A Woman Named Smith

The Author and his secretary were up to the eyes in a new chapter; The Suffragist was spreading the glad tidings; and Riedriech and Sch

Johnson, and I,

s for this estate, and the judge at last very kindly allowed me to look through a great batch of papers in his possession. From these I discovered that one of the Hyndses visited England in 1727, joined th

n of those societies that fathered the American Revolution. Gatchell tells me there is a legend of the master of Hynds House entertaining British

es where one could be hidden without much

that," agreed The

t little bit of hiding on your own

per lost out of the closet in his own room, thoug

odd I never did such a th

d seriously. "It was so overpowering that it made me think of Saint Theresa's description of her torment in that oven in the wall of hell which had by kindly foreth

"And you must remember you've been warned that Hynds House is haunt

und a paper with an uncouth jingle and some dots on it, Johnson and I have the same nightmare. And I have heard footsteps. All hallucinations, of cour

Author with a concerned face. "You're getting a bit

s I thought I heard it played last n

licia thinks it's a spirit that

ewd eyes and persistent questioning, and I was h

nt, much as I love music. I do not sing, either, except in a small-beer voice; and when I tried to sew I pricked my fingers with the needle. I went into the kitchen, consulted with Mary Magdalen as to the evening's dinner, weighed and measured such ingredients as she needed, saw that the two mai

den foot-bridge spanning a weedy ditch, struck into a path bordering a wide field

moist spots. There were cassena bushes, full of vivid scarlet berries; and crooked, gray-green cedars; and brown boles of pine-trees; and th

to be alone, that I might wrestle with my trouble. Yet now that I was facing it, my spirit qu

quiet life! Yet the idea of never having seen him, never having loved him, was more cruel than the cruellest suffering that loving entailed. It was

asn't to lose my grip, nor wear the willow. The idea of me, Sophy Smith, wea

led myself together, and smiled; for Boris was thrusting his friendly nose into my palm, and

lder, more careworn. If he was glad to see me, it was at first a troubled gladness, for he started, and bit his lip. I wondered, not with jealousy, but with pain, if there w

tly, and a change came over his tired face; "and I am such a r

hought you the serenest

g. For a fleeting, flashing second the whirlpools and the depths were ba

of his training was self-control. He was really a very wonderful man, my fathe

I, I of all people, should have been picked up and

r silence. Most women would have talked, f

have noth

ur British forebears. The British have 'illuminating

oved

whimsical, sidewise

e, are you not sitting at the feet of our friend The Author, who is perfectly willing

very much indeed

ng wax before the fire of feminine eye

s

my cousin Richard Ge

nd of this man. I looked at Mr. Jelnik now, wonderingly. If he knew that much,

ightly of my Cousin

ase, ple

ard," said Mr. Jelnik, g

d-and he has a deep affec

take it in such deadly earnest that we store up a fi

omebody, perhaps half the world away, for whom he car

nothing new under the sun, and all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Also, I am fronting the forks of a dilemma: Shall I shake the dust of Hyndsville from

u want

fall of the coin decide." He took from his pock

ssed it into the air. It fell beside me, out

asked, in

ears, and my heart pounded, and my sight blurred. Then some

. Jelnik," said the voice,

the real Me, was crying accusingl

ut stared instead at the gray-blue, shadowed woods, the brown boles

nd with a swift movement he reached out and

for a next-door neighbor for a while

he Pit to be near him, or walked out of

I haven't had any lunch? I forgot to go home for

in his man's eyes, and vanished, running a

at your feet, Miss Smith?" And he stretched his long length on

a pillow!" h

while he watched me lazily, and packed it

scratch my neck." And coolly he took a fold of my brown silk skirt, patted

, under that brown hat," he said drowsily, "soft and fair. And after this, I shall order some brown-

, his slim and boyish body; and I felt an aching sense of resentment. No man has

nchanted Wood; until from the outside world came Boris, carrying a wicker basket, in which s

fectionately. "Come, Miss Smith. By the way, that isn't your

tuna

feathers-going-over-the-Hill. It taught me the value of being explicit as to one's name. Here, you shall have the cup, and

ising," I admit

eeping.-Drink your wine, Woman-in-the-Woods. You were pale, very pale,

troubles

please. And do not look doubtfully upon tha

h was manna. The wine ev

. I say, is Morenas g

he has sketched Alicia

weathercock; and there he is, with corrugated brow and slitted eyes, studying me

rare but quite perfect type,

lders disdainfully. "Am I a typ

fferent from anybody else." An

h as you see it. You are transparently truthful, fundamentally truthful, and at the

n Vienna, and partly roaming about the great Hungarian estate which his mother loved, and to which the two returned summer after

European celebrity, mine a ship-chandler in Boston, U.S.A. Yet here we two were; and he might have be

flung the question like a challeng

rteen, going

the-Woods, I am

lder than

ou think. And you betra

y young; probably I sh

be a little girl, and a young maiden, and a grown woman, and a bit of an old maid, an

oking fun, though the rich color had come into his cheek,

y. "Herr Gott, but it took a business woman to tackle old Hynd

d and front of that

light and tone that crept into Doctor Richard's when he named her. My dear girl's tender face-so true and beautiful and loving-ro

y child, to me! Don

s!" His voice w

h; and the bluish shadows melted into gray; and

and then." And with his pocket-knife he cut a sharp line down the thin old coin he had tossed, worked at it for a few minutes with

y and truly need a Woman-in-the-Woods to help me, why, I'll send my half to her; and she'll obey the summons instantly and without question. And if ever she needs a man-like me, say-why, she'll

us was so uneven, so unequal? He saw the hesitation, momentary as it w

ve, true little thing, such a valiant-for-truth, stand-fast little thing! You have the one quality that I, bor

true that I hold fast, fo

ne thing," I told him,

o give, except unbuyable truth. She has nothing to offer

nd they ran down my cheek in spite of me-he mercifully gave no sign. Instead he held out his

k and thin, above doubting, and withou

I pro

we two went out of the Enchanted Wood

long minute, that fold against which his head had rested; I fingered the broken coin; I looked long and

love to be loved by them. Only a man could have been stupid enough

ious!" remarked The Author, after dinner. I was wearing a black-and-bl

lasses, frowned,

with my mental processes! But stay: surely your hair is arranged differently? It w

a little; that's what makes it lo

what makes it look different, too," The Author decided, and stared

!" I was goa

or merel

I hope so. Unusual man. Can't think why he buries himself here! O

replied equably, "unless it

tly. "And is it a sign of advancing age and m

aughed

r, dear lady, the Bard of the Congaree, the Poet Laureate of South Caroli

n, with eyes of

ten won by mank

art, so very

look beyond a s

ofttimes cast a

way, as it were

arel of some d

aved with not

winkled. He was in high feather the remainder of the evening. He was, in fact, so good-humored

line, under cover of their laught

nd she seated herself, folded

t was to allow a mere nightmare to worry me, though I am not subject to nightmares, my conscience and my digestion being quite all right, thank heaven! Gradually the impression faded. I was just dropping to sleep again, when I heard the faintest imaginable footfall, almost as if somebody were walking upon the air itself. And then, Mis

id I, with

Miss Emmeline, "save that there lingered in th

e," I f

started, and s

ve experienc

Miss Emmeline, would it be too much to ask you to keep this to yourself, for a wh

ite down the occurrence for the Society for Psychical Research, without giving actual names and

This entails work, but it insures successful handling of household economics. Having weighed and measured what was necessary, and seen that the inquisitive Black family occupied their prop

ippered feet making no sound, "Johnson, that Sophy

inds me very much of my mother," sa

how? What's he after? What's he here for? Does she know, or suspect? Or doesn't she, Johnson?" The Au