第54章 CHAPTER XI(3)

Heartsick,Katharine Comstock tried to prove to herself that she was justified in what she had done,but she could not.She tried to blame Elnora for not saying that she was to lead a procession and sit on a platform in the sight of hundreds of people;but that was impossible,for she realized that she would have scoffed and not understood if she had been told.Her heart pained until she suffered with every breath.

When at last the exercises were over she climbed into the carriage and rode home without a word.She did not hear what Margaret and Billy were saying.She scarcely heard Wesley,who drove behind,when he told her that Elnora would not be home until Wednesday.Early the next morning Mrs.Comstock was on her way to Onabasha.

She was waiting when the Brownlee store opened.

She examined ready-made white dresses,but they had only one of the right size,and it was marked forty dollars.

Mrs.Comstock did not hesitate over the price,but whether the dress would be suitable.She would have to ask Elnora.

She inquired her way to the home of the Bird Woman and knocked.

"Is Elnora Comstock here?"she asked the maid.

"Yes,but she is still in bed.I was told to let her sleep as long as she would.""Maybe I could sit here and wait,"said Mrs.Comstock.

"I want to see about getting her a dress for to-morrow.

I am her mother."

"Then you don't need wait or worry,"said the girl cheerfully.

"There are two women up in the sewing-room at work on a dress for her right now.It will be done in time,and it will be a beauty."Mrs.Comstock turned and trudged back to the Limberlost.

The bitterness in her soul became a physical actuality,which water would not wash from her lips.She was too late!She was not needed.Another woman was mothering her girl.Another woman would prepare a beautiful dress such as Elnora had worn the previous night.

The girl's love and gratitude would go to her.Mrs.Comstock tried the old process of blaming some one else,but she felt no better.She nursed her grief as closely as ever in the long days of the girl's absence.She brooded over Elnora's possession of the forbidden violin and her ability to play it until the performance could not have been told from her father's.She tried every refuge her mind could conjure,to quiet her heart and remove the fear that the girl never would come home again,but it persisted.

Mrs.Comstock could neither eat nor sleep.She wandered around the cabin and garden.She kept far from the pool where Robert Comstock had sunk from sight for she felt that it would entomb her also if Elnora did not come home Wednesday morning.The mother told herself that she would wait,but the waiting was as bitter as anything she ever had known.

When Elnora awoke Monday another dress was in the hands of a seamstress and was soon fitted.It had belonged to the Angel,and was a soft white thing that with a little alteration would serve admirably for Commencement and the ball.All that day Elnora worked,helping prepare the auditorium for the exercises,rehearsing the march and the speech she was to make in behalf of the class.

The following day was even busier.But her mind was at rest,for the dress was a soft delicate lace easy to change,and the marks of alteration impossible to detect.

The Bird Woman had telephoned to Grand Rapids,explained the situation and asked the Angel if she might use it.

The reply had been to give the girl the contents of the chest.

When the Bird Woman told Elnora,tears filled her eyes.

"I will write at once and thank her,"she said."With all her beautiful gowns she does not need them,and I do.

They will serve for me often,and be much finer than anything I could afford.It is lovely of her to give me the dress and of you to have it altered for me,as I never could."The Bird Woman laughed."I feel religious to-day,"she said."You know the first and greatest rock of my salvation is `Do unto others.'I'm only doing to you what there was no one to do for me when I was a girl very like you.Anna tells me your mother was here early this morning and that she came to see about getting you a dress.""She is too late!"said Elnora coldly."She had over a month to prepare my dresses,and I was to pay for them,so there is no excuse.""Nevertheless,she is your mother,"said the Bird Woman,softly."I think almost any kind of a mother must be better than none at all,and you say she has had great trouble.""She loved my father and he died,"said Elnora."The same thing,in quite as tragic a manner,has happened to thousands of other women,and they have gone on with calm faces and found happiness in life by loving others.

There was something else I am afraid I never shall forget;this I know I shall not,but talking does not help.I must deliver my presents and photographs to the crowd.I have a picture and I made a present for you,too,if you would care for them.""I shall love anything you give me,"said the Bird Woman.

"I know you well enough to know that whatever you do will be beautiful."Elnora was pleased over that,and as she tried on her dress for the last fitting she was really happy.She was lovely in the dainty gown:it would serve finely for the ball and many other like occasions,and it was her very own.

The Bird Woman's driver took Elnora in the carriage and she called on all the girls with whom she was especially intimate,and left her picture and the package containing her gift to them.By the time she returned parcels for her were arriving.Friends seemed to spring from everywhere.

Almost every one she knew had some gift for her,while because they so loved her the members of her crowd had made her beautiful presents.There were books,vases,silver pieces,handkerchiefs,fans,boxes of flowers and candy.One big package settled the trouble at Sinton's,for it contained a dainty dress from Margaret,a five-dollar gold piece,conspicuously labelled,"I earned this myself,"from Billy,with which to buy music;and a gorgeous cut-glass perfume bottle,it would have cost five dollars to fill with even a moderate-priced scent,from Wesley.