Contrary Mary

the Dark; and in Which Mary Forgets Th

the curtains drawn behind him to shut out the light, he looked

she greeted Aunt Isabelle, who had waited up for her.

e hope that things could be different; here in this hospitable house he had, perchance, found a home. So he had gone down to find

the look that was in Porter Bigelow's eyes when they had rested upon her. The look of a man who claims-his own. And behind Bigelow's pleasant and perfunctory greeting Roger had fe

ilities swept over him. His life to-day would have been diffe

o be overthrown by an act of chivalry-to be denied the expression of that which surged within him. Daily he bent over a desk, doing the

were footsteps ascending. Then he heard a little laugh.

y through his consciousness flitted Porter Bigelow's name for her-Contrary Mary. Why Contrary? Was there another side which he had not seen? He had heard her flaming words to Barry, "If I were a man-I'd make the world move--" and he had been for the moment

on his face, the wind blew his hair back, and fluttered the ends of his loose tie. Below him lay the storm-

or Thou hast done wonderful things; Thou hast been a strength to the p

id past. But to-night-why, there was no-God! Wa

y, down the tower steps to the side door. Mary had pointed out to him that this entrance would make

untain was filled with sodden leaves. A street lamp at the foot of the terrace illumined the bronze boy's face so that it s

It would have been better to have stayed in his last cheap boarding-house, better to have kept away from this place which brought me

. He wondered if she had stayed awake to think of the young Apollo of

care who loved

y a friendliness, touched by a frankness and sincerity such as he had found in no other woman. And because he had been thrilled and w

abelle's solicitous care for her. Her fire was burning brightly, the covers of her bed were tur

good-night. "Mother wasn't that kind. We all waited on her. And Susan Jenks is too busy; it isn't right to keep her u

ny servants, and I feel pushed out. There's nothing that I can do for any one. Grace a

lips against the soft cheek. "I'm dead

g into the fire. "It has been years sin

stated a fact. Yet in her youth she had been the

suddenly, "is marriage the

only

Why shouldn't you do as you please? Why shouldn't I? And yet you've never lived your o

belle's cheeks. "I have

Tower Rooms not only in defiance of the living-but of the dead. I can see mother's face if we had thought of such a thing while she lived. Yet we

not sleepy, are you?" She drew the little lady beside her on the high-backed couch which faced th

n't lov

e would persist and persist, until he won. But I don't want love to come to me th

s it is a tragedy

t w

When they see love in a woma

and the chase is over? No, Aunt Isabelle, when I fall in love, it will be with a man who will know that I am the One Woman. He must love me becau

and Forty, meeting that flame with her banked fi

id you

ry drop of blood from Aunt Is

ed her why you had never marr

ting your mother, and he was in Congress at the time, and the garden was full of roses-and it was-moonlight. And we sat by the fountain, and there was the soft splash of the water, and he said: 'Isabelle, the little b

hat I couldn't hear the splash of the water, and things began to go; the voices I loved seemed far away, and I could tell that

ailed away i

ss, and Frances did her best for me. And she didn't like it when I said I couldn't marry

was kneeling beside her aunt, her arm thrown around her, and A

Frances and have made something of myself. But I'm not strong, and twe

a pedestal and worship me, and I'd rather stand shoulder to shoulder with my husband and be his

Why, he adore

He won't ask her opinion in any vital matter. He won't share his big interests with her, and

lyze too much, Mary. Men and women are human-and

ays I never do things the way the people expect. Yet I do them the wa

'd be something in the world for me to do. Yet here I am, making ends meet, holding up my part of the housekeepi

side her. "Rebellious Mary," she

r, and than Mary said, "You must go to bed,

atly, but from little girlhood Mary had protested, and on going to bed with two prim pigtails had been known to wake up in the middle of the night and take them down, only to be discovered in the morning with al

prayers aloud. She said them that way to-night, kneel

he driving rain, the flare of the street lamp showed a motionless figure on the t

me one in t

s it's

he come

n with Leila a

o o'clock, Au

I thought perh

The light was still burning in the hall. Barry always turned it out when he came. She stood undec

rry

disturbing you. I could not sleep, and I went out--" He stopped and stammered. Poised there ab

don't apologize. It was foolish of me to be-frightened. Bu

ank within him. To her he was the lodger who paid the rent. To h

wave of self-consciousness swept over her. What would Barry think to find her at this hour talking

"I'll turn out this lig

y was safe in his own room, then she spoke soft