Anonymous

“ Why do you think Fred pities me? Why should he pity me?”
“Your question is hypocritical, because you know very well that he thinks you are a victim,—a victim of a terrible mother-in-law.”
It was the first time she had ever spoken out so openly. I said,—
“We will leave it to Bessie. Bessie, do I look like a victim?”
“No,” said Bessie, “but you are both the queerest puzzles! Mamma is always her dearest self when you are away, Charlie. You don’t know each other at all yet. When you are together you are both horrid, and when you are apart you are both lovely. ”

“ I have found no one who could flatter me except myself, so I lose no opportunity to give myself a good character.”
[21] “Especially in addressing the mother of the woman you wish to marry, eh?”
“Precisely, as she is naturally prejudiced against me. My dear Mrs. Pinkerton, what must I do to please you?”
“Hold your tongue!”
“Anything but that. You admit that I am a good fellow enough, and that Bessie would probably marry some one in course of time. Now, I don’t see why you cannot make us both happy by giving your consent. It costs you a pang to do it. I honor you for that. ”

“ I felt confident that George would carry everything before him, and he did. He brought Miss Van over to spend the evening, and we had the pleasantest time imaginable. He would not allow his mother to say a word against Miss Van, and made a fair show of proving that the latter had, not only better blood, but also better breeding and a truer sense of propriety than my mother-in-law, that is, “when it came to the scratch,” as George said. “But who would give a snap for a young woman who can’t throw aside the shackles of conventionality once in a while, and be herself?” ”

“ Everything was beautiful [8] and attractive: Little hotel, strange to say, quite delightful; no fault to find with surroundings and accommodations; my darling Bessie, as sweet as an angel and determined to be happy and to make me happy; everything, in short, calculated to give us a long summer of delight.
That is, if Bessie had only been an orphan. But there was her mother, who had joined us on our summer trip, after the first two weeks of unalloyed happiness, and threatened to accompany us through life. ”

“ There was not only clothing, but blankets and quilts and bed linen, though we were to live in her old home, which was already well supplied. One would suppose that a large and sudden increase of family was expected at once. These things annoyed me as senseless, and as absorbing so much of my Bessie’s attention that we didn’t have half the blissful times together that we had before our engagement was an acknowledged thing. But I knew that it was the mother’s doings. Bessie did not really have any foolish care for dress, though always beautifully arrayed without any apparent effort ”

“ One of my keenest regrets was that Bessie’s brother George was away off in Paris, and could not grace the occasion with his superb presence; for he was a superb fellow in all respects, and I felt a true brotherly affection for him. Had he not introduced me to Bessie? Had he not always wanted me to become his brother-in-law?
The great day came at last. The town was full of the invited people, and the weather, so anxiously looked to on such occasions, was all that [35] could be desired. ”

“ So I set to work confidently to make myself agreeable to the widow and win her consent to our marriage.
“You must bring mamma around to approve of it,” Bessie had said, on that ever-to-be-remembered evening, when we were returning from a long drive, and after an hour of sweet confidences she had surrendered herself without reserve to my future keeping. “She is the best mother in the world, and loves me very much, but she is peculiar in some ways, and I am afraid she doesn’t altogether like you. ”

“ Mr. Watson was a very retiring, quiet little man, awed into obscurity by his wife. After a long and persistent effort to interest him in conversation, I was compelled to give it up, and to leave him smiling blankly, with his gaze directed toward the Argand burner.
Mrs. Watson was immense in every sense of the word. Her moral and mental dimensions were awe-inspiring; and she delivered what I afterwards found, on reflection, to be very commonplace [88] utterances in a style in which unction, dogmatism, self-satisfaction, and finality were predominant. ”

“ Bessie had encouraged me in it, for to tell the truth she rather liked the fragrance of a good cigar, and dearly loved to see me enjoying it. It was my nature to defy the whole world and be master of my own habits, but I had felt a mean inclination, after mother-in-law joined the party, to slink away and smoke on the sly. There was nothing for it now, however, but to put on a bold face, or play [45] the hypocrite and pretend I didn’t smoke. The latter I would not do, and if I had attempted it, it wouldn’t go down with Fred, and I should have been in a worse predicament than ever. ”

“ Miss Van was her own jolliest, sweetest self at this time. Her beauty had never been so noticeable: joy is an excellent cosmetic, and love paints far better than rouge or powder.
[135] As soon as Mrs. Pinkerton had recovered from her defeat, and when the engagement had become an acknowledged fact which all the world might know, the wedding began to loom up before us, and I could not help wondering if St. Thomas’s Church was to be the scene of as fashionable and grand a display as on the occasion when Bessie and myself were made one. ”

“ It was not a pleasant dinner. Mr. Desmond alone appeared not to mind the restraint, and he alone ventured to address the widow. She was polite, but far from sociable. We contrived to pass the afternoon tolerably, but not at all in the spirit which I wished to have prevail when I had friends to visit me, and all because of that presence.
After they were gone, I took occasion to introduce the subject, for I had learned that Mrs. Pinkerton’s skill in expressing her disapproval in her manner was so great that she relied on it [120] almost altogether, and rarely resorted to words for the purpose. ”

“ I believe we young people do not half appreciate a mother’s [22] unchanging love. It lies so far beneath the surface that we are too apt to forget its constant blessing. My mother died when I was very young. Ah, if she were only here now, to plead my cause for me!”
With these words, I turned on my heel and hastily got out of the room. I went into the garden and lighted a cigar, the better to think over the situation. I could not determine what progress, if any, I had made in the good graces of Mrs. Pinkerton. While I was cogitating, Bessie came out and approached me with an inquiring look. ”

“ Burglar, transom-glass, chair and all, went in a heap on the floor of the corridor, producing the most appalling and unearthly racket conceivable. The whole house was in an uproar in a moment. People seemed to spring up from every square foot of floor in the corridor as if by magic. Cries of “Fire!” “Murder!” “Help!” and screams of frightened women, rose on every hand. The costumes which I beheld on that momentous occasion were not only varied but exceedingly amusing and picturesque as well. The assembled multitude found nothing to interest them, however. ”

“ I was generally self-possessed and had no little confidence in myself, but I confess that I was embarrassed in her presence. She was not at all like Bessie, I thought. She had taught school in her youth, and had learned to command and be obeyed. The late Mr. Pinkerton, I fancied, had found it useless to contend against her authority, and this had [13] increased her disposition to carry things her own way; and her seven years’ widowhood, with its independence and self-reliance, had not prepared her to be submissive to the wishes of others. ”

“ Mrs. Pinkerton’s eyes were upon me, waiting for a more definite answer. “I—well, no, I don’t think I really feel like it this morning. I thought I would read to Bessie quietly in our room, and take a rest.”
“Very well, sir,” she said, “Bessie and I will walk down to the village.”
“The deuce you will!” I thought; “walk a mile and a half on a dusty road; to be bored!” I knew it was useless to protest, and I was too wilful to take back what I had said, have the team harnessed, and go, like a good fellow, to church. ”

“ You may be very well as young men go, you fancy you can more than fill a mother’s place in Bessie’s inexperienced heart, but you can’t get [16] me out. I am Adamant. Your intentions are all very honorable, but you are a graceless intruder. Your credentials are rejected on sight.” I saw the difficult task I had undertaken. “Mrs. Pinkerton,” I said, mustering all my forces, “it is no use mincing the matter, or beating about the shrubbery. I am in love with your daughter, and Bessie is in love with me. I believe I can make Bessie happy, and am sure nothing but Bessie can make me happy. ”

“ I wanted a quiet wedding, without display or pretence. It did seem to me that this was a private occasion in which the wishes of the persons chiefly concerned should be consulted. It was their business [31] and should be conducted in their own way. Bessie sympathized with me, and wanted of all things to go to church quietly and privately, and then, after a leave-taking with a few intimate friends at home, start right off on our proposed trip to the White Mountains. But no; we were inexperienced, and the widow knew what the occasion demanded much better than we did. ”

“ I couldn’t and wouldn’t make a martyr or a hypocrite of myself. I wouldn’t conceal my actions or deny myself freedom. So I smoked with Fred, played billiards, rolled ten-pins with Fred’s wife and Miss Van, and even beguiled Bessie into that vigorous and healthful exercise, which brought a gentle reprimand from her mother, addressed to her [60] but directed at me. She did not think that kind of amusement becoming to ladies who had a proper respect for themselves. ”

“ I enjoyed the ride, and was not greatly bored by the service, for I was thinking of something else most of the time, or amusing my mind with the native congregation. We got back late to dinner, and the rest had left the dining-room. The ladies went in without removing their bonnets, and after dinner retired to their rooms.
As I came out on the piazza, Fred, who was walking about in a restless way, puffing his cigar with a sort of ferocity, as though determined to put it through as speedily as possible, shouted, “Hello! Charlie, old boy, where the eternal furies have you been? ”

“ I believe she would take him where the other Dives went, if she was disposed to take a trip there herself. But, holy Jerusalem! what are we to do to get through the rest of the day. No company, no billiards, no fishing. Confound the prejudices of society. I tell you, it is just such women as that mother-in-law of yours that [66] keep society intimidated, as it were, into artificial proprieties. Now where’s the harm of a pleasant game on a Sunday, more than sitting here and grumbling and cursing because there’s nothing to do?”
I made no reply, and Fred lighted another cigar. ”

“ And after all, what has happened was only what a mother must expect. Your daughter’s love will not be the less yours because she also loves the man of her choice. That she should love and be loved was inevitable. ”

“ Only I hate to see the way things are going with you, and I’m bound to tell you so. You are losing your spirit, tying your hands, and throwing all your manly independence to the winds. If you live two years with that irreproachable mummy, you won’t be worth knowing. ”

“ My behavior in this affair, as I said, gave me a lift in my mother-in-law’s estimation, and of course filled Bessie with the most unbounded admiration, though I had never thought of the moral effect of my action. In the morning I determined to follow up my advantage. It was Sunday again, and I bespoke the team early, to go to the neighboring town, where there was an Episcopal church, and where, for that day, a distinguished divine from the city, who was spending his vacation in those parts, was to hold forth. ”

“ MY MOTHER-IN-LAW SUBDUED. As I was saying, I made up my mind that our happiness was marred by habitual submission to mother-in-law, and I determined to shake off the nightmare, to assert myself, and to reduce that stately crown of gray puffs to a subordinate place. ”

“ George, Bessie, Mrs. Pinkerton, and Miss Van were, I supposed, in one of the other rooms; I had lost sight of them.
“Old Jenks lost a cool hundred thousand fighting the tiger at Saratoga, this last summer,” said Fred. “I had it from a man who backed him. Do you know that young widow talking with him near the end of the piano? No? Why, that’s Mrs. Delascelles, and a devil of a little piece she is,—twice divorced and once widowed, and she isn’t a day over twenty-five. You ought to know her. By the way, that brother of yours is a whole team, with a bull-pup under the wagon. ”

“ Charlie’s friend, Fred Marston, from the city, is here with his wife; and I met a young lady to whom I took quite a fancy this morning, a Miss Van Duzen. She is quite wealthy, and an orphan, and is here with her uncle, a fine-looking gentleman, who is president of a bank, or an insurance company, or some thing of the sort. You saw him, I think, on the piazza,—the large man, with gray side-whiskers, white vest, and heavy gold chain.”
“Yes, I noticed him. A pompous-looking old gentleman, isn’t he?” ”

“ He had longed for it when he was young, and had provided for it in his [113] household; but the wife of his youth had been called from him early, and he had vainly tried to fill all his life with business, with silent works of charity, with elegance and profusion in his house, with his clubs, his studies, and his travels; but still there was a void, and when he came to visit us, he seemed to find something akin to the home feeling in our little circle. So he came far oftener than was to be expected of one in his position. ”