Milly Theale

“ That, however—and better early than late—he must accept as of no use; and she herself felt for an instant quite a competent certainty on the subject of any such warming. The air, for Milly Theale, was, from the very nature of the case, destined never to rid itself of a considerable chill. This she could tell him with authority, if she could tell him nothing else; and she seemed to see now, in short, that it would importantly simplify. "Yes, it makes another; but they all together wouldn't make—well, I don't know what to call it but the difference. I mean when one is—really alone. ”

“ Miss Theale had meanwhile the sense that for him too, on Kate's part, something wonderful and unspoken was determinant; and this although, distinctly, his companion had no more looked at him with a hint than he had looked at her with a question. He had looked and he was looking only at Milly herself, ever so pleasantly and considerately—she scarce knew what to call it; but without prejudice to her consciousness, all the same, that women got out of predicaments better than men. ”

“ For Milly Theale, the American heiress, "who had arts and idiosyncrasies of which no great account could have been given, but which were a daily grace if you lived with them; such as the art of being almost tragically impatient and yet making it light as air; of being inexplicably sad and yet making it clear as noon; of being unmistakably sad and yet making it soft as dusk," whose hopeful progress through Europe stops suddenly at the dark portal in Harley Street, is but the ghost of Mary Temple, whose death thirty years before had been felt by Henry and William James as the end of their youth. ”

“ Her dear Milly, popping up in his absence, occupied—he couldn't have said quite why he felt it—more of the foreground than one would have expected her in advance to find clear. She took up room, and it was almost as if room had been made for her. Kate had appeared to take for granted he would know why it had been made; but that was just the point. It was a foreground in which he himself, in which his connection with Kate, scarce enjoyed a space to turn round. But Miss Theale was perhaps at the present juncture a possibility of the same sort as the softened, if not the squared, Aunt Maud. ”

“ Lowder was really arranging for was a report on her quality and, as perhaps might be said, her value from Lord Mark. She wished him, the wonderful lady, to have no pretext for not knowing what he thought of Miss Theale. Why his judgment so mattered remained to be seen; but it was this divination, in any case, that now determined Milly's rejoinder. "No. She knows you. She has probably reason to. And you all, here, know each other—I see that—so far as you know anything. You know what you're used to, and it's your being used to it—that, and that only—that makes you. ”

“ The little girl clapped her hands with delight. "O yes, yes!" she exclaimed. "I think my papa was a soldier, and my mamma a beautiful lady, that was always ill. But there were black people where we lived," she suddenly said.
The doctor had little doubt before but that this little waif the sea had cast up at his door was his cousin's long-lost daughter, and these sudden flashes of light on the all-but-forgotten past that came to Milly's mind did but confirm it. And he felt sure now that he should have to yield his place—the first place in the little girl's affection—to another. ”

“ What is the matter?" asked the lady, rousing herself to look at her husband. The expression of his countenance startled her, and she came around to his side. "What is it, Edgar?" she said. "Tell me, do tell me what has happened."
"Wait a minute, my dear, until I have finished, and then I will tell you all—everything," he added.
"Everything!" she repeated. "About what?"
"About the darling child—our long-lost Milly." ”

“ Milly looked at her gently. "You need not hide from me," she said.
"No. I shall tell you everything," assented the woman. "I want to."
Milly studied the photograph a minute and placed it on the table beside her where she could see it as she leaned back in her chair. She would have the son's face before her while the mother told her story.
"He has an open face," she said half to herself.
The woman relaxed subtly to it. A little sob stole to her lips and broke through in quick words: "Oh, he is true! He is true— No one who knows him could doubt it!" ”

“ The lady looked up quickly. "You have hopes of hearing of her at last?" she said. "O my darling child, my darling little Milly, shall I ever see you again!" And as she spoke, she burst into a flood of tears.
Her husband did what he could to pacify her, but it was some time before she grew calm. "I must leave you now, dear," he said at length, pulling out his watch, "but I shall not be gone long."
His wife knew he was going to inquire about the mail, and she lay back upon the cushions to await, with what patience she could muster, his return with the letters. ”

“ The doctor sighed. "That is not very easy to do, Milly," he said.
"It's very hard, I think," said Milly, "especially when you love somebody very much—" (and she laid her head on the doctor's shoulder) , "and are afraid they'll love somebody else better than they do you," and the little girl heaved a deep sigh as she spoke.
"Suppose I should love this cousin in India better than you, Milly, what should you do?"
The little girl lifted her eyes at the question. "I think Jesus would help me not to mind about it, because he is your cousin, and you ought to love him," she said. ”

“ He got up from the mignonette laughing as if he had just come out of a football scrum, straightened his attire without the smallest hint of discomfiture, and coolly vaulted back through the window into the dairy.
“Ah!” whispered Milly, and held her breath.
She clearly expected some further act of violence, and trembled for the young man’s safety. Frances also watched with keen anxiety. But at the end of many seconds she began to realize that the episode was over. No one approached the window again.
Milly drew a deep breath and resumed her work in silence. ”

“ She perched herself on his knee and turned to the place. It opened almost of itself at the right chapter, and Milly knew each word of her favorite verse; but she placed her finger under each as she read:
"'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'"
Eagerly did Dr. ”

“ But here her voice broke down, and bursting into tears, she ran back to the doctor's arms.
He was scarcely less moved than the child herself. "What made you do that, Milly?" he said, when she had somewhat recovered herself. "Why, I declare you are almost as passionate as—as I am."
The child looked up at him with a curious, inquiring gaze. "Do you get angry?" she said, in a tone of wonder.
He turned his head away. "Don't, don't ask me, child," he said impatiently. "I can't help it—I can't help it."
"No, I know; it's Jesus that helps us; ain't it?" said the little girl simply. ”

“ But somehow the sight of the old worn spelling book that Bob had bought as a present for her, brought back the old scenes so vividly to her mind that, at the recurrence of the thought that these two friends might be ill, with no one to take care of them, she burst into tears.
She was still crying when Dr. Mansfield came in from the garden. "What is the matter, Milly? What has happened, my darling?" he asked, lifting her upon his knee as he sat down.
For a minute or two Milly could only sob. But at length she said, "I think I shall have to go away from you soon."
"Go away from me?" ”

“ Bob sighed. He almost wished she was lying beside his mother. He loved the little fair-haired girl, that had taught them so many lessons of self-control, and he could not bear the thought of her being thrust out into the rude rough world of the workhouse.
"I don't know where you'll go yet, Milly," he said, speaking as calmly and steadily as he could; "but you will try to be a good girl—one of God's messengers wherever you go—won't you?" ”

“ And try as she would, she could not keep back her tears at the thought of parting with her, even though it was to become like the angels she was so fond of talking about.
It was a favorite subject with Milly to say she would be an angel and take care of somebody. Sometimes it was Bob, or Jack, and sometimes the widow herself. And these talks of the child always made her think she would be early taken to another world. ”

“ Milly looked disappointed. "I wish I wasn't a little girl, then," she said. "Little girls don't seem to be any good in the world, if they can't help when people are ill."
The doctor drew her closer to him. "Don't say that, my darling. Little girls do not know how much good they may do in the world."
"What good," asked Milly, curiously, "if they can't help people when they are ill?"
"What makes you so anxious about this?" asked the doctor.
"I want to help Bob and Jack, and then—then, you know, that would be like Jesus—who went about helping everybody He could." ”

“ Her companion nodded. "It will be almost like old times!" she said softly. "A party on the terrace. . . . And there will be another guest—a friend of Stephen's who is coming out from town—a Mr. Sargent—Alan Sargent!"
She did not see the little start of surprise the other gave at the name. She was absorbed in her own emotion and thought and was moving toward her impulsively, her hands outstretched.
"I cannot tell you what your being here does for me!" she said quickly. "Even if we never find anything—even if we never know, you have helped me!"
"Oh, but we shall know!" said Milly confidently. ”

“ Everybody thinks I am rich, but, Milly, I had better be as poor as the boy who brought you here—Bob, the fisher-boy; I know he is gentle, kind and obedient. I know he enjoys many things; while I—I never enjoy anything. ”

“ The strangest thing of all for Milly was perhaps the uplifted assurance and indifference with which she could simply give back the particular bland stare that appeared in such cases to mark civilisation at its highest. ”

“ She had played the graceful part of heroine in a hundred imaginary dramas; yet in actual life she had been engaged for two years to a sandy-haired, freckled face young fellow, who chewed tobacco, and bought the dry leaf in lots for a factory in Richmond. From romance to reality is a hard distance, and the most passionate dreamer is often the patient drudge of domestic service.
And yet even to-day Milly was not without secret misgivings as to the wisdom of her choice. She knew he was not her hero, but in her short visits to larger cities she had met no one who had come nearer her ideal lover. ”

“ I begin new man, Milwaukee. When they say, 'Have a drink,' I shake head. I go 'way off. My boy he stay school. My wife she have nice shawl!" He leaned forward with eager gaze. "I try hard!" he said simply.
Milly's gaze was non-committal.
"Why do you want to drink, Mr. Bergman?" she asked. "Why is it so hard for you to stop? Is it the taste of it you want?"
His eyes sought the corners of the room for answer, and his hand turned the old felt hat. ”

“ But I seem to see somehow in this letter he has written about Milly, that he is acting altogether unselfishly. It is plain that he loves the child very much; for in one place he says that he fears she may be ours. ”

“ Bob, the fisher-boy?"
Milly nodded. "He'll want me soon, I think," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes and trying to look very brave.
"What for?" asked the doctor. "What can a little girl like you do for him?"
"I don't know. I'm going to try and do everything; that is, take care of him while he's ill. That would be helping him, wouldn't it?" she added.
"Yes, if you could do it. But is he ill?" asked the doctor, smiling.
"Not yet; but he's going to be. He'll have the fever, Mary says."
"O! It's what Mary says, is it?" said the doctor, kissing her. ”

“ For a while we felt that Milly was on the verge of being lost to us.
It was our love of the Unerring Artistic Adjustment of Nature that inspired us. We could not give her over to a lumberman, doubly accursed by wealth and provincialism. We shuddered to think of Milly, with her voice modulated and her elbows covered, pouring tea in the marble teepee of a tree murderer. No! In Cypher’s she belonged—in the bacon smoke, the cabbage perfume, the grand, Wagnerian chorus of hurled ironstone china and rattling casters. ”

“ It wouldn't have taken much more to enable her positively to make out in him that he was virtually capable of hinting—had his innermost feeling spoken—at the propriety rather, in his interest, of some cutting down, some dressing up, of the offensive real. He would meet that half-way, but the real must also meet him. Milly's sense of it for herself, which was so conspicuously, so financially supported, couldn't, or wouldn't, so accommodate him, and the perception of that fairly showed in his face, after a moment, like the smart of a blow. ”

“ We don’t have monsters plaguing us like King Hrothgar, but every day there is trouble and grief going on somewhere, and we happy and strong people must care for the sad ones if we want to do our duty and help to straighten the world a little.”
“Father,” whispered Milly, softly, “will you tell us how—Olly and me? We would if we knew how.”
“Well, Milly, suppose you begin with Becky, and poor Tiza too, indeed. I wonder whether a pair of little people could make a scrap-book for Becky to look at when she is getting better?” ”

“ It must have been awful; you thought so much of her. And Milly? I always loved Milly. She was such a wonderful little woman and did so much for you. I remember she was the only one who stuck by us in the factory the time you had that trouble with the help and they all walked out on you.”
“Milly was untrue to me,” returned Nathan with continued stiffness. “She ran away with that Plumb fellow and was killed—when a munitions plant exploded in Russellville, New Jersey.”
Johnathan assimilated this after a time. He murmured philosophically, “The ways of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. ”