Mrs. Benson

“ The path down which they walked slowly led over roots, briers, rocks, slippery dead leaves, and the tangled, sinuous underbrush of whiter, on which Mrs. Batsford-Wring's gown left little dabs of fur in spite of all Benson's assiduous efforts in her behalf.
Chickie's colouring did not seem so barbaric out of doors amid the general brownness and russet, the white gleam of the frozen inlet, and the brilliance of the sun—a crimson ball before its setting. She certainly had a nice way with one. She wanted to be kind; to please him. ”

“ She stood by the door, her lips parted, motionless; looking with great eyes from face to face. It was as if the door had given access to another world where the passion of Christ was being re-enacted.
Then she sank on her knees, still watching. There was no sound but the faint ripple of the water into the basin and the quiet breathing of the three. Lady Maxwell now and then lifted a handkerchief in silence and passed it across her son’s face. Isabel, still staring with great wide eyes, began to sigh gently to herself.
“Anthony, Anthony, Anthony!” she whispered. ”

“ The car had slightly slackened its pace in avoiding a construction truck that took up all the road. Swift as lightning Cecelie's hand was on the catch of the door—in another instant Benson's arms were around her, dragging her back, while she fought him wildly. Then there was a moment's fierce and silent struggle until he held both her hands in his capable grip, and gently forced her down on the seat.
"Don't do that again!" he ordered sternly. "You little wildcat! Do you want to kill yourself?"
"You're not behaving like a gentleman!" she flared at him furiously. ”

“ For his imagination was all aflame at the thought of Mary. Not only had he been kindled again and again in the old days by poor Anthony's talk, until the woman seemed to him half-deified already; but man after man had repeated the same tale, that she was, in truth, that which her lean cousin of England desired to be thought—a very paragon of women, innocent, holy, undefiled, yet of charm to drive men to their knees before her presence. ”

“ He laughed and stood up, beginning to take off his coat. "Just watch me."
"Benson! Don't," said Cecelie sharply.
He turned in surprise, as though he had forgotten that she was there.
"Why not?"
"Mrs. Paley told me that lots of boys have tried to get the nest and couldn't. You can see where the lightning struck—those jagged branches may not hold you."
"Oh, the tree's all right."
"But, Benson! Please!" Her colour flickered. "I ask you not to. It's idiotic; I hate to see people in high places—it makes me dizzy."
"But Mrs. Batsford-Wring wants the feather," he argued seriously. ”

“ Bassett laughed aloud.
"Indeed they did," he said in his deep, pleasant voice. "There were two of them with bloody noses before all was done.... You have come for the news, I suppose, mistress?"
He eyed her genially and approvingly. He had heard a great deal of this young lady in the last three or four years; and wished there were more of her kind.
"That is what I have come for," said Marjorie. "We have Mrs. Thomas over at Babington House."
"She'll be of no great service to her husband," said the other. "She cries and laments too much. ”

“ Aunt Elizabeth rose and tottered to the door.
"It is past my bedtime," she said. "Do not wish me a good-night good-night, Catherine, nor you, Lucia. It would be but a hollow mockery."
Aunt Cathie sat silent a moment or two. Then suddenly she mopped her eyes.
"Poor old Elizabeth!" she said. "She doesn't mean half what she says, Lucia, so don't—don't be distressed. And she knows she doesn't mean it, poor Elizabeth. It's awful when you feel you can't help acting in a way you don't really want to. It's the matter with lots of old maids. ”

“ Lady Mildred drew her chair closer to the fire, for the night was cold, and took off her pince-nez. She was expensively but rather shabbily dressed—that is to say, her clothes had once been admirable.
"Yes, dreadfully," she said; "but I always was frightened of servants. It will be quite different with you, Maisie. In ten days you will put your nose in the air—it always is rather in the air, dear—and be quite unconscious of them, as if you had been born and bred to it. I have always said that it was your metier to make other people stand in subordinate positions." ”

“ It seemed as if the whole world of men were there, and roaring. The sound poured up through the window, across the moat; the boards of the flooring vibrated with the sound. There was the throb of drums pulsating through the long-drawn yell, the screams of women, the barking of dogs; and a moment later, like some devilish benediction, the bells of Barking Church pealed out, mellow and jangling, in an exultation of blood.
Ralph struggled in his bed; his hands rose clutching at his throat, tearing open his shirt before Beatrice's fingers could reach them. ”

“ She loosened her hold of her mantle as she stood there by the table; and it dropped open, showing a sparkle of jewels at her throat. She threw back her hood, and it dropped on to her shoulders, leaving visible the coiled masses of her black hair set with knots of ribbon.
"I did not call," said Ralph dully. "I do not know what you mean,
Mistress Atherton."
She made a little impatient gesture.
"Ah! yes," she said, "it is something. Tell me quickly. I suppose it has to do with my Lord. What is it?"
"It is nothing," said Ralph again. ”

“ He always was a filthy brute—I never liked him. And you? Are you not married yourself?"
"No, indeed," said Benson, with an involuntary look at Cecelie, who, slim and graceful as a willow wand, was talking to the admiring captain.
"Shall we have some tea together?" pursued Mrs. Batsford-Wring hospitably. "You were very late finishin' your luncheon, weren't you?—but a cup of tea is refreshin' at any time. Now don't look at your watch, Bennie; you can't hurry off when we've so much to talk over. You'll have tea with us, Miss Sherwood?" ”

“ He interlarded archaisms with Highland expressions, and his face was knobby, like a chest of drawers.
“Ha, good morrow, fair dame,” he said. “And prithee, art not thou even as ye white butterflies?”
“Oh, Mr. Bartlett,” said the fair dame with a provocative glance. “Naughty! Comparing me to a delicious butterfly!”
“Nay, prithee, why naughty?” said he. “Yea, indeed, it’s a day to make ye little fowles rejoice! Ha! I perceive you are on the errands of the guid wife Martha.” ”

“ Lady Tempest shook her head.
"Poor Claude," she said. "Your power of drawing perfectly obvious deductions is colossal. You think that Marie will behave like an ordinary, stupid woman. It has been reserved for you to attribute stupidity to her. Come, it is stifling here. Let us go on!"
Madame Laridoff meantime had passed through the lobby at the top of the stairs, exchanging a hundred greetings as she went. Sir Herbert was still with her, and after a populous ten minutes they penetrated the thickest of the crush and came out beyond, where it was possible to hold an isolated conversation. ”

“ Can't I for once have what I want—when it's so little—without all this fuss about it? You know you'd go off for a motor ride with any one else without turning a hair."
Her face contracted, she moved herself disdainfully as far away from him as possible into the blue-cushioned corner, her gray furs half round her. Her hair looked very golden, her skin very pearly, her lips very red—but there was a stony expression in the gray eyes that gazed past him. Benson's eyes were fixed on her. ”

“ Mistress Alice lifted her hand suddenly.
"Hark!" she whispered.
Then as the three sat motionless, there came, distinct and clear, from a little distance down the hill, the noise of two or three horses walking over stony ground.
III For one deathly instant the two sat looking each into the other's white face—since even the priest changed colour at the sound. (While they had talked the dawn had begun to glimmer, and the windows showed grey and ghostly on the thin morning mist.) Then they rose together. Marjorie was the first to speak.
"You must come upstairs at once," she said. ”

“ They spent the whole day together, for the most part in a peaceful silence; and at last the sun went down, and a cool breeze came up out of the west, laden with scent from miles and miles of grass and flowers, which seemed to bear with it the fragrant breath of myriads of sweet living things.
Then they ate together what was the last meal they were to take thus alone. And at last Mistress Alison would have Paul go to rest. And so she took his hand in hers, and said, "Dear child, the good years are over now; but you will not forget them; only lean upon the Father, for He is very strong ”

“ Benson was not a dweller in the big city—only coming here on rare trips, like the present, from the mining town he happened to be in. All the sights and sounds—the environment, the people—had for the moment an agreeable foreignness that produced a vague exhilaration in addition to that absorbing prospect of meeting Cecelie, but with some vaguely depressing undercurrent, because as yet she had not come. ”

“ There seemed to be nothing but bad news everywhere.
The minutes passed, yet no one returned. Once Marjorie went to the door and listened, but there was only the faint wail of the winter wind up the stairs to be heard. Then, five minutes later, there were steps and Mr. John came in. His face looked a little stern, but he smiled with his mouth.
"We poor Papists are in trouble again," he said. "Mistress Manners, you must let us stay here all night, if you will; and we will be off early in the morning. There is a party coming to us from Derby—to-morrow or next day: it is not known which." ”

“ Mistress Corbet wrinkled her nose at the damp earthy smell that breathed out of the dark.
“I am glad I am not a priest,” she said. “And I would sooner be buried dead than alive. And there is a rat there that sorely needs burying.”
“My dear lady!” cried the contriver of the passage indignantly, “her Grace might sleep there herself and take no harm. There is not even the whisker of a rat.”
“It is not the whisker that I mind,” said Mary, “it is the rest of him.”
Mr. Buxton immediately set his taper down and climbed in.
“You shall see,” he said, “and I in my best satin too!” ”

“ He glanced up at the number of the door by which he stood.
"It must be a dozen doors further on," he said.
"It's the last house in the row," murmured Gertie, in a weak voice. "Is father looking out? Go and see."
"My dear girl," said Frank, "do not be silly. Do remember your mother's letter."
Then she suddenly turned on him, and if ever she was genuine she was in that moment.
"Frankie," she whispered, "why not take me away yourself? Oh! take me away! take me away!"
He looked into her eyes for an instant, and in that instant he caught again that glimpse as of Jenny herself. ”

“ Her eyes shone with delighted reminiscence as she began talking faster and faster. "And wasn't Ferd cross? I think people on their wedding trip are too funny for anything—neither one knows what the other is going to get deeply injured at. I can see his face now as he was introducing you to me on the hotel steps, and all my letters blew away, and the comb fell out of my hair, and the cologne bottle dropped from my bag and smashed!"
"You laughed," said Benson admonishingly. ”

“ Mrs. B. complained of not being equal to the fatigue, and mamma told Miss Evelyn she would like her company, and as the two girls wanted new shoes, they could go also; I was to remain at home, and mamma desired me to be quiet and attentive to Mrs.
Benson, who, observing no one, said to me, with a peculiar look: “I shall want you to hold my skeins, Charlie, so don’t go out of the way, but be ready for me as soon as they are gone.” She then went up to her bedroom, where Mr. B. immediately joined her, no doubt to re-enact the scene I had already witnessed from the closet on a previous day. ”

“ Sir James rose briskly.
"Come, Mary," he said, and turned his back abruptly on Ralph, "we must find lodgings for to-night. The good nuns will not have room."
As Mary looked at his face in the candlelight she was astonished by its decision; there was not the smallest hint of yielding. It was very pale but absolutely determined, and for the last time in her life she noticed how like it was to Ralph's. The line of the lips was identical, and his eyelids drooped now like his son's.
Ralph too rose and then on a sudden she saw the resolute obstinacy fade from his eyes and mouth. ”

“ Even among tall women she was tall, and by her side Mrs. Home looked more than ever like a figure of Dresden china.
Lady Ellington after her sympathetic remark about flowers, turned to her daughter.
“Well situated, is it not, Madge?” she said. “And the river is below there. You will be all day on it, I expect, if Mr. Home is kind enough to take you. And who else is here, Mrs. Home?”
“Ah, there is no party at all, I am afraid,” said she. “Philip said that acquaintances mix so badly with friends. Only Mr. Dundas and Mr. Merivale.” ”

“ The great bolts shot back suddenly; he turned as the door opened; and there, pale as milk, with eyes that seemed a-fire, Marjorie's face was looking at him; she was wrapped in her long cloak and her hood was drawn over her head. The space behind was crowded with faces, unrecognizable in the shadow.
* * * * *
He saluted her.
"Mistress Manners," he said, "I am sorry to incommode you in this way. But a couple of fellows tell me that a man hath come this way, whom they think to be a priest. I am a magistrate, mistress, and—"
He stopped, confounded by her face. ”