Intolerably monotonous seemed now to the Bunner sisters thetreadmill routine of the shop, colourless and long their eveningsabout the lamp, aimless their habitual interchange of words to theweary accompaniment of the sewing and pinking machines.
It was perhaps with the idea of relieving the tension of theirmood that Evelina, the following Sunday, suggested inviting MissMellins to supper. The Bunner sisters were not in a position to belavish of the humblest hospitality, but two or three times in theyear they shared their evening meal with a friend; and MissMellins, still flushed with the importance of her "turn," seemedthe most interesting guest they could invite.
As the three women seated themselves at the supper-table,embellished by the unwonted addition of pound cake and sweetpickles, the dress-maker's sharp swarthy person stood out vividlybetween the neutral-tinted sisters. Miss Mellins was a small womanwith a glossy yellow face and a frizz of black hair bristling withimitation tortoise-shell pins. Her sleeves had a fashionable cut,and half a dozen metal bangles rattled on her wrists. Her voicerattled like her bangles as she poured forth a stream of anecdoteand ejaculation; and her round black eyes jumped with acrobaticvelocity from one face to another. Miss Mellins was always havingor hearing of amazing adventures. She had surprised a burglar inher room at midnight (though how he got there, what he robbed herof, and by what means he escaped had never been quite clear to herauditors); she had been warned by anonymous letters that her grocer(a rejected suitor) was putting poison in her tea; she had acustomer who was shadowed by detectives, and another (a verywealthy lady) who had been arrested in a department store forkleptomania; she had been present at a spiritualist seance where anold gentleman had died in a fit on seeing a materialization of hismother-in-law; she had escaped from two fires in her night-gown,and at the funeral of her first cousin the horses attached to thehearse had run away and smashed the coffin, precipitating herrelative into an open man-hole before the eyes of his distractedfamily.
A sceptical observer might have explained Miss Mellins'sproneness to adventure by the fact that she derived her chiefmental nourishment from the Police Gazette and theFireside Weekly; but her lot was cast in a circle where suchinsinuations were not likely to be heard, and where the title-rolein blood-curdling drama had long been her recognized right.
"Yes," she was now saying, her emphatic eyes on Ann Eliza,"you may not believe it, Miss Bunner, and I don't know's Ishould myself if anybody else was to tell me, but over a yearbefore ever I was born, my mother she went to see a gypsy fortune-teller that was exhibited in a tent on the Battery with the green-headed lady, though her father warned her not to--and what yous'pose she told her? Why, she told her these very words--says she:
'Your next child'll be a girl with jet-black curls, and she'llsuffer from spasms.'""Mercy!" murmured Ann Eliza, a ripple of sympathy running downher spine.
"D'you ever have spasms before, Miss Mellins?" Evelina asked.
"Yes, ma'am," the dress-maker declared. "And where'd yousuppose I had 'em? Why, at my cousin Emma McIntyre's wedding, herthat married the apothecary over in Jersey City, though her motherappeared to her in a dream and told her she'd rue the day she doneit, but as Emma said, she got more advice than she wanted from theliving, and if she was to listen to spectres too she'd never besure what she'd ought to do and what she'd oughtn't; but I will sayher husband took to drink, and she never was the same woman afterher fust baby--well, they had an elegant church wedding, and whatyou s'pose I saw as I was walkin' up the aisle with the weddingpercession?""Well?" Ann Eliza whispered, forgetting to thread her needle.
"Why, a coffin, to be sure, right on the top step of thechancel--Emma's folks is 'piscopalians and she would have a churchwedding, though HIS mother raised a terrible rumpus over it--well, there it set, right in front of where the minister stoodthat was going to marry 'em, a coffin covered with a black velvetpall with a gold fringe, and a 'Gates Ajar' in white camellias atopof it.""Goodness," said Evelina, starting, "there's a knock!""Who can it be?" shuddered Ann Eliza, still under the spell ofMiss Mellins's hallucination.
Evelina rose and lit a candle to guide her through the shop.
They heard her turn the key of the outer door, and a gust of nightair stirred the close atmosphere of the back room; then there wasa sound of vivacious exclamations, and Evelina returned with Mr.
Ramy.
Ann Eliza's heart rocked like a boat in a heavy sea, and thedress-maker's eyes, distended with curiosity, sprang eagerly fromface to face.
"I just thought I'd call in again," said Mr. Ramy, evidentlysomewhat disconcerted by the presence of Miss Mellins. "Just tosee how the clock's behaving," he added with his hollow-cheekedsmile.
"Oh, she's behaving beautiful," said Ann Eliza; "but we'rereal glad to see you all the same. Miss Mellins, let me make youacquainted with Mr. Ramy."The dress-maker tossed back her head and dropped her lids incondescending recognition of the stranger's presence; and Mr. Ramyresponded by an awkward bow. After the first moment of constrainta renewed sense of satisfaction filled the consciousness of thethree women. The Bunner sisters were not sorry to let Miss Mellinssee that they received an occasional evening visit, and MissMellins was clearly enchanted at the opportunity of pouring herlatest tale into a new ear. As for Mr. Ramy, he adjusted himselfto the situation with greater ease than might have been expected,and Evelina, who had been sorry that he should enter the room whilethe remains of supper still lingered on the table, blushed withpleasure at his good-humored offer to help her "glear away."The table cleared, Ann Eliza suggested a game of cards; and itwas after eleven o'clock when Mr. Ramy rose to take leave. Hisadieux were so much less abrupt than on the occasion of his firstvisit that Evelina was able to satisfy her sense of etiquette byescorting him, candle in hand, to the outer door; and as the twodisappeared into the shop Miss Mellins playfully turned to AnnEliza.
"Well, well, Miss Bunner," she murmured, jerking her chin inthe direction of the retreating figures, "I'd no idea your sisterwas keeping company. On'y to think!"Ann Eliza, roused from a state of dreamy beatitude, turned hertimid eyes on the dress-maker.
"Oh, you're mistaken, Miss Mellins. We don't har'ly know Mr.
Ramy."Miss Mellins smiled incredulously. "You go 'long, MissBunner. I guess there'll be a wedding somewheres roundhere before spring, and I'll be real offended if I ain't asked tomake the dress. I've always seen her in a gored satin withrooshings."Ann Eliza made no answer. She had grown very pale, and hereyes lingered searchingly on Evelina as the younger sister re-entered the room. Evelina's cheeks were pink, and her blue eyesglittered; but it seemed to Ann Eliza that the coquettish tilt ofher head regrettably emphasized the weakness of her receding chin.
It was the first time that Ann Eliza had ever seen a flaw in hersister's beauty, and her involuntary criticism startled her like asecret disloyalty.
That night, after the light had been put out, the elder sisterknelt longer than usual at her prayers. In the silence of thedarkened room she was offering up certain dreams and aspirationswhose brief blossoming had lent a transient freshness to her days.
She wondered now how she could ever have supposed that Mr. Ramy'svisits had another cause than the one Miss Mellins suggested. Hadnot the sight of Evelina first inspired him with a suddensolicitude for the welfare of the clock? And what charms butEvelina's could have induced him to repeat his visit? Grief heldup its torch to the frail fabric of Ann Eliza's illusions, and witha firm heart she watched them shrivel into ashes; then, rising fromher knees full of the chill joy of renunciation, she laid a kiss onthe crimping pins of the sleeping Evelina and crept under thebedspread at her side.