At the doorway, a white-faced woman endured it as
long as she could and then fell senseless. The
men nearest carried her down the hall to the fountain,
revived her, and then placed her in the carriage to
which she directed them. The girl played on and
never knew. When she finished, the uproar of
applause sounded a block down the street, but the
half-senseless woman scarcely realized what it meant.
Then the girl came to the front of the stage, bowed,
and lifting the violin she played her conception of
an invitation to dance. Every living soul within
sound of her notes strained their nerves to sit still
and let only their hearts dance with her. When
that began the woman ran toward the country. She
never stopped until the carriage overtook her half-way
to her cabin. She said she had grown tired of
sitting, and walked on ahead. That night she
asked Billy to remain with her and sleep on Elnora’s
bed. Then she pitched headlong upon her own,
and suffered agony of soul such as she never before
had known. The swamp had sent back the soul of
her loved dead and put it into the body of the daughter
she resented, and it was almost more than she could
endure and live.
CHAPTER XI
WHEREIN ELNORA GRADUATES, AND FRECKLES AND THE ANGEL SEND GIFTS
That was Friday night. Elnora came home Saturday
morning and began work. Mrs. Comstock asked no
questions, and the girl only told her that the audience
had been large enough to more than pay for the piece
of statuary the class had selected for the hall.
Then she inquired about her dresses and was told they
would be ready for her. She had been invited
to go to the Bird Woman’s to prepare for both
the sermon and Commencement exercises. Since
there was so much practising to do, it had been arranged
that she should remain there from the night of the
sermon until after she was graduated. If Mrs.
Comstock decided to attend she was to drive in with
the Sintons. When Elnora begged her to come she
said she cared nothing about such silliness.
It was almost time for Wesley to come to take Elnora
to the city, when fresh from her bath, and dressed
to her outer garment, she stood with expectant face
before her mother and cried: “Now my dress,
mother!”
Mrs. Comstock was pale as she replied: “It’s
on my bed. Help yourself.”
Elnora opened the door and stepped into her mother’s
room with never a misgiving. Since the night
Margaret and Wesley had brought her clothing, when
she first started to school, her mother had selected
all of her dresses, with Mrs. Sinton’s help
made most of them, and Elnora had paid the bills.
The white dress of the previous spring was the first
made at a dressmaker’s. She had worn that
as junior usher at Commencement; but her mother had
selected the material, had it made, and it had fitted
perfectly and had been suitable in every way.
So with her heart at rest on that point, Elnora hurried
to the bed to find only her last summer’s white
dress, freshly washed and ironed. For an instant
she stared at it, then she picked up the garment,
looked at the bed beneath it, and her gaze slowly
swept the room.
