Read Ebook: The Rose-Garden Husband by Widdemer Margaret

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Ebook has 536 lines and 49055 words, and 11 pages

CHAP. PAGE

COLOURED PLATES.

Cassowary 385

Crowned Crane 417

Australian Cockatoo--Macaw--Male Ruff in full breeding-plumage-- Laughing-jackass 449

Hoopoe flying 481

Waxbills--Indigo Finches 513

Green and Ocellated Lizards 545

The West African Python 577

Western Australian Scarlet Rock-cod-- Freemantle Devil-fish, or Armed Gurnard 609

A Salmon leaping 641

Goliath Beetle--Brazilian Bee--Grasshopper-- Candle-fly--Australian Robber-fly-- Japanese Analophus 673

Croesus Butterfly of Batchian 705

Portion of Inshore Coral Reef at Thursday Island, Torres Straits 737

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Rufous Tinamou, Brazil 385 Rhea and young 385 Rhea and young ones 386 Rhea lying down 386 Rheas in Tring Park 387 White Rheas 388 Ostrich standing beside her eggs 389 Ostriches ten days old 390 An Ostrich Family 391 A group of Cock Ostriches 392 Sclater's Cassowary 393 Nest and eggs of Emeu 394 Young Emeus five days old 394 Young Emeus 395 Emeu 395 Mantell's Kiwi 396 Owen's Kiwi 396 Red Grouse 397 Ptarmigan 398 Capercallie 398 Common Partridge 398 Texan Bob-white 399 Golden Pheasant 400, 401 Silver Pheasant 401 English Pheasants 401 Reeves's Pheasant 401 Amherst's Pheasant 401 Peacock-pheasant 401 Temminck's Tragopan 402 Chinese Tragopan 402 Himalayan Monal 403 Red Cochins 404 Brown Leghorn Cock 404 Silver-spangled Hamburgs 405 Dark Bramas 405 Silver Wyandotte Hen with Pheasant Chicks 406 Peacock 407 Back view of Peacock 407 Black-chested Crested Guinea-fowl 408 Nest of Brush-turkey at Woburn Abbey 409 Turkey Cock and Hen 409 Wallace's Painted Megapode 410 Razor-billed Curassow 411 Crested Curassow 411 Hoatzin 412 Weka-rail 413 Water-rail 413 A pair of young Pigeons in nest 414 Southern Fruit-pigeon 415 Nicobar Imperial Fruit-pigeons 415 New Guinea Crowned Pigeon 415 Wonga-wonga Pigeon 415 Male Black-bellied Sand-grouse 416 White Tern 417 Terns on a shingle bank 418 Herring-gull 419 Young Herring-gulls in the grey phase of plumage 419 Stone-curlew, or Thick-knee 420 Curlew 420 Woodcock 421 Oyster-catcher on its nest 421 Denham's Bustard 422 Great Bustards 422 Indian Bustards 423 Stanley Crane 424 Common Crane 425, 426 Manchurian Crane 426 Wattled Crane 426 Seriema 427 White-backed Trumpeters 427 Great Crested Grebe 428 Black-throated Divers 428 Rock-hopper Penguin 429 Black-footed Penguin 430 Black-footed Penguins bathing 431 King-penguin 432 Nesting Albatrosses 433 White-capped Albatross 434 Carting Albatross eggs 434 Fulmar Petrel 435 Whale-headed Stork 436 White Storks 437 Adjutant-stork 438 Jabiru Stork 438 Flamingoes 439, 440 European Flamingoes 440 Spoonbill 441 Sacred Ibis 441 Young Herons fourteen days old in nest 442 Great Blue Heron 443 Common Night-heron 444 Young Common Herons 444 Green Heron 445 Buff-backed Heron 446 Indian Cattle-egret 447 Common Bittern 448 Egyptian Pelican 449 Crested Pelican 450 Young Australian Pelican 451 Young Pelicans 451 Cormorant 452 Frigate-birds at home 453 Young Gannets, first year 454 Gannet, second year 454 Gannet, full plumage 454 Gannets on the Bass Rock 455 Crested Screamer, or Chaka 456 Aylesbury Duck 457 Pochard 457 Eider-duck 458 Sheldrake 458 Paradise-ducks 459 Cape Barren Goose 460 Australian Pygmy Goose 461 Black-necked Swan 461 Trumpeter- and Whooper-swans 462 Australian Black Swans and Cygnets 463 Condor 464 King-vulture 465 Black Vultures 465 Californian Vulture 466 Secretary-bird 467 Egyptian Kite 468 Australian Osprey 469 Bearded Vulture 470 Griffon-vulture 471 R?ppell's Vulture 471 Angolan Vulture 472 Pondicherry Vulture 472 Egyptian Vulture 473 Wedge-tailed Eagle 473 American Sparrow-hawk 474 Vociferous Sea-eagle 475 Imperial Eagle 475 Crested Eagle 475 Chilian Sea-eagle 475 Rough-legged Buzzard 476 Martial Hawk-eagle 476 Peregrine Falcon 477 Spectacled Owl 477 Eagle-owl 478 Virginian Eagle-owl 478 American Long-eared Owl 479 Tawny Owl 479 Screech-owl 480 Barn-owl 480 Common Night-jar 481 Pennant-winged Night-jar 481 More-porks 482, 483 Swift 484 Edible Swift 485 Ruby-throated Humming-birds 486 Kea 487 New Zealand Kea 488 New Zealand Kaka 489 Black Cockatoo 490 Cockatoo 490 Leadbeater's Cockatoo 491 Macaw 492 Blue Mountain-parrots 493 Young Cuckoo ejecting egg 494 Pheasant-cuckoo 495 Cuckoo one day old in Hedge-sparrow's nest 496 Young Cuckoo 497 Young Cuckoo in Reed-warbler's nest 498 Australian Laughing-kingfisher 499 Kingfishers at home 500 Laughing-kingfishers 501 Kingfisher 502 Laughing-jackass 503 Crested Hornbill 504 Concave-casqued Hornbill, India 505 Ground-hornbill 505 Hoopoe 506 Bee-eater 507 Racket-tailed Motmot 508 Trogon 509 Curl-crested Toucan 510 Honey-guide 511 A family of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers 511 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers 512 American Crow 513 Jackdaws 514 Young American Blue Jay 515 A pair of Magpies 516 Cornish Chough 517 King Bird of Paradise 517 Queensland Rifle-bird 518 Red Bird of Paradise 518 Young Starlings 519 Common Starling 520 Meadow-lark 521 Hawfinch 522 Young Chaffinches 523 House-sparrows 523 Bullfinch 524 Greenfinch 525 Linnet 526 Skylarks 527 Young Skylarks 528 Nuthatch 529 Marsh-tit 530 Great Tit 531 Coal-tits 532 Red-backed Shrikes 533 Australian Magpie 533 Reed-warbler 534 Song-thrush 535 Young Thrush 536 Blackbird 536 Robin 537 Nightingale 537 Stone-chat 538 A pair of Wrens 539 Common Wrens 539 Young Swallows 540 Sand-martins 541 Victorian Lyre-bird 542 Tail of Australian Lyre-bird 542 Bell-bird 543 Cock-of-the-walk 544 Young Nile Crocodile 545 Young Broad-snouted Crocodile 546 A dead Crocodile 546 A Crocodile 547 A Queensland Crocodile 548 Crocodile, well illustrating the character of the dentition 549 Crocodiles and Alligators, with young 550 A Crocodile from Southern United States 550 Mississippi and Chinese Alligators 551 Asiatic Tortoises 552 European Tortoise 552 Elephant-tortoises from the Galapagos Islands 553 Elephant-tortoise 554 Giant or Elephant-tortoises from the Galapagos Islands 555 Giant Tortoise 556 A Giant Tortoise with a European Tortoise on its back 557 Elephant-tortoise 558 Snapping-turtle 559 Temminck's Snapper 560 Newly hatched Turtles enjoying their first swim 561 Cuban Terrapins 562 Blind-worm 563 Glass-snake, or Scheltopusik 563 Burmese Geckos 564 Madeiran Geckos 565 Flying-dragon of Java 566 Frilled Lizard at bay with expanded frill 567 Frilled Lizard with frill folded up 567 Frilled Lizard running on its hind legs 567 Australian Tree-lizard 568 Australian Water-lizard 569 Australian Jew or Bearded Lizards 570 Bearded Lizard 570 A young Bearded Lizard 570 Australian York or Mountain-devil 571 Spinous Lizard, or Mountain-devil 571 A group of Mountain-devils of Central Australia 572 Horned Toad 572, 573 Tuberculated Iguana 574 Small Viviparous Lizard 574 Wall-lizard 574 Banded Iguanas 575 South African Girdled Lizard 575 Arizona Heloderm 576 White Monitor 576 Green Lizard 577 Ocellated Lizards at home 577 R?ntgen ray photograph of Ocellated Lizard 578 Common Skink 579 Australian Stump-tailed Lizards 579 Blue-tongued Lizards 580 Spine-tailed Lizards, Western Australia 580 Chamaeleons asleep 581 A Chamaeleon in a rage 581 Common Chamaeleon of South Europe and North Africa 582 A Chamaeleon shooting out its tongue to capture a fly 583 A photograph of a Chamaeleon in the act of catching a butterfly 583 Tuatera of New Zealand 584 A tame Tuatera 584 Dark Green Snake 585, 586 A small Boa-constrictor seizing and devouring a rat 587 Boa-constrictor ready to strike 588 Carpet-snake 589 AEsculapian Snake 589 A group of Garter-snakes 590 Leopard-snake 591 Tesselated Snake 591 Pine-snake 592 Cobra 593 Queensland Sea-snake 593 English Viper 594 African Puff-adder 595 Diamond-back Rattle-snake 595 Rattle-snake 596 Fer-de-lance Snake 597 Bull-frog 598 American Bull-frog 598 Edible Frog 599 Tiger-like Frog 599 R?ntgen ray photograph of Common Frog 600 Ornamented Horned Toad 601 European Green Tree-frog 602 Queensland Tree-frogs 603 Common Toad 603, 604 Common or Smooth Newt 605 Smooth Newt 606 Spotted Salamanders 607 Yellow phase of Spotted Salamanders 608 Australian Lung-fish 609 Bottle-nosed Chimaera 610 White Perch 611 Sea-bass 611 Large-mouthed Black Bass 612 Butter-fish 612 American "Sun-fish" 613 The miscalled Archer-fish 614 Striped Red Mullet 614 Brown Snapper 615 Red Sea-bream 615 Snapper 616 King-snapper 616 Australian Groper 617 Indian Weaver-fish 618 Ragged Sea-scorpion 618 Stone-fish 619 Tassel-fish 619 Sword-fish 620 Snoek 620 Fringed Horse mackerel 621 Horse-mackerel 621 John Dories 622, 624 Long-finned Dory 623 Sucking-fish 625 Larger Weaver 625 Angler-fish 626 Butterfly-gurnard 627 Reel-gurnard 627 Bar-tailed Flat-head 628 Rock Flat-head 628 Lump-sucker 629 Blenny 630 Northern Mullet 631 Red Mullet 631 Garpikes 632 Pipe-fish 632 Flying-fish 633 Spotted Wrasse 634 Satin Parrot-fish 634 Black-spotted Parrot-fish 635 A Wrasse 635 Globe-fish 636 Black-spotted Globe-fish 637 Trigger-fish 637 Coffer-fishes 638 Lace-finned Leather-jacket 639 Spotted Box- or Trunk-fish 639 Sea-horses 640 Whiting 641 Pollack-whiting 642 Spotted Sole 643 Halibut 644 Brill 645 Eels 646 Conger-eel 647 Cat-fish 648 Painted Eels from Bermuda 649 Cat-fishes 649 Carp 650 Gold-fish 651 Pike 652 Pikerel 653 "Sergeant Baker" 653 Beaked Salmon 654 Queensland Smelt 655 Salmon-trout 656 American Salmon-trout from Diamond Lake, New Zealand 657 Smelt 658 Ox-eyed Herring 659 Queensland Lung-fish 660 Australian Pilchards 661 Bony Pike 662 Sturgeon 663 Sterlet 663 Bicher 663, 664 Wollibong, or Carpet-shark 665 Spotted Shark 665 Basking-shark 666 Ocellated Dog-fish 667 Indian Sting-ray 667 Horned Ox-ray, or Devil-fish 668 Whip-tailed Sting-ray 668 Shovel-nosed Skate 669 Painted Skate 669 Barnacles 670 A pair of Barnacles 670 Acorn-barnacle 671 Wood-louse 671 Shrimp 672 Fresh-water Crab 672 Spider-crab 673 Blue Crab 673 Fighting Crabs 674 Egyptian Scorpion 675 Tree Trap-door Spider of Brazil 676 House-spider 676 Garden-spider in web 677 Spanish Tarantula 678 Giant Centipede 679 Giant Millipede 680 Tiger-beetle 681 Ground-beetle 682 Great Brown Water-beetle 682 Black Water-beetle 682 Two Burying-beetles 683 Male Stag-beetle 684 Skipjack Beetle 684 Hercules Beetle flying 684 Cockchafer on daisy 685 Harlequin Beetle 686 Jumping-beetle, allied to the Turnip-flea 686 Reed-beetle 687 Musk-beetle 688 Earwig 689 American Cockroach 689 Stick-insect 690 Walking Leaf-insects 690 House-cricket 691 Mole-cricket 691 Long-horned Grasshopper 692 Cape Grasshopper 692 Egyptian Locust 693 Wart-eating Grasshopper 694 Dragon-fly 695 Queen Termite 696 Termites 696 Termite's nests in Queensland 697 Termites at work 698 Termites' nest 699 Scorpion-fly 699 Adult form of Ant-lion 700 Large Caddis-fly 701 Saw-fly 702 Marble Gall-fly and gall 702 Tree-wasp 703 Tree wasp's nest 703 Pine-boring Wasp 704 Pine-boring Wasp 704 Ichneumon-fly 705 Ruby-tailed Fly 705 Wood-ant 705 Solitary Ant 706 Hornet 706 Hive-bee 707 Bumble-bee on everlasting-pea 707 Bees 708 Leaf-butterfly 709 South American Long-winged Butterflies 710 Diana Fritillary 710 Queen of Spain Fritillary 710 Tawny Admiral 711 Caterpillar of Tawny Admiral 711 Blue Butterfly 712 Blue Morpho Butterfly and Humming-bird 712 Large Blue Butterfly 713 Mazarine Blue Butterfly 713 Long-tailed Blue Butterfly 713 Bloxworth Blue Butterfly 713 Large Copper Butterfly 714 Dusky Copper Butterfly 714 New Guinea Golden Butterfly 715 Australian Butterflies 715 Bath White Butterfly 716 Green-veined White Butterfly 716 Black-veined White Butterfly s, till the muddy marble steps of her boarding-place gleamed sloppily before her through the foggy rain.

She sat up late that night, doing improving things to the white net waist that went with her best suit, which was black. As her needle nibbled busily down the seams she continued happily to wonder about that Entirely Different Line. It sounded to her more like a reportership on a yellow journal than anything else imaginable. Or, perhaps, could she be wanted to join the Secret Service?

"At any rate," she concluded light-heartedly, as she stitched the last clean ruching into the last wrist-covering, sedate sleeve, "at any rate I'll have a chance to-morrow to wear mother's gold earrings that I mustn't have on in the library. And oh, how lovely it will be to have a dinner that wasn't cooked by a poor old bored boarding-house cook or a shiny tiled syndicate!"

And she went to bed--to dream of Entirely Different Lines all the colors of the rainbow, that radiated out from the Circulation Desk like tight-ropes. She never remembered Eva Atkinson's carefully prettied face, or her own vivid, work-worn one, at all. She only dreamed that far at the end of the pink Entirely Different Line--a very hard one to walk--there was a rose-garden exactly like a patchwork quilt, where she was to be.

When Phyllis woke next morning everything in the world had a light-hearted, holiday feeling. Her Sundays, gloriously unoccupied, generally did, but this was extra-special. The rain had managed to clear away every vestige of last week's slush, and had then itself most unselfishly retired down the gutters. The sun shone as if May had come, and the wind, through the Liberry Teacher's window, had a springy, pussy-willowy, come-for-a-walk-in-the-country feel to it. She found that she had slept too late to go to church, and prepared for a joyful dash to the boarding-house bathtub. There might be--who knew but there actually might be--on this day of days, enough hot water for a real bath!

"I feel as if everything was going to be lovely all day!" she said without preface to old black Maggie, who was clumping her accustomed bed-making way along the halls, with her woolly head tied up in her Sunday silk handkerchief. Even she looked happier, Phyllis thought, than she had yesterday. She grinned broadly at Phyllis, leaning smilingly against the door in her kimona.

"Ah dunno, Miss Braithways," she said, and entered the room and took a pillow-case-corner in her mouth. "Ah never has dem premeditations!"

Phyllis laughed frankly, and Maggie, much flattered at the happy reception of her reply, grinned so widely that you might almost have tied her mouth behind her ears.

"You sure is a cheerful person, Miss Braithways!" said Maggie, and went on making the bed.

Phyllis fled on down the hall, laughing still. She had just remembered another of old Maggie's compliments, made on one of the rare occasions when Phyllis had sat down and sung to the boarding-house piano. Phyllis had come out in the hall to find old Maggie listening rapturously.

"Oh, Miss Braithways!" she had murmured, rolling her eyes, "you certainly does equalize a martingale!"

... All of the contented, and otherwise, elderly people who inhabited the boarding-house with Phyllis appeared to have gone off without using hot water, for there actually was some. The Liberry Teacher found that she could have a genuine bath, and have enough water besides to wash her hair, which is a rite all girls who work have to reserve for Sundays. This was surely a day of days!

She used the water--alas for selfish human nature!--to the last warm drop and went gayly back to her little room with no emotions whatever for the poor other boarders, soon to find themselves wrathfully hot-waterless. And then--she thoughtlessly curled down on the bed, and slept and slept and slept! She wakened dimly in time for the one o'clock dinner, dressed, and ate it in a half-sleep. She went back upstairs planning a trolley-ride that should take her out into the country, where a long walk might be had. And midway in changing her shoes she lay back across the bed and--fell asleep again. The truth was, Phyllis was about as tired as a girl can get.

She waked at dusk, with a jerk of terror lest she should have overslept her time for going out. But it was only six. She had a whole hour to prink in, which is a very long time for people who are used to being in the library half-an-hour after the alarm-clock wakes them.

Some houses, all of themselves, and before you meet a soul who lives in them, are silently indifferent to you. Some make you feel that you are not wanted in the least; these usually have a lot of gilt furniture, and what are called objects of art set stiffly about. Some seem to be having an untidy good time all to themselves, in which you are not included.

All four sat amiably about the room and held precise and pleasant converse, something like a cheerful essay written in dialogue, about many amusing, intelligent things which didn't especially matter. The Liberry Teacher liked it. It was pleasant beyond words to sit nestlingly in a pluffy chair, and hear about all the little lightly-treated scholarly day-before-yesterday things her father had used to talk of. She carried on her own small part in the talk blithely enough. She approved of herself and the way she was behaving, which makes very much for comfort. There was only once that she was ashamed of herself, and thought about it in bed afterwards and was mortified; when her eyes filled with quick tears at a quite dry and unemotional--indeed, rather a sarcastic--quotation from Horace on the part of Mr. De Guenther. But she smiled, when she saw that they noticed her.

"That's the first time I've heard a Latin quotation since I came away from home," she found herself saying quite simply in explanation, "and Father quoted Horace so much every day that--that I felt as if an old friend had walked in!"

But her hosts didn't seem to mind. Mr. De Guenther in his careful evening clothes looked swiftly across at Mrs. De Guenther in her gray-silk-and-cameo, and they both nodded little satisfied nods, as if she had spoken in a way that they were glad to hear. And then dinner was served, a dinner as different--well, she didn't want to remember in its presence the dinners it differed from; they might have clouded the moment. She merely ate it with a shameless inward joy.

It ended, still to a pleasant effortless accompaniment of talk about books and music and pictures that Phyllis was interested in, and had found nobody to share her interest with for so long--so long! She felt happily running though everything the general, easy taking-for-granted of all the old, gentle, inflexible standards of breeding that she had nearly forgotten, down in the heart of the city among her obstreperous, affectionate little foreigners.

They had coffee in the long old-fashioned salon parlor, and then Mr. De Guenther straightened himself, and Mrs. De Guenther folded her veined, ringed old white hands, and Phyllis prepared thrilledly to listen. Surely now she would hear about that Different Line of Work.

There was nothing, at first, about work of any sort. They merely began to tell her alternately about some clients of theirs, a Mrs. Harrington and her son: rather interesting people, from what Phyllis could make out. She wondered if she was going to hear that they needed a librarian.

"This lady, my client, Mrs. Harrington," continued her host gravely, "is the one for whom I may ask you to consider doing some work. I say may, but it is a practical certainty. She is absolutely alone, my dear Miss Braithwaite, except for her son. I am afraid I must ask you to listen to a long story about them."

It was coming!

"Oh, but I want to hear!" said Phyllis, with that quick, affectionate sympathy of hers that was so winning, leaning forward and watching them with the lighted look in her blue eyes. It all seemed to her tired, alert mind like some story she might have read to her children, an Arabian Nights narrative which might begin, "And the Master of the House, ascribing praise unto Allah, repeated the following Tale."

"There have always been just the two of them, mother and son," said the Master of the House. "And Allan has always been a very great deal to his mother."

"Poor Angela!" murmured his wife.

"They are old friends of ours," her husband explained. "My wife and Mrs. Harrington were schoolmates.

"Well, Allan, the boy, grew up, dowered with everything a mother could possibly desire for her son, personally and otherwise. He was handsome and intelligent, with much charm of manner."

"There was practically nothing," Mr. De Guenther went on, "which the poor lad had not. That was one trouble, I imagine. If he had not been highly intelligent he would not have studied so hard; if he had not been strong and active he might not have taken up athletic sports so whole-heartedly; and when I add that Allan possessed charm, money and social status you may see that what he did would have broken down most young fellows. In short, he kept studies, sports and social affairs all going at high pressure during his four years of college. But he was young and strong, and might not have felt so much ill effects from all that; though his doctors said afterwards that he was nearly at the breaking point when he graduated."

"Allan could not have been more than twenty-two when he graduated, and it was a very short while afterwards that he became engaged to a young girl, the daughter of a family friend. Louise Frey was her name, was it not, love?"

"Yes, that is right," said his wife, "Louise Frey."

"A beautiful girl," he went on, "dark, with a brilliant color, and full of life and good spirits. They were both very young, but there was no good reason why the marriage should be delayed, and it was set for the following September."

A princess, too, in the story! But--where had she gone? "The two of them only," he had said.

"It must have been scarcely a month," the story went on--Mr. De Guenther was telling it as if he were stating a case--"nearly a month before the date set for the wedding, when the lovers went for a long automobile ride, across a range of mountains near a country-place where they were both staying. They were alone in the machine.

"Allan, of course, was driving, doubtless with a certain degree of impetuosity, as he did most things.... They were on an unfrequented part of the road," said Mr. De Guenther, lowering his voice, "when there occurred an unforeseen wreckage in the car's machinery. The car was thrown over and badly splintered. Both young people were pinned under it.

"So far as he knew at the time, Allan was not injured, nor was he in any pain; but he was held in absolute inability to move by the car above him. Miss Frey, on the contrary, was badly hurt, and in suffering. She died in about three hours, a little before relief came to them."

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