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 For marginalized writers and readers, and for the
booksellers, librarians, and booklovers who champion
those voices.
Text copyright © 2021 by Jamise Harper and Jane Mount.
Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Jane Mount.
Diverse Spines is a registered trademark of Diverse Spines LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission
from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN 978-1-7972-1472-6 (epub, mobi)

ISBN 978-1-7972-1191-6 (hardcover)

Design by Kristen Hewitt.

Choose Your Own Adventure is a registered trademark of Chooseco LLC.

Chronicle books and gifts are available at special quantity discounts to corporations, professional
associations, literacy programs, and other organizations. For details and discount information, please
contact our premiums department at [email protected] or at 1-800-759-0190.

Chronicle Books LLC

680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 9
Classics 13
Legends 14
James Baldwin / Sandra Cisneros / Leslie Marmon Silko / Haruki Murakami
/ Isabel Allende / Zora Neale Hurston / Langston Hughes / Toni Morrison

Turn of the Century Fiction 16

Editions: Their Eyes Were Watching God 18
Beloved Bookstores 20
Loyalty Bookstore / Cafe con Libros / Marcus Books

Contemporary Fiction 23
Influential Book People 24
Glory Edim / Lupita Aquino

Book Club Darlings 26

Authors Recommend 28
Brit Bennett / Angie Kim / Yamile Saied Méndez / Mitchell S. Jackson /
Mira Jacob

Family Sagas 31
Little Free Diverse Libraries 32
Bookish People Recommend 34
Cree Miles / Christine Bollow / Sasha Maria S. / Donna Johnson / Morgan
Harding / Crystal Forte
Historical Fiction 36
Legends 38
Octavia E. Butler / Ralph Ellison / Amy Tan / Audre Lorde / Alice Walker /
Gabriel García Márquez / Maya Angelou / Richard Wright

Story Collections 41
Writing Rooms 42
Kali Fajardo-Anstine / Rumaan Alam

Bookish People Recommend 44

Kimberly V. Nelson / Sachi Argabright / Nokukhanya Ntsaluba / Anabel
Jimenez / Cindy Allman / Paris Close / Victoria Caswell

Speculative Fiction: Our World 46

Beautiful Covers by Brilliant Designers 48
Beloved Bookstores 50
Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery / Palabras Bilingual Bookstore / Massy
Books

Speculative Fiction: Other Worlds 53

Award-Winning Books 54
Mysteries & Horror 56
Authors Recommend 58
Bernice L. McFadden / Brandy Colbert / Saumya Dave / Melissa Rivero /
Nancy Jooyoun Kim / De’Shawn Charles Winslow

Love & Romance 61

Writing Rooms 62
Jasmine Guillory / Molly Yeh
Bookish People Recommend 64
Angela María Spring / Seema Vennam / Sarah Coquillat / Mallory
Whiteduck / Shannon Bland / Nicholas Alexander Brown

Centering Queer Stories 66

Beautifully Illustrated Covers 68
Coming of Age 71
Influential Book People 72
Charnaie Gordon / Alicia Tapia

Middle Grade 74
Amazing Illustrators 76
Sean Qualls / Bryan Collier / Rafael López / Michaela Goade / Hatem Aly /
Leo Espinosa / Gordon C. James / Danielle Daniel / Luisa Uribe

Kids’ Picture Books 79

Amazing Author-Illustrators 80
Juana Martinez-Neal / Jerry Pinkney / Oge Mora / Vashti Harrison / Javaka
Steptoe / Julie Flett / Vanessa Brantley-Newton / Cozbi A. Cabrera / Kadir
Nelson

Beloved Bookstores 82
Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books / Red Planet Books & Comics / EyeSeeMe
African American Children’s Bookstore

Cooking & Baking 84

Writing Rooms 86
Nik Sharma / Nic Stone

Celebrating Identity Through Food 89

Bookish People Recommend 90
Dr. Toya Scaggs / Carmen Alvarez / Zubina Patel / Roxanne Guzmán / Jerid
P. Woods / Reggie Bailey

Personal Stories 92
Beloved Bookstores 94
MahoganyBooks / Bel Canto Books / Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews

Macrocosmic Memoirs 97
Influential Book People 98
We Need Diverse Books / Etaf Rum / Gizelle Fletcher

Stunning Graphic Novels 100

History 102
Bookish People Recommend 104
Nnenna Odeluga / Victoria Wood / Renée A. Hicks / Gisselle Diaz / Buffy
Holmes / Sol Kelly

Writing Rooms 106

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. / Nicole Chung

Examining Society 109

Read Around the World 110
Editions: One Hundred Years of Solitude 112
Antiracist Reading 114
Beloved Bookstores 116
Source Booksellers / Iron Dog Books / Harriett’s Bookshop

Feminisim 119
Authors Recommend 120
Tayari Jones / Catherine Adel West / Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai / Natalia
Sylvester / Laura Taylor Namey

Essays 122
Beloved Bookstores 124
A Different Booklist / Solid State Books / Birchbark Books / Eso Won Books

Bookish People Recommend 126

Poonam Mathur / Anna Isaac / Jess Lee / Marissa Vining / AJ Sanders /
Deirdre (Didi) Borie

Poetry 129
Books in Verse 130
Healing 132
Beloved Bookstores 134
The Lit. Bar

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 135
BIBLIOGRAPHY 136
 INTRODUCTION
In creating this miscellany, our goal is for you to find at least ten new-to-you
and irresistible diverse books by authors of backgrounds different from your
own (or from your own that you haven’t yet read!), that you’ll read in the next
year. And then ten more for the year after that, and so on. The idea is to keep
seeking out and reading diverse stories. Think of it as your very own pocket-
sized (well, if you have a large pocket) local bookstore full of passionate
shelftalkers from people with all different experiences.

The authors, illustrators, designers, store owners, and bookstagrammers

highlighted in this book are all Black, Indigenous, and people of color, most
existing in spaces where they have been marginalized by a dominant white
society. There are, of course, many other ways to define diversity, but this is
the one we have embraced for this book. It is our small offering to the world,
sparked by social injustices and racial reckonings, and inspired by many years
of reading diversely and realizing what magic can happen when people leave
their comfort zones.

Reading diverse stories exposes us to other people’s experiences and expands

our awareness of other cultures. Living several hours vicariously through a
protagonist different from your own race helps foster empathy and gives you
a look at life through a different lens. Reading won’t solve all problems, of
course, and you can never fully walk in another person’s shoes, but it offers a
brilliant path to greater understanding and opens up pathways for
conversations. Plus, it’s just more interesting to read broadly, to discover
stories about other ways to exist, other worlds to inhabit. In the end, you may
find that the characters in these stories have the same loves and struggles you
do.

To paraphrase what professor and children’s literature scholar Rudine Sims

Bishop wrote (about children, particularly, but it works for everyone), books
can be windows and sliding doors that you can walk through to immerse
yourself in new worlds, but should also be mirrors, so you can see yourself
reflected back. Representation does matter, and if you don’t see it, you won’t
realize you can be it. Reading books about people like yourself—especially if
you’re part of a marginalized group—gifts you the sense of belonging, which
is crucial to a happy life.

Before we dive in, a little about us:

Jamise grew up with a book always in hand, and as an adult, most of the time
has a glass of wine in the other. She loves talking about both, and friends
always ask her for recommendations. In 2015, she joined Instagram, and at
her sister’s suggestion, began sharing the books she read and pairing them
with wine, as @spinesvines. While she reads widely, she centers her focus on
Black women and women of color. This led her to create #diversespines and
then later @diversespines, to help readers diversify their bookshelves. A
champion for amplifying marginalized voices, Jamise passionately believes
that reading diversely cultivates the opportunity for growth and
understanding.
Jane, too, grew up with a book in hand, and a paint-brush in the other
(making it hard to hold the wine at times, but she figures it out). She has
been drawing books since 2008, when she first realized how lovely they look
together and how passionate booklovers are about them. Since then, she has
created more than four thousand commissioned pieces, each filled with a
person’s absolute, heart-changing, happy-tears-making favorite books. The
most important thing she has learned is that any book, read at the right time,
can change everything, and that reading truly makes the world a better place.
We met soon after Jamise’s son AJ commissioned Jane to create a mug full of
diverse spines for Jamise’s Christmas present in 2018. We chatted after that,
but had never worked together before creating this book, nor even spoken on
the phone. As we live far apart and were making this book in the midst of a
pandemic, we collaborated remotely for the entire process and are both
amazed at how easy and enjoyable it was, despite the crazy deadlines.
We’ve included hundreds of books inside this book with a bit of information
on many of them, but there is so much more that could be said about each, so
just know they are all worth reading. And there are (of course!) so many more
books we wish we could have squeezed in. Please don’t feel limited by our
lists; keep exploring on your own and dive into the vast number of wonderful
books out there by authors from diverse backgrounds.

On the other hand, if the idea of adding hundreds of books to your To Be

Read pile seems overwhelming, don’t worry! On the opposite page is a stack
of brilliant books, and that is where you can start. They are some of our
favorites: some classics by legends and some fresh, urgent voices.

You will notice throughout the book we have added short comments here and
there. For reference, this is Jamise's handwriting and this is Jane's.
 CLASSICS
Rich in history and timeless storytelling, classics speak
to interconnected human experiences that have
stood the test of time and are still meaningful today.
Things Fall Apart celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2018. The novel has sold
over 20 million copies and has been translated into over 57 languages.
President Barack Obama called Achebe’s novel “A true classic of world
literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in
Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.”

Anchor 2008 paperback, design by Helen Yentus, art by Edel

Rodriguez
Ann Petry’s 1946 debut novel, The Street, was the first novel by an African
American woman to sell more than a million copies. The story follows the
daily struggles of Lucite Johnson, a Black single mother of an eight-year-old
son, striving for the “American Dream” amid racism, poverty, and the violent
streets of Harlem.

Mariner 2020 paperback, art by Nathan Burton

 Petry was a registered pharmacist prior to
becoming a journalist, novelist, and short story
and children’s book writer.

Claude McKay was ahead of his time when he wrote Romance in Marseille in
1930. It is one of the earliest African American queer fiction stories covering
radical politics, racial identity, and sexual preference. Ninety years after he
wrote this bold novel, it was published for the first time in 2020. McKay was
a pioneering figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and his poetry book Harlem
Shadows was a strong influence on the movement.
 Penguin Classics 2020 paperback art by Sean Qualls
Published over 35 years ago, The House on Mango Street has sold over 6 million
copies and has been translated into over 20 languages. This coming-of-age
classic about Esperanza Cordero, a young Chicana girl growing up in
Chicago, is required reading for many educational institutions. Asked if it’s
autobiographical, Sandra Cisneros states, “I’m not Esperanza but I’m the sum
of all stories that have passed through me, that I’ve heard, that I’ve witnessed
and Esperanza becomes a composite of all of the above.”
Vintage 1991 paperback, art by Edel Rodriguez
 LEGENDS

JAMES BALDWIN
(1924–1987)

Go Tell It on the Mountain

 Knopf 1953 hardcover, art by John O’Hara Cosgrave
Hailed as his finest work, Baldwin’s first published novel is semi-
autobiographical. The main character’s struggles with family, religion, race,
and sex emulated Baldwin’s life.
 SANDRA CISNEROS
(1954–)

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

 Vintage 1992 paperback, design by Susan Shapiro, art by Nivia
Gonzalez
Cisneros gives voice to women who are often silenced. This short-story
collection centers the struggles of different generations of women, human
interaction, and Chicana culture.
LESLIE MARMON SILKO
(1948–)

Ceremony
 Penguin Classics 2006 paperback, design by Peter Mendelsund,
photo by Didier Gaillard
Silko’s first novel examines the post-war trauma of a Native American soldier
who fought against the Japanese and was captured during World War II.
HARUKI MURAKAMI
(1949–)

Norwegian Wood
 Vintage 2000 paperback, design by John Gall
Norwegian Wood is a coming-of-age story about students navigating through
love, depression, suicide, and grief. It is hailed as Murakami’s most
autobiographical book of fiction.
ISABEL ALLENDE
(1942–)

Eva Luna
 Dial Press 2005 paperback
Known for her signature weaving together of magical realism and myth,
Allende is one of the most widely read Spanish-language authors in the
world.
 ZORA NEALE HURSTON
(1891–1960)

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the

Harlem Renaissance
 Amistad 2020 hardcover, design by Stephen Brayda, art by
Bradley Theodore
Hurston is regarded as one the most prominent leaders of the Harlem
Renaissance. This collection features 21 short stories, including 8 “lost”
stories, showcasing African American culture, race, love, and Harlem.
LANGSTON HUGHES
(1902–1967)

The Ways of White Folks

 Knopf 1934 hardcover
A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes wrote a collection of
fourteen short stories that focuses on the objectification of Black people and
their everyday encounters with white people.
TONI MORRISON
(1931–2019)

The Bluest Eye

 Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1970 hardcover, design by Holly
McNeely-Poindexter
The first novel written by Morrison introduces readers to Pecola Breedlove, a
young Black girl who prays for her eyes to turn blue because she believes they
will make her beautiful.
 TURN OF THE CENTURY
FICTION
The end of one millennium and the beginning of the
next is really just one more day after another, but for
this last one, we humans freaked out a bit: first
partying “like it’s 1999,” and then panicking over Y2K,
and finally settling into the sobering new reality of a
war on terror and a recession. These books span the
years from 1990 to 2009, twenty years of immense
change.
As a young boy growing up in Kabul, Khaled Hosseini loved to fly kites with
his cousins and friends. After watching a 1999 news report about the Taliban
regime banning Afghan people from flying kites, he felt compelled to write a
short story. A few years later he rediscovered the short story in storage in his
garage and it became the inspiration for his first novel, The Kite Runner.
Never Let Me Go is a lovely, heartbreaking book, all about what it is to be
human and mortal, and it was made into a lovely, heartbreaking film starring
Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield. When asked about
the balance between the novel’s sadness and hope, author Kazuo Ishiguro
said, “You know, the fact is, yes, we will all fade away and die, but people can
find the energy to create, you know, little pockets of happiness and decency
while we’re here.”

Vintage 2006 paperback, design by Jamie Keenan, photo by

Gabrielle Rever/Getty Images
Like his character Chino in Bodega Dreams, Ernesto Quiñonez grew up on the
streets in Spanish Harlem. About the audience for his novel, he said, “There
are many who still say: ‘Latinos don’t read.’ I don’t believe that for a minute.
What happened is that, for a very long time, publishing didn’t do enough to
create the market for them. The more mainstream houses didn’t bring out
enough novels or nonfiction books that Latinos could relate to. Only now has
the industry started to take notice that there is an audience—a diverse and
eager market—for books that appeal to Latinos.”
Another random document with
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 "What would trouble him wouldn't be that; but the thought of losing
you," she said. "That would make him nasty, no doubt, and quick to take a
line against you."

"Joe knows about Barnstaple. He said to me once, 'Good men come

from Barnstaple; my father did.' He has relatives up that way. But I only
told him I knew the place; I never said I'd come from there."

She was silent for a moment staring straight before her with her elbows
on her knees, her chin on her hands.

"All this means," he continued, "that we can't do anything small, or cast

dust in people's eyes about it, even if we were tempted to, which we're not.
For the minute we must mark time. Then we'll see as to the law of the
subject and a good few things. All that matters to me is that you can love
me so well as ever, knowing where I stand, and don't feel no grudge against
me."

But she was not sentimental and his general ideas did not interest her.
She had gone far beyond generalities. Her only thought was their future and
how best and quickest it might be developed and shared.

"As to doing anything small, nothing's small if the result of it is big,"

she said. "There's no straight wedding for us here anyway, since Cousin Joe
knows, but Buckland ain't the world, and what we've got to satisfy be
ourselves, not other people. I hate to hear you say we'll see about the law.
People like us did ought to be our own law."

"We've got enough to go on with, and we've got ourselves to go on with

—everything else is naught when I look at you."

"If you feel that, I'm not afeared," she said. "That means firm ground for
me, and all the things that balked and fretted me be gone now."

They talked love and explored each other's hearts, very willing to drop
reality for dreams. They were a man and woman deeply, potently in love,
and both now made believe, to the extent of ignoring the situation in which
they really stood. Time fled for them and the early dusk came down, so that
darkness crept upon them from every side simultaneously. Rain fell, but
they did not perceive it under the sheltering pine. They set off anon and
went down the river bank.

"Now we must go back into the world for a bit," said Dinah, "and we'll
think and see what our thoughts may look like to each other in a week.
Then we'll meet here once more, unbeknown'st. For I reckon we'd better not
moon about together in the sight of people overmuch now. If Joe knows
about you—and yet perhaps that's to the good in a way, because he knows
you be straight and honest, so he'd feel I was safe enough, and only laugh at
the people if they told him you and me were friends beyond reason."

Maynard wondered to see how quickly Dinah's mind moved, and how
she could see into and through a problem as it arose. But he approved her
opinion, that they had better not be seen too often together.

Yet they did not separate before they ran into one who knew them both.
Thomas Palk met them on a woodland road below Watersmeet.

He stood at the edge of an ascent to Buckland.

"Hullo, Tom! What's brought you out this wet evening?" asked
Maynard, and the elder explained that he had been to Green Hayes for news
of Mr. Bamsey.

"Master was wishful to hear tidings," he said. "And I had naught on

hand and did his pleasure. The doctor was along with Benjamin Bamsey
when I got there; so I be taking home the latest."

"And what is it, Mr. Palk?" asked Dinah.

"Bad," he answered. "He's got a lung in a fever and did ought to have
seen doctor sooner."

"Good night, then. I must be gone," she said, and without more words
left the men and started running.

Palk turned to Lawrence.

 "I shouldn't wonder if Bamsey was a goner," he prophesied. "If the
breathing parts be smote, then the heart often goes down into a man's belly,
so I believe, and can't come up again. And that's death."

The other was silent. For a moment it flitted through his mind that, if
such a thing happened, it might go far to simplify Dinah's hold upon the
world and make the future easier for them both; but he forgot this aspect in
sympathy for Dinah herself. He knew that danger to her foster-father must
mean a very terrible grief for her.

"He's a hard, tough old chap. He'll come through with such care as he'll
get. But Stockman said as that biting day might breed trouble among the
grey heads. He was right."

He talked with a purpose to divert Tom's mind from the fact that he had
met him walking alone with Dinah; but he need not have felt apprehension:
Mr. Palk was immersed in his own thoughts, and no outside incident ever
influenced his brain when it happened to be engaged with personal
reflections.

"Stockman always looks ahead—granted," he answered as they climbed

the hill together, "and for large views and putting two and two together,
there's not his equal. But self-interest is his god, though he foxes everybody
it ain't. For all his fine sayings, there is only one number in his mind and
that's number One. He hides it from most, but he don't hide it from me,
because the minute you've got the key to his lock, you see how every word
and thought and deed be bent in one direction. And under his large talk of
the greatest good to the most, there's always 'self' working unseen."

"You ain't far out, yet in honesty there's not much for you and me to
quarrel with," said Maynard.

"When you say that, you'm as ownself as him. And if you and me was
everybody, I wouldn't feel what I do. He don't quarrel with us, though he
often says a thing so pleasant and easy that you don't know you're cut, till
you find the blood running. But we ain't everybody. He may see far, but he
don't see near. He's fairly civil to us, because he don't mean to lose us if he
can help it; but what about her as can't escape? How does he treat his own
flesh and blood?"

Maynard was astonished. He had not given Thomas credit for much wit
or power of observation. Nor had he ever concerned himself with the inner
life of the farm as it affected Susan.

"Would you say Miss was put upon?" he asked.

"God's light!" swore Mr. Palk. "And be you a thinking man and can ask
that? Have you got eyes? If Orphan Dinah had to work like her, would you
ax me if she was put upon?"

The challenge disturbed Lawrence, for it seemed that Thomas had

observation that extended into the lives of his neighbours—a gift the
younger man had not guessed.

"What's Miss Waycott to do with it?" he asked.

"Naught. Nobody's got nothing to do with it but master. And he's got
everything to do with it; and he's a tyrant and a damned slave-driver, and
treats her no better than a plough, or a turnip cutter."

They were silent and Thomas asked a question.

"Have you ever heard tell they port-wine marks be handed down from
generation to generation, worse and worse?"

"No, I never did."

"I heard Stockman tell Melindy Bamsey they was."

"I dare say it might be so."

"And yet again, when the subject come up at Ashburton, a publican

there said that if a man or woman suffered from such a thing they was
doomed never to have no children at all. He said he'd known a good few
cases."
 "A woman might," answered Lawrence, "because, if they're afflicted
that way, they'd be pretty sure to bide single. But it would be a nice question
if a marked man couldn't get childer. I wouldn't believe anybody but a
doctor on that subject."

Thomas turned this over for ten minutes without answering. Then the
subject faded from his mind and he flushed another.

"What about our rise?" he said.

"We'll hear after Easter."

They discussed the probable figure. Maynard seemed not deeply

interested; but Palk declared that his own future movements largely
depended upon Mr. Stockman's decision.

CHAPTER XXIII

IN A SICK-ROOM

Dinah could not think of her foster-father all the way home. Though
deeply concerned, her thoughts left him fitfully to concentrate on Lawrence
Maynard. She felt a little puzzled at a streak of mental helplessness that
seemed to have appeared in him. Just where it appeared most vital that he
should know his own mind, she could not help feeling he did not. He
groped, instead of seeing the way as clearly as she did. For him, what he
had to tell her seemed serious; for her, as she now considered it, the fact that
Mr. Stockman knew Maynard was married sank in significance. She found
that it was only because Lawrence regarded it as grave, that she had done
so. That it made a simple situation more complex she granted; but it did not
alter the situation; and if it was impossible to be married at Buckland, there
would be no difficulty, so far as she could see, in being married elsewhere.
 She had examined the situation more deeply, however, before she
reached home and perceived that Lawrence, after all, was not groping, but
rather standing still before a very definite obstacle. They could not be
married at Buckland; but could they be married anywhere else without first
vanishing far beyond reach and hearing of Buckland? For him that was
easy; for her impossible, unless she deliberately cut herself off from her
foster-father and, not only that, but prevented him from knowing where she
might be. For it was idle to tell him, or anybody, that she had married
Maynard, while Mr. Stockman could report from Maynard's own lips that
he was already married.

Now indeed Dinah's soul fainted for a few moments. She hated things
hid; she loved events to be direct and open; but already some need for
hiding her thought, if not her actions, had become imperative and now she
saw a complication arising that she had never taken into account: the
collision between Lawrence and Ben Bamsey. What might be right and
honest enough to her and her lover—what was already clean and clear in
her mind, and would, she did not doubt, be presently equally clean and clear
to Lawrence—must emphatically be neither righteous nor thinkable to the
generation of Mr. Bamsey. None else indeed mattered; but he did. Great
vistas of time began to stretch between her and her lover. He retreated; but
the gathering difficulties did not daunt her since the end was assured.

For a season life was now suspended at the bedside of an old man, and
Dinah returned home to plunge at once into the battle for her foster-father's
existence. It was a battle fought unfairly for her, and not until the end of it
did Dinah discover the tremendous effect of her exertions on her own
vitality; for she was in a position false and painful from the first, being
called at the will of one very sick to minister to him before his own, and to
suffer from the effects of his unconscious selfishness, under the jealousy of
the other women who were nearer to him.

Ben rapidly became very ill indeed, with congestion of the lungs, and
for a time, while in the extremity of suffering, his usual patient
understanding deserted him and facts he strove to keep concealed in health
under conditions of disease appeared. They were no secret to Faith Bamsey
and she was schooled to suffer them, being able the easier so to do, because
she was just and knew the situation was not Dinah's fault. Indeed they
created suffering for the girl also. But to Jane, her father's now unconcealed
preference for Dinah, his impatience when she was absent and his reiterated
desire to have her beside him, inflamed open wounds and made her harsh.
Her mother argued with her half-heartedly, but did not blame her any more
than she blamed Dinah. She knew her husband's armour was off, and that he
could not help extending a revelation of the truth beyond her heart, where
she had hoped it was hidden; but she was human and the fact that
everybody, thanks to Jane, now knew that she and her own child were less
to Benjamin than his foster-daughter, distressed her and sometimes clouded
her temper.

One only stood for Dinah and strove to better the pain of her position.
Tossed backward and forward still, now, when at last he was minded to
accept the situation and admit to his own mind the certainty he could never
win her, a ray of hope flushed wanly out of the present trouble; a straw
offered for him to clutch at. John Bamsey came to Green Hayes daily, to
learn how his father did, and he heard from Jane how Dinah was preferred
before his mother or herself. Then inspired by some sanguine shadow, he
took Dinah's part, strove to lessen the complication for her and let her know
that he understood her difficulties and was opposing his sister on her
account.

He quarrelled with Jane for Dinah's sake and told Dinah so; and she
perceived, to her misery, how he was striving yet again to win her back at
any cost. Thus another burden was put upon her and she found that only in
the sick-room was any peace.

Mr. Bamsey much desired to live, and proved a good patient from the
doctor's point of view. A professional nurse, however, he would not have
and, indeed, there was no need. All that could be done was done, and it
seemed that the crisis was delayed by the sleepless care of those who tended
him. He was not unreasonable and sometimes solicitous both for his wife
and Dinah. He desired that they should take their rest and often demanded
Jane's attention, for the sake of the others; but, as he reached the critical
hours of his disease, his only cry was for Dinah and his only wish appeared
to be that he should hold her hand. Thus sometimes she had to sit beside
him while his wife did nurse's work. The torture was sustained; and then
came a morning when, still clear in his mind, Mr. Bamsey felt that he might
not much longer remain so. He then expressed a wish for his family to come
round him, while he detailed his purposes and intentions.

John was also present at this meeting, and when Dinah desired to leave
them together, he and not his father bade her stop.

"You're one of us," he said. "Sit where you are and don't leave go his
hand, else he'll be upset."

The sufferer had little to say.

"'Tis all in my will," he told them. "But I'm wishful to speak while I can;
and if mother has got anything against, there's time to put it right. All mine
is hers for her life—all. But I'll ax her, when each of you three come to be
married, to hand each five hundred pounds. That won't hurt her. She'll bide
here, I hope; and presently, when Jane weds, it would be very convenient if
Jerry was to come here and go on with the farm. But if mother wants to
leave here, then she can sublet. And when mother's called, the money's to
be divided in three equal portions for Dinah and John and Jane."

He stopped, panting.

"Heave me up a bit, Dinah," he said.

Nobody spoke and he looked into their faces.

"Well?" he asked impatiently.

"That will do very right and proper, my dear," answered Faith. "Don't
you think no more about it. A just and righteous will I'm sure."

But Jane had left the room and her father observed it.

"Have that woman anything against?" he asked.

"No, no—a very just and righteous will," repeated his wife soothingly.
"I could wish you'd trusted me with the capital, father; but there—I'm
content."

"I put you first, Faith."

"I've put you first for five and twenty years."

"You ban't content?"

"Well content. Rest now. Us'll go and leave you with Dinah Waycott."

She tried to resist using Dinah's surname, but could not. Then she left
the room.

"I've done what I thought was my duty, John," said Mr. Bamsey.

"You've never done less. I'm very willing that Dinah should share. So's
mother I'm sure."

"Try and get a bit of sleep now, my old dear," said Dinah. "And thank
you dearly—dearly for thinking on me; but—no matter, you get off if you
can. Will you drink?"

He nodded and she gave him some warm milk.

"I'll drop the blind," she said and did so.

In her thoughts was already the determination to forego any legacy

under any circumstances. She longed to tell Jane that she meant to do so.

Mr. Bamsey shut his eyes and presently dozed. The steam kettle made a
little chattering in the silence, but the sick man's breathing was the loudest
sound in the room.

He slept, though Dinah knew that he would not sleep long. To her
concern John began talking of what had passed.

He proceeded in undertones.
 "Don't think I don't approve what father's done. I do; and I wish to God
you'd take two-thirds—mine as well as your own—in fulness of time.
Which you would do, Dinah, if you came to me. Why can't you see it?"

"Why can't you, John?"

"What is there for me to see? Nothing, but that you don't know your
own mind. Haven't I been patient enough, waiting for you to make it up?
What's the good of going on saying you don't love me, when you know I've
got love enough for me and you both? Can't you trust me? Can't you judge
the size of what I feel for you, by the line I've took for very near a year?
You loved me well enough back-along, and what did I ever do to choke you
off? You can't tell me, because you don't know. Nobody knows. You bide
here, and you understand I'm not changed and won't be blown away by all
the rumours and lies on people's tongues; and you can let me live on in hell
—for what? You don't know If you had a reason, you'd be just enough to
grant I ought to hear it."

"Don't say that, Johnny. You never asked me for a reason more than I
gave you from the first. I told you on New Bridge that I was bitter sorry, but
I found my feeling for you was not the sort of love that can make a woman
marry a man. And that was the sole reason then. And that reason is as good
now as ever it was."

"It's no reason to anybody who knows you like what I do. Haven't you
got any pity, or mercy in you, Dinah? Can you go on in cold blood ruining
my life same as you are doing—for nothing at all? What does a woman
want more than the faithful love and worship of a clean, honest man? Why
did you stop loving me?"

"I never began, John; and if you say that reason's not enough, then—
then I'll give you another reason. For anything's better than going on like
this. To ask me for pity and mercy! Can't you see what you're doing—you,
who was so proud? D'you want a woman to give herself up to you for pity
and mercy? Be you sunk to that?"

"I'm sunk where it pleased you to sink me," he said; "and if you knew
what love was, pity and mercy would rise to your heart to see anybody
sinking that you could save."

"I do know what love is," she answered. "Yes, I know it now, though I
never did till now. When I begged you to let me go, I didn't know anything
except what I felt for you wasn't what it ought to be; but, since then, things
are different; and I do well know what love is."

"That's something. If you've larned that, I'll hope yet you'll come to see
what mine is."

"You can't love a man because he loves you, John. You may be just as
like to love a man who hates you, or love where mortal power can't love
back—as in your case. Where I've got now be this: I do love a man."

"You thought you loved me. Perhaps you're wrong again and was right
before."

"I love a man, and he loves me; and nothing on God's earth will ever
keep us apart unless it's death."

"So you think now. I've heard some talk about this and gave them that
told it the lie. And I'm most in the mind to give you the lie. I can't forget all
you've said to me. It's hard—it's horrible, to think you could ever speak
such words to anybody else."

She smiled.

"I don't want to be cruel; I don't want to be horrible, John. But what I've
ever said to you was naught—the twitter of a bird—the twaddle of a child.
How could I talk love to you, not knowing love? You never heard love from
me, because I didn't know the meaning of the word till long after us had
parted for good and all. Find a woman that loves you—you soon might—
then you'll hear yourself echoed. I never echoed you, and that you know
very well, because I couldn't."

"Who is he?"
 She expected this and was prepared. None must know that she loved
Lawrence Maynard—least of all John Bamsey. He would be the first to take
his news red hot to Falcon Farm and Joe Stockman. The necessity for
silence was paramount; but she voiced her own desire when she answered.

"I wish to Heaven I could tell you, Johnny. Yes, I do. I'd like best of all
to tell you, and I'll never be quite, quite happy, I reckon, until you've
forgiven me for bringing sorrow and disappointment on you. 'Tis not the
least of my hopes that all here will forgive me some day; for I couldn't help
things falling out as they have, and I never wanted to be a curse in disguise
to foster-father, or any of you, same as I seem to be. You can't tell—none of
you—how terrible hard it is; and God's my judge, I've often wished this
dear old man could have turned against me, and hated me, and let me go
free. But he wouldn't send me out and I couldn't go so long as he bade me
stop."

"You're wriggling away from it," he said. "Who's the man? If there's any
on earth have the right to know that much, it's me."

"So you have—I grant it. And if it ever comes to be known, you'll be
the first to hear, John. But it can't be known yet awhile, for very good
reasons. My life's difficult and his life's difficult—so difficult that it may
never happen at all. But I pray God it will; and it shall if I can make it
happen. And more I can't tell you than that."

"You hide his name from me then?"

"What does his name matter? I've only told you so much for the pity
you ask. I needn't have gone so far. But I can see what knowing this ought
to do for you, John, and I hope it will. You understand now that I care for a
man as well, heart and soul and body, as you care for me. And for Christ's
sake let that finish it between us. I hate hiding things, and it's bitter to me to
hide what I'm proud of—far prouder of than anything that's ever happened
to me in all my born days. So leave it, and if there's to be pity and mercy
between us—well, you're a man, and you can be pitiful and merciful now,
knowing I'm in a fix, more or less, and don't see the way out at present. It's
a man's part to be merciful, so be a man."
 The turning point had come for him and he knew that his last hope was
dead. This consciousness came not gradually, but in a gust of passion that
banished the strongest of him and exalted the weakest. Hate would now be
quickly bred from the corpse of his obstinate desires, and he knew and
welcomed the thought.

"Yes," he said, "you'm right; it's for men to be merciful. No woman ever
knew the meaning of the word. So I'll be a man all through—and there's
more goes to a man than mercy for them that have wickedly wronged him."

He forgot where he stood and raised his voice.

"And I'll find him—maybe I know where to look. But I'll find him; and
there won't be any mercy then, Dinah Waycott. 'Tis him that shall answer
for this blackguard robbery. I can't have you; but, by God, I'll have the price
of you!"

He woke his father, and Ben, choking, coughed and spat. Then he
heaved himself on his arms and pressed his shoulders up to his ears to ease
the suffocation within.

Dinah ministered to him and John went from the sick-room and from
the house.

CHAPTER XXIV

"THE REST IS EASY"

Ben Bamsey survived his illness and had to thank a very pains-taking
doctor and most devoted nurses for his life. He was unconscious for four
and twenty hours, and during the fortnight that followed the crisis remained
so weak, that it seemed he could never regain strength sufficient to move a
hand. Then he began to recover. He prospered very slowly, but there were
no relapses, and the definite disaster left by his illness remained unknown to
the sufferer himself until the end of his days. Nor did other people perceive
it until some months had elapsed. The physician was the first to do so, but
he did not speak of it directly, rather leaving Ben's own circle to discover
the change and its extent. The doctor had feared early; but it was not a fear
he could impart.

Meantime it became known to those who had already bidden farewell to

the master of Green Hayes that he would live; and not one of all those
known to Mr. Bamsey but rejoiced to learn the good news.

On a day some time after Christmas, while yet the sick man's fate was
undetermined and it could not be said that he was out of danger, Lawrence
Maynard went down to Green Hayes, that he might learn the latest news.
Life ran evenly at Falcon Farm and Mr. Stockman's first interest at present
was his kinsman. Now Lawrence brought a partridge, with directions from
Joe that it was to be made into broth for Mr. Bamsey.

He saw Ben's wife and heard the morning's news, that her husband was
now safe and would recover.

Faith looked haggard and pale, and Maynard expressed a fear that the
ordeal must have been very severe. She admitted it, but declared that such
relief as all now felt would be a tonic and swiftly restore them.

"We're about beat," she said, in her usual placid fashion. "We've worked
hard and, between us, we've saved my husband with the doctor's help. That
man's a miracle. I've got a very great respect for him. You'd best to come in
and rest yourself before you go back."

He entered, in secret hope of seeing Dinah, whom he had not met for
several weeks. Once, however, she had written him a brief note to say that
she was well.

Faith Bamsey spoke of Ben and praised his fortitude.

"If he'd wavered, or thrown up the sponge for an hour, he'd have died;
but so long as he kept consciousness he determined to live, and even when
he thought and felt positive he must go, he never gave up doing the right
thing. He won't be the same man, however; we mustn't expect that. He'll be
in his bed for a month yet and can't hope to go down house for six weeks.
He mustn't think to go out of doors till spring and the warm weather; then it
remains to be seen how much of his nature he gets back."

She entertained Maynard for half an hour, while he drank a cup of tea.
She did not share Jane's suspicion and dislike of him and felt no objection
to the idea of his wedding Dinah and removing her from Lower Town. She
was almost minded in his quiet and inoffensive presence to raise the
question, and went so far as to tell him Dinah had driven to Ashburton that
afternoon. But he showed no apparent interest in the fact and Faith did not
continue on the subject. She could be generous, however, in the blessed
light of Ben's promised recovery, and she admitted that Dinah had been of
infinite value in the sick-room. Indeed Mrs. Bamsey did not hide from
herself that Dinah had doubtless made the difference between life and death
for her husband; and since she desired above all things that Ben should live,
some of her dislike was softened for the time. She wished her away very
cordially, but knew the hour of Dinah's departure must now be protracted
indefinitely, for no question could at present be put to her foster-father.

With her personal anxieties ended, Faith Bamsey found it possible to

consider other people again.

"I've never had time to think of what Enoch Withycombe's death meant
yet," she said, "because it brought such a terrible time to us. But now us can
lift up our heads and look round at other folk again and inquire after the
neighbours. Melinda was down axing after my husband a bit ago, but I
didn't see her. Jerry comes and goes. I hope Melinda gets over it. To nurse a
father all them years and then lose him, must have left her stranded in a
manner of speaking."

"Mrs. Honeysett comes to see Miss Susan and farmer sometimes."

"I warrant. Would you say Cousin Joe be looking in that direction now
she's free?"

Maynard shook his head.

 "I wouldn't. I don't reckon Mr. Stockman will marry again. He's very
comfortable."

"Yes—one of them whose comfort depends on the discomfort of

somebody else, however."

"So people seem to think. It's a hard home for Miss Susan; but it's her
life, and if she's not a cheerful sort of woman, you can't say she's much
downcast."

"No—she dursn't be cast down. He wouldn't stand cast-down people

round him. Mind to say I'm greatly obliged for the bird, and I hope Ben will
eat a slice or two presently. I'll come up over and drink a dish of tea with
them afore long. I'm properly withered for want of fresh air."

"I dare say you are, ma'am."

"I saw Enoch Withycombe last week," she said. "The old man was
standing down in the Vale, not far from the kennels—just where you'd think
he might be. And always seeing him lying down, as we did, it gave me
quite a turn to mark how tall his ghost was."

To see a dead man had not astonished Faith; but the unremembered
accident of his height had done so.

"How did he look, Mrs. Bamsey?" asked Maynard.

"I couldn't tell you. The faces that I see never show very clear. You'm
conscious it is this man, or this woman. You know, somehow, 'tis them, but
there's always a fog around them. They don't look the same as what living
people look."

"The haunted house that adjoins Mrs. Honeysett's is taken at last," he

said. "Mr. Chaffe has been up over a good bit putting it to rights, and
they've stripped the ivy and are going to put on a new thatch. It's a very
good house really, though in a terrible state, so Mr. Chaffe told master."
 "I've heard all about it," she answered. "There's a new gardener come to
Buckland Court—a widow man with a young daughter. And he don't care
for ghosts—one of the modern sort, that believe naught they can't
understand. And as they can't understand much, they don't believe much. So
he's took it."

"Harry Ford, he's called," added Lawrence. "A man famous for flower-
growing, I believe."

"I'm glad then. I hate for houses to stand empty."

He asked after Jerry.

"I met your young people back-along, and I'm afraid Miss Jane have put
me in her black books—why for I don't know very well. I suppose they'll
wed come presently?"

Again Mrs. Bamsey was tempted to speak, but felt it wiser not to do so.
She ignored Maynard's first remark and replied to the second.

"Yes; they'll be for it now no doubt. After Easter perhaps; but not till my
husband is strong enough to be at the church and give Jane away of course.
Jerry's come into a bit of money since his father died. They must have their
ideas, but they're close as thieves about the future. All I can hear is that they
be wishful to go away from here come they're married."

"Folk like to make a change and start life fresh after that."

"I suppose they do."

He talked a little longer and it was impossible for Faith to feel dislike or
anger. Had he come between her son and his betrothed—had he been
responsible for the unhappy break, she would have felt differently; but she
knew that he was not responsible and she perceived that if he indeed desired
to marry Dinah, the circumstance would solve difficulties only ignored by
common consent during her husband's illness. She had not heard what John
said to Dinah in the sick-room and supposed that now her son must
appreciate the situation, since he had quite ceased to speak of Dinah. His
purpose, avowed in a passion, had not overmuch impressed Dinah herself,
for it was outside reason and she doubted not that Johnny would be
ashamed of such foolish threats in a cooler moment. But, none the less, she
meant to warn Lawrence and now an opportunity occurred to do so.

For Maynard availed himself of Mrs. Bamsey's information, and hearing

that Ben's foster-daughter was gone to Ashburton, knew the way by which
she would return home and proceeded on that way. He had not seen her
since the Sunday afternoon at Lizwell Meet; neither had he written to her,
doubting whether it might be wise to do so and guessing that her whole life
for the present was devoted to the sufferer.

He left Mrs. Bamsey now and presently passed the workshops of Arthur
Chaffe at Lower Town, then sank into the valley. By the time he reached
New Bridge, Dinah had also arrived there and he carried her parcels for half
a mile and returned beside the river.

She was beyond measure rejoiced to see him and he found her worn and
weary from the strain of the battle; but its victorious issue went far already
to make her forget what was passed. She talked of Mr. Bamsey and gave
Maynard details of the sick-room and the alternate phases of hope and
despair that had accompanied the illness. To her these things bulked large
and filled her thoughts; but he was well content, because Dinah adopted an
implicit attitude to him that indicated beyond doubt her settled
consciousness of their relation. She spoke as though they were lovers of
established understanding. She seemed to take it for granted that only an
uncertain measure of time separated them.

This much she implied from the moment of their meeting and presently,
when they approached the parting place, she became personal.

"Don't think, for all I'm so full of dear foster-father, that you've been out
of my thoughts, Lawrence," she said. "You was there all the time—the last
thing in my mind when I went to get an hour or two of sleep, and the first
thing when I woke. You ran through it all; and once or twice when he was
rambling, he named your name and said you was a very good sort of man—
civil and thoughtful and peace-loving. And I told him you were; and he
hoped we'd come together, for he said he could trust me with you. He wasn't
far from himself when he said it, but only I heard; and whether he ever
named you in his fever dreams when I wasn't there—to Jane, or Mrs.
Bamsey—I don't know. They never let on about it and so I hope he didn't."

"I've just seen his wife," he said. "She's long ways happier for this great
recovery. She's sensible enough. She looked a few questions, but didn't ask
them, and you're not bound to answer looks."

Then Dinah told him of John's threats and how he had again begged her
to wed.

"I felt things was at a climax then; and I told him straight out that I
knew what love was at last. I was gentle and kind to the poor chap; but he
wasn't gentle and kind to me. He wanted to know the man, and that, of
course, I couldn't tell him, though dearly I longed to. But things being as
they are, I can't name you, Lawrence, though 'tis terrible hateful to me I
can't. I said to Johnny 'twas no odds about the man for the present, and then
he lost his temper and swore he'd find him out and do all manner of wicked
deeds to him. Only his rage, of course, and nothing to trouble about, but so
it is and I meant for you to know."

He considered and she spoke again.

"It makes me mad to think all we are to each other have got to be hid, as
if we was ashamed of it instead of proud—proud. But Cousin Joe would
abide by the letter against the spirit no doubt. He'd tell everybody you was
married if we blazed out we were tokened; and now Mr. Withycombe's
dead, there's not any in the Vale that would understand."

"Certainly there is not, Dinah—or beyond the Vale I reckon."

"All's one," she said. "In my eyes you're a free man, and just as right to
find a mate as a bird in a tree. Yes, you are. I know what marriage means
now, and I know what our marriage will mean. For that matter we are
married in heart and soul."

"It's good to hear you say so," he answered. "My love's so true as yours,
Dinah; but there's more mixed with it."
 "Away with what be mixed with it! I won't have naught mixed with it,
and no thought shall think any evil into it, Lawrence. You couldn't think
evil for that matter; but men be apt, seemingly, to tangle up a straight
thought by spinning other thoughts around it. And I won't have that. What
be your thoughts that you say are mixed with the future? Can you name
them? Can you think 'em out loud in words and look in my face while you
do? I lay you can't! But, for that matter, I've been thinking too. And what I
think mixes with what I feel, and makes all the better what I feel."

In her eagerness Dinah became rhetorical.

"I was turning over that widow at Barnstaple," she said—"the woman
called Courtier, married to a dead man. And I was wondering why I thought
twice of her even while I did so; for what be she to me? Not so much as the
grass on the field-path I walk over. And what be she to you more than the
dead? Be she real, Lawrence? Be she more real and alive to you than
Gilbert Courtier, in his grave, beyond sight and sound of living men for
evermore? Let the dead lie. You'm alive, anyway, and free in the Eye of
God to marry me. And what matters except how soon, and when, and
where?"

"You're a brave wonder," he said, "and the man you can love, who
would miss you, must be a bigger fool than me. What's left be my work—
and a glorious bit of work I reckon."

"Easy enough anyway."

"For the things to be done, easy enough I doubt not; for the things to be
thought, none so easy. Them that sweep fearless to a job, like you, have got
to be thought for. And love quickens a man and makes him higher and
deeper and better—better, Dinah—than himself—if love's got any decent
material to work upon and the man's any good. And pray God that will turn
out to be so in my case. A bit ago, when first I came here, I'd have gone
bare-headed into this—same as you want to. But I've larned a lot from a
dead man since I came to Falcon Farm. Withycombe looked deeper into life
than me, being taught by his master and his own troubles and also out of
books so to do. He steadied me here and there, and maybe it was for this
great business that the words were put in his mouth. And it's that that be