Mrs. Boyd

“ Often in reading a story Lilian had fancied herself the heroine and enjoyed the feast.
The child has much finer breeding than the mother, Mrs. Barrington mused. She almost fancied she detected something furtive about Mrs. Boyd. Was she being won by the girl’s proud face to the detriment of the mother? It seemed to her that Mrs. Boyd stood in awe of her daughter.
Afterward they went to the parlor which was a fine large room splendidly furnished, Lilian thought. There was a grand piano, an organ, two beautiful marbles, vases and pictures. There was a wide hall that was like another room. ”

“ He was simply desperate folks say, going about boring everybody he met with his love affair. Finally her mother and father and all her friends got after her to marry Joe, and she gave in. And then folks wondered more than ever why she'd delayed, for she was more in love with her husband than anybody had any reason to expect. They were happy, too. A child was born, a little girl, and that seemed to make them happier. Then Mrs. Boyd's mother and father died, and she came into the farm, and the Boyds were comfortable in every way. ”

“ You will have one of the loveliest of women for a mother, and two brothers who, so far, have been most exemplary. And that darling, Zay—the whole town loves her.”
Lilian wiped her eyes, and pressed Mrs. Dane’s hand fervently. Would Zay proffer her a sister’s love?
She went back to Mrs. Boyd, who suddenly opened her eyes and smiled, then the thin lids fell. How she had wasted away! She tried to recount to herself all the kindnesses, the sacrifices Mrs. Boyd had made. And though the boarding house had been of the commonest sort there had never seemed any real pinches. ”

“ Embree is her father's half-sister."
"Is she as nice as she looks?"
"Yes, Ada's a real nice sensible girl," said Mrs. Boyd. "There is no nonsense about her."
"That doesn't sound very encouraging," murmured Pauline, as Mrs. Boyd went out. "I like people with a little nonsense about them. But I hope better things of Ada, Mrs. Boyd to the contrary notwithstanding. She has a pair of grey eyes that can't possibly always look sensible. I think they must mellow occasionally into fun and jollity and wholesome nonsense. Well, I'm off to the shore. ”

“ Boyd reached the fence and rested her pail on the top rail. "I hain't seed you since I seed you at church, Sunday. I tried to get over yesterday, but was too busy with one thing and another."
"I reckon you have had your hands full planting cotton," said Mrs. Boyd. "I didn't expect you; besides, I've had all I could do in my own field."
"Yes, my boys have been hard at it," said Mrs. Waycroft. "I don't go to the field myself, like you do. I reckon I ain't hardy enough, but keeping things for them to eat and the house in order takes all my time." ”

“ If she had lived—but then the confession would hardly have been made. For, with all the unlikeness, Lilian had never suspected the truth.
Oh, why had not God given this poor starved life its rightful surroundings? If Mrs. Boyd had lived! If there had been a number of merry, satisfied children going cheerfully to work in shops and factories when school days were over, having lovers, marrying and repeating their mother’s life! For the world was full of ordinary happy people with no high ideals. ”

“ We can take the main road and dodge out of the way if we hear anybody coming."
"I'm not afraid now," Virginia sighed. "I'm not thinking about that. I'm only worried about what you think—what you think, Mrs. Boyd."
"Never you mind what I think, child," Ann said, quietly. "God knows I never would blame you like other folks, for I know a thing or two about life. I've learned my lesson."
Virginia laid her hand firmly on Ann's strong one. "He promised me the money to have mother's operation performed. Oh, I couldn't let the chance escape, Mrs. Boyd—it meant so much to the poor woman. ”

“ I'm Mrs. Mark Bruce, that used to be Mrs. King. I'm Luke's mother, Mrs. Boyd."
"I knew you when you and Mark Bruce turned the bend in the road a quarter of a mile away," said Ann, sharply, "but, the Lord knows, I didn't think you'd have the cheek to open my front gate and stalk right into my yard after all you've said and done against me."
The eyes of the visitor fell to her worn shoe, through which her bare toes were protruding. "I had no idea I'd ever do such a thing myself until about two hours ago," she said, firmly; "but folks will do a lots, in a pinch, that they won't ordinarily. ”

“ Boyd's illustrations add greatly to the interest and charm of the book. There is movement, atmosphere, and sunshine in them."
STANDARD.—"Mrs. Boyd went with her husband round the world, and the latter—an artist with a sense of humour—kept his hand in practice by making droll sketches of people encountered by the way, which heighten the charm of his wife's vivacious description of a Stolen Summer. Mrs. Boyd has quick eyes and an open mind, and writes with sense and sensibility." ”

“ Boyd drew a stiff-backed chair from beneath the dining-table and pushed it towards her guest. "There is not in hell itself, Mary Waycroft, a hatred stronger than I feel right now for that woman. She is a fiend in human shape. That miserable creature has hounded me every minute since we were girls together. As God is my judge, I believe I could kill her and not suffer remorse. There was a time when my disposition was as sweet and gentle as any girl's, but she changed it. She has made me what I am. She is responsible for it all. ”

“ Mrs. Boyd with the girls, same object and better success; the girls with each other, deciding to be more masklike in the future; and finally, Mr. and Mrs. Boyd, deciding that Mrs. Boyd had better go and look the situation over as soon as the new master was established.
In the course of the evening Elise quarreled with George—at least as much as one can quarrel with a person who believes that nothing said or done can change a relation in the least. Their quarrels always took about the same course. Elise in a moment of candor told George how she really felt toward him ”

“ Mrs. Shaw examined and duly admired the camera, and decided in favor of a blue dot; then she said, "Mrs. Boyd is down-stairs, Hilary."
"How nice!" Hilary jumped up. "I want to see her most particularly."
"Bless me, child!" Mrs. Boyd exclaimed, as Hilary came into the sitting-room, "how you are getting on! Why, you don't look like the same girl of three weeks back."
Hilary sat down beside her on the sofa. "I've got a most tremendous favor to ask, Mrs. Boyd."
"I'm glad to hear that! I hear you young folks are having fine times lately. Shirley was telling me about the club the other night." ”

“ Know you, good man Boyd, that the Lord Chartley, whom you and I had to do with a good many months ago, when they burned the houses on the abbey green, is back at Tamworth?"
"Ay, I know," replied Boyd. "He has been here thrice, hovering about like a fly round a lamp."
"He's a good youth," said the piper. "He promised me one gold angel, and he gave me two. He has a right loving remembrance of that night too; for I never see him but I get a silver remembrance thereof, so I am rich now, Master Boyd. Then, there's his good cousin, Sir William Arden. ”

“ They've got old Betsy Todd to look after them," Mrs. Boyd went on. "The girl's about your age, Hilary. You wasn't looking to find company of that sort so near, was you?"
Hilary looked interested. "No," she answered. "But, after all, the manor's a mile away."
"Oh, she's back and forth every day—for milk, or one thing or another; she's terribly interested in the farm; father's taken a great notion to her. She'll be over after supper, you'll see; and then I'll make you acquainted with her."
"Are they city people?" Pauline asked.
"From New York!" Mrs. Boyd told her proudly. ”

“ Waycroft. "When her mother was making such an exhibition of herself in gloating over the way you was treated, the poor girl looked like she was ashamed, and pulled Jane's apron like she was trying to keep her quiet. I reckon you hain't got nothing against the girl, Ann?"
"Nothing except that she is that devilish woman's offspring," said Mrs. Boyd. "It's hard to dislike her; she's pretty—by all odds the prettiest and sweetest-looking young woman in this county. Her mother in her prime never saw the day she was anything like her. They say Virginia isn't much of a hand to gossip and abuse folks. ”

“ He was never known to pay a debt, even to his best friends."
"Langdon is a chip off of the old block," said Wilson. "His father was just like him when he was a young man. Between you and me, the Colonel never had a conscience; old as he now is, he will sit and laugh about his pranks right in the presence of his son. It's no wonder the boy turned out like he did. Well, away back when this Mrs. Boyd was a young and pretty girl, the daughter of honest, hard-working people, who owned a little farm back of his place, he took an idle fancy to her. ”

“ Mrs. Boyd mused; "but I don't care. I'll have my rights if I die for it."
An hour later, in another dress and a freshly washed and ironed gingham bonnet, she fed her chickens from a pan of wet cornmeal dough, locked up her house carefully, fastening down the window-sashes on the inside by placing sticks above the movable ones, and trudged down the road to George Wilson's country-store at the crossing of the roads which led respectively to Springtown, hard-by on one side, and Darley, farther away on the other. ”

“ The mother was so different. It was not 3altogether a weak face but intensely commonplace; the sort of woman who has no ambitions beyond the ordinary round of life. Was it the old story of the eagle in the dove’s nest?
“You are very tired,” she began, presently. “Lie down on the lounge while I get supper.”
Mrs. Boyd was still crying softly. Lilian kissed her, threw a light shawl over her shoulders, then lighted the gas burner and set on the kettle. She would run out and get a chop for her mother, some for breakfast as well. ”

“ Well, finding that he could not sell his catch, owing to the popular prejudice about color, this man printed a lot of striking can-labels, which read, 'Best Grade Pink Salmon, Warranted not to Turn Red in the Can.' They tell me it worked like a charm."
"No wonder!" Boyd laughed, beginning to feel the tension of his nerves relax at the restfulness of her influence. As usual, he fell at once into the mood she desired for him. He saw that her brows were furrowed and her rosy lips drawn into an unconscious pout as she said, more to herself than to him:
"I wish I were a man. ”

“ When folks find a man's in need of land, they stick the price up clean out of sight. I was tellin' Sue the other day that we was in luck havin' sech a neighbor—one that would do so much to help a body in a plight."
"Yes, I'm very good and kind," sneered Mrs. Boyd, her sharp eyes ablaze with indignation, "and last Sunday in meeting you and a lot of other able-bodied men sat still and let that foul-mouthed Bazemore say that even the wooden bench I sat on ought to be taken out and burned for the public good. ”

“ It was Ann Boyd driving her cow home, her heavy skirts pinned up half-way to her stout knees. With one sharp, steady stare at them, Ann, without greeting of any kind, lowered her bare, dew-damp head and trudged on.
"It's that miserly old hag, Ann Boyd," Langdon said, lightly. "I don't like her any more than she does me. I reckon that old woman has circulated more lies about me than all the rest of the country put together."
At the first sight of Ann, Virginia had withdrawn her hand from Langdon's arm and passionate clasp of fingers, but the action had not escaped Ann's lynx eyes. ”

“ Ann exclaimed. "Well, I hope all that will wear away in time. It's fortunate that you are not loved by a narrow fool, my child. Luke King has seen a lots of the world in his young life."
"He has not seen enough of the world to make him overlook a thing of that kind, and you know it," Virginia sighed. "I really believe the higher a man becomes spiritually the higher his ideal of a woman is. I know what he thinks of me now, but I don't know what he would think if he knew the whole truth. He must never be told that, Mrs. Boyd. ”

“ She seems better. Mrs. Dane is coming in and you must get some breakfast. Then if we need a nurse—”
“Oh, no, do not have one. My place is 145here. Oh, Miss Arran,” and Lilian turned deadly pale, “you heard what she said last evening. It can’t be true. Would any one ever work and make sacrifices for a child not her own? She is my mother.”
Miss Arran nodded. “Unless she is much worse I do not think we will need a nurse. There will be so little to do in the house that I shall be quite at liberty.”
“Yes, Mrs. Boyd was much stronger,” the doctor admitted, though the case was not much more hopeful. ”

“ An infinite pity filled his heart as he looked down at her pallid, mournful face.
"It's all right now, mother," she said, hoarsely. "Dick'll stand up for us."
"Is it true, sir, is it true?" cried Mrs. Death, a wild terror in her eyes. "We've run here as fast as we could."
"It is unhappily true," he answered.
"Then where's my husband? Do you know what they're saying? That he murdered Mr. Boyd! They lie--they lie! Oh, my God! Is there any justice in the world?"
"Don't make a disturbance, Mrs. Death," said Inspector Robson, very kindly. ”

“ I’m so afraid of mistakes. You see when people get along in 57life it isn’t so easy to take up new ways. But that Mrs. Trenham seemed like some of the Laconia folks.”
“Yes, we will go again next Sunday,” said Lilian. “And to tea the first time we are invited.”
58 CHAPTER IV THE GRACE OF ENDEAVOR
The door of Mrs. Boyd’s room stood partly open. Louie Howe gave a light tap and marched in with an air that was rather insolent.
“Oh, Mrs. Boyd, I’ve given my walking dress such an awful tear! Mrs. Barrington said she was quite sure you could mend it. ”