The Butterfly House

e Eustace were given usually to platitudes, the silence was unavoidable. Both instinctively dreaded with a pleasurable dread the shock

he plague, and, moreover, as Annie comfortably knew, had imparted the knowledge to V

her chair after a cup of tea," Annie

ane Riggs, and told her not to make any noise, as Miss Eustace in the library would probably fall asleep, as was her wont after a cup of tea. Jane Riggs assented, but she looked after him with a long, slow

began talking, it was strangely enoug

the poor young thing's husband came and

pted him?" asked An

known any other course t

nnie said. She cast a little

h counts to one's credit when one is simply

k of your speaking of P

, "but somehow I never do feel as if I n

ice, and I am at a loss as to whether I should con

elt that I could be myself with you, and not weigh words or split hairs. A clergyman has to do a lot of that,

She gazed up at the weave of leaves and blossoms,

ely here,"

der young creature in the blue g

ing except blue and that particular

ave said gr

er to try for a discord. You are much surer to chord. That blue does chord, an

d Annie like a school girl.

" Von Rosen

thing. She sa

you. I love you,

u have talked wi

fference with me.

"but I am not at

what,

aunts and grand

k they will

o-

tune of my own. I have an income besides my salary.

ush of resentment. "As if I would e

t th

very old, although she sits up so st

d w

ot, of course, play pinocle

. I most certainly

makes it

lexity. "I am afraid I don't un

inocle on Sunday when Aunt Harriet and Aunt Susan don't know it, sort of keeps her going. I don't just know why myself, but I am sure of it

candid brows and stared at him with round eyes o

o your playing pinocle with your grandmother on Sunday. The

ke naps Sunday afternoons, but I am sure grandmother

ay afternoons, or if you prefer and she is able, I will drive y

ve to be a hundred," said An

and kiss me,"

m kiss a

s the r

er's shoulder, a pair of topaz ey

w me kiss anybody

ws?" asked Annie, blushin

ow?" replied Von Rosen. "When we discover that

he stroked his yellow back and looked at Von Ro

thing as this," said she. "Do you mean that you con

certai

eally seen and talked

st found it out," said Von Rosen. "Of cou

y leaned together over the yel

nie. "To think of your marrying a girl who has staid at

ou do not get more benefit, more spiritual bene

are just about as funny a ministe

t I should be m

y n

t care fo

hy do y

you are

type cannot be changed utterly by force of circumstances in a short time. Her hat was loaded with wisteria. She wore a wisteria gown of soft wool. She held up her skirts daintily. A great amethyst gleamed at her throat, but her face, wearing a smile like a painted on

cried Annie,

him peremptorily to please go in the house and see if Aunt Harriet were awake, that she wished to speak to Mrs. Ede

ie turned upon her friend. "Margaret,

es upon Annie. "I did not know i

t not te

mus

t, and all t

y,

ing to m

ought t

ur web of deceit also. He has talked to me about you and

it would be like this. I never bl

you must bear it. You must not do your

t up. He would go away from Fairbridge. He is very proud,

annot

ause they think I have written that book. They tell all the other children

s to anybody excep

not tell poor Wilbur, but I thou

awful wrong, and now you can not escape the fact t

re so

"I did not betray you there befor

now?" asked Margare

was so hurt for me that I

tell now. I wi

life and you can never stop blaming yourself. There is no way out of it. You can not ruin your husband. You can not ruin your children's future and you cannot, after the wrong you have d

, I did not know how I could blame myself. I have always thought so well of myself; I did not know. Annie, for God's sake, let me tell. You can't know how keenly I suffer, Annie. Let me

n than the mere thievery of her book; she had murdered love. Annie had loved Margaret greatly. No, she loved her no longer, since the older woman had actually blasphemed against the goddess whom the girl had shrined. Had Margaret stolen from another, it would have made no difference. The mere act had destroyed herself as an image of love. Annie, especially now that she was so happy, cared nothing for the glory of which she had been deprived. She had, in truth, never had much hunger for fame, especially for herself. She did not care when she

d you cannot tell Mr. von Rosen, Margare

not be

ust be

me a dinner, the Zenit

have to

ou think. I cannot and will not accept that dinner and make the speech which th

at you need make the speech," said Annie, who w

vade the dreadful glare of light upon her own imperfections; she who had always thought of herself as perfect, but the glare of knowledge came mostly from her appreciation of the attitude of her friends and lovers toward what she had done. Suppose she went home and told Wilbur. Suppose she said, "I did not write that book. My friend, Annie Eustace, wrote it. I am a thief, and worse than a thief." She knew just how he would look at her, his wife, his Margaret, who had never done wrong in his eyes. For the first time in her life she was afraid, and yet how could she live and bear such torture a

him, Annie. He will only think the m

ature was not so fine. "Do you think I wish him to?" she said, but in a whi

in sight, and Harriet Eustace, who had not seen Margaret since the club meeti

of you and as for us, we can only feel honoured that our little Annie has such a friend. We tr

urned her head aside. It was rath

e days of many books, it is a great achievement to have one singled out for special notic

" said Marg

an autograph copy,"

side Annie and whispered, "I sha

; murmured something about a little business which she had wi

d Harriet Eustace, "that she

pected to do, who always said the things to be expected, would say to this, which must, of course, savour very much of the unexpected. Von Rosen was entirely sure that Miss Harriet Eustace would be scarcely able to conceive of a marriage engagement of her niece especially with a clergyman without all the formal preliminaries of courtship, and he knew well that preliminaries h

e for the minds of the young to be improved." Von Rosen murmured a polite acquiescence. She

de her famous, I realise how exceedingly important it is for the minds of the you

, in order to have written it, must be every whit as improved as Margaret Edes' and her Aunt Harriet was belittling her befor

nour of her friendship. Of course, Annie can never do what Mrs. Edes has done. She herself knows that she lacks talent and also concentration. Annie, you k

loathes fancy work, Aunt Harriet," said she. "Sh

ch had made you famous, no one could venture to complain of your lack of industry with regard to the daisy centre piece. But I am sure that Mrs. Edes, in order to have written that book of which eve

er, but her aunt did

being counted among the friends of such a remarkable woman. May I inquire if

e to hear his sweetheart addressed after such a fashion, even though he had no inkling of the real state of affairs. To his mind, this exquisite lit

, dull skinned and wide mouthed, and she had a fashion, because she had been told from

show Mrs. Edes my collection at a

is so improving, and if anything is improving to the

t allowed herself the luxury of any dreams concerning him and herself. She had not considered the possibility of his caring for her, not because she underestimated herself, but because she overestimated him. Now, she knew he cared, he cared, and he wanted to marry her, to make her his wife. After she had reached home, when they were seated at the tea table, she did not think of telling anybody. She ate and felt as if she were in a blissful crystal sphere of isolation. It did not occur to her to reveal her secret until she went into her grandmother's room rather late to

ad said, "but nobody will know you and I have read so many

fashion that it is all like a sermon. I don't like the book at all. At the same time a girl like you had better not read it and you had better see that Harriet and Susan don't get a glimpse of it. They would be set into fits. It is a strange thing that both my da

be an old maid, I think," said

't seen a man in this house except the docto

arry the ministe

moved the front-piece which she wore by day and her face showed large and rosy between the frills of her night cap. Her china blue eyes were excee

has the man courted you?

n't k

m outside the house. No, you have not. You are a lady, if you

id Annie. "Mr. von Rosen and I went out t

ady shook the

A glass of milk, covered with a glass dish; two bottles of medicine; two spoons; a saucer of sugared raspberries; exactly one square inch of American cheese on a tiny plate; a pitcher of water, carefully covered; a tumbler; a glass of port wine and a bottle of camphor. Old Ann Maria Eustace took most of her sustenance at night. Night was really her happy time. When that worn, soft old bulk of hers was ensconsed among her soft pillows and feather bed and she had her eatables and drinkables and literature at hand, she was in her happiest mood and s

opping," said the perverse o

grandm

had an eye on

t must be at least twenty-

dn't put on her pearl breast-pin and crimp her hair unless she had so

ill look

g to get married?"

n't k

You will have to go to meeting whether you want to or not and listen to the same man's sermons. But he is good looking and they say he has money, and anyway, the Eustaces won't peter out in old maids. There's on

ng to play pinocle with you Sunday forenoons

ou are m

, I

re married t

grandm

ht and eyed Annie with her

and a ring in the bank. Harriet has always wanted them but what is the use of a born old maid decking herself out? I always knew Harriet and Susan would be old maids. Why, they would never let their doll-babies be seen without all their clothes on, seemed to think there was something indecent about cotton cloth legs stuffed with sawdust. When you see a little girl as silly as that you can always be sure she is c

randmo

along and go to bed. This book is dull, but I want to see how wicked the writer tried to make it and the heroine is just making an awful effort t

for a minute beside her window and gaze out upon the lovely night and revel in her wonderful happiness. The night was lovely enough for anyone, and for a girl in the rapture of her first love, it was as beautiful as heaven. The broad village gleaming like silver in the moonlight satisfied her as well as a street of gold and the tree shadows waved softly over everything like wings of benediction. Sweet odours came in her face. She could see th