The Crux

cuffs, ankle-b

d dreary fo

ld cell, narro

ck wall, windo

tone-pent litt

weary of mono

weary of reit

do-what will

cca and Miss Josie Foote, Miss Sallie being out on a foraging expedition-mar

l in brown passed o

would get tired of wearing

er promptly protested, "it's a good eno

Lanes are mean enough about some things, but I know they'd like

. She's only twenty-f

of girls marry that are not good-looking-an

ng. Miss Rebecca certainly was not handsome. "Going to the library

ee her going and coming from

e notices. We use that library enough, goodness knows, but they are there every d

r ignored this correction, she continued: "They might as

from what I hear of 'em, as she has in all this time at home." The

rl's studying so much," said

s Josie. "Men don't

ned, either," remarked Miss Rebecca with a pleasant se

t the windows opposite, and had held her should

t," murmured Miss Josie, reminiscently. "I shouldn'

She's not that kind. She's not popular wit

Elder," Miss Rebecca suggested. "She's far more

es are pleased with her, there's no reason for you to

o take home. She had her card, her mother's and her father's-all

with some emphasis from the unnecessary questions

stamping violet dates with the other. She whisked out the pale blue slips from the lid pockets, dropped

o home with me?" she asked.

I'm not going

!" said Miss Susie, tossing her bright

u know you're my very best f

Susie sharply agreed. "And you've be

. Cloud brings out one's very best and hig

t and highest'-if I've got any. She don't. She's lik

iled down

e!" she said. "Come,

em in the car." Susie looked anxious t

k you. I'll be home by

fore a little shop where pap

it for him, chatting a little with the one-armed man who kept the place.

but they'll do just as well now. Lucky you thought of them before it got too late in the

ran out suddenly from a

g in to see me-ev

oped and k

o-night. How's that d

e girl. "Mother said thank you

pward glance, fished out a handful of peanuts, and ran up the

he wet sidewalk. Vivian caught up with

. Say-are you coming to

led cor

uldn't disappoint my boys for

until, at the minister's house, s

stern sky. She saw the girl coming and let her in with a t

her culture of the second Mrs. Williams, superimposed upon the lower culture of the first, as that upo

ith a misty, veiled effect to them, wearing pale amber, large, dull stones of uncertain shapes, and slender chains that glittered here and there among her scarfs and laces

nd of dumb patience, he shone darkly forth as A Brute of unknown cruelties. Nothing against him would she ever say, and every young masculine heart yearned to make life brighter to the Ideal Woma

even when directly approached, as to "the facts" of her trouble. "It is an old story," he

feet and looking up at her with adoring eyes, sh

wearing one thin gold ring, and stroked the girl's smooth hair

waste your young affecti

ld as I do this minute!" said

afraid, my dear.... Do

could Vivian speak of what now se

r now. He did write o

to his aunt

But not often. And he

." And the lady turned the thin ring on her finger. V

d!" she exclaimed.

my dear," said

as in sight at both ends-the low, monotonous, wooded hills that shut them in. It was all familiar, wearingly familiar. She had known it continuously

hen and Sue Elder joined her, to take th

said cheerfully, "an

thank

r, can't you? Aunt Rella's h

bre eyes lit

r?" she asked with an elaborately cheerful air. Morton had

h, you know. I don't think it's good for him out there-g

to do? They c

ose not-but

sly, don't you?" In truth, Dr. Bellair was already a close s

at times recalling their school days together. Aunty used to like her then, though

an, with decision, "but she's a

?" asked h

ost, and the two girls, arm in

fluffily about her small head. Vivian's hair was twice the length, but so straight and fine t

and a walk past three gates and

e in your sho

n-having the Doc

o; but I mean work t

mother to take care of me. I can tell you, it's no fun-having to be there just on time or ge

're inde

ke care of me, I suppose, but of course I wouldn't let her.

e're forty, I wonder?" said

hat time," said Sue. She was but twenty-o

nd knit?" sug

-and socks-and little shawls. I lo

don't marry?" p

she carefully went inside the gate and latched it-"marri

er grimly, and slowly wa

t Mr. Lane sat with his carpet-slippered feet

irritably. "I'll never get over this c

out, Father-and it's

close because you've come in from outdoors. Sit down-a

old man with gray, glassy eyes, and had been having

is the best medicine for a cold," rema

her father returned wheezingly. "I'm quite satisfie

e women doctors!"

e learned how widely she differed from both fath

d his wife "had property" to a certain extent; and now lived peacefully on their income with neither fear nor hope, ambition nor responsibility to trou

er shovelful of coal on the fire with a careful hand. "Doctors and lawyers and even ministers, some

no husbands to cl

," he answered. "No man's going to want to marry one of these

that you're not letting that Dr. Bell

rt myself-sometime, Mother. I ca

enough for you to live on. It's a wo

ed me to marry him yet. Some of the women in this town have w

other. "And my mother wasn't but fifteen. Huh!" A sudden litt

eeble replica of her energetic parent. There was but seventeen years difference in their ages, and comp

active middle-age, she had trotted about from daughter's house to son's house, helping with the grandchildren. And now she still trotted abou

aracteristic of Mrs. Pettigrew that she talked very little, though she listened to all that went on with a bright and beady eye, as of a highly intelligent parrot. And now, hav

the offensive name of "sweater." These she constructed in great numbers, and their probable expense was a source of discussion in the town. "H

a husband easy enough," insisted the invalid.

her chair to follow it and dropped her d

hard-featured middle-aged woma

icked, and a firm step was

ne. "He said he'd be in this afternoon if he g

isted on his staying, slipping out

ners. It was noted that, in making pastoral calls, he began with the poorer members of his f

'm sorry to hear it. Ah! Mrs. Pettigrew! Is that jacket for me, by any chance? A li

had christened her, she had "sat under" him for long, d

ning, Mr. Lan

host agreed. "Vivian sa

, Vivian," said the minister jocosely. "Du

the girl asked, in a voice of quiet sweetness,

her gray ball. Vivian picked it up and

erend gentleman to Mrs. P

he old lady,

lence is golden. Speech is silver, but

ved," a phrase she herself despised. Some visitor, new to the town, had the hardihood to use it to her face once. "Huh!" was the response. "I'm just sixty. Henry Haskins and George Ba

ge at her somewhat inimical expression; particularly as just

, serving creamed codfish and hot biscuit; her father, eating wheezily, and finding fault with the biscuit, also with the codfish;

, preserves, hot bread, and a 'relish,'" said Mr. Willi

m sure," said that lady. "I'm

ading now, Vivian,"

swered, modest

Ward of the

iled her

ed; "Lester F. Ward

her father. "Girls have no b

out it, Mr. Williams. She's got

rew. "I'd like some mor

ding books of which your parents dis

girl, in her soft, disarming m

" he replied sonorously. "Does parental duty ceas

she lives at home?" inquired the

and wiped his lips

derstand the distinction between right and wrong," he sai

she asked, large

g at her in some surprise. "It is

other," she pursued meditatively, and

n of her, her mother invite pastoral interference, the minister preach like that. She slapped her grandm

mpbell's New Theology?" and from that on they were all occupied in listening to Mr. Will

nor, as a man of irreproachable character, great learning and wisdom. Of late she found with a sense of surprise that she did not honor him at all. He seemed to her suddenly like a relic of past ages, a piece of an old

said to herself, "and a

rself with "fancywork." Her work must be worth while. She felt the crushing cramp and loneliness of a young mind, really stronger than those about her, yet held in dumb subjection. She could not solace herself by loving them; her father would have none of it, and her mother had small use for what she called

"And they shall never be hungry for more loving." She meant to make up

onstration, and Vivian solaced her big, tender heart by cuddling all the babie

de a courteous goodnight t

to Sue's," she s

zily brilliant. The air was sweet with the o

into that silver radiance. Moonlight always filled her heart with

n went away! Nine years since the strange, invading thrill of her first kiss! Back of that was only

ache of an unsatisfied heart, the stir of young ambitions, were wholly unsuspected by those about her. A studious,

as very fond of her. But that bright-haired child did n

and of the unborn future. From her she learned to face a life of utter renunciation, to be t

e Young Men's Bible Class, leaving them the more devoted to Scripture study. There was no thin ring to turn upon her finger; but,

life, sharply across the trend of Mrs. St. Cloud'

ubtle sense that this breezy woman, strong, cheerful, full of new ideas, if not ideals, and rad

she longed for, but

, paused lingeringly by that rough garde