Marden

“ But there was a long silence.
"You must be awful lonesome," she said slowly, "livin' there all alone sence—for so long."
A light broke in upon Marden somehow, like the sun burning through a fog. In a flash his mind sped over the consequences. By his simple logic, if he should love this woman, he would marry her, and she would come to live— His whole nature suffered a revulsion, an upheaval. ”

“ All at once his heart gave a jump, and began to flutter in his ribs, little as a kitten's. There were footsteps scrambling among the pebbles at the top of the hill. He grasped the gun, and craned his neck to see above a clump of snapdragon. He could have cried out aloud in the long suspense. But no, it was not his brother: the man was little and thin. As he came down into the gully, Marden knew him for Heber Griswold. He came very close, stopping once nearly opposite Marden to pluck a joint of timothy, which he did with difficulty, it was so dry and tough with overripeness. ”

“ Still Marden could not pull himself away from what at once quieted and angered him.
"A man like me?" he stupidly faltered. "Why—what"—
"That's you all over!" cried the woman proudly. "Why, how many of 'em do you s'pose there is nowadays would do what you done for the sake of a woman?"
Once more, as in that meeting on the beach, a light began to grow slowly in his mind. Just so a man underground might see, far ahead, the day glimmering in the mouth of some burrow.
He drew himself free, without violence or scorn. The blood running in his veins was his own again, under control. ”

“ A horse, left alone in the island pasture where the tide had cut him off, whinnied out of the distant dark. Even in Marden's torment, the sound brought back that evening when his brother had returned. Memories and questions swarmed in his brain again, rioting. Why could not he that now lay there dead in the gully, why could not he have stayed away? The world was so big, and full of a million other mishaps. If he were to die, a drunken lurch on the string-piece of a pier, a slip on an icy foot-rope, and Fate would have been satisfied without this dreadful means. ”

“ Marden broke in with unusual gentleness.
His brother looked up in wrathful surprise.
"Why, look a-here," he bellowed. "What's the matter with you? The' ain't a word o' dirt in that song, so help me."
Marden could not have explained to him what echoes it had raised, and was silent.
"You 're a beauty, you are," growled Lee. "You ain't got common sense. A man's got to come down to psalm-singin', like a reg'lar Rescue Mission.—Well, here's one for ye, parson, that I learned from Scotty McKenzie." ”

“ Marden repeated. “I’d back you to be a good straight anything you undertook. That’s your nature. I’m not passing you any bouquets, my girl. You were always as straight as a man.”
264Mrs. Hallard laughed, with cynical good humor.
“Lord, sonny!” she cried. “If them ain’t bouquets, be a little easy with whatever ’t is you do call ’em. Admirin’ the men as I do, such is some overpowerin’.”
Governor Marden flushed again, and edged away from ground that he felt to be precarious.
“Look here,” he said, “What do you mean by saying you’re working for your living? ”

“ Given a Hamlet who lives with his ghosts, who has no power of foolery to relieve his overwrought mind, and whose mission is one of endurance harder than action, you will find him grow dangerous. Marden himself began to feel that something must happen.
At length something did. In August the Yankee, hearing of some new clam-beds at the head of the bay, came to get Marden to drive there with him and inspect them. Since the road ran thirty miles about, it meant staying there over night, and Marden at first refused. ”

“ The skipper stormed, and tore his hair,
Thrust on his boots, and roared to Marden,
"Nantucket's sunk, and here we are
Right over old Marm Hackett's garden!" ”

“ My face must have assumed a comical expression, for the boy in the olive-green jacket gave an hysterical laugh, for which he was instantly punished by Mr. Grimshaw. I swallowed the fiery candy, though it brought the water to my eyes, and managed to look so unconcerned that I was the only pupil in the form who escaped questioning as to the cause of Marden's misdemeanor. C. Marden was his name. ”

“ She had firm shoulders,—rather broad for a woman of middle stature,—a wide, comely space between the shoulder-blades, a trim waist, and the ankle of a racer. Marden noted all this calmly (as he would have studied the build of a ship) , and contrasted her with the summer women from the city.
"They trail their feet," he thought ungallantly, "like the cows coming down the lane."
He was about to carry his fork and basket past her up the bank, when she turned. ”

“ Just inside the door a canvas bag lay dumped, with the letters "J. S.—Bark Gild—" showing through the dirt. Beyond it he saw his father's big armchair drawn out of its corner and before the stove, where it had not been for years; and slumped in the chair was a great hulk of a man, with a fierce white mustache and a gray-brown face. The room smelled of a rank pipe and of whiskey.
For the first instant Marden thought his father had come back to life ”

“ Marden looked at him, where the heavy shoulders bulged beyond the chair-back, and was torn between laughter, scornful silence, and tears. At least he was the master, and he felt thankful, though he had had no doubt at any moment. For a long time he stood watching, while his brother smoked, and spat, and growled snatches of song.
"That's the shotgun I shot the loon with," Lee broke in pensively. "An' that's the Gilderoy a-hangin' there, same as when we was boys, ain't it? A fine ship she must 'a' been, an' a fine man as run her. The' ain't no more ships like her these days. ”

“ Mrs Marden. Miss Irene Vanbrugh.
At this juncture Mr. Pim drifts in again to correct an error of memory. The name of the gentleman who succumbed to the herring-bone was not Tellworthy (he must have got that name into his head through hearing it mentioned as that of Mrs. Marden's first husband) . It was really Polwhistle—either Henry or Ernest Polwhistle; he was not quite sure which. Everything is thus restored to the status quo ante, except that Marden, in a spasm of generous reaction, feels himself morally bound to abide by the new conditions that his wife had laid down. ”

“ Marden.
DINAH. Of course we are. He knows Brian, too. There's more in Mr. Pim than you think. You will stay to lunch, won't you?
PIM. It's very kind of you to ask me, Mrs. Marden, but I am lunching with the Trevors.
OLIVIA. Oh, well, you must come to lunch another day.
DINAH. The reason why we like Mr. Pim so much is that he was the first person to congratulate us. We feel that he is going to have a great influence on our lives.
PIM (to OLIVIA) . I, so to speak, stumbled on the engagement this morning and—er—
OLIVIA. I see. Children, you must go and tidy yourselves up. Run along. ”

“ Or again, was it all a fault of his, Marden's? Could he not have treated Lee differently? Had he not been too stern and sour with the poor devil? "For God knows," he cried within himself, "we are all poor devils together." ”

“ Lee was too much in the flesh, too loud and jovial and earthy. With that terrible ease with which a man adapts himself to anything, the younger brother became used to having the older about. Marden saw his past life, alone or with his mother in the house, as some distant memory almost in a golden age, a quiet interregnum between the tyrants of circumstance. ”

“ Pim is below settee L. standing in same position as at the end of Act II. George Marden is in centre of stage and Lady Marden is at foot of staircase. Their altitude is the same as at the end of Act II, and all are concerned about Olivia's hysteria.)
George. Dead! Dead!
Pim. Oh dear! Oh dear! I'm afraid I broke the news rather hastily. The double shock of losing one husband and being restored to another–
Lady Marden (coming to George) . A dispensation of Providence, George. One can regard it in no other light. (Moves to R. of writing-table.)
George (coming to Pim) . Yes! Yes! ”

“ GEORGE. Good God! Telworthy! Is it possible? (Before OLIVIA can answer, LADY MARDEN is announced. They pull themselves together and greet her.)
ACT II
Lunch is over and coffee has been served on the terrace. Conversation drags on, to the satisfaction of LADY MARDEN, but of nobody else. GEORGE and OLIVIA want to be alone; so do BRIAN and DINAH. At last BRIAN murmurs something about a cigarette-case; and, catching DINAH'S eye, comes into the house. He leans against the sofa and waits for DINAH.
DINAH (loudly as she comes in) . Have you found it? ”

“ Through the open door came the faint whinnying of the horses on the point; the clock on the shelf ticked heavily; and Lee breathed as if he had been running. The two brothers stood ominously close, looking each other in the eye. Though one was a stripling beside the other's gigantic width, they were both strong men, both physically brave, both at white heat. Yet the power of victory shone like a light through Marden's eyes, and the older brother saw it. He stood undecided for an instant, then struck his colors and unclinched his fists. ”

“ Dana Marden and his wife were in front of me, not three seats away. Mary was very pale, and sat quite motionless, looking down into her lap; but Dana bent forward, gripping the seat in front of him with white and straining hands. His face, drawn and knotted, was a mirror of such anguish as few of us imagine; we only learn its power when it steals upon us in the dark, and our souls wrestle with it for awful mastery. ”

“ He now reports—what he had vaguely imagined himself to have mentioned in the first instance—that Tellworthy had met his death at Marseilles through swallowing a herring-bone. The Second Act closes with a burst of jubilant hysterics on the part of Mrs. Marden.
But the situation is only partially relieved. True, the old husband is dead all right, but the Mardens' marriage is still bigamous; they have been living all this time in what would be regarded in the eyes of Heaven (and, still worse, the county of Bucks) as sin. ”

“ Harden, who stood useless at the wheel, was forced to listen to the talk, which ran seriously upon Jerry Fox, and the causes of desertion in general.
"I 've seen men, Mr. Spinney," the captain said, with a vinous buoyancy in his voice, "I 've seen men go plumb to hellelujah over women that if they'd 'a' brung me my food to the table, I could n't 'a' eat it." Then, to Marden's surprise, the captain addressed him, turning so that the lantern-light threw a sinister shadow of his great nose across half his face. ”

“ OLIVIA. Don't be late for lunch, there's good people. Lady Marden is coming.
DINAH. Aunt Juli-ah! Help! (She faints in BRIAN'S arms) That means a clean pinafore. Brian, you'll jolly well have to brush your hair.
BRIAN (feeling it) . I suppose there's no time now to go up to London and get it cut?
Enter ANNE, followed by PIM.
ANNE. Mr. Pim!
DINAH (delighted) . Hullo, Mr. Pim! Here we are again! You can't get rid of us so easily, you see.
PIM. I—er—dear Miss Marden—
OLIVIA. How do you do, Mr. Pim? I can't get up, but do come and sit down. My husband will be here in a minute. ”

“ I'm afraid it's true, Aunt Julia. (Taking stool from L.C. to C., sits on it. Dinah sits in arm-chair down L.) We heard the news just before lunch–just before you came. We've only this moment had an opportunity of talking about it, of wondering what to do.
Lady Marden. What was his name——Tel–something——
Olivia. Jacob Telworthy.
Lady Marden (in amazement) . So he's alive still?
George. Apparently. There seems to be no doubt about it.
Lady Marden (to Olivia) . Didn't you see him die? I should always want to see my husband die before I married again. Not that I approve of second marriages, anyhow. ”

“ The northern autumn, a season of paradox when nature grows more sad and cold, while the young blood flows brisker in the veins, drew slowly with ironical sunlight across the dying fields and through the shivering trees. And by November, when the first flurry of snow whirled in the air, it seemed to Marden as if he had always lived so, guarding the closed door against this creature of his own blood. Their life was together, yet vastly separate.
When Lee found his brother unmoved by stories that had set all the forecastle in an uproar, he grew more surly and silent indoors. ”

“ Olivia (taking off her coatee) . Yes, Aunt Julia, you're wonderful.
Dinah. How old would Olivia be if she took exercise?
(Olivia, smiling, but with an admonishing look at Dinah, comes up R. and places her coatee on balustrade.)
George (from up C.) . Don't fool about asking silly questions, Dinah. Your aunt hasn't much time.
Brian. May I come, too, Lady Marden?
Lady Marden (coming down centre to Brian) . Well, a little exercise wouldn't do you any harm, Mr. Strange. You're an artist, ain't you? ”

“ There, too, one night when Comedy burlesqued her own rapt self, was Dana Marden; but he came alone. Mary had a cold, we heard, and "thought she'd better stay in." Dana sat through the foolish play, unmoved. His brow loomed heavy, like Tragedy's own mask, and it grew ever blacker while the scene went on. Hiram Cole whispered me,—
"He'll kill himself afore he's done with it. He's gone in for the whole hog, but he 'ain't growed to it, as Old Josh had. The Marden blood run emptin's afore it got to him." ”

“ But theirs was a world apart from his; and although Marden was good to them in return, and indeed became known for innumerable little kindnesses, it was chiefly for a reason that they never dreamed of,—that in the same spirit he would have died for the sake of the meanest person in the village, so lightly did he value his time or his life. Like Hercules in the Alcestis,—a Hercules in shabby clothes,—he held his life out on his hand for any man to take. ”