Crimson roses

by Grace Livingston Hill

  She touched the roses lightly, caressingly, with the tips of her fingers, and looked up to see what he would say.

  " You don't know where they come from! '*

  She could not tell whether this was a question or an exclamation.

  " No," she went on, " I don't know in the least. They come to me firom time to time. I always think each time is the last, but to-day they came again."

  ** And you haven't the least suspicion who sends them?"

  " No, not the least. At first I thought they were not sent to me at all, and it was all just a happening or mistake that I got them; but now the concerts are over, and these came to the store this mornings and there were lots of them. I was so glad! There were enough to wear all these and give one to each one of the girls in our department. I liked having them to give even better than w^earing them, and I had wished so much the last ones could have lived for me to wear to-day. Then, once before, some came to the house a day when I was not well enough to go to the store; and how could anyone know that ? I don't understand it.'*

  " Tell me about it. When did they begin to come? " His tone was low, and he was toying with his glass of water. He was not looking directly at her now. He seemed to be thinking hard.

  " Why, I found the first one in my seat the night of the second symphony concert. I thought someone had dropped it, and laid it in the chair next to mine; but no one came to claim it. I asked an usher about it, but he only laughed and said that the owner probably had plenty more. But, when it happened again the next concert, I tried to find out who had left it there. I asked some women in the same gallery,

  but they acted as if I were impertinent to speak to them; so after that I kept the roses for myself, and they came every symphony night. I always found one there, all but the last night; and then there were two. I thought it was a kind of good-by, and I kept them in water until every leaf fell. I couldn't bear to put them away in the box with the rest of the dead ones. I made them last as long as possible. And then these came to-day just when I wanted them."

  " Who do you think sent them? " His tone was still quiet, and his gaze downward.

  " I don't know at all," she said. " At first I tried to think of someone I could see who might have done it. Down in the balcony where we went to-day there was a beautiful old lady with a silvery dress and lovely white hair. I pleased myself by thinking maybe someone like that had sent them because she saw I was a girl alone, and perhaps she thought I looked like someone she had loved, or something. Then it came to me that perhaps someone had my seat last year who had a friend who used to send , roses and didn't know she was gone away, and so the roses kept coming; but that wouldn't explain those that came to the house and the store; and so I didn't know what to think, and I just thought God

  knew I needed them, and so He sent them; and I thanked Him, for I hadn't anyone else to thank.'^

  Her voice had grown low and sweet, and the eyes across the table looked at her with reverence, and, when she looked up, his tenderness almost blinded her. It seemed so very much what she needed, and yet couldn't expect to have, of course.

  " I have something to tell you," he said very gently and with a voice full of feeling. " Suppose we take a walk. Do you like to walk ? Do you feel like walking? Or would you prefer to stay here awhile?"

  " I love to walk," said Marion with delight. " I haven't had a good walk for a long, long time. Father and I used to go when he had a Saturday afternoon off, or sometimes wheii he came home early in the evenings and wasn't too tired."

  " Then let us walk," said Lyman with satisfaction, rising from his chair. " The moon is almost full, and the Avenue will not be crowded by this time. There will be opportunity to talk."

  "It will be beautiful," said the girl wistfully; " but I have already taken a great deal of your day."

  " I shall be only too pleased to give you the rest of it," he said, smiling, " and as many more as you will take."

  Then he turned to the waiter, and said in a low tone, " Just put this on my account."

  It was a common enough sentence, but it startled Marion.

  " Put this on my account! " Then this man was accustomed to come to this wonderful place and partake of such repasts! Nothing that he could have said would have so impressed the girl who listened with a sense of the difference between his station and hers. And a man like this had been giving her his time and attention!

  Doubtless it was but a passing whim. Very likely he brought other girls to this beautiful place after other concerts. She was to him but a psychological study; and, when he had conned her little life awhile, and analyzed and tabulated her species, she would soon be forgotten. But need she resent that? Might she not take this pleasant spot in life, knowing it was fleeting, and enjoy it while it lasted? Would it leave a pain greater than the pleasure when it was gone, because of what she missed? Well, she must look well to herself that she did not let the joy enter into her soul too deep. It was to be like her roses, fleeting but sweet.

  With this thought passing through her mind she walked the length of the palm-girded rooms and out into the lovely night.

  It was lovely even in the city, for the moon was nearly full, and the air was balmy with the promise

  of spring, yet held a tang of bracing air left over from the winter to give a zest to the walk.

  Lyman led her quickly through the more crowded part of the streets and out to the Avenue, where pedestrians were not too many for comfort, and where the fine pavement and the brilliant lighting made a beautiful place for a promenade.

  He had drawn her hand firmly within his arm when they started, and dropped his step into unison with her own; and she could not but feel the exhilaration of walking so. ^

  " Now! " said he when they were come into the broad part of the Avenue, where they did not have to thread their way so carefully between people, and it was quieter for talking. " Now would you like me to tell you about your roses? "

  *' Oh, do you know where they came from? Do you know who sent them? "

  He felt her hand trembling on his arm, and her eyes looked anxiously into his. She knew the time of revelation had come, and she dreaded to hear about them, lest it would make them less her own. With tenderness he laid his own hand over hers, and kept it there. Looking down into her eyes, he said in a low tone:

  " Don't you know now ? Can't you guess who it was?"

  She searched his face, and hesitated, then read his answer there.

  " Oh, it was not—it could not have been—it— was — yon!"

  There were awe, and dehght, and then real alarm in her voice, as her conviction became a certainty, and she began to realize what it all meant.

  He was troubled at her silence.

  *' Are you glad or sorry it was I ? " he asked anxiously.

  She did not answer for a moment; and then, looking down with troubled air, she said half tremblingly,

  '' Oh, why—why—did—you—do—it? "

  He felt the moment had come, and he was not half so sure of her as he had been a little while before.

  '' Because I loved you from the first minute I saw you, and I wanted to win you for my wife," he answered in a low, intense voice.

  17

  CHAPTER XV

  "For your wife!" she repeated in wonder, as if she had not heard aright. " You would not choose me for you wife!''

  " I surely do," he said tenderly, " I want it more than I ever wanted anything in my life before. I tell you I have loved you ever since that first morning. I could not get the vision of your fresh, sweet face out of my mind. It stayed with me all day long, and I looked for you eagerly at the first concert."

  " How wonderful! " answered Marion in a low, sweet voice as if she had just received a message from a heavenly visitant and angel wings were still visible to her eye.

  "' Didn't the roses tell you that someone loved you?"

  " They tried to, but I wouldn't let them."

  " Why wouldn't you let them ? "

  " Because I w
as afraid. I didn't see how it could ever come true. I was sure no one for whom I could care would ever care for me."

  " And, now that you know, do you think you could care for me ? " He asked the question tenderly, looking down into her face as they walked slowly 2S8

  down the bright avenue, utterly obHvious of the other pedestrians.

  She Hfted her eyes to him wonderingly.

  " How could I help it? " she asked. '* I've cared from the first minute you spoke to me, and I have been so troubled about it I did not know what to do. I almost decided to go to Vermont and live with my brother, and get away from temptation. It seemed so terrible in me to dare to care for you, youF Oh, I don't see how I'm ever to believe it. And I don't think it can be right for me to accept this great thing. I'm sure you don't understand how ignorant and untrained I am."

  " My darling! " said he. " Don't! I cannot bear to hear you say those things about yourself. I love you for yourself and not for your attainments. Those things are only outside matters. We will study together, you and I."

  " Oh! " breathed the girl, '' I could not think of anything more beautiful in life than that "

  " You darling! " he said again. ''If you keep on looking at me like that, I shall be obliged to kiss you right here on the street; and that would be scandalous, I suppose."

  " Oh! " gasped Marion, dropping her eyes in alarm, while the lovely waves of color rushed into her cheeks.

  :26o CRIMSON ROSES

  "There! Don't be frightened," he laughed. " I'll remember the conventionalities; only you really make it very hard work when you put on that adorable look. Tell me, did you like the roses? "

  " Like them! I— loved them. But how did you do it? It is so wonderful! It is all wonderful."

  " Oh, it was easily managed. I just went early, and got in as soon as the doors were open. In fact, I bribed one of the doorkeepers to let me in early, and then put the rose in your chair, and went down to the proscenium box to watch for you. You almost caught me once when you came so early. I was just going up the last step at the left-hand door when you entered the middle door. I waited to watch you through the crack that time. And do you remember when you asked the usher what to do with your first rose? I was standing boldly in tlie doorway, talking to the other usher all the time. I wanted to be sure that you took my rosebud home with you."

  " Oh! " said Marion. It seemed to be her one available word.

  " Do you remember a night when it rained, and you went home in the car? Did you know I walked home with you from the corner, and held my timbrella over vou? I doubt if vou realized it, for

  you must have got just as wet as if you had been alone, it was blowing so hard."

  *'Oh, was it you?" Her eyes glowed at him again. " I called a * Thank you ' into the darkness. Did you hear me? I always thought I heard an answer."

  " I answered you," he said eagerly. " I said, * You're welcome, dear.' To be sure, I whispered the 'dear' to myself; but didn't your heart hear it, dear?"

  "I believe it did," she answered softly; "only I didn't know what made me so happy. I thought it was the rose."

  They walked on fully absorbed in each other, the blocks counting into one, tw^o, three miles.

  " And did you know from the first that I worked in the store ? " she asked once.

  " No, I had to ferret that out. After that night in the rain, when I found out where you lived, I was determined to make a way to be introduced. I made errands down that way day after day, changing the hour, and walking up and down the street, or riding past, hoping to catch a glimpse of you. At last it occurred to me that, coming from that neighborhood and a plain house, you very likely had to earn your living. Your interest in the concerts made me think of music naturally, but careful listening could never

  even imagine a sound of music coming from your abiding-place. I felt sure you could not be a music-teacher or there would have been a piano heard sometimes. I thought perhaps you taught school "

  " That was what father wanted for me," she interrupted sadly.

  " So I went very early to the street, but not early enough to catch you yet. Then I thought of stenography and bookkeeping."

  " All too high for me to attempt," she murmured bumbly.

  " At last, about a week after I began to watch 1 went one morning before it was quite daylight, and tramped up and down, always in sight of the house, until I was rewarded by seeing you come out. You haven't any idea how my heart pounded as I turned to follow you at a discreet distance. I never felt so shy in my life. I met a policeman a few blocks on the way, and he looked at me half suspiciously, I thought, as if I must appear guilty. But you walked calmly on, and never seemed to notice that your steps were being followed."

  " Oh, how frightened I should have been if I had known! " she exclaimed.

  " Am I so formidable? "

  Then they both laughed and began again.

  " I saw you enter the door for employees, and

  then I had a long search through the departments until I found you. I began at last to despair, and to suspect that you were hidden away in some mysterious work-room on a top floor, or in some dull office; but I finally came upon you, all by chance, right in the midst of the beautiful colors of all those ribbons. That day I celebrated by having you make me some roses. Have you forgotten?"

  ''Forgotten! How could I? I've often wondered about them. I thought then they were for your wife. The girls all said so. They said your wife must be very happy to have you care so much for her."

  '' I hope she will be happy," he said reverently. " I shall make it my business to do all I can in that direction. Yes, I guess the roses were for my wife, though I wanted them for myself till she came to me. I will give them to you, my wife, on our wedding morning. How soon can that be? "

  "Oh!" said Marion softly, ''Oh!" and then, " Oh, I don't know." Her eyes drooped, and her whole countenance took on a troubled look.

  " Couldn't we be married right away? " he asked. " Is there anything or anybody to hinder? I haven't told you a bit about myself yet, have I? Perhaps you won't feel like trusting me until you've known me longer, though.'*

  "Oh, it isn't that!" said the girl quickly. "It never could be that. It's only that I—that there are so many things—so much for me to do first before I could be fit—ready—ever to marry you—if I ever really could be."

  "What things? Clothes, do you mean?"

  " Yes, clothes, and other things, and I'd have a great deal to learn. I don't know that I could ever learn it all."

  " And why should you ? I thought we were going to study together. What right would you have to go off and study things by yourself? And, as for the clothes, I always thought that was the silliest of all silly reasons to keep a man away from his wife for weeks and weeks after they have found out they love each other and decided to get married. I don't want a lot of fine clothes for a wife; I want you, now, just as you are. You're sweet enough and pretty enough and fine enough to please me always; and, if you need a lot of new things, it shall be my pride and pleasure to buy them for you. You'll have plenty of time to select what you want, and can go about it in a leisurely way. I can assure you I'm not going to be a bit patient about this. I want you right away. Couldn't you arrange to marry me some day next week? I've got to go up to

  Boston on a business trip, and I want to take you with me. I can't bear to go and leave you "

  " Oh, no! '' gasped Marion. " I couldn't possibly. Oh! Why, you've only just told me about it "

  " Dear," said he tenderly pressing the hand he held, " I'm not going to frighten you with my haste; and we'll do things decently and in order as you wish it, of course; but you forget that I've been thinking of this all winter; and perhaps you don't know it, but I'm a very lonesome man. I need you tremendously. I've nobody to love me and nobody to love except the world at large. Mother died two years ago. She had been an invalid for ten years, and she and I had travelled together a great deal whenever she was able. I have missed her more than I can te
ll you, since she went away. I live in a gfeat big house, with two old servants who have been with us since I was a boy. They do their best to make it comfortable, but they cannot make a home, and I want you there with your brightness and beauty. I want to be with you and have your companionship in my work and pleasure. Must I wait? Couldn't you make it next week? Are you afraid of me? Don't you love me enough to come to me right away ? "

  As he told of his mother, her other hand had stolen up and touched his gently, as if she wanted to

  ^&S CRIMSON ROSE3

  console him for his loss; and he gathered it with the other in his clasp.

  " I love you enough to come right away, of course," she said; and her voice was clear and steady now. " It isn't that; it's only that I feel so unready in mind and ways; and then, I've really no things such as other people get married in. I shouldn't feel riglit not to get soyne things ready; and then, besides, there's the store. You know when we sign the contract we promise to give a month's notice if we are going to leave. It wouldn't be fair to them."

  *' Don't w^orry about the store," he said joyously. " Chapman's a good friend of mine. It would need only a word from me to get you off in a hurry. I'll see to that if you'll give me permission. I want you. I need you; why, I— love you, dear! Can't you see? You wouldn't let clothes and things stand in the way of that, would you ? "

  In the end he had his way. When did a man not have his way who talked like that? Marion had the feeling that she had suddenly been invited to enter heaven all as she was, arrayed in earthly garments; nevertheless a great joy and sweetness came down upon her. She could scarcely realize her own gladness, it was so great. She had not yet got used to knowing that he loved her and that he had been the giver of the roses that had gladdened her heart all

  winter; and here was this great question of marriage pushed in, for which she felt so unfit.

  " I'm not at all the kind of wife you ought to have," she said faintly after her last protest had been silenced. " People will pity you, and think you have demeaned yourself to marry a lowly person. Isabel will think "