The Copy-Cat [94]
cut V-shaped at the throat, and, as always, a black velvet ribbon with a little gold locket attached. The locket con- tained a coil of hair. Jane had been engaged to a young minister, now dead three years, and he had given her the locket. Jane no doubt had mourned for her lover, but she had a covert pleasure in the romance of her situation. She was a year younger than Annie, and she had loved and lost, and so had achieved a sentimental distinction. Imogen always had admirers. Eliza had been courted at intervals half-heartedly by a widower, and Susan had had a few fleeting chances. But Jane was the only one who had been really defi- nite in her heart affairs. As for Annie, nobody ever thought of her in such a connection. It was supposed that Annie had no thought of marriage, that she was foreordained to remain unwed and keep house for her father and Benny. When Jane said that dear Annie did not realize that she made false statements, she voiced an opinion of the family before which Annie was always abso- lutely helpless. Defense meant counter-accusation. Annie could not accuse her family. She glanced from one to the other. In her blue eyes were still sparks of wrath, but she said nothing. She felt, as always, speechless, when affairs reached such a junc- ture. She began, in spite of her good sense, to feel guiltily responsible for everything -- for the spoiling of the hay, even for the thunder-storm. What was more, she even wished to feel guiltily responsible. Anything was better than to be sure her sisters were not speaking the truth, that her father was blaming her unjustly. Benny, who sat hunched upon himself with the effect of one set of bones and muscles leaning upon others for support, was the only one who spoke for her, and even he spoke to little purpose. "One of you other girls," said he, in a thick, sweet voice, "might have come out and helped Annie; then she could have got the hay in." They all turned on him. "It is all very well for you to talk," said Imogen. "I saw you myself quit raking hay and sit down on the piazza." "Yes," assented Jane, nodding violently, "I saw you, too." "You have no sense of your responsibility, Ben- jamin, and your sister Annie abets you in evading it," said Silas Hempstead with dignity. "Benny feels the heat," said Annie. "Father is entirely right," said Eliza. "Benja- min has no sense of responsibility, and it is mainly owing to Annie." "But dear Annie does not realize it," said Jane. Benny got up lumberingly and left the room. He loved his sister Annie, but he hated the mild simmer of feminine rancor to which even his father's pres- ence failed to add a masculine flavor. Benny was always leaving the room and allowing his sisters "to fight it out." Just after he left there was a tremendous peal of thunder and a blue flash, and they all prayed again, except Annie; who was occupied with her own perplexities of life, and not at all afraid. She won- dered, as she had wondered many times before, if she could possibly be in the wrong, if she were spoil- ing Benny, if she said and did things without know- ing that she did so, or the contrary. Then suddenly she tightened her mouth. She knew. This sweet- tempered, anxious-to-please Annie was entirely sane, she had unusual self-poise. She KNEW that she knew what she did and said, and what she did not do or say, and a strange comprehension of her family over- whelmed her. Her sisters were truthful; she would not admit anything else, even to herself; but they confused desires and impulses with accomplishment. They had done so all their lives, some of them from intense egotism, some possibly from slight twists in their mental organisms. As for her father, he had simply rather a weak character, and was swayed by the majority. Annie, as she sat there among the praying group, made the same excuse for her sisters that they made for her. "They don't realize it," she said to herself. When the storm finally ceased she hurried up- stairs and opened the windows, letting in the rain- fresh air. Then she got supper, while her sisters resumed their needlework.