Keziah Coffin Read online

him."

  "Nor I either. Sol was so bad the Sunday he preached that I couldn't goto meetin'. They say his sermon was fine; all about those who go down tothe sea in ships. That's what got the parish committee, I guess; they'reall old salts. I wonder if he's as fine-lookin' as they say?"

  Miss Van Horne tossed her head. She was resting, prior to making anotherassault on the window.

  "I don't know," she said. "And I'm sure I don't care. I don't likegood-looking ministers."

  "Deary me! You're different from most females in this town, then. Andyou spoke of his good looks yourself this very mornin'. Why don't youlike the good-lookin' ones?"

  "Oh, because they're always conceited and patronizing and superior--andspoiled. I can just imagine this Mr. Ellery of yours strutting about insewing circle or sociables, with Annabel and Georgianna Lothrop and therest simpering and gushing and getting in his way: 'O Mr. Ellery, I didso enjoy that sermon of yours Sunday!' and 'O Mr. Ellery, it was SO goodof you to come this afternoon!' Pooh! I'm glad I'm a Come-Outer. Notthat I would simper over him if I wasn't. He couldn't patronize me--notmore than once, at any rate."

  Keziah was greatly amused.

  "Sakes alive!" she chuckled. "You're awfully high and mighty, seems tome. And changeable since mornin'. You was willin' enough to talk abouthim then. Now, Gracie, you mustn't take a spite against poor Mr. Elleryjust because I've got to keep house for him. 'Tain't his fault; he don'teven know it yet."

  "I don't care. I know he'll be a conceited little snippet and I shallhate the sight of him. There! there! Auntie, you mustn't mind me. Itold you I was a selfish pig. But don't you ask me to LIKE this preciousminister of yours, because I shan't do it. He has no business to comeand separate me from the best friend I've got. I'd tell him so if he washere--What was that?"

  Both women looked at each other with startled faces. They listenedintently.

  "Why, wa'n't that funny!" whispered Keziah. "I thought I heard--"

  "You DID hear. So did I. What do you suppose--"

  "S-s-s-h-h! It sounded from the front room somewhere. And yet therecan't be anybody in there, because--My soul! there 'tis again. I'm goin'to find out."

  She grasped the stubby broom by the handle and moved determinedly towardthe front hall. Grace seized her by the arm.

  "Don't you do it, auntie!" she whispered frantically. "Don't you DO it!It may be a tramp."

  "I don't care. Whoever or whatever it is, it has no business in thishouse, and I'll make that plain in a hurry. Just like as not it's a catgot in when Elkanah was here this forenoon. Don't be scared, Grace. Comeright along."

  The girl came along, but not with enthusiasm. They tiptoed through thedark, narrow hall and peered into the parlor. This apartment was dim andstill and gloomy, as all proper parlors should be, but there was no signof life.

  "Humph!" sniffed Keziah. "It might have been upstairs, but it didn'tsound so. What did it sound like to you?"

  "Like a footstep at first; and then like something falling--andrustling. Oh, what is the matter?"

  Mrs. Coffin was glancing back down the hall with a strange expression onher face. Her grip upon the broom handle tightened.

  "What IS it?" pleaded the girl in an agonized whisper.

  "Grace," was the low reply, "I've just remembered somethin'. That studydoor isn't stuck from the damp, because--well, because I remember nowthat it was open this mornin'."

  Before her companion could fully grasp the import of this paralyzingfact, Keziah strode down the hall and seized the knob of the study door.

  "Whoever you are in there," she commanded sternly, "open this door andcome out this minute. Do you hear? I'm orderin' you to come out."

  There was an instant of silence; then a voice from within made answer, aman's voice, and its tone indicated embarrassment.

  "Madam," it said, "I--I am--I will be out in another minute. If you willjust be patient--"

  Grace interrupted with a smothered shriek. Keziah brandished the broom.

  "Patient!" she repeated sharply. "Well, I like that! What do you meanby--Open that door! Grace, run out and get the--the constable."

  This command was delivered entirely for effect. The office of constablein Trumet is, generally speaking, a purely honorary one. Its occupanthad just departed for a week's cruise as mate of a mackerel schooner.However, the effect was instantaneous. From behind the door came soundsof hurry and commotion.

  "Don't get the police on my account, please," said the voice. "If youwill be patient until I get this--I'm just as anxious to come out as youcan be to have me. Of all the ridiculous--"

  "Come out then!" snapped Keziah. "Come out! If you're so everlastin'anxious, then come out. Patience! Of all the cheek! Why don't you comeout NOW?"

  The answer was brisk and to the point. Evidently, the unknown's stock ofthe virtue which he demanded of others was diminishing.

  "Well, to be frank, since you insist," snapped the voice, "I'm not fullydressed."

  This was a staggerer. For once Keziah did not have a reply ready.She looked at Grace and the latter at her. Then, without words, theyretreated to the sitting room.

  "Shall--shall I go for help?" whispered the girl. "Hadn't we betterleave him here and--He doesn't sound like a tramp, does he. What DO yousuppose--"

  "I hope you won't be alarmed," continued the voice, broken by pantingpauses, as if the speaker was struggling into a garment. "I know thismust seem strange. You see, I came on the coach as far as Bayportand then we lost a wheel in a rut. There was a--oh, dear! where ISthat--this is supremely idiotic!--I was saying there happened to be aman coming this way with a buggy and he offered to help me along. He wason his way to Wellmouth. So I left my trunk to come later and took myvalise. It rained on the way and I was wet through. I stopped at CaptainDaniels's house and the girl said he had gone with his daughter to thenext town, but that they were to stop here at the parsonage on theirway. So--there! that's right, at last!--so I came, hoping to find them.The door was open and I came in. The captain and his daughter were nothere, but, as I was pretty wet, I thought I would seize the opportunityto change my clothes. I had some dry--er--things in my valise andI--well, then you came, you see, and--I assure you I--well, it was themost embarrassing--I'm coming now."

  The door opened. The two in the sitting room huddled close together,Keziah holding the broom like a battle-ax, ready for whatsoever mightdevelop. From the dimness of the tightly shuttered study stepped theowner of the voice, a stranger, a young man, his hair rumpled, histie disarranged, and the buttons of his waistcoat filling the wrongbuttonholes. Despite this evidence of a hasty toilet in semidarkness, hewas not unprepossessing. Incidentally, he was blushing furiously.

  "I'm--I'm sure I beg your pardon, ladies," he stammered. "I scarcelyknow what to say to you. I--"

  His eyes becoming accustomed to the light in the sitting room, he wasnow able to see his captors more clearly. He looked at Keziah, then atMiss Van Horne, and another wave of blushes passed from his collar upinto the roots of his hair. Grace blushed, too, though, as she perfectlywell knew, there was no reason why she should.

  Mrs. Coffin did not blush. This young fellow, although evidently not atramp or a burglar, had caused her some moments of distinct uneasiness,and she resented the fact.

  "Well," she observed rather tartly, "I'm sorry you don't know what tosay, but perhaps you might begin by telling us who you are and what youmean by makin' a--er--dressin' room of a house that don't belong toyou, just because you happened to find the door unlocked. After thatyou might explain why you didn't speak up when we first come, insteadof keepin' so mighty quiet. That looks kind of suspicious to me, I mustsay."

  The stranger's answer was prompt enough now. It was evident he resentedthe suspicion.

  "I didn't speak," he said, "because you took me by surprise and Iwasn't, as I explained--er--presentable. Besides, I was afraid offrightening you. I assure you I hurried as fast as I could, quietly, andwhen you began to talk"--his expression changed and there was a twitchat the
corner of his mouth--"I tried to hurry still faster, hoping youmight not hear me and I could make my appearance--or my escape--sooner.As for entering the house--well, I considered it, in a way, my house; atleast, I knew I should live in it for a time, and--"

  "Live in it?" repeated Keziah. "LIVE in it? Why! mercy on us! you don'tmean to say