Phoebe Deane (34 page)

Emmeline was not fond of this neighbor, and therefore did not care to reveal her family secrets to her. She lived in a red house with windows both ways and knew all that went on for miles about.

" Guess she won't run much chance of that now," said the neighbor, with a disagreeable laugh. She was prepared to be sociable if Emmeline opened her heart, but she knew how to scratch back when she was slapped.

" Well, I sh'd like to know what you mean, Mis' Prinn. I'm sure I don't know why our Phoebe shouldn't marry es likely es any other girl, an' more so'n some what ain't got good looks."

(Mrs. Prinn's daughter was not spoken of generally as a beauty.)

" Good looks don't count fer much when they ain't got good morals."

" Indeed! Mis' Prinn. You do talk kind of mysterious. Did you mean to insinuate that our Phoebe didn't have good morals ? "

" I didn't mean to insinuate anything, Mis' Deane. It's all over town the way she's been goin' on, an' I don't see how you can pertend to hide it any longer. Everybody knows it, an' b'lieves it."

" I'd certainly like to know what you mean," demanded Emmeline, facing the woman angrily. " I brung that girl up, an' I guess I know what good morals is. Phoebe may have her weak points, but she's all right morally."

" Fac's is fac's, Mis' Deane," said the neighbor, with a relish.

" I deny that there is any fac's to the contrary," screamed Emmeline, now thoroughly excited into championing the girl whom she hated. The family honor was at stake. The Deanes had never done anything dishonorable or disgraceful.

" I s'pose you don't deny that she spent the night out all night the time o' the storm, do yeh? How d' ye explain that?"

" I should like to know what that hes to do with morals."

The neighbor proceeded to explain with a story so plausible that Emmeline grew livid with rage.

" Well, 'pon my word, you've got a lot to do runnin' round with sech lies as them. Wher 'd you get all that, I'd like to know ? "

"It all come straight enough, an' everybody knows it, ef you are stone blind. Folks has seen her round in lonely places with a strange feller. They do say he kissed her right in plain sight of the road near the woods one day. An' you know yerself she went off and stayed all night. She was seen in the stage-coach 'long with a strange man. There's witnesses! You can't deny it. What I want to know, is, what are you goin' to do 'bout it? 'Cause ef you keep her here after that I can't let my dotter come here anymore. When girls is talked about like that decent girls can't hev nothin' to do with 'em. You think you know a hull lot 'bout that girl out there, singin' songs in this brazen way with the hull town talkin' 'bout her, but she's deceived you, that's what she's done; an' I thought I'd be good enough neighbor to tell you, ef you didn't know a'ready. But es you don't seem to take it as 'twas meant, in kindness, I'd best be goin'."

" You'd best had," screamed Emmeline, " an' be sure you keep your precious dotter to hum. Hum's the place fer delikit little creatures like that. You might find she was deceivin' you ef you looked sharp enough."

Then Emmeline turned and faced the wondering Phoebe, who had heard the loud voices and slipped in through the wood-shed to escape being drawn into the altercation. She had no idea what it all was about. She had been engaged with her own happy thoughts.

" I'd like to know what all this scandal's about, Phoebe Deane. Jest set down there and explain. What kind of goin's on hev you hed, that all the town's talkin' 'bout you? Mis' Prinn comes an' says she can't let her dotter come over here any more ef you stay here. I don't know that it's much loss, fer she never come to 'mount to much, but I can't hev folks talkin' that way. No decent girl ought to have her name kicked around in that style. I may not hev hed a great ejjacation like you think you've got to have, but I knowed enough to keep my name off folks' tongues, an' it seems you don't. Now I'd like to know what young man or men you've been kitin' round with. Answer me that ? They say you've been seen in the woods alone, and walkin' at night with a strange man, an' goin' off in the stagecoach. Now what in the world does it all mean.?"

Phoebe, turning deathly white, with a sudden return of her recent weakness, sank upon a kitchen chair, her arms full of dried clothes, and essayed to understand the angry woman who stormed back and forth across her kitchen, livid with rage, pouring out a perfect torrent of wrath and incriminations.

When there came a moment's interval Phoebe would try to answer her, but Emmeline, roused beyond control, would not listen. She stormed and raged at Phoebe, calling her names, and telling her what a trial she had always been, until suddenly Phoebe's new found strength gave away entirely and she dropped back in a faint against the wall, and would have fallen if Albert had not come in just then un- perceived, and caught her. He carried her upstairs tenderly and laid her on her bed. In a moment she opened her sad eyes again and looked up at him.

" What's the matter, Phoebe ? " he asked, tenderly. " Been working too hard ?" But Phoebe could only answer by a rush of tears.

Albert, troubled as a man always is by woman's tears, stumbled downstairs to Emmeline to find out, and was met by an overwhelming story.

"Who says all that 'bout my sister?" he demanded, in a cool voice, and rising with a dignity that sat strangely upon his kindly figure. " She ain't your sister," hissed Emmeline. " She ain't any but a half relation to you, an' it's time you told her so an' turned her out of the house. She'll be a disgrace to you an' your decent wife an' children. I can't have my Alma brought up in a house with a girl that's disgraced herself like that."

" You keep still, Emmeline," said Albert, gravely. " You don't rightly know what you're saying. You've got excited. I'll attend to this matter. What I want to know is, Who said this about my sister ? I'll go get Hiram Green to help me, and we'll face the scoundrel, whoever it is, and make him take it back before the whole town."

" What if it's true! " mocked Emmeline.

" It isn't true. It couldn't be true. You know it couldn't, Emmeline."

" I'm not so sure o' that," raged his wife. " Wait till you hear all," and she proceeded to recount what Mrs. Prinn had told her.

" I am ashamed of you, Emmeline, that you'll think of such a thing for a minute, no matter who told you. Don't say another word about it. I'm going out to find Hiram."

" Ain't you noticed that Hiram ain't ben comin' here lately ? " Emmeline's voice was anything but pleasant. Albert looked at her in astonishment.

"Well, what o' that? He's a good man, and he's fond o' Phoebe. He'll be sure to go with me and defend her."

Albert went out and she saw him hurrying down the road toward Hiram's.

Hiram, like an old spider, was waiting for him in the barn. He had been expecting him for two days, not thinking it would take so long for the news to spread into the home of the victim. He looked gloomy and non-committal as Albert came up, and greeted him with half-averted eyes.

" I've come to get your help," said Albert, with expectant good will. " Hiram, hev you heard all this fool talk about Phoebe? I can't really believe folks would say that about her, but Emmeline's got it in her head everybody knows it."

" Yes, I heard it," admitted Hiram, reaching out for a straw to chew. " I spent one hull day last week goin' round tryin' to stop it, but 'twant no use. I couldn't even find out who started it. You never ken, them things. But the wust of it is, it's all true."

"What!"

" Yes," said Hiram, dismally, " 'tis. I'm sorry t' say it to you, what's ben my friend, 'bout her I hoped to marry some day, but I seen some things myself. I seen thet day they talk 'bout in the edge o' the woods, an' I seen her cut an' run when she heard my wagon comin', an' when she looked up an' see it was me she was deadly pale. That was the fust I knowed she wan't true to me."

Hiram closed his lying lips and looked off sorrowfully at the hills in the distance.

" Hiram, you must be mistaken. There is some explanation."

" All right, Albert, glad you ken think so. Wish't I could. It mos' breaks my heart thinkin' 'bout her. I'm all bound up in havin' her. I'd take her now with all her disgrace an' run the resk o' keepin' her straight ef she'd promise to behave herself. She's mighty young, an' it does seem too bad. But yeh see, Albert, I seen her myself with my own eyes in the stage-coach along with the same man what kissed her in the woods, an' yeh know yerself she didn't come back till next night."

With a groan Albert sank down on a box near by and covered his face with his hands. He had been well brought up and disgrace like this was something he had never dreamed of. His agony amazed the ice-hearted Hiram, and he almost quailed before the sight of such sorrow in a man, sorrow that he himself had made. It embarrassed him. He turned away to hide his contempt.

" It comes mighty hard on me to see you suffer thet way, Albert, an' not be able to help you," he whined after a minute. " I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll marry her anyway. I'll marry her an' save her reputation. Nbbody'll dast say anythin' 'bout my wife, an' ef I marry her that'll be es much es to say all this ain't so, an' mebbe it'll die down."

Albert looked up with manly tears in his eyes.

" That's real good of you, Hiram. I'll take it as mighty kind of you if you think there isn't any other way to stop it. It seems hard on you, though."

"I ain't thinkin' o' myself," swelled Hiram. "I'm thinkin' o' the girl, an' I don't see no other way. When things is true, you know, there ain't no way o' denyin' them, 'specially when folks hes seen so many things. But just oncet get her good an' respectably married an' it'll all blow over an' be forgot."

They talked a long time, and Hiram embellished the stories that had been told by many a new incident out of his fertile brain, until Albert was thoroughly convinced that the only way to save Phoebe's reputation was for her to be married at once to Hiram.

Albert went home at last, and entered the kitchen with a chastened air. Emmeline eyed him keenly. Phoebe had not come downstairs and his wife had all the work to do again. She was not enjoying the state of things.

Albert sat down and looked at the floor.

"Hiram has been very kind," he said, slowly, "most kind. He has offered to marry Phoebe at once and stop all this talk."

A light of understanding began to dawn in Emmeline's eyes.

" H'm!" she said. Then, after a thoughtful pause. " But I guess Miss Phoebe Deane'll hev a word to say 'bout that. She don't like him a bit."

"Poor child!" moaned Albert. "She'll have to take him, whether she likes him or not. Poor little girl. I blame myself I didn't look after her better. Her mother was a real lady and so good to me when I was home. I promised her I'd keep Phoebe safe. She was such a good woman, it would break her heart to have Phoebe go like this."

" H'm! I don't reckon she was no better than other folks, only she set up to be!" sniffed Emmeline. " Anyhow this is just what might 'a' ben expected from the headstrong way that girl went on. I see now why she was set on goin' off to school. She knowed this was a' comin' an' she wanted to slip an' run 'fore it got out. But she got caught. Sinners generally does." Emmeline wrung out her dishcloth with satisfaction.

" I'll go up now and talk with Phoebe," said Albert, rising sadly as if he had not heard his wife.

" I'm sure I wish you joy of your errand. Ef she ac's to you es she does to me you'll come flyin' down faster'n you went up."

But Albert was tapping at Phoebe's door before Emmeline had finished her sentence.

CHAPTER XXVI

"Phoebe," said Albert, gently sitting down beside the bed where she lay wide-eyed, in white-faced misery, trying to comprehend what this new calamity might mean, " I'm mighty sorry for you, little girl. I wish you had come to me with things more. I might 'a' helped you better if I hadn't been so stupid. But I've found a way out of it all for you. I've found a good man that's willing to marry you and give you the protection of his name and home, and we'll just have you married right away quietly here at home, and that'll stop all the talk."

Phoebe turned a look of mingled horror and helplessness on her brother. He did not comprehend it, and thought she was grasping for a thread of hope.

" Yes, Phoebe, Hiram Green is willing to marry you right off in spite of everything, and we've fixed it up to have the wedding right away, to-morrow. That'll give you time to straighten out your things, and Hiram to get the minister "

But Albert stopped suddenly as Phoebe uttered a piercing scream of fear and started up as if she would fly from the room.

Albert caught her and tried to soothe her.

" What's the matter now, little girl ? Don't look like that. It'll all come out right. Is it because you don't like Hiram enough ? But child, you'll get to like him more as you know him better. Then you'll be so grateful to think what he saved you from. And besides, Phoebe, there isn't any other way. We couldn't stand the disgrace. What would your mother think? She was always so particular about how you should be brought up. And to have you turn out disgraced would break her heart. Phoebe, don't you see there isn't any other way ? "

"Albert, I would rather die than marry that wicked man. He is a bad man. I know he is bad. He has been trying to make me marry him for a long time, and now he is just taking advantage of this terrible story. Albert, you know these stories are not true. You don't believe them, Albert, do you?"