Aunt Frances

“ They clung to each other in speechless satisfaction as Uncle Henry guided the surrey up to the marble stepping-stone. Betsy jumped out first, and while Uncle Henry was helping Aunt Frances out, she was dashing up the walk like a crazy thing. She flung open the front door and catapulted into Aunt Abigail just coming out. It was like flinging herself into a feather-bed. . . .
"Oh! Oh!" she gasped out. "Aunt Frances is going to be married. And travel around all the time! And she doesn't really want me at all! Can't I stay here? Can't I stay here?" ”

“ She could not bear to have any strangers near when she took that long farewell of her father and mother, and Hazel and Bonny Kate, and then, going up to the room that Aunt Frances had fitted up for her, and burying her face in the pillows of the sofa, it seemed to her as though her heart would break. Sad enough for a bride, you think—so different from all the joyous cheer that ought to belong to a wedding; and yet many happy days were in store for Josephine, many happy years in the old homestead, never so homelike and attractive as since Aunt Frances had regained possession of it. ”

“ Afterward, when the Boniface's boat had touched at the dock and all the Van Vleets were flocking out of doors to welcome them, Aunt Frances was in their midst, with the sunshine of her presence all the brighter for the storm of troubled feelings that had just swept over it, but Josephine Boniface thought she saw just the faintest trace of recent tears in Aunt Frances's eyes as she stooped to kiss her. “Dear old Aunt Frances,” she whispered, as she put her arm about her neck, “I would give all the world ever to be such a blessed ministering angel as you are to everybody. ”

“ Betsy fell back open-mouthed with astonishment.
"Did Betsy think her Aunt Frances a silly old thing!"
"Oh, Aunt Frances, no!" cried Betsy fervently. "You look just as young, and pretty! Lots younger than I remembered you!"
Aunt Frances flushed with pleasure and went on, "You'll love your old Aunt Frances just as much, won't you, when she's Mrs. Plimpton!"
Betsy put her arms around her and gave her a great hug. "I'll always love you, Aunt Frances!" she said.
"You'll love Mr. Plimpton, too. He's so big and strong, and he just loves to take care of people. ”

“ She was always quick to reassure the little girl with all her might and main whenever there was anything to fear. When they were out walking (Aunt Frances took her out for a walk up one block and down another every single day, no matter how tired the music lessons had made her) , the aunt’s eyes were always on the alert to avoid anything which might frighten Elizabeth Ann. If a big dog trotted by, Aunt Frances always said, hastily: “There, there, dear! That’s a nice doggie, I’m sure. I don’t believe he ever bites little girls. ... mercy! Elizabeth Ann, don’t go near him! ”

“ Morrison laughed happily.
Frances still seemed puzzled. "If this is my Aunt Frances—" she said slowly, "who is the little girl? Is she the Girl in the Golden Doorway, truly?—the portrait, I mean.
"I think she must be, and she is also your great-grandmother," her aunt replied.
"Then who is a Certain Person. You said he was abroad, father." Frances evidently thought it time all mysteries were solved.
"Why, yes, auntie, how does it happen you are not abroad? I heard last summer on the best authority that you would spend the winter in Egypt," said her nephew. ”

“ The little girl fumbled forlornly with the fastenings of her cape and the buttons of her coat. At home, Aunt Frances or Grace had always taken off her wraps and put them away for her. When, very sorry for herself, she turned away from the hook, Aunt Abigail said: “Now you must be cold. Pull a chair right up here by the stove.” She was stepping around quickly as she put supper on the table. The floor shook under her. She was one of the fattest people Elizabeth Ann had ever seen. After living with Aunt Frances and Aunt Harriet and Grace the little girl could scarcely believe her eyes. ”

“ Cousin Ann was right behind Aunt Abigail, and she heard this. She looked over their shoulders toward Aunt Frances, who was approaching from behind, and said, in her usual calm and collected voice: “How do you do, Frances? Glad to see you, Frances. How well you’re looking! I hear you are in for congratulations. Who’s the happy man?” ”

“ And Constance, soothed as always by her sister's tranquillity, repeated Mary's words for the benefit of a ponderously anxious Personage in amber satin.
"There's plenty of time, Aunt Frances."
That Aunt Frances was a Personage was made apparent by certain exterior evidences. One knew it by the set of her fine shoulders, the carriage of her head, by the diamond-studded lorgnette, by the string of pearls about her neck, by the osprey in her white hair, by the golden buckles on her shoes. ”

“ Aunt Frances says, . . ." she began, hesitating. "She says Aunt Harriet is still pretty sick." She stopped, drew a long breath, and went on, "And she sends her love to you."
Now Aunt Frances hadn't done anything of the kind, so this was a really whopping fib. But Elizabeth Ann didn't care if it was. It made her feel less ashamed, though she did not know why. She took another mouthful of pop-corn and stroked Eleanor's back.
Uncle Henry got up and stretched."It's time to go to bed, folks," he said. As he wound the clock Betsy heard him murmuring:
But when the sun his beacon red. ”

“ There was a defiant ring in Aunt Isabelle's voice which amazed Aunt Frances. "She'll make things come right. She has what I never had, Frances. She has strength and courage."
It was this conversation with Aunt Frances which caused Mary, in the weeks that followed, to bend for hours over a yellow pad on which she made queer hieroglyphics. And it was through these hieroglyphics that she entered upon a new phase of her friendship with Roger Poole. ”

“ Aunt Frances believed in sympathizing with a child’s life, so she always asked about every little thing, and remembered to inquire about the continuation of every episode, and sympathized with all her heart over the failure in mental arithmetic, and triumphed over Elizabeth Ann’s beating the Schmidt girl in spelling, and was indignant over the teacher’s having pets. Sometimes in telling over some very dreadful failure or disappointment Elizabeth Ann would get so wrought up that she would cry. ”

“ For of course they must be told. She had always told Aunt Frances everything that happened in school. It happened that Aunt Abigail had been taking a nap when she got home from school, and so she had come out to the sap-house, where Cousin Ann and Uncle Henry were making syrup, to have it over with as soon as possible. ”

“ But you’re going to be with me. Won’t it be jolly fun, darling, to go traveling all about everywhere, and see new places all the time!”
Now those are the words Aunt Frances said, but something in her voice and her face suggested a faint possibility to Betsy that maybe Aunt Frances didn’t really think it would be such awfully jolly fun as her words said. Her heart gave a big jump up, and she had to hold tight to the arm of the surrey before she could ask, in a quiet voice, “But, Aunt Frances, won’t I be awfully in your way, traveling around so?” ”

“ I go out with her for a walk every single day. But we have taken all the walks around here so often that we're rather tired of them. It's often hard to know how to get her out enough. I think I'll have to get the doctor to come and see her and perhaps give her a tonic." To Elizabeth Ann she added, hastily: "Now don't go getting notions in your head, darling. Aunt Frances doesn't think there's anything very much the matter with you. You'll be all right again soon if you just take the doctor's medicine nicely. Aunt Frances will take care of her precious little girl. ”

“ And so at the age of nine she has been ‘understood’ into an anaemic, morbid, neurotic, egotistic condition that saps her rightful enjoyment of childhood and undermines the promise of useful womanhood. ... A sudden upheaval in Aunt Frances’s family makes it necessary for Betsy to be sent along to relatives who live on a farm in Vermont. And there life takes on a very different complexion. Nobody tries to ‘understand’ her, nobody pays attention to any of the things that caused Aunt Frances to cuddle and care for her as if she were an infant. ”

“ Of course, Aunt Florence will tell him all about Antoine and Samone, and how she couldn't make him stop drinking, because she didn't know how to begin talking to him about it. Now, everybody says that if Antoine would make up his mind to be a different kind of a man, he could, and everybody likes him, even now, so I'm just going to ask Uncle John to go down to his house and make him stop. That's a fine plan. Folks always listen to Uncle John because he's so good-looking. ”

“ Wind thread around stitches
[Pg 162]
“Oh, dear Aunt Maria, how perfectly grand!” kissing the old lady again and again. “Have you had lunch? Grandma always takes an outing on Wednesday afternoons, and she’ll be so sorry not to be home to welcome you!”
“But I feel very welcome,” laughed Aunt Maria, “and I have had lunch, thank you, my dear.”
“Then you can come right up-stairs,” said Mary Frances, leading the way to the guest-room. ”

“ Now, tell me, fair aunt, was that knight he who bore the red arms at Pentecost?”
“That is he,” said his aunt; “he is without equal, for he works by miracle, and cannot be overcome by the hands of any earthly man.”
“Now, madam,” said he, “since I know this I will never have to do with Sir Galahad except by way of kindness. Tell me how I may find him, for I would much love his company.”
“Fair nephew,” said she, “you must ride to the castle of Goothe, where his first cousin lives, and there you may lodge for the night. ”

“ Antoine laughed long and loud before saying: "Beely, you think your aunt like one bear story?"
"Why, yes, but what are you laughing at, Antoine?"
[Pg 85]
"Oh, I'm think I'm tell one, two, three, four bear story until your aunt go home, and ole Antoine she laugh."
"How are you going to begin, Aunt Florence?" asked Betty, as Antoine and Billy came toward them hand in hand. "They say he won't promise not to drink; he just will spend every cent he can get when he wants to. Now what are you going to say?" ”

“ THE minute Mary Frances saw her mother she knew that something was wrong, for she looked so white and worried. In her hand was a yellow envelope.
“A telegram!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “Mother dear, is—is it—about father?”
“Oh, Mary Frances,” said her mother. “I am so thankful to see you and Aunt Maria! I was just looking for Billy to send word for you to come.”
“Do sit down, child,” said Aunt Maria, “and tell us all about it. Mary Frances, bring your mother a glass of water, and here—here is my bottle of smelling salts.”
[56]
Mary Frances flew to bring the water. ”

“ Did you never hear of the peculiarity that attaches to my respected aunt, Lady Elizabeth Norris? She scruples not to avow that she prefers the society of people who amuse her by their absurdities to every other."
"Oh yes!... I have heard all that from Edward, who has, I can tell you, been occasionally somewhat horrified at what the queer old lady calls her soirées antíthèstiques. But you don't mean to tell me, Hubert, that you ever take the fancy of surrounding yourself with all the greatest quizzes you can find in compliment to your old aunt?" ”

“ But tell her and your aunt from me, that if ever they are at a loss what to do with you, Frances, Miss Mildmay must let me know. We can manage a good run in the garden even in wintry weather, and there are such things as blindman's-buff and hide-and-seek in the house sometimes.'
'Thank you very much,' said Frances. 'I think—I would like to come sometimes on Saturdays, for, besides going with Aunt Alison, I shouldn't wonder if—I daresay Jass may have often to go'——She stopped and hesitated, and finally blushed. ”

“ Had Agnes been tall, pale, and slight made, with precisely the same features, her aunt Betsy would have willingly devoted the whole of her remaining life to her, would have ungrudgingly expended every farthing of her income for her comfort and advantage, and would only have abstained from expending the principal too, because she might leave it to her untouched at her death. ”

“ I cannot take you with me, because my aunt is the crossest woman alive, and never liked young people: but the hens will lay eggs for you; there is barley-meal in the barrel; and, as you have been a good girl, I'll tell you what to do when you feel lonely. Lay your head gently down on the cushion of the arm-chair, and say, 'Chair of my grandmother, tell me a story.' It was made by a cunning fairy, who lived in the forest when I was young, and she gave it to me because she knew nobody could keep what they got hold of better. Remember, you must never ask a story more than once in the day ”

“ She wants just everything, aunt Betsy," said the bride expectant, brave in anticipated independence, and rather inclined to plague the old lady by drawing as largely as might be on her reluctant funds, now they were opened, even though the profit would not be her own.
"If she really does want everything, Martha Compton, while you are dressed as you now are, very cruel injustice has been done her," replied the aunt. "Your sister had no portion given her, either of the patrimony of her father, or the thousand pounds brought by her mother ”