"Oh, Mother!" said Kate.
"Now you lookey here," said Mrs. Bates. "Suppose you was a man of
Robert's brains, and education, and professional ability, and you
made heaps of money, and no children came, and you had to see all
you earned, and stood for, and did in a community spent on the
SELFISHNESS of one woman. How big would you feel? What end is
that for the ambition and life work of a real man? How would you
like it?"
"I never thought of such a thing," said Kate.
"Well, mark my word, you WILL think of it when you see their home,
and her clothes, and see them together," said Mrs. Bates.
"She still loves pretty clothing so well?" asked Kate.
"She is the best-dressed woman in the county, and the best
looking," said Mrs. Bates, "and that's all there is to her. I'm
free to say with her chances, I'm ashamed of what she has, and
hasn't made of herself. I'd rather stand in your shoes, than
hers, this minute, Katie."
"Does she know I'm here?" asked Kate.
"Yes. I stopped and told her on my way out, this morning," said
Mrs. Bates. "I asked them to come out for Sunday dinner, and they
are coming."
"Did you deliver the invitation by force?" asked Kate.
"Now, none of your meddling," said Mrs. Bates. "I got what I went
after, and that was all I wanted. I've told her an' told her to
come to see you during the last three years, an' I know she WANTED
to come; but she just had that stubborn Bates streak in her that
wouldn't let her change, once her mind was made up. It did give
us a purty severe jolt, Kate, havin' all that good Bates money
burn up."
"I scarcely think it jolted any of you more than it did me," said
Kate dryly.
"No, I reckon it didn't," said Mrs. Bates. "But they's no use
hauling ourselves over the coals to go into that. It's past. You
went out to face life bravely enough and it throwed you a
boomerang that cut a circle and brought you back where you started
from. Our arrangements for the future are all made. Now it's up
to us to live so that we get the most out of life for us an' the
children. Those are mighty nice children of yours, Kate. I take
to that boy something amazin', and the girl is the nicest little
old lady I've seen in many a day. I think we will like knittin'
and sewin' together, to the top of our bent."
"My, but I'm glad you like them, Mother," said Kate. "They are
all I've got to show for ten years of my life."
"Not by a long shot, Katie," said Mrs. Bates. "Life has made a
real woman of you. I kept watchin' you to-day comin' over; an' I
was prouder 'an Jehu of you. It's a debatable question whether
you have thrown away your time and your money. I say you've got
something to show for it that I wish to God the rest of my
children had. I want you should brace your back, and stiffen your
neck, and make things hum here. Get a carpenter first. Fix the
house the way it will be most convenient and comfortable. Then
paint and paper, and get what new things you like, in reason -- of
course, in reason -- and then I want you should get all of us
clothes so's there ain't a noticeable difference between us and
the others when we come together here or elsewhere. Put in a
telephone; they're mighty handy, and if you can scrape up a place
-- I washed in Nancy Ellen's tub a few weeks ago. I never was wet
all over at once before in my life, and I'm just itching to try it
again. I say, let's have it, if it knocks a fair-sized hole in a
five-hundred-dollar bill. An' if we had the telephone right now,
we could call up folks an' order what we want without ever budgin'
out of our tracks. Go up ahead, Katie, I'll back you in anything
you can think of. It won't hurt my feelings a mite if you can
think of one or two things the rest of them haven't got yet.
Can't you think of something that will lay the rest of them clear
in the shade? I just wish you could. Now, I'm going to bed."