Chapter XXV

The next morning, before Maria had started for school, Lily Merrill came running across the yard, and knocked at the side door. She always knocked unless she was quite sure that Maria was alone. She was afraid of her aunt. Aunt Maria opened the door, and Lily shrank a little before her, in spite of the wonderful glowing radiance which lit her lovely face that morning.

"Good-morning, Miss Stillman," said Lily, timidly.

"Well?" said Aunt Maria. The word was equivalent to "What do you want?"

"Has Maria gone?" asked Lily.

"No, she is getting dressed."

"Can I run up to her room and see her a minute? I have something particular I want to tell her."

"I don't know whether she'd want anybody to come up while she's dressing or not," said Aunt Maria.

"I don't believe she'd mind me," said Lily, pleadingly. "Would you mind calling up and asking her, please, Miss Stillman?"

"Well," said Aunt Maria.

She actually closed the door and left Lily standing in the bitter wind while she spoke to Maria. Lily heard her faintly calling.

"Say, Maria, that Merrill girl is at the door, and wants to know if she can come a minute. She's got something she wants to tell you."

Then Aunt Maria opened the door. "I suppose you can go up," she said, ungraciously. The radiance in Lily's face filled her with hostility, she did not know why.

"Oh, thank you!" cried Lily; and ran into the house and up the stairs to Maria's room.

Maria was standing before the gla.s.s brushing her hair, which was very long, and bright, and thick. Lily went straight to her and threw her arms around her and began to weep. Maria pushed her aside gently.

"Why, what is the matter, Lily?" she asked. "Excuse me, but I must finish my hair; I have no more than time. What is the matter?"

"Nothing is the matter," sobbed Lily, "only--Oh Maria I am so happy!

I have not slept a wink all night I was so happy. Oh, you don't know how happy I am!"

Maria's face turned deadly white. She swept the glowing lengths of her hair over it with a deft movement. "Why, what makes you so happy?" she asked, coolly.

"Oh, Maria, he was in earnest, he was. I am engaged to George."

Maria brushed her hair. "I am very glad," she said, in an unfaltering voice. She bent her head, bringing her hair entirely over her face, preparatory to making a great knot on the top of her head. "I hope you will be very happy."

"Happy!" said Lily. "Oh, Maria, you don't know how happy I am!"

"I am very glad," Maria repeated, brushing her hair smoothly from her neck. "He seems like a very fine young man. I think you have made a wise choice, Lily."

Lily flung herself into a chair and looked at Maria. "Oh, Maria dear," she said, "I wish you were as happy as I. I hope you will be some time."

Maria laughed, and there was not a trace of bitterness in her laugh.

"Well, I shall not cry if I never am," she said. "What a little goose you are, Lily, to cry!" She swept the hair back from her face, and her color had returned. She looked squarely at Lily's reflection in the gla.s.s, and there was an odd, triumphant expression on her face.

"I can't help it," sobbed Lily. "I always have cried when I was very happy, and I never was so happy as this; and last night, before he--before George asked me--I was so miserable I wanted to die. Only think, Maria, mother is going to marry Dr. Ellridge, and he and his three horrid girls are coming to live at our house. I don't know how I could have stood it if George hadn't asked me. Now I shall live with him in his house, of course, with his mother. I have always liked George's mother. I think she is sweet."

"Yes, she is a very sweet woman, and I should think you could live very happily with her," said Maria, twisting her hair carefully.

Maria had a beautiful neck showing above the lace of her underwaist.

Lily looked at it. Her tears had ceased, and left not a trace on her smooth cheeks. The lace which Maria's upward-turned hair displayed had set her flexible mind into a new channel.

"Say, Maria," she said, "it is to be a very short engagement. It will have to be, on account of mother. A double wedding would be too ridiculous, and I want to get away before all those Ellridges come into our house. Dr. Ellridge can't let his house before spring, and so I think in a month, if I can get ready." Lily blushed until her face was like the heart of a rose.

"Well, you have a number of very pretty dresses now," said Maria. "I should think you could get ready."

"I shall have to get a wedding-dress made, and a tea-gown, and one besides for receiving calls," said Lily. "Then I must have some underwear. Will you go shopping with me in Westbridge some Sat.u.r.day, Maria?"

"I should be very glad to do so, dear," replied Maria.

"That is a very pretty lace on your waist," Lily said, meditatively.

"I think I shall get ready-made things. It takes so much time to make them one's self, and besides I think they are just as pretty. Don't you?"

"I think one can buy very pretty ready-made things," Maria said. She slipped on her blouse and fastened her collar.

"I shall be so much obliged to you if you will go," said Lily. "I won't ask mother. To tell you the truth, Maria, I think it is dreadful that she is going to marry again--a widower with three grown-up daughters, too."

"I don't see why," Maria said, dropping her black skirt over her head.

"You don't see why?"

"No, not if it makes her happy. People have a right to all the happiness they can get, at all ages. I used to think myself that older people were silly to want things like young people, but now I have changed my mind. Dr. Ellridge is a good man, and I dare say your mother will be happier, especially if you are going away."

"Oh, if she had not been going to get married herself, I should rather have lived at home, after I was married," said Lily. She looked reflectively at Maria as she fastened her belt. "It's queer,"

she said, "but I do believe my feeling so terribly about mother's marrying made George ask me sooner. Of course, he must have meant to ask me some time, or he would not have asked me at all."

"Of course," said Maria, getting her hat from the closet-shelf.

"But he walked home with me from the concert last night, and I couldn't help crying, I felt so dreadfully. Then he asked me what the matter was, and I told him, and then he asked me right away. I think maybe he had thought of waiting a little, but that hastened him. Oh, Maria, I am so happy!"

Maria fastened on her hat carefully. "I am very glad, dear," she said. She turned from the gla.s.s, and Lily's face, smiling at her, seemed to give out light like a star. It might not have been the highest affection which the girl, who was one of clear and limpid shadows rather than depths, felt; it might have had its roots in selfish ends; but it fairly glorified her. Maria with a sudden impulse bent over her and kissed her. "I am very glad, dear," she said, "and now I must run, or I shall be late. My coat is down-stairs."

"Don't say anything before your aunt Maria, will you?" said Lily, rising and following her.

"No, of course, if you don't want me to."

"Of course it will be all over town before night," said Lily, "but someway I would rather your aunt Maria did not hear it from me. She doesn't like me a bit." Lily said the last in a whisper.

Both girls went down-stairs, and Maria took her coat from the rack in the hall.

Aunt Maria opened the sitting-room door. She had a little satchel with Maria's lunch. "Here is your luncheon," said she, in a hard tone, "and you'd better hurry and not stop to talk, or you'll be late."

"I am going right away, Aunt Maria," said Maria. She took the satchel, and kissed her aunt on her thin, sallow cheek.