Flower of the Dusk

terno

the dead to rise and answer it. Before the echo of the imperative

Neig

fortably, "and I surmised as how you might be sewin' over here, so I thought

which she was binding by hand. As she worked, she studi

h transportin' books at all hours back and forth. After I go to bed, Roger lets himself out and sneaks over here, carryin' readin' matter both ways. But land's sake," she chuckled, "I ain't ca

Roger sits with his books and I sit with my paper, and we both read, never sayin' a wo

l of

have been worth lookin' at, for she had golden hair and eyes like sapphires and ruby lips and pearly teeth. I was re

on account of him bein' young and handsome and havin' a lot of money. I suppose bein' a widower had somethin' to do with it, too. It does beat all how women will run after a widower. I suppo

ing H

ver again, and it'd be harder than startin' in with absolute ignorance. The man would get restless, too. When he thought he was graduated and wa

there until it's worn out or busted, except for occasional dustin' and repairin'. You can add from time to time as you have to, but if

ou're one of those kind of women that's forever changin' their minds about furni

took some manouverin', but steady work tells on anythin'. He was thinkin' as I wanted him to about most things, though, when he died, and that's sayin' a good deal, for he didn't die u

e

pend the income on her. If Margaret died before she was of age, the relative was to keep it, and if she should marry before she was of age, the relative was to keep it, to

which was right frequent. Her name was Magdalene Mather and she'd been married three times. She was dreadful careless with her husbands

Margar

ein' the triumph of hope over experience. Magdalene Mather was dreadful hopeful and kept thinkin' that maybe she could get somebo

t to be only seven in less'n half an hour. Magdalene put shorter dresses on her and kept her in white and gave her shoes

oon as the neighbours begun to notice that Margaret wasn't agin' like

advanced for her age got fired the minute it was spoke of, and pretty soon Margaret got onto it herself. She used to tell teachers she liked to say that she was very back

with a ribbon. When she was eighteen, she thought she was thirteen, and she was wearin' dresses that come to her shoe tops, and her hair in one braid down her back, and dreadful young hats and no jewels, though her pa had left her a small trunk f

Cond

one because Magdalene was laid up with a headache and wanted the house quiet. When the conductor come along for th

he could go for half fare, and Margaret says, right sharp, when she giv

mbs since you was,' says he. Of course this made Margaret good an

k durin' union hours, but I imagine that y

d Mac

e chance to fight with the conductor. She saw, however, that he was terrible good lookin'-like the dummy in the tailor's window. It says in the story th

donald's car, she noticed that he was awful polite and chivalrous to women. He waited patiently when any two of 'em was decidin' who was to pay the fare a

keep through the whoopin' cough stage and the measles, and so on. There don't neither of you know nothin' about it 'cause you ain't married, but when Roger come,

Man

always just as polite to her as he was to anybody, and would help her off the car and carry her bundles to the corner for her, and everything

make change, and while he was doin' it, she says to him,

a smile that showed all his beautiful teeth an

says Margare

d, confidentially. 'I'm jus

' says Marg

onald. 'I think we're

the dictionary, but it wasn't there. She was too

Acqua

ed, havin' just met at the hotel. 'Your face is terrible familiar to me,' one of the men said. 'I've seen you before,

turnin' as pale as death, 'did

says the

'let us get off at the next corner and

she says to him: 'There goes two of my aunt's husbands

ivorces put away somewhere, she stands right in line to get canned for a few yea

on reception, wearin' all of Margaret's jewels, Margaret looked all through her private belongings to see if she

of t

he's afraid to leave the proofs in the house over night, so she wraps 'em up in a newspaper, and flies with 'em to her only f

ready read 'em, but of course he don't let on that he has. He convinces her that she ought to get married befo

the meantime, and she remembers how Ronald has told her he is under age, a

Cl

d their marriage certificate, and tell her she is a trigamist, and they will make trouble for her if she don't do right b

under age and not havin' his parents' consent. Ronald gives a long, loud laugh and then he digs up his family Bible and shows Margaret how h

r afterward. He bids eternal farewell to work in a long and impassioned speech that's so full of fine language that it would do credit to a minister, and there Margaret is, in a trap of her ow

ara smiled. "It is very interesting," she sai

the

n't lend you the papers, cause there's five waitin' after the postmaster's wife, and goodness knows how many of t

e time to listen to 'em except at supper. He reads law every evening now, and he didn't used to. Guess he ai

ered Miriam,

ss

a man's writin'. And every afternoon, when the boy brings the hotel mail down to go out on the night train, there's a big white square envelope in a woman's writin' addressed to Doctor Allan C

ned Miriam,

in askin' a civil question. My mother always taught me that a civil question called for a civil

Barbara, seeing that Miria

you one of them hand sewin' machines," continued

she answered, "but I couldn't use it.

or-mat for the front door of the church. And, if I was you, I wouldn't let my pa run around so much by himself. If he wants to borrow a dog to go with him, Roger would be wil

enjoyed my visit ever so much. Come over somet

he trail which, as she said, Roger had worn in the grass.

ded Barbara. "No one ever came he

nted Miriam,

li

e of Roger's difficulties of which he never spoke, and realised that the much

ature was in any way akin to his son's. But her mother? How could she have failed to appreciate

Se

to herself, for the hundredth