Mrs. Berry

“ Berry sat down close to him and looked, shyly, into his face, trying to appear at ease, though her poor heart thumped wildly against her side, and the fitful color came and went, like a flag of distress, in her cheeks.
“Ah, you are getting on fast, sir!” she cried, with a slight tremor in her musical voice. “Your eyes seem quite strong to-day, and that blistering red skin is getting fairer. ”

“ At which bonnet—one touch of millinery makes the whole female world kin—Mrs. Berry also darted, and began smoothing the ribbons, and pushing out the curtain with a tender elaboration that was artistically designed to go straight to the heart of her aunt, as were the niece’s touch upon the arm of her relative, and soothing words. ”

“ Berry, know you too well to believe anything that you would not like believed.”
“Mrs. Berry is exceedingly, I fear dangerously ill, and under other circumstances I should not be in London. But I have a duty to do, and I am obliged to take the most direct means of doing it, in order to be able to return to Lipthwaite at the earliest moment. Your husband and Mr. Lygon being both absent from England, I am compelled to see you, Mrs. Hawkesley, upon the subject in question, and you will I know forgive me.” ”

“ She wanted one to pour her feelings out to. She slid her hand from under the bedclothes, and took Mrs. Berry's, and kissed it. The good creature required no further avowal of her secret, but forthwith leaned her consummate bosom to the pillow, and petitioned heaven to bless them both!—Then the little bride was alarmed, and wondered how Mrs. Berry could have guessed it.
"Why," said Mrs. Berry, "your love is out of your eyes, and out of everything ye do." And the little bride wondered more. ”

“ Berry to Lygon; “but she should know that big folks often do and say things which little folks must not imitate.”
Her husband’s glance at her was a downright savage one, almost evil.
“If Clara learns nothing worse in this house but what she will learn from me, she will not come to much harm. I can’t say as much for everybody.”
Mrs. Berry perfectly comprehended the meaning, that did not lie on the surface, but smiled and said:
“Mr. Berry is very properly thinking of the servants, with whom it is objectionable that a very young person should hold much intercourse. ”

“ She sat down to eat her supper on the sublime resolve.
In love, Mrs. Berry's charity was all on the side of the law, and this is the case with many of her sisters. The Pilgrim sneers at them for it, and would have us credit that it is their admirable instinct which, at the expense of every virtue save one, preserves the artificial barrier simply to impose upon us. Men, I presume, are hardly fair judges, and should stand aside and mark.
Early next day Mrs. Berry bundled off to Richard's hotel to let him know her determination. ”

“ AN ILL-FATED GIRL.
The merry actors and actresses all began to chaff Berry on her pale face and frightened eyes.
“She is actually scared!” “What did the old hag tell you, dear?” “She gave all of us fine fortunes!” they chimed in together. But Berry put them aside with a trembling hand, and sank, half fainting, into the nearest seat.
Mrs. Hopson, the housekeeper, came to her rescue.
“Don’t pester the poor child till she gets over her scare. Land sakes, miss, don’t take that nonsense to heart, please. Them old Indian squaws don’t know the future any better than you do!” ”

“ Berry, with dignity, and speaking in the undertone in which a man of advanced age, indignant, and conscious that he is in the right, usually replies to an accusation.
“What am I to think?” said Lygon. “It is not half an hour since I received Mrs. Berry’s solemn assurance that she had learned my sorrow from your own lips.”
Berry’s face grew ashy white, and his lips quivered.
“Arthur,” he said, “spare me words on this; spare me the pain of saying what a husband is loth to say. But believe two things: first, that I have not spoken a syllable to Mrs. Berry on your affairs ”

“ Berry permits me to ask it of her, but deprecates the being compelled to reveal it. You force that painful duty upon her.”
“Mr. Lygon,” said the old man, “at whatever cost of feeling, we will at once give you the satisfaction you require.”
“Is that the way to put it, Berry?” said Arthur, hurt at his old friend’s tone, but too much agitated to pause and remonstrate. “I am offered the confidence which you seem to wish to deny me.”
“Let us go to Mrs. Berry,” was her husband’s only answer. ”

“ At the first moment of her commencing the prayer, Lygon formed a sort of idea that his hostess was merely performing what might be a substitute for family worship as practised in religious families, and at which it might not be Mr. Berry’s habit to assist. This idea was of course quickly dispelled. Mrs. Berry might not be able to induce her husband to join in such a rite, but she was mistress in her own house, and would naturally require the attendance of her servants. ”

“ As Mrs. Berry had foretold, fine clothes were the order of the day at the Brown house. Everything was as formal as a grown-up affair. The girls were ushered to a dressing-room to take off their wraps, and then at the drawing-room door, their names were announced by an imposing-looking personage in livery, and they were swept along into the room, by the crush of others behind them.
Mrs. Brown and her daughter were receiving, and they greeted each arrival with gay banter and smiles.
"Ah, my dears, how do you do?" said Mrs. Brown to our girls. "I am so glad to welcome Mr. Forbes' young people. ”

“ Berry, with a laugh which the others were to accept as playful; “really. Mr. Lygon, absence from your wife does not seem to sweeten your temper. It is so creditable to you as a married man, that we cannot complain of it, and I must add a postscript to my letter, telling Laura how uncomfortable you are when she is away.”
“If the gentleman will let his friends know where to write to her,” added Aunt Empson.
Mrs. Berry opened a neat little book, but over it she keenly watched the effect of this impertinence. Arthur’s legal adviser, however, deemed it time to take up his client’s case. ”

“ Berry shall. I will not take Mrs. Berry’s word for his being associated in a plot against one of the best women in the world.”
“Surely you will not persist in your intention of persecuting an old man who can ill bear excitement,” pleaded Mrs. Berry.
“Excitement—who talks of excitement, when a foul and hideous charge is made against those we love?” cried Hawkesley “I have heard of Mr. Berry from Lygon, and if he is the friend Lygon has believed him, I shall hear the truth from his lips. Something tells me that I have not heard it from his wife’s.”
“You will go to Lipthwaite?” ”

“ Berry,” said Mrs. Hawkesley, “I know that you will acquit me of intending offence, but I cannot help answering that everything that comes from—from Lipthwaite—”
“From Mrs. Berry.”
“That is my meaning; and I regret that everything from that quarter is so tainted with the poison of her wicked hatred that I refuse to have anything to do with such suggestions. I will not say that you are influenced by her—”
“Yes, say it, if you think it. An old man, married to a younger woman, and one of an artful and resolute nature, has been deluded into believing whatever her malice may have dictated. ”

“ It is only the well-bred and well-educated and rich people who do such things. Mrs Berry received her daughter back with a good deal of regret. She often told her that she was a shame and a disgrace to her, and that her dead father would turn in his grave if he knew how badly she had behaved. ”

“ Turn about’s fair play the world over. You tried to shut me out of Crumplesea, and now I’m shutting you in—in your own veranda.”
“What do you want of me, that you have had the impudence to come here and to play me such a trick as you have done?” asked Berry, with cool scorn. “No! don’t come any nearer; keep your distance, please; you are quite too close for comfort as it is.” ”

“ I knew what his face was like."
"He looks proper even with a beard, and that's a trial for a virtuous man," said Mrs. Berry. "One sees straight through the hair with him. Think! he'll think what any man'd think—you a-suckin spite o' all your sorrow, my sweet,—and my Berry talkin' of his Roman matrons!—here's a English wife'll match 'em all! that's what he thinks. And now that leetle dark under yer eye'll clear, my darlin', now he've come."
Mrs. Berry looked to no more than that; Lucy to no more than the peace she had in being near Richard's best friend. ”

“ Women are swift at coming to conclusions in these matters; soft women exceedingly swift: and soft women who have been betrayed are rapid beyond measure. Mrs. Berry had not cogitated long ere she pronounced distinctly and without a shadow of dubiosity: "My opinion is—married or not married, and wheresomever he pick her up—she's nothin' more nor less than a Bella Donna!" as which poisonous plant she forthwith registered the lady in the botanical note-book of her brain. ”

“ Berry’s lovely color deepened, and the glance of her brown eyes was simply adorable.
“But you know we must not travel about, now,” she murmured. “We must settle down and live quietly [176] until June, you know, as the doctor said, so it will not take so much money to live as when we are always on the wing. We can take a tiny little house or a little suite of rooms, and keep house with one maid, don’t you see; or if we cannot afford the maid, why, I can do the cooking myself, you see. Do you know I can make tea and toast, and broil steak, and serve eggs in most any fashion, sir?” ”

“ Why! I’m earning thirty shillings a week now, even in the worst times. I shall do well enough. That’s more than sufficient for me and baby. But I’ll never take him into another man’s house to be scorned and pointed at.’
‘Now, Rhoda, what nonsense you talk!’ exclaimed Mrs Berry, impatiently. ‘As if anything would tempt me to part from you and the little crow! As if you hadn’t suffered enough without your mother forsaking you, poor girl! No, I’m not made of such stuff as that! Either we go to King’s Farm together, or we don’t go at all. ”

“ Assisted by the faithful female Berry, she was conquering an Aphorist.
"Woman's reason is in the milk of her breasts," was one of his rough notes, due to an observation of Lucy's maternal cares. Let us remember, therefore, we men who have drunk of it largely there, that she has it.
Mrs. Berry zealously apprised him how early Master Richard's education had commenced, and the great future historian he must consequently be. ”

“ He has not even hesitated to bring strangers into his wife’s room, on the most agitating business, when he has been made aware that her life may be an affair of hours. He is a truly kind friend, Mrs. Lygon, and one who deserves all gratitude from those he serves.”
“I understand but half of what you say.”
“Dare you deny that Mr. Berry has visited your sister, for the purpose of helping you to deceive your husband?”
Laura’s eye fell on the book, and in that look Mrs. Berry, watchful, read an instinct to secure it and depart. The old woman laid firm clutch upon the volume. ”

“ Berry,” she said.
“My dear aunt,” said Mrs. Berry, now really alarmed (for who knows what confidences women have between one another, and who does not know that, by feminine ethics, a quarrel legally dissolves all obligations to keep old faith) , “I must insist that you do not for a moment——”
“I have not come to my years,” said Mrs. Empson, “to have the word insist used to me, and most of all by my own niece, whom I have knowd from a child.”
“Aunt,” entreated Mrs. Berry, more earnestly than it might have been supposed she could speak, “please don’t misunderstand me.” ”

“ Berry interrupted with a ruffled breast.
"You are a very ungenerous, suspicious, naughty old woman," said Lucy, chiding her.
"And you're a silly, unsuspectin' little bird," Mrs. Berry retorted, as she returned her taps on the cheek. "You haven't told me what ye do together, and what's his excuse for comin'."
"Well, then, Mrs. Berry, almost every evening that he comes we read History, and he explains the battles, and talks to me about the great men. And he says I'm not silly, Mrs. Berry." ”

“ Berry took the girls at once to their rooms, and sent the car for Alicia.
"I'll give the front room to Dotty and Dolly," she said to Bernice; "and you can have the other. It's quite as nice, only it looks out on the side street, not on the Avenue."
"That's right, Mrs. Berry. Dot and Dolly are more company than Alicia and I are. We're really members of the family. I was so surprised at Uncle Jeff's inviting us. Why did he do it, anyway?"
"Why, indeed!" said Mrs. Berry, but her expression was quizzical. "No one can tell why Mr. Forbes does things! He is a law unto himself. ”

“ In their anger, the sisters did not care to recall the [158] praises they had bestowed on Berry for her beauty and her clever acting, nor the pity they had felt for her after the accident that so nearly ended her life. Her unparalleled impudence in marrying Charley because he asked her and because she loved him blotted out everything else in her favor. ”

“ The door was closed this morning, and in answer to her knock, Mrs. Berry appeared, rubbing her eyes, beyond the threshold.
"I declare, Miss Emily, you don't look like yourself at all," she exclaimed at the girl's entrance, "it must be them coral beads you've got on, I reckon. They always was becomin' things—I had a string once myself that I used to wear when my po' dead husband was courtin' me. Lord! Lord!" she added, bursting into sobs, "who'd have thought when I wore those beads that I'd ever have come to this? ”