repeating them.
"Have you read them?" asked Cynthia.
"Yes, my dear."
"Has everybody read them?" Did the whole world, then, know of her shame?
"I am glad you came to me, my dear," said Miss Lucretia, taking her hand. "Have you talked of this to any one else?"
"No," said Cynthia, simply.
Miss Lucretia was puzzled. She had not looked for apathy, but she did not know all of Cynthia's troubles. She wondered whether she had misjudged the girl, and was misled by her attitude.
"Cynthia," she said, with a briskness meant to hide emotion for Miss Lucretia had emotions, "I am a lonely old woman, getting too old, indeed, to finish the task of my life. I went to see Mrs. Merrill the other day to ask her if she would let you come and live with me. Will you?"
Cynthia shook her head.
"No, Miss Lucretia, I cannot," she answered.
"I won't press it on you now," said Miss Lucretia.
"I cannot, Miss Lucretia. I'm going to Coniston."
"Going to Coniston!" exclaimed Miss Lucretia.
The name of that place--magic name, once so replete with visions of happiness and content--seemed to recall Cynthia's spirit from its flight. Yes, the spirit was there, for it flashed in her eyes as she turned and looked into Miss Lucretia's face.
"Are these the articles you read?" she asked; taking the clippings from her muff.
Miss Lucretia put on her spectacles.
"I have seen both of them," she said.
"And do you believe what they say about--about Jethro Bass?"
Poor Miss Lucretia! For once in her life she was at a loss. She, too, paid a deference to that face, young as it was. She had robbed herself of sleep trying to make up her mind what she would say upon such an occasion if it came. A wonderful virgin faith had to be shattered, and was she to be the executioner? She loved the girl with that strange, intense affection which sometimes comes to the elderly and the lonely, and she had prayed that this cup might pass from her. Was it possible that it was her own voice using very much the same words for which she had rebuked Mrs. Merrill?
"Cynthia," she said, "those articles were written by politicians, in a political controversy. No such articles can ever be taken literally."
"Miss Lucretia, do you believe what it says about Jethro Bass?" repeated Cynthia.
How was she to avoid those eyes? They pierced into, her soul, even as her own had pierced into Mrs. Merrill's. Oh, Miss Lucretia, who pride yourself on your plain speaking, that you should be caught quibbling! Miss Lucretia blushed for the first time in many, years, and into her face came the light of battle.
"I am a coward, my dear. I deserve your rebuke. To the best of my knowledge and belief, and so far as I can judge from the inquiries I have undertaken, Jethro Bass has made his living and gained and held his power by the methods described in those articles."
Miss Lucretia took off her spectacles and wiped them. She had committed a fine act of courage.
Cynthia stood up.
"Thank you," she said, "that is what I wanted to know."
"But--" cried Miss Lucretia, in amazement and apprehension, "but what are you going to do?"
"I am going to Coniston," said Cynthia, "to ask him if those things are true."
"To ask him!"
"Yes. If he tells me they are true, then I shall believe them."
"If he tells you?" Miss Lucretia gasped. Here was a courage of which she had not reckoned. "Do you think he will tell you?"
"He will tell me, and I shall believe him, Miss Lucretia."
"You are a remarkable girl, Cynthia," said Miss Lucretia, involuntarily. Then she paused for a moment. "Suppose he tells you they are true? You surely can't live with him again, Cynthia."
"Do you suppose I am going to desert him, Miss Lucretia?" she asked. "He loves me, and--and I love him." This was the first time her voice had faltered. "He kept my father from want and poverty, and he has brought me up as a daughter. If his life has been as you say, I shall make my own living!"
"How?" demanded Miss Lucretia, the practical part of her coming uppermost.
"I shall teach school. I believe I can get a position, in a place where I can see him often. I can break his heart, Miss Lucretia, I--I can bring sadness to myself, but I will not desert him."
Miss Lucretia stared at her for a moment, not knowing what to say or do. She perceived that the girl had a spirit as strong as her own: that her plans were formed, her mind made up, and that no arguments could change her.
"Why did you come to me?" she asked irrelevantly.
"Because I thought that you would have read the articles, and I knew if you had, you would have taken the trouble to inform yourself of the world's opinion."
Again Miss Lucretia stared at her.
"I will go to Coniston with you," she said, "at least as far as Brampton."
Cynthia's face softened a little at the words.
"I would rather go alone, Miss Lucretia," she answered gently, but with the same firmness. "I--I am very grateful to you for your kindness to me in Boston. I shall not forget it--or you. Good-by, Miss Lucretia."
But Miss Lucretia, sobbing openly, gathered the girl in her arms and pressed her. Age was coming on her indeed, that she should show such weakness. For a long time she could not trust herself to speak, and then her words were broken. Cynthia must come to her at the first sign of doubt or trouble: this, Miss Lucretia's house, was to be a refuge in any storm that life might send--and Miss Lucretia's heart. Cynthia promised, and when she went out at last through the little door her own tears were falling, for she loved Miss Lucretia.
Cynthia was going to Coniston. That journey was as fixed, as inevitable, as things mortal can be. She would go to Coniston unless she perished on the way. No loving entreaties, no fears of Mrs. Merrill or her daughters, were of any avail. Mrs. Merrill too, was awed by the vastness of the girl's sorrow, and wondered if her own nature were small by comparison. She had wept, to be sure, at her husband's confession, and lain awake over it in the night watches, and thought of the early days of their marriage.
And then, Mrs. Merrill told herself, Cynthia would have to talk with Mr. Merrill. How was he to come unscathed out of that? There was pain and bitterness in that thought, and almost resentment against Cynthia, quivering though she was with sympathy for the girl. For Mrs. Merrill, though the canker remained, had already pardoned her husband and had asked the forgiveness of God for that pardon. On other occasions, in other crisis, she had waited and watched for him in the parlor window, and to-night she was at the door before his key was in the lock, while he was still stamping the snow from his boots. She drew him into the room and told him what had happened.
"Oh, Stephen," she cried, "what are you going to say to her?"
What, indeed? His wife had sorrowed, but she had known the obstacles and perils by which he had been beset. But what was he to say to Cynthia? Her very name had grown upon him, middle-aged