Chapter 12
lucy maud montgomery short stories nineteen o two to nineteen o three by lucy maud montgomery the bride roses miss corona awoke that june morning with a sigh the cause of which she was at first too sleepy to understand then it all came over her with a little sickening rush she had fallen asleep with tear-wet lashes the night before on account of it this was juliet gordon's wedding day and she miss corona could not go to the wedding and was not even invited all because of the quarrel a generation old and so chronic and bitter and terrible that it always presented itself to miss corona's mental vision as spelled with a capital well might miss corona hate it it had shut her up into a lonely life for long years juliet gordon and juliet's father meredith gordon were the only relations miss corona had in the world and the old family feud divided them by a gulf which now seemed impassable miss corona turned over on her pillows lifted one corner of the white window blind and peeped out below her a river of early sunshine was flowing through the garden and the far-away slopes were translucent green in their splendor of young day with gauzy uncertain mists lingering spirit-like in their intervales
a bird his sleek plumage iridescent in the sunlight was perched on the big chestnut bough that ran squarely across the window singing as if his heart would burst with melody and the joy of his tiny life no bride could have wished anything fairer for her day of days and miss corona dropped back on her pillows with another gentle sigh i'm so glad that the dear child has a fine day to be married she said juliet gordon was always dear child to miss corona although the two had never spoken to each other in their lives miss corona was a brisk and early riser as a rule with a genuine horror of lazy people who lay late abed or took over long to get their eyes well opened but this morning she made no hurry about rising even though scurrying footsteps banging doors and over-loud tinkling of dishes in the room below betokened that charlotta was already up and about and charlotta as poor miss corona knew only too well was fatally sure to do something unfortunate if she were not under some careful overseeing eye to be sure charlotta's intentions were always good
but miss corona was not thinking about charlotta this morning and she felt so strong a distaste for her lonely purposeless life that she was in no haste to go forth to meet another day of it miss corona felt just the least little bit tired of living although she feared it was very wicked of her to feel so she lay there listlessly for half an hour longer looking through a mist of tears at the portrait of her stern old father hanging on the wall at the foot of the bed and thinking over the quarrel it had happened thirty years ago when miss corona had been a girl of twenty living alone with her father at the old gordon homestead on the hill with the big black spruce grove behind it on the north and far-reaching slopes of green fields before it on the south down in the little northern valley below the spruce grove lived her uncle alexis gordon his son meredith had seemed to corona as her own brother the mothers of both were dead neither had any other brother or sister the two children had grown up together playmates and devoted friends there had never been any sentiment or love-making between them to mar a perfect comradeship they were only the best of friends whatever plans the fathers might have cherished for the union of their estates and children
putting the property consideration first as the gordons were always prone to do but if roderick and alexis gordon had any such plans all went by the board when they quarrelled corona shivered yet over the bitterness of that time the gordons never did anything half-heartedly the strife between the two brothers was determined and irreconcilable corona's father forbade her to speak to her uncle and cousin or to hold any communication with them corona wept and obeyed him she had always obeyed her father it had never entered into her mind to do anything else meredith had resented her attitude hotly and from that day they had never spoken or met while the years came and went each making a little wider and more hopeless the gulf of coldness and anger and distrust Ten years later, Roderick Gordon died, and in five months Alexis Gordon followed him to the grave.
The two brothers, who had hated each other so unyieldingly in life, slept very peaceably side by side in the old Gordon plot of the country graveyard, but their rancor still served to embitter the lives of their descendants. Corona, with a half-guilty sense of disloyalty to her father, hoped that she and Meredith might now be friends again. He was married, and had one little daughter. In her new and intolerable loneliness, Corona's heart yearned after her own people. But she was too timid to make any advances, and Meredith never made any. Corona believed that he hated her,
and let slip her last fluttering hope that the old breach would ever be healed. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! she sobbed softly into her pillows. It seemed a terrible thing to her that one of her race and kin was to be married, and she could not be present at the ceremony, she who had never seen a Gordon bride. When Miss Corona went downstairs at last, she found Charlotta sobbing in the kitchen porch. The small handmaiden was doubled up
on the floor with her face muffled in her gingham apron and her long braids of red hair hanging with limp straightness down her back. When Charlotte was in good spirits they always hung percoli over each shoulder, tied up with enormous bows of sky-blue ribbon. "'What have you done this time?' asked Miss Corona, without the slightest intention of being humorous or sarcastic. "'I've—I've brook your green and yaller bowl,' sniffed Charlotte. didn't mean to miss corona it jest slipped out so fashion for i could grab holt on it and it's brook into forty million pieces ain't i the unluckiest girl you certainly are sighed miss corona
at any other time she would have been filled with dismay over the untoward fate of her green and yellow bowl which had belonged to her great-grandmother and had stood on the hall table to hold flowers as long as she could remember but just now her heart was so sore over the quarrel that there was no room for other regrets well well crying won't mend it i suppose it is a judgment on me for staying abed so late go and sweep up the pieces and do try and be a little more careful charlotte yes'm said charlotta meekly she dared not resent being called charlotte just then and i'll tell you what i'll do ma'am to make up i'll go and weed the garden yes'm i'll do it beautiful and pull up more flowers than weeds miss corona reflected mournfully but it did not matter nothing mattered she saw charlotta sally forth into the garden with a determined do-or-die expression surmounting her freckles without feeling interest enough to go and make sure that she did not root out all the late asters in her tardy and wilfully postponed warfare on weeds this mood lasted until the afternoon then miss corona whose heart and thoughts were still down in the festive house in the valley roused herself enough to go out and see what charlotta was doing
after finding out she wandered idly about the rambling old-fashioned place which was full of nooks and surprises at every turn you might stumble on some clump or tangle of sweetness showering elusive fragrance on the air that you would never have suspected nothing in the garden was planned quite where it should be yet withal it was the most delightful spot imaginable miss corona pushed her way into the cherry-tree copse and followed a tiny overgrown path to a sunshiny corner beyond she had not been there since last summer the little path was getting almost impassable when she emerged from the cherry-trees somewhat rumpled and pulled about in hair and attire but attended as if by a benediction by the aromatic breath of the mint she had trodden on she gave a little cry and stood quite still gazing at the rose-bush that grew in the corner it was so large and woody that it seemed more like a tree than a bush and it was snowed over with a splendor of large pure white roses dear life whispered miss corona tremulously as she tiptoed towards it the bride roses have bloomed again how very strange why there has not been a rose on that tree for twenty years
the rose-bush had been planted there by corona's great-grandmother the lady of the green and yellow bole it was a new variety brought out from scotland by mary gordon and it bore large white roses which three generations of gordon brides had worn on their wedding-day it had come to be a family tradition among the gordons that no luck would attend the bride who did not carry a white rose from mary gordon's rose-tree long years ago the tree had given up blooming nor could all the pruning and care given it coax a single blossom from it miss corona tinctured with the superstition apt to wait on a lonely womanhood believed in her heart that the rose-bush had a secret sympathy with the fortunes of the gordon women she the last of them on the old homestead would never need the bride roses wherefore then should the old tree bloom and now after all these years it had flung all its long-hoarded sweetness into blossom again miss corona thrilled at the thought the rose-bush had bloomed again for a gordon bride but miss corona was sure there was another meaning in it too she believed it foretokened some change in her own life some rejuvenescence of love and beauty like to that of the ancient rose-tree she bent over its foam of loveliness almost reverently
they have bloomed for juliet's wedding she murmured a gordon bride must wear the bride roses indeed she must and this why it is almost a miracle she ran light-footedly as a girl to the house for scissors and a basket she would send juliet gordon the bride roses her cheeks were pink from excitement as she snipped them off how lovely they were how very large and fragrant it was as if all the grace and perfume and beauty and glory of those twenty lost summers were found here at once in them when miss corona had them ready she went to the door and called charlotte charlotte now charlotta having atoned to her conscience for the destruction of the green and yellow bowl by faithfully weeding the garden a task which she hated above all else was singing a hymn among the sweet peas and her red braids were over her shoulders this ought to have warned miss corona but miss corona was thinking of other things and kept on calling patiently while charlotta weeded away for dear life and seemed smitten with treble deafness
after a time miss corona remembered and sighed she did hate to call the child that foolish name with its foreign sound just as if plain charlotte were not good enough for her and much more suitable to smith too ordinarily miss corona would not have given in but the case was urgent she could not stand upon her dignity just now charlotta she called entreatingly instantly charlotta flew to the garden gate and raced up to the door yes'm she said meekly you want me miss crona take this box down to miss juliet gordon and ask that it be given to her at once said miss corona don't loiter charlotta don't stop to pick gum in the grove or eat sours in the dyke or poke sticks through the bridge or-but charlotta had gone down in the valley the other gordon house was in a hum of excitement upstairs juliet had gone to her invalid mother's room to show herself in her wedding dress to the pale little lady lying on the sofa she was a tall stately young girl with the dark gray gordon eyes and the pure creaminess of coloring flawless as a lily petal her face was a very sweet one and the simple white dress she wore became her dainty flower-like beauty as nothing elaborate could have done
"'I'm not going to put on my veil until the last moment,' she said laughingly. "'I would feel married right away if I did. "'And, oh, mother dear, isn't it too bad? "'My roses haven't come. "'Father is back from the station, and they were not there.
"'I am so disappointed. "'Romney ordered pure white roses because I said a Gordon bride must carry nothing else. "'Come in,' as a knock sounded at the door. "'Laura Burton, Juliet's cousin and bridesmaid, entered with a box. "'Juliet, dear, the funniest little red-headed girl with the most enormous freckles has just
brought this for you. I haven't an idea where she came from. She looked like a messenger from Pixieland.' Juliet opened the box and gave a cry. "'Oh, mother, look, look! What perfect roses! Who could have sent them? Oh, here's a note from—from—why, mother, it's from Cousin Corona!' my dear child ran the letter in miss corona's fine old-fashioned script i am sending you the gordon bride roses the rose-tree has bloomed for the first time in twenty years my dear and it must surely be an honor of your wedding-day i hope you will wear them for although i have never known you i love you very much i was once a dear friend of your father's tell him to let you wear the roses i send for old time's sake i wish you every happiness my dear your affectionate cousin corona gordon
oh how sweet and lovely of her said juliet gently as she laid the letter down and to think she was not even invited i wanted to send her an invitation but father said it would be better not to she was so hard and bitter against us that she would probably regard it as an insult he must have been mistaken about her attitude said mrs gordon it certainly is a great pity she was not invited but it is too late now an invitation sent two hours before the ceremony would be an insult indeed not if the bride herself took it exclaimed juliet impulsively i'll go myself to cousin corona and ask her to come to my wedding go yourself child you can't do such a thing in that dress go i must mamsie why it's only a three minutes walk i'll go up the hill by the old field path and no one will see me oh don't say a word there i'm gone that child sighed the mother protestingly as she heard juliet's flying feet on the stairs what a thing for a bride to do juliet with her white silken skirts caught up above grasses and dust ran light-footedly through the green lowland fields and up the hill treading for the first time the faint old field-path between the two homes so long disused that it was now barely visible in its fringing grasses and star-dust of buttercups
where it ran into the spruce grove was a tiny gate which miss corona had always kept in good repair albeit it was never used juliet pushed up the rusty hasp and ran through miss corona was sitting alone in her shadowy parlor hanging over a few of the bride roses with falling tears when something tall and beautiful and white came in like a blessing and knelt by her chair cousin corona said a somewhat breathless bride i have come to thank you for your roses and ask you to forgive us all for the old quarrel dear child said miss corona out of her amazement there is nothing to forgive i've loved you all and longed for you dear child you have brought me great happiness and you must come to my wedding cried juliet oh you must or i shall think you have not really forgiven us you would never refuse the request of a bride cousin corona we are queens on our wedding-day you know oh it's not that dear child but i'm not dressed i ill help you dress and i won't go back without you the guests and the minister must wait if necessary yes even romney must wait oh i want you to meet romney come dear and miss corona went
charlotta and the bride got her into her gray silk and did her hair and in a very short time she and juliet were hurrying down the old field path in the hollow meredith gordon met them cousin meredith said miss corona tremulously dear corona he took both her hands in his and kissed her heartily forgive me for misunderstanding you for so long i thought you hated us all turning to juliet he said with a fatherly smile what a terrible girl it is for having its own way who ever heard of a gordon bride doing such an unconventional thing there scamper off to the house before your guests come laura has made your roses up into what she calls a dream of a bouquet i'll take cousin corona up more leisurely oh i knew that something beautiful was going to happen when the old rose-tree bloomed murmured miss corona happily end of the bride roses recording by andrea boltz on november sixth two thousand and ten
