Phoebe Deane (Romance Classic). Grace Livingston Hill

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СКАЧАТЬ figure shellin' beans it that rig. I s'pose that's one of your ma's contoguments, but if she had any sense at all she wouldn't want you to put it on. It ain't fit for ordinary life. It might do to have your picture took in, or go to a weddin', but you do look like a fool in it now. Besides, if it's worth anything, an' it looks like there was good stuff in it, you'll spoil it shellin' beans."

      Phoebe shelled away feverishly and said not a word. Her eyes looked as though there might be anything behind their lowered lashes, from tears to fire-flashes. Emmeline surveyed her angrily. Her wrath was on the boiling point and she felt the time had come to let it boil.

      A little bird, perched on the roof of the barn, piped out: " Phoe-bee! Phoe-bee! " The girl lifted her head toward the outside door and listened. The bird seemed to be a reminder that there were other things in the world worth while besides having one's own way even on one's birthday. The paper in her bosom crackled, and Emmeline eyed her suspiciously, but the swift fingers shelled on unremittingly.

      " I think the time has come to have an understandin'," said Emmeline, raising her voice harshly. " If you won't talk to me, Albert'll have to tend to you, but I'm the proper one to speak, and I'm goin' to do it. I won't have this sort of thing goin' on in my house. It's a disgrace. I'd like to know what you mean, treatin' Hiram Green in this way? He's a respectable man, and you've no call to keep him danglin' after you forever. People'll talk about you, and I won't have it! "

      There was an angry flash in Emmeline's eyes. She had made up her mind to have her say.

      Phoebe raised astonished eyes to her sister-in-law's excited face.

      " I don't know what you mean, Emmeline. I have nothing whatever to do with Hiram Green. I can't prevent him coming to my brother's house. I'm sure I wish I could, for it's most unpleasant to have him around continually."

      The lofty air and cool words angered Emmeline beyond expression. She almost always lost her temper at once when she began to talk with Phoebe. Her most violent effort seemed at once so futile, and the girl was so provokingly calm, that it was out of the question to keep one's temper.

      " You don't know what I mean!" mocked Emmeline. "No, of course not. You don't know who he comes here to see. You think, I suppose, that he comes to see Albert and me perhaps. Well, you're not so much of a little fool as you want to pretend. You know well enough Hiram Green is just waitin' round on your whims, and I say it's high time you stopped this nonsense, keepin' a respectable man danglin' after you forever just to show off your power over him, and when all the time he needs a housekeeper, and his children are runnin' wild. You'll get your pay, miss, when you do marry him. Those young ones will be so wild you'll never get 'em tamed. They'll lead you a life of it. It's a strange way for any decent girl to act. If it's a new house you're waitin' on I guess you can have your way at once by just sayin' so. And I think it's time for you to speak, for I tell you plainly it ain't likely another such good chance'll come your way ever, and I don't suppose you want to be a hanger-on all your life on people that can't afford to keep you."

      Phoebe's fingers were still shelling beans rapidly, but her eyes were on Emmeline's angry face.

      " I thought I had told you," she said, and her voice was steady, " that I would never marry Hiram Green. Nothing and nobody on earth could make me marry him. I despise him. You know perfectly well that the things you are saying are wrong. It is not my fault that he comes here. I do not want him to come and he knows it. I have told him I will never marry him. I do not want him to build a house nor do anything else, for nothing that he could do would make any difference."

      " You certainly are a little fool!" screamed Emmeline, " to let such a chance go. If he wasn't entirely daft about you he'd give you up at once. Well, what are you intendin' to do then? Answer me that! Are you layin' out to live on Albert the rest of your life? Ifs best to know what to expect and be prepared. Answer me!" she demanded again, as Phoebe dropped her eyes to hide the sudden tears that threatened to overwhelm her calm.

      " I don't know." The girl tried to say it quietly, but the angry woman snatched the words from her lips and tossed them back:

      " You don't know! You don't know! Well, you better know! I can tell you right now that there's goin' to be a new order of things. If you stay here any longer you've got to do as I say. You're not goin' on your high and mighty way doin' as you please an hour longer. And to begin with you can march up stairs and take off that ridiculous rig of your foolish mother's——"

      Phoebe shoved the kitchen chair back with a sharp noise on the bare floor, and stood up, her face white with anger.

      " Emmeline," said she, and her voice was low and controlled, but reminded Emmeline somehow of the first low rumbling of a storm, and when she looked at Phoebe's white face she fancied a flash like livid lightning passed over it. " Emmeline, don't you dare to speak my mother's name in that way! I will not listen to you! "

      Then in the pause of the clashing voices the little bird from the weathervane on the barn called out again: " Phoe- bee! Phoe-bee! "

      And it was then that Phoebe cast her apron from her and went out through the kitchen door, into the golden glorious October afternoon, away from the pitiless tongue, and the endless beans, and the sorrow of her life.

      The little bird on the weathervane left his perch and flew along from tree to tree, calling joyously, " Phoe-bee! Phoe- bee!" as she went down the road. He seemed as glad as though she were a comrade come to roam the woods with him. The sunlight lingered lovingly on the buff merino, as though it were a piece of itself come out to meet it, and she flitted breathlessly down the way, she knew not whither, only to get out and away.

      Queer, wintry-looking worms crawled lazily to their homes across the long white road, woolly caterpillars in early fur overcoats. Large leaves floated solemnly down to their long home. Patches of rank grass rose green and pert, passionately pretending that summer was not done, scorning the deadness all about them. All the air was filled with a golden haze and Phoebe in her golden, sunlit garments, seemed a part of it.

      CHAPTER V

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      The rage and sorrow that seethed in Phoebe's soul were such as in some passionate hearts have led to deeds of desperation. And indeed she did feel desperate as she fled along the road, pursued by the thought of her sister-in-law's angry words.

      To have such awful words spoken to her, and on her birthday; to feel so cornered and badgered, and to have no home where one was welcome, save that hateful alternative of going to Hiram Green's house! Oh, why was it that one had to live when life had become a torture?

      She had gone a long distance before her mind cleared sufficiently to think where she was going. The sight of a distant red farm-house made her pause in her wild walk. If she went on she would be seen from the well-watched windows of that red house, and the two women who lived there were noted alike for their curiosity and for their ability to impart news.

      In a sudden panic Phoebe climbed a fence and struck out across the field toward Chestnut Edge, a small hill rising to the left of the village. There she might hope to be alone a little while and think it out, and perhaps creep close to her mother once more through the letter which she pressed against her heart. She hurried over the rough stubble of the field, gathering her buff garments with the other hand to hold them from any detaining briars. She seemed like some bright golden leaf blowing across the pasture to frolic with the other leaves on the nut-crowned hillside.

      Breathless at last she reached the hill and found a great log where she sat СКАЧАТЬ