The Project Gutenberg EBook of Quaint Courtships, by Howells & Alden, Editors Copyright laws are changing all over the world Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file Please do not remove it Do not change or edit the header without written permission Please read the “legal small print,” and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Quaint Courtships Author: Howells & Alden, Editors Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9490] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 5, 2003] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUAINT COURTSHIPS *** Produced by Stan Goodman and the Distributed Proofreaders QUAINT COURTSHIPS Harper’s Novelettes EDITED BY WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS AND HENRY MILLS ALDEN 1906 MARGARET DELAND AN ENCORE NORMAN DUNCAN A ROMANCE OF WHOOPING HARBOR MARY E WILKINS FREEMAN HYACINTHUS SEWELL FORD JANE’S GRAY EYES HERMAN WHITAKER A STIFF CONDITION MAY HARRIS IN THE INTERESTS OF CHRISTOPHER FRANCIS WILLING WHARTON THE WRONG DOOR “What!” “Read on,” groaned Mrs Bloodgood “He says the fishing’s excellent.” “I should say so! And that’s what he’s caught! Leah Bloodgood, what did you ever let him go away for without a body-guard? That poor dear, innocent, kindhearted man, to go and fall among—among thieves like that!” “He’s just absent-minded enough to go and do it himself I don’t suppose we ought to blame them Read on.” “‘Next Wednesday morning, at ten o’clock,’” moaned little Marilla, glibness all gone “‘It would be most embarrassing to do so in these clothes, as I am sure you will see, dear sister Kindly see that my best white tie is included I would not wish to be unbecomingly attired on so joyous an occasion She is a widow with five chil—’” “Mercy! don’t faint away! Where’s your fans? Didn’t I tell you there were breakers ahead? I don’t wonder you’re all broken up! Give it to me; I’ll read the rest M—m—m, ‘joyous occasion’—‘five children’—‘she is a widow with five children, all of them most lovable little creatures You know my fondness for children I have been greatly benefited by my sojourn in this lovely spot I cannot thank you too warmly for recommending it I find the fish—’” “Leah Bloodgood, that will do! Don’t read another word Don’t fan me, don’t ask me how I feel now Let me get my breath, and then we will go over and open the parsonage windows That, I suppose, is the first thing to do It’s something to be thankful for that it’s a good-sized parsonage.” “Be thankful, then—I’m not I’m not anything but incensed clear through After I’d taken every precaution that was ever thought of, and some that weren’t ever, to keep that man out of mischief! I thought of all the absent-minded things he might do, but I never thought of this, no, I never! And we wanted him to marry Cornelia so much, Marilla! Cornelia would have made him such a beautiful wife!” “Beautiful!” sighed Marilla, hopelessly It had been the dear pet plan they had nursed in common with all the parish Everybody but the minister and Cornelia had shared in it “And five children! Marilla Merritt, think of five children romping over our parsonage, knocking all the corners off!” “I’m thinking,” mourned Marilla, gustily She felt a dismal suspicion that this was going to daunt her But her habit of facing things came to the front “Wednesday’s only four days off,” she said, with a fine assumption of briskness “I don’t suppose he said anything about a wedding tour, did he?” “No But even if he took one he’d probably forget and stop off here So we can’t count on that What’s done has got to be done in four days What has got to be done, Marilla?” “Everything We must start this minute, Leah Bloodgood! The house must be aired and painted and papered, and window-glass set—there’s no end! And all in four days! We can’t let our minister bring his wife and five children home to a shabby house Cornelia Opp must go round and get money for new dining-room chairs, and there ought to be more beds with a family like that Dishes, too Cornelia ought to start at once She’s the best solicitor we have.” “There’s another thing,” broke out Mrs Bloodgood; “the minister must have some new shirts He ought to have a whole trousseau He hasn’t boarded with me, and I done all his mending, without my knowing what he ought to have, now that he’s going to go and get married We can’t let him be shabby, either.” “Then, of course, there ought to be a lot of cooked food in the house, and supper all ready for them when they come Oh, I guess we’ll find plenty to do! I guess we can’t stop to groan much But, oh, how different we’d all feel if it was Cornelia!” “Different! I’d give ‘em my dining-room chairs and my cellar stairs! I’d make shirts and sit up all night to cook! It’s—it’s wicked, Marilla, that’s what it is.” “I know it is, but he isn’t,” championed Marilla “He’s just a good man gone wrong It’s his guardian angel that’s to blame—a guardian angel has no business to be napping.” At best, it was pretty late in the day to overhaul a parsonage that had been closed so long and sinking gently into mild decay The little parish woke with a dismayed start and went to work, to a woman Operations were begun within an amazingly brief time; cleaners and repairers were hurried to the parsonage, and the women of the parish were told off into relays to assist them “Somebody go to Mrs Higginbotham Taylor’s and get a high chair,” directed Marilla Merritt “I’ll lend my tea-chair for the next-to-the-baby, anyway, till they can get something better We don’t want our minister’s children sitting round on dictionaries and encyclopaedias.” The minister had come to them, a lone bachelor, with kind, absent eyes and the faculty of making himself beloved For six years they had taken care of him and loved him—watched over his outgoings and his incomings and forgiven all his absent-mindednesses They had picked out Cornelia Opp for him, and added it to their prayers like an earnest codicil—“O Lord, bring Cornelia Opp and the minister together Amen.” Cornelia Opp herself lived on her sweet, unselfish, single life, and prayed, “Lord, bless the minister,” unsuspectingly She was as much beloved among them all as the minister They were proud of her slender, beautiful figure and her serene face, and of her many capabilities What the minister lacked, Cornelia had; Cornelia lacked nothing Marilla Merritt and Cornelia Opp were appointed receiving committee, to be at the parsonage when the minister and his wife and five children arrived A bountiful supper was to be in readiness, prepared by all the good women impartially The duty of the receiving committee was merely, as Mrs Leah Bloodgood said, “to smile, and tell pleasant little lies—‘Such a delightful surprise,—so glad to welcome, etc.’ “Cornelia and Marilla Merritt are just the ones,” she said, succinctly “I should say: ‘You awful man, you! Can’t we trust you out of our sights?’ And I suppose that wouldn’t be the best way to welcome ‘em.” The minister had sent a brief notice of his expected arrival home on Wednesday evening, and, unless he forgot and went somewhere else, there was good reason to expect him then Everything was hurried into readiness At the last moment some one sent in a doll to make the minister’s children feel more at home Cornelia laughed and set the little thing on the sofa, stiffly erect and endlessly smiling “Looks nice, doesn’t it?” sighed tired little Marilla, returning from a last round of the tidy rooms “I don’t see anything else left to do, unless—Is that dust?” “No, it’s bloom,” hastened Cornelia, covertly wiping it off “You poor, tired thing, don’t look at anything else! Just go home and rest a little bit before you change your dress Mine’s all changed, and I can stay here and mount guard I can be practising my lies!” “I’ve got mine by heart,” laughed Marilla, “I could say ‘so delighted’ if he brought two wives and ten children!” “Don’t!” Cornelia’s sweet voice sounded a little severe “We’ve said enough about the poor man It’s four o’clock If you’re going—” “I am Cornelia Opp, turn that child back to! She makes me nervous sitting there on that sofa staring at me! Will you see her!” “She does look a little out of place,” Cornelia admitted, but she left the stiff little figure undisturbed After the other woman had gone she sat down beside it on the sofa, and smoothed absently its gaudy little dress Cornelia’s face was gently pensive, she could scarcely have told why Not the minister, but the trimly appointed house with its indefinable atmosphere of a home with little children in it was what she was thinking of without conscious effort of her own The smiling doll beside her, the high chair that she could see through an inner door, and the foolish little gilt mug that some one had donated to the minister’s babyest one— they all contributed to the gentle pensiveness on Cornelia’s sweet face She was but a step by thirty, and a woman at thirty has not settled down resignedly into a lonely old age Let a little child come tilting by, or a little child’s foolish belongings intrude themselves upon her vision, and old, odd longings creep out of secret crannies and haunt her, willy-nilly It is the latent motherhood within her that has been denied its own It was the secret of the soft wistfulness in Cornelia’s eyes So she sat until the minister came home It was the sound of his big step on the walk that roused her and sent the color into her face and made it perilously beautiful Cornelia was frightened Where was Marilla Merritt? Why had they come so soon? Must she meet them alone? She hurried to the door, her perturbed mind groping blindly for the “lies” she had misplaced while she sat and dreamed The minister was striding up the walk alone! He did not even look back at the village hack that was turning away with his wife and five children! He looked instead at the beautiful vision that stood in the parsonage doorway, glimpses of home behind it, welcome and comfort in it The minister was in need of welcome and comfort His loneliness had been accentuated cruelly by the bit of happiness he had caught a brief glimpse of and left behind him Perhaps the loneliness was in his face “Welcome home,” Cornelia said, in the doorway She put aside her astonishment at his coming alone, and answered the need in his face Her hands were out in a gracious greeting To the minister how good it was! “They told me to come right here,” he said, “or I should have gone to Mrs Bloodgood’s as usual I don’t quite understand—” “Never mind understanding,” Cornelia smiled, leading the way into the pretty parlor, “anyway, till you get into a comfortable rocker It’s so much easier to understand in a rocking-chair! I—well, I think I need one, too! You see, we expected—we didn’t expect you alone.” “No?” his puzzled gaze taking in all the kind little appointments of the room, and coming to a stop at the smiling doll The two of them sat and stared at each other “We thought you would bring—we got all ready for your wife and the children,” Cornelia was saying The doll stared on, but the minister looked up “My wife and the children?” he repeated after her “I don’t think I know what you mean, Miss Cornelia I must be dreaming—No, wait; please don’t tell me what it all means just yet! Give me a little time to enjoy the dream.” But Cornelia went on “You wrote Mrs Bloodgood about your marriage,” she said Sweet voices can be severe “It hurried us a little, but we have tried to get everything in readiness If there is another bed needed for the chil—” “I wrote Mrs Bloodgood about my marriage?” he said, slowly; then as understanding dawned upon him the puzzled lines in his face loosened into laughter that would out He leaned back in his rocker and gave himself up to it helplessly As helplessly Cornelia joined in The doll on the sofa smiled on—no more, no less “Will you ex—excuse me?” he laughed “No,” laughed she “But I can’t help it, and you’re l-laughing yourself.” “No!” He got to his feet and caught her hands “Let’s keep on,” he pleaded, unministerially “I’m having a beautiful time Aren’t you? I wish you’d say yes, Miss Cornelia!” “Yes,” she smiled, “but we can’t sit here laughing all the rest of the afternoon Marilla Merritt will be here—” “Oh, Marilla Merritt—” He sighed The minister was young, too “And she will want to know—things,” hinted Cornelia, mildly She drew the smiling doll into her lap and smoothed its dress absently The minister retreated to his rocker again “I think I would rather tell you,” he said, quietly “I did marry my old friend this morning, but I married her to another man It was a mistake—all a mistake.” “Then you ought not to have married her, ought you?” commented Cornelia, demurely Over the doll’s little foolish head her eyes were dancing Marilla Merritt might not see that it was funny, Mrs Bloodgood mightn’t, but it was Unless—unless it was pathetic Suddenly Cornelia felt that it was The minister was no longer laughing He sat in the rocker strangely quiet Perhaps he did not realize that his eyes were on Cornelia’s beautiful face; perhaps he thought he was looking at the doll He knew what he was thinking of The utter loneliness behind him and ahead of him appalled him in its contrast to this This woman sitting opposite him with the face of the woman that a man would like always near him, this little home with the two of them in it alone— the minister knew what it was he wanted He wanted it to go right on—never to end He knew that he had always wanted it All the soul of the man rose up to claim it And because there was need of hurry, because Marilla Merritt was coming, he held out his hands to Cornelia and the foolish, unastonished doll “Come,” he said, pleadingly, and of course the doll could not have gone alone He dropped it gently back into its place on the sofa Marilla Merritt had been unwarrantably delayed She came in flushed and panting, but indomitably smiling Her sharp glance sought for a wife and five children “Such a delightful surprise!” she panted, holding out her hand to the minister “We are so glad to welcome—Why!—have you shown them to their rooms, Cornelia?” “They—they didn’t come,” murmured Cornelia, retreating to her unfailing ally on the sofa In the stress of the moment—for Cornelia was not ready for Marilla Merritt—it had seemed to her that the time for “lies” had come She had even beckoned to the nearest one But the ghosts of ministers’ wives that had been and that were to be had risen in a warning cloud about her and saved her “Didn’t come!” shrilled Marilla Merritt in her astonishment “His wife and children didn’t come! Do you know what you are saying, Cornelia? You don’t mean—Then I don’t wonder you look flustered—” She caught herself up hurriedly, but her thoughts ran on unchecked Of all things that ever! Could absent-mindedness go further than this—to marry a wife and forget to bring her home with him?—and five children! Marilla Merritt turned sharply upon the minister “Where is your wife?” she demanded, the frayed ends of her patience trailing from her tone The minister crossed the room to Cornelia and the doll He laid his big white hand gently on Cornelia’s small white one There was protective tenderness in the gesture and the touch “I found her here waiting for me,” the minister said THE END End of Project Gutenberg’s Quaint Courtships, by Howells & Alden, Editors *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUAINT COURTSHIPS *** This file should be named 8qcrt10.txt or 8qcrt10.zip Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8qcrt11.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8qcrt10a.txt Produced by Stan Goodman and the Distributed Proofreaders Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US unless a copyright notice is included Thus, we usually do not keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, even years after the official publication date Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month A preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment and editing by those who wish to do so Most people start at our Web sites at: http://gutenberg.net or http://promo.net/pg These Web sites include award-winning information about Project Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!) 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Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUAINT COURTSHIPS *** Produced by Stan Goodman and the Distributed Proofreaders QUAINT COURTSHIPS Harper’s Novelettes EDITED BY WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS AND HENRY MILLS ALDEN... **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Quaint Courtships Author: Howells & Alden, Editors Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9490] [Yes, we are more than one year...The Project Gutenberg EBook of Quaint Courtships, by Howells & Alden, Editors Copyright laws are changing all over the world Be sure to check the copyright