AN OLD MAID.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 26, 17 October 1884, Page 5

AN OLD MAID.

(By Emily F. Wheeler, in the Independent.)

(Concluded.) He bad touched the right spring ; but Miss Plummer felt the tears very close to her eyes as she promised. She was not used to such kindness. As for the Doctor, hating left her at her door, he signaled the coachman to halt on the corner below, and so saw presently the light in the third-floor hall bedroom to which Miss Plummer had slowly mounted. "As I expected," he said to himself as he drove away. " Why will women be such fools ! Wearing out life and health— the blood of the teachers is the life of the school I suppose — the poor, poor things !" And if this was a littla disjointed, the chain of thought underneath was close enough. From the open door of his rooms a hospitable gleam met as he mounted the ktair. A glowing fire, a scent of roses, and a young girl in evening dress, waited for him. " flow late you are. unole," she cried. "We began to fear you were not coming. Oh ! You haven't forgotten that you're to take us to the opera to-night? Mamma made me dress before dinner, so as not to keep you waiting ; and guess who sent these roses ?" She stood on tiptoe for him to see them, a pretty, graceful creature, in her soft silk and lacea ; but, as Dr. West bent to the Jacqueminots, the picture of another Alice, in her fireless cell, must have riaen before him ; for, as he kissed he cheek, he said : " God bless you, Alice, and keep you from ever knowing" — But he left his sentence unfinished. Poor Miss Pluramtr took her courage with both hands when the Doctor's carriage came, and went off in apparent unconsciousness of the cook watching from the basement, the landlady from the drawingroom, Mrs. Smith from the first floor front, and Miss John3ou from the second. But she knew they weie all there, and she suffered over their imagined comments. Yet the rifle did her so much go )d that she decided to go again ; and presently it seemed to her that, but for this little help, she could not have kept up. For, as February passed, Alice grew weaker, more exacting, more anxious to have her with her. She wasjused to the hospital now . Every one was kind to her, and she had even grown fond of Dr. West. He had remembered once or twice to bring her a toy, and he always smiled when, in his rounds, he passed her bed. " He's real good," she said, simply. " I think Bometimes he's a little bit soirier for me than the others ; but I don't know why. He has such kind eyes. Auntie, haven't you notice dit ? And such a nice voice. I like him. I like him lots ; next to you, auntie, dear. No ; auntie had not noticed. Bbc did not often meet him, and when she did, she hardly lifted her eyes to hi*. She was afraid of their kindDess. But her fear for Alice presently got the better of this and made her pause when, one day, she met him in the hall. 44 Ah I You are looking better I' he said, giving her his hand, 11 You do credit to my prescrip:ion, Miss Plummer." And then he was hurrying along when she said : "Do you think Doctor — is Alice getting on u» well as you hoped ? She seems wort>e to me, and— don't keep the truth from me, Dr. West. I would rather know fit once ; and for her mother's sake." 44 You know," he answered, after a moment's hesitation, " I told you, some time ago, I thought her mother h.-id Letter come. I'm afraid she isn't as well as we hoped to have her by this time. She has less vitality than I looked for." He put out his hand again as be spoke. But 3he could only falter : " How long ?" He answered with that hardness which is after all best : ' 4 Perhaps a month ; perhaps not so long." Mies Plummer hardly knew how she went through the next three weeks. Mrs. Netta came, and she kept her with her, and that was the hardest. Weak, nervous, hysterical, sure that the doctors had not done their best, that they were wrong in trusting Dr. West so implicitly, she was more of a care than Alice. And meantime school went on, and she held herself to her duties with hoops of steel, though her heart was always in the hospital, and every girl in her room bad Alice's face to her dry eyes. So, clinging always to tier, the little life went out. The motht r was od the other side of the bed ; the nurse and Doctor stood near. At the last Alice lifted her thin arms, and drew her down to her. The two heads lay together for a half hour ; then they took away the chilling clasp. She was dimly conscious of being led down the hall, of N etta sobbing behind her, of rousing herself to comfort her, of being lifted in the Doctor's carriage and hearing him say that everything should be attended to, She iecollected Miss Wyn coming to her rescue when they reached home, and taking Netta away ; of. the landlady's voluble sympathy and tea sent to hi-r room to save her meeting the others ; of general thought and care which made the next few days a little less hard ; of Alice clasping lilies of the valley in her thin hands and a voice saying above her " I am the Resurrection and the Life " ; of a keen wind blowing about the little grave. Bbc remembered some one putting a wrap around her as she stood

there, and holding her hand afterward with a long, silent clasp as, he put her back in the carriage ; of a sleepless night and Netta going away by an early train ; and then, then it was Monday morning again, and she was behind her desk and the weary round had begun once more. School ! School 1

After all this it was not perhaps surprising that, ten days later, while a grammar class was wrestling with " The Lady of the Lake," poor Miss Plummer suddenly lost herself again. But it was strange that when she came back, lying in Miss Wyn's arms in the hall, the first sound that struck her ear was the head master's voice, and that he was saying, a long way off, and in a tone not quite steady : It's the beginning oE the end, I'm afraid. She has overworked for years." Was it, indeed ? Did he mean that she might hope soon to bs with Alice again, safe curtained in the green gbom that shut her in 1 Oh 1 if she were but there now ; if the fight were oeer, since this deadly langour made all struggle seem impossible! And thenhec old self asserted itself, and she sat up, faltering : "lam so sorry to make so much trouble. I— l think I a>n tired. I should like to go home, if I can." 4>4 > £ have sent for a carriage " the head master, said, coming for. ward, " and Miss Wynn will go with you ; and you mu3t not think of coming back till you are better. As for your wort, we will find ■ some one to take it, I will arrange, and you need not worry," be went on, hastily, seeing by her face the thought that hvi cDoa-i iastantly to her mind —that new rule, which declared that any teacher absent for any cause from her work more than five successive day.? s.ionld forfeit her position " tv a host of fresh ones waiting to take i. " The rules are not meant to be inflexible on an old teacher though it might be better for you never to enter the schoolroom again." " You will send for Dr. West, of course,"' Mi3s Wyn said, when she had made Miss Plummer comfortable in her cell. " You musi have some one." But Miss Plummer turned her face to the wall and atiswerei. in a voice just audible : " Not him ; some one else." And Miss Wyn did not see the flush that crept to the faded cheek as she spoke. She did not go back to school. She had exhausted her capital of strength. She was bankrupt for all effort in that direction. But neither did she have a fU of sickness. Her purse could not afford that. She struggled up after a fortnight and dismissed the young doctor the landlady had summoned. She even made vague plans for the future in what she called her convalescence. She thought of going to her bister in New York, to her brother in the We*t. But there were noisy little one* in both households ; it did not Beem to her that she conLi rest there ; aud rest, the Doctor said, was all she needed. Miss Wyn talked of the seashore or the mountains j some cheap, quiet place, if any such remained ; and M as Plummer looked at her parse, but said nothing. Something would come, of course ; at least B he need not fear the poorhouse. She did not worry overmuch. She had not interest enough in herself and the problem of living to do so. She had chiefly one thought all those weary days when she lay picking the counterpane and studying the pattern of the wall-paper — • blue coral branches on a brown ground. If she could only get out of this narrow room, these close streets, this thronging life to the quiet place where Alice lay, where the air was fresh and one oould see the grass and the budding trees 1 There she could think and plan better. And so one soft May day she slipped from the house, took a oar at the corner, and went out there. It was a pretty spot. As she climbed the long slope that led to the gate she saw, on one side the cl ustered roofs and spires of the city veiled in smoky vapour, which sunlight made luminous, and on the other the blue line of the distant lake with a white sail at the horizon. And when she had reached the grave and sat on a sloping bank starred with dandelion*, she looked across the valley ti woods climbing the opposite hills, all ia the e*rly green and softly swaying to the breeze. A little bird perched on a bush uear her and chirped ; a long-tailed squirrel darted up the tree trunk ; a faint breath of flowers from the greenhouse* below came up to her. She was quiie alone, for it was an unfrequented corner. Only now and then along the carriage road just below people came riding. Forest Host was popular for driving at this season. But these aud their curious glances did not disturb ber* None of her friends rode in such elegant equipages. She began gathering the dandelions and twiating .a chain for the little mound. Doubtless, she said to heraelf, she lv >k< d like an idiot so employed ; but the childish task pleased hei, aud it. uiadu n> difference whac these passers thought ot her. Su»j drew her shawl closer (for, despite the sunshiue there was an East touch in the light wind) and worked tor nearly au hour. And then, as sne held up a long chain, she heard a sound of wheels, looked doVu, and saw behind a carriage window a face which she kuew — Dr. West's. What was much worse, she saw that he had recognised her. Two ladies were with him ; a beautiful girl's head ben:, with his toward her ; and suddeuly, conscious of her shabby dress and her strange occupation, Miss Plummer rose, dropped her golden chain, and felt ao •. nsane desire to sink through the ground. Then the carriage was gone, and she remembered herself and tat down again. But the flower-plaiting was done. There were no more dandelions, and she £ jit the cbill of the ground. She gave the carriage time, as she thought, to reach the otuer bide of the place, aud tnen she rose to go. But a? she turned from her farewell to the little grave she saw Dr. West coming toward her. 44 It is really you, then, Miss Plummer !" he said, as they met. " I doubted my own eyes and came back to see. Are you out of your senses to expose yourself so ? It is utter folly to come here now." " I have not felt the cold, I wanted to como. I could not keep away longer. lam not in school now. I have left it temporarily." " You have been sick ? And you were too proud to let your friends know of it?" he questioned. " I should have found out fur myself if I had not been away the last ten days. I have been meaaing to come and see you.' " Yes, I have been Hick ; but I did not send for you because — because it was not necessary} and I have taxed your kinduos* quttfe

enough in the last few weeks. And there was nothing to do for me. The doctor— Mrs. Jaynes would send for, one— said rest was all I needed." 41 And so you came out here to take it ? A good preparation for ft long one. Do you want to throw your life away, Miss Plummer f" '• If I do," she answered, feeling an odd defiance of his kindness, " I don't know that it's of anjr concern to other people. But of course," recovering herself, "I don't intend to. It has not hurt me. It has done me good, the quiet and freshness. I was stifling at home." "And you have left the school ?" he went on, helping her up the slope to the main avenue. "It is for good, I hope. You are not fit to teach ; have not been the last year. I have wished, more than once, I had the power to stop you." " The committee found out that I wasn't fit, at last, you seel" she said. "It even penetrated my stupidity. Perhaps I should have felt it sooner if I had time to think of it much. At least lam out now, and probably for good. A young teacher has my place ; fresh and strong and enthusiastic." " For which, as far as you are concerned, lam very glad. And now have you any plans ? Where will you go for the summer ? You want rest and quiet, of course ; and you will let your friends help you to them, I hope." MiBS Plummer paused at the top of the slope and looked down at the little mound. " Yes," she said, speaking with a little effort, " that is what want — rest and queit. I think I'm tired out. It's strange one does not feel that as long as he is in the work ; isn't it ? It's not till the harness is off. Then — then— no, I haven't any plans. You are kind to ask for them, to offer me help ; but I've not thought much of the future yet. Something will come, of course. My brother in the West has a heme for me. lam not alone. I'm only waiting now, because I'm too tired to think. Perhaps— sometimes, one gets to shore just as soon drifting as steering." She had dropped his arm, and stood looking now across AUie's home to the valley and woodland. Sunset light was over it all; a bird flew by, and in the moment's silence that followed her words, they heard the call of his mate from the vest near by. " Alice," the doctor said, and at his altered voice, at the strange sound of her name, she looked up startled, to the grave tenderness of his eyes. "lam a lonely man. I never thought to ask any woman to fill Lucy's place. I never thought any one could. But I have lenrned to know you in these months. Will you be my wife ?" It made no difference to Miss Plumnier, but her friends found great satisfaction in the fact that Dr. West was rich enough to give her all the luxury she had missed from her busy life. And like mauy another, she first found out, in her new prosperity, how numerous these friends were. Brother and sister showed their pleasure by unaccustomed generosity ; neglected acquaintances called to congratulate ; old scholars sent remembrances ; all the cold world opened its heart and smiled on her. She had feared she might not please his friends ; but when his sister thanked her for the new home and life she would make for him, when lovely Alice curled herself about her neck and asked leave to love her, she took courage. Miss Wyn dressed her on her weddipg day, and when she saw her slender figure all in lustrous silver gray and lace, with the oldfashioned white roses the doctor wanted her to wear clasped at her throat by the pearls he had given her, she might have been pardoned her exclamation, " Oh t I wonder if any one — any one— would know me now for poor Miss Plummer 1" [the end.]