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and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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Babcock and Selma White were among the last of the weddingguests to take their departure. It was a brilliant September nightwith a touch of autumn vigor in the atmosphere, which had not beenwithout its effect on the company, who had driven off in gayspirits, most of them in hay-carts or other vehicles capable ofcarrying a party. Their songs and laughter floated back along thewinding country road. Selma, comfortable in her wraps and welltucked about with a rug, leaned back contentedly in the chaise,after the goodbyes had been said, to enjoy the glamour of the fullmoon. They were seven miles from home and she was in no hurry toget there. Neither festivities nor the undisguised devotion of acity young man were common in her life. Consideration she had beenused to from a child, and she knew herself to be tacitlyacknowledged the smartest girl in Westfield, but perhaps for thatvery reason she had held aloof from manhood until now. At least noyouth in her neighborhood had ever impressed her as her equal.Neither did Babcock so impress her; but he was different from therest. He was not shy and unexpressive; he was buoyant andself-reliant, and yet he seemed to appreciate her quality none theless.
They had met about a dozen times, and on the last six of theseoccasions he had come from Benham, ten miles to her uncle's farm,obviously to visit her. The last two times her Aunt Farley had madehim spend the night, and it had been arranged that he would driveher in the Farley chaise to Clara Morse's wedding. A seven-miledrive is apt to promote or kill the germs of intimacy, and on theway over she had been conscious of enjoying herself. Scrutiny ofClara's choice had been to the advantage of her own cavalier. Thebridegroom had seemed to her what her Aunt Farley would call amouse-in-the-cheese young man. Whereas Babcock had been the life ofthe affair.
She had been teaching now in Wilton for more than a year. When,shortly after her father's death, she had obtained the position ofschool teacher, it seemed to her that at last the opportunity hadcome to display her capabilities, and at the same time to fulfilher aspirations. But the task of grounding a class of smallchildren in the rudiments of simple knowledge had already begun topall and to seem unsatisfying. Was she to spend her life in this?And if not, the next step, unless it were marriage, was notobvious. Not that she mistrusted her ability to shine in anyeducational capacity, but neither Wilton nor the neighboringWestfield offered better, and she was conscious of a lack ofinfluential friends in the greater world, which was embodied forher in Benham. Benham was a western city of these United States,with an eastern exposure; a growing, bustling city according torumor, with an eager population restless with new ideas andstimulating ambitions. So at least Selma thought of it, and thoughBoston and New York and a few other places were accepted by her