Chapter XXIII

The following Sunday noon Althea and Asaph were alone at dinner. Eleanor Parker had returned home and Rebecca had accompanied her to Springfield for a week-end visit. The house was unwontedly still and so were the Holmeses.

Usually during the meal, Althea, brightened by a trip to the village and a glimpse of something beyond the boundaries of her own home, discussed the sermon; commented artlessly on what the other women wore to church; or passed along to her husband fragments of gossip gleaned from her neighbors. But today she had scarcely a word to say, and when at length she did speak it was to hurl a bomb into the conversational arena.

“What should you think, Asaph, of closin’ up the Dolphin?” was her abrupt query.

Her astounded helpmate regarded her blankly.

“Eh?”

“Of shuttin’ up shop,” she elucidated. Then she smiled feebly. “I ’magined the idea would surprise you. Still, I don’t see why it should. Sooner or later everythin’ has to come to an end.”

She flicked a crumb jauntily from the table-cloth and stole a peep at her husband.

“Likely after the trouble an’ expense I’ve been to it may seem kinder early in the season to be givin’ up. It’s only the middle of August, to be sure. Still, I’ve had my fling an’ am satisfied. It’s been worth every cent I’ve spent.”

“I warn’t thinkin’ so much of the money,” Asaph stammered. “It was the notion of your doin’ away with the tea-house that dumbfounded me. What’s the matter? Gettin’ tuckered out?”

“Yes, I’m tired. You see I ain’t used to bein’ on my feet so much.”

“’Becca oughter save you some.”

“But I sha’n’t have ’Becca much longer. She an’ Lemmy are crazy as two children to get married, an’ of course there’s no reason for ’em to delay. They ain’t young an’ it’s only natural they should want to spend what life’s left ’em together. Anyhow, bein’ tired ain’t my only reason for abandonin’ the Dolphin. I saw Mattie Bearse at church this mornin’ an’ what she said to me has bothered my conscience ever since. She’s goin’ to give up the Yaller Fish.”

“Do away with it altogether?”

Gloomily Althea nodded.

“But I thought Mattie was doin’ fine with her tea, trinkets, an’ all. What’s set her whifflin’ round like this? She ain’t got the money to toss up a job just ’cause she’s sick of it. Moreover she’s only just cleared her expenses. To stop now when she is startin’ in to turn a penny is the height of foolishness. What’s her idea?”

“We’ve taken all her folks. She can’t make the place pay.”

“My soul an’ body!”

“Oh, she was real nice about it--not nasty a mite. She said ’twas all fair enough an’ she was glad we’d succeeded so well with the Dolphin, that no doubt it was a heap better’n her place. But for all she put so brave a front on it I could see her lip trembled an’ that she was terrible cut up. As you said a minute ago, she has no money to waste, an’ she’s laid out a lot on the Fish.”

“Why, she was dependin’ on what she made this summer for her year’s livin’; she told me so herself one day when I was there.”

“I know.”

“An’ you mean to say that after she got well under way we come along an’ took all the wind out of her sails?”

“I’m afraid so. I hadn’t, though, the least notion in the world when we started the Dolphin it was goin’ to affect her. If I’d foreseen that I’d never have stirred an inch to do it. It seemed to me there was room in Belleport for two shops.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? ’Specially as ours is on a side road.”

“I’m afraid ’twarn’t wholly the two shops that made the hitch. The rub comes in ours bein’ better--a sight better,” explained Althea. “You see the Dolphin’s had all the newest wrinkles an’ made quite a name for itself. We may’s well look the facts squarely in the face; since precious little of the credit belongs to us, there’s nothin’ boastful or vainglorious in admittin’ it. It’s all been due to Peggy. She knew how everythin’ oughter be done an’ passed the latest quirks on to me. Folks have raved about the sandwiches, little cakes, an’ fancy fixin’s. Mattie hadn’t any of ’em an’ the public likes novelties. Such notions take like wildfire.”

“Wal’, wal’!” mused Asaph. “Poor Mattie! It’s a durn shame! Why, I’d no more ’a’ done her an ill turn than I’d ’a’ cut off my head.”

“Nor I, neither. Let alone her havin’ her way to make in the world, ’twould ’a’ been a mean, unneighborly trick.”

The dinner progressed in uncomfortable silence.

“Besides,” went on Althea presently, “’tain’t as if we needed the Dolphin money. We’re only runnin’ our place for fun.”

Her husband allowed the statement to pass unchallenged.

“Then, too, our whole tea-shop staff is beginnin’ to crumble to pieces,” Althea continued, a fresh angle of the dilemma coming before her vision. “We’ll soon be left stranded without any help. ’Becca’ll be marryin’, an’ Peggy goin’ back to Cambridge within a week or two.”

“I thought the Davidsons meant to stay all summer.”

“They did till this romance come about. But now with this weddin’ on the carpet they’ve changed their plans. Eric insists on the marriage takin’ place right away. He can’t seem to wait a minute.”

“I don’t blame him.”

“Mebbe it’s as well,” agreed Althea. “Girls are flighty an’ changeable now-a-days, an’ while I don’t accuse Peggy of bein’ that sort, still I reckon they’re as well married. Their families are for havin’ the weddin’ soon, too. So Peggy an’ her mother are goin’ home to get ready.”

“Why don’t she get married here? She could have our front parlor, same’s ’Becca’s goin’ to.”

His wife’s laughter rippled through the room.

“I s’pose you’d have her married early some afternoon an’ go straight to servin’ tea afterwards.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s an only daughter, that’s why--an’ her mother wants the pleasure of toggin’ her out in white satin an’ marchin’ her down a church aisle. Like as not Peggy herself has a hankerin’ for a big weddin’, too. Most girls have. In all probability they won’t get more’n one chance in their lives to marry, an’ are therefore desirous of havin’ all the fuss an’ feathers.”

Far away the mutter of the surf could be heard.

Asaph stroked his chin reflectively.

“The Dolphin would be somethin’ of a fish to handle with Peggy, Eric, an’ ’Becca gone,” he conceded.

“Then there’s Mattie--don’t forget her,” cut in Althea.

“I ain’t forgettin’ Mattie. She’s the biggest consideration of all, to my way of thinkin’.” Rising from the table he began to walk about the room. “Wal’, Althea, I guess you’re right. Lookin’ at it every way I reckon we’d better bid the Dolphin good-bye. As for the money, most of what’s been spent was yours anyhow, an’ if you don’t mind sinkin’ it in a flyer it ain’t for me to moralize.”

“But we sha’n’t have sunk it,” his wife objected promptly. “We’ve already taken in more’n enough to clear expenses. I put out a lot at the start, I’ll own, so we won’t much more’n break even; but we’ll lose nothin’.”

“Oh, law, then, what are you arguin’ about? I wouldn’t give the matter a second thought. Pull down the curtains; stick out a sign directin’ folks to Mattie’s; an’ call the whole thing off. We’ll bury the Dolphin ten fathoms deep without loiterin’ for any partin’ ceremonies.”

“You speak as if you’d enjoy doin’ it.”

“I sha’n’t shed no tears, that’s sure,” Asaph grinned.

“I think you’ve been real good about it,” ventured Althea, tardily voicing her approval. “Considerin’ how it’s deprived you of your readin’, gardenin’, an’ pretty much everythin’ you like to do, you’ve shown true Christian patience.”

“Oh, there have been compensations,” smiled the man. “Peggy, Eric, ’Becca--we might never have known any of ’em but for the Dolphin. He’s done us that good turn. There’s other folks, too, that I’ve come to have a real regard for. Old gentleman Haverford, for all his indigestion, ain’t so bad as one would think. The woman from St. Louis, too, an’ even the old maid from the Inn that drank tea strong enough to float a plank on--they each had redeemin’ features, all of which goes to prove you never can tell about folks from the outside. That’s one lesson this tea business has taught me.”

“It’s taught other lessons besides that,” responded Althea, seriously. “One of ’em is that there’s such a thing as havin’ too much company. I’ve enjoyed the visitors an’ the people who’ve helped us--enjoyed ’em no end. But for all that I’ve had my fill of gossip an’ will be almighty glad to set down with you an’ have the house to myself without a procession troupin’ in an’ out the doors every afternoon. I ain’t been free to go a-visitin’ for weeks, or go to sewin’ meetin’ or anywhere else. I’ve missed a lot of the town doin’s. Why, when I met Hetty Nickerson at church today she spoke every other breath of somethin’ I didn’t even know had happened. I realized then how out of the runnin’ I’d got.”

Asaph chuckled. Althea’s artless confessions never ceased to entertain him.

“What’ll you do with the Dolphin layout?” he suddenly inquired, a new thought coming to him. “You’ve got dishes an’ silver enough to stock a ship.”

“I’ve been turnin’ that over in my mind,” Althea answered. “Of course the stuff could be sold second-hand an’ somethin’ realized on it; but a queer feelin’ of sentiment holds me back from doin’ that. I’d rather give it away. The church would admire to have the dishes, I s’pose; an’ so would the Eastern Star.”

“Why not pack up the outfit an’ turn it over to Mattie as a token of our good will?”

Althea shook her head.

“I thought of that the very first thing; but it wouldn’t fit in. Mattie’s place is yaller--the Yaller Fish. Green china--”

“Pshaw! I guess a few green dishes wouldn’t hurt it.”

“They wouldn’t match or go with the name.”

“Let her re-christen her shop then--call it the Green an’ Yaller Fish. ’Twould be just as well. In fact ’twould be a sight truer to life, for you stand ten times the chance to meet a striped or speckled fish in the sea than you do a plain-colored one.”

“Mebbe.”

“Ask any fisherman. He’ll tell you so. A green an’ yaller fish would be real cheerin’. I say we pack up all our truck--dishes, knives, forks, spoons--the whole kit--an’ let Lemmy an’ me tote ’em over to Mattie’s before the settin’ of another sun. Some of her dishes must be broken by now, anyhow.”

“They are. A woman who went there for tea told me some of the plates an’ cups were chipped an’ real shabby, an’ that it was worth your life to lay hands on a spoon.”

“Give her ours! Give her ours!” cried Asaph fervently. “Give her everythin’ we’ve got. ’Twill serve two purposes. ’Twill please her no end an’ at the same time get the lot of it out of the house. An’ while you’re at it, why not make a clean sweep an’ write off for her your receipts for cakes, sandwiches, an’ the flummeries Peggy’s taught you how to concoct? Mattie has brains an’ with her gift for cookin’ she could likely dish some of ’em up.”

“Oh, she could make ’em right ’nough if I told her how.”

“Then do it! Turn the Dolphin over to her, bait, line, an’ sinker, so’st there’ll never be danger of our hookin’ him again.”

Althea laughed, any vague regrets she may have cherished dispelled by her husband’s rejoicing.

“I reckon you an’ Lemmy won’t be sorry to see him go,” said she.

“We sha’n’t go wearin’ crape bands on our hats, if that’s what you mean,” affirmed her spouse. “An’ you?”

For an instant Althea paused, half regretfully.

“Me? Well, with ’Becca Crosby livin’ next door, I guess I sha’n’t miss him either.”

=Transcriber’s Notes=

Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.