Harriet and the Piper

eiling, and although the hall door was open, there was no breath of air moving anywhere. The children slept in attitudes of youthful abandonment; Harriet heard F

ame errand. When the worst of the crackling and flashing was over, the girl glanced at her watch again. Three o'clock, but she could sleep now. She sank deeply into dream

b when Pip hammered on the door for his turn. Linda was in a whirl of blue smoke in the kitchen; Fred shouted a request for a

melette and Fred's little bottle of cream, and his paper, and there was, as always, Linda's spontaneous grac

r to their ministrations while she thoroughly cleaned the floor above. Josephine must bake cake or cookies, all the dishwashing and dusting and sweeping must be done before Mother came down at twe

urch production of "Robin Hood" and a picnic with Uncle David at Asbury! Josephine was to be a stenographer when she finished High School, and little Julia had expressed an angelic ambition to teach a kindergarten class

y the car window. It would be a nine-days' wonder, his marriage at twenty-two with his mother's secretary, more than four years his senior. But after that? After that there would be nothing to say

them all. He had none of his wife's airy selfishness, none of his mother's cold pride. Nina was far more of a snob than her father, and Ward--well, Ward was only a sweet, spoiled, generous boy, at twenty-two. But Harriet always saw behind Richard Carter, the years that had made him, the patient, straightforward, hard-working clerk who h

esteem on her wedding day. The prospect had an unexpected piquancy. She had little fear of its outcome. She would make Ward Carter a wife for whom his father must come to feel genuine gratitude and devotion. Every fibre of her being would be strained to make the Carter marriage a success

omentarily, but less, on the whole, than the discovery that she had gained eight pounds, or that new wrinkles had appeared about her eyes. She would very probably choos

wedge of fear entered her heart at the same second. It would not do to anger Royal, that end of the tangl

tle girls who were so busily cleaning an eight-room house in a little Jersey suburb. Josephine and Julia should come to visit her, they should have little frocks that would befit the pr

ht be ready to accompany them back to Crownlands. But there was no car in sight. The maid's first statement was that Miss Carter had gone home with her brother, and when Madame Carter came magnificently into the room, Harriet could see from the nature

he old lady. Harriet could see tha

ook hands with her; there was conscious superiority in the l

Nina assured us that she had to wait and go home with her Daddy, but that--" Madame Carter gave Harriet a deeply significant smile--"but that didn't see

ng a trifle more defined and malicious than the usual grandmotherly fashion. She had indulged the child in chocolates when the doctor's prohibition of sweets was being scrupulously enforced by Isabelle and Harriet; she had permitted late hours and unsuitable plays when Nina visited her; she had encouraged her grandda

affair in every way that lay in her power. It was maddening; it was exasperating beyond words. An honest warning would have merely flattered her with i

home," Harriet said, pleasantly.

amps and jars and pictures and boxes and frames, handsome but heterogeneous treasures that must always remain in exactly the same positions. The several tables were angled carefully, their draperies lay precisely placed, year after year; Harriet knew that all the ten rooms were just the same, and that the old lady liked to walk slowly through them, and note the lace over satin, the glint of ranke

dy said, smiling at some thought. "We

it in following this line of conversat

, Madame Carter, unless there is some erran

w that she was casting about for some honeyed and venomous farewell, when the muffled thrill of the bell

rriet at

ina to hurry; I've got about fiv

forward under full sail, and laying both hands about his. "I'll explain

er the peculiarly warm smile

he called, after Harriet's discreetly retreating back, "the car's downstairs. Wait for me there

chair, with his hands still clasping the old lady's hand. But as she entered the lift, the girl said to herself, with a pa

d relaxation Harriet got into it, and was comfortably established, and tucked in snugly, when Richard came down. He smiled

ld, if we kept a list of the things that are worry

sed, and yet with fervour. "We'd have a fresh

nse in her tone made

was settled up as calm as a June day! I feel ten years younger than I did at this time yesterday! What made me think of it was that I had it on my mind that you and N

y money trouble really seems to have a soli

swering quickly, as if he were quite at home with

s at home here, too. "Everybody who is respectab

"But our contention isn't that riches ar

trouble is a very real thi

Field, between being rich an

o see my sister in New Jersey. She has four children, pretty well grown now, and her husband is really a good man, and a steady man, to

" asked the man, wi

le laugh that apologized for the sentiment. "She washes and cooks and plans all day and al

the car skillfully through a somewhat congested side street, then they were leaving the hot city behind, and the fresh b

me," Richard Carter said, presently, "that

conversations with Richard Carter before to-day, bu

see so many things that money would do for my sister; I'd love so to have the children beautifully dressed an

s life ran a little more in that direction," said her father, frankly. "It's hard not to spoil 'em when you have the chance! Girls--well, perhaps it isn't so bad for girls. But I look at Ward, no

e spoiled," Harriet ven

e boy?" his

n unawares, and flushed

n the hurry and crowding of Linda's house and the currents and cross-currents that she must encounter at Crownlands. She watched the green country go by, the trees silent and heavy with their rich foliage, the villages blazing with the last June roses. It was oppressively hot, yesterday'

he man to thank him. A little spraying film of golden hair had loosened under her hat; her cheeks had a summer burn over their warm olive; her eyes shone very blue.

agrant summer wear, and to go down-stairs presently, rejoicing in being young and comfortable, and tremendously interested in life. A maid stopped to question her; there were letters to open; she felt herself instantly a part of

iet cast them a passing glance, and wondered a little in her heart. The boy was handsome, and fascinating, and rich, but it was just a little unusual to have Isabelle so openly interested in any one. There were

ome step against which she must, in honour bound, protest; that Nina should engage herself to him, and Nina's parents consent; that no fortuitous circumstance should play into Harriet's hands, and that she should be obliged to

yal Blondin back into her life a few days ago. Linda's concern, and her own agony of apprehension when she first saw him, had shown her just how frail was her hold upon this pleasant and smooth existence

e met Ward Carter, wrestling with the engine of his own rather disreputable racing car, out in one of the clean, gravelled spa

ickening of her pulses as she saw him. There was no

sympathy of one to whom the pecul

d, flinging away his cigarette, and straightening his b

ome, like the angel he

began to act queer on the way home," said Ward, fondly, of th

e very simply stepped into the low front seat. There was a friendly nearness of her fresh white ruffles, and a thrilling fragrance and sweetness and youngness about her this afternoon that was new. Miss Field always, in Ward's simple vocabulary, had been a "corker." But now

g in his hand, or his brushes aimlessly suspended, while he calculated the chances of encountering her again--

w brick walls. The birds had long gone to bed, and the first dews were bringing out a thousand delicious odours of summer-time. Harriet's white gown and white shoes made her a soft glimmeri

r, and stood very close together, a

an't go away to-morrow, perhaps for two weeks, and not know!" "Ward," the girl faltered, lifting an exquisite face tha

wered, impatiently. "But--why, Harriet," and his arm went about her shoulders,

lamys' camp," Harriet reasoned, "girls with

own, and coming so close that to raise her beautiful eyes was to find his only a few in

not awaken an answering passion in return. Under all her reasoning and counter-reasoning in the night there crept the knowledge that she had known that this was coming, had known that only a few days of encouraging friendliness, only a few appealing glances from uplifted blue eyes,

he rose garden; she told herself that she really did love him--who could help loving Ward?--and that she would save hi

, and she had sent him in to his dinner half-wild with the joy of knowing himself beloved. Harriet ha

the day I come back, and that's two weeks from to-day, we'll tell ever