Maudie

“ Maudie's second trouble was that she was mean. Although her daughter, Isabelle, and I have been married for eight years, Maudie never did more than to provide us with a modest allowance. She always felt that I should work which, after all, is pretty non-sensical when there are so many ways for a man with a little capital to get rich quick.
Isabelle isn't like Maudie. She's easy-going, pliant, susceptible to flattery and, on Maudie's death, Isabelle would inherit her full fortune. ”

“ The fan-tails strutted in the yard; Maudie licked herself on the ladder just out of the reach of Billy Bluff, who, tossing on his chain, greeted the girl with a volley of yelps, yaps, howls of triumph, petition, expectation and joy.
Maudie, less pleased, rose coldly, and descended the ladder. She knew by experience what to expect when that slight figure came tripping down the ladder.
The Monster-without-Manners would be let loose upon Society. The Monster-without-Manners was kept in his place all through the night by a simple but admirable expedient which Maudie did not profess to understand. ”

“ If you are not mighty careful you will be wrecking a home. So keep your mouth shut," he charged her, "and do nothing till you hear from me!"
Maudie smiled archly, coyly, confidentially, and he went upstairs.
In the sitting-room, he found gathered together his mother, his sister and Dick Van Plank, Mary's young brother and a student at Columbia. John was supported through Edith's first remark and the look with which she accompanied it by the memory of her goodness to Mary and by the anticipation of the fun which Maudie might be made to provide. ”

“ When the last tinkle had died away, Jemmie, who had stopped crackling The Times because there was nothing more to read that interested him, asked his wife if he had not heard the song before somewhere. She smiled ironically.
"I expect I've heard you sing it," he hastened to add apologetically.
"No. Not me."
Good heavens, could it be that he had heard Maudie sing that song? Maudie did sometimes sing sentimental songs on wet afternoons. Nonsense! If Maudie had sung it, Mary could not know that. Gossip could effect a good deal, but gossip could not discuss Maudie's choice of music. ”

“ Her husband was to dine in town that night, and, for sheer protection, she made Maudie Sinclair come and share her evening meal. The children were put to bed and they sat down alone together, talking over the party. Maudie was pleased to relax a little of her severity towards Harry Sterling: she admitted that he had been very useful in arranging the sets, and very pleasant to every one.
“Of course he’s conceited,” she said, “but all boys are. He’ll get over it.”
“You talk as if you were a hundred, Maudie,” laughed Mrs. Mortimer. “He’s older than you are.” ”

“ Then it became time for Maudie to be introduced into society. With most girls this epoch in life is one eagerly looked forward to, tremulously entered upon, and very frequently looked back to with a certain amount of disappointment. Regina herself, I am bound to confess, thought with no small misgiving of the time when she should have to be a wallflower for her daughter’s sake.
“The child must have her chance like other girls,” she remarked to Alfred one night when they were sitting together in the drawing-room at Ye Dene. “She is very beautiful. She will not go empty-handed to her husband. ”

“ They're not a bit afraid of her."
"How funny," said Magdalen, not sorry to see Maudie's childish attempt at saying something in praise of her little sister. "I must certainly go with you to see the bantams after breakfast."
"Timmediate after breakfast!" said Hec. "Will you come timmediate? For after zen Maudie has lessons."
"Yes," said Maudie, "I have lessons. Miss Meade comes from Springley to give me lessons."
"And doesn't Hoodie have any?"
"Sometimes," replied Maudie. "When she's in a good humour. When she's not, it's no use trying. ”

“ They tried to prevent Maudie knowing how ill Hoodie was, but it was impossible. When people are ill, or recovering from illness, they seem to guess things in a way that is sometimes quite astonishing, and so it was with Maudie. ”

“ Most men do.”
Maudie allowed herself to laugh. Mrs. Mortimer saw the joke too, but its amusement was bitter to her.
“I like it,” she said gently. “Most of the men I know do it.”
“Your husband doesn’t,” observed Miss Sinclair.
“Poor George gets down from town so tired,”
She gave Harry the reply she had written (it was a refusal—she could not have told why) , but he seemed not to understand that he was to go. Before he apprehended, she had to give him a significant glance: she gave it in dread of Maudie’s eyes. She knew how sharp schoolgirls’ eyes are in such things. ”

“ Maudie was so taken back that she was surprised into giving her sister her full name, the diminutive thereof not seeming to express sufficiently what was in her mind.
“You may say ‘Julia,’ but my head is screwed on the right way. I suppose I shall never get mother and the dad to move away from Ye Dene.”
“From the Park?”
“Yes. We have got too much of the Park about us. It’s all Park. Dad is very well off, mother has money of her own—why shouldn’t we go and live in Kensington? ”

“ To thawing Maudie's chest, lubricating throat, and taking hard edge off voice, time and expenses.' ... How much?"
"He was only twice at Maudie, three times at Tommy. What did you put down for Tommy?"
"Fifteen bob; but Maudie is bigger than Tommy."
"She is big for her age," reflected Minerva. "I remember asking the doctor if he thought she was growing too fast."
"He'd call that a consultation."
"'Item 5. To advising on rate of speed recommended for Maudie's growth, one guinea.'"
"I might have saved that charge," sighed Minerva. "But that was all. ”

“ You know?"
"Yes," said Hoodie, "the one where Miss Victoria has been so ill in, since she's got too ugly to sit in the drawing-room. I know."
"But it's such a weeny bed," said Hec, "was zour little girl no bigger than zat little dolly, Cousin Magdalen?"
"Of course," said Maudie, hastily. "How stupid you are, Hec."
"Maudie," said her godmother, and Maudie got very red. "Maudie meant it was the same shape as that, but much bigger, Hec dear. Just the same as the piano in the study is the same shape as the one in the doll-house, only much bigger." ”

“ Why, he was once heard to say he would sooner marry a good-natured Irish girl than a fashionable city lady who knew nothing but to dress, and flirt, and play the piano—the wretch!"
"Oh! I know I should like him," exclaimed Louis, who had been an attentive listener.
"I dare say you would, and Maude, too," returned Nellie, adding, after a moment: "And I shouldn't wonder if Maude just suited him, particularly if he finds her up to her elbows in dough. So, Maude, it is for your interest to improve the old castle a little. Won't you buy a new carpet?" ”

“ She could not see the sunlight of spring streaming into the room, neither could she see the sunlight of love shining over the face of James De Vere, nor yet the earnest gaze of those who thought her so beautiful in her helplessness, but she could feel it all, and the long eyelashes resting on her cheek were wet with tears when a warm kiss was pressed upon her lips and a voice murmured in her ear, "My wife—my darling Maude." ”

“ Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude,
Who lurked to spy and peer.
Cold he lies, as cold as stone,
With his clotted curls about his face:
The comeliest corpse in all the world
And worthy of a queen's embrace. ”

“ As he sat near her, in his plain black morning attire, courteous, genuinely sweet-tempered, his good looks conspicuous, a smile on his delicate, refined, but vacillating lips, and his honest dark-blue eyes bent upon her in kindness, Maude for the first time admitted a vision of the possible future, together with a dim consciousness that it might not be intolerable. Half the world, of her age and sex, would have deemed it indeed a triumph to be made the wife of that attractive man. ”

“ A little paler the noble brow, and a little graver and sweeter the lovely face, and a little more passive and less proud the soft, dark eyes; but in all else Maude, Countess De Courcy, was unchanged. The rich, black hair, still fell in fleecy, silken ringlets round the sweet, moonlit face; the tender smile was as bright and beautiful, and the graceful form as superb and faultless as ever. ”

“ In an instant Maude knelt by his side—his head was pillowed on her bosom, and in the silent graveyard, with the quiet dead around them, she spoke blessed words of comfort to her brother, telling him what a cripple was, and that because he bore that name he was dearer far to her.
"Your father will love you, too," she said, "when he learns how good you are. He loves Nellie, and—"
Ere she could say more she was interrupted by Louis, on whose mind another truth had dawned, and who now said, "But he don't love you as he does Nellie. Why not? Are you a cripple, too?" ”

“ And so the breeze blows gently o'er the bark thus followed by black John's prayers—the skies look brightly down upon it—the blue waves ripple at its side, until at last it sails into its destined port; and when the apple-blossoms are dropping from the trees, and old Hannah lays upon the grass to bleach the fanciful white bed-spread which her own hands have knit for Maude, there comes a letter to the lonely household, telling them that the feet of those they love have reached the shores of the Old World. ”

“ The workman’s family was still waiting, and Maude handed the child a shilling as she went out. She was so happy herself that she wanted every one else to be happy also. The people turned to look at her as she passed. With the slight flush upon her cheeks and the light in her eyes, she seemed the personification of youth, and life, and love. One tall old gentleman started as he looked, and watched her with a rapt face until she disappeared. ”

“ The prayer of the weak African was heard, and ere the sun went down a man of noble mien and noble heart stood at the maiden's bedside, bathing her swollen face, pushing back her silken curls, counting her rapid pulses, and once, when she slept, kissing her parched lips, e'en though he knew that with that kiss he inhaled, perhaps, his death! James De Vere had never for a day lost sight of Maude. ”

“ From his armchair the top of a willow tree was just discernible, and as he thought of the two graves beneath that tree he moaned, "Oh, Katy, Matty, darlings. You would pity me, I know, could you see me now so lonesome. My only boy is over the sea—my only daughter is selfish and cold, and all the day I'm listening in vain for someone to call me father."
"Father!" The name dropped involuntarily from the lips of Maude, standing without the door. ”

“ The carpet, too, on the parlor floor should be exchanged for a better one, and when her piano and marble table came, the only articles of furniture she had not sold, it would not seem so cheerless and so cold.
Comforted with these thoughts, she fell asleep, resting quietly until, just as the sun had set and it was growing dark within the room, Maude came rushing in, her dress all wet, her face flushed, and her eyes red with tears. She and Nellie had quarreled—nay, actually fought ”

“ Would it bring forth fruit, this scheming of the countess-dowager's, and Maude's own love? In her wildest hopes the old woman never dreamed of what that fruit would be; or, unscrupulous as she was by habit, unfeeling by nature, she might have carried away Maude from Hartledon within the hour of their arrival. ”

“ During the time Maude was in Europe he grew old very fast, for Maude was all that made life endurable. To see her in her young beauty, flitting about the house and grounds like a bright bird, whose nest is high up in some sheltered spot where the storms never come, was some compensation for what he had done ”

“ She flung Lady Hartledon's arm from her. Her voice rose to a shriek.
"Maude is not Lady Maude?"
Val shook his head sadly.
"And your children are lords and ladies and honourables," darting a look of consternation at Anne, "whilst my daughter's—"
"Peace, Lady Kirton!" sternly interrupted Val. "Let the child, Maude, be Lady Maude still to the world; let your daughter's memory be held sacred. The facts need never come out: I do not fear now that they ever will. I and my wife and Thomas Carr, will guard the secret safely: take you care to do so."
"I wish you had been hung before you married Maude!" ”

“ For he's my lord for better and worse,
⁠And him I love, Maude Clare.
"Yea, though you're taller by the head,
⁠More wise, and much more fair;
I'll love him till he loves me best,
⁠Me best of all, Maude Clare." ”

“ It was but a few weeks preceding Maude's return from Europe that he found himself compelled to spend a Sabbath in the quiet town of Fayette. Not far from his hotel an Episcopal church reared its slender tower, and thither, at the usual hour for service, he wended his way. There was to be a baptism that morning, and many a smile flitted over the face of matron and maid, as a meek-looking man came slowly up the aisle, followed by a short, thick, resolute Scotchwoman, in whom we recognize our old friend Janet Hopkins. ”

“ The interruption came from Lady Kirton, who was sailing into the room with Maude. A striking contrast the one presented to the other. Maude in pink silk and a pink wreath, her haughty face raised in pride, her dark eyes flashing, radiantly beautiful. The old dowager, broad as she was high, her face rouged, her short snub nose always carried in the air, her light eyes unmeaning, her flaxen eyebrows heavy, her flaxen curls crowned by a pea-green turban. Her choice attire was generally composed, as to-day, of some cheap, flimsy, gauzy material bright in colour. ”

“ The first, that he was a Scotchman, who are of all men the least likely to wear their hearts upon their sleeves; the other, that his mind was always grappling with some far-away subject which made him forget the smaller things close by him.’
‘But the smaller things are everything to a woman,’ said Maude. ‘If ever you forget those smaller things, sir, to be as courteous to your wife as you would be to any other lady, to be loving and thoughtful and sympathetic, it will be no consolation to me to know that you have written the grandest book that ever was. ”