Edie

“ She judged from the expression of her sister-in-law's face that it did not appeal to her in any way at all.
"Poor dear," said she, "he's still worrying about those blessed bulbs of mine—of yours, I mean."
"Don't, Edie. As if I wanted to take your bulbs away from you. I'm not jealous."
"No more am I," said Edie. "Let's say both our bulbs. I wish he wouldn't garden quite so much, though. It always makes his head ache."
"Why does he do it, then?" asked Anne calmly.
Her calmness irritated Edith.
"Oh, why does Walter do anything? Because he's an angel!" ”

“ I’m sure Edie has enjoyed it just as much as I have, and is just as anxious you should stop a little time here with us as I myself could possibly be.
‘Oh, yes, Herr Schurz,’ Edie put in persuasively with her sweet little pleading manner; ‘do stay a little longer. I don’t know when dear Ernest has enjoyed anything in the world so much as he has enjoyed seeing you. You’ve no idea how dull it is down here for him, and for me too, for that matter; everybody here is so borné, and narrow-minded and self-centred ”

“ Edie's artless story made every thing clear. Fanny had been enticed away by some one employed by Jasper, and was now in his possession! With pale face and quivering lips, she sat bending over Edie, silent for several moments. Then recollecting herself, she said to the lady—-
"I thank you, ma'am, most sincerely, for the trouble you have taken in bringing home my little girl. This is a most distressing affair. The other child has, evidently, been enticed away."
"You will take immediate steps for her recovery," said the lady.
"Oh, yes. I expect my husband home, now, every moment." ”

“ Oh, Edie, Edie, what shall we do? Oh, that I were sure death was an eternal sleep, as some say! How gladly I would close my eyes to-night and never wish to open them again! My heart is ashes, and my hope is dead. And yet I am afraid to die, and more afraid to live. Ever since—Zell—went—the future has been—a terror to me. Edith," she continued, after a moment, in a low voice, that trembled and was full of dread, "Zell has not written—the silence of the grave seems to have swallowed her. He has not married her!" and an agony of grief convulsed Laura's slight frame. ”

“ Halliss’s lodgings in Holloway, Edie was just saying to Ernest over their simple tea, ‘I wonder what they’ll give you for it, Ernest.’ And Ernest had just answered, big with hope, ‘Well, I should think it would be quite ten shillings, but I shouldn’t be surprised, Edie, if it was as much as a pound;’ when the door opened, and in walked Arthur Berkeley, with a cheque in his hand, which he laid by Edie’s teacup. ”

“ And little Edie is so delighted. They have played all the morning like kittens; and a little while ago lay down, just as you see them—tired out, I suppose—and fell off to sleep. It must have been hard for the mother to part with that child—hard, very hard."
And Mrs. Claire sighed.
"You will scarcely be willing to give her up, if she remains here long," said Edward.
"I don't know how I should feel to part from her, even now. Oh, isn't it sad to think that she has no living soul to love or care for her in the world."
"Mr. Jasper is her guardian, you know."
"Yes; and such a guardian!" ”

“ It was no use for Auntie Louie, more red and more rigid than ever, to defy the imminence of her forty-ninth birthday. Auntie Emmy's gestures, her mouthings and excitement, only drew attention to the fact that she was forty-seven. And Edie, why, even poor little Auntie Edie was forty-five. Grannie, dry and wiry, hardly looked older than Auntie Edie.
They left her, going stiffly, in offence. And again the unbearable pathos of them smote her. The poor Aunties. She was a brute to hurt them. She still thought of them as Auntie Louie, Auntie Emmy, Auntie Edie. ”

“ Edie coloured once more. ‘I said “yes,” mother, for I love him dearly.’
‘He’s a dear fellow,’ the mother answered gently; ‘and I’m sure he’ll do his best to make you happy.’
Later on in the day, Harry came up and knocked at Edie’s door. His mother had told him all about it, and so had Ernest. ‘Popsy,’ he said, kissing her also, ‘I congratulate you. I’m so glad about it. Le Breton’s the best fellow I know, and I couldn’t wish you a better or a kinder husband. You’ll have to wait for him, but he’s worth waiting for. He’s a good fellow and a clever fellow, and an affectionate fellow ”

“ Le Breton,’ he said solemnly, ‘but still, a great deal may be done for him.’ Edie’s face brightened visibly. ‘With care, his life may be prolonged for many years,—I may even say, indeed, quite indefinitely.’ Edie smiled with joy and gratitude. ‘But you must strictly observe my rules and directions—the same that I’ve just given in a similar case to the Crown Prince of Servia who was here before you. In the first place, your husband must give up work altogether. He must be content to live perfectly and absolutely idle. ”

“ Not for him. He's a man, as you may say, of obstinate affections."
"Ah, Edie—you don't know."
"I know," said Edith, "you're perfectly sweet, the way you take my scoldings. It's cowardly of me, when I'm lying here safe, and you can't scold back again. But I wouldn't do it if I didn't love you."
"I know—I know you love me."
"But I couldn't love you so much, if I didn't love Walter more."
"You well may, Edie. He's been a good brother to you."
"Some day you'll own he's been as good a husband as he's been a brother. Better; for it's a more difficult post, my dear. ”

“ Claire got through with the most pressing of her morning duties, and then, the older children away to school, she came and sat down by her husband's bedside, and took his hand in hers. As he looked into her face, pale from sleeplessness and anxiety, tears filled his eyes.
"O, Edie!" said he, his voice tremulous with feeling, "isn't this disheartening? What are we to do?"
"He careth for us," was the low, calmly spoken reply; and, as Edith lifted a finger upward, a ray of heavenly confidence beamed in her countenance. ”

“ Yet, after all, every man or woman is more of a problem than anything in x square plus y square you can possibly set yourself.’
Edie ran lightly up into her own room, and soon reappeared clad resplendent in the new peacock-blue dress, with hat and parasol to match, and a little creamy lamb’s-wool scarf thrown with artful carelessness around her pretty neck and shoulders. Harry looked at her with unfeigned admiration. Indeed, you would not easily find many lighter or more fairly-like little girls than Edie Oswald, even in the beautiful half-Celtic South Hams of Devon. ”

“ When the heart prompts, duty becomes a pleasure. O yes, dear, let us take the child by all means."
"Can we make room for her?"
"Why not? Her little bed, in a corner of our chamber, will in noway incommode us; and through the day she will be a companion for Edie. If you could only have seen how sweetly they played together! Edie has not been half the trouble to-day that she usually is."
"It will rest altogether with you, Edith," said Claire, seriously. "In fact, Mr. Jasper proposed that we should take Fanny. ”

“ And as she kneels there quivering, she is rather like a butterfly herself, fanning her wings before the Lord. When the door is open the sound of the piano coming up through the silent house is almost frightening, so bold, so defiant, so reckless it rolls under Edie’s fingers. And just for a moment the thought comes to Mrs. Bengel and is gone again, that there is a stranger with Edie in the drawing-room, but a fantastic person, out of a book, a—a—villain. It’s very absurd. ”

“ Miss Edie, we'se all a leanin' on you. We'se nothin' but vines a climbin' up de orange-bush. If you goes down, we all does. And now, Miss Edie, I'd swallow pison for you. Won't you take a cup o' tea for de sake of ole Hannibal? 'Cause your sweet face looks so pinched, honey, dat I feels dat my ole black heart's ready to bust ”

“ Jenny's popularity at the theater made her more impatient than ever of home. She bore less and less easily her mother's attempts to steer her course.
"You'll come to grief," Mrs. Raeburn warned her.
"I don't think so."
"A nice mess Edie made of things."
"I'm not Edie. I'm not so soft."
"Why you can't meet some nice young chap, and settle down comfortable with a home of your own, I can't think."
"Like Edie, I suppose, and have a pack of kids. One after another. One after another. And a husband like Bert, so shocking jealous he can't see her look at another man without going on like a mad thing. ”

“ On Harry the gods had inflicted a terrible cerebral affliction. Philip remembered Harry's attendant lady and shuddered. And Harry had been sweet on Edie once! Oh, yes, Edie! What was it he had heard Dorah and Benjamin saying about Edie? He remembered. Her photograph had been seen by a "millionaire" in the house of a relative of Edie in Pittsburg, U.S.A. The "millionaire," promptly enamoured, had entered into negotiations with the authorities in Doomington, the negotiations were succeeded by a trunk of the most astounding dresses and a first-class ticket to Pittsburg. ”

“ There would be more good men ruined by bad women. Because, don't you see, there'd be no others left for them to speak to."
"If you're thinking of his good—"
"Have you thought of hers?"
"Yes. Supposing he ends by marrying somebody else, what will she do then?—poor Edie!"
"If the somebody else is a good woman, poor Edie will fold her dear little hands, and offer up a dear little prayer of thankfulness to heaven."
Upstairs the music ceased. The prodigal's footsteps were heard crossing the room and coming to a halt by Edith's couch.
Majendie rose, placid and benignant. ”

“ If I could take off the cap and the shawl and the spectacles, I should see a little girl of four years, with a white dress, a pink sash, and long curls hanging down over her shoulders.
Her name is Edith May. Her mamma calls her Edie. Edie likes to fix herself up, and "play people" as she calls it. She takes many different parts.
Sometimes she is an old lady, and sometimes she is a young lady. Sometimes she plays she is mamma ”

“ Edie and I have often laughed together over his letters about his little son, and said, surely no man had ever had a boy before. At one time he could write of nothing else.’
‘Oh! yes, and he loves the child as much as ever, perhaps more, but he cannot stand his noise. It jars upon his nerves. Sometimes I long for the time when Wally shall be able to go too. It is a dull life for a young child to be confined to the company of his nurse.’
‘You grieve me more and more with each word you say, Hannah,’ replied her brother-in-law; ‘however, I shall see Henry for myself to-morrow. Come! ”

“ It wouldn't have been pretty. And now, it's all over and I like Anne. But I don't like her as much as you."
"You must like her more," he said gravely. "She'll need it—badly."
Edith looked at him. "How can she need it badly, when she has you?"
"You're a good woman, and I'm a mere mortal man. She's found that out already, and she doesn't like it."
"Wallie, dear, what do you mean?"
"I mean exactly what I say. She's found it out. She's found me out. She's found everything out."
"Found out? But how?"
"It doesn't matter how. Edie, why didn't you tell her? You said you would." ”

“ Then, as if a sudden thought struck him, he asked, "Miss Edie, did He eber hab any ting to do wid a black man?"
Edith was so unfamiliar with the Bible that she could not recall any distinct case, but she said, with the earnestness of such full belief on her part, that it satisfied his child-like mind, "I am sure He did, for all kinds of people—people that no one else would touch or look at—came to Him, or He went to them, and spoke so kindly to them and forgave all their sins." ”

“ Now bress you, Miss Edie, you'se an angel for sayin' dat. Don't be afeard, I'se good for sumpen yet, if I be old. I once work for fear in de South; den I work for money, and now I'se gwine to work for lub, and it 'pears I can feel my ole jints limber up at de tought. It 'pears like dat lub is de only ting dat can make one young agin. Neber you fear, Miss Edie, we'll pull trough, and I'se see you a grand lady yet. A true lady you'se allers be, even if you went out to scrub. ”

“ Le Breton,’ Edie said, turning towards the path and drying her eyes quickly, ‘I really don’t think you ought to marry me. The difference in station is so great—even Harry would allow the difference in station. Your father was a great man, and a general and a knight, you know; and though my dear father is the best and kindest of men, he isn’t anything of that sort, of course.’
A slight shade of pain passed across Ernest’s face. ‘Edie,’ he said, ‘please don’t talk about that—please don’t. My father was a just and good man, whom I loved and honoured deeply ”

“ Once I fancied it would be a fine thing, a brilliant match, if my Edith married James Stuart's son. How much better Providence has arranged it! Once more, my dearest daughter, I congratulate you on the brilliant vista opening before you. Your step-mother, who desires her best love, never wearies of spreading the wonderful news that our little Edie is so soon to be the bride of a great English baronet. ”

“ She's got a sister, hasn't she—a Miss Edith, who showed me my bedroom? I expect I shall like her. Have I hit the mark?"
The girls looked at one another and laughed.
"Just about," said Fiona Campbell. "Poppie's temper varies like the barometer. One day she's at 'set fair', and calls everybody 'dear', or 'my child'; and the next she's at 'stormy', and woe betide you if you so much as drop your serviette at dinner, or happen to sneeze in the elocution class! Miss Edie's ripping! She doesn't teach much—only one or two classes. ”