Chapter XIV.

       Edgar Discourses of Scarlet Runners

       Table of Contents

      One day, in the middle of October, the mail brought Polly two letters: the first from Edgar, who often dashed off cheery scrawls in the hope of getting cheery replies, which never came; and the second from Mrs. Bird, who had a plan to propose.

      Edgar wrote:—

      … “I have a new boarding-place in San Francisco, a stone’s throw from Mrs. Bird’s, whose mansion I can look down upon from a lofty height reached by a flight of fifty wooden steps,—good training in athletics! Mrs. Morton is a kind landlady and the house is a home, in a certain way,—

      “But oh, the difference to me

       ‘Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee!

      “There is a Morton girl, too; but she neither plays nor sings nor jokes, nor even looks,—in fine, she is not Polly! I have come to the conclusion, now, that girls in a house are almost always nuisances,—I mean, of course, when, they are not Pollies. Oh, why are you so young, and so loaded with this world’s goods, that you will never need me for a boarder again? Mrs. Bird is hoping to see you soon, and I chose my humble lodging on this hill-top because, from my attic’s lonely height, I can watch you going in and out of your ‘marble halls;’ and you will almost pass my door as you take the car. In view of this pleasing prospect (now, alas! somewhat distant), I send you a scrap of newspaper verse which prophesies my sentiments. It is signed ‘M. E. W.,’ and Tom Mills says whoever wrote it knows you.”

       WHEN POLLY GOES BY

      ‘T is but poorly I ‘m lodged in a little side-street,

       Which is seldom disturbed by the hurry of feet,

       For the flood-tide of life long ago ebbed away

       From its homely old houses, rain-beaten and gray;

       And I sit with my pipe in the window, and sigh

       At the buffets of fortune—till Polly goes by.

      There ‘s a flaunting of ribbons, a flurry of lace,

       And a rose in the bonnet above a bright face,

       A glance from two eyes so deliriously blue

       The midsummer seas scarcely rival their hue;

       And once in a while, if the wind ‘s blowing high,

       The sound of soft laughter as Polly goes by.

      Then up jumps my heart and begins to beat fast.

       “She ‘s coming!” it whispers. “She ‘s here! She has passed!”

       While I throw up the sash and lean breathlessly down

       To catch the last glimpse of her vanishing gown,

       Excited, delighted, yet wondering why

       My senses desert me if Polly goes by.

      Ah! she must be a witch, and the magical spell

       She has woven about me has done its work well,

       For the morning grows brighter, and gayer the air

       That my landlady sings as she sweeps down the stair;

       And my poor lonely garret, up close to the sky,

       Seems something like heaven when Polly goes by.

      “P. S. Tony has returned to the university. He asked after the health of the ‘sunset-haired goddess’ yesterday. You ‘d better hurry back and take care of me! No, joking aside, don’t worry about me, little missionary; I ‘ve outgrown Tony, and I hope I don’t need to be reformed oftener than once a year.

      “Yours ever, EDGAR.

      “P. S. No. II. I saw you twice after—you know—and I was dumb on both occasions. Of all people in the world I ought to have been able to say something helpful to you in your trouble, I, who lived with you and your dear mother through all those happy months before she left us. It will be just the same when I see you again: I shall never be able to speak, partly, I suppose, because I am a man, or on the road to becoming one. I know this is making you cry; I can see the tears in your eyes across all the distance; but it is better even that you should cry than that you should think me cold or unmindful of your sorrow. Do you know one of the sacred memories of my life? It is that, on that blessed night when your mother asked me to come and live under her roof, she said she should be glad to feel that in any sudden emergency you and she would, have a near friend to lean upon. There was a ‘royal accolade,’ if you like! I felt in an instant as if she had bestowed the order of knighthood upon me, and as if I must live more worthily in order to deserve her trust. How true it is, Polly, that those who believe in us educate us!

      “Do you remember (don’t cry, dear!) that night by the fireside,—the night when we brought her out of her bedroom after three days of illness,—when we sat on either side of her, each holding a hand while she told us the pretty romance of her meeting and loving your father? I slipped the loose wedding ring up and down her finger, and stole a look at her now and then. She was like a girl when she told that story, and I could not help thinking it was worth while to be a tender, honorable, faithful man, to bring that look into a woman’s face after eighteen years. Well, I adored her, that is all I can say; and I can’t say even that, I have to write it. Don’t rob me, Polly, of the right she gave me, that of being a ‘near friend to lean upon.’ I am only afraid, because you, more than any one else, know certain weaknesses and follies of mine, and, indeed, pulled me out of the pit and held me up till I got a new footing. I am afraid you will never have the same respect for me, nor believe that a fellow so weak as I was could be strong enough to lean upon. Try me once, Polly, just to humor me, won’t you? Give me something to do,—something hard! Lean just a little, Polly, and see how stiff I ‘ll be,—no, bother it, I won’t be stiff, I’ll be firm! To tell the truth, I can never imagine you as ‘leaning;’ though they say you are pale and sad, and out of sorts with life. You remind me of one of the gay scarlet runners that climb up the slender poles in the garden below my window. The pole holds up the vine at first, of course, but the vine keeps the pole straight; not in any ugly and commonplace fashion, but by winding round, and round about it, and hanging its blossoms in and out and here and there, till the poor, serviceable pole is forgotten in the beauty that makes use of it.

      “Good-by, little scarlet runner! You will bloom again some day, when the storm that has beaten you down has passed over and the sky is clear and the sun warm. Don’t laugh at me, Polly!

      “Always yours, whether you laugh or not,

       “EDGAR.”

      “P. S. No. III. I should n’t dare add this third postscript if you were near enough to slay me with the lightning of your eye, but I simply wish to mention that a wise gardener chooses young, strong timber for poles,—saplings, in fact! Mr. John Bird is too old for this purpose. Well seasoned he is, of course, and suitable as a prop for a century-plant, but not for a scarlet runner! I like him, you know, but I ‘m sure he ‘d crack if you leaned on him; in point of fact, he ‘s a little cracked now! E. N.”

      The ghost of a smile shone on Polly’s April face as she folded Edgar’s letter and laid it in its envelope; first came a smile, then a tear, then a dimple, then a sob, then a wave of bright color.

      “Edgar