Bessy

“ Who swore he would die for pretty Bessee.
And, if thou wilt marry with me, quoth the knight,
I'll make thee a lady with joy and delight;
My heart's so enthralled by thy beautie,
That soon I shall die for pretty Bessee.
The gentleman said, Come, marry with me,
As fine as a lady my Bessy shall be:
My life is distressed: O hear me, quoth he;
And grant me thy love, my pretty Bessee.
Let me be thy husband; the merchant did say,
Thou shalt live in London both gallant and gay;
My ships shall bring home rich jewels for thee,
And I will for ever love pretty Bessee. ”

“ I did not detain the gentleman long. I found Bessy in the parlour, and her consent was given at once.
"It will not hurt us, Richard, if we lose it," she said. "We shall have enough for happiness, I dare say."
"Oh, quite," I answered. "But now I am going over to see this unfortunate man, and I trust my dear girl will spend the time till I come back in pondering upon the happiness which her affection confers upon one who loves her with his whole heart. If I know my Bessy rightly, she feels no greater pleasure than in making others happy." ”

“ How dark it had grown! The light shone from the bushes like a fallen star. When Bessy was within a few feet of the light, she was astonished to see a face peering out of the darkness, its eyes fixed on her with anything but a pleasant expression. The light went out, and Bessy, wishing she [Pg 825] was safe at home, turned to scamper back, when a heavy hand was laid on her shoulder, and the light flashed in her face.
She now saw it was a lantern carried by a very small and disagreeable old woman dressed in black, and her head covered with a red handkerchief. ”

“ In addition to her democratic pride—which I cannot blame her for—which makes her prefer the company of her equals to that of her superiors, she finds herself a perfect stranger in the midst of people who are all intimate; and this is a sort of dignified desolation which poor Bessy is not at all ambitious of. ”

“ With the two hundred pounds that he hoped to get for the goodwill of his own practice in Dallory Ham--at this very moment he was trying to negociate with a gentleman for it in private---he should set up in London, or else purchase a small share in an established practice. Anything, anywhere, to get away, and to leave the nightmare of daily-dreaded discovery behind him!
"Once we are away from this place, Bessy, we shall get on. I feel sure of it. You won't long have to live like a hermit, from dread of the cost of entertaining company, or to look at every sixpence before you lay it out." ”

“ Shall I say you will go? and then I don't mind if I lend you my eighteenpence. You'll pay me before I want my rent on Monday."
"Oh! thank you, dear Mrs. Foster," said Bessy. "I can scour as well as any woman, mother often says so; and I'll do my best on Saturday; they shan't blame you for having spoken up for me."
"No, Bessy, they won't, I'm sure, if you do your best. You're a good sharp girl for your years."
Bessy lingered for some time, hoping that Mrs. Foster would remember her offer of lending her the money ”

“ I should, papa. And I think those who bravely set out to struggle on together, have as much happiness in their makeshifts and economies as others who begin with a fortune."
"We'll see; we'll see, Bessy. I should like you to try it, if you are not afraid. I'll talk to Dick. But--mind!--not a word here," he added, glancing round to indicate the precincts of Mrs. North. "We shall have to keep it to ourselves if we would not have it frustrated. I wonder how much Oliver makes a year."
"Not much; but he is advancing slowly. He has talked to me about it. What keeps one will keep two, papa." ”

“ She thought more sorrowfully than Bessy did, of the contrast between them. She could not speak for a moment or two for the emotion she was trying to keep down.
“About Mary,” said Bessy. “I wanted to ask yo’ to be a friend to her. She’s seventeen, but she’s th’ last on us. And I don’t want her to go to th’ mill, and yet I dunno what she’s fit for.”
“She could not do”—Margaret glanced unconsciously at the uncleaned corners of the room—“She could hardly undertake a servant’s place, could she? We have an old faithful servant, almost a friend, who wants help, but who is very particular ”

“ "I only mean, Bessy, there's good and bad in everything in this world; and as you felt the bad up here, I thought it was but fair should know the bad down there." ”

“ It was very apparent this afternoon, as she stood by the window looking out upon the snow which covered the garden and park, and made her shiver a little, and think of the mother who should have been at home, lightening her daughter's burden and cheering her lonely life.
"How happy the girls must be who have real mothers," Bessie thought, and then as if the regret for the mother reflected upon the father, who was so much to her, she went up to him by the fire, and stooping over him kissed him tenderly. ”

“ Bessie—oh! Bessie,” as she held the locket towards her, moaning, moaning all the while.
“Do you wish me to open it?” Bessie inquired; and Heather made a gesture of assent. She had always been a little jealous, and now she was afraid to reveal, with her own hands, the secret it contained. And yet she longed to know—was it portrait or hair—was it an old love token, or a more recent souvenir which her husband had worn next his heart, next where she ought to have been alone? God keep us all from hard and hasty and suspicious judgments. ”

“ I wanted to save you an hour’s unpleasantness, but I see you prefer to make yourself miserable.”
“I think I do in the present instance,” returned Bessie quietly.
“Very well, have your own way; but if you take my advice, you will not waste your pity upon Edna. She is flinging away her happiness with her eyes open, just to gratify her temper. You see I can speak plainly, Miss Lambert, and call things by their right names. Just out of pride and self-will, she is bidding good-bye to one of the best fellows living, and all the time she knows that he is a good fellow. ”

“ I think 'Bessie Jerrold' the sweetest name in all the world."
"So do I; but I doubt if Neil holds the same opinion," Bessie answered, with a laugh, as she leaned her head upon her husband's bosom, while he kissed her lips and forehead, and said the fond, foolish things which no loving wife, however old she may be, is ever tired of hearing—fond, foolish words, which, if oftener spoken, would keep alive the love in hearts which should never grow cold to each other. ”

“ Miss Betsey replied, shoving back her chair and eyeing her niece curiously as she gathered up the dishes and carried them to the kitchen, where she took her own breakfast with the cook, who instructed her in her duties as well as she could.
"She is mighty queer and mighty particular, but if you get the soft side of her you are all right," she said to Bessie, who moved about the house almost as handily as if she had lived there all her life. ”

“ There is no end to the soothing effect of those 'kind words that never die!'"
"He was cross enough with me about [151] it," said Bessie, reflectively. "I think a few kind words would not hurt him to say."
"We have nothing to do with Nathan as to that," said her mother. "If he chooses to be ill-tempered, it is his own business, while it is ours to bear it from him patiently. It is only by such means that we can teach him how wrong he is."
"I think that is pretty hard to do," said Bessie, shaking her head, "don't you, Nelly? I always want to answer right straight back." ”

“ We can’t make ourselves good, Hatty; that lies in different hands. But why don’t you look on your unhappy nature as your appointed cross, and just bear with yourself as much as you expect others to bear with you? Why not exercise the same patience as you expect to be shown to you?”
“I hardly understand you, Bessie. I ought to hate myself for my ill-temper and selfishness, ought I not?” ”

“ Bessie looked up, startled, indignant.
“That’s disgusting!” she said darkly. “No matter what he is, they haven’t a right to meddle in people’s private affairs that way and print it all out before the public!”
She did not eat any more breakfast. She began hurriedly to prepare for the office. Her mother watched her anxiously. Could it be possible that Bessie was still thinking about Murray? If so, she was glad she had happened on the item. She ought to understand fully just what he was. That item about the Countess, of course, might not be anything but a bit of venom from a jealous rival. ”

“ It’s horrid to feel you’re in the way, Miss Bessie!”
“I wish I could keep you always, Fred,” said Bess seriously, for she felt the pain in the child’s voice and face, as he spoke of his absent mother.
“I just wish you could! You are as good as a mother and sister and brother, all at once. But you said that night, ever so long ago, that I mustn’t wish I was dead, or out of the way, or anything, because that’s cowardly; but what can I do, when I know I’m going to be in everybody’s way?”
“But you aren’t, Fred. We all need you and want you with us. ”

“ You're always trying to make people out better than they are. I don't know these girls who are up here with her, but she'd say she knew me, and that we lived in the right sort of street at home, and that her mother and my aunt called on one another, so I'm all right. I know her little ways!"
And Bessie was wise enough to see that to argue with Dolly while she was in such an angry mood would only make matters worse. Bessie loved peace, because, perhaps, she had had so little of it while she lived in Hedgeville with the Hoovers. ”

“ I'm always too sick in nut season—have the shakes. But I do believe I should like to some time. Are you two little girls going soon again?"
"I don't know," said Bessie, "may be so. If we do, shan't we stop and see if you are able to go along? Your house isn't much [24] out of the way; we can stop just as well as not."
The pale girl looked quite gratified at these words of Bessie, but said that she didn't know whether the "shakes" would allow her.
"Well," said Bessie, "we will stop for you, anyway. My mother would say, I am sure, that the walk would do you good. Good-by. ”

“ Listen to me, mother, dear,” as Mrs. Lambert sighed and shook her head. “Miss Sefton has been here, so she knows we are not rich people, and she will not expect to see many smart dresses. I don’t want to pretend to be what I am not. We cannot afford to dress grandly, nor to have many new frocks, but I am sure we are just as happy without them.”
“Yes; but you never have stayed with rich people before, Bessie,” returned her mother sadly. “You do not know how shabby your old things will look beside other people’s silks and satins. ”

“ Bessie understood perfectly her mother's mode of life, and knew that though she was not degraded in the worst sense of the word, she was an adventuress and a gambler, whom good, pure women shunned, and over whom she mourned as a mother mourns for the child which has gone astray. ”

“ Bessie was not a promising scholar; she liked to do any thing in the world but study. She would look longingly out of the window a dozen times in the course of a single lesson, and when her mother reproved her by rapping her rather smartly on the head with her thimble, Bessie would only laugh, and say she guessed her skull must be thick, for the lesson would not get through, and the thimble did not hurt a bit! ”

“ She spoke in a voice that had the clear emptiness of a puzzled child's. "I don't know," she repeated, and then her uncouth young womanhood came strongly on her. "Oh, Bessie, Bessie, I think it's terrible to be a woman—terrible. Men—oh—and yet I know it is our destiny. Nature drives us. And I'm pushing against the chariot she sits in, pushing, pushing"—she brandished the wooden spoon—"and I know I shall be beaten in the end."
"Oh, Miss Terry, you've dropped some soup on your dress. ”

“ Not the woman whom you saw in Rome, full of anxiety for her child, but a vain, selfish, intriguing woman, whom no good man could respect, much as he might admire her dazzling beauty. Well, she had me on her string, when I met her daughter, but something Bessie said to me made me strong to resist coils and arts which Satan himself would find it hard to withstand. I used to ride with her, and flirt with her, and bet with her, and play at her side in Monte Carlo, and let her fleece me out of money, just as she did every one with whom she came in contact ”

“ I am tempting Bessie with the promise of a place at Old Drury, where, as you know, I am not without influence. Stab me! with her eyes and rosy red cheeks she would need neither paint nor powder to make her an ornament to the boards. Like most clever women, she has ambitions of a histrionic nature. She will come to London, Brooking, and once there!--once there--she is mine, dear lad, she is mine. ”

“ Then came the face make-up and the arrangement of the wig, hat and veil; and while Bessie was intent upon this, I slipped a loaded revolver into the pocket of my jacket, to which I had arranged ready access.
"I declare, you make quite a pretty girl, Paul; but you're dreadfully awkward. You must take shorter steps or you'll be found out the instant you leave the house," said Bessie, turning to survey the effect a moment later.
"Thank goodness there are only a few steps to walk in any event. The only tough part will be in the carriage with the beggar. ”

“ His coming back to his own city had been heralded in the papers, of course, and often his name was mentioned in the society columns, yet never had it happened that they had met until this morning. And Bessie was heart-whole and happy, not expecting young millionaire princes to drop down on her doorstep and continue a friendship begun in lonely babyhood. She was much too sane and sensible a girl to expect or even wish for such a thing. Her mind now was set upon success in her business world, and her ambition to put her mother into more comfortable circumstances. ”