The House of Martha

XLIV.

PRELIMINARY BROTHERHOOD.

WHEN I returned to Arden, I gave Walkirk an outline of what had occurred ; but I did not go into details, having no desire that the preposterous idea which had gotten into the head of Miss Laniston should enter that of my understudy. Walkirk was not in good spirits.

“ I had hoped something,” he said, “ from your interview with Mother Anastasia, though perhaps not exactly in the line of a brotherhood. I thought, if she came thoroughly to understand your earnestness in the matter, she might use her influence with Miss Raynor, which at some time or other, or in some way or other, might result to your advantage and that of the young lady. I had, and still have, great belief in the capabilities of Mother Anastasia, but now I am forced to believe, very much against my will, that there is no hope ahead. With Mother Anastasia decidedly against us, the fight is lost.”

“ Us ? ” I repeated.

“ My dear sir,” said he, “ I am with you, soul and body.”

Without a word I took him by the hand, and pressed it warmly.

“ What do you think of continuing your recitals of travel ? ” Walkirk asked me, later in the day. “ I should think they would interest you, and I know they were vastly interesting to me. You must have a great deal more to tell.”

“ I have,” I answered, “ but I shall not tell it now. Instead of talking about travels, I have determined to travel. At present it is awkward for me to remain here. It is impossible to feel independent and able to do what I please, and know that there are persons in the village who do not wish to meet me, and whom it would be embarrassing, and perhaps unpleasant, to meet. I know I must meet them some time or other, unless they shut themselves up, or I shut myself up. That sort of thing I cannot endure, and I shall go to Turkey and Egypt,. Those countries I have not visited. If it suits you. I shall take you with me ; and I shall also take a stenographer, to whom I shall dictate, on the spot, the materials for my book.”

“ Do you mean,” asked Walkirk, “ that you will dispense altogether with that preparatory narration to me of what you intend afterwards to put into your book ? I consider that a good method, and I think you found it of advantage.”

“That is true,” I replied; “the plan worked admirably. I did not propose to work in that way again, but I will do it. Every night I will tell you what I have done and what I think about things, and the next morning I will dictate that material, revised and shaped, to the stenographer, who can then have the rest of the day in which to write it out properly.”

“A capital plan,” said Walkirk, “ and I shall be charmed to go with you.”

I was indeed very anxious to leave Arden. I could not believe that Mother Anastasia had ever imagined any of the nonsense that Miss Laniston had talked about, but she certainly had shown me that she was greatly offended with me, and nothing offends me so much as to have people offended with me. Such persons I do not wish to meet.

I did not immediately fix a date for my departure, for it was necessary for me to consider my grandmother’s feelings and welfare, and arrange to make her as happy as possible while I should he gone. In the mean time it was of course necessary that I should take air and exercise ; and while doing this one morning, in a pretty lane, just out of the village, a figure in the House-of-Martha gray came into sight a little distance ahead of me. Her hack was toward me, and she was walking more slowly than I was. “ Now, then,” thought I, “here is a proof of the awkwardness of my position here. Even in a little walk like this I must run up against one of those sisters. I must, pass her, or turn around and go back, for I shall not slow up and appear to be dogging her footsteps. But I shall not turn back,— that does not suit me,” Consequently I walked on, and soon overtook the woman in gray. She did not turn her head as I approached, for the sisters are taught not to turn their heads to look at people. After all, it would be easy enough for me to adopt the same rule, and to pass her without turning my head or paying the slightest attention to her. This was the manner, indeed, in which the general public was expected to act toward the inmates of the House of Mart ha when met outside their institution.

When I came up with her I turned and looked into her bonnet. It was Sylvia. As my eyes fell upon the face of that startled angel, my impulse was to throw my arms around her, and rush away with her, gray bonnet, shawl, and all, to some distant clime where there were no Houses of Martha, Mother Anastasias, or anything which could separate my dear love and me ; but I crushed down this mad fancy, smothered as well as I could my wild emotions, and remarked as calmly as possible, “ Goodmorning, sister.”

Over her face there spread a quick flush of pleasure.

“ I like that,” she said ; “ I am glad to have you call me ‘ sister.’ I thought you would be prejudiced against the name, and would not use it.”

“ Prejudiced J’ ” I answered. “ Not a bit of it. I am delighted to use it.”

That is really good of you,” she said. “ And how have you been ? You look a little wan and tired. Have you been doing your own writing? ”

“ Oh, no,”I said. “ I have given up writing, at least for the present. I wish I could make you understand how glad I am to call you ‘ sister,’ and how it would joy my heart if you would call me ‘ brother.' ”

“ Oh, that would not do at all.” she replied, in a tone which indicated surprise at my ignorance ; “ that would be quite a different thing. I am a sister to everybody, but you are not a brother to anybody.”

“ When you hear what I have to say about this,” I answered, “ you will understand what I mean by wishing to be called ‘ brother.”May I ask where you are going ? ”

“ I am going to visit a sick person in that little house at the bottom of the hill. Sister Agatha started with me, but she had the toothache and had to go back. I expect Sister Sarah will send some one of the others to join me, for she always wishes us to go about in pairs.”

“ She is entirely right,” said I. “ I did not know she had so much sense, and I shall make one of the pair this time. You ought not to be walking about here by yourself.”

“ I suppose I ought to have gone back with Sister Agatha,” she remarked, but I did n’t want to. I’m dreadfully tired of staying in the House of Martha, trying to learn typewriting. I can do it pretty well now, but nothing has come of it. Sister Sarah got me one piece of work, which was to copy a lot of bad manuscript about local option. I am sure, if I am to do that sort of thing, I shall not like typewriting,”

“ You shall not do that sort of thing,” I replied; " and now let us walk on slowly, while I tell you what I meant by the term ‘ brother.’ ”

I was in a whirl of delight. Now I should talk to one who I believed would sympathize with my every thought, who would be in harmony with my outreachings, if she could do no more, and from whom I need expect neither ridicule nor revilings. We walked on, and I laid before her my scheme for the brotherhood of the House of Martha.

I was not mistaken in my anticipation of Sylvia’s sympathy. She listened with sparkling eyes, and when I had finished clapped her hands with delight.

“ That is one of the best plans that was ever heard of in this world!” she cried. “ How different it would make our life at the institution ! Of course the brothers would n’t live there, but we should see each other, like ordinary people in society, and everything would not be so dreadfully blank ; and there is no end to the things which you could do and we cannot do unless we take a great deal of trouble. The usefulness of your plan seems to have no limits at all. How many brothers do you think we ought to have ? ”

“ I have not considered that point, ’ I said ; “ at present I know of but one person besides myself who would have the necessary qualifications for the position.”

“ I suspect,” she replied, looking at me with a twinkle of fun in her eye, “that if you had the selection of the other brothers they would be a tame lot.”

“ Perhaps you are right,” I said, and we both broke into a laugh.

“I wish I could tell you,” continued Sylvia. “ how much I am charmed with your idea of the brotherhood. I have n’t enjoyed myself so much for ever so long.”

We were now nearing the little house at the bottom of the hill. An idea struck me.

“ Who is it you are going to visit ? ” I asked.

“ It is an old man,” she said, “ who has rheumatism so badly that he cannot move. He has to take his medicine every hour, and his wife is worn out sitting up at night and giving it to him ; so Sister Agatha and I were sent to take care of him during the morning, and let the poor old woman get some sleep.

“ Very good,” observed I ; “ here is a chance for me to make a beginning in my scheme of brotherhood, and that without asking leave or license of anybody. I will go in with you, and help you nurse the old man.”

“ I believe you can do it splendidly,’ said Sylvia, “ and now we can see how a brotherhood would work.”

We entered a little house which apparently had once been a home good enough for humble dwellers, but which now showed signs of extreme poverty. A man with gray hair and placid pale face was lying on a bed in one corner of the room into which the door opened, and in a chair near by sat an old woman, her head bobbing in an uneasy nap. She roused when we entered, and seemed glad to see us.

“ He’s about the same as he was,” she said, “ and as he’s loike to be with thim little draps of midicine ; but if you ’re a docther, sir, it ain t for me to be meddlin’, and sayin’ that one of thim pepper-pod plasters with howles in it would do more good to his poor back than thim draps inside of him.”

“ Rheumatism is not treated externally so much as it used to be, I answered. “ You will find that internal medication will be of much more service in the long run.”

“ That may be, sir,” said she. “ but it won’t do to make the run too long, cousidtherm’ he hasn’t been able to do a sthroke of work for four weeks; and if ye’d ever tried one of thim plasters, sir, ye ‘d know they’s as warmin’ as sandpaper and salt. But if I kin git a little slape, it will be better for me than any midicine, inside or out.”

“ That’s what we came to give you,” said Sylvia. “ Go into the other room and lie down, and you shall not be called until it is time for your dinner,”

The woman gave a little shrug, which I imagine was intended to indicate that dinner and dinner time had not much relation to each other in this house, and going into an adjoining room, she was probably soon fast asleep.

“ It would be better to begin by giving him his medicine. I know all about it, for I was here yesterday. I forgot to ask his wife when she gave it to him last,” said Sylvia, “but we might as well begin fresh at the half-pasts.”

She poured out a teaspoonful of a dark draught and administered it to the old man, who ope tied his mouth and took it calmly.

“ He is very quiet and very patient,” remarked Sylvia to me in an undertone ; and it is quite impossible to describe how delightful it was to have her speak to me in such a confidential manner. “ He does n’t talk any,” she continued, “ and does n’t appear to care to have anybody read to him, for when Sister Agatha tried that yesterday he went to sleep ; but he likes to have his brow bathed, and I can sit on this side of his bed and do that, while you find another chair and sit on the other side, and tell me more about your plan of brotherhood.”

There was no other chair, but I found a box, on which I seated myself, while Sylvia, taking a bottle from her pocket, proceeded to dampen the forehead of the patient with its pleasantly scented contents.

I did not much like to see her doing this, nor did I care to discuss our projects over the body of this rheumatic laborer.

“It strikes me,” I began, “that it would be a good idea to put on that bay rum, or cologne, or whatever it is, with a clean paintbrush, or something of the kind. Don’t you dislike using your fingers ? ”

Sylvia laughed. “ You have much to learn yet,-’ she said, “ before you can be a brother ; and now tell me what particular kind of work you think the brothers should do. I hardly think nursing would suit them very well.”

I did not answer immediately, and Sylvia’s quick mind divined the reason of my reluctance.

“ Let us talk in French,” she said.

“ That will not disturb this good man, and he can go to sleep if he likes.”

“ Tres bien,” I answered, “ parlons nous en fran§ais.”

“ II seracharmant,” said she. “ J’aime la belle langue.”

The old man turned his head from one of us to the other ; all his placidity vanished, and lie exclaimed, “ Ciel! Voila les anges 1’un et 1'autre qui vient parler ina cl;ere langue.”

“ Good gracious ! ” exclaimed Sylvia, “ I thought he was Irish.”

The patient now took the business of talking into his own hands, and in his dear language told us his tale of woe. It was a very ordinary tale, and its dolefulness was relieved by the old man’s delight at finding people who could talk to him like Christians. One of his woes was that be had not been married to his wife long enough to teach her much French.

“ Better,” interpolated Sylvia to me, “ if we had kept on in English. It would have been much more satisfactory. I expect one of the sisters will be here before very long, and before she comes I wish you would tell me how you are getting on with your book. I have been thinking about it ever and ever so much.”

“I am not getting on at all,” said I. “ Without you there will be no book.”

At this Sylvia knit her brows a little and looked disturbed.

“ That is not a good way to talk about it, unless, indeed, the book could be made apart of the brotherhood work in some way. The publisher might want a typewritten copy, and if I should make it I should know the end of the story of Tomaso and Lucilla. You know I had almost given up ever knowing what finally happened to those two.”

“You shall know it,” said I; “we will work together yet. I can think of a dozen ways in which we can do it. and I intend to prove that my brotherhood idea is thoroughly practicable.”

“Of course it is,” said Sylvia ; “isn’t this practical ? ” and she bedewed the patient’s brow so liberally that some of the liquid ran into his eyes and made him wink vigorously.

“ Merci, mademoiselle,” he cried, “ maispas beaucoup. mais pas beaucoup ! ”

“ A capital practical idea has just occurred to me,” I said. “ Do you think you shall he here to-morrow ? ”

“ I expect to come here,” she answered. “ for I take a great deal of interest in this old man. Mother Anastasia is still away, and I think that Sister Sarah will send me again, for this is the kind of work she believes in. She has a very poor opinion of typewriting. But of course a sister will come with me.”

“ There is one coming to join you now,” I said ; “ I see her gray figure on the top of the hill. As she will not understand matters, and as I do not wish to talk any more about my plans until I am better able to show how they will work, I think it will he well for me to retire ; hut I shall be here to-morrow morning, and it will suit my plans very well if another sister come with you.

Sylvia turned and looked at the approaeliing gray figure.

“ L think that is Sister Lydia,” she said, — “ at least I think I recognize her walk, —and so it might he well for you to go. If it were Sister Agatha it would n’t matter so much. However, when your plan is all explained and agreed to, it will not make any difference who comes or goes.”

“ Very true,” I. answered ; “ and now I think I will bid you good-morning. Be sure to be here to-morrow.”

We shook hands over the prostrate form of the rheumatic Frenchman, who smiled and murmured, “ Bien, bien, mes anges,” and Sylvia assured me that I might expect her on the morrow.

XLV.

I MAKE COFFEE AND GET INTO HOT WATER.

I do not like to do anything which looks in the least underhanded, but I must admit that I left that wretched cottage by the back door, and, taking a path through some woods, made a wide circuit before returning to the village.

As soon as I reached my house I called Walkirk from his writing, and rapidly gave him instructions in regard to the execution of an idea which had come into my mind during my brotherhood labors of the morning. I told him to hasten to the scene of my building operations, and to take all the carpenters, painters, and plasterers he could crowd into a two-horse wagon, and go with them to the house of the invalid Frenchman, from which I knew the sisters would have departed before they should reach it. I promised to join him there, and at the same time that he set out on his errand I hurried to a shop in the village, the owner of which combined the occupations of cabinet-maker and undertaker, and generally kept on hand a small stock of cheap furniture. From this I selected such articles as I thought would be suitable or useful in the small house, which at present contained nothing too good for a bonfire, and ordered them to be sent immediately to the Frenchman’s cottage.

I reached this wretched tenement a few minutes before the arrival of Walkirk and the wagonload of mechanics. My understudy had entered heartily into my scheme, and as, by his directions, the men had brought with them everything needed to carry out my plans, in a very short time he and I had set every man to work.

There were carpenters, plasterers, painters, paper-hangers, and a tinner and glazier, and when they learned that I wanted that little house completely renovated in the course of the afternoon, they looked upon the business as a lark and entered into it with great spirit. The astonished wife did not understand what was about to happen, and even when I had explained the matter to her her mind seemed to understand nothing except the fact that the house ought to be cleaned before the painting and paper-hanging began; but there was no time for delays of this sort, and the work went on merrily.

When the wagonful of furniture arrived the woman gave a gasp, for the last time the vehicle had been there it had borne away her previous husband. But a bureau and tables and a roll of carpet assured her of its different purpose, and she worked with a will in assisting to arrange these articles.

Before dark the work was all done. The rheumatic Frenchman was lying on a shining new bedstead ; a box of pepper-pod plasters had been placed in the hands of his delighted wife ; a grocery wagon had deposited a load of goods in the kitchen ; the mechanics, in gay spirits, had driven away; and Walk irk and I, tired but triumphant, walked home, leaving behind us a magical transformation, a pervading smell of paint and damp wall-paper, and an aged couple as much dazed as pleased with what had happened.

Soon after breakfast the next day I repaired to the bright and tidy cottage, and there I had my reward. Standing near the house, somewhat in the shadow of a good-sized evergreen-tree, which 1 had ordered transplanted bodily from the woods into the little yard, I beheld Sylvia approaching, and with her a sister with a bandaged face, whom I rightly supposed to be the amiable Sister Agatha.

When the two came within a moderate distance of the cottage they stopped ; they looked about them from side to side ; and it was plain to see that they imagined they were on the wrong road. Then they walked forward a few steps, stopped again, and finally came running toward the house.

I advanced to meet them.

“ Good-morning, sisters,” said T.

The two were so much astonished that they did not return my greeting, and for a few moments scarcely noticed me. Then Sylvia turned.

“ How in the world,” she exclaimed,

“ did all this happen ? It must he the same house.”

I smiled, and waved my hand toward the cottage. This,” I said, “ is an instance of the way in which the brothers of the House of Martha intend to work.”

“ And you did this ? ” cried Sylvia, with radiant eyes.

I explained to the eagerly listening sisters how the transformation had been accomplished, and with a sort of reverent curiosity they approached the house. Sister Agatha ’s astonishment was even greater than that of Sylvia, for she had long known the wretched place.

“ It is a veritable miracle,” she said. “ See this beautiful white fence, and the gate ; it opens on hinges! ”

“ Be careful,” I remarked, as they entered the little yard ; some of the paint may yet be wet, although I told the men to put in as much drying-stuff as possible.”

“ Actually,” ejaculated Sylvia, “ a gravel walk up to the house ! ”

“ And the outside a daffodil yellow, with fern-green blinds!” said Sister Agatha.

“ And the eaves tipped with geranium red ! ” cried Sylvia.

And a real tree on each side of the front door, and new steps ! ” exclaimed Sister Agatha.

When they entered the house, the amazement and delight of the two sisters were a joy to my soul. They cried out at the carpet on the floor, the paper on the walls, the tables, the chairs, the bureau, the looking-glass, the three framed lithographs on the wall, the clock, and the shining new bedstead on which their patient lay.

“ If Mother Anastasia could but see this,” observed Sylvia, “ she would believe in the brotherhood .”

“ He sez ye ’re angels.” said the woman of the house, coming forward, — ” that’s what he sez ; and he’s roight, too, for with thim pepper-pod plasters, and the shmell of paint in the house, which he hates, he ’ll be out-o’-doors in two days, or I’m much mishtaken.”

Sylvia and I now approached the old man to find out what he thought about the state of affairs. He was very grateful, and did not say anything about the smell of paint; but we found him with a burning desire in his heart which had been fanned into flames by the arrival of the groceries on the day before. He eagerly asked us if we could make coffee. When he was well he could make it himself, but since he had been sick in bed he had not tasted a drop of the beloved liquid. His wife did not drink it, and could not even make it; but as we could speak French, and had sent coffee, he felt sure that we could compound the beverage so dear to the French heart.

“The angels make coffee,” he said, in his best patois ; “ otherwise, what would heaven be ? ”

Both of the angels declared that the good man should have some coffee without delay, but Sylvia said to me that, although she had not the least idea how to make it, she was quite sure Sister Agatha could do it. However, that sister declared that she knew nothing about coffee, and did not approve of it for sick people ; still, if the man did not like the tea his wife made, she would try what she could do.

But this offer was declined. The old man must have his coffee, and as there was no one else to make it I undertook to do it myself. I thought I remembered how coffee was made when I had been camping out, and I went promptly to work. Everybody helped. The old woman ground the berries, Sister Agatha stirred up the fire, and Sylvia broke two eggs in order to get shells enough to clear the liquid.

It was a good while before the coffee was ready, hut at last it was made, and in a great bowl Sylvia carried it to our patient. She sat down on one side of the bed to administer the smoking beverage with a spoon, while I sat on the other side and raised the old man’s head that he might drink easily. After swallowing the first teaspoonful the patient winked.

“ I hope it did not scald his throat,” said Sylvia. “ Do you know what’ scald ’ is in French ? ”

“ I cannot remember,” I answered.

“ You might let the next, spoonful cool a little.” But the patient opened his mouth for more.

“ C’est potage,” he said, “ mais il est bon.”

“I am sorry I made soup of it,” I observed to Sylvia, “ but I am sure it tastes like coffee.”

We continued to feed the old man, who absorbed the broth-like drink as fast as it was given to him, until a voice behind me made us both jump.

“ Sister Hagar,” said the voice, “what does this mean ? ”

“ Goodness, Mother Anastasia ! ” cried Sylvia, “ you made me scald the outside of his throat.”

At the foot of the bed stood Mother Anastasia, clad in her severest gray, her brows knit and her lips close pressed.

“ Sister Hagar,” she repeated, “what is all this?”

I let down the old man’s head, and Sylvia, placing the almost empty bowl upon the table, replied serenely : —

“ Mr. Varnderley is making a beginning in brotherhood work, — the brotherhood of the House of Martha, you know. I think it will work splendidly. Just look around and see what he has done. He has made this charming cottage out of an old rattletrap house. Everything you see was done in one afternoon, and there are quantities of provisions in the kitchen besides. Sisters alone could never have accomplished this.”

Mother Anastasia turned toward me. “ I will speak with you outside,” she said, and I followed her into the little yard.

As soon as we were far enough from the house to speak without being overheard, she Stopped and sternly remarked:

“ You are not content with driving me from the life on which I had set ray heart back into this mistaken vocation, but you are determined to make my lot miserable and unhappy. And not mine only, but also the lot of that simple-hearted and unsuspecting girl. I do not see how you can be so selfishly eruel. You are resolved to break her heart, and to do it in the most torturing way. But you shall work her no more harm. I do not now appeal to your honor, to your sense of justice ; I simply say that I shall henceforth stand between you and her. What misery may come to her and to me from what you have already done I do not know, but you do no more.”

I stood and listened, with the blood boiling within me.

“Marcia Raynor,” I said, — “for I shall not call you by that title which you put on and take off as you please, — I here declare to you that I shall never give up Sylvia. If I never speak to her again or see her, I shall not give her up. I make no answer to what you have charged me with, but I say to you that as Sylvia’s life and mine cannot be one, as I would have it. I shall live her life even though our lives be ever apart. For the love I bear her, I shall always do the work that she does. But I believe that the time is coming when people wiser than you will see that what I propose to do is a good thing; and the time will come when a man and a woman can labor side by side in good works, and both do better work because they work together. And to Sylvia and to my plan of brotherhood I shall ever be constant. Remember that.”

Without a word or change in her expression she left me, went into the house, and closed the door behind her. I did not wish to make a scene which would give rise to injurious gossip, and therefore walked away; and as I did so I turned to look in at the open window, but I did not see Sylvia. I saw only the bandaged face of Sister Agatha looking out at me more mournfully than before.

As I walked rapidly homeward, I said to myself : “ Now I declare myself a full brother of the House of Martha. I shall take up its cause and steadfastly work for it, whether they like it or not.”

XLVI.

GOING BACK FOR A FRIEND.

When I reached home, I found my grandmother and told her everything that had happened. My excitement was so great that it was necessary I should talk to some one, and I felt a pang of regret when I remembered that of late I had not made her my confidante.

However, she listened eagerly and without interrupting me, but as I spoke she shook her head again and again, and when I had finished she said : —

“ My dear boy, if you understood the world and the people in it as well as I do, you would know that that sort of thing can never, never work. Before long you and Sylvia would be madly in love with each other, and what would happen then nobody knows. It may be that Mother Anastasia has not fully done her duty in this case, or it may be that she has done too much, and other people may have acted improperly and without due thought and caution ; but be this as it may, it is plain enough to see that your poor heart has been dreadfully wrung. I wish I had known before of this brotherhood notion and of what you intended to do, and I should have told you, as I tell you now, that in this world we must accept situations. That is the only way in which we can get along at all. Sylvia Raynor has gone, soul and body, into this Martha house, which is the same as a convent, and to all intents and purposes she is a nun. Now there is no use fighting against that sort of thing. Even if she should consent to climb over the wall and run away with you, I do not believe you would like a wife who would do that, after all she had vowed and given her solemn word to.”

“ My dear grandmother,” I answered, “ all that you say may be true, but it makes no difference to me ; I shall always be faithful to Sylvia.”

“ Perhaps so, perhaps so,” said she ; “still, you must remember this: it may be very well to be faithful, but you must be careful how you show your fidelity. In some respects Mother Anastasia is entirely right, and your faithfulness, if injudiciously shown, may make miserable the life of this young woman.”

I sighed, but said nothing. My grandmother looked pityingly upon me.

“ I think you can do nothing better than to travel, as you have proposed. Stay away for a year. Dear knows, I do not want to have you stay from me for all that time, but the absence will be for your good. It will influence your life. When you come back you will know yourself better than you can now. Then you will be able to see what you truly ought to do ; and I promise you that, if I am alive, I will help you do it.”

I took the dear old lady in my arms, and her advice to my heart. I acknowledged to myself that at this juncture the wisest thing, the kindest thing, was to go away. I might not stay away for a year, but I would go.

“ Grandmother,” I said, “ I will do what you advise. But I have something to ask of you. I have vowed that I will be a brother of the House of Martha, and that I will do its work, with or without the consent of the sisters, and with or without their companionship. Now, if I go, will you be my substitute ? Will you, so far as you can, aid the sisters in their undertakings, and do what you think I would do if I were here? ”

“ I cannot change a dilapidated hut into a charming cottage in one afternoon,” she answered, placing both hands on my shoulders as she spoke, “ but I will do all that I can, and all that you ought to do if you were here. That much I promise.”

“ Then I will go,” I replied, “ with a heavy heart, but with an eased conscience.”

Walkirk entirely approved of an immediate start upon the journey which I had before planned. I think he feared that if it were postponed any longer I might get some other idea into my head which would work better than the brotherhood scheme, and that our travels might be delayed indefinitely.

But there was a great deal to be done before I could leave home for a long absence, and a week was occupied in arranging my business affairs, and planning for the comfort and pleasure of my grandmother while I should be away. Walkirk engaged the stenographer, and was the greatest possible help to me in every way ; but notwithstanding his efforts to relieve me of work, that was a busier week for me than any other in my whole life. This was an advantage, for it kept me from thinking too much of the reason for my hurried journey.

At last the day arrived on which the steamer was to sail, and the generally cool Walkirk actually grew nervous in his efforts to get me ready to start by the early morning train for the city. In these efforts I did not assist him in the least. In fact, had he not been with me, I think I should not have tried to leave home in time to catch the steamer. The more I thought of catching the steamer, the less I cared to do so ; the more I thought of leaving home, the less I cared to do so. It was not that I was going away from Sylvia that made me thus reluctant to start. It was because I was going away without taking leave of her ; without a word or even a sign from her. I ground my teeth as I thought how I lost the only chance I had to bid her farewell, and to assure her that, no matter what happened, I would be constant to her and to the principles in which we had both come to believe. I had been too much excited when I last left her in the Frenchman’s cottage to think that would be my last chance of seeing her ; that thereafter Mother Anastasia would never cease to guard her from my speech or sight. I should have rushed in, caring for nothing. People might have talked, but Sylvia would have known that prohibitions and separations would make no difference in my feeling for her.

And now I was departing without even the slightest trifle which I could cherish as a memento of her. There was a blankness about it all that deadened my soul.

But Walkirk was inexorable. He made every arrangement, even superintending my farewell to my grandmother, and gently but firmly interrupted me as I repeated my entreaties that she would speedily find out something about Sylvia and write to me. At last we were in the carriage, with time enough to reach the station, and Walkirk wiped his brow as would a man who had had a heavy load lifted from his mind.

We had not gone a quarter of the distance when the thought suddenly struck me, Why should I go away without a memento of Sylvia ? Why had I not remembered my friend Vespa, the wasp, whose flight around my secretary’s room had made the first break in the restrictions which surrounded her, had first shown me a Sylvia in place of a graybonneted nun ? That dead wasp pinned to a card on the wall of my study was the only thing I possessed in which Sylvia had a share. I must return and get it; I must take it with me.

When I shouted to the coachman to turn, that I must go back to get something, Walkirk was thrown into a fever of anxiety. If we did not catch this train we should lose the steamer. The next train would be three hours later. But his protestations had no effect upon me ; I must have Sylvia’s wasp, no matter what happened.

Back to the house we dashed, and upstairs I ran. I took down the card to which the wasp was affixed, I found a little box in which to put it, and while I was looking for a rubber hand with which to secure the lid a servant came hurriedly into the room with a telegram for me. I tore it open. It was from Miss Laniston, and read thus: “ Come to me as soon as you can. Important business.”

“ Important business ! ” I ejaculated. “ She can have no business with me that does not concern Sylvia. I will go to her instantly.” In a few seconds I was in the carriage, shouting to the man to drive as fast, as he could.

“ Yes, indeed,” remarked Walkirk, “ you cannot go too fast.”

I handed my companion the telegram. He read it blankly.

“ It is a pity,” he said, “ if the business is important. All that can be done now is to telegraph to her that she must write to you in London by the next steamer.”

“ I shall do nothing of the kind,” I answered. “ I am going to her the instant we reach New York.”

Walkirk clenched his hands and looked away. He had no words for this situation.

My feeling was very different. “ What a wonderful piece of luck ! ” I exclaimed. “ If we had kept on to the station by this short cut, the telegraph boy, who of course came by the main road, would have missed me, and there would not have been time for him to get back to the station before the train started. How fortunate it was that I went back for that wasp! ”

“ Wasp! ” almost screamed Walkirk, and by the way he looked at me I knew he imagined that I was temporarily insane.

We caught the train, and on the way I explained my allusion to the wasp so far as to assure Walkirk that I was no more crazy than men badly crossed in love are apt to be.

“ But are you really goingto see Miss Laniston ? ” he asked.

“ I shall be able to drive up there, give her fifteen minutes with five as a margin, and reach the steamer in time. You can go directly to the dock, and attend to the baggage and everything.”

My understudy sighed, but he knew it was of no use to make any objections. He did not fail, however, to endeavor to impress upon me the importance of consulting my watch while listening to Miss Laniston’s communication.

My plan was carried out; we separated as soon as we reached the city, and in a cab I rattled away to see Miss Laniston.

XL VII.

I INTEREST MISS LANISTON.

When I reached Miss Laniston’s house that lady was at breakfast, but she did not keep me waiting long.

“ Truly,” she remarked, as she entered the drawing-room, “ you are the most expeditious person I ever knew.

I believed that you would come to me, but I did not suppose you would even start as soon as this.”

“ I had already started when I received your telegram,” I said.

“ To come here ? ”

“No, to sail for Europe.”

“ Well, well! ” she exclaimed; “ from this moment I shall respect my instincts, a thing I never did before. When I awoke this morning, my first thought was of the message I intended to send to you, and I proposed to attend to it immediately after breakfast; but my hitherto unappreciated instincts hinted to me that no time should be lost, and I called my maid and dispatched the telegram. Moral: Do all the good you can before you get up in the morning. Why are you starting for Europe ? ”

“ I have n’t time to tell you,” I answered ; k* in fact, I can remain only a few minutes longer, or I shall lose the steamer. Please tell me your business.”

“ Is Sylvia the cause of your going away ? ” she asked.

“ Yes,” I said. “ Is she the reason of your wishing to see me ? ”

“Most certainly,” she said. “When does your steamer start ? ”

“ At ten o’clock,” I replied.

“ Oh, bless me,” she remarked, glancing at the clock, “ you have quite time enough to hear all I have to say ; and then if you do not catch the steamer it is your own fault. Sit down, I pray you.”

Very reluctantly I took a seat, for at last the spirit of Walkirk had infected me.

“ Now.” said she, “ I will cut my story as short as possible, but you really ought to hear it before you start. I made a visit to Arden on the day after you performed the grand transformation scene in your brotherhood extravaganza. I should have been greatly amused by what was told me of this prank, if I had not, seen that it had caused so much trouble. Sylvia was in a wretched way, and in an extremely bad temper. Marcia was almost as miserable, for she was acting the part of an extinguisher not only to Sylvia’s hopes and aspirations, but to her own. So far as I could see there was no way out of the doleful dumps into which you seem to have plunged yourself and all parties concerned, but I set to work to try what I could do to straighten out matters ; my principal object being, I candidly admit, to enable Marcia Raynor to feel free to give up her position of watch-dog and go to her national college. on which her soul is set. However, to accomplish this I must first do something with Sylvia; but that girl has a conscience like a fence post, and a disposition like a squirrel that skips along the rails. I could do nothing with her. She had sworn to be a sister of the House of Martha for life, and yet she would not consent to act like an out-andout sister, and give up all that stuff about typewriting for you, and the other nonsensical notions of co-Marthaism with which you had infected her. She stoutly stuck to it, in spite of all the arguments I could use, that there was no good reason why you and she, as well as the other sisters and some other gentlemen, could not Work together in the noble cause ot I don’t remember what fol-derol. Pretty co-Marthas you and she would make !

“ Then I tried to induce Marcia to give up her fancies of responsibility and all that, and to leave the girl in the charge of the present Mother Inferior, an elderly woman called Sister Sarah, who in my opinion could be quite as much of a griffin as the case demanded. But she would not listen to me. She had been the cause of her cousin’s joining the sisterhood, and now she would not desert her; and she said much about the case requiring not only vigilance, but kindness and counsel, and that sort of thing. Then I went back to the city and tried my hand on Sylvia’s mother, but with no success. She is like a stone gatepost and always was, and declared that as Sylvia had entered the institution because Marcia was there, it was the latter’s duty to give up everything else, and to throw herself between Sylvia and your mischievous machinations, and to stay there until you were married to somebody and the danger was past.”

“ Machinations ! ” I ejaculated. “ A most unreasonable person ! ”

“ Perhaps so,” said Miss Laniston,

“ but not a bit more than the rest of you. You are the most unreasonable lot I ever met with. Having failed utterly with the three women, I had some idea of sending for you, and of trying to persuade you to marry some one who is not under the sisterhood’s restrictions, and so straighten out this wretched complication ; but I knew that you were more obstinate and stiffnecked than any of them, and so concluded to save myself the trouble of reasoning with you.”

“ A wise decision,” I remarked.

ButI could not give up,” she continued. “ I could not hear the thought that my friend Marcia Raynor should sacrifice herself in this way. I went back to Arden in the hope that something might suggest itself ; that a gleam of sense might be shown by one or other of the lunatics in gray, for whose good I was racking my brains. But I found things worse than I had left them. Sylvia had stirred herself into a spirit of combativeness of which no one would have supposed her capable, and had actually endeavored to browbeat her Mother Superior into the belief that a brotherhood annex was not only necessary to the prosperity and success of the House of Martha, but that it was absolutely wicked not to have it. She had gone on in this strain until Marcia had become angry, and then there had been a scene and tears, and much subsequent misery.

” I talked first with one doleful sister, and then with another, with the only result that I became nearly as doleful as they. In my despair I went to Marcia, and urged her to acknowledge herself vanquished, to give up this contest, which would be her ruin, to show herself a true woman and take up the true work of her life. ‘ Oh, I could n’t do it,’ she said, and she looked as if she were going to cry, a most unusual thing with her. ‘ If I went away, to-morrow they would be together, making mudpies for the children of the poor,’ I sprang to my feet. ‘Marcia Raynor,’ I cried, ‘ you made this House of Martha ! You are the head and the front, the top and the bottom, of it. You are its founder and its autocrat; it lives on your money, for everybody knows that what these sisters make would n’t buy their pillboxes; and now, having run it all these years, and having brought yourself and Sylvia to the greatest grief by it, it is your duty to put an end to it, to abolish it.’

“ ‘ Abolish the House of Martha? ’ she said, with her great eyes blazing at me.

“ ‘ Yes,’ I said, ‘ abolish it, destroy it, annihilate it, declare it null, void, dead and gone, utterly extinguished and out of existence. You can do this, and you ought to do it. It is your only way out of the dreadful situation in which you have got yourself and Sylvia. Let the rest of the sisters go to some other institutions, or wherever they like. You and Sylvia will be free, — that is the great point. Now do not hesitate. Stop supplies, dissolve the organization, break up the House of Martha, and do it instantly.’

“ She made one step toward me and seized me by the wrist. ‘ Janet,’ she said, ‘ I will do it.’ And she did it that day. At present there is no House of Martha.”

I sat and gazed at Miss Laniston without comprehending what I had heard.

“ No House of Martha ! ” I exclaimed.

“ That is precisely the state of the case,” she answered. “ The establishment was dissolved at noon yesterday. As I had had all the trouble of bringing this tiling about, I considered that I had a right to tell you of it myself. I thought it would interest me to see how you took it.”

I arose to my feet, I stepped toward her ; she also arose.

“No House of Martha!” I gasped. “ And Sylvia ? ”

“ Sylvia will go home to her mother; she told me so yesterday. I was present at the dissolution. I think she will come to the city this afternoon.”

I snatched up my hat. “ I must go to her instantly,” I said ; “ I must see her before she reaches her mother. I have lost time already.”

“ Upon my word,” remarked Miss Laniston, “your way of taking it is indeed interesting. Not a word of thanks, not a sign of recognition ” —

I was nearly at the door, but now rushed back and seized her hand. “ Excuse me,” I said, “ but you can see for yourself,” and with one violent shake I dropped her hand and hurried away.

“ Oh, yes,” she replied, “ I can easily see for myself ; ” and as I left the house I heard her hearty laugh.

I sprang into my cab, ordering the man to drive fast for the railroad station. It mattered not to me whether Walkirk went to Europe or not. All I cared for was to catch the next train that would take me to Arden.

Frank R. Stockton.