The Unhappiness Of Miss Farquhar
by
Frances Farquhar was a beauty and was sometimes called a society butterfly by people who didn’t know very much about it. Her father was wealthy and her mother came of an extremely blue-blooded family. Frances had been out for three years, and was a social favourite. Consequently, it may be wondered why she was unhappy.
In plain English, Frances Farquhar had been jilted–just a commonplace, everyday jilting! She had been engaged to Paul Holcomb; he was a very handsome fellow, somewhat too evidently aware of the fact, and Frances was very deeply in love with him–or thought herself so, which at the time comes to pretty much the same thing. Everybody in her set knew of her engagement, and all her girl friends envied her, for Holcomb was a matrimonial catch.
Then the crash came. Nobody outside the family knew exactly what did happen, but everybody knew that the Holcomb-Farquhar match was off, and everybody had a different story to account for it.
The simple truth was that Holcomb was fickle and had fallen in love with another girl. There was nothing of the man about him, and it did not matter to his sublimely selfish caddishness whether he broke Frances Farquhar’s heart or not. He got his freedom and he married Maud Carroll in six months’ time.
The Farquhars, especially Ned, who was Frances’s older brother and seldom concerned himself about her except when the family honour was involved, were furious at the whole affair. Mr. Farquhar stormed, and Ned swore, and Della lamented her vanished role of bridemaid. As for Mrs. Farquhar, she cried and said it would ruin Frances’s future prospects.
The girl herself took no part in the family indignation meetings. But she believed that her heart was broken. Her love and her pride had suffered equally, and the effect seemed disastrous.
After a while the Farquhars calmed down and devoted themselves to the task of cheering Frances up. This they did not accomplish. She got through the rest of the season somehow and showed a proud front to the world, not even flinching when Holcomb himself crossed her path. To be sure, she was pale and thin, and had about as much animation as a mask, but the same might be said of a score of other girls who were not suspected of having broken hearts.
When the summer came Frances asserted herself. The Farquhars went to Green Harbour every summer. But this time Frances said she would not go, and stuck to it. The whole family took turns coaxing her and had nothing to show for their pains.
“I’m going up to Windy Meadows to stay with Aunt Eleanor while you are at the Harbour,” she declared. “She has invited me often enough.”
Ned whistled. “Jolly time you’ll have of it, Sis. Windy Meadows is about as festive as a funeral. And Aunt Eleanor isn’t lively, to put it in the mildest possible way.”
“I don’t care if she isn’t. I want to get somewhere where people won’t look at me and talk about–that,” said Frances, looking ready to cry.
Ned went out and swore at Holcomb again, and then advised his mother to humour Frances. Accordingly, Frances went to Windy Meadows.
Windy Meadows was, as Ned had said, the reverse of lively. It was a pretty country place, with a sort of fag-end by way of a little fishing village, huddled on a wind-swept bit of beach, locally known as the “Cove.” Aunt Eleanor was one of those delightful people, so few and far between in this world, who have perfectly mastered the art of minding their own business exclusively. She left Frances in peace.
She knew that her niece had had “some love trouble or other,” and hadn’t gotten over it rightly.
“It’s always best to let those things take their course,” said this philosophical lady to her “help” and confidant, Margaret Ann Peabody. “She’ll get over it in time–though she doesn’t think so now, bless you.”