Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph.
It is time to relax and fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.
Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the support beneath you and let all the worries of the day drift away.
This is your time and your space.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.
There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.
Happy listening.
Chapter 15 Let us be calm,
Said Uncle Benjamin.
Let us be perfectly calm.
Calm?
Mrs.
Frederick wrung her hands.
How can I be calm?
How can anybody be calm under such a disgrace as this?
Why in the world did you let her go?
Asked Uncle James.
Let her?
How could I stop her,
James?
It seems she packed the big fillies and sent it away with roaring Abel when he went home after supper while Christine and I were out in the kitchen.
Then Doss herself came down with her little satchel dressed in her green serge suit.
I felt a terrible premonition.
I can't tell you how it was,
But I seemed to know Doss was going to do something dreadful.
It's a pity you couldn't have had your premonition a little sooner,
Said Uncle Benjamin dryly.
I said,
Doss,
Where are you going?
And she said,
I'm going to look for my blue castle.
Wouldn't you think that would convince Marsh her mind is affected?
Interjected Uncle James.
Valancy,
What do you mean?
I said.
And she said,
I'm going to keep house for roaring Abel and Nurse Sissy.
He'll pay me $30 a month.
I wonder I didn't drop dead on the spot.
You shouldn't have let her go.
You shouldn't have let her out of the house,
Said Uncle James.
You should have locked the door.
She was between me and the front door,
And you can't realize how determined she was.
She was like a rock.
That's the strangest thing of all about Doss.
She used to be so good and obedient,
And now she's neither one or the other.
I asked her if she had no regard for her reputation.
I said to her solemnly,
Doss,
When a woman's reputation smudged,
Nothing can ever make it spotless again.
Your character will be gone forever if you go to roaring Abel's to wait on a bad girl like Sissy Gray.
And she said,
I don't believe Sissy was a bad girl,
And I don't care if she was.
They were her very words.
She's lost all sense of decency,
Exploded Uncle Benjamin.
Sissy Gray is dying,
She said,
And it's a shame and disgrace she's dying in a Christian community with no one to do anything for her,
She said.
Well,
You know,
When it comes to that,
I suppose she is,
Said Uncle James,
With the air of one making a splendid concession.
I asked Doss if she had no regard for appearances,
And she said she's been keeping up appearances all her life.
Now she's going in for realities.
Appearances can go hang,
She said,
Go hang.
An outrageous thing,
Said Uncle Benjamin violently,
An outrageous thing.
Mrs.
Frederick wept.
Cousin Stickles took up the refrain between her moans of despair.
I told her,
We both told her,
That Roaring Abel had certainly killed his wife in one of his drunken rages and would kill her.
And she laughed and said,
I'm not afraid of Roaring Abel,
He won't kill me.
And he's too old for me to be afraid of his gallantries.
What does she mean about that?
What are gallantries?
Mrs.
Frederick saw she must stop crying if she wanted to gain control of the conversation.
I said to her,
Balancy,
You have no regard for your own reputation or your family's standing,
Have you?
Have you no regard for my feelings either?
And I broke down into tears and she said,
Come now,
Mother,
Be a good sport.
I'm going to do an act of Christian charity and as for the damage it'll do to my reputation,
You know I haven't any matrimonial chances anyhow,
So what does it matter?
The last words I said to her,
Said Cousin Stickles pathetically,
Were,
He'll rub my back at nights now.
And she said,
But no,
I can't repeat it.
Nonsense,
Said Uncle Benjamin,
Out with it,
This is no time to be squeamish.
She said,
Oh darn.
It was only imitation swearing,
Thought to Cousin Stickles.
It'll be a step from that to the real swearing,
Said Uncle James.
The worst of this,
Mrs.
Frederick hunted for a dry spot on her handkerchief,
Is that everyone will know now she's deranged.
We can't keep it a secret any longer.
Oh,
I can't bear it.
You should have been stricter with her when she was young,
Said Uncle Benjamin.
I don't see how I could have been,
Said Mrs.
Frederick,
Truthfully enough.
The worst feature of this case is that snaith scoundrels always hanging around Roaring Ables,
Said Uncle James.
I'll be thankful if nothing worse comes of this mad freak.
In a few weeks at Roaring Ables,
Sissy Gay can't live much longer.
And she didn't even take her flannel petticoat,
Lamented Cousin Stickles.
I'd better see Ambrose Marsh again about this,
Said Uncle Benjamin,
Meaning Valancy,
Not the flannel petticoat.
And I'll see Lawyer Ferguson,
Said Uncle James.
And in the meantime,
Added Uncle Benjamin,
Let us be calm.
Chapter 16.
Valancy had walked out to Roaring Ables house with a queer exhilaration and expectancy in her heart.
Back behind her,
Her mother and Cousin Stickles were crying over themselves,
Not over her.
But here the wind was in her face,
Soft dew wet,
Blowing along the grassy roads.
How she loved the wind.
The robins were whistling sleepily in the firs along the way,
And the moist air was fragrant with the tang of balsam.
Big cars went purring past in the violet dusk.
The stream of summer tourists to Muskoka had already begun,
But Valancy did not envy any of their occupants.
Muskoka cottages might be charming,
But beyond in the sunset skies among the spires of the firs,
Her blue castle towered.
She brushed the old years and habits and inhibitions away from her like dead leaves.
She would not be littered with them.
Roaring Ables rambling tumbledown house was situated about three miles from the village.
It had once been a snug place enough in the days when Abel Gay had been young and prosperous.
And the punning arched sign over the gate said A Gay Carpenter.
Now it was a faded dreary old place with a leprous patched roof and shutters hanging askew.
Abel never seemed to do any carpenter jobs about his own house.
It had a listless air as if tired of life.
There was a dwindling grove of ragged crone-like old spruces behind it,
And the garden,
Which Sissy used to keep neat and pretty,
Had now run wild.
On two sides of the house were fields full of nothing but mullions.
Behind the house was a long stretch of useless barrens full of scrub pines and spruces,
With here and there a blossoming bit of wild cherry,
Running back to a belt of timber on the shores of Lake Mystos,
Two miles away.
Roaring Abel met Valancy at the door.
So you come,
He said incredulously.
I never supposed that ruckus sterlings would let you.
Valancy showed all her pointed teeth in a grin.
They couldn't stop me.
I didn't think you so much spunk,
Said Roaring Abel.
And look at the nice ankles of her,
He added,
As he stepped aside to let her in.
He took her into the kitchen where Sissy Gay was lying on the sofa,
Breathing quickly,
With little scarlet spots on her hollowed cheeks.
Valancy had not seen Cecelia Gay for years.
Then she had been such a pretty creature,
A slight blossom-like girl with soft golden hair,
Clear-cut,
Almost waxen features,
And large,
Beautiful blue eyes.
She was shocked at the change in her.
Could this be sweet Sissy,
This pitiful little thing that looked like a tired,
Broken flower?
She had wept all the beauty out of her eyes.
They looked too big,
Enormous in her wasted face.
The last time Valancy had seen Cecelia Gay,
Those faded,
Piteous eyes had been limpid,
Shadowy blue pools aglow with mirth.
The contrast was so terrible that Valancy's own eyes filled with tears.
She knelt down by Sissy and put her arms around her.
Sissy dear,
I've come to look after you.
I'll stay with you till as long as you want me.
Sissy put her thin arms about Valancy's neck.
Oh,
Will you?
It's been so lonely.
I can wait on myself,
But it's been so lonely.
It would be like heaven to have someone here like you.
You were always so sweet to me,
Long ago.
Valancy held Sissy close,
And she was suddenly very happy.
Here in her arms was someone who needed her,
Someone she could really help.
Valancy's sterling was no longer superfluity.
Old things had passed away,
And everything had become new.
Most things are predestinated,
But some are just darn sheer luck,
Said Roaring Abel complacently as he smoked his pipe in the corner.
