Mrs. Baldwin

“ She will meet us in New York."
"For heaven's sake," said I, "do you think she'll like me?"
"Can't tell," said Bill, solemnly, "she's odd. But, after all, it isn't as if you were a stranger. You've corresponded with her, you know, and she made you some bed-socks. That's a bond."
"But that was Richard Warren's mother," I said, not quite convinced.
"She's mine too. Funny, isn't it? I think you've committed bigamy."
"Is she really little and blue-eyed and red-haired?" I asked, "or was that poetic license?"
"Honest truth. She's the prettiest thing in the world—except you. ”

“ What they meant for his mind was the unbridged chasm between nature and the sufferings of man. Only when one ceased to be a man, ceased to remember and to think, could such a day, such sights, bring the unreasoning joy.
Walking back, he saw, as he approached the house, that Mrs. Baldwin was standing at the garden-gate, and, bare-headed, in the linen dress of pale lavender, she made him at once think of the crocuses, or they of her. Their gentleness was like her, their simplicity, and something, too,—for he felt this in her,—of unearthliness. ”

“ I answered her. “The only thing is that they don't—I hope you wont think me foolish—somehow quite fit in with the house.”
“Oh, I think it's so good for old places like this,” said Mrs. Baldwin briskly, “to be waked up a little. I'm sure if the old people who used to live here came back, they'd love to hear all the noise and laughter.”
I wasn't so sure myself, but I wouldn't disturb Mrs. Baldwin's contentment for anything.
THAT evening in my room I was so sure of companionship that I spoke. ”

“ So perhaps Miss Baldwin was happy after all, if not in the circumstances of her daily life, which she went through conscientiously and efficiently, in that paradise the gates of which were always open to her, where men were as gods, and women were worshipped by them, and none of them ever behaved in the way that Miss Baldwin was always impressing upon her pupils was the only possible way to behave. ”

“ Mrs. Baldwin went on with returning cheerfulness. "We won't ask more than a hundred. You must have a new frock, Amélie. Enid, how is your blue one?"
"Oh, all right," said Enid indifferently. Mrs. Baldwin turned to the twins, and found them looking frankly dismayed.
"Well, what is it now?" she exclaimed. "I am sure I try to give you as good times as any girls in town; not many mothers on my income would do half so much. And you sit looking as if you were going to execution!"
"We—we do appreciate it, mother," urged Cora, unhappily. ”

“ Baldwin had used to him about Ronnie.
“Yes, it’s very sad,” said Mr. Haseltine. “Life is certainly very difficult for some of us, and Effie has had her share. Somehow one doesn’t remember it when one is with her. I only recalled the day by chance.”
Guy was walking in the meadows when Mrs. Baldwin returned. He saw her in the garden, reading the letters that the evening post had brought, and his first impulse was to remove himself as speedily as might be from her sight, to cross the bridge and the farther meadow, and turn into the lane that led away from it. ”

“ A more shapeless woman it would have been hard to discover, and she usually wore a tea-gown as the least troublesome garment to assume. From one week's end to the other, Mrs. Baldwin never went out, save for a stroll in the garden. Not even the delights of shopping could tempt her into making any exertion, and she had long since ceased to care for the preservation of her figure or good looks. At one time of her life she had been handsome, but the production of seven children, including two sets of twins, had proved too much for her. ”

“ But in truth she was better off than her laziness and grumbling deserved. Her income was small but sure, and if she lived unhappily, with her second husband the fault was hers. The man grew weary of her inattention to domestic comfort, and to her constant lamentations. It said a great deal for the absent Mr. Baldwin that he had lived with this slattern for so many years. The most sensible thing he ever did in his life was when he left her.
On losing him Mrs. Baldwin had taken up her abode in Cloverhead Manor House, and obtained it at a low rent. ”

“ She could not but be impressed with the earnestness of Beth’s desire for an education. She had already had quite as much schooling as Mrs. Baldwin—and Mrs. Euphemia Haven—had been given when they were girls.
“But the world is different now,” sighed the foreman’s wife. “And more is expected of girls. If Euphemia——”
[39] She did not finish her speech—there were some things she could not admit even to herself. But the next afternoon she dressed herself and went out. “Calling,” she told the curious girls. ”

“ Baldwin mentioned that she was in some anxiety about a woman in the house who was far from well, and in whom she thought Mrs. Raymount would be interested.
"Mamma is always ready," said Hester, "to help where she can. Tell me about her."
"Well, you see, miss," replied Mrs. Baldwin, "we're not in the way of having to do with such people, for my husband's rather particular about who he lets the top rooms to; only let them we must to one or another, for times is hard an' children is many, an' it's all as we can do to pay our way an' nothing over ”

“ Baldwin. "Lovers will be lovers; eh, Mrs. Fane?"
"It would seem so," said Julia serenely. "I dislike demonstrative affection myself. But what did this professor say?"
"Professor Bocaros is his name," said Mrs. Baldwin, who would tell her story in her own slow way. "He told me that Mr. Calvert had come into a fortune."
"Into a fortune?" gasped Laura, turning even paler than she was.
"Of course, my dear, you know all about it," said Mrs. Baldwin playfully. "He told you that this poor woman who was killed here was his cousin."
Laura uttered an ejaculation and stared, but Julia interposed. ”

“ Oh, little blue diary, it is well that I may shut away my moods and my mutiny between your covers! No one in all this house must be made sadder because of me. Not father, unfailing playmate, and tender; not Sarah, whose silent affection is like protecting arms about me. There's a great shaft of sunlight quivering across what I've just written. Incongruous, somehow. And I'm out of tune with the June weather and the birds just beyond my windows.
I must ask Sarah to bring me my first rose from my Sleeping Beauty bush. First roses are always the sweetest—like the kiss of Prince Charming. ”

“ Baldwin was described to me, as a man who was overbearing in his manner—a regular brow-beater.
When the time came for the discussion, the house was densely crowded.
Umpires were chosen, and everything was ready to proceed, when Brother Grant arose and said, "Mr. Baldwin, I would like to ask you a question before we proceed any further."
"Certainly so," said Baldwin.
"Who stands at the head of your church in South-West Virginia?"
Mr. Baldwin very quickly and austerely replied, "I do, sir; I do."
"All right," said Brother Grant; "I wished to know that I had a worthy foe." ”

“ Many a year has Grand'ther Baldwin in the old house dwelt in peace, As his hair each year grew whiter, he has seen his herds increase. Sturdy sons and comely daughters, growing up from childish plays, One by one have met life's duties, and gone forth their several ways. Hushed the voice of childish laughter, hushed is childhood's merry tone, the fireside Grand'ther Baldwin and his good wife sit alone. ”

“ Bill laughed at me and promises me more thrills when the racing season is on in New York. He says the Cuban race horses are a "lot of junk"—but he doesn't realize what it meant to me. No one can realize what it means to me, to be unfettered, to walk, to feel well, to be hostess in my own (borrowed) home, to be like other girls! It is no longer a miracle, of course. Nothing is, for very long, except perhaps—life. And I look back on all my invalid years with amazement: it seems a dream, a fantasy, remote and impossible. It is as though I had always lived—as now,—really lived, Daddy dearest! ”

“ We seniors may dance with the male visitors—if we are asked!”
Beth had a new dress—black and silver. Molly [260] said it was “a dream.” And certainly her brunette chum did look lovely in it. Although Beth and Mrs. Baldwin had made it themselves, it was a gown with which any professional dressmaker might have been satisfied.
There was just one thing missing. Beth had told Mrs. Baldwin there would be when the frock was tried on before she left home. Great-grandmother Lomis’ corals would have given just the touch needed to make Beth, as Ella declared, “fairly splendiferous.” ”

“ Harrington concluded that there was a mystery in these things outside the limits of masculine understanding. To his eye the white satin and tulle his betrothed had worn had seemed faultless; but it may be that the glamour of first love acts like limelight upon a soiled white garment: and no doubt Miss Baldwin’s gown had seen service.
He walked back to the house with her, and left her at the door just as it was growing dusk, and the servants were coming home from church. He left her with a fictitious appearance of cheerfulness, promising to go to tea on the following afternoon. ”

“ The graduation of Beth and her classmates was really a very pretty occasion; Miss Hammersly declared (as usual) that no finer class of girls had ever left her rooftree.
Rivercliff was crowded on that day, and the great central room of the gymnasium was used for the dance and reception at night. Of course, everybody was present—including the perfect number [303] in aunts. Likewise, Mrs. Baldwin came as the guest of Mrs. Haven.
Really, to see and hear Mrs. Haven one might have thought that “our Beth” was her daughter instead of Priscilla Baldwin’s oldest child. ”

“ Dora added.
"Nonsense! You have partners to spare." Mrs. Baldwin was plainly angry. "No child of mine was ever a wallflower, nor ever will be. Never let me hear you say such a thing again. You would have twice the attention if you weren't always poking off by yourselves; and as it is, you have more than most girls. You frighten the men—they think you are proud. Show a little interest in them and see how pleased they will be!"
The twins looked dubious, and seized the first chance [Pg 1979] to escape. ”

“ She had never put on her pretty frock at Rivercliff without wishing that she had her [173] Great-grandmother Lomis’ corals to wear; and now she suggested to her mother that she be given a second chance to display her heirloom.
Mrs. Baldwin suddenly looked troubled—exceedingly troubled. Hesitatingly, she said: “My daughter, I do not think it would be wise. You are really too young to wear such things yet. It caused, I believe, some comment before.”
Beth laughed. She would not show her mother how deeply she was disappointed. “I guess it’s because Mrs. Haven or Larry will not be there, isn’t it? ”

“ At the luncheon table I found myself looking at Mercedes, half as if she were a stranger, half as if she were an old friend.
"I envy you and Bill, Mavis," she said, once, when Fong had left the room, "you have so much to make you happy. He's a very lucky man."
I smiled. It was not a subject on which I wished to be interrogated.
"And you," she went on, "are a lucky girl. He's awfully fine, that husband of yours." ”

“ Thank you, my good Baldwin; you are a good, kind, feeling, useful soul. Oh, Baldwin, if it had pleased Heaven to take her by disease, it would have been bad enough to lose her; but to be drowned! her clothes all wetted through and through; her poor hair drenched, too; and then the water is so cold at this time of year—oh! oh! Send me a cross of jet, and jet beads, with the dress, and a jet brooch, and a set of jet buttons, in case—besides—oh! ”

“ I live—but no, it would never do to tell you! I shall have to move in order to provide a poet with a less prosaic setting. I am desolate in having no Sarah to anticipate my wants; and—no Father. However, tucked away, where no one can steal her from me, I possess a Mother! A mother with tiny hands and feet, and the prettiest red hair in the world. This is too bewildering a shade for a Mother's hair to flaunt! She has added charm to beauty by acquiring somewhere merry blue eyes, with an Irish twinkle in them. And a kindly angel has set these jewels deftly in the sweetest face. ”

“ There is a cool imperturbability about a genuine Yankee woman which makes me believe that she could never be taken by surprise, never be thrown off her guard; her complete self-possession and command of countenance, under all circumstances, are admirable; and yet, perhaps, there are cases in which an English woman’s embarrassment would be more interesting; but, however, this was not one of them.
Mrs. Baldwin had hardly finished speaking when her husband returned with the eggs, which he handed to her in his hat. ”

“ My father's face looked back at me, wonderfully living. Almost it seemed as if the gentle, strong mouth would smile and speak.
"I had it painted before—before the tide turned," said Bill, "from the picture he gave me."
I closed my hands upon the miniature and my eyes against the tears.
"You are very good," I said falteringly. "I—you couldn't have given me anything I could have cared for more."
He stood, his broad shoulders squared against the mantel, and looked at me gravely.
"I hope," he said and stopped. Then, very evenly, he went on, "I hope you will try to be happy here, Mavis." ”