There was consternation in the Apple-Orchard.
All the milkmaids came tumbling from their perches to run and comfort their weeping comrade. And as they passed Martin, Joyce cried, "It's a shame!" and Jennifer murmured "How could you?" and Jessica exclaimed "You brute!" and Jane said "I'm surprised at you!" and even little Joan shook her head at him, and, while all the others fondled Joscelyn, and petted and consoled her, took her hand and held it very tight. But with her other hand she took Martin's and held it just as tight, and looked a little anxious, with tears in her blue eyes. Yet she looked a little smiling too. And there were tears also in the eyes of all the milkmaids, because the story had ended so badly, and because they did not in the least know what was going to happen, and because a man had made one of them cry. And Martin suddenly realized that all these girls were against him as much as though it were six months ago. And he swung his feet and looked as though he didn't care, so that Joan knew he was feeling rather sheepish inside, and held his hand a little tighter.
Then Joscelyn, who had the loveliest brown, as Joan had the loveliest blue, eyes in England, lifted her young head and looked at Martin so defiantly through her tears that he knew she had given up the game at last; and he pressed Joan's hand for all he was worth, and began to look ashamed of himself, so that Joan knew he had stopped feeling sheepish in the least. And Joscelyn, in a voice that shook like birch-leaves, said, "I don't want it to end like that."
Martin: Dear Mistress Joscelyn, is it my fault? I promised you the truth, and with your help I have told it.
Joscelyn: How dare you say it's with my help? If I had my way—!
Martin: You shall have it. We will leave the end of the story in your hands.
Joscelyn: I won't have anything to do with it!
Martin: Then I'm afraid it's your fault.
Joscelyn: That's what a man always says!
Martin: Did he?
Joscelyn: Yes, he did! he said it was Eve's fault.
Martin: So it was.
Joscelyn: How dare you!
Martin: He said nothing but the truth. And what did you say?
Joscelyn: I said it was Adam's fault.
Martin: So it was. YOU said nothing but the truth.
Joscelyn: How could it be two people's fault?
Martin: How could it be anything else? Oh, Joscelyn! there are two things in this world that one person alone cannot bring to perfection. And one of them is a fault. It takes two people to make a perfect fault. Eve tempted Adam; and Adam was jolly glad to get tempted if he was half as sensible as he ought to have been. And Eve knew it. And Adam let her know it. And if after that she had not tempted him he would never have forgiven her. When it came to fault-making they understood each other perfectly. And between them they made the most perfect fault in the world.
Joscelyn: (after a very long pause): You said there were two things.
Martin: Two things?
Joscelyn: That one person alone can't bring to perfection.
Martin: Did I?
Joscelyn: What is the other thing?
Martin: Love. Isn't it?
Joscelyn: How dare you ask me?
Martin: I dare ask more than that. Joscelyn, how old are you?
Joscelyn: I sha'n't tell you.
Martin: Joscelyn, you are the tallest of the milkmaids, but you can't help that. How old are you?
Joscelyn: Mind your own business.
Martin: Joscelyn, the first three times I saw you, you had your hair down your back. But ever since I told you my first story you have done it up, like beautiful dark flowers, on each side of your head. And it is my belief that you have no business to have it up at all.
Joscelyn (very angrily): How dare you! Of course I have! Am I not nearly sixteen?
Martin: Nearly?
Joscelyn: Well, next June.
Martin: Oh, Hebe! it's worse than I thought. How dare I? You whipper-snapper! How dare YOU have us all under your thumb? How dare YOU play the Gorgon to Gillian? How dare YOU cry your eyes out because my lovers had an unhappy ending? Go back to your dolls'-house! What does sixteen next June know about Adam? What does sixteen next June know about love?
Joscelyn: Everything! how dare you? everything!
Martin: Am I to believe you? Then by all you know, you baby, give me the sixth key of the Well-House!
And he took from his pocket the five keys he already had, and held out his hand for the last one. Joscelyn's eyes grew bigger and bigger, and the doubt that had troubled her all day became a certainty as she looked from the keys to her comrades, who all got very red and hung their heads.
"Why did you give them up?" demanded Joscelyn.
"Because," Martin answered for them, "they know everything about love. But then they are all more than sixteen years of age, and capable of making the right sort of ending which is so impossible to children like you and me."
Then Joscelyn looked as old as she could and said, "Not so impossible, Master Pippin, if—if—"
But all of a sudden she began to laugh. It was the first time Martin had ever heard her laugh, or her comrades for six months. Their faces cleared like magic, and they all clapped their hands and ran away. And Martin got down from his bough, because when Joscelyn laughed she didn't look more than fourteen.
"If what, Joscelyn?" he said.
"If you'd stolen the right shoe-string, Martin," said she. And she stuck out her right foot with its neatly-laced yellow slipper. Then Martin knelt down, and instead of lacing the left shoe unlaced the right one, and inside the yellow slipper found the sixth key just under the instep. "Is that the right ending?" said Joscelyn. And Martin held the little foot in his hands rubbing it gently, and said compassionately, "It must have been dreadfully uncomfortable."
"It was sometimes," said Joscelyn.
"Didn't it hurt?" asked Martin, beginning to lace up her shoes for her.
"Now and then," said Joscelyn.
"It was an awfully kiddish place to hide it in," said Martin finishing, and as he looked up Joscelyn laughed again, rubbing her tear-stained cheeks with the back of her hand, and for all the great growing girl that she was looked no more than twelve. So he slid under the swing and stood up behind her and kissed her on the back of the neck where babies are kissed.
Then all the milkmaids came back again.
All books are sourced from Project Gutenberg