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Show - - . ' " ' s 15 $ i I chilil-Iikc pale-gold hair, llic delicate lines of her fragile lace, so different from the Welsh women of their village. Under his scrutiny Janny sat serenely with a mrc than wonted air of self-possession. She interrupted him. "Ariel, ye've been to sea, dear?" ' Aye, when I was a lad." "Was it for long?' "Not long, two j cars sailin' with cargoes between our coast and Ireland' "Did yc learn much of the ways of sailor folk?" "Aye, much." "Runnin' up an' down the ropes?" "Aye, that, an' more too." "Did yc learn talooiu', dear?" "Ay; the marks ye've seen on my arms an old salt taught mc to do. The sailors were clever sith the needle, skctchin' as well as sewin'." "Do yc think yc could sketch a star now, Ariel, or have yc forgotten " Ariel laughed, partly with pleasure at this talk by the fire, partly from joy in the companionship. "Aye, I'm thinkin' I could, little lamb." He drew his chair closer to hers and saw her face brighten; it rested her so to have him near her, and her thoughts sped back through all the years of loneliness and hunger for the things she could not nave; she had a new consciousness of life and of being useful; it was not merely Ariel, it was the house, too, and what she could do to make it well, the word escaped her; anyway it was the house as well as Ariel, and it was lovely to think of what she could do for it while he made poetry and sold things in the shop. F how lonely Janny must have been ever since she came to him, the appeal of her confidence touched the best that was in him, the protection that was his to give her, and some potential sense of fatherhood. Aye, he knew how tired she was alter the life that lay behind her, and he gathered her into his arms, holding her there quietly while he talked. "What shall it be. Janny' A star, an anchor, a bit of rope, an' a cat, did ye say, dear?" "Ayc a star. Ariel, please I don't think I want the anchor The bit rope would be nice, dear. An' I'd kkc the cat " "An" what are yc goin' to do with these drawin's, Janny? Arc yc goin' to hang them on the walls. "No, I'm no goin to do that." "Well, it's just as well, dearie, for Petto Griffiths an Mrs. Comer Huberts, the Unman; an' Mrs. Parry Wynn, the baker, would be hauntin' Ty Mawr. Dut what are ye goin' to do with them, dearie?" "Ariel, I couldn't say now" Janny stirred uneasily, uneas-ily, "I might be hangin" them in our bedroom an an' an' 1 might be put.tin' puttin""thcm in the Bible to press. They'd be useful." "Aye, that's so. An' how large shall I draw them?" Janny thought a minute. "The cat, dear, I'd like about a foot long that is, from his tail to bis whiskers. no, I'm thinkin' that's too narrow for the cat; from the tail to the whiskers I'd like him one font an' a half, Ariel." Janny's glance took a flight over Ariel's shoulder. "An' th star?" Janny thought again. "Six inches from point to point, an' four stars na one star will do 1 can cutoh' Ariel, cue . MRS. JENKINS looked over at Mr. Jenkins, Jen-kins, merchant and bard, and there was love and wonderment in her eyes. He was reclining in an armchair, his long legs stretched before hun, his head at rest against the chair, his hands olded over his stomach, his eyes tight closed, his noutli wide open, his lips moving, and every once n a while his tongue quickly lapping his upper lip. anny looked away and out of the windows to the neadows that rolled up into the mist like big gray vaves, this was the act of composition, she knew, nd too sacred even for her, his humbler half, to lehold. But the misty uplands suggested over-much .f that unnamable something which when she looked t.hcr husband made her wish to shut her eyes, for light she not, Janny reasoned, sec more than she ught to sec of the divine spirit that moved behind liosc hills and behind the lips of Ariel Jenkins, o her thoughts slipped back into the living-room f Ty Mawr while her eyes avoided the inspired con-:nts con-:nts of the armchair. She had been a bride and ic envied mistress of Ty Mawr just two weeks; owever, she was thirty and matrimony wis late for cr, and Arid Jenkins being forty-five it was none jo early for him. Janny felt her responsibilities cenly. Was she living up to them? She was at the lcrcantilc centre of the village, her better half was ot only a merchant, .but also a crowned poet, her ousc the most important in Glaslyn. And Glaslyn Kpectcd changes; Mrs. Parry Wynn, the baker, said j, Mrs. Corner Roberts, the tsnman, had prop-csicd, prop-csicd, and Mrs. Jcezer Morris, the minister, had hispcrcd to Bctto Griffiths, who had told Janny f these expectations, that she supposed nay, she oped Ariel Jenkins's home with a woman in it ould soon look like a God-fearing place and receive Dine improvements. Janny's glance roved through ic sitting-room. She had made a few alterations, ut somehow in the half light of dusk they seemed s nothing. What was the moving or replenishing f a taper-holder, a fresh case for Ariel's harp, a cw cover for the table, or the addition of a few leasant-faccd China cats to a regimental mantel--jcce indeed, she sadly asked herself what were icse changes in comparison with the tinappointcd omcthing she was expected to accomplish as Mrs. iriel Jenkins, the shop? She was a stranger in ilaslyn, an intruder from a great outside world, and ow she felt bewildered, lonely. Her eyes flitted 3 Ariel's face for comfort.' "Dearie 1" ' There was no answer. "Is it comin', Ariel dear?" "Aye," he snapped. Janny winced; she had never lived with genius, nd somehow she thought it would be different. Her ccp-bluc eyes had a still look in them that sug-;csted sug-;csted not only a long habit of self-repression, but ilso perplexity, and sadness, too; there was appeal n every feature of her face an appeal made the nr"c pathetic, perhaps, by the childlike lines of palc-;old palc-;old curling hair about her forehead and tired eyes, ind the delicate hollows beneath her check bones and he fragile sweetness of her mouth. It was a face in ts soft bloom and delicacy forever young and yet unforgettably weary. She straightened out her kir-:le kir-:le and again her glance roved the room. There nust be a clean hearth brush, new muslin curtains 'or the casement; the stairway landing, where it turned by the front windows, looked even in the twilight shabby with the wear and tear of heavily l-ootcd feet and clogs, the light from the oriel window win-dow above the landing shining through with bald ugliness upon the stairs. As she looked at the light Janny's eyes dilated, her face flushed, and she leaned forward, gazing intently at the window. For the minute she had forgotten Ariel, but he, pufT, puff, puff, with many sighs and yawns, and much stretching stretch-ing of his long legs, was coming out of his inspired coma. His awakening look fell upon Janny there where she sat, her hands clasped in her bp, her shoulders tipped forward, her chin tilted upward, a rirclc of quiet light about her hair, her eyes intent bore her parcels to the table. Then flic united ihcni with trembling lingers, rolling out several feet of green and crimson paper and a small sheet of yellow. She placed weights on the corners of the lengths, pausing to run her fingers into her hair as she gazed with rapt eyes upon the colored surfaces, commonplace enough to ill appearances. She took the cat. laid it carefully on the crimson, pinned it down, and penciled around the edges. In the same fashion she drew the outlines of ftuir yellow stars and some lengths of yellow rope Pinally with a pair of shears she cut out all the outlined figure?. She lifted the cat, freed now from the matrix of surrounding paper and enlivened with the Iife-likcncss of a new liberty, and held its foot and a half of length against the candle light. The light shone thrrugh the crimson paper but dimly. Janny nodded, took a small cake of paralTnie, nie'ltcd it, and with a bit of cloth sponged the cat as it lay upon the table. This she did also to the four yellow stars, to the lengths of rope, and to a large piece of green paper upon which the original cat pattern had been appliqucd. Once more she lifted the crimson animal to the light, the candle flame shone through clearly with a beautiful crimson hood of softer light. After this Janny broke a half dozen eggs, separating the white freon the yolk, ller fingers worked feverishly fever-ishly now and her eyes kept measuring distances; in her nervous haste there were moments when she seemed hardly able to accomplish the next step forward for-ward in the task already complete in her mind's eye. She stopped to listen for sounds and steps as she worked, and again and again she imagined Ariel was looking down from the head of the staircase. Put she finished the work uninterrupted, and with a sigh, half sob of weariness, half contentment,, and with many a glance of admiration as she went, she tiptoed up the stairway. Ariel was sleeping, and as she crept into bed she put out a hand to touch his thick black hair, and then, curling into the cool white of the pi'low. fell asleep as children sleep, one hand resting bghtly on his arm. Ariel Jerkins awoke at the waking time of all Glaslyn the dawn, Janny lay beside him, still sleeping, sleep-ing, her face heavily shadowed in her abundant hair. She seemed so wistfully childlike and her closed eyes so unforgettably weary. Tc-rhaps it was merely the shadows of the early dawn and her hair, but the eyelids had a kind of veined transparency and her face a transparent pallor, and the mouth drooped. Ariel's selfishness smote him consciously; he thought with a pang of Janny, and he made resolutions. With this awakening he transferred a little of his poetry from the bard to the" man. Aye, he acknowledged acknowl-edged to himself, this might well be called the education of Ariel Jenkins, bard and merchant. And for the firt time a thought that gripped Ins heart brought him no desire to turn it into rhyme. He recalled compassionately all her clTorts to make improvements im-provements in the hou;c, her evident inability to understand and cope with the shrewd Welsh women of their village, and he remembered" with fear the prying curiosity and overt enmity these women had shown towards Janny. Then he wondered in a desultory way whit she was planning to do with the stars and the cat and the bits of rope. And after she awakened and they were talking at breakfast he reflected how easily his resolution won success, for Janny since he brought her io Glaslyn had not been as buciyant, almost animated, as she was this morning. morn-ing. Ariel thought, too, that he had not noticed before the way Janny had of looking at him, as if she expected him to discover some extraordinary joy, maybe she was merely looking to him for happi-, ness. but certainly there was an air of anticipation about her to-day. Upon finishing breakfast Ariel passed with a sense of secure well-being into his shop; so many problems prob-lems were solving themselves, and. on the whole, the man made him happier than the bard. Even the flag sidewalk outside the shop seemed more than ordinarily lively and merry to-day. He saw neighbors neigh-bors passing and heard them chatting, and once in a while there was a loud shout of laughter. Across the street, looking towards his shop, he beheld a little lit-tle knot of men Ivor Jones and Wil Pcnmorfa and Parry Wynn men who did ne.t usually have time for mirth so early in the morning. They were talking talk-ing and laughing, and Arier saw one of them point towards Ty Mawr Just then Mrs. Comers Roberts, the tinman, came in. She wanted sonic flannel for a blouse like the material she was wearing, and Mrs. Roberts threw back her long cloak to display the oeat striped ' flannel. How was Mrs. Jenkins? Ariel thanked her; Janny was well. "I'm comin' soon to have a good long visit with her." said Mrs. Roberts. "Aye? Ye ll be welcome," "Ve're makin' improvements, I sec." "Aye, a few," replied Ariel, using his yardstick deftly and wondering what improvements Mrs. Comer Roberts could have had any opportunity to sec. "Claslyn's no seen anything like it," continued Mrs. Roberts, straightening her beaver hat over the crisp white of her cap. "No, I'm thinkin not," answered Ariel, vaguely, rolling up the bundle of flannel with precise neat- no emotion. The oriel window jutting over the street had been transformed; he saw no longer the clear glass of the stairway light common to Ty Mawr and the other houses of Glaslyn, but a crimson crim-son cat, forefeet in air, blazoned on a green background, back-ground, each quarter of the oriel brilliant with a yellow star, and the whole device bound dexterously togctner with a chaplct of rope. ,Jh u.tef, ,3kc a prctty ''Cht!" " xcla.med, thoughtfully; "prettier." he added, with pride, "than I had any idea it would." The women stared at him. "Aye. an' it's prettier within." he continued; "it sheds such a bright color on dark clays " "U it so?" ejaculated Mrs. Parry Wynn. Aye, it is so," replied Arid. "Out of Glaslyn ye sec many colored windows like this in private houses smart houses, of course." "'Just fancy!" responded Mrs. Jcezer Morris vYevc seen them in churches, the non-conformists as wcl as the established, but we've never heard of colored windows before in a village house, especially especi-ally not with such a cat" "Aye, the cat!" interrupted Ariel, in a caressing voice, the far-away, much-revcrcnccd look of the poet in his eyes. "That cat is a copy from a medal fromthe sar-coph-a-gus of Tilgath Pileser II Aye" he added, dreamily, "the cat. the sacred symbol of tfirypt. holy to the Muses, beloved of" "Mr. Jenkins, ye don't say sol" they all exclaimed. nR.wlth cur'ou glances at the oriel window. I will say, nodded Mrs. Comer Roberts "that it has an uncommonly intelligent look, whatever" Aye. so it has." agreed Mrs. Parry Wynn, "intelligent "in-telligent an' an' lively. Bctto Griffiths glanced about the little group shrewdly. ' "An' the stars. Mr. Jenkins?" she said "Na. the starl Betto Griffiths, ye don't sav ye don t know the mcanin' of the five-point star, sacred to history, to sacred history, guide in the'" "Oh aye! interrupted Bctto, "if that's the star ye mean, I certainly do." The little gathering took a fresh look at the window; win-dow; their eyes lingered reverently on the emblazoned emblaz-oned group of cat and stars leashed together with yellow rope. "Aye, it's a wonderful idea! asserted Mrs. Jcezer Morris, from her superior position and knowledge. 'Aye, wonderful!" solemnly affirmed the rest "I'm thinkin'." said Bctto Griffiths, an undisci-Plmcd undisci-Plmcd look still in her eyes. "Mrs. Jenkins made "Tut. Mrs. Jenkins! Oh", no! exclaimed Ariel, thrusting his hands into his trousers pockets. " Old it. "Yc did!" they all exclaimed, admiringly. & "Na, Mr. Jenkins," continued Mrs. Parry Wynn whose husband, the baker, had been standing across' the street, not more than half an hour ago, laughing over the crimson cat rampant blazoned on the green held 'Mr. Jenkins, if Mr. Wynn thinks he could afford af-ford something like it, would yc be willin' " ,f"A'r Slail'y." turned Ariel; "but it's expensive. Mrs. Wynn." ' !'.nh! ihorusc1 thc womcn. deferential voices, but I m thinking'," continued Ariel, "through my connection as a merchant I might be able to obtain thc material at less expense an'" "If yc could!" clamored thc little group. "Mr. Jenkins, if Mr. Roberts" broke in Mrs. Roberts. "Mr. Jenkins, if Mr. Morris" interrupted Mrs Morris. "Won't ye come, in?" asked Ariel, placidly interrupting inter-rupting them all. "I'm thc certain vc will like the light even better from thc inside, where it falls in such plcasin' colors on the landin'. When I was workin' on it last night by moonlight thc colors were like fairyland," "Aye, it's only a poet could have conceived this," said Mrs. Morris, with assurance, "onlv a poet!" "Only a poet!" echoed thc rest. ' "But won't yc come in? Mrs. Jenkins will be glad to sec yc." "Aye, thank yc, 'twould be a pleasure!" and flock-Iikc flock-Iikc they followed Ariel into the house. Mrs. Jcnkin's eyes were- red and there was the furtive fur-tive aspect of a trapped animal about her, but when she saw their eager faces and heard their enthusiastic enthu-siastic and admiring exclamations as they crowded on to the stairway landing, there was a look of surprise sur-prise first and then of delight upon her face. "Mr. Jenkins tells me yc didn't make it yourself," said Bctto Griffiths, suspicioi, still on her sharp features. "It came," replied Janny, glancing appcalingly at Ariel "it came from Liverpool." "Janny dear," corrected Ariel, with a look straight into her eyes, "ye mean the material did." . "Aye, Ariel," answered Jannay. with a mixture of childlike obedience and confusion; "aye, just the material." Ariel talked a great deal; the window was admired, ad-mired, commented upon; there were demands for future assistance, envious exclamations of delight to Mrs. Jenkins, who was given no chance to say a word; and thc little group departed. "Well, Janny!" exclaimed Ariel. "ArieJ dear, I I saw them them laughin' an' an' then yc " Thc floodgates burst and Janny threw herself sobbing into Ariel's arms. "There, there, dear, little lamb!" he comforted, his I own eyes wet with tears. "I thought thought it would be so pretty an people's been expectin' me to to make changes an' an' Betto Griffiths said improvements, an', Ariel I I " Janny's voice caught and she sobbed afresh. "Na, na, little lamb, dearie, don'L Janny, Janny, don't cry. "Ariel. I saw the men laughin an' an' slap-pin' slap-pin' their knees an' an' pointin' at the window an' even little Silvan running by laughed, an' then when Betto Griffiths " Jenny faltered. guJprs;1 "Tut. little lamb, Betto Griffiths!" exclaimed Arte, derisively. "Bctto Griffiths is an ignorant woman An' dearie, didn't yc hear them all askin' me to help them to get windows like this?" "But, Ariel, didn't ye laugh at all?" "I laugh, Janny I Why. dear," answered Ariel, slowly, "I think the window is beautiful!" "Oh, Ariel 1" said Jann, happily. "Aye, I do, only if ye should have another idea, just tell mc about it, dearie, beforehand, for it might perhaps it wouldn't" he added, gently, "make it awkward." ' But, Ariel, I saw "Na. dear, that's enough ye don't understand these people quite yet. The window is beautiful; aye." he continued, "I like it so we'll be sendin' it t 1 -iverpool. to get a real stained glass window something the S3me 3yc,' dearie, I can well af- ' I ford it." ! i0mmmmmmmm -:mm mm. SO JANNY WATCHED ARIEL'S THIN FINGERS WORK SKlLtLLLY, SWIFTLY, WITH TUE IENCIL. upon the stairway window. "Janny dear, what is it? What arc yc lookin' at?" "Oh! na aye, lad, I ." "Well, well. Janny T' ,' "Ariel, I was thinkin'." "Aye, an' yc were plannin', too." He was thoroughly aroused now from his inspiration, in-spiration, and studying that object, woman, which through some twenty-five years he had sung and praised. Ariel's eyes searched her; stanza, metre, rhyme, theme, were all forgotten, for he saw that Janny possessed a thought she had no intention of parting with to him. He glanced from her to the window upon which she had been looking so rapturously rap-turously when he surprised her gaze. So far as he could sec it was like any other stairway light in Glaslyn, except that it was oval instead of rectangular, rectangu-lar, and pcrhrps a little deeper thar some, but othcr-.--Se precise like scores he had seen. Then he called imagination to his aid that imagination which had been thc means of begetting shillings over thc counters of his shop, which had .won for him a comfortable income, commercial success, as well as made him the foremost bard in his country, lie peered through thc window; what he bchc'.d was a bit of dusky sky with a shadowy star seemingly behind it. He dismissed imagination and returned t". the study of his bride. It was a whim probably; perhaps one of those unshaped thoughts, elemental, unspoken, to v ' ich women listen in their idle- moments: mo-ments: indeed, it might even be some dreaming about him of which Janny in the shyness of their iclation. still new. wa to., sensitive to speak. Gradually Grad-ually Ariel forgot the problem m his consciousness of the charm of Janny with her deep-blue eye, her "An. Ariel, could yc sketch mc an anchor an' a bit of rope?" "Aye, dearie, I could; yc know I could anyway, for I had drawin' at the school in Carnarvon while I was an apprentice there." "Drawin'?" "It was mam's idea."' Janny eyes grew large. "Ariel, do yc do yc think yc could draw mc a a cat?" Ariel look one look at Janny and burst into laughter; laugh-ter; shop, poetry, everything was forgotten in his amusement at her child-like eagerness. Suddenly be stopped, for Janny's face was quivering , Aye, he had forgotten, loo, that this was no peasant woman; his laughter seemed brutal. "Janny, little lamb," he said, softly, drawing her head to him, "I could, dear; I'll sketch all thc cats yc want." Janny sighed comfortably, her head still upon his rhouldcr, the weariness easing away from her heart. She could do it now, it would make the greatest difference; Bctto Griffiths and others should sec that she was something more than a bit of porcelain in Ariel's home, that she could do something more than merely oversee house cleaning. Besides, it really was something more, it was having an idea of her own, and that until Ariel rescued her she had never been allowed to have. She reached up and patted his face; even' her gestures were incomprehensibly childlike. What she lacked in the passion of a woman she seemed to make up in thc perfect trust of a child. Ariel, selfish with thc selfishness of a man who has lived by himself and who has lived much in his own mind, thought now with a pang star, please." "An' thc rope?" "It's thc twisted kind I want, an' it must go all around thc oh, dear! Ariel, about an inch wide, please." "Good. One cat, one star, one inch rope. Anything Any-thing more, little lamb?" "No-o-; could yc do it now?" "Aye, dearie; "fetch mc thc ruler, thc paper, an' a pencil. So Janny watched Ariel's thin lingers work skilfully, skil-fully, swiftly, with the pencil, thc ruler measuring off star-points and a cat's length as carefully as if thc paper were Welsh flannel worth one and six a yard. And the next night, after a day of unusual elation of feeling, Janny. when sleep had conic to Ariel, stole noiselessly from thc marital side, crept to the whitewashed white-washed wall of their bedroom, pallid in moonshine, felt for the white paper cat and star and length of rope hanging there indiscernible, caught the edge of thc paper with her fingers as she felt about, unpinned the pieces, and tiptoed out of thc room down the stairway As she moved about the sitting room in her nightgown night-gown she looked pathetically little, thc flush in her, cheeks marking her eager helplersness. MjcIi had slipped by her. and she had lost much in that sorry life before Ariel took her and brought her to live among strangers, whose motives and feelings she had no means' of penetrating. But the tenderness, the innocence, thc expectancy of childhuod, had remained re-mained with her as if making amends for her loss or awaiting thc sunshine of maturing impulses. She set a candle beside the settle, lifted the cover, took out two long rolls of paper, closed thc settle, and ncs?. He was still wondering why women talked in riddles rid-dles when in came Mrs. Jcezer Morris, the minister. She had torn her blue kirtle and wanted a new breadth. Ariel ttok down the cloth. Then were showered upon him in a compacter form and one of greater authority practically the same remarks as those made by Mrs. Corner Roberts: how was Mrs. Jenkins, she was coming to visit her, there were improvements she saw, thc tike of which Glaslyn had not seen before. Mrs. Morris, the minister, had scarcely finished her purchases when in came Mrs. Tarry Wynn, the baker; they had evidently met that morning, and their greetings were purely conventional conven-tional a smile, a look of inquiry, a nod of negation. Mrs. Parry Wynn wanted some new cbttou cloth, but apparently she also wished to make thc same remarks as those made by Mrs. Corner Roberts and Mrs. Jcezer Morris. Then Ariel Jenkins's thoughts began thc converging converg-ing process, began to gather in towardssomc definite centre, to fix themselves upon some one thing which all these estimable women must have in mind. And when Mrs. Parry Wynn left thc shop. Ariel went to the door. Bctto Griffiths walked by briskly, joining join-ing thc women who had just made purchases and who were gathered in a little group opposite Ty Mawr. They were looking eagerly at thc house and gesticulating Bctto Griffiths laughed as she pointed to Ty Mawr and shrugged her shoulders in thc direction di-rection of thc shop. Ariel's heart sank. What had Janny done to make the house such an object ol jttraclion? He stepped out to thc little group ol custeimcrs and looked up. Kxccpt for thc quick flexing of thc mflsclcs in hi? forehead and the dilation of his eyes Ariel betrayed I COPYRIGHT, 106. OY HARPER 4 BROTHERS. ALL RIGHTS RCSERVCD i "" ' ' ' I I l j |
