She never quite understood the reason,
and for that matter nobody else did, unless it were simply that the
place was a trifle out of the common, and she herself a person full
of ideas, and eminently sympathetic with those of other people.
Anybody could 'drop in,' and as a consequence everybody did--
grandmothers, mothers with babes in arms, teachers, ministers,
photographers, travellers, and journalists. A Russian gentleman who
had escaped from Siberia was a frequent visitor. He wanted to marry
Edith and open a boarding-house for Russian exiles, and was perfectly
confident of making her happy, as he spoke seven languages and had
been a good husband to two Russian ladies now deceased. An Alaskan
missionary, home on a short leave, called periodically, and attempted
to persuade Mary to return with him to his heathen. These suitors
were disposed of summarily when they made their desires known; but
there were other visitors, part of the flotsam and jetsam of a great
city, who appeared and disappeared mysteriously--ships passing
Mistress Mary in the night of sorrow, and, after some despairing,
half-comprehended signal, vanishing into the shadows out of which
they had come. Sometimes, indeed, inspired by the good cheer of the
place, they departed, looking a little less gloomy; sometimes, too,
they grew into a kind of active if transitory relation with the busy
little world, and became, for a time, a part of it.
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