44? AGATHA'S AUNT AGATHA'S AUNT By HARRIET LUMMIS SMITH effuthar of OTHER. PEOPLE'S BUSINESS INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1920 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY Printed in the United States of America paws or BRAUNWORTH A CO. BOOK MANUTACTURERB BROOKLYN. N. V. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I BOARDERS WANTED 1 II THE CURTAIN RISES . . 18 III A SOCIAL SECRETARY 29 IV COMPLICATIONS ....>..... 42 V COMPANY MANNERS 57 VI HEPHZIBAH COMES TO LIFE . . ... .. . . 78 VII DAY DREAMS , 94 VIII THE RESCUE 109 IX AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES 124 X A CONFESSION . ... ^ ...... 140 XI A WILFUL MAN MUST HAVE His WAY ... 155 XII HEPHZIBAH TURNS THE TABLES 170 XIII CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER ..... 184 XIV CONFIDENCES 196 XV UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH 210 XVI Miss FINCH FOLLOWS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE . . 221 XVII THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 235 XVIII WARREN GETS A TIP 249 XIX THE WORM TURNS 264 XX THE DAY AFTER 276 XXI ENLIGHTENMENT 292 XXII FELLOW TRAVELERS 305 XXIII AN INTRODUCTION , . 324 AGATHA'S AUNT AGATHA'S AUNT CHAPTER I BOARDERS WANTED IT WAS too early in the season for lowered shades or closed shutters. The spring sunshine had taken possession of the big, many-windowed room, repaying the hospitality as other uninvited guests have been known to do, by its indiscreet reve- lations. In rooms much lived in, a rather endearing shabbiness is a familiar characteristic, suggestive, like a thumbed book, of homely comfort. The room in question had passed this stage and reached the shabbiness eloquent of poverty. The paper on the walls was faded, and stained from a leak in the roof. The original carpet had been transformed into a rug that shrank annually and now showed threadbare areas, prophetic of gaping holes in the near future. The furniture, too, 1 2 AGATHA'S AUNT though of expensive make, had arrived at a point where a series of surgical operations seemed im- perative. Yet with it all, a certain plucky defiance- was evident in the shabby room. Pictures or* Calen- dars hung over the discolored spots on the wall, furniture arranged to conceal the weak spo!s of the carpet, a crocheted shawl thrown Carelessly over the exposed entrails of a veteran armchair, a general air of putting the best foot foremost inevitably sug- gested that the dilapidated building sheltered youth, ardent and unconqueretf. In the smallest chair the room, contained, a rock- ing chair that creaked protestingly under its light burden, sat Miss Zaida Finch, darning a pink silk stocking. Miss Finch's print dress modestly con- cealed her diminutive lower limbs, her extremely small shoes scarcely peeping from beneath its hem. For all that the eye discerned, her anatomical struc- ture might have been modeled after that of Mrs. Shem in a Noah's ark. Yet with no evidence to sub- stantiate his certainty, any observer would have vowed that Miss Finch's painstaking toil was wholly disinterested. It was impossible to believe that the much-mended pink silk hosiery formed part of her wardrobe, BOARDERS WANTED 3 The industry of Miss Finch was spasmodic. One moment she plied her needle with an intentness in- dicating that her task absorbed her. And again she let the stocking drop into her lap, and lost herself listening to sounds overhead, footsteps, doors open- ing and closing, the murmur of voices. Once, ris- ing, she tiptoed to the window and gazed for a long breathless moment at the touring car be fore the gate, the chauffeur puffing a cigarette with an arrogance characteristic of the driver of a seven-passenger Packard, who knows that at any nioment a Ford roadster may round the curve ahead. Despite occasional lapses Miss Finch was darning industriously >vhen the voices overhead sharpened noticeably, A light staccato of high heels tapping the uncarpeted staircase was followed by the slam- ming of a door violently enough to shake the build- ing. jMiss Finch, groping vainly for the interpre- tation of these sounds, found her gaze drawn to the window as the Packard swept along the highway, its horn bleating an impassioned farewell. Jhe door at the rear of Miss Finch's chair opened emphatically, with such emphasis indeed, that the door-knobs parted company, one falling into the hall, the other projecting itself in the direction of 4 AGATHA'S AUNT Miss Finch as if with hostile intent. And close upon this demonstration a girl entered the room and flung herself into one of the ragged armchairs. The owner of the pink silk stocking was revealed. It was all in keeping with her audacious color scheme. Her hair was obviously red, and instead of modestly disguising the fact, it used every known ar- tifice to attract attention to itself, curling and crink- ling and brazenly thrusting out tendril-like locks to catch the beholder's gaze. Her eyes should have been blue, according to all precedent, but instead they matched her hair, a daring reddish-brown, with yellow flecks like floating gold-leaf. Ordinarily her skin was creamy till the multiplying freckles of summer temporarily disguised its fairness, but at this moment some intense emotion dyed her crimson from her throat to the roots of her hair. Over a blue house dress she wore a sweater of vivid green, assumed, if the truth be told, no? for the sake of warmth but to conceal her patched elbows. Her entrance into the room accentuated its faded dingv ness and bleached Miss Finch to the color of ashes. Even the spring sunshine paled before her rainbow effect. "Well, Fritz!" The girl used the incongruous BOARDERS WANTED. 5 nickname with the carelessness of long custom. "It's all over." "All over!" Miss Finch echoed in alarm. The "darning egg dropped from her lap and spun dizzily upon the floor, while its owner blinked rapidly as if the radiant presence in the armchair dazzled her eyes. "Yes. That was Mrs. Leavett, the one who saw my advertisement in the Onlooker, and wrote and en- gaged board for herself and two children." Miss Finch rolled her eyes heavenward. Under the matter-of-fact statement she scented calamity. "It occurred to her that she'd like to see the place before she came. And now she's seen it, she's not coming. She says my ad was misleading." "It was a very good advertisement, I'm sure," protested Miss Finch. "I didn't know myself how pleasant the pla.ce was till you read me what you'd written." The girl laughed out. The naive defense had the effect of partly dissipating her anger ancl bringing an evasive dimple into view. "I leave it to you, Fritz, if I told a single whop- per. I said the rooms were large and airy, and I didn't state that the paper was peeling off the walls. 6 AGATHA'S AUNT I mentioned the lawn and the shade trees, and failed to add that the house needed painting. It is not the business of the seller, Fritzie dear, to call attention to any little defects in the article he is trying to dis- pose of. Mrs. Leavett overlooked that point. Not a business woman, evidently.'* "The vines cover a good bit of the house any- way," commented Miss Finch resentfully. "What 'does a little paint more or less matter to a summer boarder?'' "Mrs. Leavett seemed under the impression that it mattered to her. She was so very snippy that at last I asked her if she didn't think that to be un- painted in these days was rather a mark of distinc- tion. Since you didn't see the lady, Fritz, you can hardly appreciate the insinuating cleverness of that inquiry. The red, red rose has nothing on her. Such a lovely, fast-color carmine, warranted to go through a, fainting fit without fading.'* "If you're going to have boarders, Agatha," Miss Finch remonstrated, "you've got to keep a. tight rein on your temper.' 1 "I did, Fritz ; I was preternaturally amiable till I saw that the game was up. Then I thought I might as well relieve my feelings. The woman seemed to take it as an affront that I wasn't my own grand- mother. She said for a girl of my age to advertise for boarders was a piece of presumption, and she wanted to know if I didn't have a guardian as if I were weak-minded." Miss Finch's contemptuous sniff breathed sympa- thetic scorn. "I'm not ashamed of being only nineteen. Every- body has to be nineteen some time, except the people who die in infancy. As I said to Mrs. Leavett, if you're too young, time will mend it. But being too old isn't so easily remedied." "Was she old?" inquired Miss Fincli suspiciously. "Older than she wants any one to think, Fritz. She's the sort of woman who talks about her little son when he's a sophomore in college, smoking an enormous meerschaum." Agatha's angry color had subsided to a becoming pink, and her eyes were luminous with mischief. "I'm going to try the frank, open style in ads, since the other doesn't seem to work. I shall want your opinion on it, Fritz, so prepare to give me your undivided attention/' She flitted to the writing desk and began scribbling on the back of a convenient envelope and Miss Finch utilized the pause to recover her elusive darning egg, 8 AGATHA'S AUNT dropping her thimble in the process. Before she could capture the latter runaway, Agatha was ready for her services as critic. "Boarders wanted. A spinster aged nineteen, of uncertain temper, will accommodate a limited num- ber of boarders at her country place, Oak Knoll. Rooms large and airy, special ventilation secured through openings in the roof. In case of rain, guests will be furnished with tubs to catch the drippings, without extra charge. Fine lawn kept in excellent order by the untiring efforts of two horses and a cow. View unsurpassed. Meals excellent provided the cook is kept in good humor by considerate treat- ment." She nipped the handle of her pen reflectively. "Do you think it necessary to mention that the cook and the proprietor are one and the same?" "Agatha," cried Miss Finch with the agonized earnestness of a literal mind, "you mustn't think of sending that to the paper. Taking boarders is a good deal like getting married. There's a whole lot you've got to keep dark, or you might as well give up first as last." Her outburst terminated in a sniff. Immediately the tip of her pale, seemingly bloodless little nose be- came as red as a cherry, the instantaneous sequel of tears, with Miss Finch. BOARDERS WANTED 9 "You're so smart, Agatha," slie quavered. "If only you'd sell this house and wash your hands of Howard and me, who haven't the least claim on you, you could go to the city and look around and like enough find a husband. There's plenty of men who don't mind red hair." Agatha ignored the encouragement. "Howard is my brother." "Just like children pretend in play. He's your stepma's son. There's not a drop of Kent blood in him, and not a mite of Sheldon in you. But in- stead of giving your mind to getting married like a girl needs to do in these days, you're all the time worrying about educating that boy." "I'm going to send Howard to college if I live. I'd rather do that than have twenty husbands." "Then if that wasn't enough," lamented Miss Finch tearfully, "here I am, a good-for-nothing cumberer of the ground, for you to fuss and plan for. Don't tell me! All the reason you keep this place is to have a home for me and Howard. And it ain't right or fair." Agatha crumpled the advertisement inspired by the visit of Mrs. Leavett into an inky wad, and took aim at the spider-like blotch on the ceiling. Then 10 AGATHA'S AUNT crossing the room swiftly, she hugged the limp little woman to her heart. "You'll make me cry myself if you're hot careful. You want to deprive me of my family and my chap- eron at one swoop, and turn me out into the world a solitary orphan, you heartless creature." She si- lenced Miss Finch's gurgled protests with a kiss. "Hush!" she said authoritatively. "Jhere comes Howard on the pony, He mustn't know anything about this." The beat of hoofs ceased abruptly and a boy's swinging step sounded on the porch. To save the trouble of walking ten feet to the door, Howard raised the nearest window of the living-room, and made an unconventional entry. He was a hand- some lad of sixteen, and Agatha's idol. She had been as ready as most young girls to resent her father's second marriage, but all her childish hostil- ity vanished at the sequel, the chubby little boy who was her stepmother's contribution to the family circle. She had longed for a brother with the pas- sionate yearning of a lonely child, and just when she had given up hope, a brother was hers. Agatha's sense of proprietorship had grown with the years. Nothing irritated her more than the suggestion that BOARDERS WANTED 11 the tie between Howard and herself was less bind- ing than that of blood. The boy drew three letters from his pocket, slap- ping them down on the table. "You're getting to be pretty popular, Aggie. Every time I go to the village there's mail for you. Two letters yesterday and three to-day." "How warm you look, Howard." Agatha pushed the boy's heavy hair back from his moist forehead. "You mustn't get overheated and take cold." She was deliciously maternal in her solicitude for the sturdy youngster who already topped her by an inch or two. "I'll look warmer before the day's over. I'm going to tackle the garden now. If you'd ever seen summer boarders eat new green peas you'd know 'twas time to get busy." Howard departed as he had come, and his sister, her face overcast, gave her attention to her mail. The first letter opened was flung petulantly to the floor. "Woman wants to know how many bathrooms we have, and will I please send her the names of sev- eral former patrons as references. Worse than Mrs. Leavett." 12 AGATHA'S AUNT "They're an unreasonable lot, summer boarders," acquiesced Miss Finch. The second letter was as unsatisfactory, judging from the impetuosity of its flight across the room. "She's the widow of a missionary and wants board at half rates, and the younger children not to count." "I don't believe you've got the temper for running a boarding-house," commented Miss Finch. "You're as fiery as red pepper and next to the married state, keeping boarders calls for a saintly disposition." Agatha prying open the third communication with a hairpin, vouchsafed no reply. But her perturbed air changed magically to breathless attention. Her eyes moved slowly down the typewritten page, her air of stupefaction increasingly in evidence. Check- ing herself with an impatient gesture, she started again at the beginning and read the letter aloud : " 'Mv DEAR Miss KENT : * 'My attention has just been called to your adver- tisement in the current Onlooker. I can hardly hope that you remember me, for it is over twenty years since our last meeting, and at that time I was an insignificant urchin of twelve ' ' "Over twenty years," Miss Finch interjected, "and you nineteen last week." BOARDERS WANTED 13 " 'I remember you distinctly, however, and your beautiful old place with its fine grounds and noble trees. When I explain that I am the son of John Forbes you will understand that my visit with my father was a memorable occasion. He died soon after, as you remember, but he often spoke of our week at Oak Knoll and his affectionate admiration for yourself.' ' A flicker of understanding illumined Miss Finch's blank face. "I'm beginning to see daylight," she interrupted. "The man's fooled by the likeness of names. He thinks he's writing to your great-aunt, Agatha Kent. She'd be between sixty and seventy if she were liv- ing." Agatha had already solved the puzzle. She nodded and read on, too interested to pause for vith an absolutely heartless and generally despicable young woman named Julia." "My gracious," lamented Miss Finch. "Nice pros- pect for him, ain't it ?" "Not so bad as you'd think. She's going to marry another man." "Oh!" Miss Finch's limp hand came suddenly 208 AGATHA'S AUNT to life, found Agatha's fingers and squeezed them. "Maybe he'll get over it," she hinted. "Maybe." Something in Agatha's tone suggested she was smiling. "And then if he'd get his eyesight back, the way he expects to " "Then he'd have to be introduced to me all over again. You know he thinks I'm a kittenish old lady of seventy." "If he doesn't like you better when he finds you're not quite twenty, he's different from most men, that's all." There was a new authority in Miss Finch's pronouncement. She spoke as one who knew the sex, to whom its little idiosyncrasies were an open book. And hardly less significant than the change in herself was the fact that Agatha accepted her altered attitude without surprise. At the same time the girl's impulsive kiss on her old friend's tear-stained cheek was irrelevantly ten- der. "I must go back to bed," said Agatha. "It'll soon be time to get up. And don't worry over those adorers of yours. It'll do them good to be kept waiting. Men most men need to have the conceit taken out of them." Though she paused in the doorway to charge Miss CONFIDENCES 209 Finch to go to sleep immediately, she did not act on her own counsel. Instead she ensconsed herself on the broad sill of the east window and swinging her dangling bare feet, watched the face of the sky slowly brighten, flushing pink at last, like the cheek of a girl. Overhead little rosy clouds floated, like cherubs, listening to the chorus of bird song which grew in volume moment by moment. Another day was beginning, a good day, Agatha was ready to believe. For though between herself and her heart's desire a tortuous deception lay, to be explained and forgiven, the prospect no longer seemed hopeless. It was an eminently satisfactory world, Agatha decided, with Julia out of the run- ning. CHAPTER XV UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH THE kind-hearted Miss Kent had decreed a holiday for Howard. With characteristic thought fulness she had volunteered to take Forbes off his hands, and suggested they fill in the time by a long walk with a picnic lunch in some shady place, dinner to be postponed until a convenient hour after their return. Howard showed hilarious approval of the plan, and Forbes aroused himself from his melan- choly abstraction sufficiently to agree, whereupon Agatha fell to making sandwiches, giving directions to Phemie as she worked. Nature in the raw did not appeal to Miss Finch. She hated long walks. She hated sitting on the grass; while sandwiches, without an accompanying cup of tea, were as ashes to her taste. The others accepted her excuses with fortitude, and left her at home to see that Phemie did not set the house afire, and to grope wearily toward a solution of her vexing 210 UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH 211, problem. Howard, having stuffed his pockets with a generous proportion of the sandwiches, shouldered his fishing rod and departed to make the most of his holiday. And while the fragrant freshness of the night still lingered in the air, Forbes and Agatha set out in the direction of the woods. The serene confidence of her morning vigil still enfolded Agatha. She walked as if keeping time to music, inaudible to all ears but her own. Forbes had insisted on carrying the basket of lunch which also contained a book or two, in case their mood should take a literary turn. Agatha kept fast hold of his arm, the better to steer his steps, and he thought there was a hint of friendliness in the firm clasp. The lonely and unhappy man felt a disproportionate sense of gratitude. They walked and rested, strolled on and rested again. Neither was inclined to talk. Forbes had plenty to occupy his thoughts, and Agatha, too, was reflective. She realized that the time was at hand when she must confess to Forbes the deception she had practised on him, or else allow him to go out of her life altogether. Neither alternative was agree- able, but the latter was unthinkable. A scheme occurred to her so in harmony with her native audacity that she dallied with it lovingly, 212 AGATHA'S AUNT before reluctantly renouncing it as impracticable. She could tell Forbes that she expected a visit from her grand-niece, Agatha Kent, and prejudice him in favor of the newcomer by assuring him of the extraordinary likeness existing between the twen- tieth-century Agatha and her girlhood self. After the new Agatha's arrival, she could leave him more and more to the society of the younger woman, withdrawing by degrees into the background until her sudden demise would hardly shock him, though he would naturally feel more or less responsible for consoling her namesake and heir. Agatha's final re- jection of the plan was due less to doubt of her ability to act the dual role, or to manage the embar- rassing details of her own interment, than to the realization that if her intimacy with Forbes was to continue, it must be established on a foundation of absolute truth. This deception on which she had entered so light-heartedly, had its sole excuse in the impermanence of their relationship. Before their friendship could become real there must be perfect understanding between them. They ate their sandwiches shortly after noon, washing them down with deliciously cool water from a convenient spring. The day had grown warm and very still. "It feels as if a thunder-storm might be brewing," Forbes remarked, breaking one of the periods of friendly silence. "I think not," Agatha answered in a dreamy voice. "Don't you love this stillness here in the shade? It's perfect, perfect!" " *A book of verses underneath the bough, A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou/ ' quoted Forbes inevitably. He was laughing but the lines stirred her, and to disguise the fact she spoke nonchalantly. "There is a book of poems in the basket, but I don't care for reading to-day, do you? It's one of the times when you feel everything that has ever been written and more too. You simply want to sit and think how wonderful it is to be alive." "By jove, it's you that's wonderful," Forbes ex- claimed. "That sensitiveness wears off with most people long before they're my age, to say nothing of yours. But you feel the thrill of life and the mystery and the adventure, as if you were a girl." "Yes," Agatha acquiesced, "I do." "I'd have known it without your telling me. It's been a continual marvel all through our acquaint- 214 AGATHA'S AUNT ance, that ardent freshness of yours. It's confirmed my faith in immortality." Agatha had no answer ready. He groped for her hand and took possession of it with becoming mas- terfulness. "I've got something to say to you, something very important. I've meant to say it for an age, but I've been too much of a coward to risk a no." Agatha was obliged to remind herself that she was almost seventy years of age. Otherwise she might have suspected she was listening to a proposal. "Before I can explain my plan, I want to ask you something. Aren't you ever lonely here in winter?" The question was less formidable than she had an- ticipated. Her quick assent showed relief. "And aren't you going to miss me a little when I go back to the city?" "Of course I shall," she said faintly, and instinc- tively tried to withdraw her hand. He tightened his hold, laughing. "Please don't take it away. It does me good, and I'm sure it can't do you any harm. Now you've given me just the encouragement I needed. If you're lonely here, and if you're going to miss me, why shouldn't you and I set up housekeeping together?" UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH 215 "I I don't understand." Again Agatha steadied herself with the recollection of her three-score years and seven. "I'm afraid you've spoiled me," Forbes continued with sudden seriousness. "I've grown shamefully dependent on you. It isn't altogether or chiefly that you've looked after my physical comfort so won- derfully, though, of course, that counts. But you've been so interested in all that concerns me, so sympa- thetic, such a good pal " He broke off, apparently at a loss for words. "You're as bracing as an Oc- tober breeze," he said. "God knows what I should have done without you, this damnable summer." The thought crossed her mind that this was her opportunity. Now that they were alone, now that he had acknowledged his indebtedness, she could safely throw herself upon his mercy. Her lips parted for her confession, and an overmastering cowardly fear paralyzed the organs of speech. Sup- pose he refused to forgive her. Then he would go away and she would never see him again. She must make herself still more indispensable. She must foster that feeling of dependence before she risked self -accusation. "Of course I must be in town next winter," Forbes 216 AGATHA'S AUNT went on. "Why shouldn't I take a furnished apart- ment and have you as a sort of mother confessor? We can get some good servants so you will be re- lieved of all responsibility as far as the establishment is concerned, and your sole duty will be to keep me content with life. How does that appeal to you?" Agatha heard herself faltering something about Miss Finch. "Oh, we'll find a place for Miss Finch," Forbes said tolerantly. "I took it for granted Miss Finch would come along, just as I assumed that your shadow would accompany you." "It may be that Zaida will be married by fall," exclaimed Agatha, seizing the opportunity to post- pone the necessity of answering him. She would not have risked the story on Warren, but she trusted Forbes to understand that even while her voice broke with uncontrollable laughter, she was not holding her old friend up to ridicule. As she de- scribed Miss Finch's singular quandary, Forbes joined in her laughter, more spontaneously than for many weeks, though he made no effort to conceal his amazement. "Miss Finch ! I begin to feel that I haven't done justice to the lady's charms. She has impressed me UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH 217 as colorless, not faded, you know, but colorless from the start." "It's well we don't all see alike," Agatha said de- murely, though a little startled by his perspicacity. His next remark took her by surprise. "It's a thousand pities you never married." Her impertinent retort that there was still time for that, was checked before it left her lips, and re- placed by the less hazardous rejoinder, "In that case, probably I shouldn't be sitting here with you." "True. But my good luck has meant loss to so many. You would have been an incomparable mother. It's a shame you didn't have a dozen chil- dren. Do you know I've never in my life felt such a sense of being mothered as I have since I came to Oak Knoll. My own mother was an invalid when I first remember her." A little confused, but gallantly striving to live up to her maternal role, Agatha patted his arm with her disengaged hand. He showed his filial apprecia- tion by kissing the other. "It wasn't my father's fault, anyway, that you didn't fulfil your destiny. He took me into his con- fidence the last few months of his life, not in any formal way, you understand, just a word dropped 218 AGATHA'S AUNT here and there. He was the tenderest of husbands to my mother, but at the last of his life, his thoughts were all with his first love." He turned toward her with a gesture plainly interrogative. "He must have been rather an attractive young fellow." "He was." Agatha spoke with conviction. "And still you turned him down. I suppose it would be presumptuous to hazard a guess that there was another man." "Yes, I think it would be rather presumptuous," Agatha said breathlessly. "Anyway, it's foolish, dragging up old love-affairs. 'Let the dead past bury its dead,' you know, though you modern young folks don't hold Longfellow in such esteem as my generation did." "I was only thinking that if there was a man who might have married you and didn't, he's probably putting in his time in the next world cursing his luck. But you're not going to be as hard on the son as you were on the father, are you?" "I I do you mean "You're not going to blast all my hopes by saying no. How am I going to get along without you ; tell me that ?" "You must give me a little time to think," Agatha protested faintly. She had vowed that morning to UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH 219 avoid all references in the future to her advanced age, but the habit of acting a part was too strong to be overcome by a single resolution. She heard herself continuing mechanically, "Old people don't like to be hurried into important decisions. Leaving the home of so many years and going away with a young man may seem a very little thing to you, but to me it's a real adventure." "Take all the time you want for reflection," he conceded generously. "Only understand, you must end by saying yes !" "You might change your mind and not want me," Agatha said. The playfulness oozed out of her tone as she voiced her haunting dread. "You might find out something about me, some trait you had never suspected. I might be any number of awful things deceitful, for instance." Again the impulse to confession took her by the throat. Again she fought it off almost with terror. It was too soon. She was not ready. She did not know what to say, and moreover the moment was too sweet to spoil. Forbes laughed tolerantly. "Oh, I'll take the risk. Shall we shake hands on the bargain?'* He was amused by the fervor of her refusal, but his instinct warned him he was carrying his teasing too far. He had a strong conviction that she would 220 AGATHA'S AUNT end by accepting his proposition, but nothing would be gained by hurrying her to a decision. Though in most things she was strangely younger than her years, her age manifested itself in her reluctance to change the established order. He congratulated himself on broaching the subject early enough to give her time for accustoming herself to the idea. A comfortable silence fell between them. Forbes stretched himself on the pine needles, and presently dropped off to sleep. He had held to her hand throughout their talk with seeming playfulness, though perhaps underneath was the instinct of the blind man to establish a link between himself and his kind, to touch what he can not see. In his sleep he moved nearer the imprisoned hand, and lay with his cheek touching it. And though her arm grew very tired from staying in one position so long, pass- ing through the various stages from prickles to ex- cruciating pain, and finally to a numbness which made her wonder if she could ever use it again, Agatha did not move. Indeed as she sat listening to his quiet breathing, feeling through the torture of her cramped muscles the touch of his cheek against her hand, her only quarrel with the hour was that it could not last. CHAPTER XVI MISS FINCH FOLLOWS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE ZAIDA FINCH was not ill-pleased at the pros- pect of a day to herself. Agatha's personal- ity was distracting. It was next to impossible to concentrate your thoughts on your own affairs, how- ever urgent the need, when Agatha was darting about like a bright-plumaged bird, saying things that interested you, even though you frequently found them shocking. "She's a dear girl," Miss Finch reflected, "but upsetting; and I need quiet." She seated herself upon the broad porch, with the inevitable mending, and wearily began weighing the advantages of one suitor against those of his rival. There was the matter of health to be considered, an important factor in reaching a decision. Zaida re- membered a spinster of forty married to a man con- siderably her senior, who had been a bride three weeks to a day when the bridegroom was smitten with paralysis. 221 222 AGATHA'S AUNT "And poor Linda was nothing but a sick-nurse from that on," mused Miss Finch. "He must have lasted a good twenty years. I never was much of a hand in the sick-room. Nursing would wear me out in no time." But though caution sharpened her natural acute- ness, Miss Finch was unable to award to either of the gentlemen who had honored her, any advantage over the other in the matter of health. She could not remember that Deacon Wiggins had ever been ill, though sickness and death had been familiar guests in his household. James Doolittle frequently walked with a limp due to rheumatic trouble, but James came from long-lived stock, and gave a re- assuring impression of toughness. As far as hu- man judgment could play the prophet, she would not be called on to act as nurse to either aspirant, at least for a number of years. Miss Finch's mending suffered. She found it dif- ficult to employ her brain and her ringers in syn- chronous activities, and as selecting a husband nat- urally took precedence over stopping the holes in Howard's socks, she sat much of the morning with her hands lying idle in her lap, her countenance ex- pressing a concentration almost tragic. By noon she A CLASSIC EXAMPLE 223 was fairly limp from the strain and she went to the kitchen to ask Phemie for a cup of tea. The sound of wheels recalled her to the porch before her modest luncheon was disposed of. Her first apprehension that either the deacon or James Doolittle was coming to insist on an immediate an- swer, vanished as she caught sight of two unmis- takably feminine figures on the rear seat of the rickety vehicle approaching. But her feeling of re- assurance was of brief duration. Almost immedi- ately the conviction seized her that the women were strangers. Miss Finch stood quaking. Her constitutional shyness had been so cultivated by a lifetime of keep- ing herself in the background that the prospect of an interview with the unknown women presented itself as an ordeal. It was probable, Miss Finch reflected, that they were city people looking for board. In that case it was only necessary to tell them that they did not wish any additional boarders, and they would have no alternative but to go away. Nevertheless she wished with illogical heartiness that Agatha were at home to assume the responsibil- ity of the interview. The creaking carryall came to a halt in front of 224 AGATHA'S AUNT the house. Miss Finch saw that of the two passen- gers, one was young and one elderly, while both were smartly dressed and formidable. It was the older woman who addressed her, eying her disapprovingly through her lorgnette, and speaking in a tone of in- credulity that somehow was offensive. "My good woman, kindly tell me whether this is Oak Knoll." "Yes, it is," said Miss Finch, reduced by the lorgnette to abject helplessness. The driver growled something from the front seat. Miss Finch understood him to say, "Next time maybe you'll believe me." "And is Mr. Forbes, Mr. Burton Forbes, spend- ing the summer here?" The incredulity was as marked as before and as disagreeable. "Yes'm," replied Miss Finch faintly. "He is." The driver growled again. The substance of his remark, as far as Miss Finch could grasp it in her confusion, seemed to be, "What did I tell you?" But it mattered little to Miss Finch what the driver had to say. A deplorable certainty absorbed her. The women were preparing to alight. There was a trifling delay, owing to the fact they seemed to expect the driver to assist them, while he assured A CLASSIC EXAMPLE 225 them that he did not dare to leave his horses. As the dejected steeds stood with hanging heads, appar- ently resigned to the prospect of dying in their traces, the indignation of the two passengers was amply justified. They were out at last, and while the elderly lady haughtily paid the driver, Miss Finch's distended eyes were taking a rapid inventory of the younger. She was extremely handsome, Miss Finch saw, tall and slender and tremendously striking in her black and white costume. She stood looking about her with an evident disdain which the little spinster might have resented, had she not been chilled by an indefinable fear. When the beautiful stranger spoke, her remark was a complete surprise. "Miss Kent, I suppose." Zaida Finch became aware of an inexplicable hos- tility in the other's manner, of an arrogance that bordered on insolence. She found she was being scrutinized contemptuously. The little drab non- entity felt in her veins an unprecedented stirring of resentment. "No, I'm not," she said with a flatness that seemed deliberately contradictive. "I'm Miss Finch." "Be so kind as to call Miss Kent." "She's out, I'm sorry to say," replied Miss Finch, and her regret was heartfelt. If only Agatha were on hand to give back this presumptuous girl stare for stare, to inquire her errand, in the chilling tone of which Agatha knew the secret, and finally to send her about her business. "Call Mr. Forbes, then." "Mr. Forbes is out, too," Miss Finch explained, and a little chill ran down her spine. She had for- gotten how imperative it was that Agatha should not encounter any of Forbes' friends. If their unwel- come guests lingered, it would be necessary for Agatha to become Hephzibah again with all the in- conveniences attendant on that incarnation. "I've got to get rid of 'em somehow," thought Miss Kent distractedly. But apparently for the younger of the two stran- gers, Miss Finch had ceased to exist. She turned to her companion impatiently. "It's dreadfully boring, Aunt Estelle, but Burton is out at present. We'll have to sit on the porch and wait. Fortu- nately it is shady." "Yes, it seems to be sliady" admitted Aunt Es- telle, with an emphasis indicating that as far as the A CLASSIC EXAMPLE 227 porch was concerned, she could make no further concessions. She climbed the steps looking about her with multiplying evidences of disquiet. "Ask her when Burton will be back," she enjoined, exactly as if Miss Finch had spoken a foreign tongue, and could be addressed only through an interpreter. Miss Finch did not wait to have the inquiry trans- lated. "I don't know when he'll be back," she said quickly. "Probably he'll be gone all day." "He'll return for luncheon, I suppose," said Aunt Estelle, grudgingly acknowledging Miss Finch's abil- ity to speak English, but apparently liking her no better on that account. "No, he won't," declared Miss Finch, with unac- customed positiveness. "They took sandwiches." The two women exchanged glances. "Who is with Mr. Forbes?" asked the younger. Her manner implied her right to know. "Ag well, Miss Kent went with him." And to herself Miss Finch added wildly, "I can't have a lie on my conscience, even for Agatha." "Who else was in the party, please?" The young woman in black and white had become a judge, and Miss Finch, the prisoner at the bar. 228 AGATHA'S AUNT "There wasn't anybody else," gasped Miss Finch, with every indication of uttering a deliberate and premeditated falsehood. "Where were they going?" "I don't know exactly. They were going for a picnic somewhere, but I didn't hear 'em say where. I don't know as they knew themselves." The judicial sternness became more marked as the prisoner's embarrassment increased. "You mean that Mr. Forbes and Miss Kent have gone off for the day with sandwiches?" Something in her in- flection made the mention of sandwiches the crown- ing insult to her intelligence. "Yes," faltered Miss Finch guiltily. "They often take long walks, and carry a picnic lunch." The older lady spoke with asperity. "It's a pre- posterous situation. I'm sorry to remind you, Julia, that I said at the start it would be better to tele- graph." Miss Finch started violently. She recalled Agatha's confidential assurance that Forbes was in love with a despicable young woman named Julia, but that the aforesaid Julia was to marry another man. Yet here she was, undeniably handsome, ter- rifyingly elegant, and worst of all, with no apparent A CLASSIC EXAMPLE 229 doubt as to her right to be demanding the immediate producing of Mr. Forbes. The two women had seated themselves, Aunt Estelle ostentatiously dusting the rocker she trusted with her ample person. Miss Finch proffered a be- lated and reluctant hospitality. "If you're thinking of sitting here long, I'll see about getting you something to eat." Julia brushed the offer aside without thanks. "We shall wait for Mr. Forbes." "It is really absurd, you know," Aunt Estelle con- tributed, "for us to sit waiting indefinitely. Burton must be somewhere about. A blind man and an old woman can not possibly walk very far. Why are they not sent for?" As her inquiry was addressed to Julia, Julia passed it on to Miss Finch, her extremely frigid tone indi- cating that Miss Finch should have thought of that herself. "There's nobody to send except the hired girl," Miss Finch explained despairingly. "And she never was known to find anything, even if it was right under her nose. If only Howard " Miss Finch checked herself abruptly. A thought had flashed across her mind so dazzling in its bril- 230 AGATHA'S AUNT liancy she could hardly believe herself capable of originating it. Indeed, the probability is that she had not done so, but that some extravagant fancy of Agatha's, falling like seed into her subconscious- ness, had lain there dormant till the emergency brought it to swift germination. Zaida Finch had never heard of Victor Hugo's saintly nun, crowning a lifetime of sanctity by a devout and holy lie, but unconsciously she was inspired to emulate her ex- ample. With Miss Finch veracity was almost a mania. She was one of the tiresome people who are contin- ually suspecting themselves of exaggeration or of misrepresentation of something absolutely without importance, and then bore their associates by insist- ing on their attention while they painstakingly cor- rect their statements. Yet now she forgot her habitual dread of falsehood. If a lie were neces- sary to save Agatha, lie she must. She resumed her interrupted sentence, pale but resolute. "If only Howard was well, he could look for 'em. He could find 'em if anybody could. But it'll be a good while before he does much running around, I guess." The two visitors regarded her stonily. In her A CLASSIC EXAMPLE 231 simplicity she had assumed their cooperation to the extent of a question or two. They would surely ask her who Howard was, or why he was incapacitated. But apparently these matters did not interest them in the slightest degree. It was necessary for Miss Finch to continue her career of mendacity unaided by so much as the lifting of an interrogative eye- brow. Miss Finch rose to the occasion. "He's sick, you know," she confided to the two pairs of indifferent ears. "High fever, and considerable of a rash if you'd call it a rash." Aunt Estelle showed a slight uneasiness. "You've consulted a physician, I suppose." "We're trying a kind of mental cure first," replied Miss Finch as glibly as if she had practised perjury from her childhood. "And then if that don't work, Ag Miss Kent is going to call in the doctor. But she don't like to do it till she has to, for it would be awful inconvenient to be quarantined." "Quarantined," exclaimed Aunt Estelle with fresh evidences of perturbation. "Have you any reason to think that it may be contagious?" "Most of these rashy diseases are," Miss Finch replied. And though there was no malice in her 232 AGATHA'S AUNT composition, she was conscious of relishing Aunt Estelle's air of agitation. "I'm hoping it's nothing worse than scarlet fever, though there's been a good many cases of smallpox around here lately. And I don't know that Howard's ever been vaccinated." Aunt Estelle rose from her chair with a little cry. In her palpitating pallor she reminded Miss Finch irresistibly of blanc-mange. "Smallpox, Julia," she exclaimed. "Do you hear what the woman says smallpox ! Even if we escape \vith our lives, one's complexion oh, my God ! Why did I ever listen to this mad idea of yours!" Julia's composure was in refreshing contrast to her aunt's excitement. She rose, it is true, but only to advance to the older woman's side and whisper in her ear. And having whispered, she calmly re- sumed her seat, and looked away toward the hills, apparently intensely interested in the scenery. Aunt Estelle stood irresolute. "Do you really think so ?" "I'm absolutely sure of it," said Julia. "I think I noticed a little wildness in the eye my- self," Aunt Estelle conceded, with a return of her earlier conviction of Miss Finch's inability to under- stand English. A CLASSIC EXAMPLE 233 "Unmistakable," opined Julia. Miss Finch looked blankly from one to the other and hope was at low ebb. They were going to stay. She had thrilled with childlike pride at the discovery of her own inventiveness, culpable though it might be. Complacency had whispered that Agatha her- self could not have done better. And now she real- ized that her effort had failed. She had sacrificed her conscience to friendship, and the sacrifice had been in vain. Though not so quick-witted as many another, she had no difficulty in recognizing the con- clusion these strangers had reached. To herself she said, "They think I'm crazy." Miss Finch was not at the end of her resources. Her lapse from the path of rectitude had proved strangely stimulating to the imagination. She meant to get rid of these women before Agatha re- turned. Agatha would be equal to the emergency provided she were not taken by surprise. If Julia and her aunt were not afraid of smallpox, it was possible that they might be afraid of a crazy woman who showed signs of becoming violent. "G-r-r-r-r " said Miss Finch menacingly. Aunt Estelle jumped and took another chair. For the first time in her life, Miss Finch felt herself at no 234 AGATHA'S AUNT disadvantage because of her insignificant propor- tions. "G-r-r-r-r-r " she said again. "Julia," exclaimed Aunt Estelle nervously, "do you really think it's safe " The intrepidity of the modern young woman passes comprehension. "Harmless, I imagine," Julia said with nonchalance. "Otherwise Burton would hardly have remained." "Why he should have remained in this place under any circumstances," declared Aunt Estelle, "passes my comprehension." "There must be some reason we know nothing about. Burton will explain." Something in Julia's tone implied that Forbes would not find explana' tions altogether easy. She added with evident re- lief, "Here he comes now." "Thank heaven!" cried Aunt Estelle piously. Miss Finch looked wildly in the direction of Julia's steadfast gaze. All was over. Arm in arm across the grass, so absorbed in each other that the girl was as blind as the man to the audience on the porch, came Agatha and Forbes. CHAPTER XVII THE DAY OF JUDGMENT FORBES woke refreshed from his sylvan nap, and sat for a little discoursing on the invig- orating effect of contact with mother earth, while Agatha, by drastic massage, restored the circulation to her temporarily paralyzed arm. The sun had dipped but little toward the western horizon when they turned their faces homeward, and they walked slowly. Agatha exulted in heat. A temperature of ninety stimulated her both physically and men- tally. But Forbes found the warmth of the day re- laxing, and she set the pace with that fact in mind. Toward the last of their long leisurely walk, Forbes brought up the subject he had introduced earlier in the day. Though he made no effort to hurry her to a decision, he sketched entertainingly some of the diversions she might anticipate, if she accepted his invitation for the winter. The program was planned with due regard for the infirmities of age, but Agatha listened raptly. 235 236 AGATHA'S AUNT They were but a few rods from their destination, Forbes talking earnestly, and Agatha hanging on his words, when some mysterious sixth sense warned her of danger. She looked ahead and instantly halted. Forbes felt her figure stiffen against his arm, and instinct told him she was frightened. "What is the matter?" he cried, sickening with a new realization of his helplessness. Agatha did not answer, but as she stared ahead she understood that doomsday had arrived un- heralded. A young woman was tripping toward them, a handsome young woman, who even without beauty would have attracted all eyes by the distinc- tion of her dress and bearing. It could be no other than Julia. The ample lady in the background, fol- lowing with a haste that empurpled her complexion, that she might not be left tete-a-tete with a maniac, failed to attract Agatha's attention. Julia's grace- ful figure dominated the landscape. "What is the matter?" Forbes again demanded. He laid his hand reassuringly over the fingers trem- bling upon his arm. And at that moment a voice subtly reproachful, suggestively tender, spoke his name. "Burton !" "Julia!" Forbes shouted. His dear old friend, THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 237 Miss Kent, and her mysterious perturbation, were instantly forgotten. He started forward, remem- bered that he was blind, stood irresolute, his hands outstretched. "Julia !" he cried again, this time with entreaty as well as rapture. Agatha was ready to believe that then and there she had amply atoned for her sins, past and present. Even the certainty that the hour of her humiliation was at hand could not hurt worse than the joy ring- ing through his voice as he spoke another woman's name. She wondered dully at her own folly. She had been warned and had not heeded. She had known all the time of his love for Julia, and yet had foolishly assumed that since Julia's selfish decision had put her out of his reach, he would turn to her for consolation. Her pride had not rebelled over taking what Julia had thrown away. Indeed she had thought very little about herself. Her one de- sire was to be light to his blind eyes, balm to his wounded heart. But her castle of dreams was in ruins, as soon as he spoke the name she had hated from the first day she had heard it on his lips. Julia approached him as swiftly as was consistent with grace, a rather insolent triumph in the glance she shot over his shoulder toward the pale girl stand- 238 AGATHA'S AUNT ing in the background. "Yes, Burton," she said gently, "it is Julia," and extended both hands. He caught them ardently and held them fast, his eager face questioning her dumbly, though he only said, "What a wonderful surprise! How good of you, how very good of you!" "My aunt, Mrs. Knox, is with me, Burton," con- tinued Julia, the pensiveness of her tone flatly con- tradicted by her air of elation. "I think you have met Mr. Forbes, Aunt Estelle." Aunt Estelle, still panting, brought herself into hand-shaking distance and this formality helped to recall Forbes to the realization that there were other people in the world besides Julia and himself. He turned toward Agatha. "This is a pleasure I have been promising my- self," he said. "Julia, I want you to know my dear friend, Miss Kent. Miss Kent, let me present Mrs. Knox and Miss Studley." The blankness of the silence that ensued was as definite as a blow. Forbes stood awaiting the con- ventional formula, but his quick ear could detect only the sound of hurried breathing. Again he turned toward Agatha, but for the first time she failed him. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 239 "Miss Kent is still here, is she not?" queried Forbes. He remembered his ideas had been chaotic after discovering Julia's presence. His late com- panion might easily have withdrawn without attract- ing his attention. For so simple a question, the effect was startling. "Burton," Julia cried, her voice sharp to the point of shrillness, "what are you talking about?" Aunt Estelle caught her sleeve. "Can't you un- derstand, Julia?" she hissed. "This place is a pri- vate asylum. That crazy old creature on the porch, and now him. It's perfectly plain. Let us go away at once." Forbes caught most of this sibilant outburst. He turned white with anger. "Miss Kent?" he pleaded, and Agatha pulled herself together. Her voice was steady if slightly unnatural, as she answered, "Yes, I am here." Forbes tried to laugh. The consciousness of be- ing enveloped in baffling mystery made his blindness doubly intolerable. There was a bewilderment in his voice that wrung Agatha's heart. "This is what I have been hoping for all summer. You know how often I've wished you and Miss Studley might know each other." 240 AGATHA'S AUNT "Burton," Julia screamed, "who and what is this person?" The contempt in her tone, even more than her disdainful phrasing, brought the blood racing to his forehead. "Julia!" He seemed to defy her to go on. "If you have read my letters at all," he said in a vibrant voice, "you know both who Miss Kent is and how much I am in her debt." "Miss Kent! Your father's friend!" "And mine as well, Julia." There was no ecstatic tenderness now in his use of her name, but indignant sternness. "Burton, either you are insane or the woman is an impostor. She is not old. She is young, hardly more than a girl." Forbes attempted to reply, but for a moment no words came. He put his hand to his forehead with a confused gesture. "I have been off in the woods with Miss Kent all day," he stammered. "I sup- posed I had not noticed " Again he turned in Agatha's direction. "Who are you, please?" There was no trace of emotion in her composed answer. "I am Agatha Kent." "Do you dare to say," shrieked Julia, "that you were the friend of Mr. Forbes' father?" THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 241 "I never saw Mr. Forbes' father." Forbes took a step ahead, then halted, and stood with his feet a little apart, like one who balances himself on the deck of a heaving ship in a high sea. "But where," he stammered, "where is the other Miss Kent?" "There is no other. My Great-aunt Agatha, for whom I was named, died twelve years ago." There was a momentary palpitating silence which Julia was the first to break. "And you mean," she arraigned her, "that all this summer you have been a deliberate impostor, palm- ing yourself off on Mr. Forbes as an old woman, allowing him to think oh, it's too shameful. I can't believe any girl would be so base." "It is quite true, nevertheless," Agatha assured her gently. Her steady eyes met Julia's, and even that intrepid young woman drew back a step. Her momentary shrinking was not unreasonable for could concentrated hate smite like a lightning bolt, her life would have been measured by seconds. Instinct taught Julia how to repay that level look by the deadliest hurt. She turned on Forbes furi- ously. "Do you mean to tell me that you have been the victim of a hoax all summer, that this girl has 242 AGATHA'S AUNT passed herself off on you for an old woman? But, no, it isn't possible. You've contrived this out- rageous story between you to cover up something disgraceful. You couldn't have been such a dupe as you pretend. It's incredible!" Forbes' color came and went during this attack. "It seems incredible," he owned when she gave him opportunity. "I don't blame you for questioning the truth of such a story. I can only remind you that it is easy to deceive a blind man." Something in Agatha's stony whiteness convinced Julia that she had made no mistake in her choice of retribution. She gave the screws another turn. "You mean for me to believe, Burton, that you've been only the gullible victim of a swindle, that this impostor has tricked you successfully all these months?'* There was a rather long silence. "Yes," said Forbes tonelessly, "that is what I mean." Julia's first sense of being at a disadvantage had passed. She was thoroughly enjoying herself. "I begin to understand your strange letter," she said, addressing Agatha. "Your letter of congrat- ulation, you know. I suppose you are the young woman to whom you referred, the one with whom THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 243 Mr. Forbes had spent so much time, you no doubt remember." There was such malicious satisfaction in her tone that Forbes turned as if to interfere. Then his up- lifted arm dropped rather heavily to his side. "You'll laugh when I tell you, Burton," exclaimed Julia, setting him the example by laughing herself, most unpleasantly. "But she insinuated in this let- ter that you might marry her. That is at the bottom of this outrageous plot. She actually thought she could compromise you in some dreadful way and force you to marry her. Shocking as it is, one can't help being amused." Forbes' only answer was again to lift his hand to his head. It was Agatha who spoke. Unmasked ad- venturess as she was, her dignity was in rather agreeable contrast to Julia's vindictive shrillness. "It is hardly necessary to trouble Mr. Forbes with any further details," she said, "since, thanks to you, my plot against his peace has been exposed. I sup- pose you will want to take him away as soon as possible." "Oh, at once." Julia showed signs of becoming hysterical. "The very first train. I feel as if I couldn't breathe in this atmosphere of deceit." 244 AGATHA'S AUNT "I'm afraid there is no train before five o'clock, but I'll have the carriage ready in plenty of time. And now, if you will excuse me, I shall see about getting you some luncheon." "Luncheon! Good heavens, I couldn't eat a mouthful. It would choke me." Mrs. Knox seconded her niece admirably. "It would not be safe, Julia. A person capable of all this would not hesitate to poison our food." Agatha accepted this tribute without comment. "Will you pack Mr. Forbes' things yourself?" she said, addressing Julia. Again Mrs. Knox intervened. "Julia, I forbid you to go into that house, with this girl, and that dreadful, crazy creature " Forbes interrupted with signs of irritation. "You said that once before. There is no insane woman here." "I am afraid you are not a very good judge of What is or is not here, Mr. Forbes," replied Aunt Estelle, scoring again. "We had a most unpleasant encounter with a woman clearly insane. She posi- tively gibbered." "Yes, Burton," Julia cried with shrewish enjoy- ment, "you have been made a laughing-stock all summer, poor dear. You've kept writing about this fine old place. I wish you could see it. It's simply in the last stages of dilapidation." "It's ready to fall to pieces," corroborated Aunt Estelle. "I didn't venture inside, but the glimpses of the interior I got from the window showed that everything was fairly moth-eaten." "Yes," Agatha admitted quietly. "We are very poor, so poor that a blind boarder seemed provi- dential. Won't you sit on the porch till the carriage is ready ?" she added politely. "I'm sure Mr. Forbes is tired after his long walk." "Oh, please," protested Julia, her self-control shaken by the other's calm, "please drop this pretext of being so interested in Mr. Forbes' welfare. After the fraud you have practised on him all summer you can hardly expect him to believe anything you say." "Oh, no," said Agatha. "I don't expect that for a moment. And now if you're sure you won't eat a little luncheon, I'll bid you all good afternoon." She went across the grass to the house, carrying herself with her chin high, moving deliberately. No one could have guessed the fact of which she was so cer- tain, that during the encounter she had ceased to be a girl, that she had leaped without any intervening 246 AGATHA'S AUNT stages of maturity and middle life, straight to old age, that dreadful old age, beyond hope or joy, the age that is death in life. Agatha remembered won- deringly that once the mere flicker of sunshine through leaves, the mere fragrance of a flower, had a magic to quicken her pulses. A little after three the carryall appeared. How- ard was driving, and Forbes' suit-case and other im- pedimenta lay on the seat beside him. As he helped his passengers in, he explained that the trunk would be sent by express next day. This announcement was received in frigid silence whereupon Howard, too, became sulkily silent and used the whip on the fat bays with such effect that they covered the five miles between Oak Knoll and the village station at an unprecedented rate of speed. Forbes thawed a little when Howard helped him to alight, and stood for a moment beside him. "Good-by, Mr. Forbes," the boy said huskily. "I'm awfully sorry you're going." He put out his hand and after an instant's hesi- tation Forbes gripped it. He had grown fond of the boy. "Oh, Howard," he said, his voice betray- ing his hurt, "I wouldn't have believed it of you." He heard Howard gulp and then burst out sob- THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 247 bing. Fortunately for the boy's pride, the hour was early and the station platform lacked its customary contingent of loafers. "We didn't mean anything, Mr. Forbes," Howard choked. "Aggie wanted to take boarders, so she could send me to school, but when they saw how old and shabby the house was, they wouldn't come." "Is she your sister?" "Kind of one. Her father married my mother. She's better than a thousand real sisters." "Burton," said Julia's voice beside them, "I wouldn't encourage the boy by listening to him. Probably that young woman has coached him in a new series of lies." "Aggie never tells lies," Howard challenged her hotly. "This was like a charade or something. Mr. Forbes thought she was old and so she pre- tended to be. We had lots of fun and it didn't do anybody any harm." He appealed to Forbes. "She took good care of you anyway, didn't she, Mr. Forbes?" "Really, Burton," expostulated Julia, "I can not allow this to go on. These people evidently regard you as fair game. It's dreadful that your blindness should put you so at the mercy of the unscrupulous, 248 AGATHA'S AUNT but I shall see that you are not imposed on while I am with you. Send this boy away." "He doesn't need to send me away," Howard ex- ploded indignantly. "I'm going." He seized Forbes' hand again. "Good-by, Mr. Forbes. Come and see us some time." Julia gasped. "Did any one ever imagine such impertinence!" she asked of high heaven. "Such people seem to be without natural shame. I suppose they are so accustomed to being found out in false- hood and fraud that they take it as a matter of course. In the interest of justice there should be some way of punishing them. Couldn't they be prosecuted, Burton, for obtaining money under false pretenses ?" Forbes made no reply. Apparently he did not share Julia's lofty enthusiasm for abstract justice. His air of bewildered dejection suggested a lost child, rather than a man rescued from a false and in- tolerable position by the lady of his heart. CHAPTER XVIII WARREN GETS A TIP RDGELEY WARREN had been to the station to bid a friend bon voyage. He presented himself armed with a box of chocolates, the latest novel and three brand-new witticisms culled from a roof-garden program the previous evening. The pretty girl had accepted his offerings with marked graciousness and had laughed convulsively at each of the jokes, thereby intensifying Warren's habitual sense of being on good terms with himself and all the world. His spirits unclouded by the pang of parting, he strolled toward the exit, trying to decide where to dine, when his own name reached his ears coupled with a fervent ejaculation, "Mr. Warren! Thank heaven !" Warren spun on his heel to encounter Julia ad- vancing with extended hand. Julia was not one of Warren's favorites, but her pleasure at the sight of him was contagious. "Gosh !" he exclaimed agree- ably, "this is luck." 249 250 AGATHA'S AUNT It was while shaking hands with Julia that War- ren became aware of Mrs. Knox's imposing figure in the background. And scarcely had he lifted his hat in recognition of her presence, when his eye fell on Forbes, a pale and woebegone object, committed to the clumsy guardianship of a station porter. Warren turned on Julia blithely. "Don't tell me you've sprung a surprise on us. Don't say that I should have Come with my pockets full of rice." "Oh, Mr. Warren, be serious, please." There was gentle reproach in Julia's uplifted eyes. "It seems really providential meeting you here. Now you can take charge of Burton till he finds some suitable per- son to look after him." "What's become of the nice little chap who has been on the job all summer?" "Oh, Mr. Warren !" Julia's gesture indicated the futility of attempting immediate explanations. "It's a long, a dreadful story, and it will take time to make ydu understand." "Hm ! I'm not usually considered so dense." "But this isn't like anything else. It's incredible. I can hardly believe it myself. Let's go to some quiet place where we can have dinner and talk things over." WARREN GETS A TIP 251 ''Yes, for heaven's sake, let us have dinner," snapped Mrs. Knox. An unusually early hour of rising, together with a midday fast, had reduced her to an unwonted state of nervous irritability. Forbes, too, seemed wrapped in impenetrable gloom. It was not a cheerful party. Warren's curiosity was aroused. He found a taxi, bundled the dejected trio inside and gave the driver directions. He was rather shocked to see how ill Forbes looked on nearer view, but he con- cealed that emotion under his usual cloak of levity, and told humorous stories all the way to their des- tination, covering the lack of responsiveness on the part of his audience by roars of appreciative laughter. The staid hotel which Warren had selected, though yielding to modern demands sufficiently to institute a roof dining-room, discouraged such inno- vations as would be likely to attract the light- minded, and Warren's party had no difficulty in se- curing a table. Warren assumed the prerogative of host and ordered with a lavishness productive of a marked unbending on the part of Mrs. Knox. Julia, too, was hungry enough to look forward to a good dinner with unwonted anticipation, and she smiled 252 AGATHA'S AUNT on him appreciatively. Only Forbes remained mood- ily aloof. It was over the soup that Warren said cheerily, "Well, now, what's it all about?" He was begin- ning to realize that something unusual must have occurred to bring Julia and her aunt to town in August, as well as to account for Forbes' strange, dispirited silence. Mrs. Knox immediately protested. "Oh, Mr. Warren, don't spoil a good meal by bringing up that abominable affair." "Oh, yes, let it wait, please, Mr. Warren," sighed Julia. "Actually when one realizes what wickedness there is in the world deceit and imposture and things of that sort it seems fairly heartless to en- joy one's self." "Then we'll wait for explanations till dinner is over," Warren conceded, with undiminished buoy- ancy. But although he made himself entertaining in his usual fashion, his mind was busy with the problem Julia had suggested. Who was the girl hit- ting, with her talk of deceit and imposture? She could not refer to Miss Kent, naturally, and How- ard was equally out of the question. Could it be that Hephzibah's existence had come to her atten- WARREN GETS A TIP 253 tion ? Was it possible that Forbes had been playing a lone hand and had thereby become involved in an entanglement from which his betrothed had mag- nanimously rescued him. The unrelieved melan- choly of Forbes' face and manner rendered this ex- planation entirely plausible. When the coffee was brought on and the men lighted cigarettes, Warren felt, not unnaturally, that his hungry curiosity had a right to satisfaction. "Well, I'm as ready to be shocked as I ever shall be," he said. "Let's hear what has happened. Don't tell me that the staid Miss Kent was on the point of eloping with old Forbes." To Warren's surprise, this apparently innocent witticism caused Forbes to flush darkly. He no- ticed, too, that Julia's expression lost something of its pensive sweetness, but even then he was unpre- pared for the acidity of the tone with which she an- swered him. "There is no Miss Kent." "Eh?" Warren looked rather stupid. "Strictly speaking," admitted Julia, "there is a person who calls herself by that name. But the nice old lady who was Burton's father's friend has been dea.d a dozen years," 254 AGATHA'S AUNT Warren knocked the ashes from his cigarette with painstaking deliberation. "Must be a rather lively old ghost," he commented, striving to live up to his principle of never showing surprise, "accord- ing to all Forbes tells." "Oh, poor Burton," Julia cried, with a glance of angelic commiseration in the direction of her grimly silent lover. "Wouldn't you have thought that Bur- ton's misfortune would have appealed to the better instincts of the most depraved? But instead, they take advantage of his blindness to trick him in the most infamous fashion. The person who calls her- self Agatha Kent I suppose it really is her name, though any one so absolutely deceitful is as likely to lie about one thing as another " "Well ?" trumpeted Warren, his strained patience showing itself in the unnecessary loudness of his challenge. "Do hush, Mr. Warren, everybody's looking at us. This Kent woman isn't a nice motherly person. She isn't old at all, not a bit older than I am." Warren sucked at his cigarette for a moment and blew the smoke through his nose. He needed a little time in order to preserve the imperturbable de- meanor on which he prided himself. He looked at WARREN GETS A TIP 255 Julia to be sure she was in earnest, looked at Forbes to see if he were not going to deny this incredible story, and then expressed his feelings by a low whistle. "Not a nice motherly person," he repeated in- anely. "About as old as you are." "She may even be a little younger," Julia ad- mitted generously. Warren's air of incredulity deepened. He threw the uncommunicative Forbes a challenging glance. "Do you mean that Forbes has been spending all his time with her for the past three months and never suspected that she wasn't an old woman?" "So he claims." Julia's inflection was decidedly tart. Forbes made one of his rare contributions to the conversation. "I wouldn't have believed such a thing possible myself, but blindness makes one an easy victim." "Poor Burton !" murmured Julia, melting at once. "To think that any girl should have the heart to take such advantage of another's misfortune." "But I can't see what she was getting at," Warren demurred. "I've heard that occasionally ladies rep- resent themselves as younger than they really are, 256 AGATHA'S AUNT and the reason for that seems plain enough. But why the devil should a young girl want to make her- self out an old maid of seventy." "Purely mercenary at the start," Julia opined. "As I understand it, Burton saw her advertisement for a boarder, and wrote her, supposing she was his father's old friend. And she decided to pass her- self off as her great-aunt so as to get as much out of Burton as she could." "That young woman must have plenty of nerve. It's plain she needed the money, as far as that goes. Place is terribly run-down." "Oh, shockingly," Mrs. Knox corroborated him, in her deepest tones. "All the furniture I could see through the windows seemed mere wrecks." "On its last legs," Warren agreed. *He waited for a moment and then asked casually, "Well, what's the fuss about? What harm did it do?" The two women uttered a simultaneous ejacula- tion of horror. "A piece of barefaced fraud," cried Mrs. Knox. "She has been getting money under false pre- tenses," flared Julia. "I believe she can be arrested like any other swindler, and punished," WARREN GETS A TIP 257 Warren shrugged his shoulders. "I can't see where the harm comes in," he persisted stubbornly. "She made Forbes comfortable all summer, so com- fortable that now he looks like a baby that's being weaned. She took his money, but judging from the meals I ate there, she gave him his money's worth. If she'd been an old party, passing herself off as a youthful beauty, Forbes would have a right to kick. But under the circumstances is seems to me you're making a mountain out of a mole-hill." Warren's amiable defense of the guilty was not well received. Aunt Estelle regarded him with open hostility, and Julia seemed pained by his moral obtuseness. A flicker of interest lighted Forbes' im- passive face and suggested to Warren that his line of argument appealed more strongly to his mascu- line listener than to the women. Although he held no brief for Agatha Kent, he pressed his advantage. "We don't know, any of us, what we might do if we were up against it. I've often thought I would commit highway robbery if I were hungry enough. I'll say this for the girl, anyway: She must be a peach of an actress. If she could knock around with a man all summer, walk with him and talk with 258 AGATHA'S AUNT him and pet him a little, when he was down in the mouth, and yet never let him suspect that she wasn't old enough to be his grandmother " "Really, Mr. Warren," Julia said with asperity, "I can't see any point in continuing this conversa- tion. I had hoped you might be able to make some helpful suggestions regarding Burton, for of course I understand that you can't be burdened with him for more than a few days. But if you are going to spend the evening defending that brazen, red- haired" "What!" roared Warren. This time he had done it. The head waiter looked in his direction appre- hensively. Aunt Estelle took the protest from Julia's lips. "Pardon me, Mr. Warren, but I must remind you that my niece and I dislike to be made conspicuous by such demonstrations." Warren ignored the reproof. "What did you call her?" he demanded of Julia, whose only answer was an offended stare. "Did you say she was red-haired ?" "I I did. Though why you should attach any importance to anything so trivial, I confess I don't understand." WARREN GETS A TIP 259 Warren did not attempt to enlighten her. He in- dicated to the waiter that he was ready for his check and his manner was offensively jubilant. "I'm afraid," he said genially, "that you'll have to make some plan for disposing of old Forbes besides com- mitting him to my tender mercies. I've just remem- bered that I'm going out of town in the morning, early train." Julia looked startled. "But what is Burton to do, then?" "Just what he would have done if you hadn't run across me. Though if you'd like my candid advice " "Yes, please," said Julia, and tried to look win- ning. It did not suit her that Warren should slip away in this cavalier fashion, leaving her with a blind man on her hands. She had important plans for the remainder of the week. Twenty-four hours was all she could possibly spare for Forbes. "Then I advise you to marry him offhand. You have taken him away from one young woman who was devoting herself to making him comfortable. I should say that the least you could do was to fol- low her example." Julia's gasp of rage made Warren think of a cat 260 AGATHA'S AUNT whose tail has been trodden on. From across the table Forbes promptly requested him to mind his own business. "Just a bit of good advice, old man," Warren soothed him. "Take it or leave it, as you please. Anything more I can do for you people before I go?" A frigid silence indicated that any service he could offer would be unwelcome, whereupon War- ren, having tipped the waiter with a liberality indic- ative of a jocund spirit, took his smiling departure, leaving dejection behind him. After a talk with the night clerk, it was arranged that Forbes should remain at the hotel, an adaptable bell-boy agreeing to act as his valet in the morning. Before Mrs. Knox and Julia took refuge in another hostelry, the lovers had a moment to themselves. Julia was in an unpleasant mood. The emphasis Warren had laid on Miss Kent's histrionic powers had awakened her ready suspicion. As she found herself alone for a moment with her lover, his look of weary dejection aroused her resentment. "It's most extraordinary, Burton," she com- plained, "that you should never have suspected her WARREN GETS A TIP 261 of being younger than she pretended. I could see that Mr. Warren didn't believe it for a minute." Forbes replied with perfect conviction that War- ren was an ass. "I should have thought that if you didn't find it out when you were holding her hands, you would have realized it the moment you took her in your arms." "Damnation!" Forbes was goaded beyond en- durance. "I never took her in my arms." "She said you did," insisted Julia, eying him sus- piciously. "In that preposterous letter she wrote me, you know. She said you often held her hands and patted them and that sort of thing." "I did, I admit it. I supposed her a contemporary of my father's, you remember." "And she said that once, under rather unusual cir- cumstances, you took her in your arms." "An absolute lie !" blazed Forbes. "But of course if you are going to doubt my word, Julia " Julia said no, that she did not doubt him. She added that when a person had lived a lie for months, one more little falsehood would not mean much. Then she gave him her hand to kiss, and was an- 262 AGATHA'S AUNT noyed when he only pressed it and said good night. She had to remind herself that though there was no one near to witness the act of devotion, Burton could not know that he was unobserved, and his un- demonstrative demeanor was undoubtedly due to his unwillingness to compromise her. It was while the adaptable bell-boy was conduct- ing his charge to his room, that enlightenment came. Forbes gave a convulsive start. "Damnation!" he exclaimed, for the second time in fifteen minutes. "Yes, sir, our floor, sir!" The bell-boy eyed him expectantly. He had an adventurous spirit, though condemned to carry suit-cases and bring ice-water on request. It looked as if there might be something doing with a gentleman who jumped so high and swore so roundly in a public elevator, Forbes had only realized that the letter Julia had quoted had contained no falsehood. He understood Warren's excitement over the discovery that Agatha Kent was red-haired. Agatha and Hephzibah were one and the same. The circumstances which led to his taking her in his arms were unusual, indeed. In the close corri- dors of the city hotel he seemed to smell again the scent of sun-kissed fields. As the bell-boy gripped WARREN GETS A TIP 263 his arm, he felt against his heart the pressure of that lithe young body, shaken by sobs. His cheek had brushed another, smooth and fragrant. His pulses had answered the indefinable challenge of youth and beauty. They thrilled again at the mere memory. Forbes did not fall asleep till nearly morning. He lay awake, trying to decide how far the situation was altered by the fact that Agatha Kent had saved his life. CHAPTER XIX THE WORM TURNS IN THE hour or two of troubled sleep closing his wakeful night, Forbes dreamed vividly and woke with Agatha's voice echoing in his ears. He started up, his lips parted to speak her name, then dropped back upon his pillows with a sense of desolate loss that tried his powers of self-control. So faithfully had his memory reproduced every intonation of the familiar voice that it had seemed to bring the living woman to his side. He recog- nized the maternal note which had appealed to him the more because of his unmothered boyhood, the undertone of indulgent humor which was charac- teristic of the friend on whom he had learned to lean. Only there was no such friend. Her place had been taken by a stranger, capable of bewildering changes of identity, Miss Kent, Hephzibah, and now this newcomer, Agatha, self-confessed impostress who could, even when unmasked and flouted, pre- 264 THE WORM TURNS 265 serve the dignity which is the heritage of race. He found himself thrilled by an inexplicable pride as he remembered the even voice with which she had an- swered Julia's shrillness. i The adaptable bell-boy presented himself in due time and awkwardly assisted him with his dressing. After visiting the barber, he was conducted to the hotel dining-room, and here the realization was brought home to him that for many a month Agatha's tact had stood between him and embarrass- ment. She had prepared his food so that he ate without any especial sense of being at a disadvan- tage. His fork was always at hand when he wanted it. His glass of water and his cup of coffee were magically present to his need. In the hotel dining- room he heard whispers at his back, and once a sound like smothered laughter, and he tingled with the shamed consciousness of being a show for curi- ous eyes. His face burned throughout the meal, and his eating was largely pretense. Forbes' engagement with Julia was for ten o'clock. At quarter before the hour, the bell-boy who had taken him in charge conducted him to a stiff little parlor on the second floor, and left him after a whispered explanation to the maid. Time is 266 AGATHA'S AUNT proverbially slow- footed from the standpoint of lov- ers, but as Forbes sat waiting he felt sure that his impatience did not explain the seemingly endless duration of those fifteen minutes. The maid came to him at last to ask if there was anything she could do. "I'd like to know the time, please." "Half past eleven, sir." "Half past eleven," Forbes repeated. Oddly his first emotion was a feeling of relief that Agatha did not know. The parlor maid was offering encouragement. "Prob'ly something's happened to detain the young lady, sir. But I don't believe she'll be much longer." "Let us hope not," Forbes replied dryly. The proudest of men, he winced at the unmistakable sympathy of the woman's tone. It was not fair that he should be subjected to such humiliation. Julia arrived upon the stroke of noon, voluble over some undeniable bargains in blouses. She had stopped at one of the exclusive little shops, preferred by the knowing to the big emporiums, only intend- ing, she explained vivaciously, to make one small purchase. But the woman had kept showing her the loveliest things, and all so reasonable. There THE WORM TURNS 267 was practically no one in the place, so that it had seemed like shopping in some strange city. And it was worth coming to town in the hot weather just to pick up such bargains. "I'm glad your effort was not thrown quite away," Forbes remarked with an irony that glanced harmless from Julia's armor. "Oh, no, Burton, I don't grudge any sacrifice I have made. Getting you out of the clutches of that harpy was worth it all." She waited for a suitable expression of gratitude from the gentleman she had rescued. After a pause which Forbes failed to fill appropriately, she spoke again, and this time with grave seriousness. "Now, Burton, it's only two hours before my train leaves and I must have luncheon, so we'd bet- ter lose no time deciding on the wisest course to take in this affair." Again Forbes failed to respond. Julia eyed him suspiciously. "I hope you haven't an idea of passing this out- rage over without taking any action, Burton. It's that sort of laxity that makes criminals." "Perhaps you have decided on the punishment ap- propriate to this particular crime," said Forbes, his 268 AGATHA'S AUNT voice rich in ironic inflections, which again passed harmlessly over Julia's head. "To tell the truth, I have. There's only one point on which these mercenary people are really suscep- tible, and that's money. My advice is to write her that unless she returns every penny you paid her, you will prosecute her for swindling." "She might not be able to do that, Julia. I judge from what you all say that she must be poor." "Oh, she's evidently that. Everything about the place is poverty-stricken, and the gown she wore that day was so faded that you could hardly tell the original color. But I believe she has all that money put aside, for don't you remember, the boy said she wanted to send him to school.'* "I remember. And you advise me to demand the money she has saved for his schooling, and ask her to charge up my board for those months to charity?" Julia held to her point. "It's the sort of thing she'd feel, because it's evident there's nothing she wouldn't do for money. I confess I can't compre- hend that temperament. Money means so little to me that I simply don't understand how it's possible for people to worship it as they do." THE WORM TURNS 269 He listened with growing irritation. That this girl who had never earned a dollar, and had never denied herself anything she wanted, should assume so superior an attitude, offended his sense of jus- tice. "Perhaps if you knew more of the value of money," he cut in crisply, "you might respect it more." "Oh, I know I'm impractical, Burton. Dad was always making fun of me for that." The pensive- ness of her tone was still evident as she added, "Per- haps you'd like to have me write the letter before I go." "What letter?" "To that woman, of course, threatening to prose- cute her unless she returns the money." His pause was long enough to give the idea that he was considering her suggestion. His tone when at length he spoke, implied nothing of the sort. "Thank you, Julia. I shall not need your services. And when I write Miss Kent, I shall enclose a check to cover my board till the first of November." He heard her catch her breath. "You mean you are going to pay a premium for being tricked and deceived ?" "She deceived me and that's not easy for me to 270 AGATHA'S AUNT forgive. But I'm hardly ready to sponge my living from a girl who is making a hand-to-hand fight with poverty." "Dear, it's dreadful the way you men let your chivalry run away with you. I suppose if you were on a jury, you couldn't bring yourself to convict a woman of murder." "I hardly think Miss Kent's offense can be classed in that category," Forbes said stiffly. "I suffered chiefly through the jolt to my sense of dignity. That's always been a sensitive point with me." Julia sighed. "I can't bear to have you talk that way, Burton. It's bad enough for Mr. Warren to make light of falsehood and treachery. But it seems to me a person capable of that, is capable of any- thing." She laid her hand lightly on his. "Trust a woman's intuition, Burton. Let me write that letter." Her touch not only left him cold, but roused his antagonism. He felt an irritated certainty that he was being played upon. "Thank you, but I have nothing to say to Miss Kent that I can not entrust to a public stenographer." She did not take away her hand. "Let's not talk of that dreadful woman any more," she said, in a THE WORM TURNS .271 lowered voice. "Fate has given us this little hour out of the years, and we mustn't waste it." Her words brought back something Agatha had said, her scathing scorn of those who took the easy way, and then held fate accountable. The remem- brance steeled him against the insidious tenderness of her voice. "You made your choice, Julia, as you had a right to do. And I wish you every happiness." The fragrance of a delicate perfume he had al- ways associated with her enveloped him. He felt the pressure of her body against his arm. "What a queer, quiet hotel this is, Burton. Right in the heart of the city and yet we're as much alone as if we were off somewhere in the woods." Had she been sensitive, she might have perceived a curious rigidity in the arm against which she leaned, an ominous tightening of the obstinately silent lips. Her vanity felt the challenge of his fail- ure to respond. She flung prudence to the winds. "Burton! Burton!" she murmured, and whether her emotion was real or assumed, he did not know, "why don't you kiss me?" His fastidious recoil was strengthened by the sus- picion that she was attempting by playing on his 272 AGATHA'S AUNT passion to mold him to her will in the matter of Agatha's punishment. He moved away a little. "Excuse me," he said, "I shouldn't dream of taking such a liberty with the fiancee of Murray Prender- gast." "Oh, don't!" He felt her shudder, and again wondered if it were real, or a pretense. "All the years ahead belong to him, and just this little mo- ment is yours and mine." "I lay no claim even to a moment of your time, Julia. I asked from you all or nothing." "Tell me just once that you love me, Burton." At his continued silence, she drew herself away. "You're different. You don't care for me as you did." She waited vainly for him to deny the accusation. Then again she caught his hand. She might have been a loyal wife, fearing that her husband's heart was slipping from her grasp and longing to be re- assured. "Burton," she implored, "tell me whether you love me." "I thank God no." She fell back, and he could hear her stormy breathing. Well as he knew every inflection of her voice, he hardly recognized it when she spoke again. THE WORM TURNS 273 "That wretched woman! That creature! She's to blame. She's stolen your heart from me." "Don't be a fool." The brutality, foreign as it was to Forbes' training and temperament, seemed demanded by the occasion. "My heart and all the rest of me was yours while you chose to keep me. You threw me away like a worn glove when my trouble came, and looked about for a more fitting match." "Burton, you said yourself " "I own I made your way easy for you, Julia. I was fool enough to be satisfied to have you yourself and made no inconvenient demands in the \vay of loyalty and truth. And the fate you are so fond of invoking was kinder to me than I deserved." "You love her. You love that abandoned " "Stop!" he commanded. "Don't dare finish." But he himself went on talking rapidly. "As far as Miss Kent is concerned, of course I have made it im- possible for her ever to think well of me again, since after her months of uninterrupted kindness, I could listen to your venomous attack upon her, and not speak a word in her defense." "How dare you! How dare you speak like that to me 1" 274 AGATHA'S AUNT "Whether I love her or not, I don't know. It's too bewildering for me to be sure. But I know she's the most loyal friend, and the dearest comrade and the bravest, most unselfish " Julia sprang from her place beside nim with a cry. His face was toward her, and at the sound of her voice, an extraordinary thing happened. He saw her for an instant quite distinctly, though the face he had loved had undergone as hideous a change as if death and decay had done their devas- tating work upon it. Secure in the knowledge of his blindness, she faced him with the mask thrown aside. He saw her features distorted by hate, her eyes narrowed malignantly, her lips drawn back from the teeth. Something Hephzibah Diggs had said in their memorable interview flashed across his mind. "When she showed herself up for what she was, you'd ought to have got down on your marrow bones and thanked the Lord." Darkness shut down over the unwelcome vision. There was a rushing in his ears so that he heard only faintly Julia's farewell, "I hate you ! Oh, how I hate you!" He leaned back against the cushions, realizing that he was a sick man, but enveloped in a strange serenity. When next the parlor maid THE WORM TURNS 275 i proffered her services, he sent her to telephone for his physician. An hour later he was comfortably ensconced in a private hospital on the outskirts of the city, and sick as he felt, his mood was increasingly cheerful, for the doctor considered the momentary return of vision, elusive and disappointing as it had been, most encouraging. It was a week before Forbes was equal to dic- tating a letter to Agatha. He passed over the pecu- liar circumstances of their parting, expressed rather formally his sense of gratitude and enclosed a gen- erous check. His acknowledgment came with grati- fying promptness. But the nurse on opening the envelope was puzzled. "It doesn't seem a letter at all, just bits of paper. Why, it looks like a check, torn into little pieces." "You can't find the number of the check among the scraps, can you?" asked Forbes. The nurse could and did and Forbes' suspicion be- came certainty. He turned on his pillow, unreason- ably wounded. The Agatha Kent he had loved and trusted had never been, and this stranger who called herself by the familiar name had rejected his over- ture of friendship. CHAPTER XX THE DAY AFTER THE day of judgment has its drawbacks, but it is the day after that really hurts. The first shock numbs. It is when the nipping pain begins, the remorseless pain too cruel to kill, that the sin- ner takes the full measure of his punishment. On the day of Forbes' departure, Agatha ate her evening meal as usual and went to bed at eight o'clock. She slept heavily till midnight, roused and speedily dozed off again, but now to be the victim of torturing dreams. Years before a pet dog of Howard's had become old and sickly and Agatha's father had decided it must be killed. He had attempted to shoot the ani- mal in its sleep, but his nervousness had caused him to miss his aim. It had taken three shots to finish the business. Agatha had come upon the scene just in time to see the look the dying brute turned on its idolized master, and the incident had stamped itself 276 THE DAY AFTER 277 on her memory as the supreme tragedy in her ex- perience. She invariably dreamed of it when fever- ish and ill. This night she underwent the familiar agony with a difference. In the grotesque necro- mancy of the dream-world, the wounded dog had become Forbes, turning his stricken gaze upon the friend who had done him to death. She woke in a cold sweat and did not sleep again. At four o'clock she was up and cleaning house as the one adequate antidote for the remorseful thoughts that threatened to wreck her reason. She worked furiously all the morning, barely stopping to eat. Miss Finch watched her from a distance, heart-wrung and afraid, but knowing from experi- ence that at certain crises Agatha was best left to herself. Howard, with the characteristic masculine reluctance to witness suffering out of his power to relieve, took his fishing rod and departed for a day of his favorite sport. About two o'clock in the afternoon, Ridgeley Warren came strolling up the driveway between the rows of stately trees which made the battered old house at the end of the avenue appear an anti-climax, and so reached her unheralded. Agatha had thrown a braided rug across the clothes-line and was beat- 278 AGATHA'S AUNT ing it as if she had a personal spite against each individual rag. The sun was full on her hair and despite her menial occupation, she seemed to him a splendid figure, furiously vital, crowned with light. Excitement whipped up his pulses as he left the driveway and walked across the grass in her direc- tion, but when near enough to make his voice heard above the volley of blows, he only said noncha- lantly, "Good afternoon, Hephzibah." Agatha turned and stood panting. She had been working at high pressure since daybreak, and close inspection revealed not a masquerading goddess but a tired, bedraggled girl. Her hair had slipped from the restraining pins and a wayward coil partly extinguished one eye. Her fair skin was clouded by successive layers of dirt. A disfiguring smudge suc- cessfully effaced the dimple in her chin. With quickening admiration Warren realized that this soiled and disheveled apparition still had a distinct claim to beauty. "Hard at work, I see, Hephzibah." He stood with his hands in his pockets, immaculate in his light summer clothing, and as always he roused her to defiance. "My name is Kent. Please use it." THE DAY AFTER 279 "I'm ready to call you anything you please, my dear spitfire. Only remember that it's not my fault that I've always thought of you as Hephzibah." Agatha glared at him. His presence restored her poise. She realized that as an antidote Warren was better than a thousand years of house-cleaning. "I don't know why you should think of me as Hephzibah or anything else. I don't know why you shouldn't dismiss me from your mind altogether as I should like to dismiss you." "Out of the question, Hephzibah, or Miss Agatha Kent, if you like that better. You see, you inter- est me." "I'm sorry I can't return the compliment, but you bore me excruciatingly." "To begin with," Warren explained analytically, "you are the prettiest girl I know, bar none. And in the second place, I'm inclined to believe you're the brainiest. If what they told me last night is true, you ought to make your fortune on the stage." Agatha regarded him silently and the antagonism died out of her face. He was almost sorry, for it left her white and wan and rather pitiful. "You know what a fraud I am, then?" she said wistfully. 280 AGATHA'S AUNT "I know you're the cleverest girl of my acquaint- ance, if you could get by with a thing like that." "I suppose he simply despises me." Into Agatha's mind had flashed the preposterous hope that pos- sibly Warren's tolerant attitude toward her escapade was shared by the only man who counted. "Who ? Forbes ? Why the devil should you care what he thinks? Old Forbes was always a bit of a Prig." Positive hatred looked out of Agatha's eyes. "Oh, I don't know. I shouldn't call a man a prig simply because he objected to being tricked and de- ceived and lied to. I suppose he has a high enough ideal of women so that he expects a girl to tell the truth, just as much as if she were a man. I con- sider that attitude a compliment, myself." Warren was somewhat staggered. "Then I sup- pose I'm insulting you by thinking you are a darned clever kid, and the rest of them a pack of fools for making a fuss over nothing." Agatha left him in doubt on this delicate point. The little hope that had stirred in her heart had died almost as soon as it was born, and the resulting anguish seemed out of all proportion to its brief ex- istence. Forbes did not share Warren's leniency to- THE DAY AFTER 281 ward her summer's masquerade. He was one of the fools who condemned her. She looked away toward the hills and suddenly her face twisted in passionate weeping. "Don't do that, Hephzibah. For God's sake, don't cry. Can't you let me help you, little girl? You need a friend I'm sure, and there's nothing I'd like better than to help you. You've bewitched me, Hephzibah. I lost my head over you when I thought you were an ignorant little country girl, murdering the king's English every time you opened your mouth. And the more I know of you, the more wonderful you seem. I'm crazy about you." Agatha's sobs quieted as she listened. When a woman has been humiliated beyond a certain point, nothing can restore her self-esteem like being made love to by a personable man. Warren's irreproach- able costume, his good looks, his convincing air of prosperity all helped in her struggle against intoler- able mortification. Yet though she dried her eyes at his agitated request, and favored him with a faint, watery smile, she thought of him, if the truth be told, less as a lover than as a life-preserver. Warren sat upon the porch and smoked while 282 AGATHA'S AUNT Agatha made herself presentable. It took her some time and he was not sorry, for he wanted a chance to get himself in hand. He had said very much more than he had intended to say when he bought his ticket that morning, and though he did not exactly regret his indiscretion, he told himself that he had better go slow. Twenty- four hours earlier the name Agatha Kent had suggested to him a benevolent old lady with a double chin, the chin an entirely gratu- itous contribution of his active imagination. Heph- zibah Diggs was a beautiful but deplorably ignorant country girl who had got herself into trouble, like many another ignorant beauty. It was too soon to propose to either. Yet as he glanced impatiently at his watch, Warren realized that the charm of Agatha was her unexpectedness. You never knew what she was going to do. You never could tell what she might make you do, in spite of your better judgment. Agatha's delay gave him the time he needed. She presented herself in a faded gingham which never- theless had the advantage of being freshly laun- dered, her heavy hair wound about her head with a negligence a woman would have interpreted to mean that to Agatha, her caller mattered very little. Now THE DAY AFTER 283 that her face was clean he saw how pale she was, and how dark the circles under her eyes, and this discovery was responsible for an unwonted gentle- ness in his manner. He talked as a big brother might have talked, and the instinctive, virginal de- fiance which his unconcealed admiration had always roused in her, changed by imperceptible degrees to confidence. He asked her bluntly about her finances and she told him without hesitation or evasion. He hinted at monetary assistance and she stopped him mid- way, with an imperious tilt of her chin and a haughty stare. "You are not talking to Hephzibah Diggs," she reminded him. Warren sighed and changed his tactics. "Did you ever think of selling your place?" "I'm afraid nobody would want it, it's so dread- fully old and tumbledown. And besides we've got to have a roof over our heads." "You couldn't sell it here, of course. But there are possibilities in this place. A small summer hotel ought to do well. Magnificent old trees, fine view, convenient to the city." He studied his surroundings with an appraising eye. "It should bring at least fifteen thousand if you found the right purchaser." 284 AGATHA'S AUNT She caught her breath and the sound brought his eyes back to her face. What he saw touched him profoundly. Indeed he felt the smart of tears under his drooping lids. "My God," he said to himself, "to have her look like that over a paltry fifteen thou- sand." "Then I could send Howard to college," Agatha was saying, breathlessly. "Sure you could." "And there would be enough to take care of Fritz Miss Finch, as long as she lives." "I hope you'd do something for Hephzibah Diggs," said Warren gruffly, to hide his emotion. "That girl has something coming to her, believe me!" Warren spent most of his leisure entertaining people, but he seldom felt better repaid than when Agatha greeted this jest with a quiver of laughter. "I promise you she shall have a new gingham, perhaps a party dress if the money holds out." "Yes, that's what Hephzibah would want, a party dress," said Warren. "And I speak for the first dance the first time she wears it." He went on to discuss sales and investments, and Agatha hung upon his words. He perceived that the practical line THE DAY AFTER 285 appealed to her. His tentative love-making bored and angered her. When he talked of gilt-edged first mortgages, bringing six per cent., she leaned toward him, her reddish-gold eyes melting into his, and seemed ready to leap into his arms. The carriage he had ordered came for him at what he considered a ridiculously early hour and he kept it waiting while he explained that he would immediately take up the matter of the sale of her property with several people who might possibly be interested. She let him hold her hand while he pro- tracted his good-by to an unconscionable length, and he argued well from this, till she disconcerted him by saying faintly, "Shall you see Mr. Forbes soon?" "I can't say. The fair Julia may have hustled him away before I'm back." "If if you should see him," said Agatha, her lips white, "try to make him think kindly of me. Try to make him understand that I didn't realize that I was doing anything wrong." "To be sure I will," replied Warren with mislead- ing heartiness. "But if a man is such a blasted fool as to need that assurance, it's not worth troubling your little head about him, don't you see ?" And 286 AGATHA'S AUNT then he said good-by again and went off in an un- precedentedly bad humor, damning Forbes whole- heartedly all the way to town. Warren's call left Miss Finch pleasurably excited. For a man to come out from the city for a few hours' talk with a girl, argued his intentions serious. And Agatha's abstraction, the dreamy look in her eyes, the irrelevant nature of her replies to the sim- plest questions, seemed to imply a gratifying re- sponsiveness in her mood. Little did the innocent spinster dream that Agatha's absorption was due to calculating the wisest expenditure of an income derived from an investment of fifteen thousand dollars in first mortgages at six per cent. But Miss Finch's elation was short-lived, for Howard came home with a startling piece of news. "Heard the funniest thing to-day. Who do you suppose has been getting married?" To please him Agatha hazarded a guess. How- ard shook his head. "It's the last one you'd ever think of. Old Billy- goat Wiggins. He married a widow out on the Jericho pike and I guess he's had six or seven wives already." Without attempting to correct her brother's ex- THE DAY AFTER 287 aggeration, Agatha cast an apprehensive glance in Miss Finch's direction. Miss Finch met her look with an air of resolute calm. At last the matter was settled. Now that one of her lovers was out of the running, the only thing left was to take the other. Her days of anxious deliberation, due to weighing one man against his rival, were over, and it was a great relief. "Mrs. James Doolittle," said Miss Finch to herself and blushed high. Well, Doolittle was as good a name as Wiggins. "I b'lieve if any- thing, it's a little more aristocratic," Miss Finch de- cided. But as the evening wore on, she found herself dis- quieted. In her thoughts of James Doolittle there was little of roseate illusion. She saw him mentally as she had seen him uncounted times in reality, his trousers patched and bagging at the knees, his shirt soiled and faded, his hat suggesting that some preda- tory animal had taken frequent bites out of the rim. "I do like a man to look neat," sighed Miss Finch. She recalled too, the tumbledown cottage where James Doolittle had kept bachelor's hall since his mother's death six years earlier, and compared it disadvantageously with her present quarters. Ro- mance had spread her wings, and taken flight. Mar- 288 AGATHA'S AUNT riage had become a very drab, prosaic affair. But there was no help for it. Miss Finch retired to her room rather early and wrote Mr. Doolittle accepting the offer of marriage made nearly two months before. It was a prim lit- tle note and if her delay had been unflattering, there was nothing in her formula of acceptance to restore the masculine amour propre. She said that mar- riage was a very serious matter, and she hoped they were making no mistake. She signed her name Zaida Finch, and realizing that the compact signa- ture would soon be replaced by that of an unknown female, Zaida Doolittle, she shed some agitated tears. The letter was sealed and stamped on the table beside her and Miss Finch was lying awake won- dering whether the tongue of slander would be set wagging if she should decide on giving the Doolittle cottage a thorough cleaning before taking the step that would make her its permanent mistress, when Phemie came blundering up the stairs. Miss Finch sprang out of bed and, candle in hand, appeared in the doorway. She shook a chiding fin- ger at the girl. "Don't make such a racket," she hissed. "Everybody's been in bed for hours. You THE DAY AFTER 289 oughtn't to stay out so late, Phemie. It don't look right in a young girl." Phemie did not seem aware that she was being scolded. She was full of silly giggles and pleased to find a confidante to share her amusement. She pushed her way uninvited into Miss Finch's room. "I never had so much fun in my life," wheezed Phemie in what she mistakenly supposed to be a whisper. "Oh, my goodness, I've laughed fit to bust myself." "Where've you been?" demanded Miss Finch, eying her disapprovingly. "I've been to a shivaree. Whole crowd of us went. We had horns and tin pans and Ernie Cox took a cow-bell along. Oh, my goodness !" Phemie placed her hands on her hips, and rocked back and forth in an ecstasy of mirth. Miss Finch's severity became more pronounced. "I think you might have been in better business. Deacon Wiggins has been married quite a few times, I know, but he's a good citizen and a pillar of the church." " 'Twarn't Deacon Wiggins. 'Twas Jim Doo- little. He just got married to that cross-eyed old maid who used to work at Phelps' store." 290 AGATHA'S AUNT When Miss Finch could get rid of Phemie she tore the letter she had so painstakingly composed into the minutest fragments, promising herself to burn them in the morning before any one was up. Innocent as her intentions had been, the fact re- mained that she had written a compromising letter to a married man, and she could not feel safe till the sole evidence of her indiscretion had been re- duced to ashes. As she climbed back into bed she might perhaps have been excused for indulging in pessimistic reflections on masculine perfidy, and the hollowness of lovers' vows, but in point of fact her mood was eminently Christian. To her own secret amazement she was chiefly conscious of overwhelm- ing relief. The critical relatives of Deacon Wiggins' three deceased partners were nothing to her. Mr. Doo- little's tendency to wear his trousers with only one frail suspender as a support was no concern of hers, except as any respectable spinster might venture to hope that his rashness would not carry him too far. That good old name Finch, which had been identi- fied with her personality for half a century, would not be exchanged for any unfamiliar polysyllable. Without knowing it, she had been shrinkingly ap- THE DAY AFTER 291 prehensive of coming changes, and now everything was going on exactly as it had before. "If Agatha marries Mr. Warren and has a family of children," thought Miss Finch, "she'll need some- body reliable in the house. And if she doesn't get a husband, I ought to be around to look after her. And anyway, nobody can ever say that the reason I never married is that I never had a chance." And so comforting was that concluding thought that even after sleep claimed her as its own, a com- placent, almost a triumphant smile, hovered about Miss Finch's parted lips. CHAPTER XXI ENLIGHTENMENT WARREN stamped the snow from his feet, shook himself like a wet dog, and entering the apartment hotel, passed at a step from the frigid zone to the tropics. At the desk he gave his name to a businesslike young woman who ascertained over the telephone that Mr. Forbes was in, and forthwith Warren was shot to the fifth floor. A smiling Japanese boy opened the door of Forbes' rooms, and Forbes himself came forward and gripped his friend's hand. For a moment neither man found speech possible. "Congratulations, old fellow," Warren got out at last. "Best news I've heard for many a moon." He gave his snowy coat to the waiting servant, seated himself and lighted a cigarette as a prelimi- nary to conversation. "Well, how does it seem to have two eyes again? A bit intoxicating, I fancy. Rather like too much champagne." "You know when a man has suffered enough, his 292 ENLIGHTENMENT 293 idea of perfect happiness is to have the pain stop," Forbes answered. "I suppose the only way to size up a blessing at its real value is to have to do with- out it for a time." His words seemed to meet the requirements in the case, but Warren's quick ear detected in his voice a note of melancholy, and he thought he knew the explanation. Not being re- markable for tact, he promptly broached the deli- cate subject. "Well, the fair Julia has done it. I got her cards week before last. Gosh, when you see the fellows the dear girls marry, it almost seems a compliment when they turn you down. You'd think it would take more than the Prendergast money and family connections and all that, to sugarcoat a pill like Murray." "I wish her more happiness than she's likely to have, I'm afraid." Forbes spoke formally, his man- ner implying that it might be as well for Warren to change the subject, but his visitor took his time. "Oh, well, Julia isn't capable of real unhappiness. She could be uncomfortable, or disappointed, or humiliated, or anything that doesn't go too deep, but unhappiness is beyond her. That other little girl now, she's different." 294 AGATHA'S AUNT Forbes did not ask what girl was referred to. He kept his eyes on the floor. "Julia looks as soft as a ripe plum," Warren con- tinued. "Most of the dear creatures do, as if a rough word would crush them. But believe me, she's made of the same hard, calculating stuff as her old man. You never heard of old Studley's losing any sleep over the men he'd ruined on the street, did you? Julia won't have a wrinkle when she's sixty. If anybody is going to marry Murray Prendergast it ought to be that kind of woman." If Forbes agreed with this frank expression of opinion, he gave no sign. He had the appearance of waiting patiently for the other to finish. "Our little friend Hephzibah," continued Warren, "is the sort whose hair turns white in a single night, you know. Not that hers has God forbid. You never saw that hair, my boy. You've got something to live for." Forbes made a gesture of impatience. "Do you happen to know Miss Kent's address at the present time?" "Do you happen to want Miss Kent's address at the present time?" mocked Warren truculently. Forbes hesitated. "Yes," he said with a seeming ENLIGHTENMENT 295 effort at frankness, "I do. Some of the things that were said, Warren, about her poverty, you remem- ber, caused me considerable uneasiness. I felt that my leaving as I did when she had counted on having me until the cold weather, might have embarrassed her, and whatever ground I may have had for re- sentment, I had no wish to add to her financial wor- ries. And so I sent her a check for the full amount I would have paid for board, up to the first of November." Warren laughed sardonically. "Oh, you did, did you?" "Yes, I did." Forbes' manner was a trifle ag- grieved. "She returned it." "Of course!" "Perhaps you are in her confidence," Forbes said in a tone of annoyance. "She never mentioned that particular matter to me. But I am glad to believe that she repays my friendship by a degree of trust." Forbes waited a moment before continuing his explanation. "I did not write her again for some time. I was rather put out by the return of the check, foolishly, I suppose. But the last of Novem- ber I sent her a rather long letter. You know, 296 AGATHA'S AUNT Ridgeley, when all is said and done, the girl saved my life." "Well?" "The letter came back to me from the Dead Let- ter Office. I thought it was a trick of some sort. It seemed incredible, you know, that when her family has been living at Oak Knoll for generations, she should drop out of sight and leave no more trace than an extinguished candle flame. I sent Evans down to look her up, and he reported that the three of them, Miss Kent, her foster brother, Howard, and Miss Finch, had all left town, and none of the old neighbors could give him any information as to their whereabouts. The old place has been sold to some one who is planning to build a summer hotel on the site." Warren nodded. "I engineered that deal. It's a good location for such an enterprise. She sold for twelve thousand. I think I could have got her two or three thousand more, if she had been willing to wait, but she wasn't." Forbes tried to appear relieved. "Twelve thou- sand ! Well, I am glad to know she is not in imme- diate need. At the same time, Ridgeley, I should like her address." ENLIGHTENMENT 297 Warren eyed him with malevolence. "It looks to me as if she wasn't particularly anxious for you to have it." Forbes reddened. "Nonsense! Don't be an ass, Warren. It's quite important that I should have a talk with Miss Kent." "I suppose you want to be sure that she's suffi- ciently penitent for the deception she practised on you." "Really, my dear fellow, I can hardly see that it is any of your business what I have to say to her." "Simply that I'm a friend of the lady's. And the only reason that I'm not her husband is that she's refused me, by letter and word of mouth, just eleven times by actual count. A singularly consist- ent character, our Hephzibah." Forbes sat biting his lips. "I'm very sorry, War- ren. I needn't say I had no idea " "Of course you had no idea. You took her devo- tion as a matter of course. You let your Julia insult her without speaking a word in her defense. And it never occurred to you that another man might think her unselfishness and her courage and her beauty and her wit made her a woman in a million." "I must correct you on one point," Forbes said 298 AGATHA'S AUNT stiffly. "It is true the discovery that Miss Kent was not what I supposed her took me by surprise and I was both hurt and angry. But the engagement be- tween Miss Studley and myself was broken finally and irrevocably because I defended partly at least the course Miss Kent had taken." He hesitated before adding, "If you really wish to marry her " "Oh, to hell with your 'ifs!' I've been on my knees to her from the first minute I saw her. I'd marry her if she were Hephzibah Diggs." "I was only going to say, Ridgeley, that if you are in earnest, you are pretty sure to win out. I can hardly imagine any woman's continuing to turn you down." Warren did not appear touched by the obvious sincerity of this tribute. He glowered at the other man ill-naturedly. "I dare say she would have married rne but for one thing. I came on the scene too late." "Joo late?" "Another man got ahead of me. She couldn't love me because she loved him." "Do you mean that she's engaged ?" "Damn you !" Warren shouted furiously. "Don't put on those unconscious airs with me. You know ENLIGHTENMENT 299 well enough what man I mean, and you know whether you're engaged to her or not." "You're out of your mind, Warren. You're talk- ing like an insane man." "Let it go at that, then. Call it that I'm crazy." "If you will remember that I thought Miss Kent an elderly woman, you will realize that I " "Oh, your immaculate skirts are clean," exclaimed Warren, with preposterous bitterness. "You didn't make love to the nice old lady who was your father's boyhood flame. But you were so helpless and so darned pathetic and so dependent on her that you didn't have to. She's not like Julia, looking for an easy berth and a through ticket. Her idea of love is giving, giving without keeping count." "You don't know what you're talking about," said Forbes, but with less conviction. "Don't I, though ! Do you remember the scheme we hatched to send Hephzibah to school?" Forbes nodded. "I came up and had a talk with her. Of course she was playing a part, but it wasn't all play-acting. She practically told me there was somebody she cared for. She hang it all, Forbes, she's not al- ways the audacious little devil who can palm her- 300 AGATHA'S AUNT self off on an intelligent man as her own great-aunt, and never miss a cog. There was a look on her face when she spoke of that man she was all angel, then." "But what possible reason have you for thinking why, you make me feel an ass for listening." Forbes' humility was so obvious as to be disarming. "I know you're the man. She was always at me to have a talk with you and plead her cause, you know." "But surely that wouldn't mean " "Yes, if you'd seen her eyes. You know how a dog looks when his master kicks him. Like that." "Good God, Warren" "Oh, I don't suppose you like it," said Warren grimly. "But let me remind you that if it's un- pleasant for you to listen, it's hell for me to tell you. I suppose you know what brought Julia to Oak Knoll to rescue you by force of arms." "I believe Miss Kent wrote a letter." "Yes, under pretense of congratulating Julia on her prospective engagement, she wrote her that you had been spending the most of your summer in the company of an attractive young girl. She'd sized up ENLIGHTENMENT 301 Julia's disposition pretty cleverly and she reckoned that if anything would hold her back, it would be a suspicion that there was a flaw in her title to your life-long devotion." "But surely if she had felt as you imagine " "We're talking of Hephzibah, you know," growled Warren. "She was thinking of your hap- piness, not of hers. Of course she knew she was taking a long shot. She was too smart to miss that little point. She risked exposure to give you what you wanted. That's the sort she is." He added gloomily, "I don't know why I'm such a fool as to tell you all this. I suppose it's because I know I haven't the ghost of a chance." There was a long, depressing silence. "Well," said Forbes at length, his voice curiously shaken, "where shall I find her?" "Good God, man, I don't know." "You don't know?" "The last word I had from her was a Christmas card and the blasted post-mark was so blurred that I couldn't make out where it was mailed. And in November I had this letter. You might as well read it, I suppose." 302 AGATHA'S AUNT He took the worn missive from his pocket, handed it to Forbes, and began to smoke furiously. Forbes, his face very pale, read without comment. "Mv DEAR MR. WARREN : "Well, the thing is accomplished. I am a capital- ist, a woman of wealth, and also a wanderer on the face of the earth. But I'm not worrying about that side of it, it's so delicious to feel that all this money is mine and that I can have a trunk full of new clothes if I feel like it. "Howard left for school yesterday. He will be a little behind his class, but the principal thinks he will have no difficulty in catching up if he is willing to work. Howard is so ambitious and eager that I know he is going to make me proud of him. "You see I am sending you a check. It was awfully good of you to want to put this deal through because of your interest in me, but I can't help thinking it's better to be businesslike in business and friendly in friendship. So this check is for the cele- brated lawyer, Mr. Warren, who has managed this affair so wonderfully, and my heart- felt gratitude is for my dear friend, Ridgeley Warren, whose kind- ness and generosity have been so much more than I deserved. I shall never forget it. When I am a wrinkled old woman, and can smile at some of the things that hurt now, it will warm my heart to re- member your goodness. "Dear Mr. Warren, I am not going to write you again at present. I have a feeling that if you keep on seeing me, you are more likely to keep on wish- ENLIGHTENMENT 303 ing for something it is better for you to forget. I am sure your generosity has more to do with your feeling than you have any idea of, and that when I am no longer at hand to make a continual appeal to your sympathy, you will soon be your usual self. I hope you will love the most beautiful and noblest girl in the world and marry her, and if you ever have reason to think that she doesn't appreciate the fact that she has drawn a prize, just send for me and I'll open her eyes. "Words seem such inadequate things, don't they, when one's heart is full? I wish you could know; all I mean when I say, Thank you. "Gratefully yours, "AGATHA KENT. "P. S. You will, I am sure, be seeing Mr. Forbes soon. The greatest favor you can do me is to make him understand how thoughtlessly I entered on the deception he so naturally resents. You see we were such good friends in a way he really liked me and trusted me while he thought I was somebody else it hurts to realize how completely I have forfeited his good opinion. You seem to understand so well that perhaps you may influence him to think of me a little more kindly." Forbes folded the letter and gave it to its owner. "You deserve her if any man does, Ridgeley," he said with proper humility. "I deserve her more than you do, if that's what you're trying to say," barked Warren. "And now 304 AGATHA'S AUNT you see what we're up against. Between us we've lost all trace of her." "We must find her again," Forbes said firmly. Warren's hostile gaze challenged him. "What for? Do you want to rub it in how she's outraged the sacred name of truth and all that rot?" "No." "Perhaps you're going to be magnanimous enough to forgive her?" "Possibly," Forbes offered quietly, "I want to ask her to forgive me." Warren's unhappy eyes met his full. "I suppose I'm in a rotten humor, old man. I do think you're a damned sight luckier than you deserve to be. But let it go. The question is, how are we to find her?" As one result of the deliberations protracted over several hours, the following advertisement appeared in the leading newspapers of a dozen large cities : "Information wanted. Any person acquainted with the present whereabouts of Hephzibah Diggs will confer a favor by communicating at once with the undersigned." The anxious weeks went by. The two men con- sulted almost daily, with growing perplexity and diminishing hope. And Agatha made no sign. CHAPTER XXU FELLOW TRAVELERS THE hat Agatha was adjusting before the mirror was a black toque with a quill at the side. On most heads it would have possessed no more individuality than a clover blossom. It was one of the hats which apparently are planned with a view to being inconspicuous. But as Agatha pinned it in place it seemed to assume a certain pro- vocative quality. It became a challenge to the mas- culine eye. The same was true of the blue serge suit she wore. Nothing can be imagined more innocuous than a suit of blue serge, embellished with narrow black braid. Miss Finch could have worn one of the iden- tical cut and material and it would have looked as if it had been designed for her. Yet on Agatha the blue serge was alluring. It captured the eye as though striped with scarlet. Mrs. Van Home, a stout, middle-aged woman 305 306 AGATHA'S AUNT who occupied a swivel chair at a businesslike desk, watched the operation of adjusting the black toque and rubbed her nose with a flourish indicating men- tal perturbation. It had occurred to her that Agatha was a somewhat colorful person for the task to which she had been assigned, that she looked unde- niably youthful for so responsible an errand, that some one grayer in tone and of an aspect radiating propriety and decorum, would have been better fitted for the duty in hand. Mrs. Van Home looked at the clock, saw it lacked but thirty-seven minutes to train time, and brushed aside her scruples. It was now too late to change. "You are sure you feel equal to taking charge of the four, Miss Kent?" she said, more for the reas- suring effect of Agatha's self-confident answer than because she had the slightest doubt what that answer would be. Agatha turned a vivacious face. "I'm really look- ing forward to the trip. It'll be such fun." "I should hardly use that term to describe travel- ing in charge of four children," observed Mrs. Van Home, with a grim smile. "And one of them a teething baby. You will naturally attract a good deal of attention." FELLOW TRAVELERS 307 "Not a bit," said Agatha briskly. "You think not?" "Every one will take it for granted that I am a young mother, coming home with my little family to visit grandpa and grandma." Mrs. Van Home's brow cleared. As the repre- sentative of a serious-minded organization, with an established reputation for prudence and sagacity, she had been accusing herself of indiscretion in entrust- ing this important commission to a young woman of such butterfly aspect, even though in self-defense she insisted that of her assistants, Miss Kent was easily the most resourceful and capable. Agatha's suggestion brought relief. Without doubt she was right. The traveling public would assume her to be a matron of extraordinarily youthful appearance. No one .would question the discretion of the head of the Hamilton Orphanage for committing four chil- dren to the care of one who, whatever her capacity, looked a fly-away girl. "I imagine you are right, Miss Kent," she said. "And if I were you, I should take no pains to correct the impression. It will save you a great many an- noying questions." A maid appeared with news that the taxi had ar- 308 AGATHA'S AUNT rived. A nurse brought in the baby, hooded and cloaked for its journey. Outside on the steps waited the three older children, about to be placed in homes which had been duly inspected and approved by au- thorized representatives of the orphanage. As Agatha assembled her charges and led the way to the cab, little faces appeared at the windows, small hands waved farewells and a chorus of shrill voices called good-by. An irrepressible little orphan of a plainness which so far had defied the efforts of the society to place her in a desirable home, came run- ning to the curb as Agatha was arranging her charges about her. "I don't want anybody to 'dopt you, Miss Kent," she quavered. "Bless your heart !" Agatha leaned out and kissed her squarely. "No one's going to adopt me. I'll be back by Saturday." As the cab rattled down the street, Agatha turned for a look at the square, uncompromising building where she had found a haven six months before. Despite the opulent tone of her letter to Warren, Agatha had fully realized that twelve thousand dol- lars does not constitute wealth. Howard's educa- tion was provided for, and that was an enormous relief, but her responsibility for Miss Finch still lay FELLOW TRAVELERS 309 heavy on her heart and she was determined not to draw on her principal any more than was absolutely necessary. The opening at the Hamilton Orphanage had come to her through a series of fortunate acci- dents, and Agatha had flung herself into the work with an enthusiasm which had insured her immedi- ate success. Agatha loved the orphanage and the orphans. The maternal instinct, always strong in her, exulted in the swarm of children on whom she could lavish herself. There was no urchin so refrac- tory that Agatha could not find excuses for him, no little face so plain that she could not discern in it something of winsomeness. She saw the humor in the naughtiness of some unruly youngster where most of her associates perceived only irrefutable confirmation of the doctrine of original sin. Mrs. Van Home, accustomed to aids who did their duty with automatic faithfulness, found Agatha too good to be true. Miss Finch boarded in the vicinity of the orphan- age and Agatha spent with her all the time she was not on duty. It had been hard to reconcile Miss Finch to being in the same city with Warren and not acquainting him with the fact. The sudden ter- mination of her own double romance had intensified 310 AGATHA'S AUNT her passionate interest in Agatha's love-affairs. She thought of the subject continually. She dreamed of Agatha as a bride lovely in creamy silk and floating veil. She harped on the subject till Agatha's nerves suffered and sometimes she be- trayed her irritation in speech. Agatha was not thinking either of Warren or Forbes as she was bounced to the station, the baby in her arms and the three other children mixed in indistinguishably with the luggage. Children are an admirable antidote to unprofitable thinking, be- cause of their capacity for demanding one's entire attention. There were two little girls between three and four years, who looked rather like twins, but were not even sisters, and there was a boy soon to be five. The baby was just getting old enough to be afraid of strangers and was fretful because of teething. It did not look as if Agatha would have many minutes for meditating on the hardships of her own lot. At the station, with the aid of two sympathetic porters, Agatha got her charges aboard the Pullman and settled herself comfortably some minutes in ad- vance of the other passengers. As they entered by ones and twos, she was aware of interested glances FELLOW TRAVELERS 311 in her direction, in some cases the interest blended with apprehension. "Horrors!" she heard one woman say to her husband as she passed. Agatha looked after her darkly. She was instantly con- vinced that the speaker was the owner of a toy poodle. A moment before the train pulled out, a man came into the Pullman and took his seat in the sec- tion opposite hers, glancing amiably at the promising little family across the aisle. Agatha shrank away from the look, feeling faint and sick. There was an ominous ringing in her ears. So strong was her sense of panic that if she had had another moment in which to act, she might have marshalled her brood off the train and trusted to finding some excuse that would satisfy Mrs. Van Home. But before her impulse toward flight had time to crystallize, the last "All aboard" had been shouted. The train shud- dered, groaned and moved out. As the clear daylight replaced the semi-darkness of the terminal station, Agatha blushed furiously. She sat huddled in her corner, awaiting the outcome like a criminal who anticipates arrest. Gradually her unreasoning alarm was replaced by coherent thinking. If Forbes were still blind, she might 312 AGATHA'S AUNT travel as his fellow passenger to the Pacific coast without his being the wiser. But he had come on board unattended, moving freely and fearlessly. If his sight had been restored, she was still safe, for he had never seen her face. After a time she brought her courage to the point of stealing a glance at him. A newspaper lay upon his knee, and though he was not reading at the mo- ment, its presence confirmed the impression she had formed as he entered. He could see again. She found herself trembling for gladness and swallow- ing hard at an obstinate lump in her throat. The dark spectacles he had worn throughout his sojourn at Oak Knoll had been replaced by a pair of eye- glasses, which, to her prejudiced judgment, added to his air of distinction. Now that her first un- reasonable terror had subsided, she found his prox- imity delightfully exhilarating. The next thought brought a pang. If he could see again there was no longer a barrier between him- self and Julia. Agatha's duties at the Hamilton Orphanage left her little time for perusing the so- ciety columns, so prominent a feature of the city journals, and she had missed the detailed accounts of Julia's wedding, with their emphasis on the FELLOW TRAVELERS 313 beauty of the bride and the family connections of the groom. If he were about to marry Julia, Agatha reasoned, he should look very happy. She peered interrogatively in his direction to settle this important point, encountered his eyes unexpectedly, and looked away in crimson confusion. Forbes found the domestic group in such close proximity more entertaining than his newspaper. He thought he had never seen a prettier picture of radiant motherhood than this lovely young creature with her little ones around her. It was a pity, he reflected, that none of the children had inherited her rare beauty. They were all wholesome little youngsters, bidding fair to grow to commonplace maturity as far as externals were concerned. He found himself forming a somewhat uncompliment- ary picture of the father of the quartet, a rather heavy, gross individual with a muddy skin. Other people than Forbes found an irresistible at- traction in the family group. The woman Agatha had branded as the owner of a poodle, an overfed blonde, came down the aisle and paused to settle some points on which she was uncertain. Agatha, mindful of Mrs. Van Home's injunction, gave the desired information as to the sex of the baby and 314 AGATHA'S AUNT the brand of artificial food she favored, without any hint that her sense of responsibility was less than maternal. "Are the little girls twins?" quizzed the stout woman, with an arrogant assumption of having every right to know. "No, the curly-haired one is the older." "They must have come very close," said the stout woman disapprovingly. "There is about six months' difference," replied Agatha unthinkingly. The stout woman's start told her too late what she had done, but as no sat- isfactory explanation occurred to her, she sat stol- idly making a pretense of being absorbed in soothing the fretful baby. Her late interrogator, assuming the reply to be an impertinent substitute for telling her to mind her own business, stalked away, her manner implying that she washed her hands of Agatha and her family. Agatha had no time for unavailing grief. Four children under five are capable of providing abun- dant occupation for the most strenuous nature. She was rising for the third time in twenty minutes to minister to the wants of the oldest boy who had an- FELLOW TRAVELERS 3 1 5 nounced emphatically that he was "fursty," when Forbes stepped across the aisle. "Just let me wait on him," he said. "At this rate you will be worn out before you reach the end of your journey." The sound of his clear voice was almost her un- doing. She wanted to laugh; she wanted to cry. She wanted most of all to put her head down on his broad shoulder and cling to him till he had for- given her. As none of these things appeared feasi- ble, she contented herself with saying, "Thank you," in a voice so faint as hardly to be audible. Forbes gave the restless lad a drink of water and took him into his section. Agatha heard her charge announcing in a penetrating voice that his name was Charlie Briggs, whether in answer to a question or not, she was not sure. Then the small boy nestled close to the big man, and listened raptly. She judged that Forbes must be telling him a story, and after the manner of her kind, she found this additional ground for worship. As a matter of fact Forbes was giving in detail the life-history of a pony he had owned when a boy. This chronicle concluded, he went on to describe a bear hunt in which he had 316 AGATHA'S AUNT once participated, and found his reward in the ad- miring gaze his listener fastened upon him. Presently Charlie Briggs felt constrained to be entertaining in turn. "I'm going to get a new papa, pretty soon," he announced. Forbes felt an uncomfortable sense of shock. If the woman in the opposite section were a widow, the age of the child in her arms indicated that her bereavement was extremely recent. It seemed more probable that it was one of the cases which prove the frailty of the marriage bond in America. He did not know why this conjecture should be respon- sible for so marked a feeling of discomfort. He changed the subject abruptly and proceeded to entertain Charlie with an imaginary incident in the life of a gray squirrel, taking Thompson Seton as his model. In the course of the narrative the baby had an attack of crying and its shrieks distracted Forbes' attention. He hesitated, lost the thread of his story, became hopelessly entangled. Charlie understood his friend's confusion. He looked across the aisle, scowling darkly. "She's going to get rid of the baby pretty soon," he in- formed his companion. "To-morrow it won't be 'round to bother." FELLOW TRAVELERS 317 Again Forbes was conscious of a feeling of re- vulsion. Jhe child's remark was capable of several interpretations, but to his thinking the meaning was obvious. This pretty little woman was about to marry for the second time, and the husband-to-be objected to the size of the ready-made family. Evi- dently she planned to give the baby away. Rather absurdly Forbes found himself thinking that he would not have believed it of her. The baby was behaving outrageously, almost jus- tifying its mother's unnatural intention. Agatha had become sadly disheveled. Her hair she really had wonderful hair, Forbes owned, for all his dis- approval was gradually slipping down. Her face was crimson from her exertions. The shirt-waist, immaculate when she boarded the Pullman, was mussed, and one shoulder damp, due to the baby's repeated experiments to ascertain whether it pos- sessed nutritive qualities. As Forbes involuntarily looked at the opposite section, the ear-splitting sounds compelling his reluctant attention, Agatha transferred the baby's head to the other shoulder, cuddling the little form close to her heart. There was such divinely patient tenderness in the gesture that Forbes underwent an instant revulsion of feeling. 318 AGATHA'S AUNT He did not understand it in the least, but he sud- denly felt sure of the woman. Whatever the short- comings of Mr. Briggs or his probable successor, the girlish wife did not lack womanly qualities. He was unjust enough to feel decidedly vexed with the little boy. Probably he had listened to discussions of matters he did not understand, and mixed things up. Forbes told himself that he had never liked precocious children. The baby suddenly decided to go to sleep. Its squalls ceased magically. Its little body, stiffened in unavailing protest against all the injustice of the world, relaxed in complete forget fulness. The feverish flush receded from Agatha's brow. She sat with drooping eyelids, a pensive madonna. Forbes' wilful gaze would not observe the bounds of propriety. Again and again it sought her, and when at length his eyes encountered hers, he smiled his congratulations. She gave him back a timid smile with a curious underlying wist fulness. It needed only that smile to clinch his faith in her. When the call for luncheon was given, he crossed the aisle. "Won't you let me stay with the children while you eat ? With the baby asleep, I think I can safely make the offer." FELLOW TRAVELERS 319 In a voice hardly above a whisper, Agatha ex- plained that they had brought sandwiches. "But you'll let me bring you in a cup of tea or coffee, won't you? You've had a very strenuous morning and you certainly need something in the way of a stimulant." Perversely Agatha declined the offer, though she 'was longing to say yes. It was not that she felt the need of tea or coffee or of anything so gross as food or drink, but there was something ineffably refreshing in his solicitude for her comfort. His good offices declined, Forbes touched his hat and was turning away, when Charlie Briggs plunged into the aisle and seized his coat. "I don't want you to go," he howled. ' Forbes came back, boyishly eager. "Let me take him with me, won't you ? You will have your hands full enough with the three and I promise not to give him anything a child of his age ought not to eat." Agatha had already regretted her obduracy. She gave the desired permission with a radiant smile, impelling Forbes to think excusingly how very young she must have been when she married Mr. Briggs. As he went toward the dining-car, Charlie clinging to his hand, the owner of the poodle ex- 320 AGATHA'S AUNT pressed to her husband the conviction that some- thing or somebody was shameless. She would have characterized herself as possessing a forgiving dis- position but would have added that there are some things nobody can be expected to overlook. The case of the two children, six months apart, was one of them. Forbes returned from the dining-car looking at his watch. The porter appeared without warning and brushed him off obsequiously. Agatha's heart contracted. It needed no prophet to foretell what was about to happen. He came to her side, addressing her pleasantly. "I leave you at the next station. I expect to meef a friend there. I wish I might have gone farther and relieved you a little of your responsibilities." He checked himself suddenly, thinking that this rather silent young woman was about to speak. She was looking up at him with a strange, disconcerting earnestness. Nor had his intuition been at fault. For a moment Agatha did battle with an almost ir- resistible temptation to shout at him, "J am Agatha Kent." Almost at once she realized the folly of her mo- mentary purpose. He was about to leave the train. FELLOW TRAVELERS 321 There was no time for explanations, to say nothing of coming to an understanding. Moreover it was possible that the friend he was to meet was Julia herself. This last thought completed the paralysis of her passing impulse. In a stifled voice she told him that he had been very kind. "You are a very courageous young woman," Forbes replied. "I hope you won't be too tired when you reach your destination." He patted Charlie's shoulder and turned away. The obsequious porter was removing his grips. With a last smile to Agatha he went down the aisle. Agatha leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. The tears ran down her cheeks unchecked. Probably this was the last time she would ever see him and that was no cause for regret since the pleas- ure of such encounters was so over-balanced by the pain. And moreover he must be on the point of marrying Julia, if he had not already made her his wife. It was better that he should go his way, un- aware that again their paths had crossed. Forbes, stepping to the station platform, gave his grips to a station porter and looked about for War- ren. A minute or two passed before he could dis- tinguish him in the crowd and he was beginning to 322 AGATHA'S AUNT think his friend was late, when his eye fell upon him standing at the edge of the platform and gaz- ing idly at the train which had been a little behind- hand, and was already beginning to pull out. Forbes approached him briskly, the porter at his heels. His lips were parted to speak the other's name, when Warren started violently and took a step forward. "Hephzibah!" he shouted. Forbes spun on his heel. The coach he had just quitted was passing. From the window a girl looked out, a girl with disheveled red-gold hair and tear-stained cheeks. In an instant he understood. The girl in charge of the four children was Agatha. It could be nobody but Agatha. He knew now what she had wanted to say when she had looked up at him. He understood the wistfulness of her smile, the entreaty in her eyes. He had searched for her vainly all winter, and a moment before he had talked to her face to face and had not known. Forbes' reason was in abeyance. The last car of the long vestibuled-train was just abreast him, mov- ing with considerable velocity. With a spring he gained the lower step, seizing the railings on either side. He was vaguely aware of a shout from the receding platform and he almost thought he could FELLOW TRAVELERS 323 distinguish Warren's voice lifted in a bellow of astonishment. But for the time being all other emo- tions were submerged by an overwhelming satisfac- tion in the realization that Agatha and he were still fellow travelers. CHAPTER XXIII AN INTRODUCTION FORBES waited for the door to be opened with sensations approximating those of a naughty boy, caught in mischief. Man of the world as he was, he recoiled from the prospect before him. He had never been of the temperament to ignore prece- dent and defy regulations, and the necessary ex- planations to outraged authority were no more attractive because they were something new in his experience. Hardly more agreeable than his antici- pations of an interview with the conductor was the realization of the probable comments of his fellow passengers, the smiles that would be exchanged, the curious conjectures passed from one to another, as to the occasion for his act. As Forbes reflected ruefully on the coming ordeal, his hat was lifted lightly from his head and sent whirling on an independent journey. His impulse to snatch after it was checked by the discovery that 324 AN INTRODUCTION 325 he needed both hands for another purpose, needed them imperatively, for the lurch of the train had nearly thrown him off his balance. He tightened his grip and gave himself up to irritated reflection. Like most men, Forbes was pathetically dependent on his hat. He never so much as crossed the street without it. Now it would be necessary to make the rest of his journey hatless and leave the train in some unfamiliar city, stared at by the crowd who would mistake him for a faddist, demonstrating a protest against conventional garb. Forbes' annoy- ance gave vent in a profane ejaculation. The next to go were his eye-glasses. Again Forbes' inclination to clutch for his vanishing pos- sessions was conquered just in time to save him from following in their wake. The narrow margin by which he had missed death did not prevent him from grieving over his glasses. He had no others with him. He would not be able to read till he reached home, and the strain on his eyes would probably bring on a severe headache. His hat could be replaced at the first shop, but not his glasses. He found it hard to be reconciled to such ill luck. It was several minutes before the realization was brought home to Forbes that the loss of these belong- 326 AGATHA'S AUNT ings was a very trifling matter. By that time his feeling of reluctance to have the door opened had entirely vanished. In his boyhood he had frequently played "crack the whip." His sensations when the line of runners suddenly halted, and he, a little fel- low bringing up the rear, was sent sprawling over the grass, were being duplicated in this memorable ride. The express was playing "crack the whip" with himself as snapper. Once as the train rounded a curve, both feet flew from under him, and the unexpected jerk upon his arms almost broke his hold. He could hardly believe in his good fortune when he found himself still standing on the step, holding on literally for dear life. For now he knew that in his desperate determination to see Agatha again, he had taken his life in his hands. Oddly enough it was not the likelihood of a sud- den and violent death which presented itself most forcibly to his imagination. The opportunities he had missed with Agatha were infinitely more dis- turbing. If only he had spoken in her defense the day Julia had exhausted her ingenuity in wound- ing and insulting the rival she instinctively feared. But he had stood silent while Julia's malice spent itself. And later when time had revealed the affair AN INTRODUCTION 327 in a truer perspective, if he had but gone to her and said to her all that was in his heart, she might have been his wife by now. One inevitably gets down to realities when life flickers like a candle in the wind, and Forbes no longer debated the question of Agatha's love for him. In addition to Warren's testimony, he had the memory of a kiss, a dream kiss, pressed on his cheeks as he struggled back to consciousness after the stormy interview with Heph- zibah, a kiss salt with tears and sweet with ineffable promise. Forbes heard his bitter laughter above the roar of the train. "God!" his voice said, "what a mess I've made of things." Forbes had never had a high opinion of the in- telligence of that portion of the traveling public which puts its head out of the window of a moving train. Indeed he had always classified it with the people who maim or kill their best friends by playful maneuvers with guns that are not loaded. From this time on, his ideas on the subject were to be revolutionized. He was destined to think of the above-named individuals as philanthropists of a high order. A man in the smoking-car, thrusting his head out of the window at a time when the curving of the 328 AGATHA'S AUNT track brought the rear coach into full view, made a discovery which he promptly imparted to the con- ductor. That official, properly incredulous, ex- tended his own head from the window and verified the passenger's astonishing statement. And at the moment when Forbes' imagination was busy with the gruesome details relating to the discovery of his lifeless body lying beside the tracks, the vestibule door suddenly opened and the face of indignant authority looked down at him. They dragged Forbes inside after unclenching his hands for him, his stiffened muscles refusing that simple service. The conductor failing to recognize in this disheveled individual with the unsteady knees, the respectable passenger whose ticket he had punched earlier in the trip, not unnaturally assumed that Forbes was drunk and acting on that supposi- tion, proceeded to make himself very disagreeable. As Forbes regained his shaken dignity, and paid his fare, the man in uniform became less truculent and in the end, positively congratulatory. Forbes' grips were in the possession of an un- known porter at a station some thirty miles back, and he made as satisfactory a toilet as was possible without the aid of their contents, before returning AN INTRODUCTION 329 to the coach where lately he had devoted himself to entertaining Charlie Briggs, unaware that the door of Paradise stood ajar just across the aisle. Here disappointment awaited him. Agatha, having learned from bitter experience that activity is the best of balms for a sore heart, had resolved on washing the hands and faces of her charges and giving their hair proper attention. To make the toilet of four children in the limited accommodations of a Pull- man, with the certainty that at any moment the lurch of the train may precipitate you into the v/ash basin, or through the hanging curtains out into the aisle, is a process requiring time and patience. Forbes sat in his former place, biting his lips for three-quarters of an hour before he saw the little procession slowly making its way down the aisle. Forbes' uncomfortable uncertainty as to whether he had made a fool of himself or not, vanished at the sight of Agatha. Worn and weary as she looked, her eyes still reddened from weeping, she had never seemed to him so infinitely dear and desirable. Such trivial things as corrugated palms and lost eye- glasses and a narrow escape from death, no longer mattered. Charlie Briggs was the first to discover him. 330 AGATHA'S AUNT "My man's come back," he shouted jubilantly and ran into Forbes' arms. Agatha's eyes followed him, and she stopped short, her flushed cheeks paling. For a moment Forbes thought her about to faint and started to his feet to assist her, but immediately she had regained her self-control and walked steadily to her seat, though as a matter of fact she did not feel the floor beneath her feet and was scarcely con- scious of the child in her arms. He had come back and intuition told her why. Forbes rose and crossed the aisle. "Charlie," he said in a voice of authority, "take your little sisters to my seat and play with them for a while." Charlie Briggs demurred. "Run along," Forbes insisted. "And when I get a chance to buy you some candy you shall have enough to make you sick for a month." "Us too?" asked the curly-haired girl, ready to oppose any unfair sex-discrimination. "Yes, you, too," Forbes promised recklessly. "Enough so all three of you will need a doctor." It was not in human nature to resist such a bribe. The three crossed immediately to the opposite sec- tion. Forbes took the seat at Agatha's side. A silence at once inevitable and ridiculous fell be- AN INTRODUCTION 331 tween them. There was so much to be said that there seemed no rational starting point. He wanted to ask what she was doing with all those children, but the query seemed to put her on the defensive. She was longing to know how after leaving the train, he could possibly be aboard again, but she left the first move to him. Presently a mutual attraction drew their eyes together and Forbes lost no more time. "Have you had long enough," he said a trifle un- steadily, "to decide on that proposition I made you nine months ago to a day?" "I I What proposition do you mean ?" "That we should set up housekeeping together?" Agatha seemed trying to remember. "Wasn't that for last winter only?" "No. It's for this summer and next winter and for all the summers and winters that ever will be." She regarded him amazedly. "You're not you can't be" "But I am, exactly that. Will you marry me, Agatha?" "Listen !" A little flutter of laughter escaped her and he loved the sound of it. "Do you realize those are the first words you've ever spoken to me the 332 AGATHA'S AUNT real me, that we've just been introduced ? Of course we had any number of good talks when I was Great- aunt Agatha Kent." "Bless her dear heart !" Forbes interjected grate- fully. "And we had one rather exciting interview when I was Hephzibah." "Yes, I have reason to remember that interview." He looked at her meaningly and gloated over her blush. "And now I'm just Agatha," she went on bravely, ignoring her scarlet cheeks. "And the very first words you say to me are to ask me to marry you." "And they're the words I shall keep saying till you promise." She shot him a side-long glance. "But what what about Julia?" "She was married early in January. They have been spending the winter in Palm Beach, I under- stand." "Oh !" There was such compassion in her voice, such pitying tenderness in her eyes that she had a narrow escape from being kissed on the spot. He compromised by taking her hand. "Listen, dear girl. Let's clear this thing up once for all. AN INTRODUCTION 333 I've had a narrow escape. The Julia I loved was no more real than your Hephzibah. I knew my mis- take that day when she attacked you at Oak Knoll. The cruelty of it was a revelation. I can't under- stand now why I listened without protest, but you must remember that I had received a staggering surprise." "Staggering and cruel !" Her fingers tightened about his. "I tried so hard to tell you everything that day in the woods and I was such a coward that the words wouldn't come. How can you ever forgive me?" "Hush, dear love! I shall shock this train-load of people if you are not careful, i was too dazed and bewildered that first day to be quite responsible for what I did or left undone. But within twenty- four hours I spoke my mind so plainly as to termi- nate the friendship between Miss Studley and my- self. I have never seen nor heard from her since." The look she turned on him made him hang his head. The certainty that elates most men, humbles those of finer mold. "Agatha, my dearest, you talk of my forgiving you. Can you ever forgive me?" The train was slowing for a stop before they had 334 AGATHA'S AUNT settled that delicate question. Agatha argued that it was preposterous to talk of forgiving one who in every relation of life was absolute perfection. Forbes insisted that her attitude proved her an angel. The baby, with a discretion beyond its years, refrained from offering any interruption to this absorbing conversation, though occasionally its toothless gums were revealed in what might have impressed the unprejudiced on-looker as a derisive smile. After the brief stop, a train boy appeared shout- ing Forbes' name. He proved to be the bearer of a telegram from Warren. Forbes and Agatha read it together : "If enough is left of you to make the marriage ceremony valid advise clenching matter at the first stop run no risk of letting her get away from us again." "Warren seems to be laboring under the impres- sion," frowned Forbes, "that he comes in on this. Except for that slight error " Agatha interpolated irrelevantly that Warren was a dear. "He's not half bad/' Forbes admitted generously. AN INTRODUCTION 335 "And apart from his erroneous impression that this is a partnership affair, the message impresses me favorably. What do you think?" "How do you know," questioned Agatha inter- estedly, "that I'm not already married to a widower with four small children ?" "I'll own the thought crossed my mine!. But I wouldn't consider it. You looked too sad for a bride." Agatha put her hand into his quite shamelessly. "Of course I would look sad if I had been so silly as to marry somebody else." "Who are these children anyway?" Forbes asked, as if he had just thought of it. "Orphans. Orphans who are going to be adopted. The homes have been investigated and they're all right. Now I'm going to leave the children for a six months' trial, and if at the end of that time everybody is satisfied, they will be legally adopted." Agatha added casually that they would reach the baby's future home at five o'clock and that she would be rather glad to get him off her hands be- fore nightfall. Forbes recalled a statement of Charlie Briggs much to the same effect, and was man enough to apologize mentally to the youngster. 336 AGATHA'S AUNT Agatha's next remark had to Forbes a delicious suggestion of wifely authority. "Why aren't you wearing your glasses ?" He explained the fate of those cherished belong- ings and did his best to make light of the whole af- fair. But Agatha was not to be deceived. Her eyes widened to surprising proportions. Her face grew white. "You might have been killed. It's a miracle you weren't killed." His distress over the discovery that she was cry- ing was spiced with ecstasy. She interrupted his clumsy efforts at comfort with self-accusation. "And if you had been killed, I would have been to blame." "Why, in heaven's name, dearest ? My own folly would have been solely responsible. But when I realized that I had actually spoken face to face with you, and that you were escaping me again, I lost my head completely." "If I'd told you who I was, you wouldn't have had any reason to risk your life. And so if any- thing had happened it would have been all my fault." He took a rather base advantage of her self- reproach. "I'll forgive you on one condition. As AN INTRODUCTION 337 I understand it, after you have made arrangements about the baby you will spend the night at a hotel and take the train to-morrow." "Yes, that's my plan." "And my plan is that you marry me to-morrow morning." "I had intended," Agatha answered reflectively, "to take an eight o'clock train." "I suppose a later one will do." "Very likely. But a wedding without a trous- seau! I am equal to a trousseau now, you know. I have or did have a little while ago a fortune of twelve thousand dollars." "I can't think," Forbes murmured, "of anything I should enjoy better than helping to select a trous- seau a little later." "You know I'm responsible for Miss Finch," Agatha said breathlessly. "She's not going to be married after all." "Miss Finch is a member of my family from now on." "And Howard! It was all make-believe that he was a young friend of mine. He's really my darling brother." "And mine as soon as you say the word. Dear 338 AGATHA'S AUNT little Miss Proteus," cried Forbes with a laugh that did not disguise the tenderness of his voice, "I'm afraid to let you out of my sight for fear you'll change into something else, a mermaid or a fairy, and be lost to me forever." "I'm sure it will disappoint Mrs. Van Home if I come back with a husband," mused Agatha. "It will seem such a childish performance. And yet when you've made up your mind that all that's left in life for you is to go on doing your duty and try- ing to be kind to everybody, and then happiness comes back and knocks at your door, you you oh, Burton it's not in human nature to keep her waiting." After a party, consisting of a smiling gentleman, a radiant girl and four tired children, had left the train, one of the people who always know the de- tails of everybody's business, sketched their history for the benefit of the owner of the poodle. "They had a dreadful quarrel, you know, the way young people will, and she was going home to her father's. Somehow or other he learned what train she was to take and got aboard just at the last minute." The listener knitted blonde brows. "I didn't AN INTRODUCTION 339 really feel sure the woman was in her right mind. She made some absurd statement about those two little girls. Said there was six months' difference in their ages." "She was so excited she didn't know 1 what she was saying," explained the omniscient traveler. "He sent her messages by the little boy and when she wouldn't pay any attention, he brought her to time by standing on the steps of the rear coach for more than an hour. It was a wonder he wasn't killed." The stout blonde expressed the opinion that it was woman's place to forgive. "Well, that melted her, and you can't wonder. The porter in the rear coach told our porter that when they dragged him aboard he hardly had strength to stand on his feet. It didn't take them long to get things fixed up after that. I went for a drink of water after they'd been talking for half an hour or so, and he'd picked up the baby, and I'm pretty sure from the way he held that child, he was using it just as a screen and. kissing the mother behind it." "Awful fretful baby/' commented the stout blonde. "I'm glad it won't be on the train to-night." 340 AGATHA'S AUNT "Looks as if they'd started out to have a real old- fashioned family," said the omniscient narrator. "None of the children looks like her but the curly- haired girl and the boy are the image of their papa." THE END UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000130465 8