"Some of 'em's real peculiar," she confided1; "some[Pg 174] of 'em's what I call pick-up presents—things from 'round the house, you know. Mis' Postmaster Sykes she sent over the rug with the running dog on, and she's hed it in her parlor2 in a dark corner for years an' Hannah must have cleaned it many's the time. Mis' Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss sent her old drop-leaf mahogany table, being she's got a new oak. The Liberty girls sent two of their chickens, live, for the wedding lunch, and I dassent to kill them—I'm real queer like that—so I hed to send for the groom3, and he run up noon-hour and done it. And so on. But quite a few things are new—the granite4 iron and the drip coffee-pot and the sweeper's all new. And did you hear what Gramma Hawley done? Drew five dollars of her burial money out of the savings5 bank and give it to Hannah right out. You know how Gramma fixed6 it—she had Zittelhof figger up her funeral expenses and she banked the sum, high and dry, and left herself just bare enough to live on coming in. But now she drew the five out and give Zittelhof to understand he'd hev to skimp7 some on her coffin8. Hannah told me, crying like a child at the i-dee."
Calliope paused impressively, and shook her head at space.
"But wouldn't you have thought," she demanded, "that Lyddy Eider might have give Hannah a little something to wear? One of her old dresses for street would have sent Hannah cloud-high, and over.[Pg 175] I s'pose you heard what she did send? Mis' Postmaster Sykes run over to tell me. A man from the city come up by trolley9 sense noon to-day, bringing a rug from Lyddy. Well, of course a rug's a rug," Calliope admitted, "but it ain't a dress, seem's though. Hannah knows about Gramma's an' Lyddy's, but she don't know a word about the other presents. I do admire a surprise."
As for me, I, too, love a surprise. And that was why I had sent to the station a bag packed for both Calliope and me; and I meant, when the wedding guests should have gone, to take no denial, but to hurry Calliope into her "black grosgrain with the white turnovers," and with her to catch the six-ten express as we had planned aforetime. For pink silk might appear and disappear, but "Faust" would still be "Faust."
There were ten guests at Hannah's wedding, friends of hers and of Henry's, pleasantly excited, pleasantly abashed10.
"And not one word do they know about the pink silk," Calliope whispered me. "Hannah's going to come with it on—I let her take my tan ulster to wear over her, walking through the streets, so. Do you know," she said earnestly, "if it wasn't for disappointing you I wouldn't feel anything but good about that dress?"
"Ah, well, I won't be disappointed," I prophesied11 confidently.
[Pg 176]
Grandma Hawley was last to arrive. And the little old woman was in some stress of excitement, talking incessantly12 and disconnectedly; but this we charged to the occasion.
"My head ain't right," she said. "It ain't been right for a while back—it hums and rings some. When I went in the room I thought it was my head the matter. I thought I didn't see right. But I did—I did, Hannah said I did. My head felt some better this mornin', an' that was there, just the same. I thought I'd be down flat on my back when I got m' feet wet, but I'd be all right if m' head wa'n't so bad. I must tell Hannah what I done. Why don't Hannah come?"
Hannah was, as a matter of fact, somewhat late at her wedding. We were all in some suspense13 when we saw her at last, hurrying up the street with Henry, who had gallantly14 called to escort her; and Calliope and I went to the door to meet her.
But when Hannah entered in Calliope's tan ulster buttoned closely about her throat, she was strangely quiet and somewhat pale and her eyes, I was certain, were red with weeping.
"Is Gramma here?" she asked at once, and, at our answer, merely turned to hurry upstairs where Calliope and I were to adjust the secret wedding-gown and fasten a pink rose in her hair. And, as we went, Henry added still further to our anxiety[Pg 177] by calling from the gay little crowd about him a distinctly soothing15:
"Now, then. Now, then, Hannah!"
Up in Calliope's tiny chamber16 Hannah turned and faced us, still with that manner of suppressed and escaping excitement. And when we would have helped with the ulster she caught at its collar and held it about her throat as if, after all, she were half minded to depart from the place and let her good-looking giant be married alone.
"Oh, Miss Marsh17, ma'am," she said, trembling, "oh, Miss Marsh. I can't dare tell you what I done."
With that she broke down and cried, and Calliope promptly18 took her in her arms, as I think that she would have liked to take the whole grieving world. And now, as she soothed19 her, she began gently to unbutton the tan ulster, and Hannah let her take it off. But even the poor child's tears had not prepared us for what was revealed.
Hannah had come to her wedding wearing, not the rose-pink silk, but the last year's mull "with the sprig in."
"Well, sir!" cried Calliope blankly. "Well, Hannah Hager—"
The little maid sat on the foot of the bed, sobbing20.
"Oh, Miss Marsh, ma'am," she said, "you know—don't you know, ma'am?—how I was so glad[Pg 178] about the dress you give me't I was as weak as a cat all over me. All las' night in the evenin' I was like a trance an' couldn't get my supper down, an' all. An' Gramma, she was over to Mis' Sykes's to supper an' hadn't seen it. An' Gramma an' I sleep together, an' I went an' spread the dress on the bed, an' I set side of it till Henry come. An' I l-left it there to hev him go in an' l-look at it. An' we was in the kitchen a minute or two first. An' nex' we knew, Gramma, she stood in the inside door. An' I thought she was out of her head she was so wild-like an' laughin' an' cryin'. An' she set down on a chair, an' s' she: 'He's done it. He's done it. He's kep' his word. Look—look on my bed,' s' she, 'an' see if I ain't seen it right. Abe Hawley,' s' she, 'he's sent me my pink silk dress he wanted to, out o' the grave!'"
Hannah's thin, rough little hands were clinched22 on her knee and her eyes searched Calliope's face.
"Oh, Miss Marsh, ma'am," she said, "she was like one possessed23, beggin' me to look at it an' tell her if it wasn't so. She thought mebbe it might be her head. So I went an' told her the dress was hers," the little maid sobbed24. "I was scairt she'd make herself sick takin' on so. An' afterwards I couldn't a-bear to tell her any different. Ma'am, if you could 'a' seen her! She took her rocker an' set by the bed all hours, kind o' gentlin' the silk with her hands. An' she wouldn't go to bed an'[Pg 179] disturb it off, an' I slep' on the dinin'-room lounge with the shawl over me. An' this m-mornin' she went on just the same. An' after dinner Lyddy sent a man from town with a rug for me, an' I set on the back stoop so's not to see him, I was cryin' so. An' when I come in Gramma hed shut the bedroom door an' gone. I couldn't trust me even to l-look in the bedroom for fear I'd put it on. An' I couldn't take it away from her—I couldn't. Not with all she's done for me, an' the five dollars an' all. Oh, Miss Marsh, ma'am—" Hannah ended helplessly.
It seemed to me that I had never known Calliope until that moment.
"Gracious," she said to Hannah calmly, "crying that way for a little pink silk dress, and Henry waiting for you downstairs! Wipe up your eyes this instant minute, Hannah, and get to 'I will'!"
I think that this attitude of Calliope's must have tranquillized the wildest. In spite of the reality of the tragedy, it was no time at all until, having put the pink rose in Hannah's hair, anyway, Calliope and I led the little bride downstairs. For was there not a reality of happiness down there?
"After all, Henry was marrying you and not the dress, you know," Calliope reminded her on the landing.
"That's what he keeps a-sayin'," consented Hannah with a wan21 little smile, "but oh, ma'am—" she added, for Hannah was all feminine.
[Pg 180]
And when the "I will" had been said, I loved the little creature for taking Grandma Hawley in her arms.
"Did they tell you what I done?" the old woman questioned anxiously when Hannah kissed her. "I was savin' it to tell you, an' it went out o' my head. An' I dunno—did you know what I done?" she persisted.
But the others crowded forward with congratulation and, as was their fashion, with teasing; and presently I think that even the rosy26 gown was forgotten in Hannah's delight over her unexpected gifts. The graniteware, the sweeper, the rug with the running dog—after all, was ever any one so blessed?
And as I watched them—Hannah and her great, good-looking adoring giant—I who, like Calliope, love a surprise, caught a certain plan by its shining wings and held it close. They say that when one does this such wings bear one away—and so it proved.
I found my chance and whispered my plan to Hannah, half for the pastime of seeing the quickening color in her cheek and the light in her eyes. Then I told the giant, chiefly for the sake of noting how some mischievous27 god smote28 him with a plague of blushes. And they both consented—and that is the way when one clings to the wings of a plan.
So it came about that in the happy bustle29 of the parting, as Hannah in her "regular brown Sunday[Pg 181] suit" went away on Henry's arm, they two and I exchanged glances of pleasant significance. Then, when every one had gone, I turned to Calliope with authority.
"Put on," I bade her, "your black grosgrain silk with the white turnovers—and mind you don't slit30 it up the back seam!"
"I'm a-goin' to do my dishes up," said Calliope. "Can't you set a spell and talk it over?"
"Hurry," I commanded, "or we shall miss the six-ten express!"
"What do you mean?" she asked in alarm.
"Leave everything," said I. "There's a box waiting for us at the opera to-night. And supper afterward25."
"You ain't—" she said tremulously.
"I am," I assured her firmly, "and so are you. And Hannah and Henry are going with us. Hurry!"
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1
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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2
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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3
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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4
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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5
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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6
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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7
skimp
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| v.节省花费，吝啬 | |
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8
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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9
trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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10
abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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13
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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14
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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15
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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16
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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17
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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18
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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19
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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20
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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21
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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22
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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23
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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24
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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27
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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28
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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29
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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30
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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