Mrs. Andrews

“ A smile came, for the woman loved him. She lingered, gazing [Pg 288] at the tall figure with its air of distinction, its shabby clothes. A breeze lifted the loose hair, and she knew, though his back was turned, how a brown-gray lock had blown across the broad forehead—the forehead of a thinker, a dreamer. She sighed. The wife of an unsuccessful inventor is likely to sigh often. She turned to go back, but a little lad scrambled suddenly over the fence.
“Letter, Mrs. Ellsworth,” he exploded. “Mother says come s’afternoon. Mother says postman made mistake.” ”

“ With one hand clasping Hattie's, and the other resting on the back of her chair, Edna fixed her eyes on Mrs. Andrews's face, and gave the quotation.
"His house she enters, there to be a light Shining within when all without is night; A guardian angel o'er his life presiding, Doubling his pleasures and his cares dividing; Winning him back, when mingling in the throng From a vain world we love, alas! too long, To fireside happiness and hours of ease, Blest with that charm, the certainty to please. ”

“ Very delighted was George as in his best suit—for he and Bill had two suits each now—he stepped out of the train at Croydon and walked to the workhouse. His mother had told him that she would meet him at the gate at half-past two, and punctually at the time he was there. A few minutes later Mrs. Andrews came out, not dressed as he had seen her at Christmas, in the infirmary garb, but in her own clothes. George gave a cry of delight as he ran forward to meet her.
"My darling mother! and you are looking quite yourself again." ”

“ Andrews was devoted to society, and gave to the demands of fashion much of the time which had been better expended at home in training her children, and making her hearth-stone rival the attractions of the club, where Mr. Andrews generally spent his leisure hours. She was much younger than her husband, was handsome, gay, and ambitious, and the polished hauteur of her bearing often reminded Edna of Mrs. Murray; while Mr. Andrews seemed immersed in business during the day, and was rarely at home except at his meals. ”

“ Andrews’ door of a cab, from which descended a neat, bright-eyed little woman in the uniform of a hospital nurse. It was, indeed, no other than the district nurse from the town of Branston, who, at the request of the authorities, had undertaken to escort Maria to the Union.
Mrs. Andrews met her on the doorstep.
p. 161“I’ve got her ready,” she said, in an agitated whisper. “She’s dressed all but her bonnet and shawl, and they’re quite handy, but I haven’t had the heart to tell her yet. It do seem hard for a poor old body. I d’ ’low it’s cruel hard.” ”

“ Andrews came very seasonably, for though Betty Loveit was willing, she was not very able to support her mother, and she had put herself to great straits to do what she had done, and therefore received this kind offer with grateful thanks. Mrs. Andrews then took her leave, and the poor blind woman, and her daughter, and grand-daughter, returned thanks to God for his great goodness in raising them up such a friend. ”

“ Andrews, married him, and removed to New Orleans. Shortly after her marriage her mother had died, bequeathing her fifty thousand dollars, the result of economy and business habits. What folly, what shame, what crime had given her birth, or had removed as beneath a cloud her father from her sight, she knew not; but her mother had often told her that she was born in honest wedlock, and that some day she should claim her own. She knew not the place of her birth, nor her mother’s relatives, and stood as one without relationship in the world. ”

“ Toward Westerly, out of the garden of the old time, out of the dimness of a forgotten past, the two took their radiant youth and the brightness of to-day. But a breeze blew across the tangle of weeds and flowers as they wandered away, and whispered a hope, perhaps a promise; for as it touched them each tall stalk nodded gayly and the box hedges rustled delicately an answering undertone. And just at the edge of the woodland, before they were out of sight, the girl turned and threw a kiss back to the roses and the box.
"I always do that," she said. "I love them so!" ”

“ Andrews has asked us to dinner on Saturday. Philip, if you could see that sweet girl as I do, in all her goodness and sincerity—”
“I think I do, mother. And I wouldn’t be guilty of her unhappiness for the world. You must decline.”
“Well, perhaps you are right.” Mrs. Verrian went away, softly, sighing. As she sealed her reply to Mrs. Andrews, she sighed again, and made the reflection which a mother seldom makes with regard to her son, before his marriage, that men do not love women for their goodness. ”

“ After all, what is a workhouse infirmary but a hospital, and it would not seem so very dreadful to you my going into a hospital; the difference is only in name; both are, after all, charities, but the one is kept up out of subscriptions, the other from the rates."
His mother's words conveyed but little comfort to George Andrews. He had just come in from his work, and had heard what the parish doctor had told his mother.
"I can do nothing for you here, Mrs. Andrews. You must have rest and quiet for your eyes, and not only that, but you must have strengthening food. ”

“ Andrews was a flighty, pretentious little woman who had overlaid the maternal instinct by a desire to get on in the world. She would have liked a pretty little girl to show of to her neighbors, but she preferred boys. ”

“ Andrews, who was a comical sly old fellow, and very likely desired to
have no more children than he could keep, "you have proved, I think,
very plainly, that this boy doth not belong to us; but how are you
certain that the girl is ours?" ”

“ Andrews took us all over the church after service, and in particular pointed out one old window of painted glass, in which the bright red colour is so bright in such full freshness as is inimitable in modern art.
We went from church to luncheon at Mrs. Andrews', and such a luncheon; I refrain from a whole page which might be spent on it. Then Mrs. Andrews took Waller and me a drive three times round the park, a most pleasant drive in such a bright sunshiny day. So many happy little children under the trees and on the pathways. ”

“ Andrews was greately afflicted at the sight, and immediately dispatched a neighbour's child after the baker, who was in sight, and he soon returned with a loaf, in the mean time she stepped into the house, and eagerly asked the poor woman whether she had lost her husband ? He is not dead, Madam, replied she, but he is as bad as left to me, for he has been out of work some time, and has been enticed away by some idle fellows, who have tempted him to spend what little he saved last harvest, and now he is running up a score at the alehouse, while I and my children are starving at home ”

“ Some folks rail against other folks
because other folks have what some folks would be glad of."--"And so,"
answered the lady, "if you was a woman of condition, you would really
marry Mr Andrews?"--"Yes, I assure your ladyship," replied Slipslop, "if
he would have me."--"Fool, idiot!" cries the lady; "if he would have a
woman of fashion! is that a question?"--"No, truly, madam," said
Slipslop, "I believe it would be none if Fanny was out of the way; and I
am confidous, if I was in your ladyship's place, and liked Mr Joseph
Andrews, she should not stay in the parish a moment. ”

“ Andrews, I sent for you to tell you that I can not marry you. I love another man. Can’t we just be friends?”
Andrews sank into a chair. “He was right,” Andrews muttered, “Harris was right. No beautiful woman is good.” Then springing up he shouted, “‘Let’s be friends,’ did you say? Never! Henceforth my greatest enemy shall be a beautiful woman.” ”

“ In course a man ought to do as much for his mother as for the gal who is agoing to be his wife, seeing how much he owes her; but how many does it, that's what I says, how many does it?"
So after that the boys were surprised to find how many of the men, when they met them at the gate, would give them a kindly nod or a hearty, "Good-morning, young chaps!"
A day or two after Mrs. Andrews had settled in Laburnum Villas she went up to town and called upon a number of shops, asking for work. ”

“ You see I shall be safe enough, and though I have never grumbled, you know, mother—have I?—I think I would rather do anything than be a grocer's boy. I would rather, when I grow up, be a bricklayer's laborer, or a plowman, or do any what I call man's work, than be pottering about behind a counter, with a white apron on, weighing out sugar and currants."
"I can't blame you, George," Mrs. Andrews said with a sigh. "It's natural, my boy. ”

“ But you mean the money," and her face clouded anxiously. "But I know what I'll do, Uncle Ranny," she came gliding toward me. "There is always Mr. Andrews for me, you know. You remember what he said: He'll take me back any time."
An instant of blackness was succeeded by a sudden burst of illumination. Andrews! Andrews and the library—the library, all catalogued—complete! Andrews would either buy it or help me to dispose of it, and Alicia and the children need not after all suffer by my catastrophe. ”

“ I envy Eleanor," said the graceful bridesmaid as she took the tea-cup again, but the Bishop did not hear her.
He had turned toward the sea and his eyes wandered out across the geraniums where the shadow of a sun-filled cloud lay over uncounted acres of unhurried waves. His face was against the little girl's bright head, and he said something softly to himself, and the child turned her face quickly and smiled at him and repeated the words:
"Many waters shall not wash out love," said Eleanor.
"Many waters shall not wash out love," said Eleanor. ”

“ Both George and Bill have been married some years, and Mrs. Andrews the elder is one of the proudest and happiest of mothers. She still lives with her son at the earnest request of his wife, who is often left alone during George's frequent ab [Pg 164] sence abroad on professional duties. As for Bill, he has not even yet got over his wonder at his own good fortune, and ever blesses the day when he first met George in Covent Garden. ”

“ They did not that year get the trip to Margate; but in the autumn, after the great work of furnishing was finished, they did get several long jaunts, once out to Epping Forest on an omnibus, once in a steamer up to Kew, and several times across to Greenwich Park. Mrs. Andrews found it a very happy summer, free from the wear of anxiety, which, more even than the work, had brought on her long illness. She grew stronger and better than she had ever expected to be again, and those who had only known the pale, harassed-looking needlewoman of Croydon would not have recognized her now ”

“ The good lady, who felt the sincerest pity for this poor woman, immediately gave some bread to the children, and then took out her purse, and gave her half a crown, comforting her with an assurance, that Mr. Andrews would readily employ her husband if he would work ”

“ Andrews; Mrs. Andrews at the last sent a regret—ill in bed with a headache. Honora came in her stead. Mr. Macintosh and Miss Carr; Dr. Lushington beside Fanny, and carving remarkably well and most entertaining and agreeable; he raised the heart's laugh frequently, and the head's by fresh, not old-faded-London-diner-out bon-mots, anecdotes, and facts worth knowing, all with the assistance of Mr. Andrews, so remarkably agreeable and gentlemanly a gentleman ”

“ She dresses in gowns suitable for Peggy, but which Maria, who is years younger than her aunt, would not think of wearing. Elizabeth is the kind of woman who is a changed being at the approach of a man; she is even different when Cyrus or Billy is around; she brightens up and exerts herself to please them; but when she is alone with Ada and me she is frankly bored and looks out of the window in a sad, far-away manner. The presence of men has a most rejuvenating effect on Aunt Elizabeth, although she pretends she has never been interested in any man since her disappointment years ago. ”

“ Andrews, and as if to see herself sit daily and hourly face to face with her old self, the ghost of her own youth, would be a quite easy thing.
The girls were delighted. They left all to Auntie, as was their habit to do. Burdens naturally fall upon the shoulders fitted for them, and which seem even to have a faculty for drawing them down there. Miss Williams's new duties had developed in her a whole range of new qualities, dormant during her governess life. Nobody knew better than she how to manage a house and guide a family. ”

“ At this instant Eleanor, lolling on the arm of his chair, slipped over on his knee and burrowed against his coat a big pink bow that tied her hair. The Bishop's arm tightened around the warm, alive lump of white muslin, and he lifted his face, where lines showed plainly to-day, with a smile like sunshine.
"You are wrong, my daughter. They never finish—they only begin here. And my love-story"—he hesitated and his big fingers spread over the child's head, "It is all written in Eleanor's eyes." ”

“ As before, he rode out from the Phoenix Hotel, and at ten o'clock in the morning he turned into Fairfield. It was a still, bright Christmas morning, crisp and cool, and the air like wine. The house stood bravely in the sunlight, but the branches above it were bare and no softening leafage hid the marks of time; it looked old and sad and deserted to-day, and its master gazed at it with a pang in his heart. It was his, and he could not save it. He turned away and walked slowly to the garden, and stood a moment as he had stood last May, with his hand on the stone gateway. ”