Chapter XI

If a cavern had opened beneath his feet revealing dead men’s bones Patterson Greeves could not have been more shaken. He was white with consternation as he faced his astounding daughter and trembled.

“I hope you haven’t eaten everything up,” she said airily, coming forward, “I’m simply dying of starvation. Why don’t you introduce me, dad?”

She stood facing the young man, her bare pink shoulders turned toward her step-sister utterly ignoring her, her whole forward young personality flaunting itself at Man in the concrete, this man in particular, the kind of an appeal that a woman of her mother’s sort always uses with a good man to disarm his disapproval. Greeves recognized instantly Lilla’s arts and ways with himself, and pain and rage shot through his heart. Why had he not understood it then? Why had he let himself be fooled? Would this young man be inveigled? He glanced anxiously toward his guest and saw that the minister’s eyes were meeting Silver’s in a quick look of understanding as if the two had joined forces to protect him against the humiliation his daughter was bringing upon him. Ah! so might the memory of Silver’s mother have protected him if he had not been too sore and bitter to let it! Fool! Fool! Was he destined to go always from this time seeing nothing but his folly, his everlasting folly that was bringing with it retribution now? Athalie, his daughter, seemed to him an embodiment of his own sins, come back after years to torment him. Was this what hell meant? The old-fashioned hell that nobody believed in any more?

He was still standing, shaken and trembling, his cup in his hand, but nobody was paying any attention to him. He gradually realized this and was glad. They were trying to help him. Silver had poured a cup of tea and held it out to her sister, but Athalie ignored it, as if it were a ghost she did not see, and reaching out poured another for herself.

“Isn’t there any lemon?” she asked looking the table over. “Quinn bring some lemon. I never take cream. Why don’t you pass the cakes, Mr. Man?” She was addressing the minister with a pert freedom that made Silver turn her eyes away in pain for her father’s embarrassment. But the young man handed the plate of cookies with a gentle impersonal dignity that seemed to take the edge from the girl’s audacity and put her down in the class of a child who knew no better than to take the centre of publicity.

“Gracious but you’re a grouch!” commented Athalie gaily, looking straight into his eyes with her bold black ones, “won’t you smile any more just because we haven’t been introduced? You must excuse dad, he seems to be—”

But just then her father stepped forward haughtily and took the cup from the girl’s hand.

“Athalie, you are not properly dressed to be out here. Go upstairs and put on—a—a—_sweater_ or something,” he ended helplessly. “It is chilly—”

But the girl burst forth in a ripple of hoydenish laughter.

“A sweater with an evening dress! Oh, dad! You certainly have been out of the world. Don’t worry about me. I’m never cold. I’ll take another cake, Quinn.”

Patterson Greeves’ face hardened into a set helpless look. He was one whom men had always obeyed. This embryo woman defied him openly and something somewhere in his moral armor was so weak that he could not meet her and conquer her. His lips shut sternly and his voice was like icicles.

“Then I will go farther and say that your dress is unseemly and out of taste. What may have seemed to you fitting among girls of your school is not in keeping with our quiet homelife in this village. We do not wear evening dress on ordinary days and you will oblige me by finishing your tea in your room and then changing into something less flimsy, that has sleeves and a—a—_neck_ to it. Something more—_adequate_. Let me introduce to you your—” he hesitated “—my eldest daughter, Silver. She is older than you are. She will be able to advise you about your wearing apparel. I commend you to her friendship. She is—ah—your sister, of course, you know.”

Silver knew instantly that her father had touched the wrong chord. Athalie’s impudent chin went up, her eyebrows, what there was left of them went up, her full cupid’s bow of an upper lip went up, and the sharp red corners were drawn quickly and contemptuously down in a smirk of hate. She did not look at Silver. She did not acknowledge the introduction. Her big black eyes were fixed on her father who had already turned his back having manlike cast his burden thus upon womankind, and was moving off toward the door, with a relieved note in his voice.

“Come Bannard, let’s go into the library and have our talk. It grows chilly out here already. The spring sun has not much warmth yet.”

“Thanks! I don’t need any advice from anyone about my clothes! I generally wear what I like!” Athalie hurled after him, her shoulders lifted irately. But he was already inside the door and did not choose to hear further defiance. He hurried toward the library door and drew chairs in front of the fireplace where a fire was already laid.

“Sit here Bannard. I’m sorry and ashamed that you should have seen my family under these trying circumstances. What would you do with a girl like that? What are young people coming to? Wasn’t I right in saying she was impossible?”

Out on the terrace Athalie whirled so that her back was turned to Silver. So she stood facing the glow of hyacinths and tulips, herself a flaring tulip of them all, and drank her tea in leisurely manner, helped herself to more cake, and another cup of tea, and utterly ignored the presence of the other girl.

Silver, after watching her a moment stepped over toward her.

“Listen!” she said firmly, “you might as well cut that out. It’s just as hard for me as it is for you. He’s my father just as much as yours you know. _He was my father first!_ We’re sisters you know. We can’t help that—!”

Athalie whirled on her with her eyes blazing.

“We’re not _sisters_!” she stamped her foot. “I’ll never call you my sister. You’ve no business here! I know all about _you_! My father _gave you away_, and you’re _adopted_! You’re the same as dead! You have no right to turn up and spoil my life! And you needn’t think you can get his money away either. I’m his natural heir! The court—”

“Stop!” cried Silver suddenly white with anger. “As if _money_ had anything to do with it!”

“Shut up!” flashed Athalie, “I’ll say what I please. And you needn’t pretend you’re so awfully saintly. I know, your kind, you mealy mouthed hypocrite! You can’t put one over on me. You’re in for the money as well as anybody. Now I’ll give you one day to get out and stay out, and if you don’t do it I’ll make _hell_ for you, do you understand? And I know how to do it when I try! You’re not going to stick around here and spoil my plans! And if you go and tell dad _you’ll be sorry_, that’s all I’ve got to say!”

She jerked the little gold case out of a silken hiding place among her draperies, lighted a cigarette insolently, and flung the lighted match full into the face of the other girl turning with another whirl, and marching down the garden path with her cigarette atilt in her contemptuous red lips, her gaudy draperies looking as out of place in the quiet garden among the spring blossoms as a painted lily in the woods.

Silver started back from the flaring match just in time to escape the flame, gazed in consternation for an instant after the plump arrogant figure of the other girl and then throwing her head back she sent a clear ringing laugh after her sister. Athalie paused in her majestic progress to turn and stare angrily but Silver was gone into the house.

Anne Truesdale slipped a ready arm about her as she entered the shadow of the hall.

“Yer not to mind, my sweetie, what a huzzy like that says. She’ll not be here long, I’m thinking. The master was telephoning the morn’ something about a school for her. He’ll be soon sending her kiting, the little upstart.”

“Oh, thank you, Mrs. Truesdale,” quivered Silver, “I’m sorry you had to overhear this disgraceful conversation. I thought I could get her to see things in a different way, but I see it was very unwise to speak at all. She wasn’t in the right mood—”

“I doubt if she has any right moods, my dearie. She’s a little sinner, that girl is. I’ve read about ’em in the newspaper. Look at her now, puffing away like a man, the impertinent chit. Disgracing her father and his respectable house! The sooner she gets out of this respectable town the better for all concerned. Her mother must be one of the devil’s own to bring up a girl like that. Now come upstairs my dearie and I’ll help you to dress and fix yer hair. Yer trunks haven’t come yet, but that doesn’t matter, the master doesn’t care for things to be formal—”

“Oh, but Mrs. Truesdale—”

“Call me Anne, Miss Silver, I like it better. It’s what yer father always calls me.”

“Oh, Anne, I thank you, but I must get ready and go away. Couldn’t you help me to go at once before my father hears anything about it? It would only distress him to know the reason. You could just tell him that I felt that I must go for the present, and that perhaps some day I will come back if he wants me—or he can come to see me. I didn’t really intend staying when I came. I have a position and I ought to begin my work right away this week. Can you find out how soon there is a train back to the city, and help me to get away quietly before she comes in? I haven’t anything to pack. My suitcase hasn’t been opened yet—”

“Indeed no, my dearie!” said Anne firmly, “I’ll no help ye to any such fool doings. Yer not to go away at all. And my master would half kill me if he found me a party to any such thing. Besides, can’t ye see he needs ye just now? He’s beside hisself with grief and shame over yonder fat young bully. Do ye think it’s a joke fer a man to come back from a far land and find a thing like that is child o’ his? You’ll stay right where ye are, my sweet lady, and help that distracted father o’ yours back into sanity. Besides, he’s got company, and he’s depending on you to help entertain him this night. He told me to open the old piano and light a fire in the drawing room. He’s looking forward to hearing ye sing I’m thinking, and yer not to disappoint him. He’s been a much disappointed man already, and it’s not good fer him.”

She drew Silver up the stairs to the bedroom where she had first taken her, and then gazed around with a growing fury in her strong old face.

“The young _viper_!” she exclaimed under her breath, “I’ll teach her to upset orders! The master’s orders too!”

Before Silver could stop her she had seized an armful of silks and lingerie from the bed where Athalie had deposited them in her last trip, and rushed across the hall, throwing them in a heap on the floor of the room she had given Athalie, and was back for another.

“But you mustn’t!” cried Silver, “it will only make her angrier. Let her have the room she wants. I don’t care where I am put. If I stay at all, one room will do as well as another.”

“Indeed no!” said Anne with fire in her eye, “do you think I’m going to have the sacred room of the dear mistress profaned by a little devil like her? The master would in no wise allow her to enter here. He considers his aunt’s room as a holy place, and it shows where he feels you belong that he gave orders you should be put in here. Now my dear, you just sit down while I empty this closet in a trice, and then I’ll help you unpack your suitcase.”

“But Anne, I’m sure Athalie will lay this to me. She came in while I was up here and told me she wanted this room and I could go into the other one.”

“Did she indeed! The limb of Satan! Well, I’ll see that she understands you had nothing to do with it. I’m still housekeeper here I hope, and the master is still master! I’m not thinking he’ll take her impudence long.” She seized another armful ruthlessly and marched them across the hall, and in a brief space of time the closet was again cleared.

“And look at the dear lady’s best black silk!” she crooned suddenly discovering the garments that Athalie had flung from their hooks to the floor, “it’s a desecration, it certainly is! If Miss Lavinia had lived to see the day that a huzzy like that that flaunts her nakedness before the gentlemen and tries to drag her womanhood in the dust by smoking the vile cigarettes like a man—!”

Anne drew her breath in a sob of grief and humiliation.

“I’m thinking she’s what they call in the newspapers a ‘flopper’! And I never thought when I read about their like that we’d be having a real live flopper here in this blessed house the day! Aw! It’s a sorry day in the old house that’s always been that respectable!”

All the time she was babbling away in her intense voice her fingers were flying, making the room right once more. She straightened the cover of the little sewing table that had been twisted awry, pulled the winged chair back to its place, picked up a wisp of malines that had floated under the bed, and even produced a duster and wiped down the walls and shelves of the closet, shaking as it were the very dust from the alien garments out of the sacred chamber.

Silver stood at the front window looking out across the field with troubled eyes, trying to think out the horrible situation. She was convinced that she ought not to have come, that she had followed her heart rather than her good judgment, and probably a bit selfishly and determinedly too, coming thus unannounced. She had wanted to forestall any attempt on the part of her father to refuse to see her. She had wanted him so, and now see!

It took no very great stretch of imagination for her to realize that this other girl was in greater need of a father than she herself. Oh much greater! No matter how fatherless or lonely she would be she would never be tempted to go in a wrong path or do anything to disgrace the family. She had been too well grounded in the things of righteousness for that. She was established. But this other girl was all too apparently self-willed, lawless, ungoverned, like a wild little craft set sail upon a stormy sea without a rudder, and liable to wreck not only herself but any others that happened in her path.

Silver was accustomed to look on life in this way; to think of what would be good for others as well as herself. Her conscience had been well trained and was in good working order. If she became convinced that she ought to go no argument would keep her there. She had a duty toward life to perform and her highest aim was to perform it aright. She was as utterly different from the other daughter as two human souls could well be. And how could there ever be harmony in such an ill assorted household?

Into the midst of her thoughts came a summons from her father. Would she come down to the library and talk something over with himself and his guest as soon as she was ready for dinner?

Anne nodded approval. That settled it. She must hurry and get ready. Had she another dress, or did she wish just to wear her suit.

Silver, realizing that this was no time to parley when her father had a guest, hastily shook out of her suitcase a little silk crêpe dress that fell about her like the soft shadows of evening, the color of twilight with gleams of silver in the fastenings that reminded one of the afterglow in the sunset sky, and set off her delicate complexion and the gold of her hair, making her eyes starry. The little cloud of worry on her brow only brought out the sweet thoughtfulness and made her more like her mother, as she entered the library a few minutes later. Her father could scarcely take his eyes from her face. The wonder of it that Alice’s face and form had come back in the person of her child! The sorrow of it that he had not had the patience to wait for this and enjoy the privilege of seeing it grow! The selfishness of himself!

Bannard had a work down among the foreigners of Frogtown. He had a plan for a school for them that they might learn English and be fitted to take out citizen’s papers. He wanted a class in cooking and sewing for the mothers, and meetings where they might learn American ways, and how to care for their children and make their homes sanitary and attractive. He wanted a meeting place for them and some men and women with tact and love of humanity to come down and help him. He had been waiting for Professor Greeves to arrive feeling that he would be the very one to help him get the educational department started. There was a small room over a grocery they could have for the present. It was lighted with lamps and heated by a small box stove, but warm weather was coming, they could even meet out of doors somewhere down by the river.

“Why not build a hall, a gymnasium or something of the sort, with accommodation for all the different classes? It oughtn’t to cost much. It wouldn’t have to be elaborate. I’ll look after the financial part. I’d be glad to give something to a work like that.”

“Oh, father! Can you do that?” Silver’s eyes were large with wonder and joy. Money had not been in over-abundance in the little parsonage where the Jarvises lived. Greeves looked sharply, keenly at his daughter. Was it possible that there had been any lack in her life that money might have supplied? He had sent presents now and then, a hundred dollars or so. Why had it never occurred to him to send more? His own child never having a real part in his abundant worldly possessions. He began to see more and more how wrong he had been to separate himself from her. And yet, how sweet and unspoiled she was! That other one, Athalie, had had an abundant income stipulated by the court, and see what she had become! Perhaps it had been better for Silver to have been brought up without riches. That was the way her dear mother had been reared. Ah! but it all shut him out of her life, and he had had the right to be in it and had thrown it away! Well! he would make up for it now all he could, but he could not go back and gather from the years the precious experiences that were gone forever.

They talked until the silver-tongued gong sounded through the house for dinner, and then, still quite absorbed in their theme they went out to the dining room, forgetting that there was aught in the world save beautiful plans for the uplifting of others. And there, like an arrogant young goddess stood Athalie, still in her silver and coral undress as she had been in the garden, with only the addition of a wide coral colored ribbon, the kind her girl friends called a “headache band” drawn firmly over her forehead from the little sketchy uplifted eyebrows, to the crown of her head, the ends concealed in some mysterious way under the shock of outlandish hair somewhere in the neighborhood of where her ears ought to be. She had arrived unbidden on the scene the moment the dinner gong sounded and stood like an apparition, belligerent and sullen behind a chair at the foot of the table, eyeing her father defiantly.

There had been a pleased smile on his face as he entered, his hand just touching Silver’s arm caressingly, but when he saw her he stopped short and a stern angry look came into his eyes. It was not a baffled look as Athalie had counted upon. She felt that he had weakened during that scene on the terrace, and she could dare anything, but she saw a light in his eyes that boded no good for the one who disobeyed his orders. His eyes gave one full glance at the bare arms and neck, the low tight silver bodice with its straps of tiny coral roses, the flimsy draperies, and his lips set sternly, then he looked away and ignored her presence. This was not the time for further demonstration. He was a gentleman. He would deal with her later. Yet all through the meal as he spoke to the others his voice was harsh, restrained. They could see that he was very angry. His attitude perhaps awed the girl, or else she was very hungry, for she said not a word except to demand second helpings of everything from the servants. For the rest she maintained a sullen silence, her eyes on her plate, only now and then raising them in a blank stare of amazement at Bannard when he spoke of his church and his work with earnest enthusiasm. She had never met any one like him before. Also, she was angry that he ignored her so utterly, giving his entire attention to Silver and her father.

Everyone was glad when the meal was concluded. It had been a particularly trying time to Silver. And as they rose from the table the master of the house said almost sternly:

“Now we will go into the drawing room and have some music.” His eyes dwelt on Silver lovingly, but something in the tone told Athalie that she was excluded from the company. As he stepped back to let the ladies pass through the door Bannard caught a look of hate on the face of Athalie that almost startled him in one so young. Yet she did not slip away as he had supposed she would after the snub she had received at the table. She followed, slowly, almost stealthily toward the heavy crimson curtains of the wide doorway, as if she had some evil intent in her going.

Old Joe had built a fire in the fireplace and the flames flickered and leaped rosily on the white marble mantel, making shadows and fitful lights on the high ceiling as they entered, and giving a look to the lifelike paintings on the wall as if the owners were there awaiting them. They stepped within and Greeves touched the switch and flooded the room with electric light. Old Standish Silver had been a progressive man and the house had been wired as soon as electricity for lighting had come to Silver Sands. It flared up garishly now and brought the sleeping portraits to life, and instinctively all eyes were raised to the painting over the mantel, where special lights had been placed to show it to advantage.

Joe Quinn had been mending the fire and was just backing away, Anne Truesdale was hovering uneasily beside the curtain, wondering how she could extract the fly from the ointment. The minister and Silver stood within the doorway at one side, with Athalie still defiant just behind them, when Patterson Greeves stepped within and looked up. They all looked up, and breath was suspended. For there rose the lovely face of Alice Jarvis within her gilded frame, smeared and disfigured with chocolate, covering the sweet lips, dripping down the curve of cheek and chin grotesquely! And there below with bold sensuous challenge, exulted the pictured eyes of Lilla!