Eliza Margaret Jane Humphreys

“ Surely there's not more for a servant to do now than there was then?"
"I have my own reasons," snapped Catherine. "I'm not one to make beasts of burden of my servants."
"Indeed," said Margaret sharply, " I think your Scotch treasure would not be easily made into a beast of burden. It strikes me that she does pretty much what she pleases here. I never came across such a very plain-spoken person. Which reminds me, Aunt Catherine, that I should feel obliged by your ordering her to make a fire in my room this evening; it is as cold as a vault. ”

“ By my mother's death, therefore, I have the lease of this house and everything in it ; but I promised her that as long as my father lived he should have the use of it, unless he should prefer to come abroad and live with me. But he won't do that. He is somewhat prejudiced and obstinate."
"It ill-becometh a child to speak disrespectfully of a parent," interrupted Aunt Macpherson severely.
"Oh, I meant no disrespect, I simply stated a fact ; and surely when a child is grown up. Aunt Catherine, it has as much right to criticise a parent as a parent has ever had to punish or control it. ”

“ Tibbie Minch had been forbidden to light a fire in the spare room, and Catherine had made it as stiff and forbidding a chamber as her own vivid recollections of Barnes and the institute permitted. She had nailed texts about the walls, hung stiff white curtains at the window, and removed the pretty portieres and draperies and dressing-table ornaments. Anything more comfortless than it looked to a tired traveler coming from the horrors of a channel-crossing and a cold railway journey, could not well be imagined. ”

“ My sight's failing me fast, and the days are long to a blind old man."
Catherine Macpherson gave a gasp.
Play cribbage! read a newspaper! Surely these were the very works and wiles of the devil!
"I have never touched a card in my life, Jamie," she said sternly. " I could not bring myself to do it now. As for newspapers," she gave a glance of dislike at the Times as she spoke, " I would, of course, do my duty to you — though I'll not say I hold with the opinions and politics of the day, or consider the contents of a journal as wholesome reading." ”

“ Robert Forbes never intended to do anything so unpalatable — or disastrous. He let her go, and from that hour gave her neither sign nor word of his existence. She lived on at Sydney for several years, waiting and watching for this tardy lover to reappear. He never did, and another space of time swept Catherine on to the debatable ground of thirty, and she found herself more ill-favored, gaunt and hard- hearted than ever. Her temper had grown worse. ”

“ It must be a very hard and dreary life. Aunt Catherine — " she broke off suddenly.
" It was the Lord's will to call me to it," said Catherine severely. " And, hard or not, I've always fulfilled my duty, where'er I've seen it set before me. When we know where to seek grace and how to find it, there's nothing too hard for us."
" Well," said Margaret gently, " I only know that it seemed to me a very toilful and self-denying life, and many a time my father and I talked about it. ”

“ From the age of nineteen to that of twenty-five she lived at the Old' House, and quarreled with and managed its domestic affairs, to the great trial and bitterness of her parents and the one domestic, whom she ruled with a rod of iron and an array of texts. Even in those days of comparative youth, Catherine Macpherson had found out the benefit of "doctrine" as a weapon in the hand of the weak. ”

“ Any one who has had the good fortune to live in the house with an extremely Christian person may have observed that that person is usually more trying on a Sunday than on any other day of the week. Whether the fact is due to the arduous nature of religious services, which brook no excuse if principles go for anything, or the effort to maintain a demeanor corresponding to the day, it is certainly undeniable.
If an exception to this rule does exist, that exception was certainly not to be found in the person of Catherine Macpherson. ”

“ Catherine wondered if her neighbors found it edifying, and was conscious of a keen regret that Tibbie Minch was not present, the discourse was so strangely applicable to her. She treasured up a few of the pithy, plain-dealing sentences for repetition, and got great store of comfort from them. It is always pleasant to see the failings of others held up to the light of day and riddled by bullets of home-truths. ”

“ As it is, the little that has leaked out, in the confessions of recalcitrant novices and refractory nuns, shows plainly that a sisterhood is not quite the little "heaven on earth" its superiors and founders would have the world believe.
The special sisterhood to which Catherine Macpherson belonged was a somewhat mixed and refractory one. It was not ignorant of jealousy and animosity — it held spiteful loves as well as time-serving friendships. ”

“ She was determined the old man should be got up-stairs and out of the way before the hour when callers might be expected.
She therefore attended to the laying of breakfast and dinner herself, being afraid lest Tibbie Minch should call attention to the vagaries of the timepiece. The plan succeeded. James Macpherson partook of his whisky toddy, and retired to his room unsuspectingly; and Tibbie, grumbling audibly, was hustled off to put on her afternoon gown, while the fair Catherine was getting herself into the new strange garment she had deemed suitable for the occasion. ”

“ At this stage of her existence, Catherine Macpherson's history seemed to become of that monotonous kind that "repeats itself." She went from one relative to another on visits of various length, that always ended disastrously. Then she would fling a score or two of texts at their heads, shake the dust of their dwelling from off her No. 7 boots, and try her luck with another.
At last, she essayed a noble independence of spirit, and took a situation as companion to an old Scotch doctor and his wife. The wife was nearly deaf, and the doctor nearly blind, so she suited them fairly well. ”

“ Tibbie Minch was lighting the gas over the hall-door, and opened it as she heard the steps. She started as she saw her mistress's face.
"Gude sakes!" she exclaimed; "sic a thing! What for hae ye been playactressing to-day ? I didna ken ye till I lookit at yer mouth."
Catherine Macpherson flounced up the stairs in a white heat of passion. This insolent familiar person must really be sent about her business. Human patience has its limits, even when allied to Christian virtues. ”

“ That is all you will have to do. I always go to bed at ten o'clock myself."
She closed the door, and went up-stairs with that vague misgiving increasing and intensifying every moment. There was no doubt but that Tibbie Minch was a masterful woman, and a woman with very strong opinions and prejudices, and so was Catherine Macpherson. ”

“ She's too much taken up with hersel' altogether, and has a pert masterful way with her that is not respectful to an elder relative. And she would not hold with the alterations I've made, nor see that the old man is all the better for having his whisky neither so strong, nor so often. His brain is too excitable now, and had it not been for my own thought o' keeping the half of every bottle to myself, and just helping out his share with the water-bottle, I'm not sure but that his mind would have gone altogether. ”

“ Why, the breakfast this morning was only fit for a kitchen. For goodness sake, don't let yourself get out of the ways of decent civilized life altogether! "
"Tut-tut, Margaret," said the old man, "it does well enough for me. I want no fripperies and nonsense at my time of life ! As long as my room is warm and comfor- table, and I get my dram in the morning, and my glass of toddy in the afternoon, and the food is soft for my old teeth, I wouldn't be troubling these women folk as to how they set a cloth, or what way they fix the chairs and tables. ”

“ Your brither is the master, if the house is his ain. Does he pay my wages, or do you? that will just settle the business, I'm thinking."
"He pays everything, of course," allowed Catherine Macpherson reluctantly; " but I am here to look after him and his household affairs, and you must not trouble him on any domestic matters. His head isn't quite strong, and he must be kept free from all excitement."
"Oh, I'll no excite him," said Tibbie, commencing the work of "washing up"; "only it's mair satisfactory to hae a proper understanding at once. I ken your place weel eno', mem, and I ken my ain. ”

“ The entrance of Tibbie with the tea cut short further adjectives. There was no silver tray, no best china, no Queen Anne service, for this visitor. Catherine Macpherson would have scorned to trouble herself to please her, now that there was nothing to be gained by it. Her footing was so sure, her power over her brother so absolute, that she knew perfectly well nothing but his death would ever give Margaret Weimar any place of authority. If she attempted to persuade him to dismiss her aunt, that good lady could at once call the doctor to her aid. ”

“ It was a man's voice I heard, and all that scuffling about the kitchen is most unseemly at your time o' life."
"Ye may leave my time o' life alane," said Tibbie. "I'm no half the age o' yoursel' . . . and as for scuffling, I dinna ken what ye mean. The young man is a quiet decent body, and comes of as gude a stock as ony in Galloway. And neither he nor I hae ony freends in London, so it's no sae wonderfu' if he calls now and then to have a crack wi' ane o' his ain folk."
Catherine gave a contemptuous sniff, and signified that Tibbie might retire. ”

“ Tibbie Minch was very Scotch in her speech and appearance. She was red-haired, high-colored, and bony. Her age was thirty. She had every appearance of health, and strength, and temper. But that was, of course, an after discovery. She had come to London after due consideration with a view to bettering herself, and she surveyed the house and the mistress somewhat distrustfully.
Catherine Macpherson was inclined to be diplomatic. She knew that to have a servant engaged by herself and managed by herself was an important matter. She therefore bestowed an almost friendly welcome on the newcomer. ”

“ Scotch people are, perhaps, the least demonstrative in the way of affection of any nation on the face of the earth. Still, it surprised Margaret Weimar to see her father and his sister greet each other as if their parting had been a thing of days instead of years. ”

“ The autumn of life is aye the sensible time for settling down .... when the brae grows steep to climb, and the evenings are long and lonely. We could aye pass our days very comfortably, I'm thinking. But it would not be wise to let Margaret come here — not yet. ”

“ Catherine herself was gifted with a fair share of the Macpherson temper, always a notable thing at best, and the said share grew with her growth and increased with her stature, until it threatened to become the most striking force in her mental de- velopment. When she was nineteen, a long indulgence in this same temper had left its effects in a visible imprint of lines about the eyes and mouth, which certainly did not improve her by no means prepos- sessing appearance. The said appearance owed little to Nature, and less to her own ideas of setting it off. ”

“ I winna do for a stranger what I hae refused, to the mistress. It wouldna be consistent, and I'm aye strong for principle. Ye're a young thing, and headstrong like, Mistress Weimar, but gin yell tak' a word o' advice that's weel meant and sensible, ye'U juist — "
"If you don't choose to obey orders," interrupted Margaret, " I'll thank you to keep your place, and your advice also. In half an hour I shall come down for that hot water. Is the bath up-stairs in its old place?" ”

“ She usually prepared herself for the day by reading a portion of Paley's "Evidences," a chapter of the Bible, and another of the "Pilgrim's Progress." Then she put on her Sunday gown of black silk, a rustling, noisy, aggravating sort of silk, tied an apron carefully over the skirt, and went down to breakfast.
The morning after that skirmish with Tibbie Minch was the Sabbath morning. She rose at her usual hour, but the new style of hair-dressing took up a much longer time than her plain bands had done. ”

“ There is no selfishness at once so intense and so hopeless as the selfishness of old age. It holds all the exactions of childhood, and entails none of its penalties.
You can punish a child for insisting on having its own way, grasping at all that pleases it, and generally upsetting do- mestic comfort, but you cannot punish an old person — especially a relative. ”

“ God-fearing man in his youth."
"His health is so bad," said Margaret, "he rarely goes anywhere."
Then Catherine Macpherson felt her last doubt vanish. Here was her duty plainly set before her. To look after her brother's spiritual and temporal welfare, to lead him back to the fold, to counsel, admonish, and tend him in his old age. Surely no Christian spinster could desire a better fate. ”

“ When Tibbie ushered in her first visitor, the minister's wife, she stood aghast at her mistress's gaudy appearance, and beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen.
"David, my wee mannie," she said to the kitten, who was sitting guard over the silver tea-tray, "David, I'm thinkin' 'tis the scarlet woman hersel' up yonder. Hoots! did ever body see the likes o't? What will the minister's leddy think? Why, it's just daft the woman is gettin'. I'm afraid to think how it'll end. Deed, laddie, ye've mair sense in your wee black headie than that puir auld fule up-stairs has in her whole body. ”

“ It would have been a dangerous liberty to allow any one less scrupulously honest and honorable than Catherine Macpherson, but she, of course, was above suspicion. However, she did not deem it necessary to inform Margaret Weimar of what she had done. There is no need to be too confidential to one's relatives, especially on matters where there might arise a difference of opinion.
At the end of this first year of Catherine's office, her niece suddenly announced that she was coming over for a month to London, and would stay with her father as a matter of course. ”

“ Catherine Macpherson's soul soared above the petty scruples of female vanity. She joined the sisterhood, adopted their strange garb, banded her hair severely on either side of her face, used a depilatory, and became a female missionary to the unchristian savages of the East End.
• • • • •
It may be possible for a community of men to dwell together in brotherly love. It is rarely, if ever, possible for a community of women. ”

“ My lassie has other duties to fulfil — and she's a good wife and a good mother. I can't be keeping her beside me any longer. Well, well," and he sighed as he drained the tumbler he held, " we must just make the best of this world while we're in it. I hope though," he added abruptly, as he again took a survey of his sister, " that you're not going about the house a scarecrow like yon. Get Maggie to choose you a decent gown before she goes. I'm not fond of seeing ill-favored women-folk about me."
Catherine Macpherson bit her nether lip with silent rage. ”

“ A stinging box on the ear suddenly announced the imprudence of such a proceeding.
"Take your airm away," exclaimed Tibbie. " I'm no a silly lassie that thinks every callant who comes her way is daft aboot her. I ken men too weel to trust them, and gin ye come here I wad hae ye mind that."
"Yer hands are nae saft, nor your speech either, Tibbie," murmured the swain ruefully. "Maybe ye'll think better o't, in time. I'm no ane to speak what is na true to ony woman, and I ken ye're weel favored eno' to please me, and a farmer's wife is aye better off than a serving-maid." ”

“ Weimar," said Catherine sharply, "I'll just thank you to leave the place as it is. The house is not yours, nor the furniture either — yet. When you come into possession it will be time enough for meddling and 'pulling things together,' as you call it. Up to that time I'd have you remember that I am mistress here by my brother's wish, and that my alterations are quite to his liking." Margaret Weimar stared at her plain- spoken relative in astonishment. ”

“ Perhaps that has also undergone some alteration under your management?"
"If you want a bath, you'll have to take it in the kitchen," snapped her aunt. "Tibbie will not be carrying water up two flights o' stairs for any one!"
"What!" exclaimed Margaret.
A paroxysm of coughing shook her. She leant against the table, unable to speak. "Do you mean to say," she gasped at last, " that you allow a servant to dictate to you in this fashion? Won't take up water! . . . I never heard of such a thing — never! It only proves, Aunt Catherine, that you are utterly incapable of managing a house ”