and burned in the backyard. Then he called his mother from her room, where she had remained silently during his labors, and delivered an ultimatum. He was not coming back again
ever
unless she sent that girl away!
Harriet made a thin, hard line of her colorless lips and said she would
never
send the Boggs girl away; that he was an unnatural son, and that he had no right to demand anything while he was going with a girl who was so obnoxious to his mother. She began to state that Ariel must be some relation to the “offscouring of the earth,” whatever that may be, but Jud refused to discuss Ariel with his mother. He said she had shown herself too utterly unfair to be worthy to judge; that he was not worthy to unfasten Ariel’s shoes, but he meant to marry her someday if she would have him, so she might as well get used to the idea at once; and that if she had any idea of being a mother at all, she would stop such outrageous talk about a lovely and innocent girl and go and see her and do the right thing. He knew it would be a long time before he would have money enough to marry a girl like Ariel, who had been used to everything that money could buy, and nothing was too good for, but he never should change, and he would never return if the Boggs girl did not go, nor so long as his mother talked that way about the girl he loved.
Then with a sudden impulse his face softened and he went and stood before his mother: “Mother,” he pleaded, just as he used to do on rare occasions sometimes when he was a little boy and wanted something very much. “Mother, why will you be this way? Why won’t you listen to reason and go and see Ariel, and be a mother to us both? You have power to make me very happy—”
“Happy, oh yes!
You
would be happy! But what about
me
?” screamed Harriet Granniss hardly. “You want to walk right over my heart! Marry a hussy that never could be my daughter! Well, take what you’ve brought on yourself and me, then! Work your fingers to the bone if you will. She’ll be faded and old by the time you can ask her to marry you—a light-complicated girl like that—or else she’ll get tired waiting for you and marry the rich man she works for. If you marry a girl I like, I can fix it so you can set up housekeeping right away. There’s money your father left, enough to start you, that you weren’t to have until you were thirty unless I approved the woman you married. I’ll never approve that yellow-haired baby-doll. Understand that, Judson Granniss! But if you’ll marry Helena, I’ll see that you get it right away. It’s enough to set you up in business!”
Jud faced his mother, white with anger: “I’d see myself dead first,” he said furiously. “Marry that great
slob
! Mother, you’re enough to make a man lose his soul!”
And Harriet Granniss’s son turned and left her.
She stood a long time in his empty room looking out across the fields that skirted the backyard, her lips set thin and hard, a terrible expression in her determined eyes. The iron had entered her soul! She had lost her son, she knew, out of her life forever. He might forgive in a way, but he never would feel the same toward her again. The dream she had dreamed of his life and hers flowing in a long pleasant stream as she had planned it would never come true now. But she would not give up! Something hardened within her, sour and bitter and painful. If one can age in a moment, Harriet Granniss could have been said to age in that hour when she and her son parted in the dismantled room, and he went away to work for the girl she hated because he hated the girl she had picked out for him.
They walked in the woods together that evening, Ariel and Jud, because it was the only place where they could really talk without fear of interruption. Each had seen a cloud in the other’s eyes, and each longed to comfort the other. But Jud tried to shake off his depression when he saw the trouble in the girl’s eyes.
“Has anything
ever
unless she sent that girl away!
Harriet made a thin, hard line of her colorless lips and said she would
never
send the Boggs girl away; that he was an unnatural son, and that he had no right to demand anything while he was going with a girl who was so obnoxious to his mother. She began to state that Ariel must be some relation to the “offscouring of the earth,” whatever that may be, but Jud refused to discuss Ariel with his mother. He said she had shown herself too utterly unfair to be worthy to judge; that he was not worthy to unfasten Ariel’s shoes, but he meant to marry her someday if she would have him, so she might as well get used to the idea at once; and that if she had any idea of being a mother at all, she would stop such outrageous talk about a lovely and innocent girl and go and see her and do the right thing. He knew it would be a long time before he would have money enough to marry a girl like Ariel, who had been used to everything that money could buy, and nothing was too good for, but he never should change, and he would never return if the Boggs girl did not go, nor so long as his mother talked that way about the girl he loved.
Then with a sudden impulse his face softened and he went and stood before his mother: “Mother,” he pleaded, just as he used to do on rare occasions sometimes when he was a little boy and wanted something very much. “Mother, why will you be this way? Why won’t you listen to reason and go and see Ariel, and be a mother to us both? You have power to make me very happy—”
“Happy, oh yes!
You
would be happy! But what about
me
?” screamed Harriet Granniss hardly. “You want to walk right over my heart! Marry a hussy that never could be my daughter! Well, take what you’ve brought on yourself and me, then! Work your fingers to the bone if you will. She’ll be faded and old by the time you can ask her to marry you—a light-complicated girl like that—or else she’ll get tired waiting for you and marry the rich man she works for. If you marry a girl I like, I can fix it so you can set up housekeeping right away. There’s money your father left, enough to start you, that you weren’t to have until you were thirty unless I approved the woman you married. I’ll never approve that yellow-haired baby-doll. Understand that, Judson Granniss! But if you’ll marry Helena, I’ll see that you get it right away. It’s enough to set you up in business!”
Jud faced his mother, white with anger: “I’d see myself dead first,” he said furiously. “Marry that great
slob
! Mother, you’re enough to make a man lose his soul!”
And Harriet Granniss’s son turned and left her.
She stood a long time in his empty room looking out across the fields that skirted the backyard, her lips set thin and hard, a terrible expression in her determined eyes. The iron had entered her soul! She had lost her son, she knew, out of her life forever. He might forgive in a way, but he never would feel the same toward her again. The dream she had dreamed of his life and hers flowing in a long pleasant stream as she had planned it would never come true now. But she would not give up! Something hardened within her, sour and bitter and painful. If one can age in a moment, Harriet Granniss could have been said to age in that hour when she and her son parted in the dismantled room, and he went away to work for the girl she hated because he hated the girl she had picked out for him.
They walked in the woods together that evening, Ariel and Jud, because it was the only place where they could really talk without fear of interruption. Each had seen a cloud in the other’s eyes, and each longed to comfort the other. But Jud tried to shake off his depression when he saw the trouble in the girl’s eyes.
“Has anything
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