Matty

“ For herself, Matty took possession of the dining-room, as soon as she could clear it of the breakfast equipage, of the children and of the servants, and here, with pen and ink, with wrapping-paper and twine, with telegraph blanks and with the directory, and with Venty as her Ariel messenger—not so airy and quick as Ariel, but quite as willing—Matty worked her wonders, and gave her audiences, whether to vassals from without or puzzled children from within. ”

“ The little fellow dropped his knee and stared at Matty with wild, affrighted eyes.
“What do you mean?” shaped his lips.
Matty ducked under the leaf of the counter again and approached the little one's side. “You're no fellow!” he said, with rough, unaccustomed tenderness, unconsciously seizing a little hand in his earnestness and pressing it against his cheek. “Any one could see it with half an eye! You're too pretty and good and nice! Go back where you come from and get your own clothes. I'll go with you if you want. I won't let any one touch you. ”

“ Now, Matty, my dear, what are you blushing about? You have caught your young man at last, and much luck may you both have. If—' if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.' You have tried again, Matty, and I congratulate you. You may kiss me, Matty, if you like. Maria, you may kiss Matty Bell. She's engaged to Gusty. Well, Gusty, you are a sly one. Never once have you been near my house since your return. Better employed, you will say. Ha, ha, I know young men. Marry in haste and repent at leisure. ”

“ However quickly you may get over your work, no one will ever think a dwelling well-furnished whose walls are covered with nothing but fairies."
"Stupid, solemn, cross-grained old critic as he is!" thought Matty; "I knew that he and I would never agree together. I paper my walls to please my own taste, and snap my fingers at Learning!"
The grave guardian then stalked slowly across the little plot of ground which divided the boys' cottages from those of the girls. Though Dick's was just opposite to Matty's, Mr. Learning chose to cross over first to Lubin's. ”

“ Matty was much distressed at the thought of such innocence abroad in the city. “You don't know your way around,” he protested.
“A fellow can always ask,” said the little one, with an air.
Matty never thought of laughing. Bent on discouraging him, “The kids'll make a mock of your clothes,” he said.
He promptly wished he had bitten his tongue before the remark escaped him; for the little fellow's eyes slowly filled, and he choked over his food.
“They're all right!” cried Matty, desperately remorseful. “I wouldn't laugh at them. I'd bust any kid's head that laughed when I was around. ”

“ No, Matty! honor bright, _I_ will not, though that ten cents might give us all a Merry Christmas. Honor bright, I will not treat. But I am not a saint, Matty! If anybody else treats, I must not be expected to be far away.”
Then he wiped her eyes with his own handkerchief and led her in to the service. Their own pew was already full. He had to take her back into Dr. Metcalf’s pew.
So Matty was spared one annoyance which was prepared for her.
Directly in front of her father’s pew, sitting in the most conspicuous seat on the other side of the aisle, was the hateful Mr. Greenhithe. ”

“ Dwyer turned on the girl, and there was the devil in his eye.
"I'll marry him," said Matty.
So the rites and blessings of the Church were dispensed between two persons who an hour before had never given a thought to each other. Yet it was wonderful with what lightness of heart Matty went through the honours consequent on a peasant bridal in Ireland. She gaily led off the dance with Andy, and the night was far spent before the bride and bridegroom were escorted to the cottage which was to be their home. ”

“ Matty had that infusion of romance in her nature that few, if any, Irish girls are free from, and which made her desire that the man of her choice should be something out of the common. She would have liked a soldier who had won distinction in the field. ”

“ And Matty told him, and begged him to come and sleep in her own little room, because the children would come in in a rout at daybreak. But no! he would not hear to that. “Whatever else is left, dear Matty, we have each other. And we will not begin—on what will be a new life to all of us—we will not begin by ’bating a jot of the dear children’s joys. Matty, that is what I have been thinking of all the way as I walked home. But maybe I should not have said it, but that Beverly said it just now to me. ”

“ The more trouble we have the less we think about it, and a thorn in a man’s toe is nothing to a bullet in his head.’
“After that Matty went to the Czar of all the Russians, and from the Czar to the King of Greece, [100] and after he had spent years traveling the world looking, in vain, for advice as to whether New York or Boston would be the best place to commit suicide, he returned home and to his great surprise learnt that his two wives had married again.” ”

“ He is a fine fellow, Matty, and all night long he has shown the temper and the sense of a man.”
For a moment Matty could not say a word. Her eyes were all running over with tears. She kissed her father again, and then found out how to say, “I shall tell him what you say, papa, and there will be two happy children in this house, after all.”
So she ran to Beverly’s room, found him before he was undressed, and told him. And the boy who was just becoming a man, and the girl who, without knowing it, had become a woman, kissed each other ”

“ Now, I wouldn't let this get to Captain Bertram's ears for the world."
"What do you mean, mother?" asked the astonished daughter.
"What I say, my love. I wouldn't let the captain know that you were so tired as to have to lie down after a game of tennis, for a ten pound note. Nothing puts a man off a girl so soon as to hear that she's delicate."
"Oh, he—he doesn't care," half sobbed Matty. ”

“ MATY, PAUL HENRY (1745–1787) , assistant-librarian of the British Museum, son of Matthew Maty [q. v.] , was born in London in 1745. He was admitted a king's scholar at Westminster in 1758, and was elected in 1763 to Trinity College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1767 and M.A. in 1770 (Grad. Cantabr. s.v. Matty') . ”

“ And poor Matty counselled again, and helped again, and took the last stitches, and mended the last breaks, and waited and wondered, and tried to hope, till at five o’clock an office messenger came up with this message.
4.45 P.M. DEAR MATTY,—I shall not come up to dinner. There is pressing work here. Tell mamma not to sit up for me. I have my key. I have no chance to get my things for the children. Will you see to it? Here is twenty dollars, and if you need more let them send in the bill. ”

“ After ineffectual protest against the decision of the synods, the elder Maty sought refuge in England, but was unable to find patronage there, and had to return to the Hague, whence his enemies drove him to Leyden. He was living in Leyden with his brother Charles Maty, compiler of a greatly esteemed ‘Dictionnaire géographique universel’ (1701 and 1723, 4to, Amsterdam) , in 1751, being then seventy years of age (Bruys, Mémoires, 1751, i. 171–204) . He subsequently returned to England, and lived with his son in London, where he died on 21 March 1773 (Gent. Mag. 1773, p. 155, s.v. Matty) . ”

“ They must do the best they can."
"The best they could do, Mrs. Eyre, meaning no offence, would be to stay at home. Folks are only human after all, if they are washerwomen; and they have their feelings."
"Miss Posnett was very kind that time I had a bad whitlow," put in Martha.
"Who's named Miss Posnett?" inquired her mother. "Mind your manners, Matty, and name no names."
"All this time, Mrs. Hardy, I have not told you my errand here to-day. You know the doctors say that my little Flora must not be allowed to walk, or even to stand. She has never been strong since her bad fall. ”

“ That was the turning-point of Mattie's life; after that, a little woman with an eye to business; a small female costermonger with a large basket before her suspended by a strap—troubled and kept moving on by policemen—but earning her fair modicum of profit; quick with her eyes, ready with her answers, happy as a queen whose business was brisk, and lodging away from Mother Watts and old Simes, whose acquaintance she had quietly dropped.
Mattie still watched Harriet Wesden from a distance ”

“ The associations in Mattie's mind were not always very clear either to herself or other people; they were generally just, notwithstanding.
"But you have never been to Mr. Potter's church to know, Mattie."
"Oh! haven't I, just? Times and times. Mr. Spelt has been a-taking of me. I do believe mother thinks I am going to die, and wants to get me ready. I wonder what it all means?"
"Nonsense, Mattie!" said Lucy, already tamed a little aside from her own sorrow by the words of the child. "You must put on your hat and come out with me."
"My bonnet, miss. Hats are only fit for very little girls. ”

“ I can do nothing to stop it—to show him that I am as honest as the day."
"Patience, Mattie, dear," said Harriet, "we will soon prove that to him, if he require proof. If I have come at his wish, it was at my own, too, and you are exaggerating the reasons that have brought me hither."
"I wonder why I stop here now," said Mattie, thoughtfully. "I, who am a young woman, and can get my own living. If he is tired of me, I have no right to stop."
"You will stop for the sake of those who love you, and who have trust in you, Mattie; you will not think of going away." ”

“ He does nothing but brood, brood, brood, sitting of a heap all day in that chair!"
"A month since his father died now," said Mattie, musing.
"To the very day, Mattie."
"He goes to church—you read the Bible to him?" asked Mr. Gray, suddenly.
"He can't go by hisself—he's not very handy with his blindness, like those who have been brought up to it with a dog and a tin mug," said Ann in reply; "but let's hope he'll get used to it, and find it a comfort to him, sir." ”

“ She had doubted his love for her until that day when Mattie came to draw her into the old vortex, and then her faith in him came back, and life took fairer colours—she knew not wherefore, save that the reflex of that day's brightness might have shone upon her from the distance. For it was a bright day for both these old lovers; Mattie had augured well that one explanation—a few words, true and gentle, that scarcely stood for explanation even—would be sufficient, and disperse all clouds that had hung heavily above them. ”

“ He brought the remonstrance upon himself by coming down into the shop to hunt for some writing paper, which he intended to pay for in the morning, and was a little surprised to find Mattie sewing briskly in the back parlour.
"Up still, Mattie!—late hours for you," he said.
"Ah! and for you, too, sir."
"Men can do with little rest, and I never leave one day's work for the next," said he, in that quick manner which had become habitual to him, and which appeared, to strangers, tinged with more abruptness than was really intended. ”

“ Mattie was at work at the fireside; she had taken to dress-making again, amongst a new connection of chapel-goers introduced by her father, and Mr. Gray was busy at his lithography. He was working hard into the night, doing extra work, in order that he might have all the next week free for a preaching expedition amongst the colliers, and he did not turn from his work to express his opinion; on the contrary, bent more earnestly over it.
"It's no good hoping, my dear, I have made up my mind; he hasn't acted fairly by you—he hasn't made atonement—I must talk to him presently." ”

“ Mattie, I—seem—to think so!"
"Courage, dear friend. He will be always strong; his is not a weak nature."
"Mattie, I think he should have married Harriet Wesden, after all," said he; "he loved her very dearly. ”

“ Oh! sir, I know all about you—what should I do alone in the world, if I didn't think of those who saved me when I was young?"
"And what are you doing?"
"Getting my living by needlework, by artificial flower making, or by anything that's honest which falls in my way. I keep at work, and hunt about for work, and there are some good people, I find, who take pity upon those situated like myself. I'm not afraid, sir, of doing well!"
"Glad to hear it, Mattie."
Mattie motioned Ann Packet to retire. ”

“ Mattie did not reply; that was a matter for future consideration.
"I never allow anything to be kept from me," he said sharply; "I shall be a hard father, rely upon it. I allow nothing for prevarication, and I spare no sin or weakness, however plausible may be the excuse which the sinner offers. I—how dreadfully askew everything is on this mantel-piece!" he added suddenly, putting the few ornaments thereon at regular distances from each other; "I shall not be a kind father—I know I shan't! The mountains are not harder to move than I am—you're not frightened at me, Mattie?" ”

“ He had been sitting in the arm-chair apart from his father, revolving many things in that mind, and maintaining a silence which his father even began to think was strange—he whose thoughts were few and far between now—when he said suddenly to Ann Packet, who was entering on tiptoe with a candle:—
"Ann, fetch Mattie here at once."
"Mattie, Master Sidney?—to be sure I will," she added, with alacrity; "I've been thinking about that, oh! ever so long!"
"Be quick!—don't stop! Leave a message, if she's away. Here's money, hire a cab there and back. Take the key with you, and let yourself in!" ”

“ Oh! to be comfortably out of the world, and a burden to no one!"
"Sir," said Mattie, earnestly, "a blessing to some. Don't you remember when you were stronger, being a blessing to me—you, my first friend! And don't you know that you're a blessing to that good son of yours, and that he thinks so, and loves you as he ought to do? ”