Mary Gray wiped her eyes. "Why, Howard," she said, "you used to say you wanted to be a poet, but I never knew till now that you _was_ one! I"d rather you"d ha" said all that to me than--than to have been married to Shakespeare!" she ended with a happy sob, and put her white head down on his shoulder.

CHAPTER XXI

Uncle Mat, whose long-postponed visit was at last taking place, sat talking in front of the fire in Sylvia"s living-room with the "new minister." The room was bright with many candles, and early fall flowers from her own garden stood about in clear gla.s.s vases. In the dining-room beyond, they could see the two servants moving around the table, laid for supper. A man"s voice, whistling, and the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, came up the footpath from the Homestead. And at the same moment, the door of Sylvia"s own room opened and shut and there was the rustle of silk and the scent of roses in the hall.

A moment later she came in, her arm on Austin"s. Her neck and arms were bare, as he loved to see them, and her white silk dress, brocaded in tiny pink rosebuds, swept soft and full about her. A single string of great pearls fell over the lace on her breast, and almost down to her waist, and there was a high, jewelled comb in her low-dressed hair. She leaned over her uncle"s chair.

"Austin says the others are on their way. Am I all right, do you think, Uncle Mat?"

"You look to me as if you had stepped out of an old French painting," he said, pinching her rosy cheek; "I"m satisfied with you. But the question arises, is Austin? He"s so fussy."

Austin laughed, straightening his tie. "I can"t fuss about this dress,"

he said, "for I chose it myself. But I"m not half the tyrant you all make me out--I"m wearing white flannel to please her. Is there plenty of supper, Sylvia? I"m almost starved."

"I know enough to expect a man to be hungry, even if he"s going to be hanged--or married," she retorted, "but I"ll run out to the kitchen once more, just to make sure that everything is all right."

The third of September had come at last. There was no question, this time, of a wedding in St. Bartholomew"s Church, with twelve bridesmaids and a breakfast at Sherry"s; no wonderful jewels, no press notices, almost no trousseau. Austin"s family, Uncle Mat, and a few close friends came to Sylvia"s own little house, and when the small circle was complete, she took her uncle"s arm and stood by Austin"s side, while the "new minister" married them. Thomas was best man; Molly, for the second time that summer, maid-of-honor. Sadie and James were missing, but as "a wedding present" came a telegram, announcing the safe arrival of a nine-pound baby-girl. Edith was not there, either, and the date of sailing for Holland had been postponed. She had gained less rapidly than they had hoped, and still lay, very pale and quiet, on the sofa between the big windows in her room. But she was not left alone when the rest of the family departed for Sylvia"s house; for Peter sat beside her in the twilight, his big rough fingers clasping her thin white ones.

There proved to be "plenty of supper," and soon after it was finished the guests began to leave, Uncle Mat with many imprecations at Sylvia"s "lack of hospitality in turning them out, such a cold night." Even the two capable servants, having removed all traces of the feast, came to her with many expressions of good-will, and the a.s.surance of "comin" back next season if they was wanted," and departed to take the night train from Wallacetown for New York. By ten o"clock the white-panelled front door with its bra.s.s knocker had opened and shut for the last time, and Austin bolted it, and turned to Sylvia, smiling.

"Well, _Mrs. Gray_," he said, "you"re locked in now--far from all the sights and sounds that made your youth happy--shop-windows, and hotel dining-rooms, the slamming of limousine doors, and the clinking of ice in c.o.c.ktail-shakers. Your last chance of escape is gone--you"ve signed and sealed your own death-warrant."

"Austin! don"t joke--to-night!"

"My dear," he asked, lifting her face in his hands, "did you never joke because you were afraid--to show how much you really felt?"

"Yes," she replied, "very often. But there"s nothing in the whole world for me to be afraid of now."

"So you"re really ready for me at last?" he whispered.

Whatever she answered--or even if she did not answer at all--to all appearances, Austin was satisfied. His mother, seeing him for the first time three days later, was almost startled at the radiance in his face.

It was, perhaps, a strange honeymoon. But those who thought so had felt, and rightly, that it was a strange marriage. After the first few days, Austin spent every day at the farm, as usual, walking back to the little brick cottage for his noonday dinner, and leaving after the milking was done at night; and Sylvia, dressed in blue gingham, cooked and cleaned and sewed, and put her garden in shape for the winter. In spite of her year"s training at Mrs. Gray"s capable hands, she made mistakes; she burnt the grape jelly, and forgot to put the brown sugar into the sweet pickle, and took the varnish off the dining-room table by polishing it with raw linseed oil, and boiled the color out of her sheerest chiffon blouse; and they laughed together over her blunders. Then, when evening came, she was all in white again, and there was the simple supper served by candle-light in the little dining-room, and the quiet hours in front of the glowing fire afterwards, and the long, still nights with the soft stars shining in, and the cool air blowing through the open windows of their room.

Then, when the Old Gray Homestead had settled down to the blessed peacefulness and security which, the harvest safely in, the snows still a long way off, comes to every New England farm in the late fall, they closed their white-panelled front door behind them, and sailed away together, as Austin had wished to do. There were a few gay weeks in London and Paris, The Hague and Rome--"enough," wrote Sylvia, "so that we won"t forget there _is_ any one else in the world, and use the wrong fork when we go out to dine." There was a fortnight at the little Dutch house where by this time Peter and Edith were spending the winter with Peter"s parents--"where our bed," wrote Sylvia, "was a great big box built into the wall, but, oh! so soft and comfortable; with another box for the very best cow just around the corner from it, and the music of Peter"s mother"s scrubbing-brush for our morning hymn." And then there were several months of wandering--"without undue haste, but otherwise just like any other tourists," wrote Sylvia. They went leisurely from place to place, as the weather dictated and their own inclinations advised. Part of the time Edith and Peter were with them, but even then they were nearly always alone, for Edith was not strong enough to keep up, even with their moderate pace. They revisited places dear to both of them, they sought out many new ones; early spring found them in Paris; and it was here that there finally came an evening when Austin put his arms around his wife"s shoulders--they had made a longer day of sight-seeing than usual, and she looked pale and tired, as having finished dressing earlier than he she sat in the window, looking down at the brilliant street beneath them, waiting for him to take her down to dinner--and spoke in the unmistakably firm tone that he so seldom used.

"It"s time you were at home, Sylvia--we"re overstaying our holiday. I"ll make sailing arrangements to-morrow."

So, by the end of May, they were back in the little brick cottage again, and the two capable servants were there, too, for there must be no danger, now, of Sylvia"s getting over-tired. Those were days when Austin seldom left his wife for long if he could help it; found it hard, indeed, not to watch her constantly, and to keep the expression of anxiety and dread from his eyes. He had not proved to be among those men, who, as some French cynic, more clever than wise, has expressed it, find "the chase the best part of the game." His engagement had been a period containing much joy, it is true, but also, much doubt, much self-adjusting and repression--his marriage had not held one imperfect hour. Sylvia, as his wife, with all the petty barriers which social inequality and money and restraint had reared between them broken down by the very weight of their love, was a being even much more desired and hallowed than the pale, black-robed, unattainable lady of his first worship had been; that Sylvia should suffer, because of him, was horrible; that he might possibly lose her altogether was a fear which grew as the days went on. It fell to her to dispel that, as she had so many others.

"Why do you look at me so?" she asked, very quietly, as, according to their old custom, they sat by the riverbank watching the sun go down.

"I don"t mean to. But sometimes it seems as if I couldn"t bear all this that"s coming. Nothing on earth can be worth it."

"You don"t know," said Sylvia softly. "You won"t feel that way--after you"ve seen him. You"ll know then--that whatever price we pay--our life wouldn"t have been complete without this."

"I can"t understand why men should have all the pleasure--and women all the pain."

"My darling boy, they don"t! That"s only an old false theory, that exploded years ago, along with the one about everlasting d.a.m.nation, and several other abominable ones of like ilk. Do you honestly believe--if you will think sanely for a moment--that you have had more joy than I? Or that you are not suffering twice as much as I am, or ever shall?"

"You say all that to comfort me, because you"re twice as brave as I am."

"I say it to make you realize the truth, because I"m honest."

Molly and Katherine were busy at the Homestead in those days, Sally and Ruth in their own little houses; but Edith was at the brick cottage a great deal. In spite of all Peter"s loving care, and the treatment of a great doctor whom Sylvia had insisted she should see in London, she was not very strong, and found that she must still let the long days slip by quietly, while the white hands, that had once been so plump and brown, grew steadily whiter and slimmer. She came upon Sylvia one sultry afternoon, folding and sorting little clothes, arranging them in neat, tiny piles in the scented, silk-lined drawers of a new bureau, and after she had helped her put them all in order, with hardly a word, she leaned her head against Sylvia"s and whispered:

"I do wish there were some for me."

"I know, dear; but you"re very young yet. Many wives are glad when this doesn"t happen right away. Sally is."

"I know. But, you see, I feel that perhaps there never will be any for me--and that seems really only fair--doesn"t it?"

Sylvia was silent. Her sympathy would not allow her to tell all the London doctor had said to her about her young sister-in-law; neither would it allow her to be untruthful. But certain phrases he had used came back to her with tragic intensity.

"Many a woman who can recuperate almost miraculously from organic disease fails to rally from shock--we"ve been overlooking that too long."--"Every sleepless night undoes the good that the sunshine during the daytime has wrought, and after many sleepless nights the days become simply horrible preludes to more terrors."--"I can"t drug a child like that to a long life of uselessness--make her as happy as you can, but let her have it over with as quickly as Nature will allow it--or take her to some other man--I can"t in charity to her tell you anything else."

So Sylvia and Peter made her "as happy as they could," and that they hoped at times was very happy, indeed; but the look of dread never left her eyes for long, and the tired smile which had replaced her ringing laugh came less and less often to her pale lips.

There was another faithful visitor at the brick cottage that summer, for after the end of June, Thomas, who came home from college at that time, seemed to be on hand a good deal. He, as well as Austin, had proved false to Uncle Mat"s prophecy; for far from falling in love with another girl within a year, he showed not the slightest indication of doing so, but seemed to find perfect satisfaction in the society of his own family, especially that portion of it in which Sylvia was, for the moment, to be found. Austin at first marvelled at the ease with which he had accepted her for a sister; but the boy"s perfect transparency of behavior made it impossible to feel that the new and totally different affection which he now felt for her was a pose. Gradually he grew to depend on Thomas to "look after Sylvia" when, for one reason or another, he was called away.

His interests at the bank took him more and more frequently to Wallacetown; there were cattle auctions, too important to neglect, a day"s journey from home; there was even a tiny opening beginning to loom up on the political horizon. Austin was too bound by every tie of blood and affection to the Homestead ever to build his hearth-fire permanently elsewhere; but he was also rapidly growing too big to be confined by it to the exclusion of the new opportunities which seemed to be offering themselves to him in such rapid succession in every direction.

Coming in very late one evening in August after one of these necessary absences, he found Sylvia already in bed, their room dark. She had never failed to wait up for him before. He felt a sudden pang of anxiety and contrition.

"Are you ill, darling? I didn"t mean to be so late."

"No, not ill--just a little more tired than usual." She drew his head down to her breast, and for some minutes they held each other so, silently, their hearts beating together. "But I think it would be better if we sent for the doctor now--I didn"t want to until you came home."

She slipped out of bed, and walked over to the open window, his arm still around her. The river shone like a ribbon of silver in the moonlight; the green meadows lay in soft shadows for miles around it; in the distance the Homestead stood silhouetted against the starlit sky.

"What a year it"s been!" she whispered, "for you and me alone together!

And how many years there are before us--and our children--and the Homestead--and all that we stand for--as long as the New England farms and the Great Glorious Spirit which watches over them shall endure!"

A cloud pa.s.sed over the moon dimming its brightness. It brought them to the realization that the long, hard hours of the night were before them both, to be faced and conquered. The New York doctor, whom Sylvia had once before refused to send for, and the fresh-faced, rosy nurse, who had both been staying at the brick cottage for the last few days, were called, the servants roused to activity. There came a time when Austin, impotent to serve Sylvia, marvelling at her bravery, wrung by her suffering, felt that such agony was beyond endurance, beyond hope, beyond anything in life worth gaining. But when the breathless, horrible night had dragged its interminable black length up to the skirts of the radiant dawn, the mist rose slowly from the quiet river and still more quiet mountains, the first singing of the birds broke the heavy stillness, and Austin and Sylvia kissed each other and their first-born son in the glory of the golden morning.

THE END