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THE OPENED SHUTTERS

A Novel

by

CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM


                     *      *      *      *      *

By Clara Louise Burnham

THE OPENED SHUTTERS. Illustrated, 12mo, $1.50.
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THE WISE WOMAN. 16mo, $1.25; paper, 50 cents.
MISS ARCHER ARCHER. 16mo, $1.25.
A GREAT LOVE. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25; paper, 50 cents.
A WEST POINT WOOING, and Other Stories. 16mo, $1.25.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK.

                     *      *      *      *      *


THE OPENED SHUTTERS

A Novel

by

CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM

With Frontispiece by Harrison Fisher







[Illustration: SYLVIA
_From a drawing by Harrison Fisher_]




Boston and New York
Houghton, Mifflin and Company
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1906

Copyright 1906 by Clara Louise Burnham
All Rights Reserved

Published October 1906




TO
C. D. T.




CONTENTS


     I. JUDGE TRENT                                           1

    II. MARTHA LACEY                                         12

   III. A RAILWAY TRIP                                       22

    IV. HOTEL FRISBIE                                        29

     V. JUDGE TRENT'S STUDY                                  43

    VI. SYLVIA'S CALLER                                      57

   VII. THE MILL FARM                                        69

  VIII. IN HARBOR                                            82

    IX. EDNA DERWENT                                         91

     X. CAPITULATION                                        101

    XI. THINKRIGHT'S LETTER                                 112

   XII. A LOST OAR                                          124

  XIII. UNCLE AND NIECE                                     135

   XIV. BLIND MAN'S HOLIDAY                                 146

    XV. A FLITTING                                          155

   XVI. EVOLUTION                                           161

  XVII. THE ROSY CLOUD                                      170

 XVIII. HAWK ISLAND                                         180

   XIX. A NOR'EASTER                                        189

    XX. THE POOL                                            200

   XXI. A SWIMMING LESSON                                   213

  XXII. BLUEBERRYING                                        222

 XXIII. A PHILTRE                                           228

  XXIV. SYLVIA'S MYSTERY                                    239

   XXV. THE LITTLE RIFT                                     248

  XXVI. REVELATION                                          257

 XXVII. MISUNDERSTANDING                                    265

XXVIII. THE POTION                                          277

  XXIX. THE WHITE BAG                                       288

   XXX. THE LIGHT BREAKS                                    297

  XXXI. RECONCILIATION                                      309

 XXXII. A SOFTENED BLOW                                     321

XXXIII. "LOVE ALONE WILL STAY                    "          330




THE OPENED SHUTTERS




CHAPTER I

JUDGE TRENT


Judge Trent's chair was tipped back at a comfortable angle for the
accommodation of his gaitered feet, which rested against the steam
radiator in his private office. There had been a second desk introduced
into this sanctum within the last month, and the attitude of the young
man seated at it indicated but a brief suspension of business as he
looked up to greet his employer.

The judge had just come in out of the cold and wet, and did not remove
his silk hat as he seated himself to dry his shoes. He appeared always
reluctant to remove that hat. Spotlessly clean as were always the
habiliments that clothed his attenuated form, no one could remember
having seen the judge's hat smoothly brushed; and although in the
course of thirty years it is unlikely that he never became possessed of
a new one, even the closest observer, and that was Martha Lacey, could
not be certain of the transition period, probably owing to the
lingering attachment with which the judge returned spasmodically to the
headgear which had accommodated itself to his bumps, and which he was
heroically endeavoring to discard.

This very morning Miss Lacey in passing her old friend on the street
had been annoyed by the unusually rough condition of the hat he lifted.
A few steps further on she happened to encounter the judge's
housekeeper, her market basket on her arm. Old Hannah's wrinkled
countenance did not grow less grim as Miss Lacey greeted her, but that
lady, nothing daunted, stopped to speak, her countenance alert and her
bright gaze shining through her eyeglasses.

"I just met Judge Trent, Hannah. Dear me, can't you brush that hat of
his a little? It looks for all the world like a black cat that has just
caught sight of a mastiff."

"I guess the judge knows how he wants his own hat," returned Hannah,
her mouth working disapprovingly.

"But he doesn't realize how it looks. Some one asked me the other day
if I supposed Judge Trent slept in his hat."

"And I s'pose you told 'em you didn't know," returned the old woman
sourly. "He's got a right to sleep in it if he wants to," and she moved
on while Miss Lacey looked after her for a moment, her lips set in a
tight line.

"Insolent!" she exclaimed. "All is I know he wouldn't do it if _I'd_
married him," she added mentally, resuming her walk. Martha Lacey's
sense of humor was not keen, but suddenly the mental picture of Judge
Trent's shrewd, thin countenance, as it might appear in pillowed
slumber surmounted by the high hat, overwhelmed her and she laughed
silently. Then she frowned with reddening cheeks. "Hannah's
impertinent," she murmured.

Judge Trent had read something of disapproval in Miss Lacey's glance as
she greeted him a few minutes ago, and he thought of her now as he sat
tilted back, his thumbs hooked easily in his arm holes, while he
watched the glistening dampness dry from his shoes.

"Martha probably disapproved because I didn't have on