 Chapter 9 Who is Gretchen This was the question which Mr. and Mrs. Tracy asked each other many times during the hours which intervened between their retiring and rising. But, speculate as they might, they could reach no satisfactory conclusion and were obliged to wait for what the morning and the train might bring. The party had been a success and Frank felt that his election to Congress was almost certain. But of what avail would that be if he lost his foothold at Tracy Park as he was sure to do if a woman appeared upon the scene? Both he and his wife had outgrown the life of eleven years ago and could not go back to it without a struggle and it is not strange if both wished that the troublesome brother had remained abroad instead of coming home so suddenly and disturbing all their plans. They heard him moving in his room before the clock struck six and knew he was getting himself in readiness to meet the dreaded Gretchen. Then, long before the carriage came round, they heard him in the hall opening the windows and admitting a gust of wind which blew their door open and when Frank arose to shut it he saw the top of Arthur's broad brimmed hat disappearing down the stairs. I believe he is going to walk to the station. He certainly is crazy. Frank said to his wife as they dressed themselves and waited with feverish impatience for the return of the carriage. Arthur did walk to the station which he reached just as the ticket agent was unlocking the door and there with his Spanish cloak wrapped around him he stalked up and down the long platform for more than an hour for the train was late and it was nearer eight than seven when it finally came in sight. Standing side by side Arthur and John looked anxiously for someone to alight but nobody appeared and the expression of Arthur's face was pitiable as he turned it to John and said, Gretchen did not come. Where do you suppose she is? I am sure I don't know. On the next train maybe? was John's reply at which Arthur caught eagerly. Yes, the next train most likely. We will come and meet it. And now drive home as fast as you can. This disappointment has brought that heat to my head and I must have a bath. But stop a bit. Who is the best carpenter in town? John told him that Belknap was the best and Bertrard the highest priced. I'll see them both, Arthur said, take me to their houses. And in the course of half an hour he had interviewed both Bertrard and Belknap and made an appointment with both for the afternoon. Then he was driven back to Tracy Park where breakfast had been waiting until it was spoiled and the cook's temper was spoiled too and when Frank and Dolly met him at the door both asked in the same breath, where is she? She was not on this train. She will come on the next. We must go and meet her, was Arthur's reply as he passed up the stairs while Frank and his wife looked wonderingly at each other. The spoiled breakfast was eaten by Mr. and Mrs. Tracy alone for the children had had theirs and gone to their lessons and Arthur had said that he never took anything in the morning except a cup of coffee and a roll and these he wished sent to his room together with a timetable. After breakfast Mrs. Tracy who was suffering from a sick headache declared her inability to sit up a moment longer and return to her bed leaving her husband and the servants to bring what order they could out of the confusion reigning everywhere and nowhere to a greater extent than in Arthur's room or rather the rooms which he had appropriated to himself and into which he had all his boxes and trunks brought so that he could open them at his leisure. There were more coming, he said, boxes which were still in the custom house and which contained many valuable things such as pictures and statuary and rugs and inlaid tables and china. The house which was very large had two wings while the main building was divided by a wide hall with three rooms on each side the middle one being a little smaller than the other two with each of which it communicated by a door and it was in this middle room on the second floor Arthur had been put in which he found quite too small for his use. So he ordered both the doors to be opened and took possession of the suite pacing them several times and then measuring their length and breadth and height and the distance between the windows. Then he inspected the wing on that side of the house and going into the yard looked the building over from all points occasionally marking a few lines on the paper he held in his hand. Before noon every room in the house except the one where Dolly lay sick with a headache had been visited and examined minutely while Frank watched him nervously wondering if he would think they had injured anything or had expended too much money on furniture. But Arthur was thinking of none of these things and found fault with nothing except the drain and the gas fixtures all of which he declared bad saying that the latter must be changed at once and that ten pounds of copras must be bought immediately and put down the drain and that quantities of chloride of lime and carboleic acid must be placed where there was the least danger of vegetable decomposition. I am very sensitive to smells and afraid of them too for they breed malaria and disease of all kinds. He said to the cook whose nose and chin were both high in the air not on account of any obnoxious odor but because of this meddling with what she considered her own affairs. If things were to go on this way she said to the housemate and if that man was going to put his nose into drains and gas pipes and kerosene lamps and bowls of sour milk which she might have forgotten she should give notice to quit. But when half an hour later some boxes and trunks which had come by express were deposited in the back hall and Arthur who was superintending them said to her as he pointed to a large black trunk. I think this has the dress patterns and shawls I brought for you girls for though I did not know you personally I knew that women were always pleased with anything from Paris. Her feelings underwent a radical change and Arthur was free to smell the drain and the gas fixtures as much as he liked. He was very busy and though always pleasant and even familiar at times there was in all he said and did an air as if he had assumed the Master ship. And he had. Everything was his and he knew it and Frank knew it too and gave no sign of rebelling when the rains were taken from him by one who seemed to be driving at a breakneck speed. At lunch while the brothers were together Arthur declared his intentions in part but not until Frank who was anxious to get it off his mind said to him. By the way I suppose he will be going to the office this afternoon to see Colvin and look over the books. I believe he will find them straight and hope you will not think I have spent too much or drawn too large a salary. If you do I will. Nonsense was Arthur's reply with a graceful shrug of his shoulders. Don't bother about that. There is money enough for us both. What I invested in Europe has troubled itself and more too and would make me a rich man if I had nothing else. I am always lucky. I played but once at Monte Carlo just before I came home and won ten thousand dollars which I invested in. But no matter. That is a surprise. Something for your wife and Gretchen. I have come home to stay. I do not think I am quite what I used to be. I was sick all that time when you heard from me so seldom and I am not strong yet. I need quiet and rest. I have seen the world and am tired of it and now I want a house for Gretchen and myself and you too. I expect you to stay with me as long as we pull together pleasantly and you do not interfere with my plans. I am going to take the three south rooms on the second floor for my own. I shall put folding doors or rather a wide arch between two of them making them seem almost like one and these I shall fit up to suit my own taste. In the smaller and middle room where I slept last night I shall have a large bow window with shelves for books in the spaces between and beneath and by the sides of the windows. I got the idea on a villa a little way out of Florence. Opposite this bow window on the other side of the room I shall have niches in the wall and corners for statuary with shelves for books above and below. I have some beautiful pieces of marble from Florence and Rome, the Venus de Milo, Apollo Belvedere, Nydian Psyche, and Ruth at the well. But the crowning glory of this room will be the upper half of the middle window of the bow. This is to be of stained glass, bright but soft colors which harmonize perfectly, two rows on the four sides and in the center a lovely picture of Gretchen, also of cathedral glass and so like her that it seems to speak to me in her soft German tongue. I had it made from a photograph I have of her and it is very natural. The same sad, sweet smile around the lips which never said an unkind word to any one. The same bright, wavy hair and eyes of blue, innocent as a child. And Gretchen is a little more than that. She's only twenty-one. Poor little Gretchen. And leaning back in his chair Arthur seemed to be lost in recollections of the past. Not pleasant all of them it would seem, for there was a moisture in his eyes when he at last looked up in response to his brother's question. Who did you say Gretchen was? Instantly the expression of the eyes changed to one of weariness and caution as Arthur replied. I did not say who she was, but you will soon know. I saw by the timetable that the train which passes here at eleven does not stop, but the three o'clock does, and you will please see that John goes with the carriage. I may be occupied with the carpenters Birchard and Belknap who are coming to talk with me about the changes I purpose to make, and which I wish commenced immediately. It is a rule of mine when I am to do a thing to do it at once. So I shall employ at least twenty men, and before Christmas everything will be finished, and I will show you rooms worthy of a palace. It is of Gretchen I am thinking more than of myself. Poor Gretchen. Arthur's voice was inexpressibly sad and pitiful as he said, poor Gretchen, while his eyes again grew soft and tender with a far away look in them as if they were seeing things in the past rather than in the future. There was not a particle of sentiment in Frank's nature and Gretchen was to him an object of dread rather than of romance. So far as he could judge his brother had no intention of routing him, but a woman in the field would be different and he should at once lose his vantage ground. You seem very fond of Gretchen, he said at last. Fond, Arthur replied, I should say I am, though the poor child has not much cause to think so. But I am going to atone, and this suite of rooms is for her. I mean to make her a very queen and dress her in satin and diamonds every day. She has the diamonds. I sent them to her when I wrote her to join me in Liverpool. And she did join you, I suppose. Frank said, determined by a droid questioning to learn something of the mysterious Gretchen. Yes, she joined me, was the reply. Was she very seasick? Frank continued, Not a minute. She sat by me all the time while I lay in my berth, but she would not let me hold her hand and if I tried to touch even her hair she always moved away to the other side of the stateroom where she sat looking at me reproachfully with those soft blue eyes of hers. And she was with you at the Brevort in New York, Frank said. Yes, with me at the Brevort. And in the train. Yes, and in the train. And you left her there. No, she left herself. She did not follow me out. She went on by mistake, but is sure to come back this afternoon. Arthur replied rather excitedly, just as a sharp ring at the bell announced the arrival of Bertchard and Belknap, the leading carpenters of the town with whom he was closeted for the next two hours and both of whom he finally hired in order to expedite the work he had in hand. At precisely three o'clock the carriage from Tracy Park drew up before the station awaiting the arrival of the train and Gretchen. But though the former came, the latter did not, and John returned alone, mentally vowing to himself that he would not be sent on a fool's errand a third time. But five o'clock found him there again with the same result. Gretchen did not come, and Arthur's face wore a sad, troubled expression and looked pale and worn, notwithstanding the many times he bathed it in the coldest water and rubbed it with the coarsest towels. He had unpacked several of his trunks and boxes and made friends of all the servants by the presents curious and rare which he gave them, while Dolly's headache had been wholly cured at sight of the exquisite diamonds which her husband brought to her room and told her with a gift of Arthur, who had bought them in Paris and who begged her to accept them with his love. The box itself, which was of tortoise shell, lined with blue velvet was a marvel of beauty, while the pin was a cluster of five diamonds, but the earrings were solitaires, large and brilliant, and Dolly's delight knew no bounds as she took the dazzling stones in her hands and examined them carefully. Diamonds were the jewels of all others which she coveted, which Frank had never felt warranted in buying, and now they were hers, and for a time she forgot even Gretchen, whose arrival or rather non-arrival troubled her as much as it did her brother in law. Arthur had been very quiet and gentle all the afternoon, showing no sign of the temper he had exhibited the previous night at sight of Harold until about six o'clock when Tom, his nephew, came rushing into the library followed by Peterkin, very hot and very red in the face which he mopped with his yellow silk handkerchief. Oh, mother! Tom began. What do you think Harold Hastings has done? He stole Mrs. Peterkin's gold pin last night, it was stuck in her shawl and she could not find it, and Lucy saw him fumbling with the things and he denies it uphill and down, and Mr. Peterkin is going to arrest him. I guess Dick St. Clair won't think him the nicest boy in town now. The thief! I'd like. But what he would like was never known, for with a spring Arthur bounded towards him and seizing him by the coat-caller shook him vigorously while he exclaimed, Coward and liar! Harold Hastings is not a thief. No child of Amy Crawford could ever be a thief, and if you say that again, or even insinuate it to any living being, I'll break every bone in your body. Do you understand? Yes, sir. No, sir. I won't. I won't! Tom gasped, as well as he could, with his head bobbing forward and back so rapidly that his teeth cut into his underlip. But I shall, Peterkin roared. I'll have the young dog arrested, too, if he don't own up and give up. There was a wicked look in Arthur's black eyes which were fastened upon Peterkin, as he said. What does it all mean, sir? Will you please explain? Yes, in double quick time, Peterkin replied a little knettled by Arthur's manner which he could not understand. You see, me and May Jane was early to the doons, first ones, in fact, for when your invite says half past seven, it means that I take it. While we was here on time, and May Jane has been on a tear ever since, and says Miss St. Clairn or none of the big bugs didn't come till nine, which I take as in per light, don't you? Never mind, we are not discussing etiquette. Go on with the pin and the boy. Arthur said haughtily. May Jane, Peterkin continued, had a gold-headed shawl pin with a small diamond in the head. Real, too, for I don't believe in shams, and ain't sense the day I quit botan and haul the lies I end up into my backyard. Well, she left this pin sticking in her shawl, and no one was up there but this boy of that Crawford gals, and nobody knows who else. Something in Arthur's face and manner made Frank think of a tiger about to pounce upon its prey, and he felt himself growing cold with suspense and dread as he watched his brother while Peterkin continued. When May Jane came to go home her things weren't there and the pin was missing. And Lucy the girl said she found the boy pulling them over by himself when he had no call to be in there. And, sir, there ain't a lawyer in the United States that would refuse a writ on that evidence, and I'll get one of St. Clair for tomorrow night. I told him so, the winner and the boy, who was as brassy as you please, and faced me down and said you'd never seen the pin, nor know there was one. While she, while I swore, if she didn't start round lively for a woman with her leg bandaged up in vinegar and flannel. When I called the brat a thief and said I'd have him arrested she made for the door and ordered me out. Me, Joel Peterkin of the Liza Ann. I'll make her smart, though, was then the room it is. I'll make her feel behaft. He did not have time to finish the sentence for the tiger and Arthur was fully roused and with a spring toward Peterkin he opened the door and in a voice which seemed to fill the room although it was only a whisper, he said. Clown, loafer, puff ball, leave my house instantly and never enter it again until you have apologized to Mrs. Crawford and her grandson for the insult offered them by your vile accusations. If it were not for soiling my hands I would throw you down the steps. He continued as he stood holding the door open and looking with his flashing eyes and dilated nostrils as if he were fully equal to anything. Like most men of the boasting sort Peterkin was a coward and though he probably had twice the strength of Arthur he went through the doorway out upon the piazza where he stopped and with a flourish of his fist denounced the whole Tracy tribe declaring them a race of upstarts no better than he was and saying he would yet be even with them and make them feel the heft of his powerful disapprobation. Whatever else he said was not heard for Arthur shut the door upon him and returning to the library where his brother stood, pale, trembling and anxious for the votes he felt he had lost he became on the instant as quiet and gentle as a child and consulting his watch said in his natural tone. Quarter of seven and the train is due at half past please tell John to have the carriage ready I am going myself this time. Frank opened his lips to protest against it but something in his brother's manner kept him quiet and submissive. He was no longer master there unless unless he scarcely dared whisper to himself what but when the carriage went for the fourth time to the station after Gretchen and returned without her he said to his wife. I think Arthur is crazy and we may have to shut him up. Oh I wish you would was Dolly's reply in a tone of relief for thus far Arthur's presence in the house had not added to her comfort. Of course he is crazy and ought to be taken care of before he tears a house down over our heads or does some dreadful thing. That's so and I'll see St. Clair tomorrow and find out the proper steps to be taken said Frank. That night he dreamed of windows with iron bars across them and straight jackets into which he was putting his brother while a face the loveliest he had ever seen looked reproachfully at him with tears in the soft blue eyes and a pleading pathos in the voice which said words he could not understand for the language was a strange one to him. With a start Frank awoke and found his wife sitting up in bed listening intently to sounds which came from the hall where someone was evidently moving around. Going to the door and looking out he saw his brother wrapped in a long dressing gown with a candle in his hand opening one window after another until the hall was filled with the cold night wind which swept down the long corridor banging a door at the farther end and setting all the rest to rattling. Oh Frank is that you? Arthur said. I am sorry I woke you but I smelled an awful smell somewhere and traced it to the hall which you see I am airing. Better shut the door or you will take cold. The house is full of malaria. There could be no doubt of his insanity and next morning when Mr. St. Clair entered his office he found Frank Tracy waiting there to consult him with regard to the legal steps necessary to procure his brother's incarceration in a lunatic asylum. Arthur St. Clair's face wore a troubled look as he listened for he remembered a time years before when he too had been interested in the lunatic asylum at Ooster where a beautiful young girl his wife had been confined. She was dead now and the Florida roses were growing over her grave but there were many sad regretful memories connected with her short life and not the least sad of these were those of the asylum. If it were to do over again I would not put her there unless she became dangerous. He had often said to himself and he said much the same thing to Frank Tracy with regard to his brother. Keep him at home if possible. Do not place him with a lot of lunatics if you can help it. No proof he is crazy because he smells everything. My wife does the same. And as to this Gretchen it is possible there was some woman with him on the ship or in New York and he may be a little muddled there. You can inquire at the hotel where he stopped. This was Mr. St. Clair's advice and Frank acted upon it and took immediate steps to ascertain if there had been a lady in company with his brother at the Brevard house where he had stopped or if there had been anyone in his company on the ship which was still lying in the dog at New York. But Arthur Tracy alone was registered among the list of passengers and only Arthur Tracy was on the books at the hotel. He had come alone and been alone on the sea and at the hotel. Gretchen was a myth or at least a mystery though he still insisted that she would arrive with every train from Boston and for nearly a week the carriage was sent to meet her until at last there seemed to dawn upon his mind the possibility of a mistake and when the carriage had made its 20th trip for nothing and Mr. St. Clair who was standing by him on the platform when the train came up and brought no Gretchen said to him, she did not come, he answered sadly, no there has been some mistake, she will never come. Then after a moment he added, but there is a Gretchen and I wrote to her to join me in Liverpool and I thought she did and was with me on the ship and in the train but sometimes when my head is so hot I get things mixed and I'm not sure. But... and he looked wistfully in his companion's face while his voice trembled a little. Don't let them shut me up, it will do no good. I was in an asylum three years or more near Vienna, went of my own accord because of that heat in my head. Been in an asylum, Mr. St. Clair said wonderingly. Yes, Arthur continued, I was only out three months before I sailed for home. I wrote occasionally to Frank and Gretchen but did not tell them where I was. They called it a Maison de Santé and treated me well because I paid well but the sight of so many crazy people made me worse and if I had stayed I should have been mad as the maddest of them. Mine was a curious case they said and one not often met with in mental diseases. I was all right in everything except my memory which played me the wildest tricks. Why, I actually forgot my name and fancied myself an Austrian. Strangest of all I forgot where Gretchen lived and forgot her too a part of the time and I don't know how long it was before I went to that place that I saw her last. As soon as I came out I was better and in Paris things came back to me and when I reached Liverpool I wrote to Gretchen to join me. That is all I know. I can see that I am in Frank's way and he would like to shut me up. But stand by me, St. Clair, don't let him do it. Assuring him of his support against any steps which might be taken to prove him mad enough for the asylum Mr. St. Clair continued. I wouldn't come for Gretchen anymore. Who is she? That is my little secret, my surprise which will be like a bomb shelled in the camp when she comes. Arthur replied as he walked towards the carriage while Mr. St. Clair looked curiously after him and said to himself, That fellow is not right but he is not a subject for a madhouse and I should oppose his being sent there. I do not believe, however, that they will try it on. 10 Arthur settles himself They did try it on but not until after the November election at which Frank was defeated by a large majority, for Peterkin worked against him and brought all the heft of his powerful disapprobation to bear upon him. Although Frank had had no part in turning him from the door that morning after the party he had not tried to prevent it by a word and this the low brutal man resented and declared his intention to defeat Frank if it cost him half his fortune to do so. And it did cost him at least two thousand dollars for Frank Tracy was popular with both parties. Many of the Democrats voted for him but those who could be bought on both sides went against him even to the widow Shipley's four sons. And when all was over Frank found himself defeated by just as many votes as old Peterkin had paid for. Not only in Shannondale but in the adjoining towns where his money carried heft as he expressed it. It was a terrible disappointment to Frank and his wife who had looked forward to a winter in Washington where they intended to take a house and enjoy all society had to offer them in the National Metropolis. Particularly were they anxious for the change now that Arthur had come home for it was not altogether pleasant to be ruled where they had so long been rulers and to see the house turned upside down without the right to protest. I can't stand it and I won't. Frank said to his wife in the first flush of his bitter disappointment. Ever since he came home he has raised Cain generally with his carpenters and basins and painters and stewing about water pipes and sewer gas and smells. He's mad as a march hare and if I can't get rid of him by going to Washington I'll do it in some other way. You know he is crazy and so do I and I'll swear to it on a stack of Bibles as high as the house. And Frank did swear to it before two or three physicians and Mr. St. Clair who at his solicitation came to Tracy Park and were closeted with him for an hour or more while he related his grievances asserting finally that he considered his brother dangerous and did not think his family safe with him citing as proof that he had on one occasion threatened to kill his son Tom for accusing Harold Hastings of theft. How the matter would have terminated is doubtful if Arthur himself had not appeared upon the scene calm, dignified and courtly in his manner which insensibly won upon his hearers as in a few well-chosen and eloquent words he proceeded to prove that though he might be peculiar in some respects he was not mad and that a man might repair his own house and cut off his own water pipes and take up his sewer and detect a bad smell and still not be a subject for a lunatic asylum. And he continued addressing his brother, Hittale becomes you to take this course against me. You who have enriched yourself at my expense while I have held my peace. Suppose I require you to give an account of all the money which you have considered necessary for your support and salary. Would the world consider you strictly honorable? But I have no wish to harm you. I have money enough and cannot forget that you are my brother. But molest me and I shall molest you. If I go to the asylum you will leave Tracy Park. If I am allowed to stay here in peace you can do so too. Good morning, gentlemen. And he bowed himself from the room leaving Frank covered with confusion and shame as he felt that he was beaten. The physicians did not think it a case in which they were warranted to interfere. Neither could conscientiously sign a certificate which should declare Arthur a lunatic and their advice to Frank was that he should suffer his brother to have his own way in his own house and when he felt that he could not bear with his idiosyncrasies he could go elsewhere. But it was this going elsewhere which Frank did not fancy. And after a consultation with his wife he decided to let matters take their course for a time at least. Arthur's allusion to the sums of money his brother had appropriated to his own use had warned Frank that he was not quite so indifferent to or ignorant of his business affairs as he had seemed. And this of itself served to keep him quiet and patient during the confusion which ensued as walls were torn down and doors and windows cut while the house was filled with workmen and the sound of the hammer and saw was heard from morning till night. It was the middle of October when Arthur commenced his repairs but so many men did he employ and so rapidly was the work pushed on that the first of January found everything finished and Arthur installed in his suite of rooms which a prince might have envied so richly and tastefully where they fitted up. Beautiful pictures and rich tapestry covered the walls in the first room where the floor was inlaid with colored woods and the center was covered with a costly oriental rug which Arthur had bought at a fabulous price in Paris. But the gem of the suite was the library where the statuary stood in the niches and where from the large bow window at the south a young girl's face looked upon the scene with an expression of shy surprise and half regret in the blue eyes as if their owner wondered how she came there and was always thinking of the fields and forests of far away Germany. For it was decidedly a German face of the higher type and such as his seldom found among the lower or even middle classes and yet you instinctively felt that it belonged to the latter not withstanding the richness of the dress from the pearl embroidered cap set gently on the reddish golden hair to the velvet bodice and the satin peasant waist. The hands small and dimpled like those of a child were clasped around a prayer book and a bunch of wild flowers which had evidently just been gathered. It was a marvelously beautiful face pure and sweet as that of a Madonna and the workman involuntary bowed their heads before it wondering who she was or where if living she was now and what relation she bore to the strange man who often stood before her whispering to himself. Poor little Gretchen, will you never come? If he were expecting her now he no longer asked that the carriage be sent to meet her. That had been one of the proofs of his insanity as alleged by his brother and Arthur was sane enough to avoid a repetition of that offense but he often went himself to the station when the New York trains were due as it was from the west rather than the east that he was now looking for her. Frank, who watched him nervously with all his senses sharpened, guessed what had caused the change and grew more nervous and morbid on the subject of Gretchen than ever. At first his brother who was greatly averse to going out had asked him to post his letters. Business letters they seemed to be for they were addressed to business firms in New York, London and Paris with all of which Arthur had relations. But one morning when Frank went as usual to his brother's room asking if there was any mail to be taken to the office, Arthur, who was just finishing a letter replied, No, thank you, I will post this myself. I have been writing to Gretchen. Yes, to Gretchen? Frank said quickly as he advanced nearer to the writing desk hoping to see the address on the envelope. But Arthur must have suspected his motive for he at once turned over the envelope and kept his hand upon it while Frank said to him, Is she in London now? No, she was never in London, was the curt reply and then turning suddenly Arthur faced his brother and said, Why are you so curious about Gretchen? It is enough for you to know that she is the sweetest, truest little girl that ever lived. When she comes I shall tell you everything but not before. You have tried to prove me crazy, have said I was full of cranks. Perhaps I am. And Gretchen is one of them, but it does not harm you, so leave me in peace if you wish for peace yourself. There was a menacing look in Arthur's eyes which Frank did not like and he resolved to say no more to him of Gretchen whose arrival he again began to look for and dread. But she did not come or any tidings of her and Christmas came and went and the lovely bracelets which Arthur brought from the trunk he said was hers and into which no one had ever looked but himself remained unclaimed as did the costly inlaid workbox and the cut glass bottles with the golden stoppers while Arthur seemed to be settling into a state of great depression, caring nothing for the outside world but spending all his time in the rooms he had prepared for himself and one who never came. As far as possible he continued his foreign habits, having his coffee and rolls at eight in the morning, his breakfast as he called it at half past twelve, and his dinner at half past six. All these meals were served in his room as elaborately and with as much ceremony as if lords and ladies sat at the table instead of one lone man who required the utmost attention and care in the waiting. The finest of linen and china and glass and silver adorned his table with a profusion of flowers, roses mostly if he could get them for Gretchen he said was fond of these and as she might surprise him at any moment he wished to be ready for her and show that he was expecting her. Opposite him at the end of the table was always an empty plate with its surroundings and the curiously carved chair which had seen the lion at Lucerne but no one ever sat in it. No one ever used the decorated plate or the glass mug at its side with its twisted handle and the letter G on the silver cover. Just what this mug was for none of the household knew until Grace Atherton who had traveled in Europe and to whom Mrs. Tracy showed it one day when Arthur was out said, why it is a beer mug such as is used in Germany though more particularly among the Bavarian Alps and in the Tyrol. This Gretchen is probably a tipler with a red nose and double chin. I wish to goodness she would come and satisfy our curiosity. But Gretchen did not come and as the days went by Arthur became more and more depressed and remained altogether in his room seeing no one and holding no intercourse with the outside world. He had returned no calls and had been but once to see Mrs. Crawford. That interview had been a long and sad one and when they talked of Amy whose grave Arthur had visited on his way to the cottage both had cried together and Gretchen seemed for the time forgotten. They talked of Amy's husband and then Arthur spoke of Amy's son who was not present and whom he seemed to have forgotten for when Mrs. Crawford said to him, you saw him on the night of your return home. He looked at her in a perplexed kind of way as if trying to remember something which had gone almost entirely from his mind. It was this utter forgetfulness of people and events which was a marked feature of his insanity if insane he were and he knew it and struggled against it and when Mrs. Crawford told him he had seen Harold he tried to recall him and could not until the boy came in flushed and excited from a race with Dick St. Clair through the Christ November wind which had brought a bright color to his cheek and a sparkle to his eye. Then Arthur remembered everything and something of his old prejudice came back to him and his manner was a little constrained as he talked to the boy whose only fault was that Harold Hastings had been his father. He did not stay long after Harold came in but said good morning to Mrs. Crawford and walked slowly away going again to Amy's grave and taking from it a few leaves of the ivy which was growing around the monument. And this was all the intercourse he held with Mrs. Crawford except to center at Christmas a hundred dollars which he said was for the boy Harold to whom he had done an injustice. After this he seldom went out but settled down into the life of a recluse talking occasionally to himself with some unseen person who must have spoken in a foreign tongue or tongues for sometimes it was French sometimes Italian and often or German in which he addressed his fancied guest and neither Frank nor Dolly could understand a word of the strange jargon. On the whole however he was very quiet and non-demonstrative and if he were still expecting Gretchen he gave no sign of it and Frank was beginning to breathe freely and to look upon his presence in the house is not altogether unbearable when an event occurred which excited all Shanondale and for a time made Frank almost as crazy as his brother. Chapter 11 The Storm The winter since Christmas had been unusually severe and the oldest inhabitants of whom there are always many in every town pronounce the days as they came and went the coldest they had ever known. Ten, twelve and even fourteen degrees below zero the thermometers marked more than once while old Peterkins which was hung inside the Lysian and always took the lead went down one morning to seventeen and all the water pipes and pumps in town either froze or burst and Arthur Tracy who never forgot the poor sent tons and tons of coal to them and whispered to himself poor Gretchen it is hard for her if she is on the sea in such weather as this heaven protect her poor little Gretchen. The next day there was a change for the better and the next and the next until when the last day of February dawned people began to look more cheerful while the sun tried to break through the gray clouds which shrouded the wintry sky but this was only temporary for before noon the mercury fell again to eight below the wind began to rise and when the new york train came panting to the station at half past six clouds of snow so dense and dark were driving over the hills and along the line of the track that nothing could be distinctly seen at a distance it was not until the train had moved on that the station master who was gathering up the mailbag which had been unceremoniously dropped saw across the track at a little distance from him the figure of a woman who seemed to be trying to examine a paper she held in her hand while clinging to her skirts and crying piteously was a child but whether boy or girl he could not tell can I do anything for you he said advancing toward the stranger who caught up the child in her arms and without a word of answer hurried away in the storm and rapidly increasing darkness curis she must have got off to the other side of the car I wonder who she is and where she is going not for I hope such a night as this ah the wind is like so many screech hours and almost takes a fella off his feet the agent said to himself as he went back to the light and warmth of his office where he soon forgot the woman who with the child held closely in her arms walked swiftly on her eyes strained to their utmost tension as they peered through the darkness until she reached a gate opening into a grassy road which led through the fields in a straight line to Tracy Park and Collingwood beyond carriages seldom traverse this road but in the summer the people from Collingwood and Tracy Park frequently walked that way as it was a much nearer route to town here the woman stopped and looking up at the tall arch over the gate said aloud as if repeating a lesson learned by art leave the car on your right hand take the road to the right as I have drawn it on paper go straight on for a quarter of a mile or more until you come to a wide iron gate with a tall arch over it this gate is also at your right you cannot mistake it no she continued I cannot mistake it this is the place we are almost there and putting down the child she tugged with all her strength at the gate which she at last succeeded in opening and resuming her burden passed through into the field where the snow lay on the ground in great white drifts while the blinding flakes and cutting sleep from the leaden clouds above beat pitilessly upon her as she struggled on her weary some way and while she toiled on fighting bravely with the storm and occasionally speaking a word of encouragement to the little child nestled in her bosom Arthur Tracy stood at one of the windows in his library with his face pressed against the pain as he looked anxiously out into the darkness shuddering involuntarily as the wind came screaming round a corner of the house mending the tall evergreens until their slender tops almost touched the ground and then rushing on down the carriage drive with a shriek like so many demons that loose from the ice caves of the north where the winds are supposed to hold high carnival they were surely holding a carnival tonight and as Arthur listened to the roar of the tempest he whispered to himself a wild wild night for Gretchen to arrive and her dear little feet and hands will be so cold but there is warmth and comfort here and love such as she never dreamed of poor Gretchen I will hold her in my arms and chafe her cold fingers and kiss her tired face until she feels that her homecoming is a happy one it must be almost time and he glanced at a small clock which stood upon the mantle in the adjoining room the dinner table was laid for two and one could see that more care than usual had been given to its arrangement while the roses in the center were the largest and finest of their kind in the great a bright fire was burning and Arthur placed a large easy chair before it and then brought from the library a footstool with a delicate covering of blue and gold no foot had ever yet profaned this stool with a touch for it was one of Arthur's specialties bought at a great price in Algiers but he brought it now for Gretchen and saw in fancy resting upon it the cold little feet his hands were to rub and warm and caress until life came back to them while Gretchen's blue eyes smiled upon him and Gretchen's sweet voice said thank you Arthur it is pleasant coming home for the last two or three weeks Arthur had been very quiet and taciturn but on the morning of this day he had seemed restless and nervous and his nervousness and excitability increased until a violent headache came on and Charles the servant who attended him reported to Mrs. Tracy that his lunch had been untouched and that he really seemed quite ill then Frank went to him and sitting down beside him as he lay upon a couch in the room with Gretchen's picture he said to him not unkindly are you sick today for a few moments Arthur made no reply but lay with his eyes closed as if he had not heard then suddenly rousing himself he burst out vehemently Frank you think me crazy and you have based that belief in part on the fact that I am always expecting Gretchen and so for a long time I have suppressed all mention of her though I have never ceased to look for her arrival since since well I may as well tell you the truth I know now that she could not have been with me on the ship and in the train although I thought she was I wrote her to join me in Liverpool and fancy she did but my brain must have been a little mixed she did not come with me and when I made up my mind to that as I did a few weeks ago I wrote again telling her to come at once and giving her directions how to find the park if she should arrive at the station and no one there to meet her she has had more than time to get here but I have said nothing about sending a carriage for her as that seems to annoy you but Frank and Arthur's voice trembled as he went on I dreamed of her last night such strange dreams and today she seems so near me that more than once I have put out my hand to touch her Frank it is not insanity this pre-sentiment that she is near me that she is coming to me or tidings of her it is mind acting upon mind her thoughts of me reaching forward and fastening upon my thoughts of her making a mental bridge on which I see her coming to me and you will send for her you will let John go again think if she should arrive in this terrible storm and no one there to meet her you will send this once and if she is not there I will not trouble you again there was something in Arthur's face which Frank could not resist and he promised that John should go oh Frank Arthur exclaimed his face brightening at once you have made me so happy my headache is quite gone and then he began to plan the dinner which was to be more elaborate than usual and served an hour later so as to give plenty of time for Gretchen to rest and dress herself if she wished to do so and she will when she sees the lovely dress I have for her he thought and after his brother left him he went to the large closet where he kept the trunk which he called Gretchen's and into which Dolly's curious eyes had never looked although she longed to know its contents this Arthur now opened and had Dolly been there she would have held her breath in wonder at the many beautiful things which it contained folded in one of the trays as only a French Packer accustomed to the business could have arranged it was an exquisite dinner dress of salmon colored satin with a brocaded front and jacket of blue and gold and here and there a knot of duchess lace which gave it a more airy effect this Arthur took out carefully and laid upon the bed in his sleeping apartment together with every article of the toilet necessary to such address from a lace pocket handkerchief to a pair of pale blue silk hose which he kissed reverently as he whispered dear little feet which are so cold now in the wretched car but they will never be cold again when once I have them here he was talking in German as he always did when Gretchen was the subject of his thoughts and so Dolly who came to say that some things which he had ordered for dinner were impossible now could not understand him but she caught a glimpse of the dress upon the bed and advanced quickly toward the open door exclaiming oh Arthur what a lovely gown who's but before she completed her question Arthur was upon the threshold and had closed the door saying as he did so it is Gretchen's I had it made it worse she is coming tonight you know Dolly had heard from her husband of Arthur's fancy and though she had no faith in it she replied yes Frank told me you were expecting her and I came to say that we cannot get the fish you ordered for no one can go into town in this storm and I doubt if we could find it if we did you will have to skip the fish all right all Gretchen will be too much excited to care Arthur replied standing with his hand upon the doorknob until Dolly left the room and went to the kitchen where Frank was interviewing the coachman he had found that important personage before the fire bending nearly double and complaining bitterly of a fall he had just sat on his way from the stable to the house according to his statement the wind had taken him up bodily and carrying him a dozen rods or so had set him down upon a stone flower pot which was left outside nearly breaking his back as he declared this did not look very promising for the drive to the station and Frank opened the business hesitatingly and asked John what he thought of it I think I would not go out in such a storm as this with my back if Queen Victoria was to be there John answered gruffly and what would be the use he continued I have been to meet that woman if she is a woman with the outlandish name more than 50 times I'll bet he don't know what he is talking about when he gets on her track and suppose and she does come she can find somebody to fetch her she ain't going to walk this seemed reasonable and as Frank's sympathies were with the coachman and his horses rather than with Gretchen and his brother he decided with John that he need not go and then return to the library resolving not to see his brother again until after train time but to let him think that John had gone to the station at half past five however Arthur sent for him and said has he gone it must be time not quite it is only half past five the train does not come until half past six and is likely to be late was Frank's reply yes I know Arthur continued but he should be there on time tell him to start at once and take an extra robe with him and say to Charles that I will have Sherry tonight and champagne too and Hamburg grapes and the remainder of his speech was lost on Frank who was hurrying down the stairs with a guilty feeling in his heart although he felt that the end justified the means and that under the circumstances he was warranted in deceiving his half crazy brother still he was ill at ease he had no faith in Arthur's presentiments and no idea that anyone bound for Tracy Park would be on the train that night but he could not shake off the feeling of anxiety amounting almost to a dread of some impending calamity which possibly the sending of John to the station might have averted and going to a window in the library he too stood looking out into the night trying not to believe that he was watching for some possible arrival when above the storm he heard the shrill scream of the locomotive as it stopped for a moment and then dashed on into the white snow clouds trying to believe too that he was not glad as the minutes became a quarter the quarter a half and the half three quarters of an hour until at last he heard the clock strike the half hour past seven and nobody had come I shall have to tell Arthur he thought and with something like hesitancy he started for his brother's room Arthur was standing before the fire with his arm thrown caressingly across the chair where Gretchen was to sit when Frank opened the door and advanced a step or two across the threshold has she come I did not see the carriage where is she Arthur cried springing swiftly forward while his bright eager eyes darted past his brother to the open doorway and out into the hall no she has not come I knew she wouldn't and it was nonsense to send the horses out such a night as this Frank said sternly with a mistaken notion that he must speak sharply to the unfortunate man who if rightly managed was gentle as a child not come there must be some mistake Arthur said all the brightness fading from his face which grew pinched and pallid as he continued not come oh Frank did John say so was no one there let me go and question him there must be a mistake he was hurrying toward the door when Frank got his arm and detained him while he said decidedly no use to see John can't you believe me when I tell you no one was there and I knew there would not be it was folly to send for a moment Arthur's pale haggard face which looked still more haggard and pale with the firelight flickering over it confronted Frank steadily then the lips began to quiver and the eyelids to twitch while great tears gathered in his eyes until at last covering his face with his hands he staggered to the couch and throwing himself upon it sobbed convulsively oh Gretchen my darling he said I was so sure and now everything is swept away and I am left so desolate Frank had never seen grief just like this and with his conscience pricking him for the deception he had practiced he found himself pitying his brother as he had never done before and when at last the latter cried out loud he went to him and laying his hand gently upon his bowed head said to him soothingly don't Arthur it is terrible to see a man cry as you are crying no no let me cry Arthur replied the tears do me good and my brain would burst without them it is all on fire and my head is aching so hard again at this moment Charles appeared asking if his master would have dinner served but Arthur could not eat and the table which had been arranged with so much care for Gretchen was cleared away while Gretchen's chair was moved back from the fire and Gretchen's footstool put in its place and nothing remained to show that she had been expected except the pretty dress with its accessories which lay upon Arthur's bed these he took care of himself folding them with trembling hands and tear wet eyes as a fond mother falls the clothes her dead child has worn sorrowing most over the half worn shoes so like the dear little feet which will never wear them again so Arthur sorrowed over the high heeled slippers with the blue rosettes and pointed toes fashionable in Paris at that time Gretchen had never warned them it is true but they seemed so much like her that his tears fell fast as he held them in his hands and dropping upon the pure white satin left a stain upon it when everything was put away in the long trunk locked again Arthur went back to the couch and said to his brother who was still in the room don't leave me Frank till I am more composed my nerves are dreadfully shaken tonight and I feel afraid of something I don't know what how the wind howls and moans I never heard it like that but once before and that was years ago among the Alps in Switzerland then it blew off the roof of the chalet where I was staying and I heard afterward that Amy died that night you remember Amy the girl I loved so well though not as I love Gretchen if she had come I should have told you all about her but now it does not matter who she is or where I saw her first knitting in the sunshine with the halo on her hair and the blue of the summer skies reflected in her eyes oh Gretchen my love my love he was talking more to himself than to Frank who sat beside him until far into the night while the wild storm raged on and shook the solid house to its very foundations a tall tree in the yard was uprooted and a chimney top came crashing down with a force which threatened to break through the roof for a moment there was a lull in the tempest and raising himself upon his elbow Arthur listened intently and then in a whisper which made Frank's blood curdle in his veins he said hark there's more abroad tonight than the storm something is happening which affects me I have heard voices in the wind all the evening Gretchen calling me from far away Frank Frank did you hear that it was a woman's cry her voice Gretchen's yes Gretchen I am coming with a bound he was at the window which he opened and leaning far out of it listened to hear repeated a sound which Frank too had heard a cry like the voice of one immortal peril calling for help it might have been the wind which swept round the corner in a great gust driving the snow and sleet into Arthur's face and making him dry in his body nearly half of which was leaning from the window as he waited for the cry to be repeated but it did not come again though Frank whose nerves were strung to almost as high attention as his brothers thought he heard it once more above the roar of the tempest and a feeling of disquiet took possession of him as he sat for an hour longer talking to his brother and listening to the noise without gradually the storm subsided and when the clocks struck one the wind had gone down the snow had ceased to fall and the moon was struggling feebly through a rift of dark clouds in the west after persuading his brother to go to bed Frank retired to his own room and was soon asleep unmindful of the tragedy which was being enacted not very far away where a little child was smiling in its dreams while the woman beside it was praying for life until her mission should be accomplished end of chapters 10 and 11 chapter 12 of Gretchen by Mary Jane Holmes this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 12 the tramp house about midway between the entrance to the park and the calling with grounds and 20 rods or more from the crossroad which the strange woman had taken on the night of the storm stood a small stone building which had been used as a schoolhouse until the shannondale turnpike was built and the crossroad abandoned after that it was occupied by one poor family after another until the property of which it was part came into the hands of the elder Mr. Tracy who with his English ideas thought to make it a lodge and bring the gates of his park down to it but this he did not do and the house was left to the mercy of the winds and the storms and the boys until Arthur became master and with his artistic taste thought to beautify it a little and turn it to some use I would tear it down he said to Mr. St. Clair who stood with him one day looking at it I would tear it down and have once or twice given orders to that effect but as often countermanded them I do not know that I am superstitious but I am subject to fancies or presentiments or whatever you choose to call those moods which take possession of you in which you cannot shake off and singularly enough one of these fancies is connected with this old hut and as often as I decide to remove it something tells me not to and once I actually dreamed that a dead woman's hand clutched me by the arm and bad me leave it alone a case of woodman spare that tree you see and Arthur laughed lightly at his own morbid fancies but he left the house and planted around it quantities of wood vine which soon crept up its sides to the chimney top and made it look like the ivy covered cottage is so common in Ireland it was the nicest kind of rendezvous for lovers who frequently availed themselves of its seclusion to whisper their secrets to each other and it was sometimes used as a dining room by the people of Shenondale when in summer they held picnics in the pretty pine grove not far away but during Arthur's absence it had been suffered to go to decay for Frank cared little for lovers or picnics and less for the tramps who often slept there at night and for whom it came at last to be called the tramp house so the winds and the storms and the boys did their work upon it unmolested and when Arthur came home the door hung upon one hinge and there was scarcely a whole light of glass in the six windows better tear the old rookery down it is of no earthly use except to harbor rats and tramps I have known two or three to spend the night in it at a time and once a lot of gypsies quartered themselves here for a week and nearly scared Dolly to death Frank said to his brother as they were walking past it and Arthur was commenting upon its dilapidated appearance oh the tramp sleep here do they Arthur said well let them if any poor homeless wretches want to stay here nights they are very welcome I am sure and I will see that the door is rehung and glass put in the windows may as well make them comfortable do as you like Frank replied and there so far as he was concerned the matter ended but while the carpenters were at work at the park Arthur sent one of them to the old stone house and had the door fixed and glass put in two of the windows while rude but closed shutters were nailed before the others and then Arthur went himself into the room and pushed a long table which the picnic people had used for their refreshments and the tramps for a bed into a corner where one sleeping upon it would be more sheltered from the draft all this seemed nonsense to Frank who laughingly suggested that Arthur should place in it a stove and a ton of coal for the benefit of his lodgers but Arthur cared little for his brother's jokes his natural kindness of heart which was always seeking and others good had prompted him to this care for the tramp house in which he felt a strange interest never dreaming that what he was doing would reach forward to the future and influence not only his life but that of many others the storm which had raged so fiercely around the house in the park had not spared the cottage in the lane which rocked like a cradle as gust after gust of winds struck it with a force which made every timber quiver and sent Harold close to his grandmother's side as he asked tremblingly do you think we shall be blown away the rheumatism from which mrs. Crawford had been suffering in the fall had troubled her more or less during the entire winter and now aggravated by a cold it was worse than it had ever been before and on the night of the storm she was suffering intense pain which was only relieved by the hot poultices which herald bait under her direction and applied to the swollen limb this kept him up later than usual and the clock was striking 11 when his grandmother declared herself easier and let him go to bed it was at this hour that Arthur Tracy had fancy D heard the cry for help and the snow was sweeping past the cottage in great billows of white when Harold went to the window and looked out into the night in the summer when the leaves were upon the trees the old stone house could not be seen from the cottage from which it was distant a quarter of a mile or more but in the winter when the trees were stripped of their foliage it was plainly discernible and as Harold glanced that way a gleam of light appeared suddenly as if the door had been opened and the flickering rays of a candle had for a moment shone out into the darkness then it disappeared but not until Harold had cried out oh grandma there's a light in the tramp house I saw it plain as day somebody is in there God pity them was Mrs. Crawford's reply though she did not quite credit Harold's statement or think of it again that night it was late next morning when Harold awoke to find the sun shining into the room and all traces of the terrible storm gone except the snow which lay in great piles everywhere and came almost to the window's edge but Harold was not afraid of snow and soon had the walks cleared around the cottage and went after breakfast which he prepared himself for his grandmother could not step he was told that a doctor must be had and he must go for him he commenced his preparations at once for the long and wearisome walk better go through the park his grandmother said to him as he was tying his warm comforter about his ears and putting on his mittens it is a little farther that way but somebody has broken a path by this time and the crossroad which is nearer must be impassable Harold made no reply but remembering the light he had seen in the tramp house resolved to take the crossroad and investigate the mystery bidding his grandmother goodbye and telling her he should be back before she had time to miss him he started on his journey and was soon plunging through the snow which in some places was up to his armpits so that his progress was very slow but by kicking with his feet and throwing out his arms like the paddles of a boat he managed to get on until he was opposite the tramp house which looked like an immense snow heap so completely was it covered only the chimney and the slanting roof showed any semblance to a house as Harold made his way toward it still beating the snow with his arms and thinking it was not quite the fun he had fancied it might be he was close to the house at last and stood for a moment looking at it while a faint thrill of fear stirred in his veins as he remembered to have heard that burglars and thieves sometimes made it their rendezvous after a night's marauding what if they were there now and should rush upon him if he ventured to disturb them I don't believe I will try it he thought as he glanced nervously at the door which was blockaded by a great bank of snow and he was about to retrace his steps when a sound met his ear which made him stand still and listen until it was repeated a second time then forgetting both burglar and thief he started forward quickly and was soon at the door from which he dug away the snow with desperate energy as if working for his life for the sound was the cry of a little child frightened and pleading mama mama it seemed to say and Harold answered cheerily I am coming as fast as I can then the crying ceased and all was still inside while Harold worked on until enough snow was cleared away to allow of his opening the door about a foot and through this narrow opening he forced his way into the cold damp room where for a moment he could see nothing distinctly for the sunlight outside had blinded him and there was but little light inside owing to the bard and snowbound windows gradually however as he became a custom to the place he saw upon the long table in the corner where Arthur Tracy had moved at months before what looked like a human form stretched at full length and lying upon its back with its white stony face upturned to the rafters above and no sound or emotion to tell that it still lived with an exclamation of surprise Harold sprang forward and laid his hand upon the pale forehead of the woman but started back quickly with a cry of horror for by the touch of the ice cold flesh he knew the woman was dead frozen to death he whispered with ash and lips and then as something stirred under the gray cloak which partly covered the woman he conquered his terror and went forward again to the table over which he bent curiously again the cry which was more like ma ni now then mama met his ear and stooping lower he saw a curly head nestled close to the bosom of the woman while a little fat white hand was clasping the neck as if for warmth and protection at this sight all Harold's fear vanished and bending down so that his lips almost touched the bright wavy hair he said poor little girl he felt instinctively that it was a girl poor little girl come with me away from this dreadful place and he tried to lift up her head but she drew it away from him and repeated the piteous cry of ma ni ma ni at last however as Harold continued to talk to her the cries ceased and cautiously lifting her head she turned toward him a chubby face and a pair of soft blue eyes in which the great tears were standing then her lips began to quiver in a grieved kind of way as if the horror of the previous night had stabbed itself upon her tender mind and she were asking for sympathy ma ni she said again placing one hand on the cold dead face and stretching the other toward Harold who put out his arm to take her but something resisted all his efforts and a closer inspection showed him a long old-fashioned carpet bag which enveloped her body from her neck to her feet and into which he had evidently been put to protect her from the cold not a bad idea either Harold said as he comprehended the situation and your poor mother gave you the most of her cloak to and her shawl he continued as he saw how carefully the child had been wrapped while the mother if it were her mother had paid for her unselfishness with her life what is your name little girl he asked the child who had been staring at him while he talked as if he were a lunatic made no reply until you had her in his arms when she too began to talk in a half frightened way then he looked at her as if she were the lunatic for never had he heard such speech as hers I do believe you are a Dutchman he said as he wrapped both shawl and cloak around her and started for the door which he kicked against some time in order to make an opening wide enough to allow his egress with his burden when at last they emerged from the cold dark room into the bright sunshine the child gave a great cry of delight and the blue eyes fairly danced with joy as they fell upon the dazzling snow then she put both arms around Harold's neck and nesting her face close to his kissed him as fondly as if she had known him all her life while the boy paid her back kiss after kiss as he proceeded slowly toward home the child was heavy and the bag and shawl made such an unwieldy bundle that his progress was very slow and he stopped more than once to rest and take breath and as often as he stopped the blue eyes would look up inquiringly at him with an expression which made his boyish heart beat faster as he thought what pretty eyes they were and wondered who she was once he fell down and bag and baby rolled in the snow but only the vigorous kicking of a pair of little legs inside the bag showed that the child disapproved of the proceeding or she made no sound and when he picked her up she brushed the snow from his hair and laughed as if the thing had been done for fun he reached the cottage at last and bursting into the room where his grandmother was sitting with her foot in a chair exclaimed as he put down the child who as she was still enveloped in the bag stood with difficulty oh grandma what do you think I did see a light in the tramp house and there is somebody there a woman dead frozen to death with nothing over her for she had given her cloak and shawl to her little girl I went there I found her and brought the baby home in the carpet bag and now I must go back to the woman oh it was dreadful to see her white face and it is so cold there and dark and as if the horror of what he had seen had just impressed itself upon him the boy turned pale and faint and staggering to a chair burst into tears too much astonished to utter a word Mrs. Crawford stared at him a moment in a bewildered kind of way and then when the child seeing him cry began also to cry for money and struggle in the bag she forgot her lame foot on which she had not stepped for a week and going to the little girl released her and taking her upon her lap began to untie the soft woolen cloak and to chafe the cold fingers while she questioned her grandson having recovered himself somewhat Harold repeated his story and asked with a shudder must I go for her alone I can't I can't I was not afraid with the baby there but it is so awful and I never saw anyone dead before go back alone of course not his grandmother replied but you must go to the park at once and tell them go as fast as you can she may not be dead yes she is Harold answered decidedly I touched her face and nothing alive could feel like that he was butting his overcoat preparatory to a fresh start but before he went he kissed the little girl who was sitting on his grandmother's lap and who as she saw him leaving her began to cry for him and to utter curious sounds unintelligible to them both but Harold brought her a piece of bread which she began to devour ravenously and then he stepped quietly out and was soon breaking through the drifts which lay between the cottage and the park and of chapter 12 chapter 13 of Gretchen by Mary Jane Holmes this leap of ox recording is in the public domain chapter 13 the woman they had slept later than usual at the park house that morning and Frank and his family were just sitting down to breakfast when John with a white scared face looked in and said excuse me Mr. Tracy but something dreadful has happened there's a woman frozen to death in the tramp house with a baby and Harold Hastings found them he is here sir he will tell you himself and he went for the boy who soon entered the room followed by every servant in the house Harold had come upon John in the stable and sinking down exhausted upon the hay had told his story while the man listened to terror stricken and open mouthed then seeing how weak and tired Harold seemed and how he sank back upon the hay when he attempted to rise he took him in his arms and carrying him to the kitchen left him there while he went with the news to his master a woman dead in the tramp house and a baby Frank exclaimed and for an instant he felt as if he were dying for their flashed over him a conviction that the woman had come in the train the previous night and that it was her cry for help which had been born to him on the winds and to which he had paid no heed are you sick are you going to faint his wife said to him as she saw how white he grew as Harold related the particulars of his finding the woman and the child I am not going to faint but it makes me sick and shaky to think of a woman freezing to death so near us that if she had cried for help we might perhaps have hurt her Frank replied then turning to Harold he continued how did she look was she young was she pretty was she dark or fair he almost gasped the last word as if it choked him and no one guessed how anxiously he waited for Harold's answer I don't know it was so dark in there and cold and I was afraid some of the time and in a hurry I only know that her nose was long and large for I touched it when I was trying to get at the little girl and it was so cold oh oh and Harold shuddered as if he still felt the icy touch of the dead a long nose and a large one Frank said involuntarily while a sigh of relief escaped him as he remembered that the nose of the picture in his brother's room was neither long nor large still Harold might be mistaken and though he had no cause for believing that the woman lying dead in the tramp house was Gretchen there was a horrible feeling in his heart while a lump came into his throat and affected his speech which was thick and indistinct as he rose from his chair at last and said to John we have no time to lose hitch the horses to the long sleigh as quick as you can we must go to the tramp house after the woman and send to the village for a doctor and a telegraph to Springfield for the corner I suppose there must be an inquest and Dolly see that a room is prepared for the body oh Frank must it come here why not take it to the cottage the child is there Mrs. Tracy said I tell you that woman must come here was Frank's decided reply as he began to make himself ready for the ride don't tell Arthur yet he said as he left the house and took a seat in the sleigh which was soon plowing its way through the snow banks in the direction of the tramp house it was Harold who acted as master of ceremonies for John was nervous and hung back from the half open door while Frank was too much unstrung to know just what he was doing or saying as he squeezed through the narrow space and then stood for a moment snow blind and dizzy in the cheerless room Harold was not afraid now he had been there before and seen and touched the white face of the corpse and he went fearlessly up to it followed by Frank who could scarcely stand and who laid his hand for support on Harold's shoulder and then turned curiously and eagerly toward the woman John had lingered outside shoveling the snow from the door which he succeeded in opening wide so that the full broad sunlight fell upon the face which was neither young nor pretty nor fair while the hair was black as night Frank noted all these points at a glance and could have shouted aloud for joy so great was the revulsion of his feelings it was not Gretchen lying there before him and he was not a murderer as he had accused himself of being for this woman did not come by the train she had no connection with Tracy Park she was going somewhere else to Collingwood perhaps when overcome by the storm and the cold she had sought shelter for the night in this wretched place I suppose the proper thing to do is to leave her here till the coroner can see her he said to John but no terrain can get through from Springfield today I am sure and I shall have her taken to the park bring me the blankets from the sleigh he was very collected now for a great load was lifted from his mind had she nothing with her nothing to cover her he asked as they proceeded to wrap her in the warm blankets which had they sooner come would have saved her life Harrell told him again of the carpet bag and the cloak and the shawl which had covered the child and added that's all there don't seem to be anything else oh what's this and stooping down he picked up some hard substance which she had kicked against the table it proved to be one of those olive wood candlesticks so convenient and traveling as when not in use they can be made into a small round box or ball and take but little room it contained the remains of a wax candle which had burned down into the socket and then gone out nearby upon the floor was a tiny box of matches with two or three charred ones among them the poor woman must have had a light for at least a portion of the time Frank said as he picked up the box she had I know she had Harold cried excitedly for I saw it and told Grandma so it was like she had opened the door and let out a big blaze and then everything was dark as if the door was shut or the wind had blown the candle what time was that do you think Frank asked it must have been about eleven Harold replied for I remember hearing the clock strike and grandma saying I must go to bed it was so late I was up with her because her foot was so bad and I warmed the paltises Frank groaned aloud and mindful of the boy looking so curiously at him for that was the time when he had heard the sound like a human voice in distress he had thought it a fancy then communicated to him by his brother's nervousness but now he was certain it must have been the stranger calling through the storm in the vain hope that somebody would hear and come somebody had heard but no one had come and so in the cold and the darkness with the snow sifting through every crevice and blowing down the wide chimney to the hearth were it made adrift like a grave she had battled for her own life and that of the child beside her saving the latter but losing her own if I had only believed it was a cry Frank thought as he wrapped the body in the blankets and buffalo robe as tenderly and reverently as if the stiffened limbs had belonged to his mother he saw as distinctly before him as if painted upon canvas the angry sky the half open door through which the sleet was driving the light behind and the frantic freezing woman screaming for help while only the winds made answer and the pitiless storm raged on this was the picture which Frank was destined to see in his dreams for many and many a night until the mystery was solved concerning the woman whom they carried to the sleigh which was driven to the parkhouse where within 15 or 20 minutes a crowd of anxious curious people gathered the messenger sent to town had done his work rapidly and thoroughly and half the villagers who heard of the tragedy and acted at their very doors started at once for Tracy Park the boy had stopped at the station and told his story there making the baggage master feel as if he too were a murderer or at least an accessory if I had only gone after that woman he said as he told of the stranger who had come on the train and gotten off on the side of the car farthest from the depot if I had gone after her and made her take a conveyance to where she was going this would not have happened but it was so all fired cold and the wind was yelling so and she walked off so fast as if she knew her own business so I just minded mine or rather I didn't for I never even seen the box or trunk which was pitched out Halter Skelter in which I found this morning all covered up with snow it is hers of course and I shall send it right over there as it may tell who the poor critter was this trunk which was little more than a strong wooden box with two double locks upon it was still further secured by a bit of rope wound twice around it and tied in a hard knot there was nothing upon it to tell whose it was or once it came except the name of a German steamer on which its owner had probably crossed the ocean and the significant word hold showing that it had not been used in the state room it had been checked at the Grand Central Depot in New York for Shannondale and the check was still attached to the iron handle when it was put down in the kitchen at Tracy Park where the utmost excitement prevailed the servants huddling together with scared faces and talking in whispers of the terrible thing which had happened while Mrs Tracy and the housekeeper scarcely less excited than the servants gave their attention to the dead at the end of the rear hall was a small room where Frank sometimes received business calls when at home and there they laid the body after the physician who had arrived declared that life had been extinct for many hours seen in the full daylight she seemed to be at least 35 years of age and her features though not unpleasing were coarse and large especially the nose her hair was black her complexion dark and the hands which lay folded upon her bosom showed marks of toil for they were rough and unshapely her will and dress of grayish blue was short and scat her knit stockings were black and thick and her leather shoes were designed for use rather than ornament a wide white apron was tied around her waist and she wore a small black and white plaited shawl pinned about her neck and there she lay helpless and defenseless against the curious eyes bent upon her and the remarks concerning her as one after another of the villagers came in to look at her and speculate as to who she was or how she came in the tramp house among the crowd was Mr. St. Clair who gave it as his opinion that she was a French woman of the lower class and asked if nothing had been found with her except the clothes she wore Harold told him of the shawl and cloak and carpet bag which he had carried with the child to the cottage yes there is something more her trunk chimed in the baggage master who had just entered the room trembling and breathless her trunk then she did come in the cars Frank said his hands dropping helplessly at his side and his lips growing pale as the man replied yes last night on the quarter past six from New York and what is curries she got out on the side away from the depot and I never seen her till the cars went on when she was looking at a paper and the child crying at her feet I spoke to her but she didn't answer and snatching up the child she hurried off almost on her run it was storming so I didn't see her trunk till this morning when I found it on the platform I wish I had gone after her and made her take a sleigh if I had she wouldn't now have been dead and I swole I feel as if I had killed her I wonder why under the sun she turned into the lots unless she was going to Collingwood or Tracy Park Frank said involuntarily were you expecting anyone Mr. St. Clair asked and sinking into a chair Frank replied no I was not but Arthur who has been worse than usual for a few days has again a fancy that Gretchen is coming he says now that she was not in the ship with him but that he has written her to join him here and yesterday he took it into his head that she would be here last night and insisted that the carriage be sent to meet her but John had hurt his back and as I had no faith in her coming he didn't go I wish he had it might have saved this woman's life although she is not Gretchen Frank had made his confession except so far as deceiving his brother was concerned and he felt his mind eased a little though there was still a lump in his throat and a feeling of disquiet in his heart with a wish that the dead woman had never crossed his path and a conviction that he had not yet seen the worst of it Mr. St. Clair looked at him thoughtfully a moment and then said I should not accuse myself too much you couldn't know that anyone would be there and this woman certainly is not the Gretchen of whom your brother talked so much has he seen her does he know of the accident I have not told him yet is not feeling well today Charles says he is still in bed was Frank's reply we may find something in her trunk Mr. St. Clair continued which will give us a clue to her history where do you suppose she kept her key no one volunteered an answer until Harold suggested that if she had a pocket it was probably there when half a dozen hands or more at once felt for the pocket which was found at last and proved to be one of great capacity and to contain a heterogeneous mass of contents a purse in which were two or three small German coins an English sovereign and a five-dollar greenback two handkerchiefs one soiled and coarse bearing in German text the initials NB the other small and fine bearing the initial J also in German text a pair of scissors a thimble a small needle case a child's toy a worn picture book printed in Leipzig a box of pills some peanuts some cloves a piece of candy a seed cake a pocket comb half a biscuit and at the very bottom the brass check whose number corresponded with that upon the trunk also a ring to which were attached three keys one belonging to the trunk another evidently to the carpet bag while the third which was very small and straight must have been used for fastening some box or dressing case it was Mr. St. Clair who opened the trunk from which one of the servants had removed the rope while Frank sat near watching actiously as article after article was taken out and examined but afforded no satisfaction whatever or gave any sign by which this stranger might be traced there was a black alpaca dress and a few garments which must have belonged to the woman some of them bore the initials NB some were without a mark and all were cheap and plain like the clothes of a servant the child's dresses were of a better quality and one embroidered petticoat bore the name Jereen while the letter J was upon them all except a towel of the finest linen on one corner of which was the letter M worked with colored floss Jereen Mr. St. Clair repeated that is a French name and a pretty one it is the child's of course to this no one replied and he continued his examination of the trunk until it was quite empty that is all he said in a tone of disappointment and Frank who had been sitting by and holding some of the things in his lap as they were taken from the trunk answered faintly no here is a book it was in her handkerchief and he held up what proved to be a German Bible but he did not tell of the photograph he had found and thrust into his pocket when no one was looking at him it had slipped from the leaves of the Bible and at sight of the face of which he only had a glimpse every drop of blood seemed to leave his heart and come searching to his brain making him so giddy and wild that he did not realize what he was doing when he hid away the picture until he could examine it by himself once in his pocket he dared not to take it out although he raised his hand two or three times to do so but was as often deterred by the thought that everybody would think that he had intended to hide it and suspect his motive so he kept quiet and saw them examine the book the blank page of which had been torn half off leaving only the last three letters of what must have been the owner's name blank ICH that was all and might as well not have been there for any lighted shed upon the matter opening the book by chance at first Corinthians second chapter Mr. St. Clair who could read German much better than he could speak it saw pencil marks around the ninth verse and read aloud I have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him on the margin opposite this verse was written in a girlish hand think of me as there when you read this and do not be sorry a lock of soft golden hair which might have been cut from a baby's head and a few faded flowers were tied with a bit of thread and lying between the leaves and except that the book was full of marked passages chiefly comforting and consolidatory there was nothing more to indicate the character of the owner if this Bible were hers she was a good woman Mr. St. Clair said laying his hand reverently upon the forehead of the dead while Frank who saw another meaning between the lines shook like one in an aegyo fit for he did not believe that those hands so pulseless and cold had ever traced the words think of me as there when you read this and do not be sorry she who wrote them might be and probably was dead but her grave was far away and the fact did not at all change the duty which he owed to her and him for whom the message was intended what shall I say to Arthur and how shall I tell him he was wondering to himself when Mr. St. Clair roused him by saying you seem greatly unstrung by what has happened I never saw you look so ill yes I feel as if I had murdered her by not sending John to the station Frank stammered glad to offer this as an excuse for his manner which he knew was strange and unnatural you are too sensitive altogether John might not have seen her she hurried off so fast and you had no particular reason to think she was coming here Mr. St. Clair said adding we'd better leave her now we can do nothing more until the coroner comes which will hardly be today I hear the roads are all blocked and impossible let everything remain in the trunk where he can see them mechanically Mrs. Tracy who was present put the different articles into the trunk leaving the bible on the top and then followed her husband from the room she knew there was more affecting him than the fact that a dead woman was in the house or that he had not sent John to the station but what it was she could not guess unless and she too felt faint and giddy for a moment as a new idea entered her head Frank she said to him when they were alone for a few moments Arthur had a fancy that Gretchen was coming last night you do not think this woman is she Gretchen no don't be a fool dolly Gretchen is fair and young and the woman is old and black as the ace of spades Gretchen no indeed just then Charles came to the room and said that his master was very much excited and wished to know the reason for so much commotion in the house and why so many people were coming and going down and up the avenue I thought it better that you should tell him Charles added and with a sinking heart Frank started for his brother's room he had not seen him before that day and now as he looked at him it seemed to him that he had grown older since the previous night for there were lines about his mouth and his face was very thin and pale but his eyes were unusually bright and his voice rang out clear as a bell as he said what is it Frank what has happened that so many people are coming here banging doors and talking so loud that I heard them here in my room but could not distinguish what they said what's the matter anyone hurt or dead he put the question direct and Frank gave a direct reply yes a woman was found frozen to death in a tramp house this morning and was brought here she is lying in the office at the end of the back hall a woman frozen to death in the tramp house Arthur repeated then I did hear a cry oh Frank who is she what did she come from we do not know who she is or where she came from Frank replied Mr. St. Clair thinks she is French there is nothing about her person to identify her but I would like you to see her and and I see her why should I see her and shock my nerves more than they are already shocked Arthur said with a decided shake of his head but you must see her Frank continued perhaps you know her she came last night she before he could utter another word Arthur was at his side and seizing him by their shoulder with a grip of a giant demanded fiercely what do you mean by her coming last night how did she come not by train for John was there Frank there is something you are keeping back I know it by your face tell me the truth is it Gretchen dead in this house no Frank answered huskily it is not Gretchen if that picture is like her for this woman is very dark and old and besides that has Gretchen a child for an instant Arthur stood looking at him or rather at the space beyond him as if trying to recall something too distant or too shadowy to assume any tangible form then bursting into a laugh he said Gretchen a child that is the best joke I have heard how should Gretchen have a child she is little more than one herself or was when I last saw her no Gretchen has no child why do you ask because Frank replied there was a little girl found in the tramp house with this woman she is at the cottage where Harold carried her he found the woman this morning will you see her now Arthur answered no decidedly and then Frank who knew that he should never again no peace of mind if his brother did not see her summoned all his courage and said Arthur you must I have not told you all this woman did come by train from New York then why did not John see her interrupted Arthur he was not there Frank replied forgive me Arthur I did not send him as you thought it was so cold and stormy and I had no faith in your presentiments and so so and so you lied to me and I will never trust you again as long as I live and if this had been Gretchen I would kill you where you stand Arthur hissed in a whisper more terrible to hear than louder voices would have been yes I will see this woman whose death lies at your door he continued with a gesture that Frank should precede him Arthur was very calm and collected and stern as he followed to the office where the body lay covered now from view but showing terribly distinct through the linen sheet folded over it remove the covering he said in the tone of a master to his slave and Frank obeyed then bending close to the stiffened form Arthur examined the face minutely while Frank looked on alternating between hope and dread the former of which triumphed as his brother said quietly yes she is French but I do not know her I never saw her before had she nothing with her to tell who she was his mood had passed and Frank did not fear him now she had a trunk he replied here it is with her clothes and the child's and a Bible he said the last slowly and taking up the book opened it as far as possible from the writing on the margin which might or might not be dangerous it is a German Bible he continued and then Arthur took it quickly from him as if it had been a long lost friend turning the worn pages rapidly but failing to discover the marked passage and the message for someone the lock of hair and the faded flowers caught his attention and his breath came hard and pantingly as for a moment he held the little golden dress in his hand this must be her child's hair you know I told you there was a little girl found with her would you like to see her Frank said no no Arthur answered hastily let her stay where she is I don't like children as a rule you know I can't abide the noise yours sometimes make he was leaving the room with the Bible in his hand but Frank could not suffer that and he said I suppose all these things must stay here till the coroner sees them so I will put the Bible where I found it Arthur gave it up readily enough and then as he reached the door looked back and said if 40 coroners and undertakers come on this business don't bother me anymore my head buzzes like a beehive see that everything is done decently for the poor woman and don't let the town bury her do it yourself and send the bill to me there is room enough in the Tracy plot put her in a corner yes Frank answered standing in the open door and watching him as he went slowly down the long hall and until he heard him going upstairs then locking the door which shut him in with the dead he took the photograph from his pocket and examined it minutely feeling no shadow of doubt in his heart that it was Gretchen if the picture in the window was like her it was the same face the same sweet mouth and sunny blue eyes with curls of reddish golden hair shading the low brow the dress was different and more in accordance with that of a girl who belonged to the middle class but this counted for nothing and Frank felt himself a thief and a liar and a murderer as he stood looking at the lovely face and debating what he should do turning it over he saw on the back a word traced in English letters in a very uncertain scrawling hand as if it were the writer's first attempt at English spelling in letter by letter he made out these button and knew it was some German town did Gretchen live there he wondered and how could he find out and what should he do he had not yet seen the child at the cottage but from some things Harold said he knew she was more like this picture than like the dead woman and he felt sure that he ought to show Arthur the photograph and tell him his suspicions Frank was not a bad man nor hard hearted man but he was ambitious and weak he had enjoyed money and ease and position long enough to make him unwilling to part with them now while for his children he was more ambitious than for himself to see Tom master of Tracy Park was the great desire of his life and this could not be if what he feared were proved true I will see the child before I decide what to do he thought I can never know anything for certain and I should be a fool to give up all my children's interests for an idea which may have no foundation Arthur does not know half the time what he is saying and might not tell the truth about Gretchen she may not have been his wife on the whole I do not believe she was he would never have left her if she had been and if so this child if she is Gretchen's has no right to come between me and mine no I shall wait a little while and think though in the end I mean to do right with these specious arguments Frank tried to quiet his conscience but he could not help feeling that Satan had possession of him and as he hurried through the hall he said aloud as if speaking to someone go away go away I shall do right if I only know what right is he did not see his brother again that day or go to the cottage either but as he was dressing himself next morning he said to his wife that little girl ought to see her mother before she is buried I shall send for her today the coroner will be here too did I tell you I had a telegram last night he is coming on the early train Mrs. Tracy passed the allusion to the coroner in silence but of the little girl she said I suppose the child must come to the funeral but you surely do not mean to keep her we are not bound to do that because her mother froze to death on our premises would you let her go to the poor house Frank asked but Dolly did not reply and as the breakfast bell just then rang no more was said of the little wave until the sleigh was brought to the door and Frank announced his intention of stopping for the child on his way back from the station where he was going to meet the coroner end of chapter 13