Agnes Giberne

“ Fair hair often does not turn grey so soon as dark hair, even under worry; and I was very fair in colouring, as well as slight, and active, and impulsive. Cherry took more after her father than after me; but I do not think she resembled either of us closely.
Jack was very merry that evening, or he seemed so. It always did my heart good to hear his laugh; and I remember how often it sounded, and how I looked at him and Cress, wondering in my heart what was to be the future of those two boys. It is well for us that the future is hidden, and life’s volume unfolds page by page. ”

“ I said; “yet I suppose it is love—of a kind.”
“Feeble kind,” remarked Jack.
“Only 'some’ will 'dare to die’—even 'for a good man,’” I said, thinking of the Bible words. And I thought, too, silently of that other yet more wonderful love—the great love of the Son of God, which could make Him “dare to die,” not for good but for evil men, that they might be saved. Glancing at Maimie, I wondered if the same recollection had come to here—such a sweet look passed over her face.
“People are rather fond of talking about dying for one another,” Cress observed carelessly. ”

“ And I could take care of her,—I could make her life easy.”
“No, Jack,” I said; “that is what no man can undertake to do for any woman. God chooses our paths. A husband can’t choose his wife’s path, though certainly he can make it harder or easier to walk on.”
“Well, I could shield her from some troubles,” Jack murmured. “I could live for her, and love her,—love her as nobody else can do.”
“I am not so sure about that either,” I said gently. “There will be many to love so winning a creature. But don’t be too certain that all must go against you in the future. Maimie is very young yet.” ”

“ I do not think mothers love their children less on account of their faults; and perhaps it is only mothers of whom this can be said. Unrestrained tempers, selfish and unpleasant ways, do chill the love of husbands and wives, of sisters, brothers, and friends; but, as a rule, not the love of mothers.
“Go where, Cress?” I asked, though in a moment I seemed to understand what he had in his mind.
“I don’t care. Anywhere, so long as it is away from here. I’m sick of home. I can’t stay any longer, and see Jack go on as he does with Maimie.” ”

“ And I said, “'Whether we live, we live unto the Lord.’ Would you live only to Maimie, Jack? 'Whether we die, we die unto the Lord,’—if we live unto Him. Will you live and die only with a poor earthly love as your highest good?” ”

“ Maimie said.
“It has all been so lovingly ordered for us up to this time,” I said, after a little pause. “We would not undo any of it if we could, even of what seemed trying at the time. Maimie, don’t you think we ought to trust still our Father’s care, and to believe that He certainly will still arrange for us as is really best?”
“That is just what I was thinking,” Cherry said.
Maimie looked seriously at me. “Yes; only things often do come as one doesn’t like.”
“As we do not like, perhaps,” I said, “but still as is really best. For, after all, we can’t see far with our short sight. ”

“ I get out of patience sometimes with weak complaining creatures, who seem to think their feebleness and want of spirit means meekness. And I get just as much out of patience with the rough coarse rudeness and brag which tramples on everything weak, and pretends to be manliness.
Those ways are not really meek or manly. But I do think it was genuine meekness and manliness together when my Jack stood still, in his strength, held by Maimie’s slight hands, while Cress struck at him, and he made no effort to defend himself,—Cress, whom he could have mastered in an instant. ”

“ A smothered sob broke from Maimie, and Jack bent to one side, and exchanged a whisper with Owen. “Doesn’t Maimie want something to eat, mother?” asked Cherry.
I had never felt so utterly perplexed in my life, so bewildered as to my duty, so reluctant to accept an offered burden. Were we really called upon to support this stranger, thus thrust upon us? We had not enough for our own children. Yet what could be done? Cast a delicate girl, homeless and destitute, into the streets? Impossible. ”

“ The less we make of the affair, the better.”
“But it is no mere fancy with Jack,” Cherry said; and I felt sure from her manner that Jack had already confided to her his hopes for the future. “Mother she will learn to love him some day; don’t you think so?”
“I don’t know at all,” I said. “Maimie loves him now as a cousin,—as a brother, perhaps. But whether he could ever be anything more to her is another question.”
“Our dear good Jack,” Cherry said warmly.
“Yes; but Maimie is clever, and Jack is not. And for a wife to have more brains than her husband is—well, not always a thing to be desired.” ”

“ It is Aunt Briscoe and my father who have kept aloof from you, not you who have kept aloof from them.”
“Yes; but she is growing old, and old people often have fancies.”
“Would it matter to you if Aunt Briscoe really were seriously offended,—or if she changed? Are you so very fond of her?”
“I believe my husband loves her for the sake of old days, and for the sake of her dear old husband,” I said. “No; I am not so fond of her as I ought to be, Maimie.” ”

“ Maimie said softly, as she lay on the sofa, looking so pale and thin, poor child, with her flaxen hair short and curly, and her black eyes seeming to have grown to twice their usual size.
“So much the better,” Jack said, bending over her with a manly protecting air, which it did me good to see. Jack had grown far more manly of late. Time enough that he should too! “So much the better! Uncle isn’t worth your troubling yourself about; and the less he concerns himself with you, the thoroughly you are ours—ours, Maimie.” ”

“ Yet hardly had the apology passed his lips, before he was breaking out again into an indignant, “Workhouse for Maimie, indeed! The idea!”
“People with nothing to live upon cannot pick and choose.”
“Much Aunt Briscoe would like it for herself,” Jack said scornfully. “Well, as long as I have two hands to work with, Maimie shall never come to that. Mother, I wish you liked her better.”
I looked up at him, and said, “I like Maimie as much as can be expected in so short a time, Jack. Perhaps I am not quite so much infatuated as—some people.”
“Fascinated, not infatuated,” said Jack quickly. ”

“ As if the biggest dunce couldn’t learn to spell if he chose! Jack likes amusing himself.”
“Oh, but indeed it is not that,” I burst out. “Jack tries so hard.”
But Aunt Briscoe looked straight at my husband and went on, just as if I had not spoken—
“And how about Cress?”
“Cress certainly seems sharper than poor Jack,” said Robert. “We count him our clever one, Aunt Briscoe. Still, he is not too fond of hard work.”
“Cleverness is no use in the world unless there’s hard work to back it up,” Aunt Briscoe said. “The boys ought to have been made to work when they were young. ”

“ I said. “But if you think not,—then be a man, and have patience.”
“But Cress—”
“Cress does not care for Maimie as you do. It is a mere fancy on his part. And Maimie will never care for Cress. She does not admire his character.”
“She doesn’t admire my stupidity, mother.”
“Then don’t be stupid!”
Jack stared at me. “I can’t make myself clever.”
“You can make the most of what brains you have,” I said. “I hoped Maimie herself had taught you that lesson. People with only one talent are a great deal too fond of hiding it away underground, merely because it isn’t five or ten talents.” ”

“ She was at the table in the basement, with several books strewn over it, and a little boy on either side of her,—Bob reciting something in clear tones, while Teddie’s brown head was pressed lovingly against her flaxen waves of hair. Our entrance made her look round, and she stood up, flushing faintly, and looking her prettiest.
“So that is Mary Browne,” said Aunt Briscoe.
She drew nearer, and shook hands, giving each boy a nod, and then bringing back her attention to the young teacher.
“So this isn’t only play?” she said.
“O no; it is work, not play,” Maimie answered, smiling. ”

“ After all, neither old nor new worries aught so to weigh upon those who truly serve God. For are we not told,—“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee”? If our burden is truly cast off upon God, then we certainly have not to bear it ourselves as well. And if we may indeed walk with no burden at all to bear, then how light and free our steps might be! ”

“ Jack took up his station watchfully near the sofa, like a faithful dog.
I did not know what to think. My own children, with the exception of Cress, had known remarkably good health. And even for Cress’ ailments, home-care and tending had commonly been sufficient. We had mercifully known almost nothing of acute illnesses, through my married life. Amid many troubles, that trouble had been spared us. If Maimie now were going to be ill, or were going to prove only delicate in a general way, it would be a serious matter.
It is curious how heavily any new anxiety seems to weigh upon one. ”

“ We are poor people, and it is not easy for us to get along at any time; and our house is already overcrowded. It is not so slight a matter as you think to find room and food for another.”
“Are you poor?” asked Maimie, with an astonished look. “I thought poor people lived in cottages.”
“Perhaps if we lived in a cottage we might have more money at command,” Robert replied. “Yes, we are poor, Maimie. It is often hard work to pay our way.”
“Father was always telling me that he was 'hard up,’” remarked Maimie. “But somehow we always had what we wanted.”
It sounded very like Churton Hazel again. ”

“ They just care to please themselves, and that’s all.”
Maimie glanced at my husband, and shook her head.
“Maimie, you are happy here. You don’t really want to go to America?” Jack said wistfully.
“No,” she answered. “I am as happy as can be, and I don’t want to go. Only it is hard that I should be a burden on you.”
“If Mary Browne is a burden on anybody, she may come and live at The Gables,” said Aunt Briscoe.
Maimie looked from her to me silently.
“But she is not a burden,” I said. “She is our help and comfort. We really haven’t known how to get along without her this month.” ”

“ I never saw anybody with a more beautifully smooth head than my Cherry, or with more delicately clean hands. No matter what Cherry had to do, she always managed to keep herself nice. That word exactly describes her. She was perpetually busy, and ready to undertake any sort of work that had to be done; yet nobody ever came across Cherry in an untidy state. She never failed to look nice. I used to think I wouldn’t exchange this in our girl for any amount of mere prettiness.
“Cress’ 'must’ may have to go down before a stronger 'must,’” I said. ”

“ He asked Robert and Jack to be present, and me too, if I liked. “Not that it matters much,” he said. “But no doubt there will be small remembrances to some of us, whatever she may have done with the bulk of her possessions. She was quite free, as we all know. The poor old body wasn’t over-liberal with her gifts while she was alive; but most people are willing to be generous in their wills. Well, we shall see, after the funeral. No use to go into the question.”
I disliked extremely the manner in which he spoke; and I saw Maimie’s eyes fixed on him gravely. ”

“ But you think there is something—he is making mischief, perhaps?”
“I know Churton,” I said gravely, “perhaps more truly than my husband does. I have suspected for a long while that things were going wrong.”
She pressed her hands together, and murmured, “What can I do?”
“Nothing. The whole affair is in higher Hands, Maimie; and there we must leave it.”
“But one may act—one may do,” she said eagerly. “We must pray first, of course. But if one could do anything too, it would not be wrong. If we can’t, we must only wait.” ”

“ People often said he was much better-looking than Jack. But Cherry and I never could understand how anybody could think so for a moment. Cress had straighter and thinner features, it is true; but Jack was so tall and manly, so protecting and kind to anybody weaker than himself, and so polite in his manners. Kindness and politeness are more to be admired than straight and delicate features. And poor Cress always seemed too much occupied with himself to have much kindness or politeness for other people. ”

“ You have to find out what is really your duty.”
“My duty is to stay and take care of you all,” said Maimie half-defiantly.
“Churton may think he needs taking care of.”
“Aunt Marion!” she sighed, in a reproachful tone.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” I said. “I can’t bear to think of losing you; and if I followed my own feelings, the matter would be very easily settled. But there are questions of right and wrong.”
“Yes, I know,” she said.
“I think we must wait to see what is right. We must pray to be shown. There must be one step which is the right one to be taken. ”