A Woman Named Smith

April had summoned the cohorts of Spring. For fresh-faced boys of a sudden appeared in increasing numbers; and flower-faced girls came fluttering into Hynds House like butterflies. They cared fo

gment of Spring. By t

llow of their pink palms. After which, as Doctor Richard Geddes told me wrathfully, you "couldn't put your

ile people, people that otherwise we should have met only in books, magazines, and newspap

k. One couldn't listen to The Author without being somewhat brightened by his daring wit, his glowing genius; nor live face to face with big Westmacote without revering the broadness of the American master

g been dressed by machinery out of gear, and of then having been whacked flat with a shovel. When she clapped on what she called a hat, you wondered whether a heron hadn't built its nest on her head. But when she began to speak, you listened wit

one of her rollicking laughs that set the doctor's teeth on edge and made The Author shudder. The Author snarled to me that she laughed like a rolling-mill and reasoned like a head-o

ely and definitely, she had begun to avoid Doctor Richard Geddes. It wasn't that she ceased to be friendly; but she placed between herself and him one of those women-built, impalpable, impassable barriers which baffled, puzzled men are unable to tear down. It was impossible, I thou

lirting now with this boy, now with that, after the innocent fashion of natural girls, but always reserving a friendlier smile, a m

Mrs. Haile, to whom she happened to mention that her opportunities for studying the life of native women and children in the East had been rather unusually good, since she had visited many missionary stations

lected. She looke

as a soul which speaks to mine. Dear Miss Smith, would it be too much to ask you to let

to have the lecture in the parsonage; any more than for me to hint, without ungraciousness, that it might be

to Reach the Women of the East." Somehow, I rather think they were as curious about two Yankee women as they were about those Eastern

in Hynds House. The Suffragist picked up the thread where the less gifted woman dropped i

a long and hungry prowl, he spied Fernolia crossing the hall with a huge platter, got one tantalizing, mouth-watering odor, and

s-" said she, gaily, "We have just this minute stopped ta

athen! What is home without the heathen?-Without sugar, Mis

one side and the air of a thievish jackdaw; and proceeded, a

him drinking his fourth cup of tea, "Doctor Johnson was also ad

ohnson a great literary man!" The Aut

espect for Dr. Johnson as Miss Deborah Jenkyns had, t

f Boswell-and he was a fool-I've never know

swell had his Johnson, and Mr. Modern Best-seller may

f I offered you the job you'd excuse your incapacity on the ground that

t the truth. Women are like t

he, "to paint the lily and adorn the rose. In short, to set forth in adequate and remunerative language the wit, wisdom, virtue, beauty, and ornateness of woman as she thinks men think s

blue and white, like an angel, and the Gatchell boy trod on air. But

being alone in the library, "wha

cia off

it isn't just. She ought to know that-well, that I'd rather cut off my right hand than give her real cau

en fo

are for any

nor, I do

appers of boys: she's not that sort," w

still. I coul

My dear friend,

nik looks like Prince Charming himself. And, for all his surface indo

d at eac

friend, what concerns you and me is our dear g

ed to me I could hear my heart-strings stretching and snapping. "B

houghtfully. "He is so free from vanity, and at the same time so r

e has an innocent, happy pleasure in her own youth and

age!" groaned the doctor. "Yet, Sophy, I could make her happier than Jelnik could. Dear an

smiling wanl

estion that was a credit to me. And along comes a girl, and everything's changed! My work doesn't fill my days, my food is bitter in my mouth, and I wake

tell him

. As it meant a thirty-mile trip and the night was col

s Sm

hile ago. 'Sophy' sou

And he reached out and seized my h

s a bear!" he sa

ned, she came, as

awned, and curled h

u have a n

ren't they? I find it very easy for me! And oh, Sophy, there's to be a picnic day after to-morrow, at the Meade plantati

d and sle

that grocery list? They've be

d it after Doct

re, then?" She

t for him, and he had

a fro

ven knows how he manages about meals! His cook told me that sometimes he has

made him wait for a cup

ways thinking about other people's comfort, Sophy

ody like you." She added, as if to herself: "He takes two lumps of sugar in

she slipped nearer, and la

d for the sisters and brothers I never had. We're all sorts and conditions of fol

wasn't joyful, but both together; a singing voice, a crying voice, wild and sweet, part of the night and the trees and the wind

y. The Author had heard, and was afoot. But even as he stepped outside,