Mary Stewart Cutting

“ The chill emptiness of the house made its way to the soul. He had insisted on Clytie's going; it was all his doing; but why had she gone? None but the one who is left ever knows what it is to be left. There is a rawness of solitude that invades the spirit that can never be told; in the after-comfort of the beloved presence the words for it are lost.
Langshaw tried in vain to imagine that his wife had just run out for an hour at a neighbour's. ”

“ Why, that's what we wanted—to have her here now," wailed Clytie, tearing up the letter wrathfully. "You ask people for your time and they come at theirs! I can't go if Mrs. Mulger isn't here!"
"Oh, yes, you can," said Langshaw, with patient reassurance. "She'll be here in the morning all right, and Minna will look after the children till I get back from the station. Come, say good-bye to little Mary."
"But George—where is George?"
Sure enough, where was George?
"George, George, where are you? George! Come at once and say good-bye to your mother!" ”

“ It is there or it is not; whether one is sad or lively, differing or agreeing, it ineffably ennobles and revives and inspires.
All discords melt into it, and without it married life is only a sordid struggle weighted down with stupid cares and disappointments, as truly dull as it seems to the eye of an outsider. With Clytie's bodily presence this intangible good, that alone made life worth living, had also departed.
Langshaw rose soberly after a while and went on his accustomed rounds, closing up the house. ”

“ If Clytie could wait until March——
That letter went in the waste basket.
"Well, as far as I can see there's nothing but to get Mrs. Mulger," said Langshaw grimly.
"Oh, Joe dearest! But you never could stand her for six weeks! Of course the children adore Mulgy, and it would help her out, but—— Joe, please let me stay home! You would be perfectly miserable with Mrs. Mulger. If you knew how I didn't want to go—Joe, please!"
"If you cry you'll make yourself ill;" he repeated the monotonous warning. "Mrs. Mulger isn't going to make any difference to me, I can tell you that." ”

“ He tramped firmly up the stairs, but presently came down again with the three-year-old child, a plump, blanketed bundle, in his arms, her yellow hair straggling against his coat sleeve and her round, blue eyes regally content.
"Her feet were cold," he announced in excuse, displaying those members to the doubtful warmth of the smouldering logs on the hearth. There was something in that round little form that still held a glint of Heaven in it to the father's heart. Unnecessary as it was for Baby to hold up an evening in this way, the touch of her mysteriously lightened care. ”

“ Not the way Henkel had intended, but—— No need to think of that now; it would keep. Clytie had found his man for him.
"But how about you, dear?" he asked.
"I'm coming to that. You needn't try to send me off again to strangers, for I'm not going," said Clytie. "I've been away miles and years! Do you know, Joe Langshaw, that I cried all night for four nights because you were sending me away? It nearly killed me. You sha'n't do it again. I'll be good; I won't sweep. I'll rest every day; I will, I will! I always knew I could get strong just as well at home. Well, I am willing now." ”

“ There is, in the daily married companionship of two people who love each other, an overtone that comes from the harmony of that love, independent of and diviner than the conscious efforts of either. It is the thing that cannot be reckoned on, cannot be formulated, cannot be explained, cannot be compelled. ”

“ Had Clytie tried eating apples? They were said to be very strengthening. Langshaw dropped the letter before he got to the end.
"Poor Mother!" he said, with a little grimace; "she always thinks that if she really wants to do a thing it must be wrong."
"Oh, she always sacrifices you to that selfish Ella," said Clytie, with sudden fierceness. After all Joe had done for his mother! ”

“ Henkel has been mighty nice about it—he doesn't know anybody here himself—but he can't wait for me much longer. He sails for Europe on the fifteenth, and he's got to get things settled before he goes; he's only giving me this chance because he's under obligation to Wilkinson. Dear old man! I fancy everybody's under some obligation to him. Green, from Philadelphia, will come on and take charge of things if I can't."
"Wouldn't it be possible for you to go in with him?"
Langshaw shook his head. "No, he has his own people."
"How much salary did they offer you?" asked Clytie timidly. ”

“ Wilkinson go back to California?" asked Clytie suddenly, after a few moments of a peaceful silence.
"Next week."
"And how are the business plans coming out with that Mr. Henkel he introduced you to?"
"Oh, the plans are all right," said Langshaw grimly. "I am the one that's hanging fire. I was to have charge of the office end of it, but you see I can't furnish the man Henkel wants for the other part of the job. ”

“ If that was the way Minna intended to let things go! The thought lashed him to fury. When was it that little Mary was to take her cough medicine? And how many spoons were there? At the prospect of Mrs. Mulger on the morrow he realized, with a sort of terror, that his mind wasn't free at all; a thousand small, unwonted cares were lurking to invade it. Poor Langshaw felt, with a dull anger, that if a man had to earn a living he couldn't afford to be absorbed by such things ”

“ It must be someone who can put in a little capital—they're letting me in without any—someone who has a technical knowledge of the machine, and is thoroughly familiar with the ground to be worked over. ”

“ They live in a sort of palace, I judge, in Los Angeles, and they've any number of motors. He says his wife loves to have young people around her. Just the thing to do you worlds of good! Just imagine—you'll see the Rockies and the Grand Canyon! Wilkinson will be coming back in six weeks and he'll bring you with him then."
"Six weeks!" Clytie gasped. Her dark eyes grew larger; her small figure vibrated. "Joe Langshaw! ”