Newspapers / The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, … / Feb. 28, 1909, edition 1 / Page 20
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1 7T ' 47Mwy H y I 1 KVUI Xw 1, X w f MM TL I j Tn X l.Tl W 1 I i I W. "V If I 11 1 MW .ft ft l W 1 w li f II ff .11 r . , - A 1l HE house was one of a brick row in an un pretentious street of a manufacturing city, a street given to clouds of dust in drought and to amazing depths of mud in times of rain. Outwardly, the house was like any one of its hall-dozen neighbors. Within, there was little enough of originality dis played to make one doubt that its furnishings sug gested those of its counterparts to right or left. It was only when one passed through the kitchen and emerged on the steps that led to1 the region known as the back yard that the note of distinction was sounded. As far, indeed, as dimensions and clothes-polts were concerned the yarj was precisely and mathe matically like any one of the row, but where the Others were given over chiefly to straggling growths of vine and weed, with here and there a neglected plant, this one boa.ted of a well tended border cir cling three sides of the minute grass-plot wherein bloomed a charming, if miscellaneous collection of hardy roes, old-fashioned blue bells, philox and ragged-sailor, 'hat stood side by side in almost mill tary precision like a corporal's guard on dress pa rade. The high board fence :ha: separated the little gar den from the grounds ,.f the b factory i:' the rear was glorious with a s.-.nglc of honey --.irlJc, and up i: fPWMMmm S ' fill MhB&i inn Hit BROKK OIT A Sr-RAV ot T;m: wMnr.rR and snK T'XKFn JT CO.n:iiTTlSill.Y IN Tlir. orh'i n lie k oi' Km whit:: r.i.oi s:-: ihe side of the use '!c!f a ler seemed to Haunt .111 ai:d ic orless town. Before this iijxib t"ri;r.' ori Ramfc n'Us i.'of .-.-ir : the col apparently wrapped in contemplation of it Summer afternoon, a leni. .dd ir. Mood, this sultry rri.iti and a girl. hp he c ive ni" " Tether " 'Twasn'f no ni"re than Hewlett's voire, c r;.rk d but ttr.M i.anl. ri'e as he ' Xutliin' more approached the ol:r ;i id hU than a slip And h "V at ;t iv He waved a trcmuhni- hand -I'll it the flaunting R;imb- ler The girl drew a long, appreciai.-e breath One could never have told fr.m the ilittcring interest with which she followed Father Hewlett' story that this was far from her first hearing oi the apotheosis cf the Crimson Rambler. "Well, you ought to be proud'" she assured him loudly. "Eh!" said Father Hewlett; he was very deaf She raised her voice and repeated the compliment, her face flushing with the exertion She was a radiant your? creatarc, a ruddy hh nde, warm as to tints and generous as to proportions and buoyant with health; the type of girl wh ; one might fancy could stand to symbolize the embryonic mother ef a race. There was a look of motherhood now in the young eves th.,t looked at the bent old man whose head scarce!)- reached her shoulder. "Well," she ta'lrd at h'.tn, "aren't you going to give me one?" "Dunno as I can spare one," he said begrudgingly , and they both laughed This was the invariable game that followed the inspection of the garden, and the old man delighted in it He broke o-fT .1 spray of the Rambler and she tucked it coquettish!)- in the open neck of her white bloue. "There!" she shrieked at him. "Becomes ye," he chuckled gallantly. Inside the kitchen window her aunt, Mrs. Hew lett, who was also the old man's daughter-in-law, looked out at them disapprovingly above the pan of enshellcd peas in her lap. She was a little woman riih a personality th?.t suggested worn-out machin-' cry still kept revolving by sheer power of insistent "nerves. Her expressiem seemed to belong to one who was constantly affronted and resented rt "There's Minnie potterm around the yard with father again," she said to her sister. "I should think she'd be eat alive with mosquitoes. It's all I can d toeep 'em out of. the nouse with Til's coming in and going back there every few minutes. He gets crazier about them flowen of hit every year of his life. For my part I wouldn't miss 'em. They're a perfect nuisance on wash days." "He does seem to take a sight of comfort in 'em," said Mrs. Deming placidly. Minnie's mother was a large woman, ample of heart and body, with a face that some thirty years ago must have been like her daughter's. She bore no more resemblance to Mrs. Hewlett than a full-leaved oak does to a telegraph pole This wa the first visit she had paid her sister in some years, although their homes were less than a day's journey a part. She had come now more from a sense of duty than from any pleasure she might de rive, leaving her comfortable home in a cool Con necticut town for a two-weeks' stay in a dusty city. "! wouldn't think of it if she could come here," she flad exp!ained to her daughter, "but, what with ficore's father to look after and those young men from the mill coming in for table board, she's bound hnd and foot. She's had a pretty hard time of it since George died, poor Em! and it's a pity if I can't make a visit to the oniy sister I've got in the world once in five years! Mrs Denting wa a widow Minnie was her only child, and the affection between them would never h.-.vc permitted a two-weeks' separation that could be avoided by the simple expedient oi two being un- co".-.' ir:!i!', irWe.vl f rrte. As a rhatter of course, Minnie l-;:d ccr.-.o with her m-rthcr. Presently a factory whi tic somewhere blew rau cously and Mrs. Hewlett s-rang to her feet as at aa . r.h-r "I've r;rt to Ir.irry. "he boys will be here in .-. few mitf'.e'." che '.-id. "Jim niton's usually home by thi . time, rnyway Since yott and Minnie have been here he seems to beat the sound of the whistle. I don't know what he'll do when to-morrow comes and you're gone." Mrs. Deming l.-.rhed unconcernedly. That a yor.njr man should ho .V.tentic to a pretty girl was a net -o accustomed to her way of thinking as to be unnoticeable. Minnie was nineteen, and since her earliest school days had never failed to have a certain number of callow admirers at her heels, with all of whom she h.-d laughed and chummed as unconsciously as if each had been her own sister. If romance had ever touched her with a very finger tip, she had given no evidence of it. Mrs Hewlett pursued the subject, however, as she and Mrs Deeming laid the long table in the gloomy dimng-room. "Well, he's a real nice fellow and he's got nice parents, too His father was a friend of George' ire Chi. ago.- that's how he happened to come to me f6r board when they sent him here to take charge of the new steel works. He's awful handy around the house, too -does lots of little things that a woman can't manage and father's no more use than an old tomcat." "Yes, I guess he's real pleasant," agreed Mr. Deming "I must say he seems as far above those young men from the mill as a church spire from a fence, though I don't doubt they're good, honest boys It's been real nice for Minnie to have some body to take her around a little, that trolley ride to Electric Grove last night and going to Luna Park Saturday. I was glad she had the chance but, land! I guess he won't miss us much as you think. Why, they haven't known each other two weeka until. to- morrow! I guess there's nothing to worry abont-" "You'd known Wilbur Deming one Bioh to the day you ran off with him!" Mrs. Hewlett retorted, Mrs. Deming's face grew rosy as youth itself and she laughed. "Those were different timet," she slid, "People are more calculating these days. I'm not afraid of Minnie doin' anything like that she's a tunfiy girl I nevrf"uared tease her about: thr-hoys for all her laughing, the can flare up like lightning." She resumed her seat In the window with her palm leaf fan and' promptly dismissed - the ' subject of Mr. Elton from her mind. She was quite sincere in the opinion she had cxpresed to her sister,' and she was even , amused at Mrs. Hewlett's speculations. " "If I was to tell Minnie that, wouldn't she be mad!" she thought : ,- ! . . Presently she heard Minnie and the old man come in from the garden, and soon, after, the thee young men from the mill came in awkwardly and took their places at the table, their hair damp from "recent brush ing and their faces shiny from conscientious ablutions. They shot an occasional awid glance at Minnie as' they ate, but they never addressed her. In fact,, she em barrassed them terribly, much in the way an affable ange! might an humble farrfily by suddenly appearing at their board, and by his very radiance confirming the immeasurable distance betw'eerw.himself and them. - Minnie and her mother sat at the end-of the table with Mrs. Hewlett. Besides Mrs. Hewlett was Elton's empty chair. "He must be working late ' to-night It's funny what's keeping him,7 she complained to Mrs. Deming and Minnie. "I never knew him to be as late as this." "Oh, I guess hell be along presently," said Mrs. Deming. Minnie offered neither consolation nor commeftt. She went on stead) ly with her supper, though she was aware of a certain anxious bewilderment that sur prised her. "It does seem strange, and our last night here, too," she told herself in excuse' of it Presently she went out and joined Father Hewlett on the narrow porch at the front of the house. The o!d man had had his supper at the kitchen table and had come out here with his pipe. The girl sat beside him r.nd he admired the touch of crimson at her throat. "Gr.css the garden'll miss ye to-morrow," he ventured. She smiled abicntly at him in truth she was occu pied in didcavoring to explain her own unwonted emotions concerning Elton, and she was annoyed with herself to fir.d it necessary. She l-zd no idea that she had become so interested in the yoitng mr.x She liked him, his kindliness, his strength, his cidcnt desire to please her. They had become good comrades in the little while she had kn o.n him, but nothing of a sentimental nature had ever occurred brtwepn them, even4 of the slightest, even il otgh for the last week she had been subtly awv.re of a vague, intangible undercurrent in their companionship that fascinated while it startled her. When they had parted the night before, his hand clasp, the last look he had given her, seemed to con vey more than mere friendliness, and despite herself her heart had leaped to answer it. "Well, I must have been mistaken," she told herself mercilessly. "Mr. Elton was good to me and took me around just as he would have taken any other girl that happened to be here. I've been a fool to think anything about him at all, or to flatter myself that he would rush home to-night because he wanted to be with me. He probably don't know or care whether we're going home to-morrow or not, and it serves, me right. I sh'n't think of him again, if I live to be a hundred." One of the table-boarders who lodged in the next hoit;e, where Mr. Elton also had a room, appeared on his own steps with a banjo and without warning bur-t into melody. Mrs. Hewlett and Mrs. Deming from behind the mosquito-nettings in the little parlor, stopped the swaying of their rocking-chairs to listen. Presidency Mrs. Hewlett appeared at the door. "Ed," she said to the young man, "Jim Elton hasn't come in yet there's nothing wrong at the works, is 'nfrf-'" . .. "Nothing as far as I know," he replied and resumed his interrupted melody. A sudden thought made the girl start to he feet with the very hldeousness of it No, there was nothing wrong at the works; Jim Elton was staying away purposely I No doubt she had hown too plainly her joy at his attentions and had (horrible thought!) pursued him. This prear ranged absence was simply to give her vanity a lesson. Tor a moment she winced with humiliation; then she took hold of her fine courage with both hands, though the idea with every moment s, passing seenwd to grow more probable. "I've- had about . enough of this nonsense," she told herself; "He can come or stay as he likes it's nothing to me, one way or the other." f , . . She went into the parlor in a few minutes with tier head high. "I guess I'll go up and finish packing, she said to Mrs. Deming, "and then go to bed we have to start early for the eight-o'clock tram, you know." . , . Mrr. Deming came panting up the stairs and sat heavily on the side of the bed as her daughter packed. "In the land's name, don't work so hardr she said finally, "You're goim at that trunk as though you hated it real vicious 1 ' ' , ' The girl flushed hotly; then fhe laughed. 'Perhaps I do," she said. "Well, there'll be one person here that s going to miss you, "if I know it," rcsurned her mother, "and that's Father Hewlett It's tickled him to death to have you fussing around those flowers of his as though you'd never seen one befort. Em don't seem to have much sympathy with him" . ' "Sympathy i her daughter repeated. "If you ask me, mother, I think she' downright mean" to. him; poor old man! I onh vmh he was coming home .with us." ' Suddenly her face worked and she burst mto stormy tears above. the skirt she was folding. "She's down right mean to him !" she sobbed passionately. f "Why, what on earth is the matter-with you r- said Mrs. Deming. She drew Minnie close in her motherly arms half-anxious half-amused . "Why. the idea, of taking on so about Father Hewlett! - Em looks after , him as though he was a baby. You needn't worry that he isn't comfortable. Why, 4he idea r Her daughter averted her face. - . , "1 guess this heat ..has made you nervous, m bo grad when,we'r home" . aid Mrs. Dmimr. - For some time after she was in bed Minnie heard the young man with the .banjo singing, tunelessly to himself. Presently the heard him go m and abut the door. Fri t t when her mother arid nersetf came down' the neVF morhitifrrthe youiyj'Hien from thfr mill bad eetea and gone their way. - Mrs. Deming' and Minnie ate breakfast , with, their, hats on.. They were, to leave. in 11- few minutes.,. If Mrs. Hewlett had received any word from the absent Elton she had no ehanee to impart it - Father Hewlett came into the room as they rose from the table, -a huge bunch of crimson ramblers in his ,' trembling "old hands. ! He had cannily planned to appear at the last moment and surprise, and delight Minnie with a bouquet of Jiis favorite bloom as a parting gift He had risen almost at dawn to have plenty of time for this labor of love. . . - , Though he, realized the magnificence of his. gift, he tried to present it lightly. - "Here's just a little posy ', picked to go home with you," he said as he put it into' the girl's arms'. "f ;v Mrs. Deming : regarded the hugh bunch with some; concern as' well as amusement. Goodness!" she said ' to her hiiter. "Just listen to the fuss Minnie's making over them! She's got a good heart, if I do sy it. Why, to bear.fcer ypu'd think they was made of gold! Well, it's about time to start, I guess. If that's the ' trolley at the bottom of the hill, we'll have to run for it as It is.?,;- - ',.' s '. '.-.' v There was a moment of Ieave-taking followed by one of intense--excitement as -Mrsr Deming suddenly dis covered that, her, pocket-book was not1 in' her hand or, her pocket. . Minnie laid the valise and the csimscm ramblers on.the table." "You left; it on the dressing-case this morning I remember I meant to bring it down," she said. - "III fet it, mother, and you take these and go on ahead, hey'll hold the car.'1. The old man hobbled excitedly to the front door as Mrs. Hewlett.ahd her Bister embraced for the last time. Father Hewlett arid his daughter-in-law heard 'pres-, ently the lang of the departing trolley and Mrs. Hew lett betook herself promptly to the kitchen and the unwashed dishes.- It toas only a moment or so before she heard the old man calling her and something in his voice prompted her to "drop her towel and .run to the dining-room. ' "Why see here,vEmnjie,', he quavered. "Minnie's for got her posy. Don't seem' as if she could of I'm going riht down to the station after 'em; maybe the train'U be late and I can ketch 'em. You get me my hat." Mrs. Hewlett barred his way to the door. "Now, father,", she screamed at him, "you ain't going to do anything of the kind. You couldn't ketch 'em if you did. I don't believe they forgof'em at all. They probably had so much to carry that they were sensible enough to leave that great bunch behind 'em." Father Hewlett's bewilderment deepened. "Minnie didn't want 'em didn't want her, posy I cut for her? Why she was just set on that rambler. I don't know what you mean," he said, but his mouth worked piti fully. Mrs. Hewlett did not . mean to be unkind she was only in a hurry and young Elton s absence was worry ing her. "Now don't be foolish, father. I guess she was just carrying on over that rambler to please you. Now don't you fuss any more about it." She said her last words from the kitchen to a noisy accompaniment of rattling plates. Left alone, the old man stared down at the flowers silence. "She didn't want 'em!'' he said. "Why I thought she's be tickled to death with 'em and I got up early to pick 'em for her nd she didn't want 'em!" The train 'that Minne and her mother were to take was one that carried them only as far as New York. From there they were to go to another line. Tbey made the eight o'clock train with time to spare, and having settled Mrs. Deming in comfort Minnie dropped into the seat beside her and watched list lessly from the car window the receding town. Against one of the houses a hardy crimson rambler caught the girl's eye as the train flashed past, and a sudden dismay dawned vividly on her face. "Mother," she said, "what did you 4o with Father Hewlett's bouquet? I left it on the table when I ran up-stairs for your pocket-book. Mother, you didn't forget it?" "Well, I declare !" said the contrite Mrs. Deming, "but that's just what I did, Minnie, and I wouldn't have done it for anything, and he so pleased with it and all. Why, child, it's nothing to look so about. You've turned real white you write Father Hewlett a nice letter when you get home and tell him how it hap pened." The conductor put his head in the door and the train began to slow. 'Bridge Street," he called. ' Mrs,. Deming turned her wondering eyes on her SHS SMU.KO BACK AT HIM daughter who had risen from her seat and was hur riedly putting on her gloves. The girl's mouth was determined her eyes were very bright. "I am going to get off this train the minute it Vops, and I am going back for jhat bouquet," said Minnie. "Yd rather die-than have that poor old man think I didn't appreciate his flowers." 'Why; you must be crary!" grasped Mrs. Deming, ' her large face crimson; "What a.iv I going to do?'. .... "You stay on the train, that's all," said her daughter; "and when you get to v New. York, just sit-in the waiting-room until I come IT! be as quick as I can. We're not out of the city yet. 111 take a ear back and catch the first train I can to New York. You just wait for me. mother, that's alL" ' ' "Well mis the Shore train!" "Then we'll take the next one. Now don't say an-v jr-other- word, mother; You jut . $et mseciSij--Mi-i-read it in the station till 1 cornel" - ; 1 ' -i V Btei ' J 11 ,:ni A 777 - "Mrs. Deming! arguments . broke at her daughter! - determined face.' '"Well, if you're as set on it as all H that go" she said. '-"But I sha'nVdraw an easybreath until f see you. i? - . - When -the train stopped at Bridge Street she eyed her daughter appealingly, but -the. girl never looked at her.1 .' ;"' ' ', ' ' The oUiginer policeman who put; her on the right " trolley gave her . voluble directions as weIL,and it was less than an hour-before Minnie ran breathlessly-up the steps that led to Mrs. Hewlett's door. She opened . the screen door without the formality , of ringing 4h .belt v-i. ';'.:.-' y,: ' ' :,--:': )fii-"i'-; She went directly to Father .'Hewlett who 1 sat in nis cnair oy me window in the dining-room, the lading bunch of crimson .ramblers still held in his, tremulous old hands. . . '. - . ,', '... "I've come, back for my flowers, Father -Hewlett," she said, lirher high, young voice "1 didn't miss them" until we'daken,the train, and L came straight back for them." ' -:.' . .. " .'''. ,.'-..' The old man regarded her with a -look that' turned from 'beewildcrment to' rapture. "You come oack'for . your-posy,? be qtfavcredr . H'J':;' "Yes, I did,'! she said, "and I left motherSn the why to Ne,? York and I've got to hurry back. I, couldn't go without my flowers. Father Hewlett, and that's alL" He shot a look of triumph and delight over her head at his daughter-in-law. ..: '.'Left your ma on the car and come all the way back for your -posy!" he repeated. . , ; .-. "I BCjVe heard of such a thing!" said Mrs. Hewlett. "Why, you'll be all tired out. SiJ down a minute any , way, can't. you?", ' "I promised' mother' I'd come right back," said Min nie with' the red roses in her arms. ,; i ' Minnie walked, toward the corner.--where she was to meet the trolley. For the second time that morn ing she had escaped from her aunt before Jim-Elton's name had been spoken though even now every impulse urged her back into the house she had just quitted to ask for news from him. It was at this moment that the god of coincidence prompted Jim Elton to open his lodging-house -door and come -into the street. He came toward her with such delight that it overshadowed his amazement "Mrs. Hewlett told me you had gone!" he said, beaming at her. "I got in ten minutes after you left this morning and raced down to the station just as your train was going." "I forgot something," she said lamely. "I'm on my way back. Good-morning, Mr. Elton. I'm in a hurry." "Mrs. Hewlett didn't tell you what kept me away last night, did she? Well, I don't like, to talk about it, but just before we closed last night, there was an accident, a girder fell, &d Cassidy poor fellow, he was right under it, Minnie. I went to the hospital -with him and then somebody had to tell his folks, j He lives out in Wayne. There's just his mother that's all I stayed with her until some of the neigh bors came in this morning. She was nearly crary, poor soul !" "Oh!" said the girl. The trolley that went to the station clanged past them and she looked at it smiling. , "I declare, I've missed my car!" she said. "Walk to the station, won't you?" he urged, There'i plenty of time. I felt pretty sore about not seeing; you fast night, Minnie. I can hardly realize" it's you with me now. How did, it happen?" ' She told him about Father Hewlett and the crim son ramblers, and he looked at her adoringly as they stood on the platform of the station waiting for the train. . "Will you give me a flower?" he said. 0 She broke a tit of crimson from her bouquet and he caught the hand that gave it to him in his ft the train came thundering in. - ; "Minnie," he said, "I get a vacation' next week, if ? if I come to Connecticut will you be glad to see me ? There's something I had to say to you last night that's got to be said. Will you let me come, Minnie?" It was not in the girl's nature to coquette. , . ( "Yes, I will," she said clearly. They looked at each other for a .moment with that look in which the man claims the woman that God meant for htm and the woman the man, ' Mrs. Deming, having placidly read and fanned her self some two hours in the New York station, greeted her daughter with an attempt at severity. ; OVER HEK AHMFCX Of KOSSS "The man says. we can't get 1 Shore trauV before two o'clock," she announced with, an offended ' air. "Well, I declare! You took as happy as though you hadn't been .racing all over creation since breakfast" - Minnie smiled 'vaguely; her mother 1 seemed to ba .v talking to her through a very mist of happiness that made her voice seem far5 away. ' "I've been thinking while I sat here and land knows I've, had timo. enough I" continued Mrs. Deming, "about Father Hew-. lett; and seeing that you're so crazy about him, sup--pose we take him with ns for a while the rest of the, Summer, at any rate. But bow can he' get to Con necticut? , k . kf Minnie' lifted her eyes wherein love and gratitucfa shone bkestars. ; "He can come out with Jim next week." she said.- She lifted the crimson ramblers be--tweea- ber radiant face ta& htr-inoihrrV 4d;f54-t" res. . .'-'. A - . ' J V i
The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Feb. 28, 1909, edition 1
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