 
 Barbara, shall we let a technicality wreck both our lives? 
 You love me; won t you trust me, little one? " 
 
 "Oh, your egoism is intolerable! I have given you 
 no slightest reason to assume I care for you, I am your 
 friend s fiancee ! And I hope that I shall never 
 see your face again! " 
 
 The brave, pathetic, childish face was all a-quiver; she 
 shrank away from him, but his voice swayed her, com 
 pelled her to him and he meant it should. 
 
 " Dear, you belong to me! " he breathed, bending over 
 her. " Oh, heart of my heart, come to me ! " 
 
 She threw herself against his knees, her arms out 
 stretched, her head bowed on them in a sudden storm 
 of tears, and he lifted her and laid her on his breast, 
 vaguely contrite, utterly, defiantly triumphant. 
 
 " Give up to love, that s best," he whispered, pressing 
 the tumbled, curly head close to his shoulder. But as he 
 bent his head, her hand held him away, and he laid it 
 against the tense cords of his throat, and waited with in 
 dulgent tenderness. 
 
 "I do love you!" she said brokenly. "No, wait! 
 Nothing on earth should stand between us, no condition, if 
 you loved me. But you do not! No, you do not ! Bijah, 
 you must listen, because I cannot bear much more. You 
 care now, but some day you d remember, lightly perhaps, 
 and then, oh, I do not know what I should do! because if I 
 were with you, I should love you utterly, abjectly, reck-
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 329 
 
 lessly! I do not care if you know now, because I will 
 not! But if you had only really loved me ! Oh, you do 
 not understand what that would be! Bijah, do not kiss 
 me ! No, for I shall dream! " 
 
 She tried to raise herself against the arms that held her 
 with remorseless tenderness. 
 
 " Dream in my arms," he murmured passionately. 
 " Do you think I ll let a child like you throw love away, 
 and not restrain you so? Not love you? I have loved 
 you all my life, not knowing : I did not know there was a 
 woman in the world like you. Of course I love you. Let 
 me prove it, sweet; I d like to make you give up utterly; 
 take you by force. I could! But I will humour the ex 
 treme convenances. We ll wait, and watch fate work to 
 gether. Wait long, decorous years (but not too many). 
 Will you, dear? I can be patient if I hold you in my arms 
 like this ! And kiss your lips : I must ! My own, why 
 not?" 
 
 For a breath she drifted, swaying to the flood-tide of 
 passion, but pride held its anchorage, and half incredulous, 
 he let her free herself from his embrace, and she swayed 
 to her feet before him ; he put his hand against her waist to 
 steady her, and she leaned heavily thus against his open 
 palm, white, spent with passion, but with the simmer of a 
 steel blade in her fearless eyes. 
 
 Wait ! " she said with deadly quiet, " yes, I could wait 
 through all eternity, each hour a heaven, but I would not ! 
 Understand, it s not convenances, but you! I would have 
 come to you across the world! If you had cared for me, 
 not asked the sacrifice, it would have been none, but a gift, 
 a joy ! Now, I will not love you : I will put every barrier I 
 can between us! If you have any love at all for me, go! 
 Oh, will you please just go! " 
 
 She sank away from his support, slipped down among 
 the cushions of the couch.
 
 330 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 He sat quite still. This, then, which he had purposed 
 and forsaken in his passion, was achieved more certainly by 
 means of his defection : her perception, through quaint, 
 feminine media, was the same as his, before his passion 
 swept him beyond reckoning. If he forced her to face 
 the issue, as he knew he could, knew tempestuously that one 
 insistent kiss would melt her resolution, and his own, it 
 would be pseudo-happiness for her, therefore for him. 
 A ravening heart hunger assailed the man: his eyes de 
 voured, yearningly, the dear, dark face, the darling hands, 
 the tender lines of her sweet body: and the impulsion al 
 most drew him to his knees beside her, with love s impera 
 tive. He got to his feet suddenly instead, and with relief, 
 towering above her. 
 
 " Barbara, do you realise that you have closed the gates 
 of Paradise on us? " he asked gently; and her wide deso 
 late eyes looked up at him unfalteringly. 
 
 They were not open," she said drearily. He drew a 
 deep breath. 
 
 " You re right! And, my God! What a cad you ll 
 always think I am ! Well ! " He stooped and kissed her 
 lightly on the lips: " Dream then: I wish I could! " he 
 muttered and went swiftly from the room. 
 
 Bijah! " The surrendering whisper wrenched at his 
 heart-strings: he had not expected it: he wavered, but the 
 sword whirled and flamed before the gate of Eden, and 
 he went on. 
 
 Zillah bent anxiously above the prostrate figure on the 
 couch. 
 
 " Barbara, I shall have to send for Doctor," she remon 
 strated, shocked by the unimagined heart-throes of woman 
 hood. 
 
 "And why, pray, should you not?" gasped Barbara, 
 rejecting the pale pity of a vestal soul : for how should 
 Zillah sympathise? Zillah did, however, sympathise en-
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 331 
 
 tirely with the pride of the defensive instinct: her heart 
 ached for the girl. 
 
 " Very well then," she said, and the cold, kind monition 
 had effect. Barbara sat up and faced her. 
 
 " If you send for him I shall hate you, Zillah, and I 
 positively will not see him ! I m not ill : for Heaven s sake 
 leave me alone." She was holding herself tensely quiet, 
 but the attitude did not reassure her anxious cousin. 
 
 " You will make yourself ill, if I let you go on like this. 
 You ought to take a dose of valerian and go to bed. 
 I m sure I don t know what else to do," said Zillah, 
 doubly oppressed by responsibility in the absence of 
 council. 
 
 But Barbara was looking not at, but through her, mazed 
 and bewildered by a question which had flashed upon her: 
 Why had Abijah not responded to her call? He had 
 sought her with an overmastering passion and foregone 
 her final yielding! Why had he come to her at all? It 
 betrayed some oblique, ulterior purpose characteristic of 
 the man, and she groped blindly for the clue. It eluded 
 theory, but intuition grasped it and she knew: vaguely, but 
 not less certainly, divining enough of truth to guess at 
 some high-hearted motive, meanly masked. A soft radi 
 ance dried the wet grey eyes, the sorrowful young mouth 
 grew tender and content. 
 
 ;< I have made a great mistake," she said in a kind of 
 awe, and the elder woman felt herself helpless to pursue 
 the vagaries of an emotional temperament. 
 
 " I think that is altogether more than probable," she 
 replied, entrenching herself behind experience, but the girl 
 did not hear or heed her: she went on half unconsciously 
 with the revelation as it dawned upon her. 
 
 u I don t know why he should wish me to think he 
 was. . . . But if he had been, he would have come back 
 when I called. Perhaps he thought I should regret it.
 
 332 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 Oh, no, not now I understand ! Please send for him, Zil- 
 
 lah; say I want him." 
 
 " Who? " the congelation failed. 
 
 44 Why, Bijahf " said the girl, and the soft throaty sob 
 of laughter was an intimate revealing which abashed its 
 unwilling hearer, " he made me think he was utterly 
 contemptible." 
 
 " Well ! " The arctic intonation implied a strong 
 probability in this direction, but the happy throb welled up 
 to the girl s lips again. 
 
 44 Why, he s just the most magnificent I don t entirely 
 understand it yet; and I can t explain, ever. But that does 
 not make the least difference. I want Mike to take a note 
 to Mr. Bead." 
 
 4 You had better send out a town crier," expostulated 
 the exasperated and perplexed spinster. 
 
 44 There is nothing clandestine in our relations. I am 
 going to marry Mr. Bead, and I wish him to know it 
 before he leaves town," said Barbara so happily that Zillah 
 could have shaken her. In lieu of this she pointed to the 
 ring on the girl s hand, and Barbara calmly slipped it off 
 and laid it by the violets on the stand. 
 
 4 Doctor should not have let me do that," she remarked 
 pensively. " I m very fond of Doctor; always shall be, 
 but I will write to Mr. Bead at once, please." 
 
 14 Now see here," said Zillah firmly, 4 I don t pretend 
 to understand the situation, and I greatly doubt if you 
 do; at any rate, one thing is certain. Whatever you intend 
 to do, or undo, you shall not do it to-night on my responsi 
 bility. If you insist on writing to this man, I ll post your 
 letter myself, but 
 
 4 Why, it might follow him around the county for a 
 week! Zillah, if you have no human feelings, you might 
 try and imagine ours," exclaimed the girl, her blushes dep 
 recating the sweet shamelessness.
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 333 
 
 " I should prefer not," Zillah remarked emphatically, 
 and stood to her design of procrastination. It was the 
 only thing she could do for her impetuous kinswoman, who 
 was obliged to submit. 
 
 Exhausted by the emotions of the day, Barbara dreamed 
 through the earlier watches of the night until the wild 
 rune of the wind in the trees before the house awakened 
 her, and she lay dreaming still. The problematic future 
 did not trouble her; it rested with her lover s chivalry, his 
 motives growing clearer as she thought. Discerning her 
 infatuation, how she did not know, and now she did not 
 care, his loyalty to his old friend had led him to attempt 
 her disillusion. She smiled in the darkness at the dear 
 clumsy ruse; but would he come again, now that she under 
 stood and sent for him? She did not know; and with the 
 doubt, something of the elemental unrest of out-of-doors 
 touched her. She rose, her first steps alone, slipped into 
 gown and slippers, groped her way to the next room, and 
 sank down in Abijah s chair before the window. 
 
 The wind had increased in fury as the night deepened, 
 and the village lights had flared and flickered in the gale, 
 and one by one gone out. A thick murk of smoke empalled 
 the town, but whenever the wind lifted it a moment, the 
 red flames on the mountain glowed and leaped in shining 
 lines from ledge to ledge, before the gale. Across the 
 street a brilliant steady light streamed from a window, for 
 the lovely chatelaine was lingering over preparations for 
 the next day s departure. The girl, dreaming of her own 
 beatitude, felt only a curious compassion for the woman 
 whose dreams were past. 
 
 Abijah had fared forth that night to watch his home 
 melt into the advancing forest fire, and afterward in the 
 interval of waiting for the early morning train, he tramped 
 the streets, a fit rite of destitution, and the wild West is 
 never counsellor of resignation. It would not let him
 
 334 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 linger by his mother s house; the one beside it was too full 
 of memories, and the remembering elm-tree at the gate 
 writhed and tossed its great arms aloft in agony, and 
 swayed and strained to follow as he passed. He hesitated 
 at the doctor s door; but why call up the old man? Bar 
 bara had said : I will put everything I can between us : 
 he strode on through the solitary streets. After the first 
 storm and stress she would doubtless, as Pomfret s wife, 
 subside to the monotonous content of the women mil 
 lions. Doubtless ! yet he doubted, bodying her again 
 within his arms ; it seemed to him he must have been insane 
 to leave her. 
 
 And the wind fell upon him with redoubled violence at 
 each corner of the town, and whooped derision when he 
 turned his back; it swirled around each landmark that he 
 passed and jeered him as a pusillanimous fool, until its 
 eerie influence quickened him, and he repented him of every 
 thing that he had ever done, and most of what he hadn t. 
 He had controlled the thought of Barbara, now it pos 
 sessed him, and her adorable response to him swept him 
 from heaven to hell. All the urge of life and soul was to 
 ward her; the very elements of fire and air impelled him, 
 for a vague anxiety, a menace in the night grew and har 
 assed him with a haunting fear for her. Only a dogged 
 resolution held him to his course. He was no stripling 
 now, blown by the impulse of the wind; and every fibre of 
 his being knit to the dumb endurance which challenges the 
 careless gods. 
 
 The moon rode over the mountain on a wilder blast, and 
 before it, through the wind-tormented forests, fled a por 
 tent of dismay. The lurid fires of earth and sky cast for 
 ward a weird sciomachy of the gaunt, half-naked figure, 
 crouched forward, running wildly or at bay, brandishing a 
 huge round stone against imagined foes. Dogs howled and 
 whimpered as the sinister presence passed them, creeping
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 335 
 
 through lanes and hedges in the suburbs, shrinking from 
 shade to shadow in the town. It cowered in the darkness 
 as Abijah passed, but at the corner of Mr. Phelps house 
 it came out warily, rose upright for a moment, eager, look 
 ing toward the light; sprang forward, upward; swarming 
 with incredible agility to the veranda roof, where, outlined 
 against the brilliant casement, Barbara in horror recog 
 nized Mam Lilly s amazonian form. 
 
 Sarah stood before a mirror, idly considering the effect 
 of a pearl necklace. A row of pendants would, perhaps, 
 conceal the scars and Abijah s marriage, others. It meant 
 that, indubitably, his unprecedented attentions to Barbara 
 Hurst. If he had only told her this, instead of his heroics, 
 it would have saved those scars ! No prick of the nerves 
 forewarned her; no weird of doom; she looked up care 
 lessly and saw the black unhuman visage mirrored over 
 hers. She could not stir. The glaring eyeballs held her, 
 and in a trance she watched the naked arms shoot up above 
 her head, the heavy stone descend. 
 
 There was no sound, no cry. The maniac flung herself 
 upon the quiet body, and when she rose the ruddy hair 
 writhed around the smooth splotched stone where once a 
 face had been. Then the dogs bayed again. The fren 
 zied creature sprang back in the night, and with a demoni 
 cal shriek of triumph, hurled herself headforemost from 
 the roof. Stunned, dying, as the house roused to its 
 awful tragedy, she dragged herself across the street 
 and lay quite still upon the box-edged path of the old 
 garden. 
 
 Barbara never knew how she possessed herself of her re 
 volver and reached the huddled figure under the wind- 
 shaken trees ; she called aloud as men ran past to the Phelps 
 house, but the wind snatched her voice away and beat her 
 down: she crouched, grasping her revolver, on guard till 
 help should come. A shot would summon it, but it might
 
 336 THE PANG-YANGER 
 
 rouse the maniac and she must not escape. Help must 
 
 come quickly, some one would see them. 
 
 Only an echo of the maniac s shriek reached Abijah, at 
 the outskirts of the town, but he paused, and expecting an 
 alarm of fire each moment, sauntered back, until men met 
 him, rushing to protect their own, and shouted warning 
 of the ghastly peril lurking in the night. 
 
 It seemed to him he ran upon a treadmill, could not 
 reach that ominously quiet house beneath the darkening 
 trees. The smoke drifted heavily beneath the dusky 
 moon, but as he strained forward he discerned the two 
 still figures on the shadowy path and leaped to them. 
 
 " I m not hurt," said Barbara, as he caught her up to 
 him, and with his arms about her, his tumultuous heart 
 beats throbbing at her breast, her courage slipped away. 
 
 " I saw her going into Mrs. Phelps window," she 
 gasped, " and I came as quickly as I could. I found her 
 here. Oh! Bijah, truly, I came as quickly as I 
 could." 
 
 For a moment his emotions stifled speech, and he could 
 only hold her closer, feel that she was safe. Then he 
 raised his head and sent a shout against the wind that 
 brought men rushing from across the street, to apprehend 
 the maniac, and bruit the awful tragedy of that wild night. 
 They heard it like the chorus of an evil dream : a theme of 
 Fate, far off, impersonal. But they shuddered as they 
 clung together, for the wind following them up the dark 
 pathway moaned the death-sough of departing souls as 
 their betrothal. 
 
 Midway in the gloom before the house the frightened 
 voice of Zillah shrilled out to them: 
 
 " Mr. Bead? Is it you? Have you found Barbara? " 
 she cried, and out of the wild whirl of the night came a 
 grave assurance : 
 
 " I have!" said Abijah.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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