The Awakening of Helena Richie

. Lavendar, and when he told the tragic story of t

esn't call herself Mr

emanded.

that's natural," Dr

William, "but I just burst out and said that if e

did sh

vorced. I was ashamed of myself the nex

But I think I'll keep him for a week or two myself, and let her get sort of acquainted with him under my eye. That will give me a chance to get acquainted with her

she did not return the calls. She went to church, but not very regularly, and she never stopped to gossip in the vestibule or the church-yard. Even with Dr. Lavendar she was remote. The first time he went to see her he asked, with his usual directness, one or two questions: Did Mr. Pryor live in Mercer? No; he had business that brought hi

ce as if she did not care to talk about her own affairs, she added that she had

amilies fall out! "You'd think they'd be glad to hang together," the solitary old man thought; "and they are not necessarily ba

rdly been out of my sight twenty-four hours at a time. And I put my foot down on college with all its temptations. He's good-if he's nothing else!" And certainly Samuel Wright was good too. Everybody in Old Chester said so. He said so hims

hings for himself. Now when Sam was twenty-three the falling-out had become chronic. No doubt it was in the blood, as Dr. Lavendar said. Some thirty years before, Sam senior, then a slim and dreamy youth, light-hearted and given to writing verses, had fallen out with his father, old

ars old, knocked at the Rectory door; Dr. Lavendar, shieldi

y. He led the way into his study and put the la

es

s it, S

tell yo

ur fathe

his, Dr. Lavendar-that so help me God,

o look upon. Then trying to speak in a natural voice h

e said, "Of course you may, Samuel, but I shall fee

you ple

the night will

as si

in the morning and try

would like to go to my room

Dr. Lavendar go

p until midnight waiting for an answer. None came. "Well," said Dr. Lavendar at last trudging up to bed, "the boy comes by his obstinacy honestly." The next morning he

send

t for granted that Sam is at fault in some way? But he is

you what was

will

and behave himself!

ughtful frown. "It would expedite things, Wright

that he wishes to see the world? That he thinks life here very narrow? No? Well, I sha'n't quote him. All I shall say, is that I am doing my duty to him. I've always done my duty to him. If he sees fit to

r. Lavendar got ou

very exciting. But excitement ebbs in thirty-two years. For one thing, old Mr. Wright came less often into town-because he could not bear to meet his son, people said; and Samuel never took the hill road out of Old Chester for a corresponding reason. Furthermor

immons's opinion was justified by his treatment of his granddaughters. When by their father's orders the little girls came up to the lonely house on the hill, the old man used to pitch small coins to them and tell them to go and look at the canaries,-"and then clear out. Simmons, give 'em some cake or something! Good-by. Good-by. Clear out." Long before he had settled into such dreary living, the son with whom he had quarrelled had made a life of his own. His slimness and gayety had disappeared as well as his dreaminess and versifying instincts. "Poetry?" he had been heard to say, "why, there isn't a poem th

le some one remembered the quarrel and said, "What in the world could it have been about?" And once in a while Samuel's own children asked awkward q

nterest in his father, and his grandfather with whom he took tea every Sunday ni

g aloud, indifferent to all about him! Sometimes Sam senior used to look at his son and shake his head in bewildered astonishment; but often he was angry, and oftener still-though this he never admitted-hurt. The boy,

boy? Look at this last performance of his! Purchasing pictures of actors! Where does

indeed," Mrs. Wright

is own! Do you know wha

It is c

el." whimpered

said he wanted. Absolute waste of money! Our old rowboat is good enough for the girls, so why isn't it

had been ordered and charged, so what was the matter? And Mrs. Wright kne

ar, why do

ut he waited patiently, until she finished her rambling reproaches. It occurred to him that he

ards Sam junior had communications of his own to make. He fell into the habit of stopping there on Sunday afternoons, quite oblivious of the fact that Mrs. Richie did not display any pleasure at seeing him. After o

! I have my tea at six, sir; at six sharp. Either get he

young Sam

ooning after that femal

us

a message, sir,

ake to leave a mess

own-stairs and

oint. There, don't talk about it. Yo

ading aloud in a wonderful voice, deep, sonorous, flexible-Shakespeare, Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher. To be sure, there was nothing personal in such reading-it was not done to give pleasure to young Sam. Every night the old man rumbled out the stately lines, sitti

t's sp

is about as much poetry in your fami

e; the dreaming youth awoke to the passion of art. As Benjamin Wright gradually became aware of it delight struggled with his customary anger at anything unexpected. He longed to share his pleasure with somebody; once he mentioned to Dr. Lavendar that "that cub, Sam, really has something to him!" After

nimal House say to the idea of your wri

I may read

do I suppose? When you finish the first act

in spite of slaughtering criticism the boy took courage t

wanted. Sam continued to call and to tell her of his play and to look at her with beautiful, tragic eyes, that by and by openly adored. Inevitably the coldness to which he was so calmly imp

Besides, she really liked the boy; he amused her, and her empty days were so devoid of amusement! "I can't read novels all the time," she complained. In this very bread-and-butter sort of interest she had no thought of possible consequences to Sam. A certain pleasant indolence of mind made it

very uninteresting-my family," he said meditatively. "I don't like any of them

ustn't say thi

true," he said wit

ays tell the truth righ

t include his grandfather in his generalization. "

ant to!" she s

at was just like grandfather! Of course he did say that I was a d-I mean, a fool, to buy them in the fi

kled with mischievous g

for fear I'd go to the devil?" he laughed joyously. "But I might just as well, for he thinks everything I do in Old Chester is wrong." Then he sighed. "Sometimes I get pretty t

ther died when I was a baby. I think grandmother hated me; she thought everything I did was

at her in sil

t effort to change the subject she added that one would think it would be s

now, aren't

before the fire near her feet-and laughed with a

reath too, for there

y from personalities. "What

his knees, and blushed faintly. "Oh, noth

e asked absently. It wa

think her own thought

ere, then she got married and went out West;-she gave me a little gold image of Pasht, at least I

e said in

s Miss Ellen herself. I was so disappointed, I didn't want to live-queer! I can remember now just how I felt; a sort of s

of the window!" she is

! It must have been pretty funny-though I didn't think so at the time. First place, I tore my wrist on a nail-that's the scar; and then father caught me a

on the spur of the mome

posed so. "I am a good deal

ause I-I am a good deal of a fool myself." Then again, abruptly, she c

ed. "Your

that Dr. Lavendar had asked her if she would l

Little boys were a great

; how lon

r's-eyes reproac

I amuse him

a pair of rabbits for the child. "I used to

t of the night wind upon his face, the brush of boughs against his shoulder, the scent of young ferns, and the give of the spongy earth under his feet; he sprang in long leaps over the grass, the tears were wet upon his fresh cheeks, he sang aloud. But he did not know what he san

the senior warden, lamp in hand awaited his son. As Sam entered,

uppose, that a lady may find your s

hat. He was reflecting that he mu

ive under my roof you will return to it at night at a respectable hour. I wil

sudden awakening of interest, "if you

l have no boy entering my house at mi

ured falling back in

ation his father's long upper lip curved like the beak of a bird of prey; behind his hand he tried to arch his own lip in the same manner. He rea

vid Allison, would be in Old Chester on Saturday; he was to stay with Dr. Lavendar for a while, and then come to her for a week or two. But she was beginning to regret the invitation she had sent through Dr. King. It, would be pleasant to have t

years ago, and yet even now in these placid days in Old Chester, to think of that time brought the breathless smother of agony back again-the dying child, the foolish brute who had done him to death.... If the baby had lived he would be nearly fourteen years old now; a big boy! She wondered whether his hair would still have been curly? She knew in her hea

her," she reminded herself, "but I wouldn't have wanted her to be unhappy. She wanted me to be wretched. Curious!" Yet she realized that at that time she had not desired love; she had only desired happiness. Looking back, she pondered on her astounding immaturity; what a child she had been to imagine that merely to get away from that gray life with her grandmother would be happiness, and so had married Frederick. Frederick.... She was eighteen, and so pretty. She smiled remembering how pretty she was. And Frederick had made such promises! She was to have every kind of happiness. Of course she had married him. Thinking of it now, she did not in the least blame herself. If the dungeon doors open and the

lived for-a searing flame of happiness. Enough one might think to satisfy her-if she could only have forgotten the baby. At first she had believed that she could forget him. Lloyd had told her she would. How young she had been at twenty-one to think that any one could forget! She smiled dryly at her childish hope and at Lloyd's ignorance; but his tenderness had been so passionately convincing,-and how good he had been about the baby! He had let her talk of him all she wanted to. Of course, after a while h

om had fallen into shadows. Oh, yes, as she told Sam Wright,

ar was interested in. Suppose she should get fond of him and want to keep him-how would Lloyd feel about it? Would he think the child might take her thoughts from him