The Iron Woman

oned, and found a tutor and the seashore and his sketching-for he painted with some enthusiasm just at tha

ut she let him go. She did not know how to do anything else; she always let him do what he pleased, and have what he wanted; she gave him everything, and she exacted n

me, I wouldn't take an hour of my good time, or spend a dollar of my good money, to see the best of their cathed

stly, "I haven't seen a

Maitl

r. You might have liked it, though you are a pretty sensible fellow in most things." "Oh, I can't go to Europe till I can

arelessly; then she blew out her lips in a bubbling sig

ism of youth; David winced, and Nannie tried to m

ome here with me, and a girl ought to see people once in a while." She glanced at the two young creatures shrewdly. "Why not?" she reflected. She had never thought of it before, but "why not?" It would be a very sensible arrangement. The next moment she

to tramp into Nannie's parlor in the hope of being told that the "sensible arrangement" had been made. When she found them together, and caught a

lege, Blair had confided to his friend that his faith in women was

round?" David tri

l never love another wo

orn to each other that "no woman should ever come between them," he gave a hopeless shrug. "Tha

e older woman to feel intimate with her. That first meeting so many years ago, when they had each recoiled from the other, seemed to have left a gulf between them, which had never quite closed up. So Mrs. Richie was just as well pleased that in the next few years David, for one reason or another, did not see his old neighbor very often. By the time he was twenty-four, and well along in his course at the medical school, she had almost forgotten her vague apprehensions. The pause in the intimacy of the mother and son-the inevitable pause that comes between the boy's se

lder. Now, though she was still impetuous, still unconscious of self, she was glowing with womanhood, and ready to be loved. She was not beautiful, except in so far as she was young, for youth is always beautiful; she was tall, of a sweet and delicate

temperament. Nannie Maitland could not understand either, and yet it was to Nannie-kind, literal little Nannie, who never understood anything abstract, that David revealed his heart. She was intensely sympathetic, and having long ago relinquished the sister-in-law dream, encouraged him to rave about Elizabeth to his heart's content; in fact, for at least a year before Mrs. Maitland had evolved that "sensible arrangemen

de up her mind to put the matter through without any more delay. "I'll speak to Mrs. Richie about it, and get the thing settled," she said to herself;

Todd, who was peering out from behind the scarlet geraniums in the window of the "saloon." Elizabeth took the usual suggestive joke about a "pretty pair" with a little hauteur, but David beamed, and as he left th

" the old lady wheedled; "su

don't need ice-cream," the young f

tarvin' for ye!" And David hurried after Elizabeth, who had reached the

old soul!" he

ve her a kiss," E

hug. She said

s of white; the road David chose was followed by a brook, that ran chuckling between the agate strips of ice along its banks; here and there a dipping branch had been caught and was held in a tinkling crystal prison, and

sed to sled down th

owing face toward him a

haul my sled up

have forgotten

"Isn't it a pity Blair dislikes Mercer so mu

don't see how sh

breath carried quickly. The starry light was in her eyes

ing to me," he said, i

as si

ou think you coul

's all up-" he said to himself; and even as he said it, a sm

t good enough.

e him stand stock-still; he turned very white. "What!" he said, in a l

zed, in the snow. Then she looked back at him over her shoulder. At that arch and lovely look he bounded to her, stammering something, he did not k

ash of ecstasy, was like wine to her; all her soul spoke fearlessly in her eye

as bubbling over with joy; then suddenly, her exhilaration

! How could she help it?

to have been hurt;-she knows me. You see I am really a devil, David, to make dear, old Cherry-pie unhappy! But I don't believe I will ever lose my temper again as long as I live. I am going to be goo

n the world Materna wants, you know, is my happiness. But do you suppose it would make any difference if she didn't conse

hispered,

oved, cast his challenge into the grinning

ver,

path to tap on the window; when Mrs. Todd beamed at him through the geraniu

world. The hurrying water ran in a turbulent, foam-streaked flood; great sheets of ice, rocking and grinding against one another, made a continuous soft crash of sound. Sometimes one of them would strike the wooden casing of a pier, and then the whole bridge jarred and quivered, and the cake of ice, breaking and splintering, would heap itse

I stood right here, and looked at a raft coming down the

she said,

g. Don't you suppose I understand? But I wanted you to know that it was then, n

lently; her lip quiv

his breath; "I didn't know what was the matter with me! I was only a cub, you know. But"-he spoke very softly-"all of a sudden

. She could not speak, but suddenly she stooped and kissed

hisper a single word. Then, very softly, he kissed her cheek. For a moment she seemed to ebb away from him; then

rld, that he was moved to the point of finding no words to say how moved he was. But she had felt him tremble from head to foot when her lips burned against his,-so she needed no words. His silence

aterna," he said,

is,

a of asking! The onl

-you and

" he

ment; when she spoke he

was it

he overflowed: "I can't get my breath yet, th

I'm happy, if you are; but-I hope she's good enough fo

life, and I can say she is perfect. She is as perfect as you are; she said you were perfect this af

se don't say

-and so darned good-looking, confound him!" David ruminated affectionately. "And he can talk; he's not bottled up, like me. To think she would look at me, w

call it off until he gets h

o think of her caring for me! To think of my having two such women to care for me." He took her hand gently and kissed it. "Mother," he said-he spoke with almost painful effort; "Mother, I want to tell y

oice, "don't, David, don't; I can't bear

ost shivered at the pang of it. "Materna," he said hoarsely, "if she or I were to die to-night, I,

ean just happin

he said, very gently, "You are think

arriage; it was n

rief: "when I think of the baby," he said, softly, "I feel as if that little beggar gave me my mother. I feel as if I had his job; and if I am not a good son-" he stopped, and looked at her, smiling; but something i

! No, no, I didn't," she insisted, laying her soft mother-hand over his protesting lips; "I used to wonder sometimes, David, why God trusted you to me, instead of to a-a better woman-" again she checke

know that. But they are not possible things where Elizabeth i

fe can hurt so much more

al modesty is in a girl. He was unwilling, indeed he was unable, to show even to his mother, even, perhaps, to Elizabeth, the speechless depths that had been stirred that afternoon by the first kiss of passion, and stirred again that night by the sight of tea

pain in her voice. "My dear boy, when you leave the m

s feeling about self-support gave him a satisfaction out of all proportion to t

that I hav

siness to have a wife. It's bad enough for you to be supporting a big, hungry medical student; but I swear you sha'n't

" were not possible to Elizabeth. For a moment this soft mother felt a stab of something like jealousy; then her thought went back to that deeper pain. He had not supposed anybody could be as "perfect" as his mother. Helena Richie cowered, as if the sacred words were whips; she covered her face with her hands, and sat a long time without m

from her hands the fire was out