Mrs. Oliphant

“ But what were such levities as a boy's or a girl's fancy to her now? She did not even think of that in the agitation and excitement of this moment. Rex Bayard faded from her mind altogether; and when Amy ran up late to dress, and would have come to her mother with her confession, Mrs. Scudamore sent her away hastily. "You are very late," she said; "I will speak to you after dinner, Amy; there is no time now. It was thoughtless, very thoughtless, to be so late. How could you tell what I might have to talk to you about? But make haste, there is no time to lose." ”

“ She left the man who had so much in his power, with her head full of his proposal, and went back to the drawing-room. But Amy and her lover had strayed away out of the room, and therefore Mrs. Scudamore's terrible hope was not brought to an end. She went and shut herself up in her own room, and brooded upon it. That one should suffer to deliver many was a rule of the universe. The first and greatest who had ever borne the name of man had done it, and so many after Him had done it. ”

“ What a terrible bore!"
Amy, who was watching her mother closely, felt disposed to check her brother's levity with indignation, but it was a help to Mrs. Scudamore. She panted as if for breath as she went on; but once more that faint watery gleam of a smile crossed her face.
"She is a lady, Charlie. I expect you to be very civil to her. She is—your aunt—the widow of your uncle Tom, who—died in America. She has been there most of her life." ”

“ The dinner seemed to last a year. And even when they left the table there was Amy looking at her with a little important face, as if she knew something. What could the child know? She could not have divined surely, could not suspect the fate which was coming on herself.
"I hope you will not judge poor Tom hardly," said Mrs. Thomas when they had got to the drawing-room. It was rarely that she addressed of her own accord the mistress of the house. But to-night her womanish senses had perceived her nephew's inappropriateness in the place, and she could not refrain from an apology. ”

“ She had never said to herself that she was the Una of this reproachless gentleman; but a consciousness of some fairy link between them was very sweet at her heart—no wonder she sighed for poor mamma.
Mrs. Scudamore avoided Mrs. Thomas's society as much as possible; but when they were together she treated her with a deference which nobody could understand. She deferred to her in everything; she gave up her own convenience, her own way, to hers, whenever she had a chance. That, it is true, was not very often; for Mrs. Thomas was very humble, very deprecating, taking nothing upon herself ”

“ Her eyes were kindly smiling eyes when they were not red with crying; and though the thin little curls she wore under her cap were not pretty, yet they were old-fashioned, which of itself is a quality. It was something, Charlie said, to have an aunt who had strength of mind to wear little curls half-way down her cheek. As for little Alice and Mary, they took possession of Aunt Thomas with scarcely a moment of doubt. They might be seen leading her about the park, one at each hand, every day of their lives. ”

“ It all came upon Amy like a sweet surprise—a delicious miracle; and yet she knew it was coming—but only some time, not now.
Thus there were two scenes going on within the agitated house, both of which penetrated down to the very depths of nature in the persons concerned. In the library Mrs. Scudamore was alone with Furness. She had sent Mrs. Thomas away, half in contempt, half in pity. "Let me manage it in my own way," she said. "There is nothing gained by your remaining, nothing but pain to yourself;" ”

“ Very soon even the grown-up children, even Amy and her brother, accepted the new relationship with the unquestioning matter-of-course facility of youth. They made no inquiries into it. They accepted Aunt Thomas with simplicity and sincerity; everything that was mysterious in it was explained by the fact that she had lived most of her life abroad. It was natural to believe that a woman whose days had been passed so far away should be ignorant of the kind of habits they had been brought up in, and the Scudamore "ways." ”

“ In their society she was as gay as themselves, and almost as much like a child.
Mrs. Scudamore, however, did not settle down to the new relationship so easily. She had never been the same since that day. She had then been a young woman comparatively, notwithstanding all her troubles. Her cheek had been round; her hair as brown as Amy's. Now, not all at once, but by stealthy, imperceptible degrees, she had grown gray. Her cheek had grown hollow, her eyes sunken, her temper uncertain. Sometimes a word would rouse her into irritation ”

“ Scudamore. "There is nothing to make excuses for; I think he did perfectly well."
"You are very kind, I am sure," said Mrs. Thomas, retreating into a corner almost out of sight. "Oh how kind mamma is," thought Amy to herself. "Though she looks a little stern at times, how good she is! for if ever there was a horrible, wretched, shocking—" And then the girl came and fluttered about her mother, watching to make sure that Aunt Thomas was out of the way, and scheming with panting breath and beating heart how she was to begin her tale. ”

“ Girls who have had a hard father have two ways of regarding men,—either with disgust, as the oppressors of life, or with a longing romantic worship of an ideal, and eager hope to find somewhere the man who will contradict the tradition of misery and prove all the heart longs to believe of excellence and love. Amy was of this latter order. ”

“ Thomas Scudamore," she said with a little shiver, which Amy perceived, "to stay—of course. She only came home about a month ago—about the time——I expect you to be very civil to her. I don't think that her own people are—perhaps—the kind of persons—but she herself is——" Here Mrs. Scudamore made a pause, and then she shivered again, and said with a moaning sigh, "very good—oh, it is true—very good."
"She may be as good as she pleases," said Charlie; "but, mamma, whatever you may say, such a visitor will be a dreadful bore."
"She is a good woman," repeated Mrs. Scudamore, with a broken voice. ”

“ When she came to look as nature intended she should, it became evident that she was one of the women who, without a good feature, by mere stress of youth, and bloom, and smiles, are often very pretty when they are young, and who do not grow ugly, as great beauties often do, but retain a certain shadow of good looks as long as good-humor and health last them. ”

“ It does not always happen that high family or good blood stamp themselves either upon the countenance or bearing of their possessors; indeed it is as common as not that the reverse is the case, and a stranger generally finds it hard to tell which is the peer and which is the plebeian. But there are cases in which the difference is as strongly marked as the highest idealism could require, and Rex Bayard was as near the typical representative of an English gentleman as it is easy to find. ”

“ Would she scold him for speaking to Amy first? Or would she give him a motherly kiss and send him to fetch her child? The girl's mind was full of these thoughts when she was left alone with Mrs. Thomas and her nephew, and her impatience and abstraction were evident. "My dear, I am afraid you are not well," said Aunt Thomas, putting down to her nephew's account the cloudy look which had come over the young face she was beginning to love. "Miss Amy is thinking of some one," said Mr. Tom Furness with an attempt at raillery, which he accomplished with even more awkwardness than his wont ”

“ Tom Furness laughed, and it seemed to Amy as if his laugh woke up echoes all over the country—echoes which mocked and sneered as he did—as if they too had some occult knowledge. "I admire your conscience, auntie," he said. "Not wrong to give yourself out for some one else ”

“ She avoided Rex, she could not tell why, with a feeling of irritation that was uncontrollable. His mere presence did it. Why was he here, making the contrast visible, tempting Amy to vain comparisons—comparisons every way vain, for was not Tom Furness Amy's fate? She could marry no one else. Mrs. Scudamore felt that she could not, dared not, permit her child to enter a spotless, honorable family. She could marry no one except this man. To this point her thoughts had already come. She made Rex walk in to dinner with Mrs. ”