Marie Stevens Howland

“ Albert can never be cold to you. You are his very soul. He could die for you, and count it no sacrifice; and he only cares for life that he may make yours beautiful.”
“Forgive me, beautiful eyes!” Clara said, tenderly caressing their lids. “Can you forgive me, Albert?”
“There is no such thing as forgiveness between lovers, for they can do each other no wrong.”
“I dare not think how perfect my happiness is,” said Clara, fervently, “and yet I can think of nothing else. ”

“ By the way, have you paid that hotel bill?”
“Certainly she has,” answered Clara. “She paid it the first time she went into the street.”
“You do not say who gave me the money,” replied Annie.
“Why, no one,” answered Clara. “You borrowed it, and have already paid me. You need financial training, I see.”
“It is hard for me to feel that my work is worth anything,” said Annie. “I am used to working for nothing, or for my board and clothes.”
“You must lose no time in learning,” said the doctor, “that labor has made all the wealth of the world. Money is nothing but the representative of that labor.” ”

“ Buzzell looked at Min, praised the toast and the excellence of the coffee, and then, as if suddenly noticing the bouquet, added, “and those pretty flowers! How nicely Minnie has arranged them. Her taste grows better every day.” Min’s appetite suddenly appeared; but Susie said, “I do not much admire that character which manifests happiness only when praised, and when the temper is not tried. Do you, Clara? I think that is the strongest and best nature which finds its pleasure in making others happy, and that temper is the sweetest which is sweet under vexations.” ”

“ Forest, though it might hinder the fruition of hopes. Busy as Paul was with his pressing responsibilities, it was impossible to banish the thought of Clara from one of his waking moments. Between him and every object, her fair face appeared, and the memory of her tender eyes, her entrancing smile, the play of her mobile features, and her soft voice, were dearer far to him than all the realities of life. “Some time she must love me!” he said. “A grand passion cannot exist when one object is passive. It is not her beauty that draws me; it must be love answering unto love.” ”

“ It is always so. Clara worships that man, and we should worship nothing but the Creator. When we do, we lose it. When mothers make idols of their children, as her mother did of Dan, they die, or turn out like him. I am glad you do not love yours unreasonably. It is auntie who is in danger here,” said the good old lady, taking up the child and caressing it fondly.
“I cannot believe it a crime to love—even to love inordinately, as Clara does,” said Susie. “Her nature is peculiarly fervent. She told me once that the look, the touch of Albert’s hand, made her tremulous with emotion. ”

“ But as Clara did not answer her father’s question, Susie explained the clause in the divorce.
“Why, this is what has troubled you, darling,” said Paul, in his tenderest voice. “Be reassured. It is only a form. By marrying you might be liable to a charge of contempt of court, the penalty of which is only a fine. No one ever notices this injunction; at least, I never heard of a case.”
“Is that all?” asked Clara, amazed and almost ashamed that she had been so long disturbed by a mere bugbear. “But women are so ignorant of legal matters.” ”

“ I tell you it is the most damnable act a man can perpetrate. Brute force and ignorance have oppressed woman in all history, making her a slave to petty cares, denying her the political and social equality that belongs by right to human beings, and making her dependent like a slave. Of course this has cramped woman’s free growth in every way, and the man who takes advantage of her weakness, as you have done with Susie Dykes, deserves the execration of all honorable men.”
“For God’s sake, father, don’t speak so loud!” cried Dan, who was in mortal terror lest Miss Marston should hear. ”

“ Clara approached her, and patted her white shoulder, saying, “Poor Susie! I have come to comfort you in your trouble. I know all about it, and I am so sorry, but I blame my brother far more than I do you;” at the mention of Dan, Susie sobbed aloud. “He is so cruel to you after all your loving him.”
“Don’t blame him too much,” sobbed Susie. “He could not help it. If I were handsome and educated like Miss Marston, he would love me always; but it is so hard. I wonder why I cannot die. Every hour is harder and harder to bear.” ”

“ Do you know I admire you so much for refusing to be saved by Dan as a charity on his part? I’ve been thinking of it all day. You can win him back if you will; I’m sure of it, and the way to do it is to show him that he is not important enough for a woman to die for—not important enough to destroy your happiness for all time either. I tell you there is nothing so sure to win the love of men as to force them to admire our strength and independence. ”

“ I have been often pained to see the sacrifices that these noble workers have made. I doubt if one-half of them have taken the allotted hour at noon for their lunch; and I have seen carpenters, cabinetmakers, and decorators, seize a spade and dig in the trenches, rather than be a moment idle, when their own special work was interrupted by any accident; and be it said to the honor of labor, that the men who have done the most skilled labor on this palace, have never failed in equal respect toward those who have done the most mechanical and unskilled portions. ”

“ Many things are natural that are very selfish. Is Susie not somebody’s child too as well as Dan? And what is his suffering compared to hers? Will the world howl at him as a sinner, kick him down further into hell, and abandon him with virtuous scorn? No, no; there’s plenty of girls here in Oakdale, of good family too, who would marry him to-morrow for all his damnable treachery to this poor girl, while the hypocrites, drawing their immaculate skirts clear of his victim, wink at his act, and distinguish it ‘as sowing wild oats.’ And you, my wife—you among the number! ”

“ It is true, also, that few women are capable of inspiring such a sentiment, and so the world knows little of the highest phase of the passion of love. Susie had never known any love but Dan’s, and though it had occurred to her that there might be kisses, for example, not so much like the pounce of a hawk upon a pigeon, as his were, still she had loved him with all her heart, and it was terrible, even when she knew he had ceased to love her, to think that he could pass her in the street without a sign of recognition. ”

“ As he spoke, he was conscious of outraging all Clara’s high sense of refinement, and he even enjoyed it as a kind of revenge.
“Stop there! Dr. Delano,” she exclaimed, with furious indignation. “You compel me to despise you utterly. You talk to me of pleasure in what the soul can have no part. Oh, shame! shame! Until now I have never known you. Your peers are not honorable and chaste women, but those who may barter their favors, like merchandise, for wealth or social position.”
“I am a physician,” he said, “and don’t pretend to understand so much about soul as you do. ”

“ Delano, “would be the economy of men. Citizens being the most valuable part of the body politic.”
“That is the best part of it,” said Clara. “You would have no bones bleaching on some terrible field of glory; no mothers and wives and orphans mourning for their dead. I think that ‘glory’ is a gilded snare that catches only fools. There can be no true glory in a work that shames humanity.”
“For my part, I should like to see war ended forever,” said Miss Charlotte; “but I think preaching a crusade against glory will not do any good.”
“If preached by women, it certainly will,” said the doctor. ”

“ I keep in my room much of the day, while they ride, or walk, or dance, or play games, all the day and evening, their bliss only marred by the sight of my thin, pale face. Do you know the very hardest thing I have to bear is Albert’s telling me that he has not changed, but loves me just as fondly as ever? There is something like murder in my heart when he does this, essaying by argument to show that it cannot be otherwise. Oh, Susie! how well a woman knows that love needs no logic to prove its existence. ”

“ Now, whenever he was absent, he wrote to Clara. He knew she read whatever he wrote with interest, and it was much to connect himself with her thoughts in any way. In one of these letters he said: “There can be no real satisfaction except in the divine joy of love’s perfect answer to love’s needs. When one is longing for the touch of magnetic hands, and for words that are like caresses, the gratitude of thousands whom he has made happy, the adoration of the world even, falls upon his heart like the tongue of a bell in an exhausted receiver. ”

“ They will despise drudgery by instinct, for it leaves the form bent and awkward, and the mind cramped and divested of beauty; and just as certainly will they honor labor as the great natural function of the human race, distinguishing it from the brutes. The reason why labor has not been honored heretofore, is because it has always been confounded with slavery or drudgery. With the abolition of slavery, we are just beginning to learn that man is not to be adapted to labor, but that labor, through machinery and scientific organization, is to be adapted to man. ”

“ She wisely foresaw that the taste for ornamental trees would increase with the growth of Oakdale and surrounding towns; and then in her thoughts she often saw Clara, her bright hopes wrecked, and weary of life, returning to be helped and blessed by the very one who owed her so much. Then Susie would lose herself in dreams of a vast, successful business, built up all by their own hands, out of which there would come health, and work, and interest in life, independent of the cheating intoxication of love. ”

“ As Susie went on with her work noiselessly, avoiding the slightest clatter of cups and spoons, the doctor continued, watching her movements as he spoke: “We should cultivate a feeling of unity with all nature, of which we are a part. That will force us out of our narrow lives, and make happiness possible to us only when all around us are happy. The inculcation of this sentiment of unity is so important, that we cannot overestimate it, for it will lead to grand association schemes for the amelioration of mankind. ”

“ Clara looked at Paul thinking her own sweet thoughts.
“Now you must be just as happy, just as free, as children; yes, a hundred times more happy. We are all lovers. I am in love with several people, and Edward, he is also, but with one especially. Is it not so?” Susie added, turning to the young man, who blushed as prettily as a girl as he answered, “I should be very sorry to contradict Madam Susie.” ”

“ George was eager to prove himself capable of any effort toward a noble end. “Then,” said the doctor, “make yourself the champion of woman’s rights—woman’s social and political emancipation. There are few young men in that field, and not one, sir, who does not stand, morally and intellectually, head and shoulders above the average young man of the period. You may think you cannot do much, but you know the ocean is made up of drops of water. Advocate the equal rights of human beings whenever you hear opposition. ”

“ Up to this moment Clara had secretly reproached herself for bolting her door, not daring in her heart to really believe that he could be guilty of the baseness of forcing himself upon her. All fear of being unjust to him, now vanished like tissue in a furnace. She answered, with forced composure, “Go down into the library, and I will join you there. You cannot see me here, Dr. Delano.” ”

“ Teach a girl to know herself—to consider all her functions as worthy of admiration and respect; teach her to be independent, proud of her womanhood, and she will turn as instinctively from the seductive words of selfish men, as from the touch of unholy hands. Now, this little woman, Miss Dykes, had no such teaching, no knowledge of the world whatever, no standard by which to measure the honor of men’s motives; and, for believing and trusting, you, Mrs. Burnham, and other Christians, would stone her to death. ”

“ It is undeniably the fact, that to-day the soundest views on education, on politics, on finance, on social organization, are supported, not by those who hold themselves above their kind—the drones of the community, who feed on the mechanic’s labor—but by those who have an honest right to everything they own, and much more. The more I associate with laborers, even those who have had little advantage from schools, the more I am struck with the saving virtue that is in them. ”

“ Clara remembered the delight she had often experienced when, finding a pot-flower drooping, she had given it water, and waited to see it slowly lift up its limp foliage, as if in gratitude to the beneficent hand that 125came to its relief. How much grander the pleasure in raising up a sorrow-burdened human soul, she thought; and life seemed to have more scope and meaning to her from that hour. She entered enthusiastically into her plan of teaching Susie, and was delighted at the quick response it met. ”