The Iron Woman

ht they never would go!" Nannie sai

s head proudly. "Sh

!" cried Nannie

d into laughter. "Yes, I'm engaged!" He put his hands into his pockets and strutted the length of the room; a minute later he stopped

r, With his daughter Clementine

shes in the pantry, stopped, tea-towel in hand, and listened; Sarah Maitland, at her desk, lifted her head, and the pen slipped from her fingers.

getting her breath; "shall

I won't tell anybody yet," he f

the fear of telling his mother a resentment that would retaliate by se

"Well, I should th

could not keep the great news to himself; he

d been suddenly hit below the belt; then in a low

ands deep in his pockets; he laughed, reddening to his forehead, but he was not embarrassed. For once David's old look of silent, friendly admiration did not answer hi

been so darned quiet about it! What's the good of being so-mum about everyt

a thing like that,"

, "I suppose some tim

ed again.

ur mother won't let yo

be a

seventeen

ar eighteen, and I haven't thought of being

r said coldly; "you

nd Elizabeth were kind of off at dinner. You didn't talk to each other a

lis, assumed in that hot moment in the hall, was profanity of sorts. "David, I'm going to clear

to get married?" David i

jealous! "Gorry!" he said blankly. He was honestly dis

mptuously; "if you think I care, one way or the other, you're

; the sound, familiar enough to any Mercer boy, seemed to David at that moment intolerable. "I'll get out of this cursed noise," he said to himself, and turned down a narrow street toward the river. It occurred to him that he would go over the covered bridge, and

ould she fall in love with Blair? He was two months younger than she, to begin with. "No woman ought to marry a man younger than she is," David said; he himself, he reflected, was much older than Elizabeth. That was how it ought to be. The girl should always be younger than the fellow. And anyway, Blair wasn't the kind of man for a girl like Elizabeth to marry. "He wouldn't understand her. Elizabeth goes off at half-cock sometimes, and Blair wouldn't know how to handle her. I understand her, perfectly. Besides that, he's too selfish. A woman ought not to marry a selfish man," said David. However, it made no difference to him whom she married. If Elizabeth liked that sort of thing, if she found

felt a sudden distaste for breaking windows,-and for everything else! It was a sort of spiritual nausea, and life was black and bitter on his tongue. He was conscious of an actual sinking below his breast-bone. "I'm probably coming down with brain fever," he told himself; and he had a happy moment of thinking how wretched everybody would be when he died. Elizabeth would be very wretched! David felt a wave of comfort, and on the impulse of expected death, he turned toward home again…. However, if he should by any chance recover, marriage was not for him. It occurred to him that this would be a bitter surprise to Elizabeth, whose engagement would of course be broken as soon as she heard of his illness; and again he felt happier. No, he would never marry. He would give his life to his profession-it had long ago been decided that David was to be a doctor. But it wo

railing under his hand he felt the old wooden structure thrill and quiver in the constant surge of water against the pier below him. The sun, a blood-red disk, was slipping into the deepening haze, and on either side of the river the city was darkening into dusk. All along the shore lig

for a stove-pipe came through its roof, and there was a woman sitting in its little doorway, nursing her baby. David, looking down, saw the downy head, and a little crumpled fist lying on the white, bare breast. The woman, looking up as they floated below him, caught his eye, and drew her blue cotton dress across her bosom. David suddenly put his hand over his lips to hide their quiver. The abrupt tears were on his cheeks. "Oh-Elizabeth!" he said. The revolt, the anger, the jealousy, were all gone. He sobbed under his breath. He had forgotten th

in the little garden behind the house. David, standing behi

orbed in pinching ba

Elizabeth. Here, I'll s

y, but they are both children, and-" she stop

opposite houses, dropped his head on her shoulde