Contrary Mary

and in Which Sweet and Twenty Speaks a New and Modern Lang

cending the stairs, she was more than pretty. Her tender face was illumined by an inner radiance. She was two years older than Mary, but more slender, and her coloring was more strongly emphasized. Her eyes were blue and her hair was gold, as against the gray-green a

frankness, there was about her a baffling atmosphere. She was like a still pool with th

d than when Mary, leaning over the stair-rail, answered th

nty of time,

ranquillity, repeated Mary's words for the benefit

ty of time, A

he set of her fine shoulders, the carriage of her head, by the diamond-studded lorgnette, by the st

ing down-stairs with his best man, the chorus is freezing on the side

ary. "At just eight, I start down in front of Constance, and if y

rs. Clendenning, panting a little and with a sense of outrage that her nervous anxiety of the prec

ngle; Aunt Frances wore amber, Aunt Isabelle silver gray; Aunt Frances held up her head like a queen, Aunt Isabelle dropped hers deprecatingly; Aunt

chanted wedding chorus, from a side door stepped the clergyman and the bridegroom and his best man; then from

d in his hair, and blue in his eyes, and, while one dared not hint it, in the face of his broad-shouldere

rooms. These girls wore pink with close caps of old lace. Only one of them had dark hair, and it was the dark-haired one, who, standing

t her friends, the dark-haired girl moved forward to w

ge?" she said to him w

down at he

s should make su

she belonged to us.

aking her t

ted over there, they'll come back, and he'll take his fathe

rrupted, "what will Mary do? She can't l

Mary to shut up the house and spend the winter in Nice

about yo

at her. "I'll find quarters somewhere, and when I ge

th, then like a child who has secured its coveted sugar-plum, she slipped through t

t, Leila. We could never have afforded the orchids and the roses; and the ice

flushed cheek against the arm of her talle

"I think they're horrid. I like Gordon Richardson well enough, exce

s to the dining-room, which took up the whole lower west wing of the house and opened out upon an old-fashioned garden, whic

, later, Mary. And be

or white, she partook somewhat of the nature of both races. Back of her African gentleness was

paper rose-leaf things that you've got in the bags are mighty p

and they look very real, floating off in the air. You must stand

u go right in out of the night, Miss Mary," she cal

to face with Gordon's b

ng for you everywhere. I couldn't keep my eyes

d him, "and I'm simply freezing out here

stance wants you. She's going up-stairs to change. But I heard just now that yo

was on

off with a

do with it, Porter. An

eila s

gesture. "It doesn't make any difference

tily contrived errand. Aunt Frances, arriving, was urged to go back and look after the guests. Only Aunt Is

ad a break in it, "dearest, I

or, unfastening hooks. "Don'

ll alone. It isn't as if any one

y, "and I sha'n't write anything to you ab

ry, he

u'll want to turn your heart inside out for

ulders. "But you mustn't tell him, Con. No matter how much

ry, a wi

and. And this belongs to us, not to him.

ttle cry of protest, but she looked up just in time to see the shimmering dress drop to the fl

y dear," she asked, in her thin tr

Mary's tone was not loud, but

, and wrought up. I'll run a

you cry on your wedding day, Con, and I wanted you to be so happy. Oh, tell Gordon, if you must. B

ddenly in a flood of assurance. "He's the best man in the world, Mary,

es. "Of course he's good," she said, "and you

its was over, and together the loving hands hurried Constance into her goi

ld I have faced Gordon's friends in London?"

y, Con

which gave the appropriate phrase. "Sh

osperous as a bridegroom should be, with a dark sleek head and eager eyes, a

tance, Porter tucked

Mary, qui

they are

grow pale, as t

her stars

at I am holding on to myself with all my might to keep from shout

lly

e hard-hearted on such a night as this. Say that I may

th her. "Of course you may stay," she said, "but much good may it do you. Aunt Frances is staying

etly, and with much elation had leaned over the rail as Constance passed down the steps

dancing slippers, high-heeled and of delicate hues, Mary's more individual low-heeled ones, Barry

away by the excitement, and having at the moment no other missile at hand, reached down, and plucking off one of her own pink san

" Looking up, she met

he step. "And they

thday next week," he said

ar

know I sometimes think you are eight instead of eighteen? And now, if you'll take my arm, you can hippity-hop into

ure sweetness. But she showed at times the spirit of her father-the spirit which had carried the General gallantly through the Civil War, and had led him after the war to make a suc

too," he said. "And now, why are you hop

r, I lost

she threw it after the bride, and now I've g

the young pair. This was as it should be, the son

pplied with pink shoes and blue shoes and all the colors of th

erly at Barry for confirmation. "He wan

er slippers, I should have to give her something else-and

d together up the stairs in a hunt for some stra

ed the stairway for the last time, Aunt Frances

ung people; Leila in a pair of mismated slippers, hippity-hopping behind with Barry, and Porter assuring

w bookcases; religious books, many of them, reflecting the gentle faith of the owner. On mantel and table and walls were photographs of her children in long clothes and short, and then once more in long ones; there was Barry in wide collars and knickerbockers, and Constance and Mary in ermine caps and capes; there was Barry again in the military uniform of his preparatory school; Constance in her gra

er his picture, she stated her case. What she had to say she said sim

e of them had realized that it was Mary's mind which had worked out the problems of making ends meet, and that

ght because I was afraid that some hint of my plan would get to Constance and she would be troubled. She'll learn it later, but I didn't want her to have it on her mind now. I w

be brought into it, said, "Oh

rances. If I went with you, Barry would be left to-drift-and I shouldn't like to think of that

was moved by her earnestness. "There's something back o

just because I'll have to eat a few meals in a boarding-house. And I sha'n't have to eat many. When I get starved for home cooking, I'll hunt up my f

al. "You all think it ought to be sold, but if we sell what will become of Susan Jenks, who nursed us and who nursed mother, and what shall we do with all the de

ome with what Barry earns isn't any more than enough to pay your running expenses; there's nothing left for taxes or improveme

part of our income, but I wouldn't. We sha'n't need it. I've fixed things so that

adoring eyes from Barry's face, and fixed them

, "do you meant that you ar

tly respectable. I advertised and he ans

y, is it

around. And I set the rent for the suite at exactly the amount

ked up a printed s

he said, "and I had twenty-seven a

her hand. "Will you let me see what yo

through the diamond-studded

Library. House on top of a high hill which overlooks th

"that the Gentleman's Library part was an inspira

et her have her own way, Frances. S

new language of independence. And she can't stay here alone. S

. Oh, Aunt Frances, please

caught the name. "What does she want, Frances

s always a problem to take Isabelle when she and her daughter traveled. And if they left her in New York t

he said, "While we are abroad, would

It had been a long time since Aunt Isabelle had felt that she was wanted anywhere. It seemed to her that s

unt Isabelle?" she asked. "I shall miss Constance so, a

ounger than her sister Frances, but she had faded and drooped, while Frances had stood up like a strong flower on its stem. And t

, and Barry wants y

ghed too, holding on to herself, so that she might

, will you, Fra

shall be very much disappointed that neither you nor Mary will be with us for the winter. And I shall have to cross alone. But Grace can meet me in Londo

her-but I have to think about Barry-and fo

k of the room spo

name of yo

er P

Park," said Aunt Frances. "I

head. "He's f

'd want to know something of him besides his ban

Mary de

a thief, or a rascal,

met. "He is neither," said Mary. "I kn

. "Oh, do you? Well, for my part I wi