第7章

"Josiah, I had also to remember, was a man evidently of weak character. He would need management. Now, there was something about Hannah's eye that eminently suggested management.

"At the end of two days my mind was made up. I wrote 'Hannah' on a slip of paper, and posted it.

"A fortnight afterwards I received a letter from Josiah. He thanked me for my advice, but added, incidentally, that he wished I could have made it Julia. However, he said, he felt sure I knew best, and by the time I received the letter he and Hannah would be one.

"That letter worried me. I began to wonder if, after all, I had chosen the right girl. Suppose Hannah was not all I thought her!

What a terrible thing it would be for Josiah. What data, sufficient to reason upon, had I possessed? How did I know that Hannah was not a lazy, ill-tempered girl, a continual thorn in the side of her poor, overworked mother, and a perpetual blister to her younger brothers and sisters? How did I know she had been well brought up?

Her father might be a precious old fraud: most seemingly pious men are. She may have learned from him only hypocrisy.

"Then also, how did I know that Juliana's merry childishness would not ripen into sweet, cheerful womanliness? Her father, for all Iknew to the contrary, might be the model of what a retired sea-captain should be; with possibly a snug little sum safely invested somewhere. And Juliana was his only child. What reason had I for rejecting this fair young creature's love for Josiah?

"I took her photo from my desk. I seemed to detect a reproachful look in the big eyes. I saw before me the scene in the little far-away home when the first tidings of Josiah's marriage fell like a cruel stone into the hitherto placid waters of her life. I saw her kneeling by her father's chair, while the white-haired, bronzed old man gently stroked the golden head, shaking with silent sobs against his breast. My remorse was almost more than I could bear.

"I put her aside and took up Hannah--my chosen one. She seemed to be regarding me with a smile of heartless triumph. There began to take possession of me a feeling of positive dislike to Hannah.

"I fought against the feeling. I told myself it was prejudice. But the more I reasoned against it the stronger it became. I could tell that, as the days went by, it would grow from dislike to loathing, from loathing to hate. And this was the woman I had deliberately selected as a life companion for Josiah!

"For weeks I knew no peace of mind. Every letter that arrived Idreaded to open, fearing it might be from Josiah. At every knock Istarted up, and looked about for a hiding-place. Every time I came across the heading, 'Domestic Tragedy,' in the newspapers, I broke into a cold perspiration. I expected to read that Josiah and Hannah had murdered each other, and died cursing me.

"As the time went by, however, and I heard nothing, my fears began to assuage, and my belief in my own intuitive good judgment to return. Maybe, I had done a good thing for Josiah and Hannah, and they were blessing me. Three years passed peacefully away, and Iwas beginning to forget the existence of the Hacketts.

"Then he came again. I returned home from business one evening to find him waiting for me in the hall. The moment I saw him I knew that my worst fears had fallen short of the truth. I motioned him to follow me to my study. He did so, and seated himself in the identical chair on which he had sat three years ago. The change in him was remarkable; he looked old and careworn. His manner was that of resigned hopelessness.

"We remained for a while without speaking, he twirling his hat as at our first interview, I making a show of arranging papers on my desk.

At length, feeling that anything would be more bearable than this silence, I turned to him.

"'Things have not been going well with you, I'm afraid, Josiah?' Isaid.

"'No, sir,' he replied quietly; 'I can't say as they have, altogether. That Hannah of yours has turned out a bit of a teaser.'

"There was no touch of reproach in his tones. He simply stated a melancholy fact.

"'But she is a good wife to you in other ways,' I urged. 'She has her faults, of course. We all have. But she is energetic. Come now, you will admit she's energetic.'

"I owed it to myself to find some good in Hannah, and this was the only thing I could think of at that moment.

"'Oh yes, she's that,' he assented. 'A little too much so for our sized house, I sometimes think.'

"'You see,' he went on, 'she's a bit cornery in her temper, Hannah is; and then her mother's a bit trying, at times.'

"'Her mother!' I exclaimed, 'but what's SHE got to do with you?'

"'Well, you see, sir,' he answered, 'she's living with us now--ever since the old man went off.'

"'Hannah's father! Is he dead, then?'

"'Well, not exactly, sir,' he replied. 'He ran off about a twelvemonth ago with one of the young women who used to teach in the Sunday School, and joined the Mormons. It came as a great surprise to every one.'

"I groaned. 'And his business,' I inquired--'the timber business, who carries that on?'

"'Oh, that!' answered Josiah. 'Oh, that had to be sold to pay his debts--leastways, to go towards 'em.'

"I remarked what a terrible thing it was for his family. I supposed the home was broken up, and they were all scattered.

"'No, sir,' he replied simply, 'they ain't scattered much. They're all living with us.'

"'But there,' he continued, seeing the look upon my face; 'of course, all this has nothing to do with you sir. You've got troubles of your own, I daresay, sir. I didn't come here to worry you with mine. That would be a poor return for all your kindness to me.'

"'What has become of Julia?' I asked. I did not feel I wanted to question him any more about his own affairs.