The Complete Works of L M Montgomery

by L. M. Montgomery

  She dropped her g’s badly and made some grammatical errors that caused Winslow’s flesh to creep on his bones. But any man could have forgiven mistakes from such dimpled lips in such a sweet voice.

  He asked her to go for a row up the river in the twilight and she assented; she handled an oar very well, he found out, and the exercise became her. Winslow tried to get her to talk about herself, but failed signally and had to content himself with Mrs. Pennington’s meagre information. He told her about himself frankly enough — how he had had fever in the spring and had been ordered to spend the summer in the country and do nothing useful until his health was fully restored, and how lonesome it was in Riverside in general and at the Beckwith farm in particular. He made out quite a dismal case for himself and if Nelly wasn’t sorry for him, she should have been.

  At the end of a fortnight Riverside folks began to talk about Winslow and the Penningtons’ hired girl. He was reported to be “dead gone” on her; he took her out rowing every evening, drove her to preaching up the Bend on Sunday nights, and haunted the Pennington farmhouse. Wise folks shook their heads over it and wondered that Mrs. Pennington allowed it. Winslow was a gentleman, and that Nelly Ray, whom nobody knew anything about, not even where she came from, was only a common hired girl, and he had no business to be hanging about her. She was pretty, to be sure; but she was absurdly stuck-up and wouldn’t associate with other Riverside “help” at all. Well, pride must have a fall; there must be something queer about her when she was so awful sly as to her past life.

  Winslow and Nelly did not trouble themselves in the least over all this gossip; in fact, they never even heard it. Winslow was hopelessly in love, when he found this out he was aghast. He thought of his father, the ambitious railroad magnate; of his mother, the brilliant society leader; of his sisters, the beautiful and proud; he was honestly frightened. It would never do; he must not go to see Nelly again. He kept this prudent resolution for twenty-four hours and then rowed over to the West shore. He found Nelly sitting on the bank in her old faded print dress and he straightway forgot everything he ought to have remembered.

  Nelly herself never seemed to be conscious of the social gulf between them. At least she never alluded to it in any way, and accepted Winslow’s attentions as if she had a perfect right to them. She had broken the record by staying with Mrs. Pennington four weeks, and even the cats were in subjection.

  Winslow was well enough to have gone back to the city and, in fact, his father was writing for him. But he couldn’t leave Beckwiths’, apparently. At any rate he stayed on and met Nelly every day and cursed himself for a cad and a cur and a weak-brained idiot.

  One day he took Nelly for a row up the river. They went further than usual around the Bend. Winslow didn’t want to go too far, for he knew that a party of his city friends, chaperoned by Mrs. Keyton-Wells, were having a picnic somewhere up along the river shore that day. But Nelly insisted on going on and on, and of course she had her way. When they reached a little pine-fringed headland they came upon the picnickers, within a stone’s throw. Everybody recognized Winslow. “Why, there is Burton!” he heard Mrs. Keyton-Wells exclaim, and he knew she was putting up her glasses. Will Evans, who was an especial chum of his, ran down to the water’s edge. “Bless me, Win, where did you come from? Come right in. We haven’t had tea yet. Bring your friend too,” he added, becoming conscious that Winslow’s friend was a mighty pretty girl. Winslow’s face was crimson. He avoided Nelly’s eye.

  “Are them people friends of yours?” she asked in a low tone.

  “Yes,” he muttered.

  “Well, let us go ashore if they want us to,” she said calmly. “I don’t mind.”

  For three seconds Winslow hesitated. Then he pulled ashore and helped Nelly to alight on a jutting rock. There was a curious, set expression about his fine mouth as he marched Nelly up to Mrs. Keyton-Wells and introduced her. Mrs. Keyton-Wells’s greeting was slightly cool, but very polite. She supposed Miss Ray was some little country girl with whom Burton Winslow was carrying on a summer flirtation; respectable enough, no doubt, and must be treated civilly, but of course wouldn’t expect to be made an equal of exactly. The other women took their cue from her, but the men were more cordial. Miss Ray might be shabby, but she was distinctly fetching, and Winslow looked savage.

  Nelly was not a whit abashed, seemingly, by the fashionable circle in which she found herself, and she talked away to Will Evans and the others in her soft drawl as if she had known them all her life. All might have gone passably well, had not a little Riverside imp, by name of Rufus Hent, who had been picked up by the picnickers to run their errands, come up just then with a pail of water.

  “Golly!” he ejaculated in very audible tones. “If there ain’t Mrs. Pennington’s hired girl!”

  Mrs. Keyton-Wells stiffened with horror. Winslow darted a furious glance at the tell-tale that would have annihilated anything except a small boy. Will Evans grinned and went on talking to Nelly, who had failed to hear, or at least to heed, the exclamation.

  The mischief was done, the social thermometer went down to zero in Nelly’s neighbourhood. The women ignored her altogether. Winslow set his teeth together and registered a mental vow to wring Rufus Hent’s sunburned neck at the first opportunity. He escorted Nelly to the table and waited on her with ostentatious deference, while Mrs. Keyton-Wells glanced at him stonily and made up her mind to tell his mother when she went home.

  Nelly’s social ostracism did not affect her appetite. But after lunch was over, she walked down to the skiff. Winslow followed her.

  “Do you want to go home?” he asked.

  “Yes, it’s time I went, for the cats may be raidin’ the pantry. But you must not come; your friends here want you.”

  “Nonsense!” said Winslow sulkily. “If you are going I am too.”

  But Nelly was too quick for him; she sprang into the skiff, unwound the rope, and pushed off before he guessed her intention.

  “I can row myself home and I mean to,” she announced, taking up the oars defiantly.

  “Nelly,” he implored.

  Nelly looked at him wickedly.

  “You’d better go back to your friends. That old woman with the eyeglasses is watchin’ you.”

  Winslow said something strong under his breath as he went back to the others. Will Evans and his chums began to chaff him about Nelly, but he looked so dangerous that they concluded to stop. There is no denying that Winslow was in a fearful temper just then with Mrs. Keyton-Wells, Evans, himself, Nelly — in fact, with all the world.

  His friends drove him home in the evening on their way to the station and dropped him at the Beckwith farm. At dusk he went moodily down to the shore. Far up the Bend was dim and shadowy and stars were shining above the wooded shores. Over the river the Pennington farmhouse lights twinkled out alluringly. Winslow watched them until he could stand it no longer. Nelly had made off with his skiff, but Perry Beckwith’s dory was ready to hand. In five minutes, Winslow was grounding her on the West shore. Nelly was sitting on a rock at the landing place. He went over and sat down silently beside her. A full moon was rising above the dark hills up the Bend and in the faint light the girl was wonderfully lovely.

  “I thought you weren’t comin’ over at all tonight,” she said, smiling up at him, “and I was sorry, because I wanted to say goodbye to you.”

  “Goodbye? Nelly, you’re not going away?”

  “Yes. The cats were in the pantry when I got home.”

  “Nelly!”

  “Well, to be serious. I’m not goin’ for that, but I really am goin’. I had a letter from Dad this evenin’. Did you have a good time after I left this afternoon? Did Mrs. Keyton-Wells thaw out?”

  “Hang Mrs. Keyton-Wells! Nelly, where are you going?”

  “To Dad, of course. We used to live down south together, but two months ago we broke up housekeepin’ and come north. We thought we could do better up here, you know. Dad started out to look for a place to settle
down and I came here while he was prospectin’. He’s got a house now, he says, and wants me to go right off. I’m goin’ tomorrow.”

  “Nelly, you mustn’t go — you mustn’t, I tell you,” exclaimed Winslow in despair. “I love you — I love you — you must stay with me forever.”

  “You don’t know what you’re sayin’, Mr. Winslow,” said Nelly coldly. “Why, you can’t marry me — a common servant girl.”

  “I can and I will, if you’ll have me,” answered Winslow recklessly. “I can’t ever let you go. I’ve loved you ever since I first saw you. Nelly, won’t you be my wife? Don’t you love me?”

  “Well, yes, I do,” confessed Nelly suddenly; and then it was fully five minutes before Winslow gave her a chance to say anything else.

  “Oh, what will your people say?” she contrived to ask at last. “Won’t they be in a dreadful state? Oh, it will never do for you to marry me.”

  “Won’t it?” said Winslow in a tone of satisfaction. “I rather think it will. Of course, my family will rampage a bit at first. I daresay Father’ll turn me out. Don’t worry over that, Nelly. I’m not afraid of work. I’m not afraid of anything except losing you.”

  “You’ll have to see what Dad says,” remarked Nelly, after another eloquent interlude.

  “He won’t object, will he? I’ll write to him or go and see him. Where is he?”

  “He is in town at the Arlington.”

  “The Arlington!” Winslow was amazed. The Arlington was the most exclusive and expensive hotel in town.

  “What is he doing there?”

  “Transacting a real estate or railroad deal with your father, I believe, or something of that sort.”

  “Nelly!”

  “Well?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just what I say.”

  Winslow got up and looked at her.

  “Nelly, who are you?”

  “Helen Ray Scott, at your service, sir.”

  “Not Helen Ray Scott, the daughter of the railroad king?”

  “The same. Are you sorry that you’re engaged to her? If you are, she’ll stay Nelly Ray.”

  Winslow dropped back on the seat with a long breath.

  “Nelly, I don’t understand. Why did you deceive me? I feel stunned.”

  “Oh, do forgive me,” she said merrily. “I shouldn’t have, I suppose — but you know you took me for the hired girl the very first time you saw me, and you patronized me and called me Nelly; so I let you think so just for fun. I never thought it would come to this. When Father and I came north I took a fancy to come here and stay with Mrs. Pennington — who is an old nurse of mine — until Father decided where to take up our abode. I got here the night before we met. My trunk was delayed so I put on an old cotton dress her niece had left here — and you came and saw me. I made Mrs. Pennington keep the secret — she thought it great fun; and I really was a great hand to do little chores and keep the cats in subjection too. I made mistakes in grammar and dropped my g’s on purpose — it was such fun to see you wince when I did it. It was cruel to tease you so, I suppose, but it was so sweet just to be loved for myself — not because I was an heiress and a belle — I couldn’t bear to tell you the truth. Did you think I couldn’t read your thoughts this afternoon, when I insisted on going ashore? You were a little ashamed of me — you know you were. I didn’t blame you for that, but if you hadn’t gone ashore and taken me as you did I would never have spoken to you again. Mrs. Keyton-Wells won’t snub me next time we meet. And some way I don’t think your father will turn you out, either. Have you forgiven me yet, Burton?”

  “I shall never call you anything but Nelly,” said Winslow irrelevantly.

  The Red Room

  You would have me tell you the story, Grandchild? ’Tis a sad one and best forgotten — few remember it now. There are always sad and dark stories in old families such as ours.

  Yet I have promised and must keep my word. So sit down here at my feet and rest your bright head on my lap, that I may not see in your young eyes the shadows my story will bring across their bonny blue.

  I was a mere child when it all happened, yet I remember it but too well, and I can recall how pleased I was when my father’s stepmother, Mrs. Montressor — she not liking to be called grandmother, seeing she was but turned of fifty and a handsome woman still — wrote to my mother that she must send little Beatrice up to Montressor Place for the Christmas holidays. So I went joyfully though my mother grieved to part with me; she had little to love save me, my father, Conrad Montressor, having been lost at sea when but three months wed.

  My aunts were wont to tell me how much I resembled him, being, so they said, a Montressor to the backbone; and this I took to mean commendation, for the Montressors were a well-descended and well-thought-of family, and the women were noted for their beauty. This I could well believe, since of all my aunts there was not one but was counted a pretty woman. Therefore I took heart of grace when I thought of my dark face and spindling shape, hoping that when I should be grown up I might be counted not unworthy of my race.

  The Place was an old-fashioned, mysterious house, such as I delighted in, and Mrs. Montressor was ever kind to me, albeit a little stern, for she was a proud woman and cared but little for children, having none of her own.

  But there were books there to pore over without let or hindrance — for nobody questioned of my whereabouts if I but kept out of the way — and strange, dim family portraits on the walls to gaze upon, until I knew each proud old face well, and had visioned a history for it in my own mind — for I was given to dreaming and was older and wiser than my years, having no childish companions to keep me still a child.

  There were always some of my aunts at the Place to kiss and make much of me for my father’s sake — for he had been their favourite brother. My aunts — there were eight of them — had all married well, so said people who knew, and lived not far away, coming home often to take tea with Mrs. Montressor, who had always gotten on well with her step-daughters, or to help prepare for some festivity or other — for they were notable housekeepers, every one.

  They were all at Montressor Place for Christmas, and I got more petting than I deserved, albeit they looked after me somewhat more strictly than did Mrs. Montressor, and saw to it that I did not read too many fairy tales or sit up later at nights than became my years.

  But it was not for fairy tales and sugarplums nor yet for petting that I rejoiced to be at the Place at that time. Though I spoke not of it to anyone, I had a great longing to see my Uncle Hugh’s wife, concerning whom I had heard much, both good and bad.

  My Uncle Hugh, albeit the oldest of the family, had never married until now, and all the countryside rang with talk of his young wife. I did not hear as much as I wished, for the gossips took heed to my presence when I drew anear and turned to other matters. Yet, being somewhat keener of comprehension than they knew, I heard and understood not a little of their talk.

  And so I came to know that neither proud Mrs. Montressor nor my good aunts, nor even my gentle mother, looked with overmuch favour on what my Uncle Hugh had done. And I did hear that Mrs. Montressor had chosen a wife for her stepson, of good family and some beauty, but that my Uncle Hugh would have none of her — a thing Mrs. Montressor found hard to pardon, yet might so have done had not my uncle, on his last voyage to the Indies — for he went often in his own vessels — married and brought home a foreign bride, of whom no one knew aught save that her beauty was a thing to dazzle the day and that she was of some strange alien blood such as ran not in the blue veins of the Montressors.

  Some had much to say of her pride and insolence, and wondered if Mrs. Montressor would tamely yield her mistress-ship to the stranger. But others, who were taken with her loveliness and grace, said that the tales told were born of envy and malice, and that Alicia Montressor was well worthy of her name and station.

  So I halted between two opinions and thought to judge for myself, but when I went to the Place my Uncle H
ugh and his bride were gone for a time, and I had even to swallow my disappointment and bide their return with all my small patience.

  But my aunts and their stepmother talked much of Alicia, and they spoke slightingly of her, saying that she was but a light woman and that no good would come of my Uncle Hugh’s having wed her, with other things of a like nature. Also they spoke of the company she gathered around her, thinking her to have strange and unbecoming companions for a Montressor. All this I heard and pondered much over, although my good aunts supposed that such a chit as I would take no heed to their whisperings.

  When I was not with them, helping to whip eggs and stone raisins, and being watched to see that I ate not more than one out of five, I was surely to be found in the wing hall, poring over my book and grieving that I was no more allowed to go into the Red Room.

  The wing hall was a narrow one and dim, connecting the main rooms of the Place with an older wing, built in a curious way. The hall was lighted by small, square-paned windows, and at its end a little flight of steps led up to the Red Room.

  Whenever I had been at the Place before — and this was often — I had passed much of my time in this same Red Room. It was Mrs. Montressor’s sitting-room then, where she wrote her letters and examined household accounts, and sometimes had an old gossip in to tea. The room was low-ceilinged and dim, hung with red damask, and with odd, square windows high up under the eaves and a dark wainscoting all around it. And there I loved to sit quietly on the red sofa and read my fairy tales, or talk dreamily to the swallows fluttering crazily against the tiny panes.

  When I had gone this Christmas to the Place I soon bethought myself of the Red Room — for I had a great love for it. But I had got no further than the steps when Mrs. Montressor came sweeping down the hall in haste and, catching me by the arm, pulled me back as roughly as if it had been Bluebeard’s chamber itself into which I was venturing.