Contrary Mary

Temple Bailey

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• Publié par: chuen
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Contrary Mary, by Temple Bailey, Illustrated by Charles S. Corson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Contrary Mary Author: Temple Bailey Release Date: March 6, 2006 [eBook #17938] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTRARY MARY*** E-text prepared by Al Haines [Frontispiece: She flashed a quick glance at him.] CONTRARY MARY BY TEMPLE BAILEY AUTHOR OF GLORY OF YOUTH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES S. CORSON NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1914 BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY First printing, December, 1914 Second printing, February, 1915 Third printing, March, 1915 Fourth printing, March, 1915 Fifth printing, April, 1915 Sixth printing, July, 1915 Seventh printing, November, 1915 Contrary Mary To My Sister Contents CHAPTER I In Which Silken Ladies Ascend One Stairway, and a Lonely Wayfarer Ascends Another and Comes Face to Face with Old Friends. CHAPTER II In Which Rose-Leaves and Old Slippers Speed a Happy Pair; and in Which Sweet and Twenty Speaks a New and Modern Language, and Gives a Reason for Renting a Gentleman's Library. CHAPTER III In Which a Lonely Wayfarer Becomes Monarch of All He Surveys; and in Which One Who Might Have Been Presented as the Hero of this Tale is Forced, Through No Fault of His Own, to Take His Chances with the Rest. CHAPTER IV In Which a Little Bronze Boy Grins in the Dark; and in Which Mary Forgets that There is Any One Else in the House. CHAPTER V In Which Roger Remembers a Face and Delilah Remembers a Voice; and in Which a Poem and a Pussy Cat Play an Important Part. CHAPTER VI In Which Mary Brings Christmas to the Tower Rooms, and in Which Roger Declines a Privilege for Which Porter Pleads. CHAPTER VII In Which Aunt Frances Speaks of Matrimony as a Fixed Institution and is Met by Flaming Arguments; and in Which a Strange Voice Sings Upon the Stairs. CHAPTER VIII In Which Little-Lovely Leila Sees a Picture in an Unexpected Place; and in Which Perfect Faith Speaks Triumphantly Over the Telephone. CHAPTER IX In Which Roger Sallies Forth in the Service of a Damsel in Distress; and in Which He Meets Dragons Along the Way. CHAPTER X In Which a Scarlet Flower Blooms in the Garden; and in Which a Light Flares Later in the Tower. CHAPTER XI In Which Roger Writes a Letter; and in Which a Rose Blooms Upon the Pages of a Book. CHAPTER XII In Which Mary and Roger Have Their Hour; and in Which a Tea-Drinking Ends in What Might Have Been a Tragedy. CHAPTER XIII In Which the Whole World is at Sixes and Sevens; and in Which Life is Looked Upon as a Great Adventure. CHAPTER XIV In Which Mary Writes from the Tower Rooms; and in Which Roger Answers from Among the Pines. CHAPTER XV In Which Barry and Leila Go Over the Hills and Far Away; and in Which a March Moon Becomes a Honeymoon. CHAPTER XVI In Which a Long Name is Bestowed Upon a Beautiful Baby; and in Which a Letter in a Long Envelope Brings Freedom to Mary. CHAPTER XVII In Which an Artist Finds What All His Life He Has Been Looking For; and in Which He Speaks of a Little Saint in Red. CHAPTER XVIII In Which Mary Writes of the Workaday World; and in Which Roger Writes of the Dreams of a Boy. CHAPTER XIX In Which Porter Plants an Evil Seed Which Grows and Flourishes, and in Which Ghosts Rise and Confront Mary. CHAPTER XX In Which Mary Faces the Winter of Her Discontent; and in Which Delilah Sees Things in a Crystal Ball. CHAPTER XXI In Which a Little Lady in Black Comes to Washington to Witness the Swearing-in of a Gentleman and a Scholar. CHAPTER XXII In Which the Garden Begins to Bloom; and in Which Roger Dreamt. CHAPTER XXIII In Which Little-Lovely Leila Looks Forward to the Month of May; and in Which Barry Rides Into a Town With Narrow Streets. CHAPTER XXIV In Which Roger Comes Once More to the Tower Rooms; and in Which a Duel is Fought in Modern Fashion. CHAPTER XXV In Which Mary Bids Farewell to the Old Life, and in Which She Finds Happiness on the High Seas. CHAPTER XXVI In Which a Strange Craft Anchors in a Sea of Emerald Light; and in Which Mocking-Birds Sing in the Moonlight. Illustrations She flashed a quick glance at him . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ "What have I done?" "You don't know what you are doing." "Again I question your right." Contrary Mary CHAPTER I In Which Silken Ladies Ascend One Stairway, and a Lonely Wayfarer Ascends Another and Comes Face to Face With Old Friends. The big house, standing on a high hill which overlooked the city, showed in the moonlight the grotesque outlines of a composite architecture. Originally it had been a square substantial edifice of Colonial simplicity. A later and less restrained taste had aimed at a castellated effect, and certain peaks and turrets had been added. Three of these turrets were excrescences stuck on, evidently, with an idea of adornment. The fourth tower, however, rounded out and enlarged a room on the third floor. This room was one of a suite, and the rooms were known as the Tower Rooms, and were held by those who had occupied them to be the most desirable in the barn-like building. To-night the house had taken on an unwonted aspect of festivity. Its spaciousness was checkered by golden-lighted windows. Delivery wagons and automobiles came and went, some discharging loads of deliciousness at the back door, others discharging loads of loveliness at the front. Following in the wake of one of the front door loads of fluttering femininity came a somewhat somber pedestrian. His steps lagged a little, so that when the big door opened, he was still at the foot of the terrace which led up to it. He waited until the door was shut before he again advanced. In the glimpse that he thus had of the interior, he was aware of a sort of pink effulgence, and in that shining light, lapped by it, and borne up, as it were, by it toward the wide stairway, he saw slender girls in faint-hued frocks—a shimmering celestial company. As he reached the top of the terrace the door again flew open, and he gave a somewhat hesitating reason for his intrusion. "I was told to ask for Miss Ballard—Miss Mary Ballard." It seemed that he was expected, and that the guardian of the doorway understood the difference between his business and that of the celestial beings who had preceded him. He was shown into a small room at the left of the entrance. It was somewhat bare, with a few law books and a big oldfashioned desk. He judged that the room might have been put to office uses, but to-night the desk was heaped with open boxes, and odd pieces of furniture were crowded together, so that there was left only a small oasis of cleared space. On the one chair in this oasis, the somber gentleman seated himself. He had a fancy, as he sat there waiting, that neither he nor this room were in accord with the things that were going on in the big house. Outside of the closed door the radiant guests were still ascending the stairway on shining wings of light. He could hear the music of their laughter, and the deeper note of men's voices, rising and growing fainter in a sort of transcendent harmony. When the door was finally opened, it was done quickly and was shut quickly, and the girl who had entered laughed breathlessly as she turned to him. "Oh, you must forgive me—I've kept you waiting?" If their meeting had been in Sherwood forest, he would have known her at once for a good comrade; if he had met her in the Garden of Biaucaire, he would have known her at once for more than that. But, being neither a hero of ballad nor of old romance, he knew only that here was a girl different from the silken ladies who had ascended the stairs. Here was an air almost of frank boyishness, a smile of pleasant friendliness, with just enough of flushing cheek to show womanliness and warm blood. Even her dress was different. It was simple almost to the point of plainness. Its charm lay in its glimmering glistening sheen, like the inside of a shell. Its draperies were caught up to show slender feet in low-heeled slippers. A quaint cap of silver tissue held closely the waves of thick fair hair. Her eyes were like the sea in a storm—deep gray with a glint of green. These things did not come to him at once. He was to observe them as she made her explanation, and as he followed her to the Tower Rooms. But first he had to set himself straight with her, so he said: "I was sorry to interrupt you. But you said —seven?" "Yes. It was the only time that the rooms could be seen. My sister and I occupy them—and Constance is to be married —to-night." This, then, was the reason for the effulgence and the silken ladies. It was the reason, too, for the loveliness of her dress. "I am going to take you this way." She preceded him through a narrow passage to a flight of steps leading up into the darkness. "These stairs are not often used, but we shall escape the crowds in the other hall." Her voice was lost as she made an abrupt turn, but, feeling his way, he followed her. Up and up until they came to a third-floor landing, where she stopped him to say, "I must be sure no one is here. Will you wait until I see?" She came back, presently, to announce that the coast was clear, and thus they entered the room which had been enlarged and rounded out by the fourth tower. It was a big room, ceiled and finished in dark oak, The furniture was roomy and comfortable and of worn red leather. A strong square table held a copper lamp with a low spreading shade. There was a fireplace, and on the mantel above it a bust or two. But it was not these things which at once caught the attention of Roger Poole. Lining t