Hindcup world say of Miriam? Mrs. Sadler asked
the question bitterly of herself, and gave brutal reply
in her own heart :
" They'll say she can't marry, and it's not far from
the truth. Dear, dear! Emmie getting married so
nicely, and my Miriam left. It's just as Aunt Pillar
told me long ago, the result of all this study ! "
Miriam, too, was silent for a moment, from far other
reasons ; she was wondering what it could be that made
her cousin Emmie want to marry Dr. Pratt.
"Am I not to have your congratulations, then?"
Dr. Pratt said ; and she laughed and held out her hand
very pleasantly to him.
" I think you are to be congratulated," she said.
" Emmie, I am sure, will make the best of wives ; she
has always been my favorite cousin." This, if Dr.
Pratt had known the truth, was not saying much, but
it was the best that she could say.
" She is a little jewel," he said, swelling with self-
importance and delight.
"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Sadler bitterly; "a fine,
womanly young girl, clever with her needle, such a
cook, and a bom housewife."
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" As I said, I consider myself the luckiest of men,"
Dr. Pratt repeated, and Miriam found herself wonder-
ing how often in the long annals of the htrnian race
this phrase had been reiterated by intending husbands.
" Emmie and I have decided not to delay our mar-
riage for long," Dr. Pratt pursued ; " for everyone will
be talking so much."
" To be sure they will," said Mrs. Sadler. " You're
very wise. I daresay Emmie will be here soon to tell
us all about it."
" I daresay she will, so I must be off," said Dr.
Pratt. They watched him march away down the
street looking extraordinarily well pleased with him-
self.
" Well, I never did ! " Mrs. Sadler exclaimed in a
little while. - " Emmie engaged ! How those girls
have gone off, to be sure."
" Yes, haven't they? " Miriam agreed, and in an in-
advertent moment she added thoughtfully : " I wonder
now what Emmie sees in that man to make her wish
to marry him ? " No sooner had she spoken than she
saw her mistake and wished the words unsaid; but
Mrs. Sadler unfortunately caught their import. She
sat up on the pillow and turned her yellow face an-
grily to her daughter. n
" You'll drive me wild with your nonsense, Miriam ! "
she exclaimed. " What does she see in Dr. Pratt ! ā sl
well-to-do, handsome young man, driving his own dog-
cart and getting into a good country practice. What
more would any girl want, I'd like to know? It's un-
womanly the way you tJilk, and sometimes I'm down-
rightly ashamed of you."
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" I'm sorry I provoke you, mother/' said Miriam,
wondering once again why she ever expressed what
she thought about anything. " I'll go downstairs and
get that mustard plaster the doctor advised you to
have," she added, glad of an excuse to leave the
room and let her mother's irritated feelings calm
down.
As she was coming downstairs the front door flew
open, and Emmie rushed in, flushed, and excited-
looking, wearing an air of triumph that almost made
her cousin laugh aloud.
" Good morning, Miriam. How's aunt? It's a hor-
rid thing, biliousness. Have you heard the news?
I'm engaged! You won't guess to whom; no, you
never will; look at my ring. Mizpah; so sweet and
so original. Sydney ā ^but there I've let it out ; but it'll
be all over the town soon ! Look at my ring ; Sydney
likes Mispah better than any other design; so do I.
We made it up at the Badminton Club yesterday ā ^you
never come there; Sydney plays so splendidly, you
might come just to see him play; now that he's my
fiance, you will have a double interest in him."
Miriam kissed the flushed young face, and suggested
that they should go into the kitchen while she pre-
pared the mustard plaster. " Sydney ordered it," she
said a little mischievously. It was really quite safe
to laugh at Emmie, who never noticed it. Miriam
fetched the mustard tin and began to mix the plaster ;
then she asked Emmie suddenly if she had much in
common with Dr. Pratt. The question sprang to her
lips before she quite realized what she said, and Emmie
was naturally offended by it. She drew herself up
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with a little bridling movement that was characteristic
of her.
" I am devoted to the doctor," she said with great
dignity. " We have a great deal in common ā ^we are
both musical ; he went six times running to hear Pina-
fore once, and so did I; in fact, our tastes are
identical."
" Oh, that's all right, then," said Miriam cheerfully ;
and Emmie, who was very good-natured, was quite
placated.
" You see, it's because you scarcely understand
about love that you ask such silly questions," she said
in a confidential tone, perching herself on the comer
of the kitchen table. " I hope you'll have an admirer
some day, it's such fun being in love."
"Really?" said Miriam, mixing away at the mus-
tard. Emmie's words recalled to her mind something
she had read in " Tristram Shandy " :
"I thought love had been a joyous thing," quoth my Unde Toby.
" 'Tis the most serious thing, an' please your honour, (sometimes)
that is in the world."
But her reflections were broken in upon by Emmie's
prattle.
" Yes, what a man wants is a cheery sort of girl,
not one that will worry him with ideas and books, and
all that sort of thing. Since my engagement, I seem
to understand so much more about men. Sydney
says he wants a pretty little plaything, not some one to
talk philosophy with him."
" I didn't know he talked philosophy," said Miriam.
" Sydney can do anything. But, as he says, what
he wants is a wife, not a philosopher."
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" I daresay that's quite true," said her cousin.
"Well, to be quite frank with you," said Emmie,
" it was apropos of yourself that all this came out. It
was after he had traveled down from London with you
and Maggie; he had been noticing you all the way,
it seems ā ^how you had been reading. ' It's not rest-
ful, darling,' he said in his sweet way, ' to see a woman
reading in the way your cousin does. I don't wonder
the men are afraid of her ' ; and then he added a lot
of nonsense about myself that I cannot repeat ā " She
paused, wishing very much indeed to be asked to repeat
it all, but as Miriam did not encourage this confidence
she went on :
"Then I thought it so clever the way he added,
' Emmie, what a man wants is a wife, not a philoso-
pher.' He is very brilliant. (I am telling you all this,
because I think it may do you good.) Now that I'm
engaged I hear so much from Sydney of what men
think and feel."
" But, then," Miriam interpolated, " all men are not
like Sydney."
" No, indeed ; very few are ; but if you get the opin-
ion of a very clever one like him, it is worth a great
deal."
Miriam smiled, spreading the mustard on the paper.
" I must go and administer this," she said. " I shall
want to hear all about your trousseau soon," she added,
with an effort to be sympathetic.
"Oh, I've decided on white satin for the wedding
gown ā Sydney likes it; and the going-away dress is
to be blue. The bridesmaid's presents bothered me a
little, but curiously enough we both hit upon the same
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jy idea, and it's quite original, I think ā you'll never guess
ā curb bracelets."
" It will be a surprise I " echoed Miriam. " And who
are the bridesmaids to be ? "
Emmie named the honored maidens, adding
Miriam's own name to the list.
"There !" she said, "that's a surprise for you, for you
know you are just getting a weeny bit old for a brides-
maid ā ^nearly five-and-twenty. But Sydney wanted it.
He says he has known so many matches made up at
weddings, and he's just as anxious as I am that you
should get married. It's so nice to be engaged ! He
has a great friend, a doctor, too, who is to be a grooms-
man ; perhaps he might fancy you ā who knows ? "
"Who knows?" Miriam echoed, and she laughed
to herself all the way upstairs, and all the time her poor
mother lay groaning under the mustard plaster she
continued to laugh.
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CHAPTER XXin
Miriam had been too busy for a fortnight after her
return home to look at the book Courteis had given
to her. But as Mrs. Sadler got better she found time
to begin her studies again. A few chapters sufficed
to show the trend of the book. She laid it down and
considered what she was going to do. For this author
went full tilt against many things ā churches, priests,
creeds, marriage, the whole social and religious frame-
work of English life. The book was very cleverly
written, and it amused her to read it ; but, she asked
herself, if she were to write an abstract of it, and if
by any evil chance her mother were to see it, what
would happen ?
Of course, had she been a girl in a Sunday-school
story, she would at once have tied up the book in
brown paper and returned it whence it came. But
being a girl in real life, she decided to risk the danger
and do the work. After all, it was ten chances to one
that her mother never heard anything of it. Mrs.
Sadler never asked what her daughter was writing,
and it was almost impossible she should ever read the
article if it came out.
Having thus argued with herself, Miriam attacked
the bit of work with tremendous energy. It was far
from an easy task. The author started far back at the
beginning of things, inquiring into the origin of each
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th;e ladder
of the institutions which he attacked ; then he followed
up their growth, and finally began to pull them to
pieces again. Miriam's business was to assimilate all
this knowledge, and present it in an easy form for the
benefit oi the general reader.
She steeped herself in the arguments of this revo-
lutionary, laughing sometimes to herself as she read
the more daring sentences.
Then came the work of writing the abstract. Week
after week she toiled at it, and found the days short
enough as they passed; but at last the article was
concluded and sent oflF, and Miriam rested from her
labors. It seemed a long time till Courteis wrote, send-
ing her proofs of the article. She could scarcely be-
lieve her eyes when the great bundle of printed stuff
arrived; but she was happily alone in the house and
able to take the package up to her own room and study
it in private. She read the proofs through, corrected
one or two blunders, and then laid them away in a
drawer of her toilet table, for she did not yet possess
the luxury of a writing desk. This done, she went
out to have a walk, little dreaming of the blow that
would await her on her return.
It was a lovely evening in late autumn and Miriam
walked slowly along through the lanes enjoying the
beauty of the evening. She felt wonderfully peaceful
and happy, somehow, as if things had taken a turn for
the better in her life. The joy of doing actual work
ā work that she loved ā cheered and soothed her ; life
seemed worth living, even in Hindcup. The dusk was
falling as she turned her steps homeward ; in the dis-
tance the lights of the town came out one by one.
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Miriam quickened her steps and came in fresh and
brisk from the night air. She looked aknost pretty,
had there been anyone to notice it.
But she found Mrs. Sadler far too busy with some-
thing else to observe her looks ; for, as she came into
the parlor, her mother was reading the proofs that
she had left safe in the drawer in her own room.
She stood stock still on the threshold of the door-
way, gazing at this terrible sight. There was a mo-
ment of tingling silence, and then Mrs. Sadler wailed
out:
" Oh, dear, did you write this ? "
Miriam closed the door, and came across to where
her mother sat. She knew that the time had come
to fight for freedom again.
"Yes, mother; how did you get that? I did not
mean you to see it," she asked.
" I went up to your room to find the key of the side-
board. I remembered I gave it to you last night, and
I could see it nowhere, so I opened your toilet drawer,
and I saw this, and began to read it ; and O Miriam !
how wicked it is ! " Mrs. Sadler covered her face
with her hands and began to cry. It was natural
enough that she should do so, for she was fully under
the impression that her daughter had originated the
daring conclusions which were voiced in this article.
She had read so cursorily that only a jumble of ideas
remained with her, and these the most startling.
Miriam sat down and tried to explain her own in-
nocence in the matter; but Mrs. Sadler would take no
comfort.
" No, no ; you Ve written it, and this is the end of
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all these studies. I'll never be happy till you give them
up ; they'll lead you to no good," she said.
" Well, mother, I won't g^ve them up. I am sorry
to grieve you, but I cannot. These are not my views,
they are the views of the man whose book I am de-
scribing to other people, that is all. Please read no
more of it, and think no more about it."
But she might as well have spoken to the wind;
nothing would now convince Mrs. Sadler that these
were not her daughter's views.
" You wrote it, so you must believe it," she repeated
over and over again.
And the evil did not end here. The next day Mag-
gie Broadman came to remonstrate with Miriam on
the error of her ways, having heard a highly colored
version of the story from Mrs. Sadler.
" I'm glad to find you alone," she said. " I've come
to speak about something ā I daresay you know what
I mean ā " She stopped, almost daunted for a moment
by the glowering anger in her cousin's eyes.
" I daresay I can g^ess," Miriam said.
" Of course, it's about this writing of yours," Mag-
gie proceeded, in her patronizing voice. "You really
must be careful what subjects you choose. A young
woman like you perhaps scarcely understands about
these subjects. As I said to your mother : ' No doubt
it was ignorance made Miriam write that awful paper,'
and that seemed to, comfort poor aunt a good deal."
" When I write something that you all have a right
to be ashamed of, you may come and speak to me,"
said Miriam; "but till then I can do without your
advice. Mother has made a mountain out of a mole-
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hill, that is all." Her eyes blazed with anger ; Maggie
had never known that her cousin possessed so much
temper. She rose rather hastily.
" Oh, well, I won't waste words upon you," she said.
" Take your own way."
" I certainly intend to do so," Miriam retorted.
This little interview was bad enough ; but exaspera-
tion reached a climax when Emmie came to remon-
strate. She found Miriam writing in her own room ā
a unique opportunity for advice as to the nature of
the composition.
"Oh, you're writing! I've come to show you pat-
terns of my wedding-gown stuff," she said, scattering
papers to right and left without a thought of apology.
" I want the brocade, after all ; Sydney thinks it suits
my complexion better than the dead white. O Mir-
iam, I wish you would get married, and then perhaps
you would stop writing horrid things that everyone
is shocked at. It's much nicer to be married. Couldn't
you manage it? I used to think that young Evans at
the bank had an admiration for you ; but no man will
long admire a girl that doesn't respond to him at all.
Can't you go in there oftener? I saw you go into the
grocer's for change yesterday, when it would have
been quite as easy to cross over to the bank. You'll
be left an old maid if you don't take care! Sydney
tells me he used to be quite afraid of you in what he
will call his * bachelor days.' So silly of him."
She paused ; but as Miriam scarcely kftew which of
these numerous suggestions she should reply to, she
left them all unanswered, and Emmie went on :
" Sydney is quite annoyed by these stories about you,
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Miriam ; about this article youVe written, I mean. He
says it is so against a girl's chance of marrying. To
think that you should write against marriage; it was
so strange of you. What put such an idea into your
head? Sydney was saying he could not understand
it, unless it was that you hadn't any admirers and
were a little soured by it. But, then, as I said to Syd-
ney, you are quite young still, after all, so it can
scarcely be that; I think it must be because you've
never been in love. K you only knew what fun it is
being in love, I'm sure you would stop writing against
marriage."
" Perhaps some day even I may have that unique
experience," said Miriam ; but the sarcasm was entirely
wasted on Emmie.
" I am sure I hope you will ; it's not at all im-
possible yet, but it's time you began at five-and-
twenty. Why, I had three proposals before I was
twenty-one ! "
" Yes, I know that," said Miriam ; but again the
meaning of the remark was not apparent to Emmie.
" And when I remember what fun it all was, I don't
understand how you think marriage should cease,"
Emmie went on. " Dear me ! I'd have had a dull
time in Hindcup if there hadn't been any talk of
marriage."
Miriam was glad to be able to laugh heartily at this
conclusion, and the laugh did her good.
" Come and let me see your patterns, Emmie," she
said, " and we won't talk any more about this storm in
a tea cup."
Aunt Pillar was the next to remonstrate. She came
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over to Hindcup late one evening, and asked to see
Miriam alone.
" So this is the end of your visiting with the Gores,"
she said, fixing her hard eye on her niece. " That you
come back to disgrace us all. It's the want of all
worldly wisdom in it that vexes me. Your poor
mother never had any, and you're like to follow in
her steps, writing nonsense, and worse than nonsense,
as I understand."
" I hope ril never do that," said Miriam.
" Well, you've done it once, by all accounts, and once
is enough in a lifetime." Then, with a sudden quick
look at her niece. Aunt Pillar added : " Did you know
the Gores were coming to the Manor for Qiristmas?
It'll be awkward for you ; they won't be able to take
much notice of you here, though they were so inti-
mate with you in London; but after this that you've
written, perhaps they won't have anything more to
say to you."
Miriam's cheeks flamed.
" I am sure I shall be quite pleased with whatever
they do," she said.
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CHAPTER XXIV
The pool of Bethesda, we are told, had no magic
quality until the angel had troubled it; and, in the
same way, that deep well of the human heart has to be
stirred and troubled before it gives forth the best that
is in it. Emotion of one kind or another has been the
begetter of every work of Art ; it does not riiatter very
much what the emotion is, provided it is strong
enough; hate will serve as well as love, bitterness as
well as joy ; only let the pool be sufficiently troubled,
and behold the magic results !
Miriam did not know this sweet use of adversity.
It seemed to her that all the petty irritations of her
life at present were for no good end at all, and could
never be turned to any account. And yet they were
surely leading her on to the larger events of life.
This is how it happened. She had come in one af-
ternoon feeling more than usually provoked by her
cousins ; they had all been offering her advice, criticis-
ing her writing (about which they knew nothing what-
ever), and generally irritating her. In anger and bit-
terness unbearable, Miriam sat down and wrote out
all the overflowing annoyance she was feeling. I can-
not say that what she wrote was kind ; for it was not.
But it was true, which many kind bits of writing are
not. If she had been badgered and irritated she would
at least hit back indirectly. Aha ! there was some sat-
isfaction in that
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What a gallery of female portraits she could draw !
She knew so much about her sitters. She ran over a
list of them; the engaged young woman, the young
matron, the young mother, the unmarried woman, the
old woman, the cousin, the aunt ā each had her de-
licious foibles, her exasperating traits, that might be
pitilessly written down for the world to laugh at.
" They don't think I know much about men," said
Miriam, grinning to herself ; " but I know enough and
to spare about women and their ways. If they are
so hard on me, I shall touch them up a little, for a
change ! "
With something of the scientific spirit, then, Miriam
approached her task. It was a species of vivisection,
cruel enough, but, oh! the delight of it! of that first
quite simple little description of an engaged young
woman ā Emmie, in other words. All the ineffable
silliness of poor Emmie's character was plainly set
forth, her ridiculous self-satisfaction and self-absorp-
tion, her deplorable tactlessness. "The Affianced One"
was a very pretty bit of writing, and Miriam was al-
most aware of the fact. Down in the bottom of her
heart she had a lurking feeling that it was unkind
to transfix poor Emmie thus, like a butterfly on a pin ;
but the artistic joy of seeing the work grow under her
hand quieted the pricks of conscience. Then she
turned her attention to a study of maternity as pre-
sented by her cousin Matilda, who had lately added
to the population of Hindcup. Matilda's attitude now
was the simple one that no such feat had ever been
accomplished before in the long annals of our race.
Eve contemplating Cain and Abel cannot have been
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more enamored of her achievement. Matilda now con-
sidered herself competent to advise anyone on the
management of infants, and she seldom spoke on any
other subject. With an extraordinary ingenuity she
could bring conversation round to her child, start it
at any point you like to name. All this Miriam had
been noticing for long, and " Mater Triumphans " re-
produced these observations.
Grace Pillar, Miriam's only unmarried cousin, was
the next model. Grace was the most unfortunate type
of spinster. She was always skittishly alluding to her
age, and yet would be considered young at all costs;
her agreeability was almost disgusting; in her exces-
sive desire to please, she forgot all dignity, and her
claim to have a life of her own. To see her slavish,
almost reverential, attitude toward her married sisters,
just because they were married ā nay, to Emmie, just
because she was engaged to be married ā was a sight
to make the heart ache. But it was also rather nau-
seating. Any man would have satisfied Grace; only
to have been chosen out of the herd, and promoted to
wifehood, and allowed to become a mother, she would
have asked no more. It was curious why such an ap-
parently simple joy had not been granted to the heart
that so craved it ; but it was not in the scheme of things
that Grace should be married, so she remained un-
sought. O Miriam, you should have been kinder
here ; the other victims of your revenge were at least
profoundly pleased with themselves; it is otherwise
with poor Grace.
" Apotheosis " had its origin in Maggie Broadman's
transparent and fatuous delight in all things pertain-
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ing to herself, her house, her servants, her husband,
her children, her dress. Once she had been Maggie
Pillar; now she was Maggie Broadman all things
were hers. The fact that things belonged to her af-
forded Maggie a satisfaction that it is difficult even
to guess at.
These, and several other portraits, Miriam executed
with savage pleasure. At first she wrote them with
no thought of publication; but gradually it dawned
upon her that they might find acceptance with the
public.
" Would it be safe ? " she wondered. " I don't sup-
pose that people ever recognize themselves. . . . Til
send them to Mr. Courteis and see what he thinks.
... I might publish them anonymously."
So to Courteis they went; and, of course, were re-
ceived with approval, as every genuine human docu-
ment is sure to be. There was no doubt at all of their
quality ; they were quite excellent.
" I like the nip in them," Courteis wrote. " They
will make people laugh; send me as many as you
please. I shall publish one every week ā of course,
as you wish it ā anonymously."
Miriam did not dare to get those numbers of Th^
Advance Guard which contained her productions ; that