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I guess the Streets and their crowd felt pretty small, because they got what was it, Len?" "Seventeen votes out of one hundred and eleven!" Len said, not moving his eyes from the road before him. "My house is right down there, next door to Uncle Ben's," said Sally, craning her neck suddenly. "You can't see it, but no matter; there's lots of time! Here's the Hawkes's place; remember that?"
Children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren kept the house swarming with life, and she could never have enough of it. The air, never too fresh in the Hawkes's house, was hot and charged with odours of cheap cologne, of powder, of human bodies, and of perspiration-soaked garments. The very gaslights screamed above the din as if they found it contagious.
And she missed Sally more every day. Sally and Joe had gone to Pittsville immediately after their wedding; Joe having received a dazzling offer of forty dollars a month for two summer months from the express company there. But when Sally had been married six weeks, Martie heard her voice one day when the younger sister was passing the Hawkes's house.
Lydia alone, walking between them, was actuated by cool motives of duty and convention and sighed as she thought of the heat and hubbub of the Hawkes's house, and the hour that must elapse before they were back in the cool night again. The Hawkeses had always lived in one house in Monroe.
Kelly was Joe Hawkes's grandmother. "Well, I wish you would, girls," their mother said in her gentle, complaining voice. "She's a dear old lady a perfect saint about getting to church in all weathers! And while Pa doesn't care much about having you so intimate with the Hawkeses, he was saying this morning that Grandma Kelly is different.
Hawkes's affectionate arms for a kiss, stopping to kiss Grandma Kelly of her own free will. Sally had no sense of social values; she loved to be here, admired, loved, busy. "Think of the priest giving her his mother's own ring!" said the women over and over. "It'll bring you big luck, Sally!"
"Yes," Martie's arm went about her sister, "that's been the one definite gain, Sally, to see you so happy and prosperous, and to realize that life is going so pleasantly for you. As the years go by, Joe'll gain steadily; he's that sort; and Dr. Hawkes's children won't have to envy any children in Monroe. But, oh, Sis if I could get away!"
Martie was too generous not to respond to her sister's demand, even if she had not been completely carried away by the excitement about her. Mrs. Hawkes, tears of joy in her eyes, yet smiles shining through them, was brewing tea for the happy pair. Minnie Hawkes's Rose was making toast when she was not jumping up and down half mad with delight. Ellen Hawkes, now Mrs. Castle, was setting the table.
The town was in a tent of rustling new leaves; lilacs were in heavy flower. Roses and bridal-wreath and mock-orange trees were in bloom. Rank brown grass stood everywhere; the fruit blossoms were gone, tall buttercups were nodding over the grass. At the Hawkes's house there were laughter and excitement.
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