I
 
 119E 

 
 02 CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 " Martha By-the-Day " 
 MAKING OVER MARTHA 
 
 By 
 JULIE M. LIPPMANN 
 
 This story follows "Martha" and her 
 family to the country, where she again finds 
 a love affair on her hands. 
 
 Just Ready 
 ($1.20 net, by mail $1.32) 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 Publisher! New York
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 By 
 JULIE M. LIPPMANN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 1914
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1912, 
 
 BY 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 Published August, 1912 
 
 Reprinted September, October (twice), December, 1912 
 
 February, March, April, August, November, December, 1913 
 
 January, 1914 
 
 THE OUINN A OODCM CO. PRESS
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 2131.182
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IF you are one of the favored few, privileged to 
 ride in chaises, you may find the combination 
 of Broadway during the evening rush-hour, in a 
 late November storm, stimulating you may, that 
 is, provided you have a reliable driver. If, con 
 trariwise, you happen to be of the class whose fate 
 it is to travel in public conveyances (and lucky if 
 you have the price!) and the car, say, won t stop 
 
 for you why 
 
 Claire Lang had been standing in the drenching 
 wet at the street-crossing for fully ten minutes. 
 The badgering crowd had been shouldering her 
 one way, pushing her the other, until, being a 
 stranger and not very big, she had become so be 
 wildered that she lost her head completely, and, 
 with the blind impulse of a hen with paresis, 
 darted straight out, in amidst the crush of traffic, 
 with all the chances strong in favor of her being 
 instantly trampled under foot, or ground under 
 wheel, and never a one to know how it had hap 
 pened.
 
 4 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 An instant, and she was back again in her old 
 place upon the curbstone. Something like the 
 firm iron grip of a steam-derrick had fastened on 
 her person, hoisted her neatly up, and set her as 
 precisely down, exactly where she had started 
 from. 
 
 It took her a full second to realize what had 
 happened. Then, quick as a flash, anger flamed 
 up in her pale cheeks, blazed in her tired eyes. 
 For, of course, this was an instance of " insult " 
 described by " the family at home " as common to 
 the experience of unprotected girls in New York 
 City. She groped about in her mind for the 
 formula to be applied in such cases, as recom 
 mended by Aunt Amelia. " Sir, you are no gen 
 tleman ! If you were a gentleman, you would not 
 offer an affront to a young, defenseless girl 
 who " The rest eluded her; she could not re 
 call it, try as she would. In desperate resolve to 
 do her duty anyway, she tilted back her umbrella, 
 whereat a fine stream of water poured from the 
 tip directly over her upturned face, and trickled 
 cheerily down the bridge of her short nose. 
 
 " Sir " she shouted resolutely, and then she 
 
 stopped, for, plainly, her oration was, in the 
 premises, a misfit the person beside her the one 
 of the mortal effrontery and immortal grip, being 
 a woman. A woman of masculine proportions, 
 towering, deep-chested, large-limbed, but with a
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 5 
 
 face which belied all these, for in it her sex shone 
 forth in a motherliness unmistakable, as if the 
 world at large were her family, and it was her 
 business to see that it was generously provided 
 for, along the pleasantest possible lines for all con 
 cerned. 
 
 "What car?" the woman trumpeted, gazing 
 down serenely into Claire s little wet, anxious, up 
 turned face at her elbow. 
 
 " Columbus Avenue." 
 
 The stranger nodded, peering down the glisten 
 ing, wet way, as if she were a skipper sighting a 
 ship. 
 
 "My car, too! First s Lexin ton next 
 Broadway then here s ours ! " Again that 
 derrick-grip, and they stood in the heart of the 
 maelstrom, but apparently perfectly safe, unas 
 sailable. 
 
 " They won t stop," Claire wailed plaintively. 
 " I ve been waiting for ages. The car ll go by! 
 You see if it won t! " 
 
 It did, indeed, seem on the point of sliding past, 
 as all the rest had done, but of a sudden the mo- 
 torman vehemently shut off his power, and put on 
 his brake. By some hidden, mysterious force 
 that was in her, or the mere commanding dimen 
 sions of her frame, Claire s companion had 
 brought him to a halt. 
 
 She lifted her charge gently up on to the step,
 
 5 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 pausing herself, before she should mount the 
 platform, to close the girl s umbrella. 
 
 "Step lively! Step lively!" the conductor 
 urged insistently, reaching for his signal-strap. 
 
 The retort came calmly, deliberately, but with 
 perfect good nature. " Not on your life, young 
 man. I been steppin lively all day, an for so 
 long s it s goin to take this car to get to One- 
 hundred-an -sixteenth Street, my time ain t worth 
 no more n a settin hen s." 
 
 The conductor grinned in spite of himself. 
 " Well, mine is" he declared, while with an 
 authoritative finger he indicated the box into which 
 Claire was to drop her fare. 
 
 " So all the other roosters think," the woman 
 let fall with a tolerant smile, while she diligently 
 searched in her shabby purse for five cents. 
 
 Claire, in the doorway, lingered. 
 
 "Step right along in, my dear! Don t wait 
 for me," her friend advised, closing her teeth on 
 a dime, as she still pursued an elusive nickel. 
 " Step right along in, and sit down anywheres, 
 an if there ain t nowheres to sit, why, just take a 
 waltz-step or two in the direction o some of them 
 elegant gen lemen s feet, occupyin the places 
 meant for ladies, an if they don t get up for 
 love of you, they ll get up for love of their 
 shins." 
 
 Still the girl did not pass on.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 7 
 
 " Fare, please! " There was a decided touch 
 of asperity in the conductor s tone. He glared 
 at Claire almost menacingly. 
 
 Her lip trembled, the quick tears sprang to her 
 eyes. She hesitated, swallowed hard, and then 
 brought it out with a piteous gulp. 
 
 " I had my fare twas in my glove. It must 
 have slipped out. It s gone lost and " 
 
 A tug at the signal-strap was the conductor s 
 only comment. He was stopping the car to put 
 her off, but before he could carry out his pur 
 pose the woman had dropped her dime into the 
 box with a sounding click. 
 
 " Fare for two! " she said, " an if I had time, 
 an a place to sit, I d turn you over acrost my 
 knee, an give you two, for fair, young man, for 
 the sake of your mother who didn t learn you bet 
 ter manners when you was a boy ! " With which 
 she laid a kind hand upon Claire s heaving shoul 
 der, and impelled her gently into the body of the 
 car, already full to overflowing. 
 
 For a few moments the girl had a hard struggle 
 to control her rising sobs, but happily no one saw 
 her working face and twitching lips, for her com 
 panion had planted herself like a great bulwark 
 between her and the world, shutting her off, wall 
 ing her round. Then, suddenly, she found her 
 self placed in a hurriedly vacated seat, from which 
 she could look up into the benevolent face inclined
 
 8 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 toward her, and say, without too much danger of 
 breaking down in the effort: 
 
 " I really did have it the money, you know. 
 Truly, I m not a " 
 
 " O, pooh ! Don t you worry your head over 
 a little thing like that. Such accidents is liable 
 to occur in the best-reggerlated fam lies. They 
 do in mine, shoor! " 
 
 " But, you see," quavered the uncertain voice, 
 " I haven t any more. That s all I had, so I can t 
 pay you back, and " 
 
 It was curious, but just here another passenger 
 hastily rose, vacating the seat next Claire s, and 
 leaving it free, whereat her companion compressed 
 her bulky frame into it with a sigh, as of well- 
 earned rest, and remarked comfortably, " Now we 
 can talk. You was sayin what was it? About 
 that change, you know. It was all you had. You 
 mean by you, of course." 
 
 Claire s pale, pinched face flushed hotly. " No, 
 I don t," she confessed, without lifting her down 
 cast eyes. 
 
 Her companion appeared to ponder this for a 
 moment, then quite abruptly she let it drop. 
 
 " My name s Slawson," she observed. " Mar 
 tha Slawson. I go out by the day. Laundry- 
 work, housecleaning, general chores. I got a 
 husband an four children, to say nothing of a 
 mother-in-law who lives with us, an keeps an eye
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 9 
 
 on things while me an Sammy (that s Mr. Slaw- 
 son) is out workin , an lucky if it s an eye itself, 
 for it s not a hand, I can tell you that. What s 
 your name, if I may make so bold? " 
 
 " Claire Lang. My people live in Grand 
 Rapids where the furniture and carpet-sweepers 
 come from," with a wistful, faint little attempt 
 at a smile. " My father was judge of the Su 
 preme Court, but he had losses, and then he died, 
 and there wasn t much of anything left, and 
 so " 
 
 " You come to New York to make your ever- 
 lastin fortune, an you " 
 
 Claire Lang shook her head, completing the 
 unfinished sentence. " No, I haven t made it, 
 that is, not yet. But I m not discouraged. I 
 don t mean to give up. Things look pretty dark 
 just now, but I m not going to let that discour 
 age me No, indeed ! I m going to be brave 
 
 and courageous, and never say die, even if even 
 if " 
 
 " Turn round, an pertend you re lookin out 
 of the winder," suggested Mrs. Slawson con 
 fidentially. " The way folks stare, you d think 
 the world was full of nothin but laughin 
 hyeenyas. Dontcher care, my dear! Well for 
 some of em, if they could shed an honest tear 
 or two themselves, oncet in a while, instead of 
 bein that brazen; twouldn t be water at all, but
 
 io MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Putzes Pomady it d take to make an impression 
 on em, an don t you forget it. There ! That s 
 right! Now, no one can observe what s occurrin 
 in your face, an I can talk straight into your ear, 
 see? What I was goin to say is, that bein a 
 mother myself an havin children of my own to 
 look out for, I couldn t recommend any lady, let 
 alone one so young an pretty as you, to take up 
 with strangers, here in New York City, be they 
 male or be they female. No, certaintly not ! But 
 in this case, you can take it from me, I m O. K. 
 I can give the highest references. I worked for 
 the best fam lies in this town, ever since I was a 
 child. You needn t be a mite afraid. I m just a 
 plain mother of a fam ly an , believe me, you can 
 trust me as you would trust one of your own 
 relations, though I do say it as shouldn t, knowin 
 how queer own relations can be and is, when put 
 to it at times. So, if you happen to be in a hole, 
 my dear, without friends or such things in the 
 city, you feel free to turn to, or if you seem to 
 stand in need of a word of advice, or anything 
 else, why, dontcher hesitate a minute. It d be a 
 pretty deep hole Martha Slawson couldn t see 
 over the edge of, be sure of that, even if she did 
 have to stand on her toes to do it. Holes is my 
 specialty, havin been in an out, as you might say, 
 all my life particularly in" 
 
 Judicious or not, Claire told her story. It was
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 11 
 
 not a long one. Just the everyday experience of 
 a young girl coming to a strange city, without in 
 fluence, friends, or money, expecting to make her 
 way, and finding that way beset with difficulties, 
 blocked by obstacles. 
 
 " I ve done everything I could think of, hon 
 estly I have," she concluded apologetically. " I 
 began by trying for big things; art-work in 
 editorial offices (everybody liked my art-work in 
 Grand Rapids!). But twas no use. Then I 
 took up commercial drawing. I got what looked 
 like a good job, but the man gave me one week s 
 pay, and that s all I could ever collect, though I 
 worked for him over a month. Then I tried 
 real estate. One firm told me about a woman 
 selling for them who cleared, oh, I don t know 
 how-much-a-week, in commissions. Something 
 queer must be the matter with me, I guess, for I 
 never got rid of a single lot, though I walked my 
 feet off. I ve tried writing ads., and I ve directed 
 envelopes. I ve read the Wants columns, till it 
 seems as if everybody in the world was looking 
 for a job. But I can t get anything to do. I 
 guess God doesn t mean me to die of starvation, 
 for you wouldn t believe how little I ve had to 
 eat all summer and fall, and yet I m almost as 
 strong and hearty as ever. But lately I haven t 
 been able to make any money at all, not five 
 cents, so I couldn t pay my board, and they
 
 12 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 they told me at the house where I live, that I d 
 have to square up to-night, or I couldn t keep my 
 room any longer. They took my trunk a week 
 ago. I haven t had anything to wear except these 
 clothes I have on, since, and they re pretty wet 
 now and and I ve nowhere to go, and it is 
 pouring so hard, and I should have been put off 
 the car if you hadn t " 
 
 Mrs. Slawson checked the labored flow with a 
 hand upon the girl s knee. Where did you say 
 your boardin -house is? " she inquired abruptly. 
 
 " Ninety-fifth Street West Two-hundred- 
 and-eighty-five-and-a-half." 
 
 " Good gracious! An we re only three blocks 
 off there now! " 
 
 " But you said," expostulated Claire help 
 lessly, feeling herself propelled as by the hand of 
 fate through the crowd toward the door. You 
 said you live on One-hundred-and-sixteenth 
 Street." 
 
 " So I do, my dear, so I do ! But I ve got some 
 business to transack with a lady livin in Ninety- 
 fifth Street West Two-hunderd-an -eighty-five- 
 an -a-half. Come along. Step lively, as my 
 friend, this nice young man out here on the rear 
 platform, says."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THEY plodded along the flooded street in 
 silence, Claire following after Martha 
 Slawson like a small child, almost clutching at her 
 skirts. It was not easy to keep pace with the 
 long, even strides that covered so much ground, 
 and Claire fell into a steady pony-trot that made 
 her breath come short and quick, her heart beat 
 fast. She dimly wondered what was going to 
 happen, but she did not dare, or care, to ask. 
 It was comfort enough just to feel this great em 
 bodiment of human sympathy and strength beside 
 her, to know she was no longer alone. 
 
 Before the house Martha paused a moment. 
 
 " Now, my dear, there ain t goin to be nothin 
 for you to do but just sit tight," she vouchsafed 
 reassuringly. " Don t you start to butt in (if 
 you ll pardon the liberty) , no matter what I say. 
 I m goin to be a perfect lady, never fear. I know 
 my place, an I know my dooty, an if your board- 
 in -house lady knows hers, there ll be no trouble 
 whatsornedever, so dontcher worry." 
 
 She descended the three steps leading from the 
 street-level down into the little paved courtyard 
 below, and rang the basement bell. A moment 
 
 13
 
 14 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 and an inner door was unlocked, flung open, and 
 a voice from just within the grating of the closed 
 iron area-gate asked curtly, " Well, what s 
 wanted? " 
 
 " Is this Mrs. ? I should say, is this the 
 
 lady of the house?" Martha Slawson s voice 
 was deep, bland, prepossessing. 
 
 " I m Mrs. Daggett, yes, if that s what you 
 mean." 
 
 " That s what I mean. My name s Slawson. 
 Mrs. Sammy Slawson, an I come to see you on 
 a little matter of business connected with a young 
 lady who s been lodgin in your house Miss 
 Lang." 
 
 Mrs. Daggett stepped forward, and unlatched 
 the iron gate. " Come in," she said, in a changed 
 voice, endeavoring to infuse into her acrid man 
 ner the grace of a belated hospitality. 
 
 Claire, completely hidden from view behind 
 Martha Slawson s heroic proportions, followed 
 in her wake like a wee, foreshortened shadow as, 
 at Mrs. Daggett s invitation, Mrs. Slawson passed 
 through the area gateway into the malodorous 
 basement hall, and so to the dingy dining-room 
 beyond. Here a group of grimy-clothed tables 
 seemed to have alighted in sudden confusion, re 
 minding one of a flock of pigeons huddled to 
 gether in fear of the vultures soon to descend 
 on them with greedy, all-devouring appetites.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 15 
 
 " We can just as well talk here as anywhere," 
 announced Mrs. Daggett. " It s quarter of an 
 hour before dinnertime, but if you d rather go 
 up to the parlor we can." 
 
 " O, dear, no ! " said Martha Slawson suavely. 
 " Any place is good enough for me. Don t 
 trouble yourself. I m not particular where I 
 am." Unbidden, she drew out a chair from its 
 place beside one of the uninviting tables, and sat 
 down on it deliberately. It creaked beneath her 
 weight. 
 
 "O oh! Miss Lang!" said Mrs. Daggett, 
 surprised, seeing her young lodger now, for the 
 first time. 
 
 Martha nodded. " Yes, it s Miss Lang, an I 
 brought her with me, through the turrbl storm, 
 Mrs. a ?" 
 
 " Daggett," supplied the owner of the name 
 promptly. 
 
 "That s right, Daggett," repeated Martha. 
 " I brought Miss Lang with me, Mrs. Daggett, 
 because I couldn t believe my ears when she told 
 me she was goin to be to be turned out, if she 
 didn t pay up to-night, weather or no. I wanted 
 to hear the real truth of it from you, ma am, 
 straight, with her by." 
 
 Mrs. Daggett coughed. " Well, business is 
 business. I m not a capitalist. I m not keeping 
 a boarding-house for my health, you know. I
 
 i6 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 can t afford to give credit when I have to pay 
 cash." 
 
 " But, of course, you don t mean you d ack- 
 chelly refuse the young lady shelter a night like 
 this, if she come to you, open an honest, an 
 said she hadn t the price by her just at present, 
 but she would have it sooner or later, an then 
 you d be squared every cent. You wouldn t turn 
 her down if she said that, would you? " 
 
 " Say, Mrs. Slawson, or whatever your name 
 is," broke in Mrs. Daggett sharply, " I m not 
 here to be cross-questioned. When you told me 
 you d come on business for Miss Lang, I thought 
 twas to settle what she owes. If it ain t I m a 
 busy woman. I m needed in the kitchen this 
 minute, to see to the dishing-up. Have the good 
 ness to come to the point. Is Miss Lang going 
 to pay? If she is, well and good. She can keep 
 her room. If she isn t " The accompany 
 ing gesture was eloquent. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson s chair gave forth another whine 
 of reproach as she settled down on it with a sort 
 of inflexible determination that defied argument. 
 
 "So that s your ultomato?" she inquired 
 calmly. " I understand you to say that if this 
 young lady (who any one with a blind eye can see 
 she s quality), I understand you to say, that if she 
 don t pay down every cent she owes you, here an 
 now, you ll put her out, bag an baggage? "
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 17 
 
 " No, not bag and baggage, Mrs. Slawson," 
 interposed the boarding-house keeper with a wry 
 smile, bridling with the sense that she was about 
 to say something she considered rather neat, " I 
 am, as you might say, holding her bag and bag 
 gage as security." 
 
 " Now what do you think o that! " ejaculated 
 Martha Slawson. 
 
 " It s quite immaterial to me what anybody 
 thinks of it," Mrs. Daggett snapped. "And 
 now, if that s all you ve got to suggest, why, I m 
 sure it s all I have, and so, the sooner we end 
 this, the sooner I ll be at liberty to attend to my 
 dinner." 
 
 Still Mrs. Slawson did not stir. 
 
 " I suppose you think you re a lady," she ob 
 served without the faintest suggestion of heat. 
 " I suppose you think you re a lady, but you 
 certainly ain t workin at it now. What takes 
 my time, though, is the way you ackchelly seem 
 to be meanin what you say! Why, I wouldn t 
 turn a dog out a night like this, an you d let a 
 delicate young girl go into the drivin storm, a 
 stranger, without a place to lay her head that 
 is, for all you know. I could bet my life, with 
 out knowin a thing about it, that the good Lord 
 never let you have a daughter of your own. He 
 wouldn t trust the keepin of a child s body, not 
 to speak of her soul, to such as you. That is,
 
 i8 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 He wouldn t if He could help Himself. But, 
 thanks be ! Miss Lang ain t dependent. She s 
 well an able to pay all she owes. Supposin she 
 has been kinder strapped for a little while back, 
 an had to economize by comin to such a place 
 as this ! I ve knowed others, compelled to 
 economize with three trunks alongside a hall- 
 bedroom wall, for a while, too, an by an by their 
 circumstances was such that they had money to 
 burn. It s not for the likes of Miss Lang to 
 try to transack business with your sort. It would 
 soil her lips to bandy words, so I, an old fam ly 
 servant, an proud of it! am settlin up her af 
 fairs for her. Be kind enough to say how much 
 it is you are ready to sell your claim to Christian 
 charity for? How much is it you ain t willin to 
 lend to the Lord on Miss Lang s account? " She 
 plucked up her skirts, thrust her hand, unembar 
 rassed, into her stocking-leg, and brought forth 
 from that safe depository a roll of well-worn 
 greenbacks. 
 
 Mrs. Daggett named the amount of Claire s in 
 debtedness, and Martha Slawson proceeded 
 to count it out in slow, deliberate syllables. 
 She did not, however, surrender the bills at 
 once. 
 
 " I ll take a receipt," she quietly observed, and 
 then sat back with an air of perfect imperturbabil 
 ity, while the boarding-house keeper nervously
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 19 
 
 fussed about, searching for a scrap of paper, hunt 
 ing for a pen, trying to unearth, from the most 
 impossible hiding-places, a bottle of ink, her in 
 dignation at Martha s cheek escaping her in 
 audible mumblings. 
 
 " Impudence ! What right have you to come 
 here, holding me to account? I ve my own way 
 of doing good " 
 
 Mrs. Slawson shrugged. "Your own way? 
 I warrant you have ! Nobody else d reconize it. 
 I d like to bet, you don t give a penny to charity 
 oncet in five years. Come now, do you? " 
 
 " God doesn t take into account the amount 
 one gives," announced Mrs. Daggett authorita 
 tively. 
 
 " P raps not, but you can take it from me, He 
 keeps a pretty close watch on what we have left 
 or I miss my guess. An now, Miss Claire 
 darlin , if you ll go an get what belongin s you 
 have, that this generous lady ain t stripped off n 
 you, to hold for security, as she calls it, we ll be 
 goin . An expressman will be round here the 
 first thing in the mornin for Miss Lang s trunk, 
 an it s up to you, Mrs. Daggett, to see it s ready 
 for m when he comes. Good-night to you, 
 ma am, an I wish you luck." 
 
 Never after could Claire recall in detail what 
 followed. She had a dim vision of glistening 
 pavements on which the rain dashed furiously,
 
 20 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 only to rebound with resentful force, saturating 
 one to the skin. Of fierce blasts that seemed to 
 lurk around every corner. Of street-lamps 
 gleaming meaninglessly out of the murk, curi 
 ously suggesting blinking eyes set in a vacant 
 face, and at last at last in blessed contrast 
 an open door, the sound of cheery voices, the feel 
 of warmth and welcome, the sight of a plain, 
 wholesome haven rest. 
 
 Martha Slawson checked her children s vocifer 
 ous clamor with a word. Then her orders fell 
 thick and fast, causing feet to run and hands to 
 fly, causing curiosity to give instant way before 
 the pressure of busy-ness, and a sense of co 
 operation to make genial the task of each. 
 
 "Hush, everybody! Cora, you go make up 
 the bed in the boarder s room. Turn the mat 
 tress, mind! An stretch the sheets good an 
 smooth, like I learned you to do. Francie, you 
 get the hot-water bottle, quick, so s I can fill it! 
 Sammy, you go down to the cellar, an tell Mr. 
 Snyder your mother will be much obliged if he ll 
 turn on a extra spark o steam-heat. Tell m, 
 Mrs. Slawson has a lady come to board with her 
 for a spell, that s fixin for chills or somethin , on- 
 less she can be kep warm an comfortable, an 
 the radianator in the boarder s room don t send 
 out much heat to speak of. Talk up polite, 
 Sammy; d you hear me? An be sure you don t
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 21 
 
 let on Snyder might be keepin a better fire in his 
 furnace if he didn t begrutch the coal so. It s 
 gospel truth, o course, but landlords is supposed 
 to have feelin s, same as the rest of us, an a 
 gentle word turneth aside wrath. Sabina, now 
 show what a big girl you are, an fetch mother 
 Cora s nicest nightie out o the drawer in my 
 beaurer the nightie Mrs. Granville sent Cora 
 last Christmas. Mother wants to hang it in front 
 of the kitchen-range, so s the pretty lady can go 
 by-bye all warm an comfy, after she s took her 
 supper off n the tray, like Sabina did when she 
 had the measles." 
 
 Huge Sam Slawson, senior, overtopping his 
 wife by fully half a head, gazed down upon his 
 little hive, from shaggy-browed, benevolent eyes. 
 He uttered no complaint because his dinner was 
 delayed, and he, hungry as a bear, was made to 
 wait till a stranger was served and fed. Instead, 
 he wandered over to where Martha was supple 
 menting " Ma s " ministrations at the range, and 
 patted her approvingly on the shoulder. 
 
 "Another stray lamb, mother?" he asked 
 casually. 
 
 Martha nodded. " Wait till the rush is over, 
 an the young uns abed an asleep, an I ll tell you 
 all about it. Stray lamb ! I should say as much ! 
 A little white corset-lamb, used to eat out o your 
 hand, with a blue ribbon round its neck. Coin to
 
 22 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 be sent out to her death or worse, by a sharp- 
 fangled wolf of a boardin -house keeper, who d 
 gnaw the skin off n your bones, an then crack the 
 bones to get at the marrer, if you give her the 
 chanct. I ll tell you all about it later, Sammy."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 FOR days Claire lay in a state of drowsy 
 quiet. 
 
 She hardly realized the fact of her changed 
 condition, that she was being cared for, ministered 
 to, looked after. She had brief, waking moments 
 when she seemed to be aware that Martha was 
 bringing in her breakfast, or sitting beside her 
 while she ate her dinner, but the intervening 
 spaces, when " Ma " or Cora served, were dim, 
 indistinct adumbrations of no more substantial 
 quality than the vagrant dreams that ranged 
 mistily across her relaxed brain. 
 
 The thin walls of the cheaply-built flat did not 
 protect her from the noise of the children s 
 prattling tongues and boisterous laughter, but the 
 walls of her consciousness closed her about, as in 
 a muffled security, and she slept on and on, until 
 the exhausted body was reinforced, the overtaxed 
 nerves infused with new strength. 
 
 Then, one evening, when the room in which 
 she lay was dusky with twilight shadows, she 
 realized that she was awake, that she was alive. 
 She had gradually groped her way through the 
 dim stretches lying between the region of visions 
 
 23
 
 24 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 and that of the actual, but the step into a full sense 
 of reality was abrupt. She heard the sound of 
 children s voices in the next room. So clear they 
 were, she could distinguish every syllable. 
 
 "Say, now, listen, mother! What do you do 
 when you go out working every day? " It was 
 Cora speaking. 
 
 " I work." 
 
 " Pooh, you know what I mean. What kinder 
 work do you do? " 
 
 For a moment there was no answer, then Claire 
 recognized Martha s voice, with what was, un 
 deniably, a chuckle tucked away in its mellow 
 depths, where no mere, literal child would be apt 
 to discern it. 
 
 " Stenography an typewritin ! " 
 
 " Are you a stenographer an typewriter, 
 mother? Honest?" 
 
 " Well, you can take it from me, if I was it at 
 all, I d be it honest. What makes you think 
 there s any doubt o my being one? Don t I have 
 the appearance of a high-toned young lady stenog 
 rapher an typewriter? " 
 
 A pause, in which Martha s substantial steps 
 were to be heard busily passing to and fro, as she 
 went about her work. Her mother s reply evi 
 dently did not carry conviction to Cora s ques 
 tioning mind, for a second later she was up and 
 at it afresh.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 25 
 
 " Say, now, listen, mother if you do stenog 
 raphy an typewriting what makes your apron so 
 wet an dirty, nights when you come home? " 
 
 " Don t you s pose I clean my machine before 
 I leave? What kinder typewriter d you think I 
 am? To leave my machine dirty, when a good 
 scrubdown, with a pail o hot water, an a stiff 
 brush, an Sapolio, would put it in fine shape for 
 the next mornin ." 
 
 " Mother say, now, listen ! I don t believe 
 that s the way they clean typewriters. Miss 
 Symonds, she s the Principal s seckerterry to our 
 school, an she sits in the office, she cleans her 
 machine with oil and a little fine brush, like you 
 clean your teeth with." 
 
 " What you been doin in the Principal s office, 
 miss, I should like to know? Been sent up to 
 her for bad behavior, or not knowin your lessons? 
 Speak up now! Quick! " 
 
 " My teacher, she sends me on errands, an I 
 got a credit-card last week an , say, mother, I 
 don t believe you re a young lady stenographer 
 an typewriter. You re just trying to fool 
 me." 
 
 " Well, Miss Smarty, supposin I am. So 
 long s I don t succeed you ve no kick comin ." 
 
 " Say, now listen, mother." 
 
 "Hush! You ll wake the pretty lady. Be 
 sides, too many questions before dinner is apt to
 
 26 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 spoil the appetite, to say nothin of the temper. 
 Turn to, an lend a hand with them potatoes. 
 Smash em good first, an then beat em with a 
 fork until they re light an creamy, an you won t 
 have so much gimp left for snoopin into things 
 that don t concern you ! " 
 
 " Say, now listen, mother ! " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Say, mother, something awful funny hap 
 pened to me last night? " 
 
 " Are you tellin what it was? " 
 
 " Something woke me up in the middle of the 
 night, n I got up out of bed, an the clock struck 
 four, n then I knew it was mornin . N I heard 
 a noise, n I thought it was robbers, n I went 
 to the door, n it was open, n I went out into 
 the hall, n " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " An there was you, mother, on the stairs 
 kneelin ! " 
 
 " Guess you had a dream, didn t you? " 
 
 " No, I didn t." 
 
 " What d I be kneelin on the stairs for, at four 
 o clock in the mornin , I should like to know? " 
 
 " It looked like you was brushin em down." 
 
 " Me brushin down Snyder s stairs ! Well, 
 now what do you think o that? " Her tone of 
 amazement, at the mere possibility, struck Cora, 
 and there was a pause, broken at length by
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 27 
 
 Martha, in a preternaturally solemn voice. " I 
 s pose you never tumbled to it I might be prayin ." 
 
 Cora s eyes grew wide. " Prayin ! " she re 
 peated in an awed whisper. " But, mother, 
 what d you want to go out in the hall for, to pray 
 on the stairs, at four o clock in the mornin ? " 
 
 " Prayin is a godly ack. Wheresomedever, 
 an whensomedever you do it." 
 
 " But, mother, I don t believe you were prayin . 
 I heard the knockin o your whis -broom. You 
 was brushin down the stairs." 
 
 " Well, what if I was? Cleanliness is next to 
 godliness, ain t it? Prayin an cleanin , it 
 amounts to the same thing in the end it s just a 
 question of what you clean, outside you or in." 
 
 " But say, now, listen, mother, you never 
 cleaned down Mr. Snyder s stairs before. An 
 you been making shirtwaists for Mrs. Snyder, 
 after you get home nights. I saw her with one of 
 em on." 
 
 " Cora, do you know what happened to a little 
 girl oncet who asked too many questions? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, I won t tell you now. It might spoil 
 your appetite for dinner. But you can take it 
 from me, the end she met with would surprise 
 you." 
 
 Shortly after, Claire s door quietly opened, and 
 Cora, with a lighted taper in her hand, tiptoed
 
 28 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 cautiously in, like a young torch-bearing avani* 
 courriere, behind whom Mrs. Slawson, laden with 
 a wonderful tray, advanced processionally. 
 
 " Light the changelier, an then turn it low," 
 Martha whispered. " An then you, yourself, 
 light out, so s the pretty lady can eat in comfort." 
 
 The pretty lady, sitting up among her pil 
 lows, awake and alert, almost brought disaster 
 upon the taper, and the tray, by exclaiming 
 brightly, "Good-evening! I m wide awake for 
 good! You needn t tiptoe or hush any more. 
 O, I feel like new ! All rested and well and 
 ready again. And I owe it, every bit, to you ! 
 You ve been so good to me ! " 
 
 It was hard on Cora to have to obey her 
 mother s injunction to " clear out," just when the 
 pretty lady was beginning to demonstrate her 
 right to the title. But Martha s word in her lit 
 tle household was not to be disputed with im 
 punity, and Cora slipped away reluctantly, carry 
 ing with her a dazzling vision of soft, dark hair, 
 starry blue-gray eyes, wonderful changing ex 
 pressions, and, in and over all, a smile that was 
 like a key to unlock hearts. 
 
 " My, but it s good to see you so ! " said Mrs. 
 Slawson heartily. " I was glad to have you sleep, 
 for goodness knows you needed it, but if you d a 
 kep it up a day or so longer, I d a called in a 
 doctor shoor! Just as a kind of nacherl per-
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 29 
 
 caution, against your settlin down to a permanent 
 sleepin -beauty ack, for, you can take it from me, 
 I haven t the business address of any Beast, here 
 in New York City, could be counted on to do the 
 Prince-turn, when needed. There s plenty of 
 beasts, worse luck! but they re on the job, for 
 fair. No magic, lightenin -change about them. 
 They stay beasts straight through the per 
 formance." 
 
 Claire laughed. 
 
 " But, as it happened, I didn t need a Prince, 
 did I? I didn t need a Prince or any one else, for 
 
 I had a good fairy godmother who O, Mrs. 
 
 Slawson, I I can t " 
 
 " You don t have to. An I m not Mrs. Slaw- 
 son to you. I m just Martha, for I feel like you 
 was my own young lady, an if you call me Mrs. 
 Slawson, I won t feel so, an here now see if 
 you can clear up this tray so clean it ll seem silly 
 to wash the dishes." 
 
 For a moment there was silence in the little 
 room, while Claire tried to compose herself, and 
 Martha pretended to be busy with the tray. 
 Then Claire said, " I ll be very glad to call you 
 Martha if you ll let me, and there s something I d 
 like to say right off, because I ve been lying here 
 quite a while thinking about it, and it s very im 
 portant, indeed. It s about my future, and " 
 
 " You ll excuse my interruckting, but before you
 
 30 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 reely get your steam up, let me have a word on my 
 own account, an then, if you want to, you can fire 
 away the gun s your own. What I mean is I 
 don t believe in lyin awake, thinkin about the 
 future, when a body can put in good licks o sleep, 
 restin from the past. It s against my principles. 
 I m by the day. I work by the day, an I live 
 by the day. I reasoned it out so-fashion: the 
 past is over an done with, whatever it may be, 
 an you can t change it, for all you can do, so 
 what s the use? You can bet on one thing, shoor, 
 whatever ain t dead waste in your past is, some 
 how, goin to get dished up to you in your present, 
 or your future. You ain t goin to get rid of it, 
 till you ve worked it into your system for health, 
 as our dear old friend, Lydia Pinkham, says. As 
 to the future, the future s like a flea when you 
 can put your finger on the future, it s time enough 
 to think what you ll do with it. Folkes futures d 
 be all right, if they d just pin down a little tighter 
 to to-day, an make that square up, the best they 
 can, with what they d oughter do. Now, as to your 
 future, there s nothin to fret about for a minute 
 in it. Jus now, you re here, safe an sound, an 
 here you re goin to stay until you re well an 
 strong an fed up, an the chill o Mrs. Daggett is 
 out o your body an soul. You can take it from 
 me, that woman is worse than any line-storm / 
 ever struck for dampenin -down purposes, an
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 31 
 
 freeze-out, an generl cussedness. Your business 
 to-day now is to get well an strong. Then 
 the future ll take care of itself." 
 
 " But meanwhile," Claire persisted, " I m liv 
 ing on you. Eating food for which I haven t the 
 money to pay, having loving care for which I 
 couldn t pay, if I had all the money in the world. 
 I guess I know how you settled my account with 
 Mrs. Daggett. You gave her money you had 
 been saving for the rent, and now you are work 
 ing, slaving overtime, at four o clock mornings, 
 sweeping down the stairs, and late nights, making 
 shirtwaists for Mrs. Snyder, to help supply what s 
 lacking." 
 
 " Just you wait till I see that Cora," observed 
 Mrs. Slawson irrelevantly. " That s the time her 
 past will have slopped over on her present, so s 
 she can t tell which is which. Just you wait till I 
 see that Cora ! " 
 
 " No, no please! Martha dear! It wasn t 
 Cora ! She s not to blame. I d have known 
 sooner or later anyway. I always reason things out 
 for myself. Please promise not to scold Cora." 
 
 " Scold Cora? Not on your life, my dear; I 
 won t scold Cora. I m old-fashioned in my ways 
 with childern. I don t believe in scoldin . It 
 spoils their tempers, but a good lickin oncet in a 
 while, helps em to remember, besides bein good 
 for the circulation."
 
 32 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Claire was ready to cry. " It s all my fault," 
 she lamented. " I was clumsy. I was tactless. 
 And now Cora will be punished for it, and I 
 make nothing but trouble for you all." 
 
 " There, there ! For mercy sake, don t take 
 on like that. I promise I ll let Cora go free, if 
 you ll sit back quiet an eat your dinner in peace. 
 So now! That s better! " 
 
 " What I was going to say, Martha dear, is, 
 I m quite well and strong now, and I want to set 
 about immediately looking for something to do. 
 I ought to be able to support myself, you know, 
 for I m able-bodied, and not so stupid but that I 
 managed to graduate from college. Once, two 
 summers ago, I tutored I taught a young girl 
 who was studying to take the Wellesley entrance 
 exams. And I coached her so well she went 
 through without a condition, and she wasn t very 
 quick, either. I wonder if I couldn t teach? " 
 
 " Shoor, you could! " 
 
 " If I could get a position to teach in some 
 school or some family, I could, maybe, live here 
 with you rent this room unless you have some 
 other use for it." 
 
 " Lord, no ! I call it the boarder s room be 
 cause this flat is really too rich for my blood, but 
 you see I don t want the childern brought up in a 
 bad neighborhood with low companions. Well, 
 Sammy argued the rent was too high, till I told m
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 33 
 
 we d let a room an make it up that way, but what 
 with this, an what with that, we ain t had any 
 boarders exceptin now an then some friend of 
 himself out of a job, or one o the girls, livin out 
 in the houses where I work, gettin bounced sud- 
 dent, an in want of a bed, an none of em ever 
 paid us a cent or was asked for it." 
 
 " Well, if I could get a position as teacher or 
 governess, I d soon be able to pay back what 
 
 you ve laid out for me, and more besides, and 
 
 In the houses where you work, are there any chil 
 dren who need a governess? Any young girls 
 who need a tutor? That s what I wanted to ask 
 you, Martha." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson deliberated in silence for a mo 
 ment. 
 
 " There s the Livingstons," she mused, " but 
 they ain t any childern. Only a childish brother- 
 in-law. He s not quite all there, as you might say. 
 It d be no use tryin to learn him nothin , seein 
 he s so odd seventy-odd an his habits like to 
 be fixed. Then, there s the Farrands. But the 
 girls goes to Miss Spenny s school, an the son s 
 at Columbia. It might upset their plans, if I 
 was to suggest their givin up where they re at, 
 an havin you. Then there s the Grays, an the 
 Granvilles, an the Thornes. Addin em all to 
 gether for childern, they d come to about half a 
 child a pair. Talk about your race suicide ! They
 
 34 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 say they can t afford to have childern. You 
 can take it from me, it s the poor people are rich 
 nowadays. We can afford to have childern, all 
 
 right, all right. Then there s Mrs. Sherman 
 
 She s got one boy, but he Radcliffe Sherman 
 well, he s a limb ! A reg lar young villain. You 
 couldn t manage him. Only Lord Ronald can 
 manage Radcliffe Sherman, an he " 
 
 " Lord Ronald? " questioned Claire, when Mrs. 
 Slawson s meditation threatened to become static. 
 
 "Why, he s Mrs. Sherman s brother, Mr. 
 Frank Ronald, an no real lord could be hand- 
 somer-lookin , or grander-behavin , or richer than 
 him. Mrs. Sherman is a widder, or a divorcy, or 
 somethin stylish like that. Anyhow, I worked 
 for her this eight years an more almost ever 
 since Radcliffe was born, an I ain t seen hide nor 
 hair o any Mr. Sherman yet, an they never speak 
 o him, so I guess he was either too good or too 
 bad to mention. Mr. Frank an his mother lives 
 with Mrs. Sherman, an what Mr. Frank says 
 goes. His word is law. She thinks the world 
 of m, an well she may, for he s a thorerbred. 
 The way he treats me, for instants. You d think 
 I was the grandest lady in the land. He never 
 sees me but it s, How d do, Martha? or, How s 
 the childern an Mr. Slawson these days? He 
 certainly has got grand ways with m, Mr. Frank 
 has. An yet, he s never free. You wouldn t
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 35 
 
 dare make bold with m. His eyes has a sort o 
 keep-of-the-grass look gener ly, but when he 
 smiles down ut you, friendly-like, why, you 
 wouldn t call the queen your cousin. Radcliffe 
 knows he can t monkey with his uncle Frank, an 
 when he s by, butter wouldn t melt in that young 
 un s mouth. But other times my ! You see, 
 Mrs. Sherman is dead easy. She told me oncet, 
 childern ought to be brought up scientifically. 
 Lord! She said they d ought to be let express 
 their souls, whatever she means by that. I told 
 her I thought it was safer not to trust too much 
 to the childern s souls, but to help along some 
 occasional with your own the sole of your slip 
 per. It was then she said she abserlootly for 
 bid any one to touch Radcliffe. She wanted him 
 guided by love alone. Well, that s what he s 
 been guided with, an , you can take it from me, 
 love s made a hash of it, as it ushally does when it 
 ain t mixed with a little common sense. You d 
 oughta see that fella s anticks when his mother, 
 an Lord Ronald, ain t by. He d raise the hair 
 offn your head, if you hadn t a spear of it there 
 to begin with. He speaks to the help as if they 
 was dirt under his feet, an he d as lief lie as 
 look at you, an always up to some new devilment. 
 It d take your time to think fast enough to keep 
 up with m. But he ain t all bad I don t believe 
 no child is, not on your life, an my idea is, he d
 
 36 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 turn out O. K. if only he d the right sort o 
 handlin . Mr. Frank could do it but when 
 Lord Ronald is by, Radcliffe is a pet lamb a lit 
 tle woolly wonder. You ast me why I call Mr. 
 Frank Lord Ronald. I never thought of it till 
 one time when Cora said a piece at a Sund -School 
 ent tainment. I can t tell you what the piece was, 
 for, to be perfectly honest, I was too took up, at 
 the time, watchin Cora s stockin , which was 
 comin down, right before the whole churchful. 
 It reely didn t, but I seen the garter hangin , an 
 I thought it would, any minute. I remember it 
 was somethin about a fella called Lord Ronald, 
 who was a reel thorerbred, just like Mr. Frank 
 is. I recklect one of the verses went : 
 
 " Lord Ronald had the lily-white dough 
 
 (to my way o thinkin it s no matter about the 
 color, white or gold or just plain, green paper- 
 money, so long s you ve got it), anyhow, that s 
 what it said in the piece 
 
 " Lord Ronald had the lily-white dough, 
 Which he gave to his cousin, Lady Clare. 
 
 Say, wasn t he generous? give to his cousin 
 Lady Clare an good gracious ! O, excuse 
 me ! I didn t mean to jolt your tray like that, but 
 I just couldn t help flyin up, for I got an idea ! 
 True as you live, I got an idea ! "
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT did not take long, once Claire was fairly 
 on her feet again, to adjust herself to her new 
 surroundings, to find her place and part in the 
 social economy of the little family-group where 
 she was never for a moment made to feel an 
 alien. She appropriated a share in the work of 
 the household at once, insisting, to Martha s dis 
 may, upon lending a hand mornings with the older 
 children, who were to be got off to school, and 
 with the three-year-old Sabina, who was to stay at 
 home. She assisted with the breakfast prepara 
 tions, and then, when the busy swarm had flown 
 for the day, she " turned to," to Ma s delight, 
 and got the place " rid up " so it was " clean as 
 a whistle an neat as a pin." 
 
 Ma was not what Martha approvingly called 
 " a hustler." 
 
 " Ma ain t thorer," her daughter-in-law con 
 fided to Claire, without reproach. " She means 
 well, but, as she says, her mind ain t fixed on 
 things below, an when that s the case, the dirt is 
 bound to settle. Ma thinks you can run a fam ly, 
 readin the Bible an singin hymns. Well, p raps 
 you can, only I ain t never dared try. When I 
 
 37
 
 38 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 married Sammy he looked dretful peaky, the fack 
 bein he hadn t never been properly fed, an it s 
 took me all of the goin -on fifteen years now, we 
 been livin together, to get m filled up accordin 
 to his appetite, which is heavy. You see, Ma 
 never had any time to attend to such earthly 
 matters as cookin a square meal but she s 
 settin out to have a lot of leisure with the 
 Lord." 
 
 As for Ma, she found it pleasant to watch, from 
 a comfortable distance, the work progressing 
 satisfactorily, without any draft on her own 
 energies. 
 
 " Martha s a good woman, miss," she observed 
 judicially, in her detached manner, " but she is like 
 the lady of her name we read about in the blessed 
 Book. When / set out in life, I chose the 
 betther part, an now I m old, I have the faith to 
 believe I ll have a front seat in heaven. I ve 
 knew throuble in me day. I raised ten childern, 
 an I had three felons, an God knows I think I 
 earned a front seat in heaven." 
 
 Claire s pause, before she spoke, seemed to Ma 
 to indicate she was giving the subject the weighty 
 consideration it deserved. 
 
 " According to that, it would certainly seem 
 so. You have rheumatism, too, haven t you?" 
 as if that might be regarded as an added guarantee 
 of special celestial reservation.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 39 
 
 Ma paled visibly. " No, miss. I don t never 
 have the rheumatiz now not so you d notice it," 
 she said plaintively. " Oncet I d it thurrbl, an 
 me son Sammy had it, too, loikewoise, fierce. I d 
 uster lay in bed moanin an cryin till you d be 
 surprised, an me son Sammy, he was a most as 
 bad. Well, for a week or two, Martha, she done 
 for us the best she cud, I s pose, but she didn t 
 make for to stop the pain, an at last one night, 
 when me son Sammy was gruntin , an I was 
 groanin to beat the band, Martha, she up, all of a 
 suddint, an says she, she was goin for to cure us 
 of the rheumatiz, or know the reason why. An 
 she went, an got the karrysene-can, an she poured 
 out two thurrbl big doses, an she stood over me 
 son Sammy an I, till we swalleyed it down, an 
 since ever we tuk it, me an Sammy ain t never had 
 a retur-rn. Sometimes I have a sharp twinge o 
 somethin in me leg or me arrm, but it ain t 
 rheumatiz, an I wouldn t like for me son Sammy s 
 wife to be knowin it, for the very sight of her 
 startin for the karrysene if it s only to fill the 
 lamp, is enough to make me gullup, an I know 
 it s the same wit me son Sammy, though we never 
 mention the subjeck between us." 
 
 " But if your son didn t want to take the stuff," 
 Claire said, trying to hide her amusement, " w;hy 
 didn t he stand up and say so? He s a man. 
 He s much bigger and stronger than his wife.
 
 40 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 How could she make him do what he didn t want 
 to?" 
 
 The question was evidently not a new one to 
 Ma. 
 
 " That s what annywan d naturrly think," she 
 returned promptly. " But that s because they 
 wouldn t be knowin me son Sammy s wife. It 
 ain t size, an it ain t stren th it s just, well, 
 Martha. There s that about her you wouldn t 
 like to take any chances wit . Perhaps it s the 
 thing manny does be talkin of these days. Per 
 haps it s that got a holt of her. Annyhow, she 
 says she s in for t. They does be callin it 
 Woman Sufferrich, I m told. In my day a dacint 
 body d have thought shame to be discoursin in 
 public to the men. They held their tongues, an 
 let their betthers do the colloguein , but Martha 
 says some of the ladies she works for says, if they 
 talk about it enough the men will give them their 
 rights, an let em vote. I m an old woman, an 
 I never had much book-learnin , but I m thinkin 
 one like me son Sammy s wife has all the rights 
 she needs wit out the votin . She goes out 
 worrkin , same s me son Sammy, day in, day out. 
 She says Sammy could support her good enough, 
 but she won t raise her childern in a teniment, 
 along wit th low companions. Me son Sammy, 
 he has it harrd these days. He d not be able to 
 pay for such a grrand flat as this, in a dacint,
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 41 
 
 quiet neighborhood, an so Martha turrns to, an 
 lends a hand. An wance, when me son Sammy 
 was sick, an out av a job entirely, Martha, she 
 run the whole concern herself. She wouldn t let 
 me son Sammy give up, or get down-hearted, like 
 he mighta done. She said it was her right to 
 care for us all, an him, too, bein he was down 
 an out, like he was. It seems to me that s fairrly 
 all the rights anny woman d want to look out for 
 four childern, an a man, an a mother-in-law. 
 But if Martha wants to vote, too, why, I m 
 thinkin she will." 
 
 It was particularly encouraging to Claire, just 
 at this time, to view Martha in the light of one 
 who did not know the meaning of the word fail, 
 for Mrs. Slawson had assured her that if she 
 would give up all attempt to find employment on 
 her own account, she, Mrs. Slawson, felt she could 
 safely promise to get her " a job that would be 
 satisfacktry all round, only one must be a little 
 pationate." 
 
 But a week, ten days, had gone by, since Martha 
 announced she had an idea, and still the idea had 
 not materialized. Meanwhile, Claire had ample 
 time to unpack her trunk and settle her belong 
 ings about her, so " the pretty lady s room " took 
 on a look of real comfort, and the children never 
 passed the door without pausing before the 
 threshold, waiting with bated breath for some
 
 42 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 wonderful chance that would give them a " peek " 
 into the enchanted chamber. As a matter of fact, 
 the transformation was effected with singularly 
 few " properties." Some good photographs 
 tastefully framed in plain, dark wood. A 
 Baghdad rug left over from her college days, 
 some scraps of charming old textiles, and such few 
 of the precious home trifles as could be safely 
 packed in her trunk. There was a daguerreotype 
 of her mother, done when she was a girl. " As 
 old-fashioned as your grandmother s hoopskirt," 
 Martha called it. A sampler wrought by some 
 ancient great-aunt, both aunt and sampler long 
 since yellowed and mellowed by the years. A 
 della Robbia plaque, with its exquisite swaddled 
 baby holding out eager arms, as if to be taken. 
 A lacquer casket, a string of Egyptian mummy- 
 beads what seemed to the children an inex 
 haustible stock of wonderful, mysterious treas 
 ures. 
 
 But the object that appeared to interest their 
 mother more than anything else in the whole col 
 lection, was a book of unmounted photographs, 
 snap-shots taken by Claire at college, during her 
 travels abroad, some few, even, here in the city 
 during those first days when she had dreamed it 
 was easy to walk straight into an art-editorship, 
 and no questions asked. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson scrutinized the prints with an
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 43 
 
 earnestness so eager that Claire was fairly 
 touched, until she discovered that here was no 
 aching hunger for knowledge, no ungratified 
 yearning " for to admire and for to see, for to 
 be old this world so wide," but just what looked 
 like a perfectly feminine curiosity, and nothing 
 more. 
 
 " Say, ain t it a pity you ain t any real good 
 likeness of you? " Martha deplored. " These is 
 so aggeravatin . They don t show you up at all. 
 Just a taste-like, an then nothin to squench the 
 appetite." 
 
 That sounds as if I were an entree or some 
 thing," laughed Claire. " But, you see, I don t 
 want to be shown up, Martha. I couldn t abear 
 it, as my friend, Sairy Gamp, would say. When 
 I was little, my naughty big brother used to tease 
 me dreadfully about my looks. He invented the 
 most embarrassing nicknames for me; he alluded 
 to my features with every sort of disrespect. It 
 made me horribly conscious of myself, a thing no 
 properly-constituted kiddie ought ever to be, of 
 course. And I ve never really got over the feel 
 ing that I am a sawed-off, that my nose is 
 curly, and my hair s a wig, and that the least 
 said about the rest of me, the better. But if you d 
 actually like to see something my people at home 
 consider rather good, why, here s a little tinted 
 photograph I had done for my dear Daddy, the
 
 44 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 last Christmas he was with us. He liked it, and 
 that s the reason I carry it about with me be 
 cause he wore it on his old-fashioned watch- 
 chain." 
 
 She put into Martha s hand a thin, flat, dull- 
 gold locket. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson opened it, and gave a quick gasp 
 of delight the sound of triumph escaping one 
 who, having diligently sought, has satisfactorily 
 found. " Like it! " Martha ejaculated. 
 
 Claire deliberated a moment, watching the play 
 of expression on Martha s mobile face. " If 
 you like it as much as all that," she said at last, 
 " I wish you d take it and keep it. It seems con 
 ceited priggish to suppose you d care to own 
 it, but if you really would care to 
 
 Mrs. Slawson closed one great, finely-formed, 
 work-hardened fist over the delicate treasure, with 
 a sort of ecstatic grab of appropriation. " Care 
 to own it! You betcher life! There s nothin 
 you could give me I d care to own better," she said 
 with honest feeling, then and there tying its slen 
 der ribbon about her neck, and slipping the locket 
 inside her dress, as if it had been a precious 
 amulet. 
 
 The day following saw her started bright and 
 early for work at the Shermans . When she ar 
 rived at the area-gate and rang, there was no 
 response, and though she waited a reasonable
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 45 
 
 time, and then rang and rang again, nobody an 
 swered the bell. 
 
 " They must be up," she said, settling down to 
 business with a steady thumb on the electric but 
 ton. " What ails the bunch o them in the 
 kitchen, I should like to know. It d be a pity to 
 disturb Eliza. She might be busy, gettin herself 
 an extry cup o coffee, an couple o fried hams- 
 an -eggs, to break her fast before breakfast. But 
 that gay young sprig of a kitchenmaid, she might 
 answer the bell an open the door to an honest 
 woman." 
 
 The gay young sprig still failing of her duty, 
 and Martha s patience giving out at last, the 
 honest woman began to tamper with the spring- 
 lock of the iron gate. For any one else, it would 
 never have yielded, but it opened to Martha s 
 hand, as with the dull submission of the con 
 quered. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson closed the gate after her with 
 care. " I ll just step light," she said to herself, 
 " an steal in on em unbeknownst, an give em as 
 good a scare as ever they had in their lives the 
 whole lazy lot of em." 
 
 But, like Mother Hubbard s cupboard, the 
 kitchen was bare, and no soul was to be found in 
 the laundry, the pantry or, in fact, anywhere 
 throughout the basement region. Softly, and 
 with some real misgiving now, Martha made her
 
 46 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 way upstairs. Here, for the first time, she distin 
 guished the sound of a human voice breaking the 
 early morning hush of the silent house. It was 
 Radcliffe s voice issuing, evidently, from the 
 dining-room, in which imposing apartment he 
 chose to have his breakfast served in solitary 
 grandeur every morning, what time the rest of his 
 family still slept. 
 
 Martha, pausing on her way up, peeped around 
 the edge of the half-closed door, and then stopped 
 short. 
 
 Along the wall, ranged up in line, like soldiers 
 facing their captain, or victims of a hold-up their 
 captor, stood the household servants portly 
 Shaw the butler, Beatrice the parlor-maid, Eliza 
 the " chef-cook " all, down to the gay young 
 sprig, aforesaid, who, as Martha had explained 
 to her family in strong disapproval, " was en 
 gaged to do scullerywork, an then didn t even 
 know how to scull." Before them, in an attitude 
 of command, not to say menace, stood Radcliffe, 
 brandishing a carving-knife which, in his cruelly 
 mischievous little hand, became a weapon full of 
 dangerous possibilities. 
 
 " Don t dare to budge, any one of you," he 
 breathed masterfully to his cowed regiment. 
 "Get back there, you Shaw! An , Beetrice, if 
 you don t mind me, I ll carve your ear off. You 
 better be afraid of me, all of you, an mind what
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 47 
 
 I say, or I ll take this dagger, an dag the life out 
 of you! You re all my servants you re all my 
 slaves ! D you hear me ! " 
 
 Evidently they did, and not one of them cared 
 or dared to stir. 
 
 For a second Radcliffe faced them in silence, 
 before beginning to march Napoleonically back 
 and forth, his savage young eye alert, his naughty 
 hand brandishing the knife threateningly. A 
 second, and then, suddenly, without warning, the 
 scene changed, and Radcliffe was a squirming, 
 wriggling little boy, shorn of his power, grasped 
 firmly in a grip from which there was no chance 
 of escape. 
 
 "Shame on you!" exclaimed Martha indig 
 nantly, addressing the spellbound line, staring at 
 her blankly. " Shame on you ! To stand there 
 gawkin , an never raisin a finger to this poor 
 little fella, an him just perishin for the touch 
 of a real mother s hand. Get out of this the 
 whole crowd o you," and before the force of 
 her righteous wrath they fled as chaff before the 
 wind. Then, quick as the automatic click of a 
 monstrous spring, the hitherto unknown the sup 
 posed-to-be-impossible befell Radcliffe Sherman. 
 He was treated as if he had been an iron girder on 
 which the massive clutch of a steam-lift had 
 fastened. He was raised, lowered, laid across 
 what seemed to be two moveless iron trestles,
 
 48 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 and then the weight as of a mighty, relentless 
 paddle, beat down upon him once, twice, thrice 
 and he knew what it was to suffer. 
 
 The whole thing was so utterly novel, so ab 
 solutely unexpected, that for the first instant he 
 was positively stunned with surprise. Then the 
 knowledge that he was being spanked, that an 
 unspeakable indignity was happening him, made 
 him clinch his teeth against the sobs that rose in 
 his throat, and he bore his punishment in white- 
 faced, shivering silence. 
 
 When it was over, Martha stood him down in 
 front of her, holding him firmly against her knees, 
 and looked him squarely in the eyes. His color 
 less, quivering lips gave out no sound. 
 
 " You ve got off easy," observed Mrs. Slawson 
 benevolently. " If you d been my boy Sammy, 
 you d a got about twict as much an three times as 
 thora. As it is, I just kinder favored you give 
 you a lick an a promise, as you might say, seein 
 it s you and you ain t used to it yet. Besides, I 
 reely like you, an want you to be a good boy. 
 But, if you should need any more at any other 
 time, why, you can take it from me, I keep 
 my hand in on Sammy, an practice makes per 
 fect." 
 
 She released the two small, trembling hands, 
 rose to her feet, and made as if to leave the room. 
 Then for the first time Radcliffe spoke.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 49 
 
 " S-say," he breathed with difficulty, " s-say 
 are you are you goin to t-tellf " 
 
 Martha paused, regarding him and his ques 
 tion with due concern. "Tell? " 
 
 " Are y-you going to t-tell on me, t-to ev-every- 
 body? Are y-you going to t-tell S-Sammy? " 
 
 " Shoor I m not! I m a perfect lady! I al 
 ways keep such little affairs with my gen lemen 
 friends strickly confidential. Besides Sammy 
 has troubles of his own."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ALL that day, Martha held herself in readi 
 ness to answer at headquarters for what she 
 had done. 
 
 " He ll shoor tell his mother, the young vill- 
 yan," said Eliza. " An then it ll be Mrs. Slaw- 
 son for the grand bounce." 
 
 But Mrs. Slawson did not worry. She went 
 about her work as usual, and when, in the course 
 of her travels, she met Radcliffe, she greeted him 
 as if nothing had happened. 
 
 " Say, did you know that Sammy has a dog? " 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " It s a funny kind o dog. If you begged your 
 head off, I d never tell you where he come from." 
 
 " Where did he come from? " 
 
 " Didn t you hear me say I d never tell you? 
 I do know. He just picked Sammy s father up 
 on the street, an follered him home, for all the 
 world the same s he d been a Christian." 
 
 " What kind of dog is he?" 
 
 " Cur-dog." 
 
 "What kind s that?" 
 
 " Well, a full-blooded cur-dog is somethin rare 
 in these parts. You wouldn t find him at an 
 
 50
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 51 
 
 ordinary dog-show, like your mother goes to. 
 Now, Sammy s dog is full-blooded leastways, he 
 will be, when he s fed up." 
 
 " My mother s dog is a pedigree-dog. Is Sam 
 my s that kind? " 
 
 " I ain t ast him, but I shouldn t wonder." 
 
 " My mother s got a paper tells all about where 
 Fifi came from. It s in a frame." 
 
 "Fifi is?" 
 
 " No, the paper is. The paper says Fifi is out 
 of a deller, sired by Star. I heard her read it 
 off to a lady that came to see her one day. Say, 
 Martha, what s a deller? " 
 
 " I do know." 
 
 " Fifi has awful long ears. What kind of ears 
 has Sammy s dog got? " 
 
 " I didn t notice partic lar, I must say. But 
 he s got two of em, an they can stand up, an lay 
 down, real natural-like, accordin to taste the 
 dog s taste, which wouldn t be noways remarkable, 
 if it was his tongue, but is what / call extraor 
 dinary, seein it s his ears. An his tail s the 
 same, exceptin it has even more education still. 
 It can- wag, besides standin up an layin down. 
 Ain t that pretty smart for a pup, that prob ly 
 didn t have no raisin to speak of, less you count 
 raisin on the toe of somebody s boot?" 
 
 " D you mean anybody kicked him? " 
 
 " Well, he ain t said so, in so many words, but
 
 52 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 I draw my own conclusions. He s an honorable, 
 gentlemanlike dog. He keeps his own counsel. 
 If it so happened that he d needed to be pun 
 ished at any time, he d bear it like a little man, 
 an hold his tongue. You don t catch a reel 
 thorerbred whinin ." 
 
 " I wish I could see Sammy s dog." 
 
 " Well, p raps you can. But I ll tell you con 
 fidential, I wouldn t like Flicker to sociate with 
 none but the best class o boys. I m goin to see 
 he has a fine line of friends from this time on, an 
 if Sammy ain t what he d oughter be, why, he just 
 can t mix with Flicker, that s all there is to it! " 
 
 " Who gave him that name? " 
 
 " His sponsers in baptism Ho ! Hear 
 
 me! Recitin the Catechism! I m such a good 
 Piscopalian I just can t help it! A little lady- 
 friend of mine gave him that name, cause he 
 flickers round so so like a little yeller flame. 
 Did I mention his color was yeller? That alone 
 would show he s a true-breed cur-dog." 
 
 " Say, I forgot my mother she she sent me 
 down to tell you she wants to see you right away 
 up in her sittin -room. I guess you better go 
 quick." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson ceased plying her polishing- 
 cloth upon the hardwood floor, sat back upon 
 her heels, and calmly gathered her utensils to 
 gether.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 53 
 
 " Say, my mother she said tell you she wanted 
 to see you right off, for something particular. 
 Ain t you goin to hurry? " 
 
 " Shoor I am. Certaintly." 
 
 " You don t look as if you was hurrying." 
 
 " When you get to be a big boy, and have a 
 teacher to learn you knowledge, you ll find that 
 large bodies moves slowly. I didn t have as 
 much schoolin as I d like, but what I learned I 
 remember, an I put it into practice. That s 
 where the use of books comes in to be put in 
 practice. Now, I m a large body, an if I tried 
 to move fast I d be goin against what s printed 
 in the books, which would be wrong. Still, if 
 a lady sends for me post-haste, why, of course, I 
 makes an exception an answers in the same spirit. 
 So long! See you later! " 
 
 Radcliffe had no mind to remain behind. Some 
 thing subtly fascinating in Martha seemed to draw 
 him after her, and he followed on upstairs, swing 
 ing himself athletically along, hand over hand, 
 upon the baluster-rail, almost at her heels. 
 
 " Say, don t you wonder what it is my mother s 
 goin to say to you?" he demanded disingenu 
 ously. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson shook her head. " Wonderin 
 is a habit I broke myself off of, when I wasn t 
 knee-high to a grasshopper," she replied. " I 
 take things as they come, not to mention as they
 
 54 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 go. Either way suits me, an annyhow I don t 
 wonder about em. If it s somethin good, why, 
 it ll keep. An if it s somethin bad, won- 
 derin won t make it any better. So what s the 
 use?" 
 
 " Guess I ll go on up, an see my grandmother 
 in her room," observed Radcliffe casually, as they 
 reached Mrs. Sherman s door. " I won t go in 
 here with you." 
 
 " Dear me, how sorry I am! " Martha returned 
 with feeling. " I d kinder counted on you for 
 for what they calls moral support, that bein the 
 kind the male gender is mainly good for, these 
 days. But, of course, if you ain t been invited, it 
 wouldn t be genteel for you to press yourself. I 
 can understand your feelin s. They does credit 
 to your head an to your heart. As I said before 
 so long! See you later." 
 
 The door having closed her in, Radcliffe 
 lingered aimlessly about, outside. Without, of 
 course, being able to analyze it, he felt as if some 
 rare source of entertainment had been withdrawn 
 from him, leaving life flat and tasteless. He felt 
 like being, what his mother called, " fractious," 
 but he remembered, as in a flash, " you never 
 catch a thorerbred whinin ," and he snapped his 
 jaws together with manly determination. 
 
 At Martha s entrance, Mrs. Sherman glanced 
 up languidly from the book she was reading, and
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 55 
 
 inquired with pointed irony, " You didn t find it 
 convenient to come to me directly I sent for you, 
 did you, Martha? " 
 
 Mrs. Slawson closed the door behind her gently, 
 then stood planted like some massive caryatid 
 supporting the frame. Something monumental in 
 the effect of her presence made the question just 
 flung at her seem petty, impudent, and Mrs. Sher 
 man hastened to add more considerately, " But I 
 sent Radcliffe with my message. No doubt he 
 delayed." 
 
 " No m," admitted Martha, " he told me all 
 right enough, but I was in the middle o polishin . 
 It took me a minute or two to get my things col 
 lected, an then it took me a couple more to get me 
 collected, but better late than never, as the 
 sayin goes, which, by the same token, I don t 
 believe it s always true." 
 
 There was not the faintest trace of apology or 
 extenuation in her tone or manner. If she had 
 any misgivings as to the possibility of Rad- 
 cliffe s having complained, she gave no evidence 
 of it. 
 
 " What I want to say is this," announced Mrs. 
 Sherman autocratically, making straight for the 
 point. " I absolutely forbid any one in my house 
 hold to touch- 
 Martha settled herself more firmly on her feet 
 and crossed her arms with unconscious dignity
 
 56 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 upon her bosom, bracing herself against the com 
 ing blow. 
 
 " I absolutely forbid any one in my household 
 to touch the new marble slabs and nickel fittings 
 in my dressing-rooms with cleaning stuffs contain 
 ing acids, after this. I have gone to great ex 
 pense to have the house remodeled this summer, 
 and the bathrooms have all been tiled and fitted 
 up afresh, from beginning to end. I know that, 
 in the past, you have used acid, gritty soaps on the 
 basins and tubs, Martha, and my plumber tells 
 me you mustn t do it. He says it s ruinous. He 
 recommends kerosene oil for the bath-tubs and 
 marble slabs. He says it will take any stain out, 
 and is much safer than the soaps. So please use 
 kerosene to remove the stains " 
 
 Mrs. Slawson relaxed. Without the slightest 
 hint of incivility she interrupted cheerfully, " An 
 does your plumber mention what ll remove the 
 stink I should say, odor, of the karrysene? " 
 
 Mrs. Sherman laughed. " Dear me, no. I m 
 afraid that s up to you, as Radcliffe says." 
 
 " O, I ain t no doubt it can be done, an even 
 if it can t, the smell o karrysene is healthy, an 
 you wouldn t mind a faint whifft of it now an 
 then, clingin to you, comin outer your bath, 
 would you? Or if you did, you might set over 
 against the oil-smell one o them strong bath- 
 powders that s like the perfumery-counter in a
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 57 
 
 department-store broke loose, an let em fight it 
 out between em. To my way o thinkin , it d be 
 a tie, an no thanks to your nose." 
 
 " Well, I only follow the plumber s directions. 
 He guarantees his work and materials, but he 
 says acids will roughen the surface of anything 
 enamel or marble or whatever it may be. I m 
 sure you ll be careful in the future, now I have 
 spoken, and er how are you getting on these 
 days? How are you and your husband and the 
 children?" 
 
 " Tolerable, thank you. Sammy, my husband, 
 he ain t been earnin as much as usual lately, but 
 I says to him, when he s downhearted-like because 
 he can t hand out the price o the rent, Say, you 
 ain t fished up much of anythin certaintly, but 
 count your blessin s. You ain t fell in the river 
 either. An be this an be that, we make out to 
 get along. We never died a winter yet." 
 
 " Dear me, I should think a great, strapping 
 man ought to be able to support his family with 
 out having to depend on his wife to go out by the 
 day." 
 
 " My husband does his best," said Martha 
 with simple dignity. " He does his best, but 
 things goes contrairy with some, no doubt o 
 that." 
 
 " O, the thought of the day would not bear you 
 out there, I assure you!" Mrs. Sherman took
 
 58 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 her up quickly. u Science teaches us that our 
 condition in life reflects our character. We get 
 the results of what we are in our environment. 
 You understand? In other words, each receives 
 his desert. I hope I am clear? I mean, what 
 he deserves." 
 
 Martha smiled, a slow, calm, tolerant smile. 
 " You are perfeckly clear," she said reassuringly. 
 " Only I ain t been educated up to seein things 
 that way. Seems to me, if everybody got their 
 dessert, as you calls it, some o them that s feedin 
 so expensive now at the grand hotels wouldn t 
 have a square meal. It s the ones that ain t 
 earned em, havin the square meal and the des 
 sert, that puts a good man, like my Sammy, out o 
 a job. But that s neither here nor there. It s 
 all bound to come right some day only mean- 
 whiles, I wish livin wasn t so high. What with 
 good steak twenty-eight cents a pound, an its bein 
 as much as your life is worth to even ast the price 
 o fresh vegetables, it takes some contrivin to get 
 along. Not to speak o potatas twenty-five cents 
 the half-peck, an every last one o my fam ly as 
 fond of em as if they was fresh from Ire 
 land, instead o skippin a generation on both 
 sides." 
 
 " But, my good woman ! " exclaimed Mrs. Sher 
 man, shocked, " what do you mean by talking 
 of porterhouse steak and fresh vegetables this
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 59 
 
 time of year? Oughtn t you to economize? Isn t 
 it extravagant for you to use such expensive cuts 
 of meat? I m sure there are others that are 
 cheaper more suited to your your income." 
 
 " Certaintly there is. Chuck steak is cheap. 
 Chuck steak s so cheap that about all it costs you 
 is a few cents to the butcher, an the price of 
 the store teeth you need, after you ve broke your 
 own tryin to chew it. But, you see, my notion 
 is, to try to give my fam ly the sort o stuff that s 
 nourishin . Not just somethin to eat, but food. 
 I don t believe their stummicks realize they belong 
 to poor folks. I m not envyin the rich, mind 
 you. Dear no ! I wouldn t be hired to clutter 
 up my insides with the messes I see goin up to 
 the tables of some i work for. Cocktails, an 
 entrys, an foody-de-gra-gra, an suchlike. No ! 
 I believe in reel, straight nourishment. The 
 things that builds up your bones, an gives you red 
 blood, an good muscle, so s you can hold down 
 your job, an hold up your head. I believe in 
 payin for that kind o food, if I do have to work 
 for it." 
 
 Mrs. Sherman took up the book she had 
 dropped at Martha s entrance. 
 
 You certainly are a character," she observed. 
 
 " Thank you, m," said Martha. 
 
 " O, and by the way, before you go I want 
 you to see that Mr. Ronald s rooms are put in per-
 
 60 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 feet order to-day. I don t care to trust it to the 
 girls, but you can have one of them to help you, if 
 you like, provided you are sure to oversee her. 
 You know how particular I am about my brother 
 Frank s rooms. Be sure nothing is neglected." 
 " Yes m," said Martha.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE next morning Eliza met her at the area- 
 gate, showing a face of ominous sympathy, 
 wagging a doleful head. 
 
 " What d I tell you?" she exclaimed before 
 she had even unlatched the spring-lock. " That 
 young villyan has a head on him old enough to 
 be his father s, if so be he ever had one. He s 
 deep as a well. He didn t tell his mother on ye 
 yesterday mornin , but he done worse the little 
 fox ! He told his uncle Frank when he got home 
 last night. Leastways, Mr. Shaw got a message 
 late in the evenin from upstairs, which was, to 
 tell Mrs. Slawson, Mr. Ronald wanted to see her 
 after his breakfast this mornin , an be sure she 
 didn t forget." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson received the news with a smile 
 as of such actual welcome, that Eliza, who flat 
 tered herself she knew a thing or two about 
 human nature, was rather upset in her calcula 
 tions. 
 
 You look like you relish bein bounced," she 
 observed tartly. 
 
 " Well, if I m goin to get my walkin -papers, 
 I d rather get em from Mr. Frank than from 
 
 61
 
 62 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 anybody else. There s never any great loss with 
 out some small gain. At least, if Mr. Frank is 
 dischargin me, he s noticin I m alive, an that s 
 somethin to be thankful for." 
 
 "That s as you look at it!" snapped Eliza. 
 " Mr. Frank is all right enough, but I must say 
 I d rather keep my place than have even him kick 
 me out. An you look as if his sendin for you 
 was to say you d come in for a fortune." 
 
 " P raps it is," said Martha. " You never 
 can tell." 
 
 " Well, if / was makin tracks for fortunes, I 
 wouldn t start in on Mr. Frank Ronald," Eliza 
 observed cuttingly. 
 
 " Which might be exackly where you d slip up 
 on it," Martha returned with a bland smile. 
 
 And yet, in reality, she was by no means so 
 composed as she appeared. She felt as might one 
 who, moved by a great purpose, had rashly 
 usurped the prerogative of fate and set in motion 
 mighty forces that, if they did not make for suc 
 cess, might easily make for disaster. She had 
 very definitely stuck her thumb into somebody 
 else s pie, and if her laudable intention was to 
 draw forth a plum, not for herself but for the 
 other, why, that was no proof that, in the end, 
 she might not get smartly scorched for her 
 pains. 
 
 When the summons to the dining-room actually
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 63 
 
 came, Martha felt such an unsubstantiality in the 
 region of her knee-joints, that for a moment she 
 almost believed the bones had turned into bread 
 crumbs. Then energetically she shook herself 
 into shape, spurning her momentary weakness 
 from her, with an almost visible gesture, and 
 marched forward to meet what awaited her. 
 
 Shaw had removed the breakfast dishes from 
 the table beside which " Lord Ronald " sat alone. 
 It was all very imposing, the place, the particular 
 purpose for which she had been summoned, and 
 which was, as yet, unrevealed to her, the person, 
 most of all. 
 
 Martha thought that perhaps she had been a 
 little hard on Cora, " the time she give her the 
 tongue-lashin for stumblin over the first lines 
 of her piece, that evenin of the Sund -School 
 ent tainment. It wasn t so dead easy as a body 
 might think, to stand up to a whole churchful o 
 people, or even one person, when he was the kind 
 that s as good (or as bad) as a whole churchful." 
 
 Martha could see her now, as she stood then, 
 announcing to the assembled multitude in a high, 
 unmodulated treble: 
 
 " // was the t-time when l-lilies bub-blow" 
 
 " an her stockin fixin to come down any min - 
 ute!" 
 
 "Ah, Martha, good-morning!"
 
 64 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 At the first sound of his voice Mrs. Slawson 
 recovered her poise. That ivouldn t-call-the- 
 queen-your-cousin feeling came over her again, 
 and she was ready to face the music, whatever 
 tune it might play. So susceptible is the foolish 
 spirit of mortal to those subtle, impalpable in 
 fluences of atmosphere that we try to describe, in 
 terms of inexact science, as personality, vibration, 
 aura, magnetism. 
 
 " I asked to see you, Martha, because Radcliffe 
 tells me " 
 
 Martha s heart sank within her. So it was 
 Radcliffe and the grand bounce after all, and 
 
 not Well, it was a pity! After all her 
 
 thinkin it out, an connivin , an contrivin , to have 
 nothin come of it! To be sent off before she 
 had time to see the thing through ! 
 
 " Radcliffe tells me," continued the clear, mel 
 low voice, penetrating the mist of her meditations, 
 " that you own a very rare, a very unusual breed 
 of dog. I couldn t make out much from Rad- 
 cliffe s description, but apparently the dog is a 
 pedigree animal." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson s shoulders, in her sudden revul 
 sion of feeling, shook with soundless mirth. 
 
 "Pedigree animal!" she repeated. " Cer- 
 taintly! Shoor, he s a pedigree animal. He s 
 had auntsisters as far back as any other dog, an 
 that s a fack. What s the way they put it? Out
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 65 
 
 of the gutter, sired by Kicks. You never see 
 a little yeller, mongol, cur-dog, sir, that s yellerer 
 or cur-er than him. I d bet my life his line ain t 
 never been crossed by anythin different, since the 
 first pup o them all set out to run his legs off 
 tryin to get rid o the tin-can tied to his tail. 
 But Flicker s a winner, for all that, an he s goin 
 to keep my boy Sammy in order, better n I could 
 ever do it. You see, I just has to hint to Sammy 
 that if he ain t proper-behaved I won t let Flicker 
 sociate with m, an he s as good as pie. I 
 wouldn t be without that dog, sir, now I got in 
 timately acquainted with him, for " 
 
 " That touches the question I was intending 
 to raise," interposed Mr. Ronald. " You man 
 aged to get Radcliffe s imagination considerably 
 stirred about Flicker, and the result is, he has 
 asked me to see if I can t come to an under 
 standing with you. He wants me to buy Flicker." 
 
 Martha s genial smile faded. " Why, good 
 ness gracious, Lor I should say, Mr. Ronald, the 
 poor little rascal, dog rather, ain t worth two 
 cents. He s just a young flagrant pup, you 
 wouldn t be bothered to notice, less you had the 
 particular likin for such things we got." 
 
 " Radcliffe wants Flicker. I ll give you ten 
 dollars for him." 
 
 " I I couldn t take it, Mr. Ronald, sir. It 
 wouldn t be fair to you ! "
 
 66 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Fifteen dollars." 
 
 " It ain t the money " 
 
 "Twenty!" 
 
 "I I can t!" 
 
 "Twenty-five dollars, Martha. Radcliffe s 
 heart is set on the dog." 
 
 A quick observer, looking attentively at Mrs. 
 Slawson s face, could have seen something like a 
 faint quiver disturb the firm lines of her lips and 
 chin for a moment. A flash, and it was gone. 
 
 " I d give you the dog, an welcome, Mr. 
 Ronald," she said presently, "but I just can t do it. 
 The little feller, he never had a square deal be 
 fore, an because my husband an the rest of us 
 give it to him, he loves us to death, an you d 
 think he d bark his head off for joy when the raft 
 o them gets home after school. An then, nights 
 (I ben workin overtime lately, doin outside 
 jobs that bring me home late) nights, when I 
 come back, an all in the place is abed an asleep, 
 an I let myself in, in the black an the cold, the 
 only livin creature to welcome me is Flicker. An 
 there he stands, up an ready for me, the minute 
 he hears my key in the lock, an when I open the 
 door, an light the changelier (he don t dare let a 
 bark out of m, he knows better, the smart little 
 fella!), there he stands, a-waggin his stump of a 
 tail like a Christian, an Mr. Ronald, sir that 
 wag ain t for sale! "
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 67 
 
 For a moment something akin in both held them 
 silent. Then Mr. Ronald slowly inclined his 
 head. " You are quite right, Martha. I under 
 stand your feeling." 
 
 Martha turned to go. She had, in fact, 
 reached the door when she was recalled. 
 
 " O one moment, please." 
 
 She came back. 
 
 " My sister tells me you worked in my rooms 
 yesterday. Was any one there with you at the 
 time?" 
 
 " No, sir. Mrs. Sherman said I might have 
 one of the girls, but I perfer to see to your things 
 myself." 
 
 Then you were quite alone? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Do you know if any one else in the house 
 hold had occasion to go into my rooms during the 
 day?" 
 
 " Of course I can t be pos tive. But I don t 
 think so, sir." 
 
 Then I wonder if this belongs to you? " He 
 extended his hand toward her. In his palm lay a 
 small, flat, gold locket. 
 
 Something like the faintest possible electric 
 shock passed up Mrs. Slawson s spine, and con 
 tracted the muscles about her mouth. For a sec 
 ond she positively grinned, then quickly her face 
 regained its customary calm. With a clever, if
 
 68 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 slightly tardy, movement, her hand went up to 
 her throat. 
 
 " Yes, sir shoor, it s mine! Now what do 
 you think of that! Me losin somethin I think 
 the world an all of, an have wore for, I do know 
 how long, an never missin it! " 
 
 Mr. Ronald s eyes shot out a quick, quizzical 
 gleam. 
 
 " O, you have been accustomed to wear it? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Mrs. Sherman tells me she never remembers 
 to have seen you with any sort of ornament, even 
 a gold pin. She thought the locket could not pos 
 sibly belong to you." 
 
 " Well, it does. An the reason she hasn t no 
 ticed me wearin it is, I wear it under my waist, 
 see?" 
 
 Again Mr. Ronald fixed her with his keen eyes. 
 " I see. You wear it under your waist. Of 
 course, that explains why she hasn t noticed it. 
 Yet, if you wear it under your waist, how came 
 it to get out from under and be on my desk? " 
 
 Martha s face did not change beneath his 
 scrutiny. During a rather long moment she was 
 silent, then her answer came glibly enough. 
 
 " When I m workin I m ap to get het-up, an 
 then I sometimes undoes the neck o my waist, an 
 turns it back to give me breathin -room." 
 
 Mr. Ronald accepted it gravely. " Well, it is
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 69 
 
 a very pretty locket, Martha and a very pretty 
 face inside it. Of course, as the trinket was in 
 my room, and as there was no name or sign on the 
 outside to identify it, I opened it. I hope you 
 don t mind." 
 
 " Certainly not," Martha assured him. " Cer 
 tainly not! " 
 
 " The inscription on the inside puzzles me. 
 4 Dear Daddy, from Claire. Now, assuredly, 
 you re not dear Daddy, Martha." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson laughed. " Not on your life, I 
 ain t Dear Daddy, sir. Dear Daddy was Judge 
 Lang of Grand Rapids you know, where the fur- 
 
 nitur an the carpet-sweepers comes from 
 
 He died about a year ago, an Miss Claire, 
 knowin how much store I set by her, an how I d 
 prize her picture, she give me the locket, as you 
 see it." 
 
 You say Grand Rapids? the young lady, 
 Miss Claire, as you call her, lives in Grand 
 Rapids?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " I suppose you think I am very inquisitive, 
 asking so many questions, but the fact is, I am 
 extremely interested. You will see why, when I 
 explain that several weeks ago, one day down 
 town,! saw a little girl a young lady who might 
 have been the original of this very picture, the 
 resemblance is so marked. But, of course, if your
 
 yo MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 young lady lives in Grand Rapids, she can t be 
 my little girl I should say, the young woman I 
 saw here in New York City. But if they were 
 one and the same, they couldn t look more alike. 
 The only difference I can see, is that the original 
 of your picture is evidently a prosperous little 
 sister of the rich, and the original of mine the 
 one I ve carried in my mind is a breadwinner. 
 She was employed in an office where I had occa 
 sion to go one day on business. The next time I 
 happened to drop in there a few days later- 
 she was gone. I was sorry. That office was no 
 place for her, but I would have been glad to find 
 her there, that I might have placed her some 
 where else, in a safer, better position. I hope she 
 has come to no harm." 
 
 Martha hung fire a moment. Then, suddenly, 
 her chin went up, as with the impulse of a new 
 resolve. 
 
 " I ll be open an aboveboard with you, sir," 
 she said candidly. The world is certaintly 
 small, an the way things happen is a caution. 
 Now, who d ever have thought that you d a 
 seen my Miss Claire, but I truly believe you have. 
 For after her father died she come to New 
 York, the poor lamb! for to seek her fortune, an 
 her as innercent an unsuspectin as my Sabina, 
 who s only three this minit. She tried her hand 
 at a lot o things, an thank God an her garden-
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 71 
 
 angel for keepin her from harm, for as delicate 
 an pretty as she is, she can t help attractin at 
 tention, an you know what notions some as calls 
 themselves gen lemen has, in this town. Well, 
 Miss Claire is livin under my roof, an you can 
 betcher life I m on the job relievin her garden- 
 angel o the pertectin end o the business. But 
 Miss Claire s that proud an inderpendent-like she 
 ain t contented to be idle. She s bound to make 
 her own livin , which, she says, it s everybody s 
 dooty to do, some ways or other. So my eye s 
 out, as you might say, for a place where she can 
 teach, like she s qualified to do. Did I tell you, 
 she s a college lady, an has what she calls a de 
 gree, which I didn t know before anythin but 
 Masons like himself had em. 
 
 " You oughter see how my boy Sammy gets his 
 lessons, after she s learned em to him. She s a 
 wizard at managin boys. My Sammy useter to 
 be up to all sorts o mischief. They was a time 
 he took to playin hookey. He d march off 
 mornin s with his sisters, bold as brass, an when 
 lunchtime come, in he d prance, same as them, an 
 nobody ever doubtin he hadn t been to his school. 
 An all the time, there he was playin in the open 
 lots with a gang o poor little neglected dagos. I 
 noticed him comin in evenin s kinder dissipated- 
 lookin , but I hadn t my wits about me enough 
 to be onto m, till his teacher sent me a note one
 
 72 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 day, by his sister Cora, askin what was ailin 
 Sammy. That night somethin ailed Sammy for 
 fair. He stood up to his dinner, an he wouldn t 
 a had a cravin to set down to his breakfast 
 next mornin , only Francie put a pilla in his chair. 
 But Miss Claire, she s got him so bewitched, he d 
 break his heart before he d do what she wouldn t 
 like. The thought of her goin away makes him 
 sick to his stummick, the poor fella ! Yet, it ain t 
 to be supposed anybody so smart, an so good- 
 lookin as her, but would be snapped up quick by 
 them as has the sense to see the worth of her. 
 There s no question about her gettin a job, the 
 only worry / have is her gettin one that will take 
 her away from this, out of New York City, where 
 I can t see her oncet in a while. She s the kind 
 you d miss, like you would a front tooth. You 
 feel you can t get on without her, an true for 
 you, you can t. But, beggin your pardon, sir, for 
 keepin you so long with my talkin . If that s 
 all, I ll get to my work." 
 
 " That is all," said Mr. Ronald, " except- 
 He rose and handed her the locket. 
 
 She took it from him with a smile of perfect 
 good-fellowship, and passed from the room. 
 Once outside the threshold, with the door closed 
 upon her, she drew a long, deep breath of relief. 
 
 " Well, I m glad that s over, an I got out of it 
 with a whole skin," she ruminated. " Lord, but
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 73 
 
 I thought he had me shoor, when he took me up 
 about how the thing got out o me dress, with his 
 gimlet eyes never stirrin from my face, an me 
 tremblin like an ashpan. If I hadn t a had my 
 wits about me, I do know where I d a come out. 
 But all s well that ends swell, as Miss Claire 
 says, an bless her heart, it s her as ll end swell, if 
 what I done this day takes root, an I believe it 
 will."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WHEN Martha let herself into her flat that 
 night, she was welcomed by another be 
 side Flicker. 
 
 " You naughty Martha ! " whispered Claire. 
 " What do you mean by coming home so late, all 
 tired out and worked to death ! It is shameful ! 
 But here s a good cup of hot chocolate, and some 
 big plummy buns to cheer you up. And I ve got 
 some good news for you besides. I didn t mean 
 to tell right off, but I just can t keep in for an 
 other minute. I ve got a job! A fine, three- 
 hundred-dollars-a-year-and-home-and-laundry job ! 
 And a raise, as soon as I show I m worth it! 
 Now, what do you think of that? Isn t it splen 
 did? Isn t it bully?" 
 
 She had noiselessly guided Martha into her 
 own room, got her things off, and seated her in a 
 comfortable Morris chair before the lighted oil- 
 stove, from whose pierced iron top a golden light 
 gleamed cheerily, reflecting on the ceiling above 
 in a curious pattern. 
 
 " Be careful of the chocolate, it s burning hot. 
 I kept it simmering till I heard you shut the vesti 
 bule door. And O, yes ! No danger in 
 
 74
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 75 
 
 sipping it that way! But you haven t asked a 
 single thing about my job. How I came to know 
 of it in the first place, and how I was clever 
 enough to get it after I d applied! You don t 
 look a bit pleased and excited over it, you bad 
 Martha ! And you ought to be so glad, because 
 I won t need to spend anything like all the money 
 I ll get. I m to have my home and laundry free, 
 and one can t make many outside expenses in a 
 boarding-school way off in Schoharie and so I 
 can send you a lot and a lot of dollars, till we re 
 all squared up and smoothed out, and you won t 
 have to work so hard any more, and " 
 
 " Say now, Miss Claire, you certaintly are the 
 fastest thing on record. If you d been born a 
 train, you d been an express, shoor-pop an no 
 mistake. Didn t I tell you to hold on, pationate 
 an uncomplainin , till I giv you the sign? Didn t 
 I say I had my eye on a job for you that was a job 
 worth talkin about? One that d be satisfactry 
 all around. Well, then! An here you are, 
 tellin me about you goin to the old Harry, or 
 some such, with home an laundry thrown in. Not 
 on your life you ain t, Miss Claire, an that (beg- 
 gin your pardon ! ) is all there is to it ! " 
 
 " But, Martha " 
 
 " Don t let s waste no more words. The thing 
 ain t to be thought of." 
 
 " But, Martha, it s over two weeks since you
 
 76 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 said that, about having an idea about a certain 
 job for me that was going to be so splendid. 
 Don t you know it is? And I thought it had 
 fallen through. I didn t like to speak about it, 
 for fear you d think I was hurrying you, but two 
 weeks are two weeks, and I can t go on indefinitely 
 staying here, and getting so deep in debt I ll never 
 be able to get out again. And I saw this ad 
 vertisement in The Outlook. Twas for a col 
 lege graduate to teach High School English in a 
 girls boarding-school, and I went to the agency, 
 and they were very nice, and told me to write to 
 the Principal, and I did told her all about my 
 self, my experience tutoring, and all that, and this 
 morning came the letter saying she d engage me. 
 I can tell you all about Schoharie, Martha. It s 
 * up-state and 
 
 " Miss Claire, child, no! It won t do. I can t 
 consent. I can t have you throwin away golden 
 opportoonities to work like a toojan for them as ll 
 stint you in the wash, an prob ly give you oleo- 
 margerine instead of butter, an cold-storage eggs 
 that had forgot there was such a thing as a hen, 
 long before they ever was laid away. I wasn t 
 born yesterday, myself, an I know how they treat 
 the teachers in some o them schools. The young- 
 lady scholars, so stylish an rich, as full of airs 
 as a music-box, snubbin the teacher because 
 they re too ignorant to know how smart she has
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 77 
 
 to be, to get any knowledge into their stupid heads, 
 an the Principal always eyein you like a minx, 
 less you might be wastin her precious time an 
 not earnin the elegant sal ry she gives you, in- 
 cludin your home an laundry. O my ! I know 
 a thing or two about them schools, an a few other 
 places. No, Miss Claire, dear, it won t do. An 
 besides, I have you bespoke for Mrs. Sherman. 
 The last thing before I come away from the house 
 this night, she sent for me upstairs, an ast me 
 didn t I know some one could engage with her for 
 Radcliffe to learn him his lessons, an how to be 
 a little lady, an suchlike. She wants, as you 
 might say, a trained mother for m, while his own 
 untrained one is out gallivantin the streets, shop- 
 pin , an playin bridge, an attendin the horse- 
 show. 
 
 " I hemmed an hawed an scratched my head 
 to see if, happen, I did know anybody suitable, an 
 after a while (not to seem to make you too cheap, 
 or not to look like I was jumpin down her throat) 
 I told her: Curious enough, I do know just the 
 one I think will please you if you can get 
 her. 
 
 Then she ast me a lot about you, an I told 
 her what I know, an for the rest I trusted to 
 Providence, an in the end we made a sorter deal 
 so s it s all fixed you re to go there day after 
 to-morrer, to talk to her, an let her look you over.
 
 78 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 An if you re the kind o stuff she wants, she ll 
 take a half-a-dozen yards o you, which is the 
 kind o way those folks has with people they pay 
 money to. I promised Mrs. Sherman you d come, 
 an I couldn t break my word to her, now could I ? 
 I d be like to lose my own job if I did, an I m 
 sure you wouldn t ast that o me ! " 
 
 " But," said Claire, troubled, " you told me 
 Radcliffe is so unmanageable." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson devoted herself to her chocolate 
 and buns for a moment or two. " O, never you 
 fear about Radcliffe," she announced at length. 
 " He s a good little fella enough, as little fellas 
 goes. When you know how to handle m which 
 is right side up with care. Him an me come to 
 an understandin yesterday mornin , an he s as 
 meek an gentle as a baa-lamb ever since. I ll 
 undertake you ll have no trouble with Radcliffe." 
 
 " Is this the wonderful plan you spoke of? Is 
 this the job you said was going to be so satis 
 factory all round? " inquired Claire, her misgiv 
 ings, in connection with her prospective pupil, by 
 no means allayed. 
 
 " Well, not eggsackly. I can t say it is. That 
 job will come later. But we got to be pationate, 
 an not spoil it by upsettin our kettles o fish with 
 boardin -schools, an such nonsense. Meanwhile 
 we can put in time with Mrs. Sherman, who ll 
 pay you well, an won t be too skittish if you just
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 79 
 
 keep a firm hand on her. This mornin she got 
 discoursin about everythin under the canopy, 
 from nickel-plated bathroom fixin s, an marble 
 slobs, to that state o life unto which it has pleased 
 God to call me. She told me just what I d 
 oughter give my fam ly to eat, an how much I d 
 oughter pay for it, an I say, but wasn t she 
 grand to have give me all that good advice 
 free?" 
 
 Claire laughed. " She certainly was, and now 
 you ve just got to go to bed. I don t dare look 
 at the clock, it s so late. Good-night, you good 
 Martha ! And thank you, from way deep down, 
 for all you ve done for me." 
 
 But long after Mrs. Slawson had disappeared y 
 the girl sat in the solitude of her shadowy room 
 thinking thinking thinking. Unable to get 
 away from her thoughts. There was something 
 about this plan, to which Martha had committed 
 her, that frightened, overawed her. She felt a 
 strange impulse to resist it, to follow her own 
 leading, and go to the school instead. She knew 
 her feeling was childish. Suppose Radcliffe were 
 to be unruly, why, how could she tell that the girls 
 in the Schoharie school might not prove even more 
 so? The fact was, she argued, she had uncon 
 sciously allowed herself to be prejudiced against 
 Mrs. Sherman and the boy, by Martha s whim 
 sical accounts of them, good-natured as they were.
 
 8o MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 And this strange, premonitory instinct was no 
 premonitory instinct at all, it was just the natural 
 reluctance of a shy nature to face a new and un 
 congenial situation. And yet and yet and yet, 
 try as she would, she could not shake off the im 
 pression that, beyond it all, there loomed some 
 thing a hidden inner sense made her hesitate to 
 approach. 
 
 Just that moment, a dim, untraceable as 
 sociation of ideas drew her back until she was 
 face-to-face with a long-forgotten incident in her 
 very-little girlhood. Once upon a time, there had 
 been a moment when she had experienced much 
 the same sort of feeling she had now the feel 
 ing of wanting to cry out and run away. As a 
 matter of fact, she had cried out and run away. 
 Why, and from what? As it came back to her, 
 not from anything altogether terrible. On the 
 contrary, something rather alluring, but so un 
 familiar that she had shrunk back from it, pro 
 testing, resisting. What was it? Claire sud 
 denly broke into a smothered little laugh and cov 
 ered her face with her hands, before the vision 
 of herself, squawking madly, like a startled 
 chicken, and running away from " big " handsome, 
 twelve-year-old Bobby Van Brandt, who had just 
 announced to the world at large, that " he liked 
 Claire Lang a lot, V she was his best girl, n he 
 was goin to kiss her." She had been mortally
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 81 
 
 frightened, had screamed, and run away, but (so 
 unaccountable is the heart of woman) she had 
 never liked Bobby quite so well after that, be 
 cause he had shown the white feather and hadn t 
 carried out his purpose, in spite of her. 
 
 But if she should scream and run away now r 
 there would be none to pursue. Her foolish out 
 burst would disturb no one. She could cry and 
 cry, and run and run, and there would be no big 
 Bobby Van Brandt, or any one else to hear and 
 follow. 
 
 An actual echo of the cries she had not uttered 
 seemed to mock her foolish musing. She paused 
 and listened. Again and again came the muffled 
 sounds, and, at last, so distinct they seemed, she 
 went to her door, unlatched it, and stood, listening, 
 on the threshold. 
 
 From Martha s room rose a deep rumble, as of 
 a distant murmurous sea. 
 
 " Mr. Slawson. He s awake. He must have 
 heard the crying, too. O, it s begun again! 
 How awful ! Martha, what is it, O, what is it? " 
 for Mrs. Slawson had appeared in her own door 
 way, and was standing, night-robed and ghostly, 
 listening attentively to the intermittent signs of 
 distress. 
 
 " It s that bloomin Dutchman, Langbein, 
 acrost the hall. Every time he goes on a toot, he 
 comes back an wallops his wife for it. Go to
 
 82 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 bed, Miss Claire, child, an don t let it worry you. 
 It ain t your funeral." 
 
 Came the voice of big Sam Slawson from 
 within his chamber: 
 
 Just what I say to you, my dear. It ain t 
 your funeral. Come back, Martha, an go to 
 bed." 
 
 Well, that s another pair o shoes, entirely, 
 Sammy," whispered Martha. " This business 
 has been goin on long enough, an I ain t pro- 
 posin to put up with it no longer. Such a state o 
 things has nothin to recommend it. If it d help 
 such a poor ninny as Mrs. Langbein any to beat 
 her, I d say, Go ahead! Never mind us! But 
 you couldn t pound sense inter a softy like her, no 
 matter what you done. In the first place, she lets 
 that fella get away from her evenin s when, if 
 she d an ounce o sense, she could keep him stickin 
 so close at home, a capcine plaster wouldn t be in 
 it. Then, when he comes home, a little the worse 
 for wear, she ups an reproaches m, which, God 
 knows, that ain t no time to argue with a man. 
 You don t want to argue with a fella when he s so. 
 You just want to telVm. Tell m with the help 
 of a broomstick if you want to, but tell m, or 
 leave m alone. An it s bad for the childern all 
 this is it s bad for Cora an Francie. What 
 idea ll they get o the holy estate o matrimony, I 
 should like to know? That the man has the upper
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 83 
 
 hand? That s a nice notion for a girl to grow up 
 with, nowadays. Hark! My, but he s givin it 
 to her good an plenty this time ! Sammy Slaw- 
 son, shame on ye, man ! to let a poor woman be 
 beat like that, an never raise a hand to save 
 your own childern from bein old maids. An 
 other scream outer her, an I ll go in myself, in the 
 face of you." 
 
 "Now, Martha, be sensible!" pleaded Sam 
 Slawson. You can t break into a man s house 
 without his consent." 
 
 " Can t I ? Well, just you watch me close, an* 
 you ll see if I can t." 
 
 1 You ll make yourself liable to the law. He s 
 her husband, you know. She can complain to the 
 courts, if she s got any kick comin . But it s not 
 my business to go interf erin between husband and 
 wife. What God hath joined together, let no 
 man put asunder. 
 
 Martha wagged an energetic assent. 
 
 "Shoor! That certaintly lets you out. But 
 there ain t no mention made o woman not bein 
 on the job, is there? " 
 
 She covered the narrow width of the hall in a 
 couple of strides, and beat her knuckles smartly 
 against the panel of the opposite door. 
 
 By this time the baluster-railing, all the way up, 
 was festooned with white-clad tenants, bending 
 over, looking down.
 
 $4 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Martha," protested Sam Slawson, " you re in 
 your nightgown ! You can t go round like that ! 
 Everybody s lookin at you ! " 
 
 " Say, you Mr. Langbein in there ! Open the 
 door. It s me! Mrs. Slawson! Let me in!" 
 was Martha s only reply. Her keen ear, pressed 
 against the panel, heard nothing in response but 
 an oath, following another even more ungodly 
 sound, and then the choking misery of a woman s 
 convulsive sobs. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson set her shoulder against the door, 
 braced herself for a mighty effort, and 
 
 " Did you ever see the like of her? " muttered 
 Sam, as, still busy fastening the garments he had 
 hurriedly pulled on, he followed his wife into the 
 Langbeins flat, into the Langbeins bedroom. 
 There he saw her resolutely march up to the irate 
 German, swing him suddenly about, and send him 
 crashing, surprised, unresisting, to the opposite 
 side of the room. For a second she stood re 
 garding him scornfully. 
 
 " You poor, low-lived Dutchman, you ! " she 
 brought out with deliberation. " What d you 
 mean layin your hand to a woman who hasn t 
 the stren th or the spirit to turn to, an lick you 
 back? Why don t you fight a fella your own 
 size an sect? That s fair play ! A fine man you 
 are ! A fine neighbor you are ! Just let me hear 
 a peep out of you, an I ll thrash you this minit
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 85 
 
 to within a inch of your life. / don t need no law 
 nor no policeman to keep the peace in any house 
 where I live. I can keep the peace myself, if I 
 have to lick every tenant in the place ! I m the 
 law an the policeman on my own account, an if 
 you budge from that floor till I tell you get up, 
 I ll come over there an set down on ye so hard, 
 your wife won t know you from a pancake in 
 the mornin . I ll show you the power o the 
 press! " 
 
 Sam Slawson was no coward, but his face was 
 pallid with consternation at Martha s hardihood. 
 His mighty bulk, however, seeming to supplement 
 hers, had its effect on the sobered German. He 
 did not attempt to rise. 
 
 " As to you, you poor weak sister," said Mrs. 
 Slawson, turning to the wife, " you ve had your 
 last lickin so long as you live in this house. Be 
 lieve me! I m a hard-workin woman, but I m 
 never too tired or too busy to come in an take a 
 round out of your old man, if he should ever dare 
 lay finger to you again. / don t mind a friendly 
 scrap oncet in a while with a neighbor. My 
 muscles is good for more than your fat, beer- 
 drinkin Dutchman s any day. Let him up an 
 try em oncet, an he ll see. Why don t you have 
 some style about you an land him one, where it ll 
 do the most good, or else leave him? But no, 
 you wouldn t do that I know you wouldn t!
 
 86 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Some women has to cling to somethin , no matter 
 if they have to support it themselves." 
 
 Mrs. Langbein s inarticulate sobbing had 
 passed into a spasmodic struggle for breathless 
 utterance. 
 
 " He don t mean no harm, Mis Slawson. 
 He s all right ven he s soper. Only it preaks 
 my heart ven he vips me, und I don t deserve it." 
 
 " Breaks your heart? It ain t your heart I m 
 worryin about. If he don t break your bones 
 you re in luck! " 
 
 " Und I try to pe a goot vife to him. I tend 
 him hand und foot." 
 
 Ye-es, I know you do," returned Martha 
 dryly. " But suppose you just try the foot in the 
 future. See how it works." 
 
 " I to my pest mit dryin to pe a goot cook. I 
 geep his house so glean as a bin. Vat I don t do, 
 Gott weiss, I don t know it. I ain t esk him for 
 ein tcent already. I ain t drouble him mit pills 
 off of de grocer oder de putcher, oder anny-von. 
 I makes launtry efery veek for some liddle peo 
 ples, und mit mine own money I bays my pills. 
 Ven you dell me how it iss I could make eferyting 
 more smoother for him, I do it! " 
 
 That s eggsackly the trouble," proclaimed 
 Mrs. Slawson conclusively. You make em too 
 smooth. You make em so smooth, they re ack- 
 chelly slippery. No wonder the poor fella falls
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 87 
 
 down. No man wants to spend all his life skatin 
 round, doin fancy-figger stunts, because his wife s 
 a dummy. Let m get down to hard earth, an if 
 he kicks, heave a rock at m. He ll soon stand up, 
 an walk straight like a little man. Let him 
 lend a hand with the dooty-business, for a change. 
 It ll take his attention off n himself, give m a rest 
 from thinkin he s an angel, an that you hired out, 
 when you married m, to shout Glory ! every 
 time he flaps a wing! That sort o thing ain t 
 healthy for men. It don t agree with their con 
 stitutions An now, good-night to you, an 
 
 may you have sweet dreams! Mr. Langbein, I 
 ain t the slightest objeckshun to your gettin up, if 
 you want to. You know me now. I m by the 
 day, as you may have heard. But I can turn my 
 hand to an odd job like this now an then by the 
 night, if it s necess ry, so let me hear no more 
 from you, sir, an then we ll all be good friends, 
 like we re partin now. Good-night! "
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EFORE setting out for his work the next 
 morning, Sam Slawson tried to prepare Ma 
 and Miss Lang for the more than probable ap 
 pearance, during the day, of the officer of the law, 
 he predicted Friedrich Langbein would have en 
 gaged to prosecute Martha. 
 
 " He has a clear case against you, mother, no 
 doubt o that. You d no business in his place 
 at all, let alone that you assaulted an battered 
 him. He can make it hot for us, an I don t doubt 
 he will." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson attended with undivided care to 
 the breakfast needs of such of her flock as still 
 remained to be fed. The youngsters had all 
 vanished. 
 
 " If he wants to persecute me, let him persecute 
 me. I guess I got a tongue in my head. I can 
 tell the judge a thing or two which, bein prob ly 
 a mother himself, he ll see the sense of. Do you 
 think I want Sammy growin up under my very 
 eyes, a beer-drinkin wife-beater? because he 
 seen the eggsample of it set before m by a Dutch 
 man, when he was a boy? Such things makes an 
 impression on the young which they ain t sense
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 89 
 
 enough to know the difference between a eggsam- 
 ple an a warnin . An the girls, too ! As I told 
 you las night, it s bad for the country when matri 
 mony ain t made to look like a prize-package, no 
 matter what it reely is. What s goin to become 
 o the population, I should like to know? Here s 
 Cora now, wantin to be a telefoam-girl when she 
 grows up, an there s no knowin what Francie ll 
 choose. But you can take it from me, they ll both 
 of em drop their votes for the single life. They ll 
 perfer to thump a machine o their own, with 
 twelve or fifteen per, comin to em, rather than 
 be the machine that s thumped, an pay for the 
 privilege out n their own pockets besides." 
 
 As fate would have it, the day went placidly by, 
 in spite of Mr. Slawson s somber prognostica 
 tions. No one came to disturb the even tenor 
 of its way. Then, at eveningfall, while Martha 
 was still absent, there was a gentle rap upon the 
 door, and Claire, anxious to anticipate Ma, made 
 haste to answer it, and saw a stranger standing 
 on the threshold. It was difficult, at first, to dis 
 tinguish details in the dusk of the dim hallway, 
 but after a moment she made out the rotund 
 figure of Mr. Langbein. She could not see his 
 face, but his voice was more than conciliatory. 
 
 " Eggscoose me, lady!" he began apologeti 
 cally. " I haf for Mis Slawson a liddle bresent 
 here. I tink she like it. She look so goot-
 
 90 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 netchered, und I know she iss kind to bum animals. 
 My vife, her Maltee cat vas having some liddle 
 kittens already, a mont ago. I tink Mis Slaw- 
 son, she lige to hef von off dem pussies, ja ? Anny- 
 how, I bring her von here, und I esk you vill gif 
 it to her mit my tanks, und my kint regarts, und 
 pest vishes und annyting else you tink I could do 
 for her. You tell Mis Slawson I lige her to 
 esk me to do someting whenefer she needs it 
 yes?" 
 
 " Now what do you think of that? " was Mar 
 tha s only comment, when Claire related the in 
 cident, and great Sam Slawson shook with 
 laughter till his sides ached, and a fit of coughing 
 set in, and said it was " a caution, but Mother 
 always did have a winning way about her with the 
 men." 
 
 " It s well I have, or I wouldn t a drew you, 
 Sammy an you shoor are a trump only I 
 wisht you d get rid o that cough Ycu had 
 it just about long enough," Martha responded, 
 half in mockery, half in affectionate earnest. 
 
 " An now, me lad, leave us be, me an Miss 
 Claire. We has things of importance to talk 
 over. It s to-morrow at ten she s to go see Mrs. 
 Sherman. Miss Claire, you must be lookin your 
 best, for the first minit the madam claps eyes to 
 you, that ll be the decidin minit for you. Have 
 you everything you need, ready to your hand? Is
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 91 
 
 all your little laces an frills done up fresh an 
 tidy, so s you can choose the becomingest? 
 Where s that lace butterfly for your neck, I like 
 so much? I washed it as careful as could be, a 
 couple o weeks ago, but have you wore it since? " 
 
 Claire hesitated. " I think I ll put on the 
 simplest things I ve got, Martha," she replied 
 evasively. " Just one of my linen shirtwaists, 
 with the stiff collar and cuffs. No fluffy ruffles at 
 all." 
 
 " But that scrap o lace at your throat, ain t 
 fluffy ruffles. An stiff, starched things don t 
 kinder become you, Miss Claire. They ain t your 
 style. You don t wanter look like you been 
 dressed by your worst enemy, do you? You re so 
 little an dainty, you got to have delicate things 
 to go with you. Say, just try that butterfly on 
 you now. I want to see if it ll do, all right." 
 
 By this time Claire knew Martha well enough 
 to realize it was useless to attempt to temporize 
 or evade. 
 
 " I can t wear the butterfly, Martha dear," she 
 said. 
 
 "Why can t you?" 
 
 " Well, now please, please don t worry, but I 
 can t wear it, because I can t find it. I dare say 
 it ll turn up some day when I least expect, but just 
 now, it seems to be lost." 
 
 Martha looked grave. " It come out o the
 
 92 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 wash all right, didn t it? " she inquired anxiously. 
 " I remember distinkly leavin it soak in the suds, 
 so s there wouldn t be no strain-like, rubbin it, an 
 the dust d just drop out natural. But now I 
 come to think of it, I don t recklect ironin it. 
 Now honest, did it come outer the wash, Miss 
 Claire?" 
 
 " No, Martha but " 
 
 " There ain t no but about it. I musta gone 
 an lost your pretty lace for you, an it was reel 
 at that!" 
 
 "Never mind! It s of no consequence. 
 Truly, please don t 
 
 " Worry? Shoor I won t worry. What s the 
 use worryin ? But I ll make it right, you betcher 
 life, which is much more to the purpose. Say, I 
 shouldn t wonder but it got into the tub someways, 
 an then, when I let the water out, the suckage 
 drew it down the pipe. Believe me, that s the 
 very thing that happened, and I ll never see 
 sweet Annie any more ! 
 
 " It doesn t make a particle of difference, Mar 
 tha. I never liked that butterfly as much as you 
 did, you know." 
 
 " Perhaps you did an perhaps you didn t, but 
 all the same you re out a neck-fixin , an it s my 
 fault, an so you re bound to let me get square, to 
 save my face, Miss Claire. You see how it is, 
 don t you? Well, last Christmas, Mrs. Granville
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 93 
 
 she give me a lace jabbow reel Irish mull an 
 Carrickmacross (that s lace from the old country, 
 as you know as well as me). She told me all 
 about it. Fine? It d break your heart to think 
 o one o them poor innercent colleens over there 
 pricklin her eyes out, makin such grandjer for 
 the like o me, when no doubt she thought she was 
 doin it for some great dame, would be sportin 
 it out loud, in her auta on Fifth Avenoo. What 
 use have I, in my business, for that kinder dec 
 oration, I should like to know! It d only be 
 distractin me, gettin in me pails when I m scrub- 
 bin . An by the time Cora an Francie is grown 
 up, jabbows will be out. I d much more use for 
 the five-dollar-bill was folded up in the box along 
 side. That, now, was becomin to my peculiar 
 style o beauty. But the jabbow! There ain t 
 no use talkin , Miss Claire, you ll have to take 
 it off n my hands, I mean my chest, an then we ll 
 be quits on the butterfly business, an no thanks 
 to your nose on either side." 
 
 It was useless to protest. 
 
 The next morning when Claire started forth to 
 beard the lioness in her den, she was tricked out 
 in all the bravery of Martha s really beautiful 
 " jabbow," and looked " as pretty as a picture, an 
 then some," as Mrs. Slawson confidentially as 
 sured Sam. 
 
 But the heart beneath the frilly lace and mull
 
 94 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 was anything but brave. It felt, in fact, quite as 
 white and fluttery as the jabbow looked, and when 
 Claire found herself being actually ushered into 
 the boudoir of the august presence, and told to 
 " wait please," she thought it would stop alto 
 gether for very abject fright. 
 
 Martha had tried, in a sort of casual, matter- 
 of-course way, to prepare her little lady for the 
 trial, by dropping hints every now and then, as 
 to the best methods of dealing with employers 
 the proper way to carry oneself, when one " went 
 to live out in private fam lies." 
 
 " You see, you always been the private fam ly 
 yourself, Miss Claire, so it ll come kinder strange 
 to you first-off, to look at things the other way. 
 But it won t be so bad after you oncet get used 
 to it. There s one thing it s good to remember. 
 Them high-toned folks has somehow got it fixed 
 in their minds that the rich must not be annoyed, 
 so it ll be money in your pocket, as the sayin is, 
 if you can do your little stunt without makin any 
 fuss about it, or drawin their attention. Just 
 saw wood an say nothin , as my husband says. 
 
 " Mrs. Sherman she told me, when I first went 
 there, an Radcliffe was a little baby, she * strickly 
 forbid anybody to touch m. It was on account 
 o what she called germs or somethin . Well, I 
 never had no particular yearnin to inflect him 
 with none o my germs, but when she was off galli-
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 95 
 
 vantin , an that poor little lonesome fella used to 
 cry, an put out his arms to be took, I d take m, 
 an give m the only reel mother-huggin he ever 
 had in his life, an no harm to any of us to me 
 that give it, or him that got it, or her that was 
 no wiser. Then, later, when he was four or five, 
 an around that, she got a notion he was a angel- 
 child, an she d useter go about tellin the help, an 
 other folks, he must be guided by love alone. 
 I remember she said oncet he d be as good as a 
 kitten for hours at a time if you only give m a 
 ball of twine to play with. Well, his nurse, she 
 give m the ball of twine one day when she had 
 somethin doin that took up all her time an at 
 tention on her own account, an when she come 
 back from her outin , you couldn t walk a step 
 in the house without breakin your leg (the nurse 
 she did sprain her ankle), on account o the 
 cat s-cradle effect the young villain had strung 
 acrost the halls, an from one doorknob to the 
 other, so there wasn t an inch o the place free. 
 An he d got the tooth-paste toobs, an squoze out 
 the insides, an painted over every bit o mahogany 
 he could find doors, an furnitur , an all. You 
 can take it from me, that house was a sight after 
 the angel-child got through with it. The girls 
 an me the whole push was workin like mad 
 clearin up after m before the madam d come 
 home, an the nurse cryin her eyes out for the
 
 .96 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 pain, an scared stiff less she d be sent packin . 
 Also, if Radcliffe asked questions, we was to an 
 swer them truthful, was another rule. An the 
 puzzles he d put to you ! One day, I remember, 
 he got me cornered with a bunch that was such 
 fierce propositions, Solomon in all his glory 
 couldn t a give him their truthful answers. Says 
 he Radcliffe, not Solomon says he : I want an 
 other leg. 
 
 You can t have it, says I. 
 
 " Why? says he. 
 
 " They ain t pervided, I says. Little boys 
 that s well-reggerlated, don t have but two legs. 
 
 "Why don t they? 
 
 " Because God thought two was enough 
 for m. 
 
 " Why did God think tho? 
 
 " You ask too many questions. 
 
 " Well, but juth lithen I want to know 
 now lithen doth puthy-caths lay eggth? 
 
 " No! 
 
 " Why don t puthy-caths lay eggth? 
 Because hens has a corner on the egg busi 
 
 ness. 
 
 U I 
 
 Why have they? 
 Because they re born lucky, like Mr. Car 
 negie an Mr. Rockefella. 
 
 " Doth Mr. Carnegie an Mr. Rocke 
 fella
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 97* 
 
 "Why don t they? 
 
 " Say, Radclifte, I ain t had a hard day, says 
 I. But you make me tired. 
 
 " Why do I? Now juth wonth more now 
 now lithen wonth more ith God a lady? 
 
 As Claire sat waiting for Mrs. Sherman, stray 
 scraps of recollection, such as these, flitted 
 through her mind and helped to while the time 
 away. Then, as she still waited, she grew 
 gradually more composed, less unfamiliar with 
 her surroundings, and the strange predicament in 
 which she found herself. She could, at length, 
 look at the door she supposed led into Mrs. Sher 
 man s room, without such a quick contraction of 
 the heart as caused her breath to come in labored 
 gasps, could make some sort of sketchy outline of 
 the part she was foreordained to take in the com 
 ing interview, and not find herself barren of re 
 source, even if Mrs. Sherman should say so-and- 
 so, instead of so-and-so. 
 
 She had waited so long, had had such ample 
 time to get herself well in hand, that when, at 
 last, a door opened (not Mrs. Sherman s door at 
 all, but another), and a tall, upright masculine 
 figure appeared in the doorway, she at once 
 jumped to the conclusion it was Shaw, the butler, 
 come to summon her into the presence, and rose 
 to follow, without too much inner perturbation.
 
 98 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Mrs. Sherman is prevented from keeping her 
 appointment with you this morning," descended to 
 her from an altitude far above her own. " She 
 hopes you will excuse her. She has asked me to 
 talk with you in her stead. You are Miss Lang, 
 I believe? I am Mrs. Sherman s brother. My 
 name is Ronald."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 IT is hard to readjust all one s prearranged 
 plans in the twinkling of an eye. Claire felt 
 as if she had received a sudden dash of cold 
 water square in the face. She quite gulped from 
 the shock of it. How in the world was she to 
 adapt herself to this brand-new set of conditions 
 on such short notice on no notice at all? How 
 was she to be anything but awkwardly mono 
 syllabic? 
 
 " Sit down, please." 
 
 Obediently she sat. 
 
 " Martha Mrs. Slawson tells me, your 
 father was Judge Lang of Michigan? " 
 
 " Yes Grand Rapids." 
 
 " You are a college graduate? " 
 
 " Wellesley." 
 You have taught before? " 
 
 " I tutored a girl throughout a whole sum 
 mer. Prepared her for her college entrance 
 exams." 
 
 " She passed creditably? " 
 
 " She wasn t conditioned in anything." 
 
 " How are you on discipline? " 
 
 "I don t know." 
 
 99
 
 ioo MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 "You have had no experience? Never tried 
 your hand at training a boy, for example? " 
 
 Claire s blue-gray eyes grew suddenly auda 
 cious, and the bridge of her short nose wrinkled up 
 delightfully in a roguish smile. 
 
 " I trained my father. He was a dear old boy 
 the dearest in the world. He used to say he 
 had never been brought up, until I came along. 
 He used to say I ruled him with a rod of iron. 
 But he was very well-behaved before I got through 
 with him. He was quite a model boy, really." 
 
 Glancing quickly up into the steadfast eyes that 
 had, at first, seemed to her so stern as to be al 
 most forbidding, she met an expression so mild, 
 so full of winning kindness, that she suddenly 
 remembered and understood what Martha had 
 meant when she said once: " A body wouldn t call 
 the queen her cousin when he looks at you like 
 that!" 
 
 " Your father was a credit to your bringing-up, 
 certainly. I never had the honor of meeting 
 Judge Lang, but I knew him by reputation. I 
 remember to have heard some one say of him 
 once He was a judge after Socrates own heart. 
 He heard courteously, he answered wisely, he con 
 sidered soberly, he decided impartially. Added 
 to this, he was one whom kings could not cor 
 rupt. That is an enviable record." 
 
 Claire s eyes filled with grateful moisture, but
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 101 
 
 she did not allow them to overflow. She nodded 
 rapidly once or twice in a quaint, characteristic 
 little fashion, and then sat silent, examining the 
 links in her silver-meshed purse, with elaborate at 
 tention. 
 
 " Perhaps Mrs. Slawson has told you that my 
 young nephew is something of a pickle." 
 
 The question restored Claire at once. " I m 
 fond of pickles." 
 
 "Good! I believe there are said to be fifty- 
 eight varieties. Are you prepared to smack your 
 lips over him, whichever he may be? " 
 
 " Well, if I can t smack my lips, there s always 
 the alternative of smacking him." 
 
 Mr. Ronald laughed. " Not allowed," he an 
 nounced regretfully. " My sister won t have it. 
 Radcliffe is to be guided by love alone. 
 
 " Whose love, please? His or mine? " 
 
 Again Mr. Ronald laughed. " Now you ve 
 got me ! " he admitted. " Perhaps a little of 
 both. Do you think you could supply your 
 share? I have no doubt of your being able to 
 secure his." 
 
 I like children. We ve always managed to 
 hit it off pretty well, the kiddies and I, but, of 
 course, I can t guarantee anything definite in con 
 nection with your little boy, because, you see, I ve 
 never been a governess before. I ve only had to 
 do with youngsters who ve come a-visiting, or else
 
 102 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 the small, lower East-siders at the Settlement. 
 But I ll promise to do my best." 
 
 " Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
 does well, acts nobly. Angles could no more, as 
 I wrote in my sister s autograph-album when I was 
 a boy," announced Mr. Ronald gravely. 
 
 Claire smiled over at him with appreciation. 
 " I d love to come and try," she said heartily. 
 
 She did not realize she had lost all sensation 
 of alarm, had forgotten her altered position, that 
 she was no longer one whom these people would 
 regard as their social equal. She was talking as 
 one talks to a friend. 
 
 " And if Radcliffe doesn t get on if he doesn t 
 improve, I should say if you don t like me, you 
 can always send me away, you know." 
 
 For a very long moment Mr. Ronald sat silent. 
 So long a moment, indeed, that Claire, waiting in 
 growing suspense for his answer, suddenly re 
 membered all those things she had forgotten, and 
 her earlier embarrassment returned with a wave 
 of bitter self-reproach. She accused herself of 
 having been too free. She had overstepped her 
 privilege. It was not apparent to her that he was 
 trying to visualize the picture she had drawn, the 
 possibility of his not liking her and sending her 
 away, you know, and that, to his utter consterna 
 tion, he found it was something he could not in the 
 least conceive of himself as doing. That, on the
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 103 
 
 contrary, the vision of her going away for any 
 reason, of her passing out of his life, now she had 
 once stepped into it, left him with a chill sensation 
 in the cardiac region that was as unexpected as it 
 was disturbing. When he spoke at last, it was 
 with a quick, authoritative brevity that seemed 
 to Claire to bear out her apprehension, and prove 
 he thought she had forgotten her place, her new 
 place as " hired help," and must be checked lest 
 she presume on good nature and take a tone to 
 her employers that was not to be tolerated. 
 
 You will come without fail on Monday morn- 
 ing." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 Her manner was so studiously cold and cere 
 monious, so sharply in contrast with her former 
 piquant friendliness, that Mr. Ronald looked up 
 in surprise. 
 
 " It is convenient for you to come on Monday, 
 I hope?" 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 " I presume my sister, Mrs. Sherman, will 
 take up with you the question of er compensa 
 tion." 
 
 " O " quickly, with a little shudder, " that s 
 
 all right!" 
 
 " If it isn t all right, it shall be made so," said 
 Mr. Ronald cordially. 
 
 Claire winced. " It is quite, it is perfectly all
 
 io 4 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 right! " she repeated hurriedly, anxious to escape 
 the distasteful subject, still smarting under the 
 lash of her own self-condemnation her own 
 wounded pride. 
 
 How could she have forgotten, even for a mo 
 ment, that she was no longer in a position to deal 
 with these people on equal terms? That now, 
 kindness on their part meant patronage, on hers 
 presumption. Of course, she deserved the snub 
 she had received. But, all the same, it hurt! O, 
 but it hurt ! She knew her George Eliot well. It 
 was a pity she did not recall and apply a certain 
 passage in Maggie Tulliver s experience. 
 
 " It did not occur to her that her irritation was 
 due to the pleasanter emotion which preceded it, 
 just as when we are satisfied with a sense of glow 
 ing warmth, an innocent drop of cold water may 
 fall upon us with a sudden smart." 
 
 Mr. Ronald, searching her face for some clue 
 to the abrupt change in her voice and manner, 
 saw her cheeks grow white, her lips and chin 
 quiver painfully. 
 
 You are not well?" he asked, after a sec 
 ond of troubled groping in the dark. 
 
 " O, perfectly." She recollected Martha s in 
 junction, " Never you let on to em, any of your 
 worries. The rich must not be annoyed," and 
 pulled herself together with a determined mental 
 grip.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 105 
 
 " It is good that, being so far away from home, 
 you can be under the care of your old nurse," ob 
 served Mr. Ronald thoughtfully. 
 
 " My old nurse," Claire mechanically re 
 peated, preoccupied with her own painful medi 
 tations. 
 
 " Martha. It is good, it certainly must be com 
 forting to those who care for you, to know you 
 are being looked after by so old and trusted a 
 family servant." 
 
 Claire did not reply. She was hardly con 
 scious he was speaking. 
 
 " When Martha first mentioned you to me to 
 Mrs. Sherman, rather she described you as her 
 young lady. She has a very warm feeling for 
 you. I think she considers you in the light of 
 personal property, like a child of her own. That s 
 excusable it s commendable, even, in such a case 
 as this. I believe she said she nursed you till you 
 were able to walk." 
 
 With a shock of sudden realization, Claire 
 waked to the fact that something was wrong some 
 where something that it was up to her to make 
 right at once. And yet, it was all so cloudy, so 
 confused in her mind with her duty to Martha, 
 her duty to herself, and to these people her fear 
 of being again kindly but firmly put back in her 
 place if she ventured the merest fraction of an 
 inch beyond the boundary prescribed by this
 
 io6 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 grandee of the autocratic bearing and " keep-off- 
 the-grass expression," that she hesitated, and her 
 opportunity was lost. 
 
 " I think I must go now," she announced 
 abruptly, and rose, got past him somehow, and 
 made blindly for the door. Then there was the 
 dim vista of the long hall stretching before her, 
 like a path of escape, and she fled its length, and 
 down that of the staircase. Then out at the 
 street-door, and into the chill of the cold Decem 
 ber noonday. 
 
 When she had vanished, Francis Ronald stood 
 a moment with eyes fixed in the direction she had 
 taken. Then, abruptly, he seized the telephone 
 that stood upon the table beside him, switched it 
 to connect with the basement region, and called 
 for Mrs. Slawson. 
 
 " This is Mr. Ronald speaking. Is Martha 
 there?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. Please hold the wire, and I ll call 
 her." 
 
 "Be quick!" 
 
 "Yes, sir!" 
 
 A second, and Martha s voice repeated his 
 name. " Mr. Ronald, this is Martha!" 
 
 " Good ! I want you to put on your things at 
 once, and follow Miss Lang," he directed briefly. 
 " I do not think she s sick, but as she was talking 
 to me, I noticed she grew suddenly quite pale, and
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 107 
 
 seemed troubled and anxious. Waste no time! 
 Go at once ! " 
 
 The only answer was a sharp click over the 
 wire, as Mrs. Slawson snapped the receiver into 
 its crotch. 
 
 But though Claire was not five minutes in ad 
 vance of her, Martha was unable to make up the 
 distance between them, and by the time she had 
 mounted the stairs leading to the Elevated, and 
 stood panting for breath on the platform, the train 
 she had hoped to catch was to be seen disappear 
 ing around the curve at Fifty-third Street. 
 
 All the way uptown she speculated as to the 
 why and wherefore of Mr. Ronald s immediate 
 concern about Claire. 
 
 " It s kinder previous, his gettin so stirred up 
 over her at this stage o the game," she pondered. 
 " It ain t natural, or it ain t lucky. I d much 
 liefer have it go slower, an be more thora. A 
 thing like this affair I m tryin to menoover, is like 
 some o the things you cook. You want to leave 
 em get good an het-up before the stirrin begins. 
 If they re stirred up too soon, they re ap to 
 cruddle on you, an never get that nice, smooth, 
 thick, gooey look you like to see in rich custuds, 
 same as love-affairs. I hope she didn t go an 
 have a scare on, an give em to think she ain t 
 healthy. She s as sound as a nut, but if Mis 
 Sherman once is fixed with the notion she s sub-
 
 io8 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 jeck to faint-spells, nothin on earth will change 
 her mind, an then it ll be nit, not, nohow for 
 Martha s little scheme. I must caution Miss 
 Claire about showin the white feather. No mat 
 ter how weak-kneed she feels, she s just got to 
 buck up an ack like she s a soldier. That s 
 how " 
 
 Martha had reached her own street, and was 
 turning the corner, when she stopped with a sen 
 sation as of a quick, fierce clutching at her heart. 
 Evidently there had been some sort of accident, 
 for a great crowd was gathered on the sidewalk, 
 and beside the gutter-curbstone, just ahead of her, 
 stood waiting an ambulance. Her healthy, nor 
 mal mind did not easily jump at tragic conclusions. 
 She did not, as a general thing, fear the worst, 
 did not even accept it when it came, but now, some 
 how, a close association of ideas suggested Claire 
 in an instant, and before ever she had stirred a 
 step, she saw in her mind s eye the delicate little 
 form she loved, lying injured, maybe mangled, 
 stretched out upon the asphalt, in the midst of the 
 curious throng. 
 
 She hurried, hurried faster than any of the 
 others who were also hurrying, and pushed her 
 way on through the press to the very edge of the 
 crowd. A crying woman caught wildly at her 
 arm, as she stood for a second struggling to ad 
 vance.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 109 
 
 "It s a child! A little girl run over by an 
 automobile! O God help the poor mother! 
 the stranger sobbed hysterically. 
 
 Martha freed herself from the clinging fingers 
 and pressed forward. " A child Miss Claire s 
 such a little thing, no wonder they think she s a 
 child," she murmured. " True for you, my good 
 woman, God help the poor mother! " 
 
 "You know her?" 
 
 " I know Miss Claire." 
 
 For some reason the crowd made way, and let 
 her through to the very heart of it, and there 
 sure enough, there was Claire, but Claire crying 
 and kneeling over an outstretched little form, 
 lying unconscious on the pavement. 
 
 " Why, it s my Francie ! " said Martha 
 quietly.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THROUGH all the days of suspense and 
 doubt, Claire swung like a faithful little 
 pendulum between home, the Shermans, and the 
 hospital. 
 
 Then, as hope strengthened, she was the bearer 
 of gifts, flowers, fruit, toys from Mr. Ronald 
 and his sister, which Martha acknowledged in her 
 own characteristic fashion. 
 
 " Tell m the Slawson fam ly is bound to be in it. 
 It seems it s the whole style for ladies to go under 
 a operation, an as I ain t eggsackly got the time, 
 Francie, she s keepin up the tone for us. If you 
 wanter folia the fashions these days, you got to 
 gather your skirts about you, tight as they are, an 
 run. But what s a little inconvenience, compared 
 with knowin you re cuttin a dash ! 
 
 " Tell m I thank m, an tell Lor Mister Ron 
 ald, it s good of m to be tryin to get damages for 
 Francie out o the auta that run her down, an 
 if there was somethin comin to us to pay the doc 
 tors an suchlike, it d be welcome. But, somehow, 
 I always was shy o monkeyin with the law. It s 
 like to catch a body in such queer places, where
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY in 
 
 you d least expect. Before a fella knows it, he s 
 up for liable, or breaches o promise, an his pri 
 vate letters to the bosom of his fam ly (which 
 nowadays they re mostly ruffles), his letters to 
 the bosom of his fam ly is read out loud in court, 
 an then printed in the papers next mornin , an 
 everybody s laughin at m, because he called his 
 wife My darlin Tootsie, which she never been 
 accustomed to answer to anythin but the name o 
 Sarah. An it s up to him to pay the costs, when 
 ten to one it s the other party s to blame. I guess 
 p raps we better leave good enough alone. If 
 we begin to get the 1 yers after us, no tellin where 
 we ll end. Who knows but they might find the 
 accident injured the auto, stead o Francie. If 
 we work hard, an they give us time, me an 
 Sammy can, maybe, make out to pay the doctors. 
 But add to that, to have to buy a brand-new ma 
 chine for the fella that run over Francie that d 
 be sorter discouragin ." 
 
 She paused, and Claire began to pull on her 
 gloves. 
 
 " By the way," said Martha, " how s things 
 down to the Shermans ? Seems like a hunderd 
 years since I was there. The las time I laid eyes 
 on Eliza, she was in excellent spirits I seen the 
 bottle. I wonder if she s still very still, takin 
 a sly nip on the side, as she calls it, which means 
 a sly nip off the sideboard. You can take it from
 
 ii2 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 me, if she don t let up, before she knows it she ll 
 be a teetotal wrack." 
 
 " I haven t had the pleasure of meeting Eliza," 
 observed Claire, smiling. 
 
 " Why, of course, you haven t, which it 
 wouldn t be a pleasure, anyhow. But what I reely 
 want to know is, how you makin out with Rad- 
 cliffe? I been so took up with Francie all this 
 while, I clean forgot to ask before. Is he be- 
 havin all right? Does he mind what you say? 
 Does he do his lessons good? " 
 
 Claire s brows drew together in a troubled little 
 frown, as she labored over the clasp of her glove. 
 
 " O, Radcliffe," she let fall carelessly. " Rad- 
 cliffe s an unruly little Hessian, of course, but I 
 suppose all boys are mischievous at times." 
 
 Martha pondered. " Well, not all boys are 
 mischievous in just the same way, thank God! 
 This trouble o Francie s has threw me all out in 
 more ways than one. If everything had a went 
 as I d expected, I d been workin at the Shermans 
 straight along these days, an you wouldn t a had 
 a mite o trouble with the little fella. Him an I 
 understands each other perfeckly, an with me a 
 loomin up on the landscape, he kinder sees the 
 sense o walkin a chalk-line, not kickin up his 
 heels too frisky. I d calculated on being there, to 
 sorter back you up, till you d got uster the place, 
 an made em understand you mean business."
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 113 
 
 Claire laughed, a quick, sharp little laugh. 
 
 " O, I think I m gradually making them under 
 stand I mean business," she said. " And I m sure 
 it is better, since I have to be there at all, that I 
 should be there without you, independent of any 
 help. I couldn t make Radcliffe respect my author 
 ity, if I depended on some one else to enforce it. 
 It s just one of those cases where one has to fight 
 one s own battle alone." 
 
 "Then it is a battle?" Martha inquired 
 quietly. 
 
 " O, it s a battle, all right, " laughed Claire 
 mirthlessly, and before Mrs. Slawson could probe 
 her further, she managed to make her escape. 
 
 She did not wish to burden Martha with her 
 vexations. Martha had troubles of her own. 
 Moreover, those that were most worrisome to 
 Claire, Martha, in the very nature of things, 
 would not understand. 
 
 Claire s first few weeks at the Shermans had 
 been uneventful enough. Radcliffe had found 
 amusement in the novelty of the situation, had 
 deigned to play school with her, and permitted 
 her to " make believe " she was " the teacher." 
 He was willing to " pretend " to be her " scholar," 
 just as he would have been willing to pretend 
 to be the horse, if he and another boy had been 
 playing, and the other boy had chosen to be 
 driver for a while. But turn about is fair play,
 
 ii4 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 and when the days passed, and Claire showed no 
 sign of relinquishing her claim, he grew restless, 
 mutinous, and she had all she could do to keep 
 him in order. 
 
 Gradually it began to dawn upon him that this 
 very little person, kind and companionable as she 
 seemed, suffered under the delusion that he was 
 going to obey her that, somehow, she was going 
 to constrain him to obey her. Of course, this was 
 the sheerest nonsense. How could she make him 
 do anything he didn t want to do, since his mother 
 had told her, in his presence, that he was to be 
 governed by love alone, and, fortunately, her lack 
 of superior size and strength forbade her love 
 from expressing itself as, he shudderingly remem 
 bered, Martha s had done on one occasion. No, 
 plainly he had the advantage of Miss Lang, but 
 until she clearly understood it, there were apt to 
 be annoyances. So, without taking the trouble to 
 make the punishment fit the crime, he casually 
 locked her in the sitting-room closet one morning. 
 She had stepped inside to hang up her hat and 
 coat as usual, and it was quite easy, swiftly, noise 
 lessly, to close the door upon her, and turn the 
 key. 
 
 He paused a moment, choking back his nervous 
 laughter, waiting to hear her bang on the panel, 
 and clamor to be let out. But when she made no 
 outcry, when, beyond one or two futile turnings
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 115 
 
 of the knob, there was no further attempt on her 
 part to free herself, he stole upstairs to the 
 schoolroom, and made merry over his clever 
 exploit. 
 
 For a full minute after she found herself in 
 darkness, Claire did not realize she was a pris 
 oner. The door had swung to after her, she 
 thought, that was all. But, when she turned the 
 knob, and still it did not open, she began to suspect 
 the truth. Her first impulse was to call out, but 
 her better judgment told her it would be better to 
 wait with what dignity she might until Radcliffe 
 tired of his trick, or some one else came and re 
 leased her. Radcliffe would tire the more 
 quickly, she reasoned, if she did not raise a dis 
 turbance. When he saw she was not to be teased, 
 he would come and let her out. She stood with 
 her hot cheek pressed against the cool wood of 
 the closet-door, waiting for him to come. And 
 listening for his steps, she heard other steps 
 other steps which approached, and entered the 
 sitting-room. She heard the voices of Mrs. 
 Sherman and Mr. Ronald in earnest conversa 
 tion. 
 
 " If I thought such a thing were possible I d 
 send her away to-morrow," Mrs. Sherman was 
 saying in a high-pitched, excited voice. 
 
 "Why such delay? Why not to-day?" in 
 quired Mr. Ronald ironically.
 
 ii6 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " But, of course," continued his sister, ignoring 
 his interruption, " I know there s nothing to be 
 really afraid of." 
 
 " Well, then, if you know there s nothing to be 
 afraid of, what are you afraid of? " 
 
 " I m not really afraid. I m just talking 
 things over. You see, she s so uncommonly 
 pretty, and men are men, and you re no ex 
 ception." 
 
 " I hope not. I don t want to be an excep 
 tion." 
 
 " Don t you think she s uncommonly pretty? " 
 
 " No, I don t think I should call her pretty," 
 said Mr. Ronald with an emphasis his sister 
 might well have challenged, if she had not been 
 so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she 
 missed its point. 
 
 " Well, / do. I think she s quite pretty 
 enough to excuse, I mean, explain your having a 
 passing fancy for her." 
 
 " I haven t a passing fancy for her." 
 
 " Well, I m much relieved to hear you say so, 
 for even if it were only a passing fancy, I d feel 
 I ought to send her away. You never can tell 
 how such things will develop." 
 
 " You certainly can t." 
 
 " And you may rest assured mother and I 
 don t want you to ruin your life by throwing 
 yourself away on a penniless, unknown little gov-
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 117 
 
 erness, when you might have your choice from 
 among the best-born, wealthiest girls in town." 
 
 " Miss Lang is as well-born as any one we 
 know." 
 
 " We have only her word for it." 
 
 " No, her nurse, an old family servant, Mar 
 tha Slawson, corroborates her if you require cor- 
 roboration." 
 
 " Don t you? Would you be satisfied to pick 
 some one off the street, as it were, and take her 
 into your house and give her your innocent child 
 to train? " 
 
 " My innocent children being so extremely 
 vague, I am not concerning myself as to their edu 
 cation. But I certainly accept Miss Lang s word, 
 and I accept Martha s." 
 
 " You re easily satisfied. Positively, Frank, I 
 believe you have a fancy for the girl, in spite of 
 what you say. And for all our sakes, for 
 mother s and mine and yours and yes even 
 hers, it will be best for me to tell her to 
 
 go." 
 
 " I rather like the way you rank us. Mother 
 and you first then I come, and last even the 
 poor little girl! " 
 
 " Well, you may laugh if you want to, but 
 when a child like Radcliffe notices that you re not 
 indifferent to her, there must be some truth in it. 
 He confided to me last night, Uncle Frank likes
 
 ii8 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Miss Lang a lot. I guess she s his best girl! 
 Isn t she his best girl? I told him certainly not. 
 But I lay awake most of the night, worrying 
 about it." 
 
 Mr. Ronald had evidently had enough of the 
 interview. Claire could hear his firm steps, as he 
 strode across the floor to the door. 
 
 " I advise you to quit worrying, Catherine," he 
 said. " It doesn t pay. Moreover, I assure you 
 I ve no passing fancy (I quote your words) for 
 Miss Lang. I hope you \von t be so foolish as 
 to dismiss her on my account. She s an excellent 
 teacher, a good disciplinarian. It would be dif 
 ficult to find another as capable as she, one who, 
 at the same time, would put up with Radclifte s 
 waywardness, and your our (I ll put it pic 
 turesquely, after the manner of Martha) our in- 
 diosincrazies. Take my advice. Don t part 
 with Miss Lang. She s the right person in the 
 right place. Good-morning! " 
 
 " Frank, Frank! Don t leave me like that. I 
 know I ve terribly annoyed you. I can t bear to 
 feel you re provoked with me, and yet I m only 
 acting for your good. Please kiss me good-by. 
 I m going away. I won t see you for two whole 
 days. I m going to Tuxedo this morning to stay 
 over night with Amy Pelham. There s a man 
 she s terribly interested in, and she wants me to 
 meet him, and tell her what I think of him. He s
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 119 
 
 been attentive to her for ever so long, and yet he 
 
 doesn t his name is Mr. Robert " Her 
 
 words frayed off in the distance, as she hurriedly 
 followed her brother out into the hall and down 
 stairs. 
 
 How long Claire stood huddled against the 
 closet-door she never knew. The first thing of 
 which she was clearly conscious was the feel of a 
 key stealthily moved in the lock beneath her hand. 
 Then the sounds of footsteps lightly tiptoeing 
 away. Mechanically she turned the knob, the 
 door yielded, and she staggered blindly out from 
 the darkness into the sunlit room. It was de 
 serted. 
 
 If Mrs. Sherman had been there, Claire would 
 have given way at once, letting her sense of out 
 raged pride escape her in a torrent of tears, a 
 storm of indignant protest. Happily, there be 
 ing no one to cry to, she had time to gather her 
 self together before going up to face Radcliffe. 
 When she entered the schoolroom, he pretended 
 to be studiously busied with his books, and so did 
 not notice that she was rather a long time closing 
 the door after her, and that she also had business 
 with the lock of the door opposite. He really 
 only looked up when she stationed herself behind 
 her desk, and summoned him to recite. 
 
 " I do want to ! " announced Radcliffe reso 
 lutely.
 
 120 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Very well," said Claire, " then we ll sit here 
 until you do." 
 
 Radcliffe grinned. It seemed to him things 
 were all going his way, this clear, sunny morn 
 ing. He began to whistle, in a breathy under 
 tone. 
 
 Claire made no protest. She simply sat and 
 waited. 
 
 Radcliffe took up his pencil, and began scrawl 
 ing pictures over both sides of his slate, exulting 
 in the squeaking sounds he produced. Still the 
 teacher did not interfere. But when, tired of 
 his scratching, he concluded the time had arrived 
 for his grand demonstration, his crowning 
 declaration of independence, he rose, carelessly 
 shoved his books aside, strode to the door, in 
 tending masterfully to leave the room, and dis 
 covered he was securely locked and bolted in. In 
 a flash he was across the room, tearing at the 
 lock of the second door with frantic fingers. 
 That, too, had been made fast. He turned upon 
 Claire like a little fiend, his eyes flashing, his 
 hands clenched. 
 
 "You you you two-cent Willie!" he 
 screamed. 
 
 Claire pretended not to see or hear. In 
 reality she was acutely conscious of every move 
 he made, for, small as he was, his pent-in rage 
 gave him a strength she might well fear to put to
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 121 
 
 the test. It was the tug of war. The question 
 was, who would be conqueror? 
 
 Through the short hours of the winter fore 
 noon, hours that seemed as interminable to Claire 
 as they did to Radcliffe, the battle raged. There 
 was no sign of capitulation on either side. 
 
 In the course of the morning, and during one of 
 Radcliffe s fiercest outbreaks, Claire took up the 
 telephone instrument and quietly instructed Shaw 
 to bring no luncheon-trays to the school-room at 
 mid-day. 
 
 " Two glasses of hot milk will be all we need," 
 she said, whereupon Radcliffe leaped upon her, 
 trying to wrest the transmitter from her hand, 
 beating her with his hard little fists. 
 
 " I won t drink milk! I won t! I won t! " he 
 shouted madly. " An I ll kill you, if you won t 
 let me have my lunch, you you you mizzer ble 
 two-cent Willie! " 
 
 As the day drew on, his white face grew 
 flushed, her fevered one white, and both were 
 haggard and lined from the struggle. Then, at 
 about three o clock, Mr. Ronald telephoned up 
 to say he wished Radcliffe to go for a drive with 
 him. 
 
 Claire replied it was impossible. 
 
 " Why? " came back to her over the wire. 
 
 " Because he needs punishment, and I am go 
 ing to see that he gets it."
 
 122 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 "And if I interfere?" 
 
 " I resign at once. Even as it is " 
 
 " Do you think you are strong enough strong 
 enough physically, to fight to the finish? " 
 " I am strong enough for anything." 
 " I believe you. But if you should find him 
 one too many for you, I shall be close at hand, 
 and at a word from you I will come to the 
 
 rescue." 
 
 " No fear of my needing help. Good-by ! " 
 
 She hung up the receiver with a click of finality. 
 
 Outside, the sky grew gray and threatening. 
 Inside, the evening shadows began to gather. 
 First they thickened in the corners of the room; 
 then spread and spread until the whole place 
 turned vague and dusky. 
 
 The first violence of his rage was spent, but 
 Radcliffe, sullen and unconquered still, kept up the 
 conflict in silent rebellion. He had not drunk his 
 milk, so neither had Claire hers. The two 
 glasses stood untouched upon her desk, where she 
 had placed them at noon. It was so still in the 
 room Claire would have thought the boy had 
 fallen asleep, worn out with his struggles, but for 
 the quick, catching breaths that, like soundless 
 sobs, escaped him every now and then. It had 
 been dark a long, long time when, suddenly, a 
 shaft of light from a just lit window opposite, 
 struck over across to them, reflecting into the
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 123 
 
 shadow, and making visible Radcliffe s little fig 
 ure cowering back in the shelter of a huge leather 
 armchair. He looked so pitifully small and ap 
 pealing, that Claire longed to gather him up in 
 her arms, but she forebore and sat still and 
 waited. 
 
 Then, at last, just as the clock of a nearby 
 church most solemnly boomed forth eight rever 
 berating strokes, a chastened little figure slid out 
 of the great chair, and groped its way slowly, 
 painfully along until it reached Claire s side. 
 
 " I will be good ! " Radcliffe whispered 
 chokingly, so low she had to bend her head to 
 hear. 
 
 Claire laid her arms about him and he clung 
 to her neck, trembling.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 IT was almost ten o clock when Claire left the 
 house. She waited to see Radcliffe properly 
 fed, and put to bed, before she went. She cov 
 ered him up, and tucked him in as, in all his life, 
 he had never been covered up, and tucked in, be 
 fore. Then, dinnerless and faint, she slipped out 
 into the bleak night. 
 
 She was too exhausted to feel triumphant over 
 her conquest. The only sensations she realized 
 were a dead weariness that hung on her spirit 
 and body like a palpable weight, and, far down 
 in her heart, something that smouldered and 
 burned like a live ember, ready to burst forth and 
 blaze at a touch. 
 
 She had walked but a block or two when, 
 through her numbness, crept a dim little shadow 
 of dread. At first it was nothing more than an 
 inner suggestion to hasten her steps, but gradu 
 ally it became a conscious impulse to outstrip 
 something or some one behind her some one or 
 something whose footfalls, resounding faintly 
 through the deserted street, kept such accurate 
 pace with her own, that they sounded like their 
 echo. 
 
 124
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 125 
 
 It was not until she had quickened her steps, 
 and found that the other s steps had quickened, 
 too, not until she had slowed down to almost a 
 saunter, only to discover that the one behind was 
 lagging also, that she acknowledged to herself she 
 was being followed. 
 
 Then, from out the far reaches of her memory, 
 came the words of Aunt Amelia s formula : " Sir, 
 you are no gentleman. If you were a gentle 
 man " But straightway followed Martha s 
 
 trenchant criticism. 
 
 " Believe me, that s rot! It might go all right 
 on the stage, for a girl to stop, an let off some 
 elercution while the villain still pursued her, but 
 here in New York City it wouldn t work. Not 
 on your life it wouldn t. Villains ain t pausin 
 these busy days, in their mad careers, for no reci 
 tation-stunts, I don t care how genteel you get em 
 off. If they re on the job, you got to step lively, 
 an not linger round for no sweet farewells. 
 Now, you got your little temper with you, all 
 right, all right ! If you also got a umbrella, why, 
 just you make a combine o the two an aim for 
 the bull s eye, though his nose will do just as 
 good, specially if it s the bleedin v riety. No ! 
 P licemen ain t what I d reckmend, for bein called 
 to the resquer. In the first place, they ain t ap to 
 be there. An , besides, they wouldn t know what 
 to do if they was. P licemen is funny that way.
 
 126 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 They mean well, but they get upset if anythin s 
 doin on their beat. They like things quiet. An 
 they don t like to run in their friends, an so, by 
 the time you think you made em understand what 
 you re drivin at, the villain has got away, an 
 you re like to be hauled up before the magistrate 
 for disturbin the peace, which, bein so shy an 
 bashful before high officials, p licemen don t like 
 to blow in at court without somethin to show for 
 the way they been workin ." 
 
 It all flashed across Claire s mind in an in 
 stant, like a picture thrown across a screen. 
 Then, without pausing to consider what she meant 
 to do, she halted, turned, and was face to face 
 with Francis Ronald. 
 
 Before he could speak, she flashed upon him 
 two angry eyes. 
 
 " What do you mean by following me? " 
 
 " It is late too late for you to be out in the 
 streets alone," he answered quietly. 
 
 Claire laughed. " You forget I m not a soci 
 ety girl. I m a girl who works for her living. I 
 can t carry a chaperon about with me wherever I 
 go. I must take care of myself, and I know 
 how to do it. I m not afraid." 
 
 " I believe you." 
 
 "Then good-night!" 
 
 " I intend to see you home." 
 
 " I don t need you."
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 127 
 
 " Nevertheless, I intend to see you home." 
 
 " I don t want you." 
 
 " Notwithstanding which " 
 
 He hailed a passing motor-taxi, gave the chauf 
 feur Martha s street and number, after he had 
 succeeded in extracting them from Claire, and 
 then, in spite of protests, helped her in. 
 
 For a long time she sat beside him in silence, 
 trying to quell in herself a weak inclination to 
 shed tears, because because he had compelled 
 her to do something against her will. 
 
 He did not attempt any conversation, and 
 when, at last, she spoke, it was of her own ac 
 cord. 
 
 " I ve decided to resign my position." 
 
 " Is it permitted me to know why? " 
 
 " I can t stay." 
 That is no explanation." 
 
 " I don t feel I can manage Radcliffe." 
 
 " Pardon me, you know you can. You have 
 proved it. He is your bond-slave, from this day 
 forward, for better for worse, for richer for 
 poorer." 
 
 Claire laughed, a sharp, cutting little laugh 
 that was like a keen knife turned on herself. 
 
 " O, it would have to be for poorer all 
 right, all right, as Martha says," she cried scorn 
 fully. " But it has been too hard to-day. I 
 can t endure any more." 
 
 " You won t have to. Radcliffe is conquered,
 
 128 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 so far as you are concerned. Twill be plain sail 
 ing, after this." 
 
 " I d rather do something else. I d like some 
 thing different." 
 
 " I did not think you were a quitter." 
 
 " I m not." 
 
 " O, yes, you are, if you give up before the 
 game is done. No good sport does that." 
 
 " I ve no ambition to be a good sport." 
 
 " Perhaps not. But you are a good sport. A 
 thorough good sport. And you won t give up till 
 you ve seen this thing through." 
 
 " Is that a prediction, or a command? It 
 sounds like a command." 
 
 " It is whatever will hold you to the business 
 you ve undertaken. I want you to conquer the 
 rest, as you ve conquered Radcliffe." 
 
 "The rest?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " What do you mean by the rest? " 
 
 " I mean circumstances. I mean obstacles. I 
 mean, my mother my sister." 
 
 " I don t understand." 
 
 " Perhaps not." 
 
 "And suppose (forgive me if I seem rude), 
 suppose I don t consider the rest worth conquer 
 ing? Why should I? What one has to strive 
 so for " 
 
 " Is worth the most. One has to strive for
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 129 
 
 everything in this world, everything that is really 
 worth while. One has to strive to get it, one has 
 to strive to keep it." 
 
 " Well, I don t think I care very much to-night, 
 if I never get anything ever again in all my life 
 to come." 
 
 "Poor little tired girl!" 
 
 Claire s chin went up with a jerk. " I don t 
 need your pity, I won t have it. I am a stranger 
 to you and to your friends. I am " The de 
 fiant chin began to quiver. 
 
 " If you were not so tired," Francis Ronald 
 said gravely, " I d have this thing out with you, 
 here and now. I d make you tell me why you so 
 wilfully misunderstand. Why you seem to take 
 pleasure in saying things that are meant to hurt 
 me, and must hurt you. As it is " 
 
 Claire turned on him impetuously. " I don t 
 ask you to make allowances for me. If I do 
 what displeases you, I give you perfect liberty to 
 find fault. I m not too tired to listen. But as to 
 your making me do or say anything I don t choose, 
 why " 
 
 He shook his head. " I m afraid you are a 
 hopeless proposition, at least for the present. 
 Perhaps, some time I may be able to make you 
 
 understand Forgive me! I should say, 
 
 perhaps, some time you may be willing to under 
 stand."
 
 130 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Their chauffeur drew up beside the curbstone 
 in front of Martha s door, then sprang down 
 from his seat to prove to his lordly-looking 
 " fare " that he knew his business, and was de 
 serving of as large a tip as a correct estimate of 
 his merit might suggest. 
 
 Francis Ronald took Claire s key from her, fit 
 ted it into the lock of the outer door, and opened 
 it for her. 
 
 " And you will stand by Radcliffe? You won t 
 desert him? " he asked, as she was about to pass 
 into the house. 
 
 " I ll show you that, at least, I m not a quitter, 
 even if I am a hopeless proposition, as you say." 
 
 A faint shadow of a smile flitted across his 
 face as, with head held proudly erect, she turned 
 and left him. 
 
 " No, you re not a quitter," he muttered to him 
 self, " but neither am I ! " 
 
 The determined set of his jaw would have re 
 kindled that inner rebellious fire in Claire, if she 
 had seen it. But she was seeing nothing just at 
 that moment, save Martha, who, to her amaze 
 ment, stood ready to receive her in the inner hall. 
 
 " Ain t it just grand? " inquired Mrs. Slawson. 
 " They told me yesterday, all things bein equal, 
 they d maybe leave us back soon, but I didn t put 
 no stock in it, knowin they never is equal. So I 
 just held me tongue an waited, an this mornin ,
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 131 
 
 like a bolster outer a blue sky, come the word that 
 at noon we could go. Believe me, I didn t wait 
 for no old shoes or rice to be threw after me. I 
 got into their old amberlance-carriage, as happy 
 as a blushin bride bein led to the halter, an 
 Francie an me come away reji cin . Say, but 
 what ails you? You look sorter sorter like a 
 strained relation or somethin . What you been 
 doin to yourself to get so white an holler-eyed? 
 What kep you so late? " 
 
 " I had a tussle with Radcliffe." 
 
 "Who won out?" 
 
 " I did, but it took me all day." 
 
 " Never mind. It d been cheap at the price, if 
 it had a took you all week. How come the 
 madam to give you a free hand? " 
 
 " She was away." 
 
 " Anybody else know what was goin on? Any 
 of the fam ly? " 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Ronald. He brought me home. I 
 didn t want him to, but he did. He just made me 
 let him, and O, Martha I can t bear I can t 
 bear " 
 
 You mean you can t bear him? " 
 
 Claire nodded, choking back her tears. 
 
 " Now, what do you think o that! " ejaculated 
 Mrs. Slawson pensively. " An he so pop lar 
 with the ladies! Why, you d oughter hear them 
 stylish lady-friends o Mrs. Sherman praisin m
 
 132 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 to her face. It d make you blush for their mod 
 esty, which they don t seem to have none, an 
 that s a fac . You can take it from me, you re the 
 only one he ever come in contract with, has 
 such a hate on m. I wouldn t a believed it, 
 unless I d a had it from off of your own 
 lips. But there s no use tryin to argue such 
 things. Taste is different. What pleases one, 
 pizens another. In the mean time an it 
 is a mean time for you, you poor, wore- 
 out child I ve some things here, hot an tasty, 
 that ll encourage your stummick, no matter how 
 it s turned on some other things. As I says to 
 Sammy, it s a poor stummick won t warm its own 
 bit, but all the same, there s times when some- 
 thin steamin does your heart as much good as it 
 does your stummick, which, the two o them bein 
 such near neighbors, no wonder we get em mixed 
 up sometimes, an think the one is starved when 
 it s only the other."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 IT proved altogether easier for Martha, now 
 Francie was at home again. 
 
 " You see, I can tend her an sandwich in some 
 work besides," Mrs. Slawson explained cheer 
 fully. " An Ma s a whizz at settin by bedsides 
 helpin patients get up their appetites. Says she, 
 * Now drink this nice glass o egg-nog, Francie, 
 me child, she says. An if you ll drink it, I ll 
 take one just like it meself. An true for you, 
 she does. The goodness o Ma is astonishin ." 
 
 Then one day Sam Slawson came home with a 
 tragic face. 
 
 " I ve lost my job, Martha ! " he stated baldly. 
 
 For a moment his wife stood silent under the 
 blow, and all it entailed. Then, with an almost 
 imperceptible squaring of her broad shoulders, 
 she braced herself to meet it, as she herself would 
 say, like a soldier. " Well, it s kinder hard on 
 you, lad," she answered. " But there s no use 
 grievin . If it had to happen, it couldn t a hap 
 pened at a better time, for you bein home, an 
 able to look after Francie, will give me a chance 
 to go out reg lar to my work again. An before 
 
 133
 
 134 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 you know it, Francie, she ll be running about as 
 good as new, an you ll have another job, an we ll 
 be on the top o the wave. Here s Miss Claire, 
 bless her, payin me seven dollars a week board, 
 which she doesn t eat no more than a bird, an 
 Sammy singin in the surplus choir, an gettin 
 fifty cents a week for it, an extra for funer ls (it d 
 take your time to hear m lamentin because busi 
 ness ain t brisker in the funer l line!). Why, we 
 ain t no call to be discouraged. You can take 
 it from me, Sammy Slawson, when things seem 
 to be kinder shuttin down on ye, an gettin black- 
 like, same s they lately been doin on us, that ain t 
 no time to be chicken-hearted. Anybody could 
 fall down when they re knocked. That s too 
 dead-easy! No, what we want, is buck up an 
 have some style about us. When things shuts 
 down an gets dark at the movin -picture show, 
 then it s time to sit up an take notice. That 
 means somethin s doin you re goin to be 
 showed somethin interestin . Well, it s the same 
 with us. But if you lose your sand at the first go 
 off, an sag down an hide your face in your hands, 
 well, you ll miss the show. You won t see a 
 bloomin thing." 
 
 And Martha, sleeves rolled up, enveloped in 
 an enormous blue-checked apron, returned to 
 her assault on the dough she was kneading, with 
 redoubled zeal.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 135 
 
 "Bread, mother?" asked Sam dully, letting 
 himself down wearily into a chair by the drop- 
 table, staring indifferently before him out of 
 blank eyes. 
 
 " Shoor! An I put some currants in, to please 
 the little fella. I give in, my bread is what you 
 might call a holy terror. Ain t it the caution how 
 I can t ever make bread fit to be eat, the best I 
 can do? An yet, I can t quit tryin . You see, 
 home-made bread, if it s good, is cheaper than 
 store. Perhaps some day I ll be hittin it right, 
 so s when you ask me for bread I won t be givin 
 you a stone." 
 
 She broke off abruptly, gazed a moment at her 
 husband, then stepped to his side, and put a floury 
 hand on his shoulder. " Say, Sam, what you 
 lookin so for? You ain t lost your sand just be 
 cause they fired you? What s come to you, lad? 
 Tell Martha." 
 
 For a second there was no sound in the room, 
 then the man looked up, gulped, choked down a 
 mighty sob, and laid his head against her breast. 
 
 " Martha there s somethin wrong with my 
 lung. That s why they thrown me down. They 
 had their doctor from the main office examine me 
 they d noticed me coughin and he said I d a 
 spot on my lung or something. I shouldn t stay 
 here in the city, he said. I must go up in the 
 mountains, away from this, where there s the
 
 136 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 good air and a chance for my lung to heal, other 
 wise " 
 
 Martha stroked the damp hair away from his 
 temples with her powdery hand. 
 
 "Well, well!" she said reflectively. "Now, 
 what do you think o that! " 
 
 " O, Martha I can t stand it ! You an the 
 children! It s more than I can bear! " 
 
 Mrs. Slawson gave the head against her breast 
 a final pat that, to another than her husband, 
 might have felt like a blow. 
 
 " More n you can bear? Don t flatter your 
 self, Sammy my lad! Not by no means it ain t. 
 I wouldn t like to have to stand up to all I could 
 ackchelly bear. It s God, not us, knows how 
 much we can stand, an when He gets in the good 
 licks on us, He always leaves us with a little 
 stren th to spare to last over for the next time. 
 Now, I m not a bit broke down by what you ve 
 told me. I s pose you thought you d have me 
 sobbin on your shoulder to give you a chanct 
 to play up, an do the strong-husband act, com- 
 fortin his little tremblin wife. Well, my lad, if 
 you ain t got on to it by now, that I m no little, 
 tremblin wife, you never will. Those kind 
 has nerves. I only got nerve. That s where I m 
 singular, see? A joke, Sammy! I made it up 
 myself. Out of my own head, just now. But to 
 go back to what I was sayin why should I sob
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 137 
 
 on your shoulder? There ain t no reason for t. 
 In the first place, even if you have got a spot on 
 your lung, what s a spot! It ain t the whole 
 lung! An one lung ain t both lungs, an there 
 you are! As I make it out, even grantin the 
 worst, you re a lung-an -then-some to the good, so 
 where s the use gettin blue? There s always a 
 way out, somehow. If we can t do one way, we ll 
 do another. Now you just cheer up, an don t let 
 Ma an the childern see you kinder got a knock- 
 outer in the solar plexus, like Jeffries, an before 
 you know it, there ll be a suddent turn, an we ll 
 be atop o our worries, stead o their bein atop 
 o us. See ! Say, just you cast your eye on them 
 loaves! Ain t they grand? Appearances may 
 be deceitful, but if I do say it as shouldn t, my 
 bread certainly looks elegant this time. Now, 
 Sammy, get busy like a good fella ! Go in an 
 amuse Francie. The poor child is perishin for 
 somethin to distrack her. What with Cora an 
 Sammy at school, an Miss Claire havin the Sher 
 mans so bewitched, they keep her there all day, 
 an lucky for us if they leave her come home 
 nights at all, the house is too still for a sick 
 person. Give Francie a drink o Hygee water 
 to cool her lips, an tell her a yarn-like. An , 
 Sammy, I wisht you d be good to yourself, an 
 have a shave. Them prickles o beard reminds 
 me o the insides o Mrs. Sherman s big music-
 
 138 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 box. I wonder what tune you d play if I run your 
 chin in. Go on, now, an attend to Francie, like 
 I told you to. She needs to have her mind took 
 off n herself." 
 
 When he was gone, Martha set her loaves aside 
 under cover to rise, never pausing a moment to 
 take breath, before giving the kitchen a " scrub- 
 down " that left no corner or cranny harboring a 
 particle of dust. It was twilight when she fin 
 ished, and " time to turn to an get the dinner." 
 
 Cora and Sammy had long since returned from 
 school. Sammy had gone out again to play, and 
 had just come back to find his mother taking her 
 bread-pans from the oven. She regarded them 
 with doleful gaze. 
 
 " I fairly broke my own record this time for a 
 bum bread-maker!" she muttered beneath her 
 breath. " This batch is the worst yet." 
 
 "Say mother!" said Sammy. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Say, mother, may I have a slice of bread? 
 I m awfully hungry." 
 
 " Shoor you may! This here s just fresh from 
 the oven, an it has currants in it." 
 
 " Say, mother, a feller I play with, Joe Eagan, 
 his mother s hands ain t clean. Would you think 
 he d like to eat the bread she makes? " 
 
 " Can she make good bread? " 
 
 " I dunno. She give me a piece oncet, but I
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 139 
 
 couldn t eat it, count o seein her fingers. I m 
 glad your hands are so clean, mother. Say, this 
 bread tastes awful good!" 
 
 Martha chuckled. " Well, I m glad you like 
 it. It might be worse, if I do say it! Only," she 
 added to herself, " it d have a tough time man- 
 agin it." 
 
 " Say, mother, may I have another slice with 
 butter on, an sugar sprinkled on top, like this is, 
 to give it to Joe Eagan? He s downstairs. I 
 want to show him how my mother can make the 
 boss bread! " 
 
 " Certainly," said Martha heartily. " By all 
 means, give Joe Eagan a slice. I like to see you 
 thoughtful an generous, my son. Willin to 
 share your good things with your friends," and 
 as Sammy bounded out, clutching his treasures, 
 she winked solemnly across at her husband, who 
 had just re-entered. 
 
 " Now do you know what ll happen? " she in 
 quired. " Sammy ll always have the notion I 
 make the best bread ever. An when he grows up 
 an marries, if his wife is a chef-cook straight out 
 of the tonicst kitchen in town, at fifty dollars a 
 month, he ll tell her she ain t a patch on me. An 
 he ll say to her: Susan, or whatever-her-name-is, 
 them biscuits is all right in their way, but I wisht 
 I had a mouthful o bread like mother used to 
 make. An the poor creature ll wear the life out
 
 I 4 o MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 o her, tryin to please m, an reach my top-notch, 
 
 an never succeed, an all the time Say, 
 
 Sammy, gather up the rest o the stuff, like a good 
 fella, an shove it onto the dumb-waiter, so s it 
 
 can go down with the sw There s the 
 
 whistle now! That s him callin for the 
 garbage."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 "TTULLO, Martha!" said Radcliffe. 
 
 XTl Mrs. Slawson bowed profoundly. 
 "Hullo yourself! I ain t had the pleasure of 
 meetin you for quite some time past, an yet I 
 notice my absents ain t made no serious altera 
 tion for the worst in your appearance. You 
 ain t fell away none, on account of my not bein 
 here." 
 
 " Fell away from what? " asked Radcliffe. 
 
 " Fell away from nothin . That s what they 
 call a figger o speech. Means you ain t got 
 thin." 
 
 " Well, you ve got thin, haven t you, Martha? 
 I don t member your cheeks had those two long 
 lines in em before." 
 
 " Lines? " repeated Martha, regarding herself 
 in the mirror of an etagere she was polishing. 
 " Them ain t lines. Them s dimples." 
 
 Radcliffe scrutinized her critically for a mo 
 ment. " They re not like Miss Lang s dimples," 
 he observed at last. " Miss Lang s dimples look 
 like when you blow in your milk to cool it they re 
 there, an then they ain t there. She vanishes 
 
 141
 
 142 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 em in, an she vanishes em out, but those lines 
 in your face, they just stay. Only they weren t 
 there before, when you were here." 
 
 " The secret is, my dimples is the kind that 
 takes longer to vanish em out when you once 
 vanished em in. Mine s way-train dimples. 
 Miss Lang s is express. But you can take it from 
 me, dimples is faskinatin , whatever specie they 
 are." 
 
 " What s faskinatin ?" 
 
 " It s the thing in some things that, when it 
 ain t in other things, you don t care a thing about 
 em." 
 
 " Are you faskinatin ? " 
 
 " That s not for me to say," said Martha, 
 feigning coyness. " But this much I will confess, 
 that some folks which shall be nameless, considers 
 me so. An they d oughter know." 
 
 " Is Miss Lang faskinatin ? " 
 
 " Ask your Uncle Frank." 
 
 "Why must I ask him?" 
 
 " If you wanter know." 
 
 "Does he know?" 
 
 " Prob ly. He s a very well-informed gen l - 
 man on most subjecks." 
 
 " I do want to ask my Uncle Frank anything 
 about Miss Lang. Once I asked him somethin 
 about her, an he didn t like it." 
 
 "What dyouaskhim?"
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 143 
 
 " I asked him if she wasn t his best girl." 
 
 "What d he say?" 
 
 " He said No ! quick, just like that No! 
 I guess he was cross with me, an I know he didn t 
 like it. When I asked my mother why he didn t 
 like it, she said because Miss Lang s only my gov 
 erness. An when I told Miss Lang what my 
 mother, she told me, Miss Lang, she didn t like it 
 either." 
 
 " Now, what do you think o that? " ejaculated 
 Martha. " Nobody didn t seem to like nothin 
 in that combination, did they? You was the 
 only one in the whole outfit that showed any 
 tack." 
 
 " What means that tack? " 
 
 " It s a little thing that you use when you want 
 to keep things in place keep em from fallin 
 down. There s two kinds. One you must ham 
 mer in, an the other you mustn t." 
 
 " I wisht Miss Lang was my Uncle Frank s 
 best girl. But I guess she s somebody else s." 
 
 "Eh?" said Martha sharply, sitting back on 
 her heels and twisting her polishing-cloth into a 
 rope, as if she were wringing it out. " Now, 
 whose best girl do you think she is, if I may make 
 so bold?" 
 
 Radcliffe settled down to business. 
 
 Yesterday Miss Lang an me was comin 
 home from the Tippydrome, an my mother she
 
 144 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 had comp ny in the drawin -room. An I didn t 
 know there was comp ny first-off, coz Shaw he 
 didn t tell us, an I guess I talked kinder loud 
 in the hall, an my mother she heard me, an she 
 wasn t cross or anythin , she just called to me to 
 come along in, an see the comp ny. An I said, 
 No, I won t! Not less Miss Lang comes too. 
 An my mother, she said, Miss Lang, come too. 
 An Miss Lang, she didn t wanter, but she hadter. 
 An the comp ny was a gen l man an a lady, an 
 the minit the gen l man, he saw Miss Lang, he 
 jumped up outer his chair like a jumpin -jack, an 
 his eyes got all kinder sparkly, an he held out 
 both of his hands to her, an sorter shook her 
 hands, till you d think he d shake em off. An 
 my mother, she said, I see you an Miss Lang 
 are already quainted, Mr. Van Brandt. An he 
 laughed a lot, the way you do when you re just 
 tickled to death, an he said, Quainted? Well, 
 I should say so ! Miss Lang an I are old, old 
 friends ! An he kep lookin at her, an lookin 
 at her, the way you feel when there s somethin 
 on the table you like, an you re fearful fraid it 
 will be gone before it s passed to you. An my 
 mother she said to the other comp ny, Miss Pel- 
 ham, this is Radcliffe. An Miss Pelham, she was 
 lookin sideways at Miss Lang an Mr. What s- 
 his-name, but she pertended she was lookin 
 at me, an she said (she s a Smarty-Smarty-gave-
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 145 
 
 a-party, Miss Pelham is), she said, Radcliffe, 
 Radcliffe? I wonder if you re any relation to 
 Radcliffe College? An I said, No. I won 
 der if you are any relation to Pelham Manor? 
 An while they was laughin , an my mother she 
 was tellin how percoshus I am, my Uncle Frank 
 he came in. He came in kinder quiet, like he al 
 ways does, an he stood in the door, an Mr. 
 What s-his-name was talkin to Miss Lang so fast, 
 an lookin at her so hard, they didn t neither of 
 em notice. An when my Uncle Frank, he no 
 ticed they didn t notice, coz they was havin such 
 fun by themselves, he put his mouth together like 
 this like when your tooth hurts, an you bite on 
 it to make it hurt some more, an then he talked 
 a lot to Miss Pelham, an didn t smile pleasant 
 an happy at Mr. What s-his-name an Miss Lang, 
 when my mother, she interdooced em. An soon 
 Miss Lang, she took me upstairs an she didn t 
 look near so tickled to death as Mr. Van Brandt, 
 he looked. An when I asked her if she wasn t, 
 she said: O course I am. Mr. Van Brandt 
 was a friend o mine when I was a little girl. An 
 when you re a stranger in a strange land, any 
 body you knew when you was at home seems dear 
 to you. But she didn t look near so pleased 
 as he did. She looked more like my Uncle Frank, 
 he did before he got talkin so much to Miss Pel- 
 ham. An now I guess the way of it is, Miss
 
 146 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Pelham s my Uncle Frank s best girl an Miss 
 Lang s Mr. What s-his-name s." 
 
 "Well, now! Who d believed you could a 
 seen so much? Why, you re a reg ler Old Sleuth 
 the Detective, or Sherlock Holmes, or somebody 
 like that, for discoverin things, ain t you? " 
 
 " I don t want Miss Pelham to be my Uncle 
 Frank s best girl, an I don t see why that other 
 man he don t have her for his, like she was first-off, 
 an leave my Miss Lang alone." 
 
 " It all is certainly very dark an mysterious," 
 said Mrs. Slawson, shaking her head. " You 
 don t know where you re at, at all. Like when 
 you wake up in the black night, an hear the clock 
 give one strike. You couldn t tell, if your life 
 hung in the ballast, if it s half-past twelve, or one, 
 or half-past." 
 
 Radcliffe pondered this for a space, but was 
 evidently unable to fathom its depth, for presently 
 he let it go with a sigh, and swung off to another 
 topic. 
 
 " Say, do you know our cook, Liza the one 
 we uster have has gone away? " 
 
 " So I gathered from not havin saw her fairy- 
 figger hoverin round the kitchen as I come in, 
 an meetin another lady in her place name of 
 Augusta, Beetrice said." 
 
 "Yes, sir! Augusta s the new one. I guess 
 Augusta don t drink."
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 147 
 
 "Which, you are suggesting Liza does?" 
 
 " Well, my mother, she don t know I know, but 
 I do. I heard Shaw tellin bout it. It was 
 Liza s day out, an she went an got toxicated, 
 an a p liceman he took her up, an nex mornin 
 my Uncle Frank, they sent to him out of the sta 
 tion-house to have him bail her out." 
 
 " My, my ! She was as full as that? " 
 
 " What s bail her out? " inquired Radcliffe. 
 
 Mrs. Slawson considered. " When a boat gets 
 full of water, because o leakin sides or heavy 
 rains or shippin seas, or whatever they calls it, 
 you bail her out with a tin can or a sponge or 
 anythin you have by you." 
 
 "Was Liza full of water? " 
 
 " I was describin boats," said Martha. " An 
 talkin o boats, did I tell you we got a new kitten 
 to our house? He s a gray Maltee. His name 
 is Nixcomeraus." 
 
 " Why is his name Nix why is his name 
 that? " 
 
 " Nixcomeraus? His name s Nixcomeraus be 
 cause he s from the Dutchman s house. If you 
 listen good, you ll see that s poetry 
 
 " Nixcomeraus from the Dutchman s house ! 
 
 " I didn t make it up, but it s poetry all the 
 same. A Dutchman gen l man who lives nex 
 door to me, made him a present to our fam ly."
 
 148 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 "Do you like him?" 
 
 " The Dutchman genTman? " 
 
 " No, the the Nix the cat?" 
 
 " Certaintly we like him. He s a decent, self- 
 respectin little fella that tends to his own busi 
 ness, an keeps good hours. An you d oughter 
 see how grand him an Flicker gets along! Talk 
 o a cat-and-dog existence ! Why, if all the mar 
 ried parties I know, not to speak o some others 
 that ain t, hit it off as good as Flicker an Nix- 
 comeraus, there wouldn t be no occasion for so 
 many ladies takin the rest-cure at Reno." 
 
 "What s Reno?" 
 
 "Reno? Why, Reno s short for merino. 
 Like I d say, Nix for Nixcomeraus, which is a 
 kinder woolen goods you make dresses out of. 
 There! Did you hear the schoolroom bell? I 
 thought I heard it ringin a while ago, but I wasn t 
 sure. Hurry now, an don t keep Miss Lang 
 waitin . She wants you to come straight along 
 up, so s she can learn you to be a big an hand 
 some gen l man like your Uncle Frank." 
 
 When Radcliffe had left her, Martha went over 
 in her mind the items he had guilelessly con 
 tributed to her general fund of information. Take 
 it all in all, she was not displeased with what 
 they seemed to indicate. 
 
 " Confidence is a good thing to have, but a little 
 wholesome doubt don t hurt the masculine gender
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 149 
 
 none. I guess, if I was put to it, I could count 
 on one hand with no fingers, the number o gen l - 
 men, no matter how plain, have died because way 
 down in their hearts they believed they wasn t reel 
 A-i Winners. That s one thing it takes a lot o 
 hard usage to convince the sect of. They may 
 feel they ain t gettin their doos, that they re mis 
 understood, an bein sold below cost. But that 
 they re ackchelly shopworn, or what s called 
 seconds, or put on the As Is counter because 
 they re cracked, or broke, or otherwise slightly 
 disfigured, but still in the ring why, that never 
 seems to percolate through their brains, like those 
 coffee-pots they use nowadays, that don t make 
 no better coffee than the old kind, if you know 
 how to do it good, in the first place. 
 
 "On the other hand, ladies is dretful tryin ! 
 They act like they re the discoverers of perpetchal 
 emotion, an is on the job demonstratin . You 
 can t count on em for one minit to the next, 
 which they certaintly was never born to be aro 
 matic cash-registers. An p raps that s the rea 
 son, bein natchelly so poor at figgers, they got to 
 rely to such a extent on corsets. I m all for 
 women myself. I believe they re the comin man, 
 but I must confess, if I m to speak the truth, it 
 ain t for the simple, uninfected, childlike mind o 
 the male persuasion to foller their figaries, unless 
 he s some of a trained acrobat.
 
 150 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Now, the harsh way Miss Claire has toward 
 Mr. Ronald! You d think he had give himself 
 dead away to her, an was down on his knee-pans 
 humble as a Piscerpalian sayin the Literny in 
 Lent, grubbin about among the dust she treads 
 on, to touch the hem o her garment. Whereas, 
 in some way unbeknownst to me, an prob ly un 
 beknownst to him, he s touched her pride, which 
 is why she s so up in arms, not meanin his 
 worse luck! An it would have all worked out 
 right in the end, an will yet, / / this new party 
 that Radcliffe mentioned ain t Mr. Buttinsky, an 
 she don t foller the dictates of her art an flirt 
 with him too outrageous, or else marry him to 
 spite herself, which is what I mean to pervent if 
 I can, but which, of course, it may be I can t."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 1T>RANK," said Mrs. Sherman one Sunday 
 
 J7 morning, some weeks later, stopping her 
 brother on his way to the door, " can you spare 
 me a few moments? I ve something very im 
 portant I want to discuss with you. I want you 
 to help me with suggestions and advice in a mat 
 ter that very closely concerns some one in whom 
 I m greatly interested." 
 
 Mr. Ronald paused. "Meaning?" he sug 
 gested. 
 
 " I don t know that I ought to tell you. You 
 see, it s it s confidential." 
 
 " Suggestions and advice are foolish things to 
 give, Catherine. They are seldom taken, never 
 thanked for." 
 
 " Well, in this case mine have been actually 
 solicited. And I feel I ought to do something, 
 because, in a way, I m more or less responsible 
 for the the imbroglio." 
 
 Slipping her hand through his arm, she led him 
 back into the library. 
 
 " You see, it s this way. Perhaps, after all, 
 it will be better, simpler, if I don t try to beat 
 about the bush. Amy Pelham has been terribly
 
 152 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 devoted to Mr. Van Brandt for ever so long oh, 
 quite six months. And he has been rather at 
 tentive, though I can t say he struck me as very 
 much in love. You know she asked me out to 
 Tuxedo not long ago. She wanted me to watch 
 him and tell her if I thought he was serious. Well, 
 I watched him, but I couldn t say I thought he 
 was serious. However, you never can tell. 
 Men are so extraordinary! They sometimes 
 masquerade so, their own mothers wouldn t know 
 them." 
 
 " Or their sisters." 
 
 "What did you say?" 
 
 " Nothing worth repeating. Go on with your 
 story." 
 
 " Well, then, one evening she brought him here, 
 you remember. I d asked him to come, when I 
 was in Tuxedo, and he evidently wanted to do so, 
 for he proposed to Amy that she bring him. Of 
 course, I d no idea he and Miss Lang had ever 
 met before, and when I innocently ordered her in, 
 I did it simply because Radcliffe was refractory 
 and refused to come without her, and I couldn t 
 have a scene before guests." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " I didn t know Mr. Van Brandt came from 
 Grand Rapids. How should I? One never thinks 
 of those little, provincial towns as having any 
 society."
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 153 
 
 " You dear insular, insolent New Yorker." 
 
 " Well, you may jeer as much as you like, but 
 that s the way one feels. I didn t know that, as 
 Martha says, he was formerly born in Michi 
 gan. I just took him for granted, as one does 
 people one meets in our best houses. He s evi 
 dently of good stock, he has money (not a for 
 tune, perhaps, but enough), he s handsome, and 
 he s seen everywhere with the smartest people in 
 town." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Well, naturally Amy doesn t want to lose 
 him, especially as she s really awfully fond of 
 him and he is uncommonly attractive, you know." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " It looks as if that one glimpse of Miss Lang 
 had been enough to upset everything for Amy. 
 He s hardly been there since." 
 
 " And what does she propose to do about 
 it?" 
 
 " She doesn t know what to do about it. That s 
 where my suggestions and advice are to come in." 
 
 " I see." 
 
 " Of course, we can t be certain, but from what 
 Bob Van Brandt has dropped and from what Amy 
 has been able to gather from other sources, from 
 people who knew Miss Lang and him in their na 
 tive burg, he was attached to her when she was no 
 more than a kiddie. Then, when they grew up,
 
 154 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 he came East and she went abroad, and they lost 
 sight of each other. But, as I say, that one 
 glimpse of her was enough to ignite the old flame. 
 You must have seen yourself how frankly, openly 
 he showed his feeling that night." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " What is one to do about it? " 
 
 u Do about what?" 
 
 "Why the whole thing! Don t you see, I m 
 responsible in a way. If I hadn t called Miss 
 Lang in, Bob Van Brandt wouldn t have known 
 she was here, and then he would have kept on 
 with Amy. Now he s dropped her it s up to me 
 to make it up to her somehow." 
 
 " It s up to you to make what up to Amy? " 
 
 " How dense you are! Why, the loss of Bob 
 Van Brandt." 
 
 " But if she didn t have him, how could she lose 
 him?" 
 
 " She didn t exactly have him, but she had a 
 fighting chance." 
 
 " And she wants to fight? " 
 
 " I think she d be willing to fight, if she saw 
 her way to winning out." 
 
 Winning out against Miss Lang?" 
 
 " Yes, if you want to put it so brutally." 
 
 " I see you are assuming that Miss Lang is 
 keen about Van Brandt." 
 
 " Would you wonder if she were ? It would be
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 155 
 
 her salvation. Of course, I don t feel about her 
 any longer as I did once. I know now she s a 
 lady, but the fact of her poverty remains. If she 
 married Bob Van Brandt, she d be comfortably 
 settled. She d have ease and position and, 
 oh, of course she ll marry him if he asks 
 her." 
 
 " So the whole thing resolves itself down 
 
 to " 
 
 To this if one could only devise a way to 
 prevent his asking her." 
 
 " Am I mistaken, or did I hear you say some 
 thing about putting it brutally, a few moments 
 ago." 
 
 " Well, I know it sounds rather horrid, but a 
 desperate case needs desperate medicine." 
 
 " Catherine, you have asked for suggestions 
 and advice. My suggestion to Miss Pelham is 
 that she gracefully step down and out. My ad 
 vice to you is that you resist the temptation to 
 meddle. If Mr. Van Brandt wishes to ask Miss 
 Lang to marry him, he has a man s right to do so. 
 If Miss Lang wishes to marry Mr. Van Brandt 
 after he has asked her, she has a woman s right 
 to do so. Any interference whatsoever would 
 be intolerable. You can take my advice or leave 
 it. But if you leave it, if you attempt to mix in, 
 you will regret it, for you will not be honorably 
 playing the game."
 
 156 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Mrs. Sherman s lips tightened. " That s all 
 very well," she broke out impatiently. " That s 
 the sort of advice men always give to women, and 
 never act on themselves. It s not the masculine 
 way to sit calmly by and let another carry oft 
 what one wants. If a man cares, he fights for 
 his rights. It s only when he isn t interested that 
 he s passive and speaks of honorably playing the 
 game. All s fair in love and war! If you were 
 in Amy s place if the cases were reversed and 
 you saw something you d set your heart on being 
 deliberately taken away from you, I fancy you 
 wouldn t gracefully step down and out. At least 
 I don t see you doing it, in my mind s eye, 
 Horatio ! " 
 
 " Ah, but you miss the point! There s a great 
 difference between claiming one s own and 
 struggling to get possession of something that is 
 lawfully another s. If I were in Miss Pelham s 
 place, and were sure the one I loved belonged to 
 me by divine right, I d have her I d have her in 
 spite of the devil and all his works. But the thing 
 would be to be sure. And one couldn t be sure so 
 long as another claimant hadn t had his chance to 
 be thrown down. When he d had his chance, and 
 the decks were cleared then ! " 
 
 "Goodness, Frank! I d no idea you could be 
 so intense. And I ll confess I ve never given you 
 credit for so much imagination. You ve been
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 157 
 
 talking of what you d do in Amy s place quite as if 
 you actually felt it. Your performance of the 
 determined lover is really most convincing." 
 
 Francis Ronald smiled. " A man who s suc 
 ceeded in convincing a woman has not lived in 
 vain," he said. " Well, I must be off, Catherine. 
 Good luck to you and to Miss Pelham but bad 
 luck if either of you dares stick her mischievous 
 finger in other people s pies." 
 
 He strode out of the room and the house. 
 
 Meanwhile, Martha, industriously engaged in 
 brushing Miss Lang s hair, was gradually, del 
 icately feeling her way toward what was, in 
 reality, the same subject. 
 
 " Well, of course, you can have Cora if you 
 want her. She ll be only too glad o the ride, 
 but do you think now do you reelly think it s ad 
 visable to lug a third party along when it s clear as 
 dish-water he wants you alone by himself an your- 
 self? It s this way with men. If they set out 
 to do a thing, they gener ly do it. But believe 
 me, if you put impederments in their way, they ll 
 shoor do it, an then some. Now all them 
 flowers an candy that s been comin here lately so 
 reg ler, they means business on Mr. Van Brandt s 
 part if pleasure on yours. He s strewin your 
 path with roses an pavin it with Huyler s 
 chocolates, so s some day in the near future he 
 can come marchin along it, an walk straight up
 
 158 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 to the captain s office an hand in his applercation 
 for the vacancy. Now, the question is as plain 
 as the nose on your face. Do you want him to 
 do it first or do you want him to do it last? It s 
 up to you to decide the time, but you can betcher 
 life it s goin to be some time, Cora or no Cora, 
 ohne oder mit as our Dutch friend acrost the hall 
 says." 
 
 Claire s reflection in the mirror she sat facing, 
 showed a pair of sadly troubled eyes. 
 
 " O, it s very puzzling, Martha," she said. 
 " Somehow, life seems all topsy-turvy to me 
 lately. So many things going wrong, so few 
 right." 
 
 " Now what, if I may make so bold, is wrong 
 with your gettin a first-class offer from a well- 
 off, good-lookin gen l man-friend, that s been 
 keepin comp ny with you, off an on, as you might 
 say, ever since you was a child, which shows that 
 his heart s in the right place an his intentions is 
 honorable. You know, you mustn t let the per- 
 cession get by you. Life s like standin on the 
 curbstone watching the parade at least, that s 
 how it seems to young folks. They hear the mu 
 sic an they see the banners an the floats an they 
 think it s goin to be a continuous performance. 
 After a while they ve got so used to the band 
 a-playin an the flags a-wavin that it gets to be an 
 old story, an they think that s what it ll be right
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 159 
 
 along, so they don t trouble to keep their eye 
 peeled for the fella with the water-can, which he 
 asked em to watch out for him. No, they argue 
 he s good enough in his way, but Think o the 
 fella with the drum ! Or even, it might be, who 
 knows? the grand one with his mother s big 
 black muff on his head, doin stunts with his 
 grandfather s gold-topped club, his grandpa 
 havin been a p liceman with a pull in the ward. 
 An while they stand a-waitin for all the grandjer 
 they re expectin , suddenly it all goes past, an 
 they don t see nothin but p raps a milk-wagon 
 bringin up the rear, an the ashfalt all strewed 
 with rag-tag-an -bobtail, an there s nothin doin 
 in their direction, except turn around an go home. 
 Now, what s the matter with Mr. Van Brandt? 
 If you marry him you ll be all to the good. No 
 worry about the rent, no pinchin here an plottin 
 there to keep the bills down. No goin out by the 
 day, rain or shine, traipsin the street on your 
 two feet when you re so dead tired you could 
 lay down an let the rest walk over you. Why, 
 lookin at it from any standpoint-of-view I can t 
 see but it s a grand oppertoonity. An you re 
 fond of him, ain t you? " 
 
 " O, yes, I m very fond of Mr. Van Brandt. 
 But I m fond of him as a friend. I couldn t 
 couldn t couldn t ever marry him." 
 
 "What for you couldn t? It ain t as if you
 
 160 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 liked some other fella better! If you liked some 
 other fella better, no matter how little you might 
 think you d ever get the refusal of m, I d say, 
 stick to the reel article: don t be put of with sub- 
 stitoots. It ain t no use tryin to fool your heart. 
 You can monkey with your brain, an make it 
 believe all sorts of tommyrot, but your heart is 
 dead on to you, an when it once sets in hankerin 
 it means business." 
 
 Claire nodded unseeingly to her own reflection 
 in the glass. 
 
 " Now my idea is," Martha continued, " my 
 idea is, if you got somethin loomin , why, don t 
 hide your face an play it isn t there. There ain t 
 no use standin on the ragged edge till every 
 tooth in your head chatters with cold an fright. 
 You don t make nothin by it. If you love a man 
 like a friend or if you love a friend like a man, 
 my advice is, take your seat in the chair, grip 
 a-holt o the arms, brace your feet, an let er 
 go, Gallagher ! It ll be over in a minit, as the 
 dentists say." 
 
 " But suppose you had something else on your 
 heart. Something that had nothing to do with 
 with that sort of thing? " Claire asked. 
 
 " What sorter thing? " 
 
 " Why love. Suppose you d done something 
 unworthy of you. Suppose the sense of having 
 done it made you wretched, made you want to
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 161 
 
 make others wretched? What would you do 
 then?" 
 
 " Now, my dear, don t you make no mistake. 
 I ain t goin to be drew into no blindman s grab- 
 bag little game, not on your sweet life. I ain ter 
 goin to risk havin you hate me all the rest o 
 your nacherl life becoz, to be obligin an also 
 to show what a smart boy am I, I give a verdick 
 without all the everdence in. If you wanter tell 
 me plain out what s frettin you, I ll do my best 
 accordin to my lights, but otherwise " 
 
 " Well " began Claire, and then followed, 
 
 haltingly, stumblingly, the story of her adventure 
 in the closet. 
 
 " At first I felt nothing but the wound to my 
 pride, the sting of what he of what they said," 
 she concluded. " But, after a little, I began to 
 realize there was something else. I began to see 
 what / had done. For, you know, I had delib 
 erately listened. I needn t have listened. If I 
 had put my hands over my ears, if I had crouched 
 back, away from the door, and covered my head, 
 I need not have overheard. But I pressed as 
 close as I could to the panel, and hardly breathed, 
 because I wanted not to miss a word. And I 
 didn t miss a word. I heard what it was never 
 meant I should hear, and I m nothing but a 
 common eavesdropper! " 
 
 " Now, what do you think of that? " observed
 
 162 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Mrs. Slawson. " Now, what do you think of 
 that?" 
 
 " I ve tried once or twice to tell him " con 
 tinued Claire. 
 
 " Tell who? Tell Mr. Van Brandt? " 
 
 " No, Mr. Ronald." 
 
 " O ! You see, when you speak o he an him 
 it might mean almost any gen l man. But I ll try 
 to remember you re always referrin to Mr. 
 Ronald." 
 
 " I ve tried once or twice to tell him, for I can t 
 bear to be untruthful. But, then, I remember 
 I m only the governess the right person in 
 the right place of so little account that that 
 he doesn t even know whether I m pretty or not! 
 And the words choke in my throat. I realize it 
 wouldn t mean anything to him. He d only prob 
 ably gaze down at me, or he d be kind in that 
 lofty way he has and put me in my place, as he 
 did the first time I ever saw him. And so, I ve 
 never told him. I couldn t. But sometimes I 
 think if I did if I just made myself do it, I could 
 hold up my head again and not feel myself grow 
 ing bitter and sharp, because something is hurting 
 me in my conscience." 
 
 " That s it! " said Martha confidently. " It s 
 your conscience. Believe me, consciences is the 
 dickens an all for makin a mess o things, when 
 they get right down to business. Now, if I was
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 163 
 
 you, I wouldn t bother Mr. Ronald with my 
 squalms o conscience. Very prob ly when it 
 comes to consciences he has troubles of his own 
 at least, if he ain t, he s an exception an a rare 
 curiosity, an Mr. Pierpont Morgan oughter 
 buy him for the Museum. When your conscience 
 tells you you d oughter tell, ten to one you d 
 oughtn t. Give other folks a chance. What 
 they don t know can t worry em. Besides, your 
 just tellin a thing don t let you out. You can t 
 get clear so easy as that. It s up to you to work 
 it out, so what s wrong is made right, an do it 
 yourself not trust to nobody else. You can t 
 square up by heavin your load offn your own 
 shoulders onto another fella s. You think you 
 feel light coz you done your dooty, when ten to 
 one you done your friend. No ! I wouldn t ad 
 vise turnin state s everdence on yourself unless it 
 was to save another from the gallus. As it is, 
 you can take it from me, the best thing you can 
 do for that conscience o yours, is get busy in 
 another direction. Dress yourself up as fetchin 
 as you can, go out motorin with your gen l man 
 friend like he ast you to, let him get his perposal 
 offn his chest, an then tell m you ll be a sister 
 to m."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 SAM SLAWSON had gone to the Adiron- 
 dacks in January, personally conducted by 
 Mr. Blennerhasset, Mr. Ronald s secretary, Mr. 
 Ronald, in the most unemotional and business-like 
 manner, having assumed all the responsibilities 
 connected with the trip and Sam s stay at the 
 Sanatorium. 
 
 It was Claire who told Mr. Ronald of the 
 Slawsons difficulty. How Martha saw no way 
 out, and still was struggling gallantly on, trying 
 single-handed to meet all obligations at home 
 and, in addition, send her husband away. 
 
 " That s too much even for Martha," he ob 
 served. 
 
 " If I only knew how to get Sam to the moun 
 tains," Claire said in a sort of desperation. 
 
 " You have just paved the way." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " You have told me." 
 You are going to help? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "O, how beautiful!" 
 
 " I am glad that, for once, I have the good 
 fortune to please you." 
 
 164
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 165 
 
 Claire s happy smile faded. She turned her 
 face away, pretending to busy herself with Rad- 
 cliffe s books. 
 
 " I see I have offended once more." 
 
 She hesitated a moment, then faced him 
 squarely. 
 
 " There can be no question of your either 
 pleasing or offending me, Mr. Ronald. What 
 you are doing for Martha makes me glad, of 
 course, but that is only because I rejoice in any 
 good that may come to her. I would not take 
 it upon myself to praise you for doing a generous 
 act, or to blame you if you didn t do it." 
 
 " Cr-r-rushed again! " observed Francis Ron 
 ald gravely, but with a lurking, quizzical light of 
 laughter in his eyes. 
 
 For an instant Claire was inclined to be resent 
 ful. Then, her sense of humor coming to the 
 rescue, she dropped her heroics and laughed out 
 blithely. 
 
 " How jolly it must be to have a lot of money 
 and be able to do all sorts of helpful, generous 
 things ! " she said lightly. 
 
 " You think money the universal solvent? " 
 
 " I think the lack of it the universal ///solvent." 
 
 u I hope you don t lay too much emphasis on 
 it." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because it might lead you to do violence to 
 your better impulses, your higher instincts."
 
 166 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Why should a man think he has the right to 
 say that sort of thing to a woman? Would you 
 consider it a compliment if I suggested that your 
 principles were hollow negotiable? That they 
 were For Sale or To Let, like an empty house? " 
 
 " I suppose most men would tell you they 
 have no use for principle in their business only 
 principal." 
 
 " And you think women " 
 
 " Generally women have both principle and in 
 terest in the business of life. That s why we look 
 to them to keep up the moral standard. That s 
 why we feel it to be unworthy of her when a girl 
 makes a mercenary marriage." 
 
 The indignant blood sprang to Claire s cheeks. 
 What business had he to interfere in her affairs, 
 to warn her against marrying Bob Van Brandt, 
 assuming that, if she did marry him, it would be 
 only for money. She was glad that Radcliffe 
 bounded in just then, throwing himself upon her 
 in his eagerness to tell her all that had befallen 
 him during their long separation of two hours, 
 when he had been playing on the Mall under 
 Beetrice s unwatchful eye. 
 
 In spite of Martha, Claire had just been on 
 the point of confessing to Mr. Ronald. He had 
 seemed so friendly, so much less formidable than 
 at any time since that first morning. But she 
 must have been mistaken, for here were all the old
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 167 
 
 barriers up in an instant, and with them the re 
 sentful fire in her heart. 
 
 Perhaps it was the memory of this conversa 
 tion that made her feel so ill at ease with Robert 
 Van Brandt. She could not understand herself. 
 Why should she feel so uncomfortable with her 
 old friend? She could not help being aware 
 that he cared for her, but why did the thought 
 of his telling her so make her feel like a culprit? 
 Why should he not tell her? Why should she 
 not listen? One thing she felt she knew if he 
 did tell her, and she refused to listen, he would 
 give it up. He would not persist. 
 
 She remembered how, as a little girl, she had 
 looked up to him reverentially as " big Robby 
 Van Brandt." He was a hero to her in those 
 days, until he had let himself be balked of 
 what he had started out to get. If he had only 
 persisted, insisted, who knows maybe 
 
 She was sure that if he offered her his love and 
 she refused to accept it, he would not, like the 
 nursery-rhyme model, try, try again. He would 
 give up and go away and in her loneliness she 
 did not want him to go away. Was she selfish? 
 she wondered. Selfish or no, she could not bring 
 herself to follow Martha s advice and " let m get 
 his perposal offn his chest." 
 
 It was early in April before he managed to 
 do it.
 
 1 68 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 She and Radcliffe had gone to the Park. Rad- 
 cliffe was frisking about in the warm sunshine, 
 while Claire watched him from a nearby bench, 
 when, suddenly, Mr. Van Brandt dropped into 
 the seat beside her. 
 
 He did not approach his subject gradually. 
 He plunged in desperately, headlong, heartlong, 
 seeming oblivious to everything and every one 
 save her. 
 
 When, at last, he left her, she, knowing it was 
 for always, was sorely tempted to call him back. 
 She did care for him, in a way, and the life his 
 love opened up to her would be very different 
 from this. And yet 
 
 She closed her cold fingers about Radcliffe s 
 little warm ones, and rose to lead him across 
 the Plaza. She did not wonder at his being so 
 conveniently close at hand, nor at his unwonted 
 silence all the way home. She had not realized, 
 until now that it was snapped, how much the link 
 between this and her old home-life had meant to 
 her. It meant so much that tears were very 
 near the surface all that day, and even at night, 
 when Martha was holding forth to her brood, 
 they were not altogether to be suppressed. 
 
 " Easter comes early this year," Mrs. Slawson 
 observed. 
 
 " M I going to have a new hat?" inquired 
 Cora.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 169 
 
 " What for do you need a new hat, I should 
 like to know? I s pose you think you ll walk up 
 Fifth Avenoo in the church parade, an folks ll 
 stare at you, an nudge each other an whisper 
 Looka there ! That s Miss Cora Slawson that 
 you read so much about in the papers. That one 
 on the right-hand side, wearin the French shappo, 
 with the white ribbon, an the grand vinaigrette 
 onto it. Ain t she han some? 
 
 " I think you re real mean to make fun of 
 me! " pouted Cora. 
 
 " I got a dollar an a half for the Easter 
 singin ," announced Sammy. " Coz I m per- 
 moted an I m goin to sing a solo ! " 
 
 " Careful you don t get your head so turned 
 you sing outer the other side o your mouth," 
 cautioned Martha. " Stead o crowin so much, 
 you better make sure you know your colic." 
 
 l( What you goin to do with your money? " in 
 quired Francie, unable to conceive of possessing 
 such vast riches. 
 
 " I do know." 
 
 " Come here an I ll tell you," said his mother. 
 " Whisper!" 
 
 At first Sammy s face did not reveal any great 
 amount of satisfaction at the words breathed into 
 his ear, but after a moment it fairly glowed. 
 
 " Ain t that grand? " asked Martha. 
 
 Sammy beamed, then went off whistling.
 
 170 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " He s goin to invest it in a hat for Cora as 
 a s prise, me addin my mite to the fun an not 
 lettin him be any the wiser. An Cora, she s 
 goin to get him a pair o shoes with her bank 
 pennies, an be this an be that, the one thinks 
 he s clothin the other, an is proud as Punch of 
 it, which they re learnin manners the same time 
 they re bein dressed," Martha explained to 
 Claire later. 
 
 " I wish you d tell that to Radcliffe," Claire 
 said. " He loves to hear about the children, and 
 he can learn so much from listening to what is 
 told of other kiddies generosities and self- 
 denials." 
 
 Martha shook her head. " There s nothin 
 worth tellin ," she said. " An besides, if I 
 told m, he might go an tell his mother or his 
 Uncle Frank, an they might think I was puttin 
 in a bid for a Easter-egg on my own account. 
 Radcliffe is a smart little fella ! He knows a 
 thing or two an sometimes three, an don t you 
 forget it." 
 
 That Radcliffe u knew a thing or two an some 
 times three," he proved beyond a doubt to 
 Martha next day when, as she was busy cleaning 
 his Uncle Frank s closet, he meandered up to her 
 and casually observed: 
 
 " Say, you know what I told you once bout 
 Miss Lang bein Mr. Van Brandt s best girl? "
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 171 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Well, she ain t!" 
 
 "Why ain t she?" 
 
 " I was lookin out o the window in my 
 mother s sittin -room yesterday mornin , an when 
 my mother an my Uncle Frank they came up 
 from breakfast, they didn t see me coz I was 
 back o the curtains. My mother she had a letter 
 Shaw, he just gave her, and when she read it she 
 clapped her hands together an laughed, an my 
 Uncle Frank he said, Why such joy? an she 
 said, The greatest news ! Amy Pelham is en 
 gaged to Mr. Van Brandt! An my Uncle 
 Frank, his face got dark red all at once, an he 
 said to my mother, Catherine, are you sponsible 
 for that? an she said, I never lifted a finger. 
 I give you my word of honor, Frank! An then 
 my Uncle Frank he looked better. An my 
 mother she said, You see, he couldn t have cared 
 for Miss Lang, after all I mean, the way we 
 thought. An he said, Why not? An she 
 said, Coz if he had asked her, she would have 
 taken him, for no poor little governess is going 
 to throw away a chance like that. No sensible 
 girl would say no to Bob Van Brandt with all his 
 Vantages. She d jump at him, an you couldn t 
 blame her. 
 
 " An then my mother an my Uncle Frank they 
 jumped, for I came out from behind the curtains
 
 172 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 where I d been lookin out, an I said, She would 
 too say no! My Miss Lang, she s sensible, an 
 one time in the Park, when Mr. Van Brandt he 
 asked her to take him an everything he had 
 (that s what he said! " Take me an everything I 
 have, an do what you want with me!"), Miss 
 Lang she said, "No, Bob, I can t! I wish I 
 could, for your sake, if you want me so but I 
 can t." An Mr. Van Brandt he felt so bad, I 
 was sorry. When I thought Miss Lang was his 
 best girl, I didn t like him, but I didn t want him 
 to feel as bad as that. An he went off all alone 
 
 by himself, an Miss Lang Only I couldn t 
 
 tell any more, for my Uncle Frank, he said reel 
 sharp, That s enough, Radcliffe! But last 
 night he brought me home a dandy boat I can 
 sail on the Lake, with riggin an a center-board, 
 an , O, lots o things! An so I guess he wasn t 
 so very mad, after all."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 " TV/T ST like it>S the Spring " said Martha - 
 J.VJL It was Memorial Day. She and Miss 
 
 Lang were at home, sitting together in Claire s 
 pretty room, through the closed blinds of which 
 the hot May sun sent tempered shafts of light. 
 
 Claire regarded Mrs. Slawson steadily for a 
 moment, seeming to make some sort of mental 
 calculation meanwhile. 
 
 Well, if it is the Spring," she observed at 
 length with a whimsical little frown knitting her 
 brows, " it s mighty forehanded, for it began to 
 get in its fine work as far back as January. Ever 
 since the time Sam went to the Sanatorium you ve 
 been losing flesh and color, Martha, and I don t 
 know what to do about it! " 
 
 "Do about it!" repeated Mrs. Slawson. 
 Why, there ain t nothin to do about it, but let 
 the good work go on. I m in luck, if it s true 
 what you say. Believe me, there s lots o ladies 
 in this town, is starvin their stummicks an every- 
 thin else about em, an payin the doctors high 
 besides, just to get delicate-complected, an airy- 
 fairy figgers, same s I m doin without turnin a 
 hand. Did you never hear o bantin ? It s what 
 
 173
 
 174 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 the high-toned doctors recommend to thin down 
 ladies who have it so comfortable they re uncom 
 fortable. The doctors prescribes exercise for m, 
 an they take it, willin as doves, whereas if their 
 husbands said, Say, old woman, while you re 
 restin , just scrub down the cellar-stairs good 
 that ll take the flesh off n you quicker n anythin 
 else / know ! they d get a divorce from him so 
 quick you couldn t see em for dust. No, they d 
 not do anythin so low as cellar-stairs, to save their 
 lives. You couldn t please em better n to see an 
 other woman down on her marra-bones workin 
 for em, but get down themselves? Not on your 
 sweet life, they wouldn t. They d rather bant. 
 Bantin sounds so much more stylisher than scrub- 
 bin ." 
 
 Claire smiled, but her eyes were very serious 
 as she said, " All the same, Martha, I believe 
 you are grieving your heart out for Sam. I ve 
 been watching you when you didn t know it, and 
 I ve seen the signs and the tokens. Your heart 
 has the hunger-ache in it! " 
 
 " Now, what do you think o that! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Slawson. " What do you know about 
 hearts an hunger-aches, I should like to know. 
 You, an unmarried maiden-girl, without so much 
 as the shadder or the skelegan of a beau, as far 
 as / can see. What do you know about a woman 
 hungerin an cravin for her own man? You
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 175 
 
 have to have reelly felt them things yourself, to 
 know the signs of em in other folks." 
 
 Claire s lip trembled, but she did not reply. 
 
 When Martha spoke again it was as if she had 
 replied. 
 
 " O, go way! You ain t never had a leanin 
 in any genTman s direction, I d be willin to 
 wager. An yet, I may as well tell you, you been 
 gettin kinder white an scrawny yourself lately, 
 beggin your pardon for bein so bold as notice it. 
 Mind, I ain t the faintest notion of holdin it 
 against you ! I know better than think you been 
 settin your affections on anybody. There s other 
 things besides love gives you that tired feelin . 
 What you need is somethin to brace you up, an 
 clear your blood, like Hoodses Sassperilla. 
 Everybody feels the way you do, this time o 
 year. I heard a young saleslady (she wasn t a 
 woman, mind you, she was a saleslady} , I heard a 
 young saleslady in the car the other mornin 1 com 
 plain she was the reel dressy kind, you know, 
 with more n a month s pay of hair, boilin over 
 on the back of her head in puffs an things the 
 gallus sort that, if you want to buy a yard o good 
 flannen off her, will sass you up an down to 
 your face, as fresh as if she was your own 
 daughter she was complainin the Spring al 
 ways made her feel so sorter, kinder, so awful 
 la-anguid.
 
 176 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Martha, dear," broke in Claire irrelevantly, 
 " I wonder if you d mind very much if I told 
 Mr. Ronald the truth. He thinks you were an 
 old family servant. He thinks you nursed me 
 till I was able to walk." 
 
 Martha considered. "Well, ain t that the 
 truth?" she asked blandly. "I lived out from 
 the time I was twelve years old. That was in 
 Mrs. Granville s mother s house. When I was 
 sixteen I went to Mrs. Granville s. I was 
 kitchen-maid there first-off, an gradjelly she pro 
 moted me till I was first housemaid. I never left 
 her till I got married. If that don t make me 
 an old family servant, I d like to know." 
 
 " But he thinks you were an old family servant 
 in our house." 
 
 Well, bless your heart, that s his business, not 
 mine. How can I help what he thinks? " 
 
 " Didn t you tell him, Martha dear, that you 
 nursed me till I was able to walk? " 
 
 "Shoor I did! An it s the livin truth. 
 What s the matter with that? Believe me, you 
 wasn t good for more than a minit or two more on 
 your legs, when I got you into your bed that 
 blessed night. You was clean bowled over, an 
 you couldn t a walked another step if you d 
 been killed for it. Didn t I nurse you them days 
 you was in bed, helplesslike as a baby? Didn t I 
 nurse you till you could walk? "
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 177 
 
 " Indeed you did. And that s precisely the 
 point! " said Claire. " If Mr. Ronald if Mrs. 
 Sherman knew the truth, that I was poor, home 
 less, without a friend in New York the night you 
 picked me up on the street, and carried me home 
 and cared for me without knowing a thing about 
 me, they mightn t they wouldn t have taken me 
 into their house and given me their little boy to 
 train. And because they wouldn t, I want to tell 
 them. I want to square myself. I ought to have 
 told them long ago. I want " 
 
 4 You want em to bounce you," observed Mrs. 
 Slawson calmly. " Well, there s always more n 
 one way of lookin at things. For instance, any 
 good chambermaid, with experience, will tell you 
 there s three ways of dustin . The first is, do it 
 thora, wipin the rungs o the chairs, an the backs 
 o the pictures, an under the books on the table 
 like. The second is, just sorter flashin your 
 rag over the places that shows, an the third is 
 pull down the shades. They re all good enough 
 ways in their own time an place, an you foller 
 them accordin to your disposition or, if you re 
 nacherelly particular, accordin to the other 
 things you got to do, in the time you got to do em 
 in. Now, I m particular. I m the nacherelly 
 thora kind, but if I m pressed, an there s more 
 important things up to me than the dustin , I give 
 it a lick an a promise, same as the next one, an
 
 178 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 let it go at that, till the time comes I can do 
 better. Life s too short to fuss an fidget your 
 soul out over trifles. It ain t always what you 
 want, but what you must. You sometimes got to 
 cut short at one end so s you can piece out at 
 another, an you can take it from me, you only 
 pester folks by gettin m down where they can t 
 resist you, an forcin a lot of hard facks down 
 their throats, which ain t the truth anyhow, an 
 which they don t want to swaller on no account. 
 What do they care about the machinery, so long 
 as it turns out the thing they want? Believe me, 
 it s foolishness to try to get em back into the 
 works, pokin about among the inside wheels an 
 springs, an so forth. You likely get knocked 
 senseless by some big thing-um-bob you didn t 
 know was there. Now I know just eggsackly 
 what s in your mind, but you re wrong. You 
 think I told Mr. Ronald fibs. I didn t tell m 
 fibs. I just give m the truth the way he d take it, 
 like you give people castor-oil that s too dainty 
 to gullup it down straight. Some likes it in 
 lemon, an some in grobyules, but it s castor-oil all 
 the same. He wanted to know the truth about 
 you, an I let him have it, the truth bein you re 
 as fine a lady as any in the land. If I d hap 
 pened to live in Grand Rapids at the time, I d 
 most likely of lived out with your grandmother, 
 an been an old family servant in your house like I
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 179 
 
 was at Mrs. Granville s, an I certainly would of 
 nursed you if I d had the chanct. It was just a 
 case o happenso, my not havin it. The right 
 kind o folks here in New York is mighty squeam 
 ish about strangers. They want recommenda 
 tions they want em because they want to be 
 sure the ones they engage is O. K. That s all 
 recommendations is for, ain t it? Now I knew 
 the minit I clapped eye to you, that, as I say, you 
 was as grand a lady as any in the land, an that 
 bein the case, what was the use o frettin be 
 cause I hadn t more than your sayso to prove it. 
 But if I d pulled a long face to Mrs. Sherman, an 
 told her, hesitatin -like an nervous, about well, 
 about what took place that night, she, not havin 
 much experience of human nature (only the other 
 kind that s more common here in New York 
 City) , she d have hemmed, an hawed, an thought 
 she d better not try it, seein Radcliffe is such an 
 angel-child an not to be trained except by a A-i 
 Lady." 
 
 " But the truth," persisted Claire. 
 
 " I tell the truth," Mrs. Slawson returned with 
 quiet dignity. " I only don t waste time on 
 trifles." 
 
 " It is not wasting time on trifles to be exact 
 and accurate. An architect planning a house 
 must make every little detail true, else when the 
 house goes up, it won t stand."
 
 i8o MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Don t he have to reckon nothin on the give 
 or not-give of the things he s dealin with?" de 
 manded Martha. " I m only a ignorant woman, 
 an I ask for information. When you re dress- 
 makin you have to allow for the seams, an when 
 you re makin well, other things, you have to do 
 the same thing, only spelled a little different you 
 have to allow for the seems. Most folks don t 
 do it, an that s where a lot o trouble comes in, 
 or so it appears to me." 
 
 Claire twisted her ring in silence, gazing down 
 at it the while as if the operation was, of all 
 others, the most important and absorbing. 
 
 " We may not agree, Martha dear," she said 
 at last, " but anyway I know you re good, good, 
 good, and I wouldn t hurt your feelings for the 
 world." 
 
 "Shoor! I know you wouldn t! An they 
 ain t hurt. Not in the least. You got one 
 kinder conscience an I got another, that s all. 
 Consciences is like hats. One that suits one party 
 would make another look like a guy. You got 
 to have your own style. You got to know what s 
 best for you, an then stick to it!" 
 
 " And you won t object if I tell Mr. Ron 
 ald? " 
 
 " Objeck? Certainly not! Tell m anything 
 you like. / always was fond o Mr. Ronald my 
 self. I never thought he was as hard an stern
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 181 
 
 with a body as some thinks. Some thinks he s as 
 hard as nails, but " 
 
 " O, I m sure he s not," cried Claire with unex 
 pected loyalty. " His manner may seem a little 
 cold and proud sometimes, but I know he s very 
 kind and generous." 
 
 " Certaintly. So do I know it," said Mrs. 
 Slawson. " I don t say I mayn t be mistaken, but 
 I have the highest opinion o Lor Mr. Ronald. 
 I think you could trust m do the square thing, no 
 matter what, an if he was kinder harsh doin it, 
 it s only because he expects a body to be perfect 
 like he is himself." 
 
 In the next room Sabina was shouting at the 
 top of her lungs " Come back to ear-ring, my 
 voornean, my voornean! " 
 
 " Ain t it a caution what lungs that child has 
 considerin ? " Martha reflected. " Just hear her 
 holler! She d wake the dead. I wonder if she s 
 tryin to beat that auta whoopin it up outside. 
 Have you ever noticed them autas nowadays? 
 Some of them has such croupy coughs, before I 
 know it I m huntin for a flannen an a embrerca- 
 tion. Xcuse me a minit while I go answer the 
 bell." 
 
 A second later she returned. A step in ad 
 vance of her was Mr. Ronald. 
 
 " I am lucky to find you at home, Martha," 
 were the first words Claire heard him say.
 
 1 82 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 Martha, by dint of a little unobservable 
 maneuvering, managed to superimpose her sub 
 stantial shadow upon Claire s frail one. 
 
 " Yes, sir. When I get a day to lay off in, 
 you couldn t move me outer the house with a der 
 rick," she announced. " Miss Lang s here, 
 too. Bein so dim, an comin in outer the 
 sunlight, perhaps you don t make out to see 
 her." 
 
 " She ain t had time yet to pull herself to 
 gether," Mrs. Slawson inwardly noted. " But, 
 Lord ! I couldn t stand in front of her forever, an 
 even if a girl is dead in love with a man (more 
 power to her!), that s no reason she should go 
 to the other extreme to hide it, an pertend she s 
 a cold storage, warranted to freeze m stiff, like 
 the artificial ice they re makin these days, in the 
 good old summertime." 
 
 The first cold greetings over, Claire started to 
 retreat in the direction of the door. 
 
 " Excuse me, please I promised Francie 
 
 She s expecting me she s waiting " 
 
 " Pshaw now, let her wait! " said Martha. 
 
 " Don t let me detain Miss Lang if she wishes 
 to go," interposed Mr. Ronald. " My business 
 is really with you, Martha." 
 
 " Thank you, sir. But I d like Miss Lang to 
 stay by, all the same that is, if you don t ob- 
 jeck."
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 183 
 
 "As a witness? You think I need watching, 
 eh?" 
 
 " I think it does a body good to watch you, 
 sir!" 
 
 " I didn t know before, you were a flatterer, 
 Martha. But I see you re a lineal descendant of 
 the Blarney Stone." 
 
 Claire felt herself utterly ignored. She tried 
 again to slip away, but Martha s strong hand de 
 tained her, bore her down into the place she had 
 just vacated. 
 
 " How is Francie? " inquired Mr. Ronald, tak 
 ing the chair Mrs. Slawson placed for him. 
 
 " Fine thank you, sir. The doctors says they 
 never see a child get well so fast. She s grown 
 so fat an big, there ain t a thing belongs to her 
 will fit her any longer, they re all shorter, an she 
 has to go whacks with Cora on her clo es." 
 
 " Perhaps she d enjoy a little run out into the 
 country this afternoon in my car. The other 
 children, too? And possibly Miss Lang." 
 
 " I m sure they d all thank you kindly, sir," be 
 gan Martha, when " I m sorry," said Claire 
 coldly, " I can t go." 
 
 Mr. Ronald did not urge her. " It is early. 
 We have plenty of time to discuss the ride later," 
 he observed quietly. " Meanwhile, what I have 
 in mind, Martha, is this: Mr. Slawson has been at 
 the Sanatorium now for ? "
 
 1 84 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 " Coin on five months," said Martha. 
 
 "And the doctors think him improved?" 
 
 " Well, on the whole, yes, sir. His one lung 
 (sounds kinder Chineesy, don t it?), his one lung 
 ain t no worse it s better some only he keeps 
 losin flesh an that puzzles m." 
 
 " Do you think he is contented there? " 
 
 " He says he is. He says it s the grand place, 
 an they re all as good to m as if he was the king 
 o Harlem. You seen to that, sir he says. An 
 Sam, he s always pationate, no matter what comes, 
 but " 
 
 " Well but? " 
 
 " But only just, it ain t home, you know, 
 sir!" 
 
 " I see. And the doctors think he ought to 
 stay up there? Not return home here, I 
 mean? " 
 
 " That s what they say." 
 
 " Have you the means to keep him at the 
 Sanatorium over the five months we settled for in 
 January? " 
 
 " No, sir. That is, not not yet." 
 
 Would you like to borrow enough money to 
 see him through the rest of the year? " 
 
 Martha deliberated. " I may have to, sir," 
 she said at last with a visible effort. " But I 
 don t like to borrer. I notice when folks gets 
 the borrerin -habit they re slow payin back, an
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 185 
 
 then you don t get thanks for a gift or you don t 
 get credit for a loan." 
 
 This time it was Mr. Ronald who seemed to 
 be considering. " Right! " he announced pres 
 ently. " I notice you go into things rather deep, 
 Martha." 
 
 Mrs. Slawson smiled. " Well, when things is 
 deep, that s the way you got to go into them. 
 What s on your plate you got to chew, an if you 
 don t like it, you can lump it, an if you don t like 
 to lump it, you can cut it up finer. But there it is, 
 an there it stays, till you swaller it, somehow." 
 
 " Do you enjoy or resent the good things that 
 are, or seem to be, heaped on other people s 
 plates?" 
 
 " Why, yes. Certaintly I enjoy em. But, 
 after all, the things taste best that we re eatin 
 ourselves, don t they? An if I had money 
 enough like some, so s I didn t have to borrer to 
 see my man through, why, I don t go behind the 
 door to say I d be glad an grateful." 
 
 " Would you take the money as a gift, 
 Martha?" 
 
 You done far more than your share already, 
 sir." 
 
 "Then, if you won t take, and you d rather not 
 borrow, we must find another way. A rather 
 good idea occurred to me last night. I ve an un 
 commonly nice old place up in New Hampshire
 
 1 86 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 in the mountains. It was my father s and my 
 grandfather s. It s been closed for many years, 
 and I haven t given it a thought, except when the 
 tax-bills came due, or the caretaker sent in his 
 account. It s so far away my sister won t live 
 there, and it s too big and formidable for one 
 lone man to summer in by himself. Now, why 
 wouldn t it be a capital idea for you to pack up 
 your goods and chattels here, and take your fam 
 ily right up there make that your home? The 
 lodge is comfortable and roomy, and I don t see 
 why Mr. Slawson couldn t recover there as well, 
 if not better, than where he is. I d like to put 
 the place in order make some improvements, 
 do a little remodeling. I need a trusty man to 
 oversee the laborers, and keep an eye and close 
 tab on the workmen I send up from town. If 
 Mr. Slawson would act as superintendent for me, 
 I d pay him what such a position is worth, and 
 you would have your house, fuel, and vegetables 
 free. Don t try to answer now. You d be fool 
 ish to make a decision in a hurry that you might 
 regret later. Write to your husband. Talk it 
 over with him. He might prefer to choose a job 
 for himself. And remember it s way out in 
 the country. The children would have to walk 
 some distance to school." 
 
 " Give em exercise, along of their exercises," 
 said Martha.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 187 
 
 " The church in the village is certainly three 
 miles off." 
 
 " My husband don t go to church as reg lar as I 
 might wish," Mrs. Slawson observed. " I tell m, 
 the reason men don t be going to church so much 
 these days, is for fear they might hear something 
 they believe." 
 
 " You would find country life tame, perhaps, 
 after the city." 
 
 " Well, the city life ain t been that wild for me 
 that I d miss the dizzy whirl. An anyhow 
 we d be together!" Martha said. " We d be to 
 gether, maybe, come our weddin -day. The 
 fourth o July. We never been parted oncet, on 
 that day, all the fifteen years we been married," 
 she mused, " but " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " But, come winter, an Mis Sherman opens 
 the house again, an wants Miss Claire back, 
 who s goin to look out for her? " 
 
 " Why a as to that " said Mr. Ronald, 
 
 so vaguely it sounded almost supercilious to 
 Claire. 
 
 In an instant her pride rose in revolt, rebelling 
 against the notion he might have, that she could 
 possibly put forth any claim upon his considera 
 tion. 
 
 " O, please, please don t think of me, Mar 
 tha," she cried vehemently. " I have entirely
 
 i88 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 other plans. You mustn t give me, or my af 
 fairs, a thought, in settling your own. You must 
 do what s best for you. You mustn t count for, 
 or on, me in the least. I have not told you be 
 fore, but I ve made up my mind I must resign my 
 position at Mrs. Sherman s, anyway. I ll write 
 her at once. I ll tell her myself, of course, but I 
 tell you now to show that you mustn t have me 
 in mind, at all, in making your plans." 
 
 Martha s low-pitched voice fell upon Claire s 
 tense, nervous one with soothing calmness. 
 
 " Certaintly not, Miss Claire," she said. 
 
 " And you ll write to your husband and report 
 to him what I propose," suggested Mr. Ronald, 
 as if over Claire s head. 
 
 "Shoor I will, sir!" 
 
 " And if he likes the idea, my secretary will 
 discuss the details with him later. Wages, duties 
 all the details." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And you may tell the children I ll leave or 
 ders that the car be sent for them some other day. 
 I find it s not convenient, after all, for me to take 
 them myself this afternoon. I spoke too fast in 
 proposing it. But they ll not be disappointed. 
 Mr. Blennerhasset will see to that. I leave town 
 to-night to be gone well, indefinitely. In any 
 case, until well on into the autumn or winter. 
 Any letter you may direct to me, care of Mr.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 189 
 
 Blennerhasset at the office, will be attended to at 
 
 once. Good-by, Martha ! Miss Lang " 
 
 He was gone. 
 
 When the car had shot out of sound and sight, 
 Martha withdrew from the window, from behind 
 the blinds of which she had been peering eagerly. 
 
 " He certainly is a little woolly wonder, mean 
 ing no offense," she observed with a deep-drawn 
 sigh. Yes, Mr. Ronald is as good as they make 
 em, an dontcher forget it!" 
 
 She seated herself opposite Claire, drawing 
 her chair quite close. 
 
 " Pity you an him is so on the outs. I m not 
 speakin o him, s much, but anybody with half 
 an eye can see you got a reg lar hate on m. Any 
 one can see that! " 
 
 A moment of silence, and then Claire flung 
 herself, sobbing and quivering, across Martha s 
 lap, ready to receive her. 
 
 " O, Martha! " she choked.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 "TT 7ELL now, what do you think o that! 
 VV Ain t it the end o the law? The high 
 handed way he has o doin things ! Think o the 
 likes o me closin up my town-house an takin 
 my fam ly (includin Flicker an Nixcomeraus) 
 * to the country-place for all the world like I 
 was a lady, born an bred. Sammy, you sit still 
 in your seat, an eat the candy Mr. Blennerhasset 
 brought you, an quit your rubberin , or the 
 train ll start suddently, an give you a twist in 
 your neck you won t get over in a hurry. . . . 
 Ma, you comfortable? . . . Cora an Francie, 
 see you behave like little ladies, or I ll attend to 
 
 you later. See how quiet Sabina is Say, 
 
 Sabina, what you doin ? Now, what do you 
 think o that! If that child ain t droppin off to 
 sleep, suckin the red plush o the seat! For all 
 the world like she didn t have a wink o rest last 
 night, or a bite or a sup this mornin an she 
 slep the clock round, an et a breakfast fit for a 
 trooper. Say, Sabina here, wake up ! An 
 take your tongue off n that beautiful cotton- 
 backed plush, d you hear? In the first place, the 
 gen 1 men that owns this railroad don t want their 
 
 190
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 191 
 
 upholsterry et by little girls, an , besides, it s 
 makin your mouth all red an , second-place, the 
 cars isn t the time to sleep leastwise, not so early 
 in the mornin . Miss Claire, child, don t look so 
 scared! You ain t committin no crime goin 
 along with us, an he ll never suspicion anyhow. 
 He s prob ly on the boundin biller by this time, 
 an Mr. Blennerhasset he don t know you from a 
 hole in the ground. Besides, whose business is it, 
 anyway? You ain t goin as his guest, as I told 
 you before. You re my boarder, same s you ve 
 always been, an it s nobody s concern if you board 
 down here or up there. . . . 
 
 " Say, ain t these flowers just grand? The box 
 looks kinder like a young coffin, but never mind 
 that. . . . 
 
 "A body would think all that fruit an stuff 
 was enough of a send-off, but Lor Mr. Ronald, 
 he don t do things by halves, does he? It 
 wouldn t seem so surprisin now, if he d a knew 
 you was comin along an all this (Mr. Blenner 
 hasset himself helpin look after us, an see us off 
 as if I was a little tender flower that didn t 
 know a railroad ticket from a trunk-check), I 
 say, it wouldn t seem so surprisin if he d a 
 knew you was comin along. I d think it was on 
 your account. What they calls delicate atten 
 tions. The sorter thing a gen l man does when 
 he s got his eye on a young lady for his wife, an
 
 192 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 is sorter breakin it to her gently kinder beck- 
 onin with a barn-door, as the sayin is. 
 
 " But Mr. Ronald ain t the faintest notion but 
 you ve gone back to your folks in Grand Rapids, 
 an so all these favors is for me, of course. Well, 
 I certainly take to luckshurry like a duck takes to 
 water. I never knew it was so easy to feel com 
 fortable. I guess I been a little hard on the 
 wealthy in the past. Now, if you should marry 
 a rich man, I don t believe 
 
 Claire sighed wearily. " I ll never marry any 
 body, Martha. And besides, a rich man wouldn t 
 be likely to go to a cheap boarding-house for a 
 
 wife, and next winter I O, isn t it warm? 
 
 Don t you wish the train would start? " 
 
 At last the train did start, and they were 
 whirled out of the steaming city, over the hills 
 and far away, through endless stretches of sunlit 
 country, and the long, long hours of the hot sum 
 mer day, until, at night, they reached their 
 destination, and found Sam Slawson waiting there 
 in the cool twilight to welcome them. 
 
 Followed days of rarest bliss for Martha, when 
 she could marshal out her small forces, setting 
 each his particular task, and seeing it was done 
 with thoroughness and despatch, so that in an in 
 conceivably short time her new home shone with 
 all the spotless cleanliness of the old, and added 
 comeliness beside.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 193 
 
 " Ain t it the little palace? " she inquired, when 
 all was finished. " I wouldn t change my lodge 
 for the great house, grand as it is, not for any 
 thing you could offer me ! Nor I wouldn t call the 
 queen my cousin now we re all in it together. 
 I m feelin that joyful I d like to have what they 
 calls a house-swarmin , only there ain t, by the 
 looks of it, any neighbors much, to swarm." 
 
 " No," said Ma regretfully, " I noticed there 
 ain t no neighbors to speak of." 
 
 " Well, then, we can t speak o them," returned 
 Martha. " Which will save us from fallin under 
 God s wrath as gossips. There s never any great 
 loss without some small gain." 
 
 " But we must have some sort of jollification," 
 Claire insisted. " Doesn t your wedding-day 
 the anniversary of it, I mean come round about 
 this time? You said the Fourth, didn t you? " 
 
 Martha nodded. " Sam Slawson an me ll be 
 fifteen years married come Fourth of July," she 
 announced. We chose that day, because we 
 was so poor we knew we couldn t do nothin great 
 in the line o celebration ourselves, so we just 
 kinder managed it, so s without inconveniencin 
 the nation any or addin undooly to its expenses, 
 it would do our celebratin for us. You ain t no 
 notion how grand it makes a body feel to be 
 woke up at the crack o dawn on one s weddin 
 mornin with the noise o the bombardin in honor
 
 194 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 o the day! I m like to miss it this year, with 
 only my own four young Yankees spoilin my sleep 
 settin off torpeders under my nose." 
 
 You won t miss anything," said Claire re 
 assuringly, " but you mustn t say a word to Sam. 
 And you mustn t ask any questions yourself, for 
 what is going to happen is to be a wonderful sur 
 prise! " 
 
 " You betcher life it is!" murmured Martha 
 complacently to herself, after Claire had hastened 
 off to confer with the children and plan a program 
 for the great day. 
 
 Ma to make the wedding-cake ! Cora to re 
 cite her " piece." Francie and Sammy to be 
 dressed as pages and bear, each, a tray spread 
 with the gifts it was to be her own task and priv 
 ilege to contrive. Sabina to hover over all as a 
 sort of Cupid, who, if somewhat " hefty " as 
 to avoirdupois, was in all other respects a perfect 
 little Love. 
 
 It seemed as if the intervening days were 
 winged, so fast they flew. Claire never could 
 have believed there was so much to be done for 
 such a simple festival, and, of course, the entire 
 weight fell on her shoulders, for Ma was as 
 much of a child in such matters as any, and 
 Martha could not be appealed to, being the bride, 
 and, moreover, being away at the great house, 
 where tremendous changes were in progress.
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 195 
 
 But at last came the wonderful day, and every 
 thing was in readiness. 
 
 First, a forenoon of small explosive delights 
 for the children then, as the day waned, a din 
 ner eaten outdoors, picnic-fashion on the grass, 
 under the spreading trees, beneath the shadows of 
 the mighty mountain-tops. 
 
 What difference if Ma s cake, crowning a per 
 fect feast, had suffered a little in the frosting and 
 its touching sentiment, traced in snowy lettering 
 upon a bridal-white ground, did read 
 
 FIFTEEN YEARS OF MARRED LIFE. 
 
 It is sometimes one s ill-luck to misspell a 
 word, and though a wedding-cake is usually large 
 and this was no exception, the space was limited, 
 and, besides, no one but Sam senior and Miss 
 Lang noticed it anyhow. 
 
 A quizzical light in his eye, Mr. Slawson 
 scrawled on a scrap of paper which he passed to 
 Claire (with apologies for the liberty) the words: 
 
 " She d been nearer the truth if she d left out 
 the two rrs while she was about it, and had it : 
 
 FIFTEEN YEARS OF MA D LIFE." 
 
 Then came Cora s piece. 
 
 Her courtesy, right foot back, knees suddenly 
 bent, right hand on left side (presumably over
 
 i 9 6 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 heart, actually over stomach), chin diving into 
 the bony hollow of her neck Cora s courtesy was 
 a thing to be remembered. 
 
 LADY CLARE 
 
 She announced it with ceremony, and this time, 
 Martha noticed, the recalcitrant garter held fast 
 to its moorings. 
 
 " Twas the time when lilies blow 
 
 And clouds are highest up in air, 
 Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe " 
 
 "His!" prompted Martha in a loud stage- 
 whisper. " His not a " 
 
 Cora accepted the correction obediently, but 
 her self-confidence was shaken. She managed to 
 stammer, 
 
 " Give t-to his c-cousin, L-Lady C-Clare, " 
 
 and then a storm of tears set in, drowning her ut 
 terance. 
 
 ; Well, what do you think o that? " exclaimed 
 Martha, amazed at the undue sensitiveness of her 
 offspring. " Never mind, Cora ! You done it 
 grand! as far as you went." 
 
 To cover this slight mishap, Claire gave a hur 
 ried signal to the pages, who appeared forthwith
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 197 
 
 in splendid form, if a little overweighted by the 
 burdens they bore. In some strange way Claire s 
 simple gifts had been secretly augmented until 
 they piled up upon the trays, twin-mountains of 
 treasure. 
 
 When the first surprise was past, and the won 
 ders examined and exclaimed over, Martha bent 
 toward Claire, from her seat of honor on the 
 grass. 
 
 " Didn t I think to tell you Mr. Blennerhasset 
 come up on the early train? Sammy, he drove 
 down to the station himself to meet m. Mr. 
 Blennerhasset brought up all them grand things 
 for Mr. Ronald. Ain t he I mean Mr. Ronald 
 a caution to ve remembered the day? I been so 
 took up with things over there to the great house, 
 I musta forgot to tell you about Mr. Blenner 
 hasset. Ain t everything just elegant? 
 
 " It s pretty, the way the night comes down 
 up here. With the sharp pin-heads o stars 
 prickin through, one by one. They don t seem 
 like that in the city, do they? An the moon s 
 comin up great! " 
 
 Claire s eyes were fixed on the grassy slope 
 ahead. 
 
 Who are those three men over there?" she 
 asked. "What are they doing? I can t make 
 out in the dusk anything but shadow-forms." 
 
 " Sam, an Mr. Blennerhasset, an an an-
 
 198 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 other fella from the neighborhood. Mr. Blen- 
 nerhasset he brought up some fire-works to sur 
 prise the young uns, an they re goin to set em 
 off. It s early yet, but the sooner it s over the 
 sooner to sleep. An the kids has had a excitin 
 day." 
 
 Up shot a rocket, drawing the children s 
 breaths skyward with it in long-drawn " A-ahs ! " 
 of perfect ecstasy. 
 
 Then pin-wheels, some of which, not to belie 
 their nature, balked obstinately, refusing to be 
 coerced or wheedled into doing their duty. 
 
 " Say, now, mother," cried Francie excitedly 
 " that pin-wheel in the middle of it was a cork. 
 When it got over spinning fast, I saw the cork." 
 
 " Don t you never do that no more," cautioned 
 Martha. " Never you see the cork. It s the 
 light you want to keep your eye on! " which, as 
 Claire thought it over, seemed to her advice of a 
 particularly shrewd and timely nature. 
 
 She was still pondering this, and some other 
 things, when she felt Mrs. Slawson s hand on her 
 shoulder. 
 
 " It s over now, an I m goin to take the young 
 uns in, an put em to bed. But don t you stir. 
 Just you sit here a while in the moonlight, an 
 enjoy the quiet in peace by yourself. You done a 
 hard day s work, an you give me an Sammy 
 what we won t forget in a hurry. So you just
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 199 
 
 stay out here a few minits or as long as you 
 wanter away from the childern s clatter, an 
 God bless you ! " 
 
 Claire s gaze, following the great form affec 
 tionately, saw it pass into the darker shadows, 
 then forth out into the light that shone from the 
 open door of the lodge. 
 
 " She s home and they re together! " Un 
 consciously, she spoke her grateful thought aloud. 
 
 " Yes, she s home and they re together! " 
 
 The words were repeated very quietly, but 
 there was that in the well-known voice, so close 
 at hand, that seemed to Claire to shake the world. 
 In an instant she was upon her feet, gazing up 
 speechless, into Francis Ronald s baffling eyes. 
 
 " You are kind to every one," he said, " but. 
 for me you have only a sting, and yet I love 
 you." 
 
 Martha was still busy wrestling with the pyra 
 mid of dishes left over from the feast, when at 
 last Claire came in alone. 
 
 " Did you get a chanct to compose yourself, 
 an quiet down some under the stars? " inquired 
 Mrs. Slawson. " It s been a noisy day, with lots 
 doin . I don t wonder you re so tired your 
 cheeks is fairly blazin with it, an your eyes are 
 shinin like lit lamps."
 
 200 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 
 
 "You knew you knew he was here!" said 
 Claire accusingly. 
 
 "He? Who? O, you mean Mr. Ronald? 
 Didn t I think to tell you, he come up along with 
 Mr. Blennerhasset? I been so flustrated with 
 all the unexpected surprises of the day, it musta 
 slipped my mind." 
 
 " I ve seen Mr. Ronald! " Claire said. " I ve 
 spoken with him! " 
 
 "Now, what do you think o that! Wonders 
 never cease ! " 
 
 " Do you know what I did? " 
 
 "Search me!" 
 
 " I told him the truth" 
 
 "We-ell?" 
 
 " And I m going to marry him! " 
 
 Mrs. Slawson sat down hard upon the nearest 
 chair, as if the happy shock had deprived her of 
 strength to support her own weight. 
 
 " No ! " she fairly shouted. 
 
 "Yes!" cried Claire. And, O, Martha! 
 I m so happy! And did you ever dream such a 
 thing could possibly happen? " 
 
 Well, you certaintly have give me a start. I 
 often thought how I d like to see Mr. Ronald 
 your financiay or your trosso, or whatever they 
 call it. But, that it would really come to 
 pass She paused. 
 
 " O, you don t know how I dreaded next win-
 
 MARTHA BY-THE-DAY 201 
 
 ter," Claire said, as if she were thinking aloud. 
 " I went over it and I went over it, in my mind 
 what I d do where I d go and now 
 Now! ... I couldn t take that fine job you had 
 your eye on for me, not even if it had come to 
 something. Don t you remember? I mean, the 
 splendid job you had the idea about, that first 
 night I was sick. I shan t need it now, shall I, 
 Martha?" 
 
 " You got it! " said Martha. 
 
 Claire s wide eyes opened wider in wonderment. 
 She stared silently at Mrs. Slawson for a moment. 
 Then the light began to break in upon her slowly, 
 but with unmistakable illumination. 
 
 You don t mean?" she stammered. 
 
 " Certaintly! " said Martha. 
 
 THE END
 
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