[COMPLETE STORY.] The Redemption of Mabel Muriel

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7, 18 February 1905, Page 52

[COMPLETE STORY.] The Redemption of Mabel Muriel

By

Elizabeth G. Jordan

I may as well admit in the very beginning of this story that nunc of us girls liked Muliel Muriel Murphy. Perhaps it was her name that annoyed Us first. There was so much of it. and Mabel Muriel \lurph\ made ns use the whole of it every time, and somehow it didn't seem to b long together the different part* of it. I mean. But finally Mabel Blossom *he’s my chum, you know, and we're in the same classes at St. Catharine's finally Mabel Blossom had an idea. She calk'd us all together and told us she had found a use for Mabel Muriel's name- She said it hurt her to see *o much of anything going to waste, ami that she had been awake most of tin* night before thinking it out. and it had been borne in on her that the name could be niaile to fill a long-felt want. She said some of us bad brought from our happy homes exclamations learned from our brothers and intended for use in moments of excitement. She said we would i-‘call how fhr Sisters had stripped us of these, so to speak, leaving u* with "nothing but prayer to till the aching void” (she said it just that way), and'then sht' suggested that we use Mabel Muriel’s name instead. (>ur teachers might b- justified she <aid. in objecting to •’(heat Scott’’ a?id ■||ol\ Smoke." bid the strictest could not criticise u-, for Using the name <>l a dear companion and little playmate! Ami >he said to tr\ it for ourselves, repealing it slowly and solemnly. Mabel— Muri I Murphy, emphasising the first syllab.h ni every word. and see if it wasn l gra’eful and comforting. Well, we did. and it was; and before the meeting adjourned we made a veil of it. too. that died away in a long-drawn-out piaui**imo edect. It was great. Aflei dial you could hear girl* saying it all ov, -I the place, and .Mabel Muriel herseh used to come running l>e<-au*e she thought she was calk'd. It made her mad at first -I mean, it annoyed her very mm h; but pretty soon she got se‘. Up over it ami <«.<»k it as a kind of tri Bute, and wrote home about it with girlish pride. That wa* the kind she was. you set-; not (lie least little bit sensitive; and conceited — well. 1 shall have to wait until I get more e\|MTien<-c as a writer before I can describe how conceited M ii»vl Muriel .Murphy was. All this about her name happened a week niter Mabel Muriel came to St. ( atharim-'s. hut if we had waited a year we couldn't ha\e sized her up better. We Wore only fifteen, ami she wa.3 sixteen i In- month before Mie ent red. hut it didn't take us long to read her sadly shallow nature. We jjirls are studying lif> ami human nature, and if I do say it. th.-ie isn’t much that < -capes our innocent but oh-er\ant young eyes. Whenever you wain insight ami intuition and undeistamling ami subtlety, and a lot of other qualifies like that, vou ju<t go to Mabel Blossom or Maudie’-Foyer. They’d tell you to come to me. too. but of course I can’t say that about myself, and if I ITave a special gift tor seeing into thing* I don't dcMTxr any credit for it. It’s a misfort urn*. It goes with the artistic temperament. and, oh! how (he true artist soul sutlers in its loneliness! It is this that ha* made me turn to the study of humanity ami find my comfort and my nepenthe then*. \'e|M*ntbe mean* forget fulness. It Sister Iriningarde was here n<»w’. she'd tell me I am straying from the point, amt I suppose I am. It’s so hard t<> remember all tin- rules of literature ami keep yoiir plot in your mind ai the sain*- time, it's worse than bridge Whist. Maln'l Blossom says inv style is a kind of literarx sprint between the rule* and the plot, hut she needn't talk. I notice that Sister Irmingardv some time* i.-.uls m> *toi ie* to the class, and . that *lu has not yet read one of Mabel's! Not that I wi*h to boast, of roiirsr. for true merit is always humble, and I have often told Mabel that the only reason Io r stories arc *o bad is that she lacks Construction, imagination, and literary talent It a i- Mabel >fUriel’s trunk* that an Bnyed us next. Then* were *e\.n of them and they were piled up in a Leap in front of the infirmary, where »Le had

a room I ircause her mother thought she was delicate and had to be watched nights. That disgusted us. too. for Mabel Muriel was a fat. lazy girl, and she wanted to he in the infirmary so she wouldn’t have to get up as early in the morning as the rest of us did. Well, anyway, there were her seven trunks, ami I wish you could see the clothes that girl had brought to the quiet temple of learning where we were gathered. Silk dresses, ami beautiful evening gowns with low-neck waists, and lace dressinggowns, and wrappers, and —well, there was no end to them. Every morning Mabel Muriel strolled into class in a different one. ami when Sister 1 rmingarde delicately informed her that simpler gowns would be in lietter taste on a schoolgirl. she said she hadn’t any others. which was at! too true. When we discovered what we had surmised from the first, that her family were not people of broad culture. ami that her father had made a great deal of money in lard, or something. and was trying to spend it all on Matad Muriel, who was his child. Kiltie -lames hail a friend in the town Mala'l Muriel came from, and she said nothing made Mr Murphy so happy as to have Mabel Muriel ask for things. Mabel Muriel was thoughtful about that. too. ami did it, and used to telegraph when letters would take too long. 'Then he would send them right olf by express, and stand around panting with eagerness to do something else, like one of those little dogs that run and get a stick for you. Kiltie’s friend said ho actually wanted to build a house for Mabel Muriel on the campus, so she could have her own servants and "feel at home.” bur f can imagine rhe gentle firmness with which Mother Mary Caroline sat on that! Of course these things did not come to us all at once, even with our keen intuition. They came slowly, and. my! how we did dislike Mabel Muriel! She snubbed us so. and was so vulgar about her money and her clothes, and so—well, so lacking in all th - delicate sensibilities wo have been taught are characteristic of a lady. We saw she was worrying the Sisters to death. You see, they had taken her in without r.-alising what she was. ami of course it was not easy to semi her away. For <he never did anything very bad. of course. She was just underbred ami disagreeable the whole time, ami got boxes from home, and ate and ate ami gc fatter every minute, and called the minims around her and fed them. too. ami told them how wonderful she was. 'l'he minims, you know, were the tiny girls in the elementary departments, so young that they did not know any better than to r»‘sp»md to the advances chocolate cream of Mabe! Muriel Murphy. S<» they stood round her like a Hock of cute little chickens, and they ate ami listened, and of course their poor stomachs got upset and they landed in the infirmary ami had bilious attacks. But these incidents, though painful, were not all. Then* was indeed more to come, and it came like the Fate in those Creek tragedies Si-iter Edna is beginning io tell us about- I lik<* those Creek tragt'die*. They are so like life, and life is so wonderful, so terrible. Oh. life, life But Mabel Blossom says she is p-rfectly sure I must not bring that in here. so f won’t. 1 let Mabel read my stories as fast as 1 write them. It i* such splendid training for her. Mabel *ay* so. too. She says that if it wasn’t for my -tories she might keep on writing herself. Those were indeed her Words. Alon th* passed, ami we girls were pretty busy. But any time we had after the study of life and our school work was given to disliking Main*l Muriel Murphy. For slip got worse with every *ingle week. She kept away from us as much as she could after we had had Lu drop her, and some ut

the younger girls told us she said things about us, and she got duller-eyed and pastier-looking every day. Iler clothes were quieter (the Sisters made her send home for simpler things), and she would wipe her pens on the sleeves and the skirts to show how she despised them. She had never been neat, but her hair looked more inussy and her nails were dreadful. It was about this time that Sister I rm ingarde asked me to take Mabel Muriel in hand, and I may as well admit right now that 1 tlinehed. though my father is a general, and no Iverson ever yet turned his back to the foe. If she had asked me to nurse Mabel Muriel through the smallpox I would have done my best; but to be her friend, to chum with her ——! That dash is put in there to show you how I felt. Sister I rmingarde was very nice about it. of course. She had seen everything, and she knew what was passing in my breast as well as if a typewriter was rattling it all oil' for her. She said Miss Murphy was too much alone, and that a little time and attention from me might cheer her and help her in many ways. And she talked about humanitarianism and our duty to each other till 1 said 1 would—that 1 would do it. 1 mean. However, it did not work. I did my best, but it was all too plain that the calm ami refining influence of my society was not what Mabel Muriel wanted. She was civil, in a heavy sort of way. but it was a relief to us both when the experiment was over. 1 have seen the girls trying to dissolve sugar in lemon juice, and they don't mix very well. It was even so with Mabel Muriel and me. Still, it gave her a claim on me. and once in a long time she would come to my room, smelling of horribly strong perfume and bringing a big box of the candy she was always eating. If there were other girls, she never stayed, and there ’most. always were. of course, so her visits were short and rare. But one night Maudie -Joyce and Mabel Blossom and I were looking at some photographs, ami Mabel Mu-

lied came, and I made her look, too, and she stayed, and we all talked quite a while. She wa* quieter than usual that night and didn’t say so much about her ‘‘paw's” money. And she seemed" to be watching us and taking us in in a queer way. Finally she got up to go, and it was quite late, and she stayed by the door a little while talking: and with that strange insight 1 have I knew she had enjoyed herself and was sorry to go; but she went, and didn’t come again for more than a week. 1 am now approaching with the artist’s reverence the dramatic scent of this story. There always is one in my, stories, if you remember and Mabel Blossom says theYe are times when she can’t wait for them. One night, a little after nine o’clock. I was tossing restlessly in my bed. when 1 heard a very soft rap on my door. I am a nervous and highly imaginative girl, and my brain is so active that sometimes L can’t sleep. That night I had eaten one of Maudie Joyce’s Wekh rarebits and some pickles and a piece of pie and some fudge. I was thinking about the fudge, and almost wishing 1 had not eaten it, when the rap came. I was scared, for we are not allowed to visit each other at night, and if we were caught doing it there would be a lot of trouble. I got up and tiptoed to the door and opened it. and there, of all persons in the world, stood Mabel Muriel Murphy! T just gasped, but she walked right in as cool as you please and sat down on the edge of my bed. She wore one of her white lace dressing-gowns, and it was dreadfully soiled, and her hair was just the way she wore it in the day-time. She had not arranged it neatly for the night, as we are taught to do. I closed the door and stared at her. and then I said: ‘’Good gracious! why did you come here at this hour? Sister Edna may hear you.” It wasn’t very hospitable, of course, but Sister Edna looked after that hall, and 1 knew she might meander along at any' minute and hear whispering and come in. Mabel Muriel propped herself against the foot of the bed and stared at me in the calmest way and said: "I wish she would come in. That’s exactly what I want.’’ And then she added, very solemnly. "May Iverson. I’ve made up my mind to be a lady!”

I can tell you I was angry! In the first place, I didn’t see why she had to disturb me and the fudge to tell us she wanted to be a lady; and in the secend place, 1 didn’t see why she wanted Sister Edna to come in. But I kept still for a minute, and she went right on. ‘•l’m going to turn over a new leaf?’ she said, “and I want you to go with me io Sister Edna, and tell her about this very minute. I’m afraid to go alone.’’ “Well.’’ 1 I said, “I should think you would be! What has Sister Edna to do with it? Why don’t you wait till morning and tell Sister Jrm ingarde? 1 ” But Mabel Muriel shook her head. “No,” she said. “I'm in the humour now, ami I’m going to do it now. And I’m going to Sister Edna because Sister ■Edna is my ideal. I’m going to be just like her before I get through.’’ I couldn’t help smiling, and she saw it. ami got very red. Sister Edna i* the loveliest and most gifted nun at St. Catharine's. She is perfectly charming, but very, very reserved. She is really just like a polished woman of the world in her manner and her opi nons of things, but she is very spiritual, too. and •‘edifying.” as the nuns say. Deep in her heart she must have felt those days exactly as we did about Mabel Muriel, for she is such a thoroughbred to her linger tips, ami so particular about every little thing in manners and conduct. She teaches the History classes. I can tell you we hold our shoulders back when we meet her on the campus. She walks like a queen, and she is the neatest thing Well. I wouldn't like to put down here what she really must have thought about Mabel Al Uriel’s hair and nails. But of course she always treated Mabel Muriel exactly as she did the rest of us. though once or twice she hinted little things to her. very subtly. But you couldn't hint to Mabel Muriel. You had to fix your eyes on her and spell it right out. I began to get interested. I suppose my artistic instinct woke up. Mabel Muriel must have seen it in my face, though 1 crawled back into bed and

drew the clothes under my chin, for L was cold. She made herself more comfortable, and took off the cover of the box of chocolates she was carrying, of course, ami offered me some. I couldn't eat it —after that fudge! but she didn't mind. She chewed away and talked with her mouth full, just the way she always did. “You see.” she went on. “I’ve just kind of made up my mind that I'm different from most of you girls, ami there isn't any reason why I should be that I know of. My paw’s got money enough to get me anything I want. And if I want a special course in manners and ail that. I gm ss he can pay for it.” Then I reminded her that we hadn t any special course in manners at St. Catherine's, and that such training came with the rest. The Sisters. 1 said, spoke of any little things they notion! —but here Mabel Muriel interrupted me. “That's just it.” she said. “They aren’t little things, in my case. They're big ones. The rest of you girl—-most of you. anyhow—get trained in such things ta home. I don't, and 1 need a lot of it. and it's going to lake all Sister Edna’s time to do it- But I bet she can do it. and paw will pay her well. It will be a special- extra course, like music or painting.’' Of course mv experience of life has been great, ami my si inly of it "broad and thorough.” like our courses at St. Catharine's, but even I felt strangely helpless when Mabel Muriel was talking. Still I could see that it was a good idea, and I said so. “But,” I said, “you go back to bed now. and in the morning we'll go together to Sister 1 rmingarde ” “Not on your life!” said Mabel Muriel Murphy. I was deeply shocked, but she said it and she meant it. She had acquired some vulgar expressions in her home town. “I'm like paw-” she went on. “When he makes up his mind to do things he just goes and does them. I've been -thinking this over for weeks. Now 1

want it settled. Will you come with me to Sister Edna, or won't you?” 1 went. 1 strive to know myself, and to Im* honest, so I will confess that I went because I wanted to see what would happen. I put on a bath-robe over ny nightgown, ami "lipped my bare fret into my Turkish bedroom slippers with the gold embroidery <»n them, and I looked in the glass at my hair, anti it was all right, and so were my nails. Sister Edna slept in a dormitory with 20 of t hr smaller girls. She had a little place in one corner, all curtained off, and a bed and a washstand. And if the children got sick in the middle of the night it was very convenient to get up ami take care of them—it was convenient for "them.’’ I mean. It seemed too good to be true, but the Transom over the door showed that a light was burning inside, and we knew she was -rill up. We lapped, and she came to the door. I wiMi you could have seen her face when she saw u- Mabel Muriel in her white lace dressing-gown and me in a woolly bathrobe. and both of us scared to death. Eel it mu<t have dawned on even Mabel Muriel that the situation in which wc two young girls were placed was emba missing. The very minute Sister Edna turned her big brown eyes on us I remembered that I hadn't put on my stockings. Of course she couldn't really see that, but somehow 1 felt as if she could, and 1 just wriggled. As for Mabel Muriel, she sneaked behind me and left me to speak for her. That shows, too. the kind of girl sin* was. Neither of us spoke 1 couldn't, ami Mabel Muriel wouldn't and Sister Edna raised her eyebrows a little in a way she hail. "What is it. girls**” she >aid. “Are you id?*’ Then Mala*l Muriel gave me a pinch and an awful push, to show me that I was to explain. I hadn't expected it. and 1 lost my balance and foil against Sister Edna, and I was so angry I ju<t said right out what I t bought. “It's Mabel Muriel Murphy. Sister.” I said, “and she wants to be a lady. I tried to make her wait till morning to begin, but she wouldn't; ami now I

think my self she'd better begin at Sister Edna stood looking at u< for a moment without a word, ami then a little twinkle came into her eyes ami her lips twitched, ami I knew she had grasped the whole situation in the won derful way they have. They read your very thoughts, yon know, and many, many are the hours we girls have to -pend in distant haunts in the grounds to keep the Sifters from looking at us ami reading our most secret plans in our young faces. I don’t know how they du it. but they do. Well. Sister E«hia came out ami led us into a < la**<room just across the hall, and motioned to chairs; and, dear me! how I did long for those stocking-’ But Mabel Muriel Murphy never turned a hair. I forgot to say that of course sister Edna was as immaculate as if she had been at mass that moment. Not a pin was out of place. You would think, wouldn't you, that they would take off their heavy veils or linen guim pes or other things when they arc all alone: but if they ever do, no human eye but their own has rested on the result. Sister Edna turned to Mabel Muriel, and spoke in her cuul, exquisite voice, that always makes you feel somehow as if you were T*M» miles away from her. "You know this is wry unusual. Mis* Murphy. ’ she said. “I hope it is also important enough to justiiy such a departure from the rules. If it is.you may speak but as briefly and as much to the point as you can. phase.” Il was not possible to disturb tor long the self-content of Ma bid Muriel Murphy. She leaned her In-ad against the back of her chair we wire all silting dow n by that time, Sister Edna at Ihe desk and w e girls in front of her - ami >he answered in the queer drawl she had. “Well. Sister Edna.” <he said, “it's important to me. and it's important to you, too. I guess, l>eeau-r you're going to be in it.’’ And then she told Sister Edna the whole plan, about as she had told it to me. Sister Edna did not interrupt: she waited with beautiful rour

tr**j until it im all out. and then ahp stood up with a griitlv liruinc-s that Somehow corn hued even Malnd Muriel 4 hat she could not spend the night there. But -he was very sweet, 100. and t uouiraging. “It is an excellent plan. Miss Murphy.” she sai<|. - si» tar as it concerns yourself, and I am very glad you have made it. But it cannot he discu—ed at all to-night. It you will come to me in the morning we will go into it carefully. and I am sure you may count o t assistance from us all both teachers and pupils.” Mabel Muriel never budged. She ha t thick lips, and they looked stubborn now. “But I want you.” she said. ”1 don’t want any one else. Ami I waul you to make me just like you.” Sister Edna smiled again. I was hop ing she would look at me and meet the glance of understanding in my ( yr. but she did mH. She gently ushered ns to the door, and before we knew quite how it happened we were saying good night, and Si-tcr Edna had said that neither she nor Malxd Muriel could decide t he question of Miss Murphy’s instructors, and that she thought the whole mailt r could safely "lie on the table” until morning. Ihen she told us to go directly to our rooms, and we did; and somehow the excitement hud done im good, for I went right to sleep. Tin* next morning Mabel Muriel and Sister Edna and Sister I rmingarde had a long interview, and when Mabel Muriel iam< out she held her chest out and her • bin very high, we knew th? great work had begun. 'sin* -.aid I might tell the girl- ah nt it: so I did. and I -aid we iiiihl help, and they all said they would. The\ tried, (00. but there was not much (hey could do. tor Mabel Mur’el would m>t let them. she did not -erm to appreciate the beautiful spirit we showed. When she came into class she looked very spick ami span, and her hair was neat and her nails were chan. We noticed that first. Ihen we -aw that she was not (hewing anything behind Sister I: m itigarde*- back, ami that she sat up in h-r -eat instead of lounging the way -he always did. she didn't look especially happy, lilt I suppose we should not have expected "that. 1 have already noticed, young as I am. that it is only in literature that people are perfectly happy the ininut e”t hey begin to be good. In real life they are usually missing >o much that it makes them «!«>--. 1 here w .is the gleam of a (baldly resolution in Mabel Muriel's bulging grey eyes, though, and that took the place of a spiritual expre-sion. That night -he telegraphed home not t«» send any more candy or boxes for a while, ami she came to my room and got the names of the cold cream ami tooth-paste I use. she used as much Mang as ever, but of course the >ist< - <• uld not "do everything tor her at cm r. and they had wiselv begun on the really vital things. For the next week or two we girls didn't do much but watch Mabel Muriel Murphs and talk a be it Ik r progress. It wa- almost like a miracle.. Ot course her plan of having Sister Edna all the tinu had not succeeded. l ut she reported to < ister Edna \ ery morning and evening, ami was with her about an hour each time. At first we felt surprised when we saw Mabel Muriel looking nice or doing things properly, bur aft**r a few weeks we got used to it. and then we oulv s|M>ke about her when she \va- canless or anything of that kind. And f cannot tell you how rarely that was. She never slipped back, she never lost interest. ami. what was more, she never lost patirme. Sister Kdlia told some one it was the most remarkable trapfonnation -he had e\cr -ecu. I don t think any of us reali-ed how few times we had to criticise her. ami I'm sure I. for one. never stopped to think how quietly ami coolly and ah-olutely Mabel Muriel was Iwcoming (Hie of us. She was in our classes, ami -lu* was studying, and as the months went on die looked and a<ted like all the n d of us—only better. Very early in the affair her room began to look different. She sent home most of her pictures and gave away her furniture when it was -<attcrcd all over, one piece here «ml another there, it didn't look so bad and her new' thing- were quiet ami in good taste. She never mentioned her money any more. Finally we no lunget spoke of the bid things she didn't no. I»ecau-e there were none; ami besides, we were kept bu-y noticing the nice things -In did.do. A\ ho was it that "always r<»rneml»eivd the -irk girls and A isited* them ami wrote their heaic letters? It was Mabel Muriel Mur-

phy. Who was nicest to the lonely new girl-. and tenderest to the little minims? Again it was Mabel Muriel. Who alwav- hail her room and desk and drawer, in perfect condition. and who never used slang or made careless grammatical mistakes in conversation? titles more it was Mabel Muriel Murphy. XV hen she came back the next year we thought she would drop her special course in manners, because it was not necessary, but st? did not. She kept right at it. two hours a day. and even at other times w< saw hi r on the campus with Sister Edna or met them together at some of the shrines scattered through the grounds. We afterwards h-irned that Sister Edna w-as going very deeply into things by that time, and superintending Mabel Muriels reading and giving her a kind of special ethical course. I.think I e; n say I was the first of the girls to realise, during the second year. that. Mabel Muriel had becnnie a l’owir at St. Catharine’s, though my chum Mabel Bloss.-ni says she felt it < tuning. Mabel Blossom and Maudie Joyce and I had run things pretty much as we pleased until then. The girls all liked Us. ami we held together ami usually agreed on what was best for so there was no trouble. But all of a sudden we learned that if we wanted to see our old crowd we’d have to go to Mabel Muriel Murphy’s room! 1 need not add that to sensitive artistic natures like ours Illis discovery was a shock. Then we found that the girls were criticising us! they thought we were often careless about lessons and matters of dress and good form. And so. little bv little, the bitter truth came home to us that we three girls, the old leaders of the school, would have to live up to Mabe! Muriel Murphy. It was Maudie Joyce who first voiced tins huinili.il ing truth. “We’ve got to let her in,” she said, “to our very innermost circle.’ And it was Mabel Blossom who replied, while I sat in a depressed silence: “Humph’. Will she come’ in after we'se She would not! She had set a new standard. and we three just had 1.) painfully climb up to it- For Mabel Muriel never failed, never forgot, never for a single instant lost sight of the fact that Sister Edna was her ideal, and that she meant to be exactly like her. She was, too. more and more, except That -he never got her lovely nature. though there is no doubt that Sifter Edna had developed a moral sense in her; ami by this time Mabel Muriel was copying all Sister Edna’s ways. Mabel Blossom said it was by the clothing alone that she distinguished between the Two when she'met them on the campus. but Mabel Blossom still has moments of girlish frivolity. 1 sometimes tear she will never realise how serious life is. It seemed terribly serious to me when 1 found l\i have to regard Mabel Muriel Murphy as a model! I hey give an annual prize at St. ( atharine’s. called the Gross of Honour. It goes to the finest all-round girl at school the best student, the noblest character: in short, the girl the Sisters think is the representative girl of the a. ademv. You will never guess who got it this year, for 1 am keeping that as the climax—which is the real test of art in a story. It was Mabel Muriel Murphy!