Mrs. Dennison

“ Mrs. Dennison's thoughts were far away. Marjory stopped short. A stronger buffet of fear, a more overwhelming sense of helplessness, smote her. She understood better why Adela had been driven to do nothing—to look on. She smiled for an instant; the idea put itself so whimsically; but she thought that, had Mrs. Dennison been walking over a precipice, it would need all one's courage to interfere with her. She would think it such an impertinence. And Ruston? Marjory saw, all in a minute, his cheerful scorn, his unshaken determination, his rapid dismissal of one more obstacle. ”

“ She was not a beauty, but her broad brow and expressive features, joined to a certain subdued dignity of manner and much grace of movement, made her conspicuous among the women in her drawing-room. Young Evan Haselden seemed to appreciate her, for he bowed his glossy curly head, and shook hands in a way that almost turned the greeting into a deferentially distant caress. Mrs. Dennison acknowledged his hinted homage with a bright smile, and turned to Ruston. ”

“ She was pale as death, her eyes gleamed, and her lips quivered. She dashed into the balcony, and laid her hand on Jessie's shoulder with such rude suddenness, that the young girl drew back with an impulse of surprise.
"What is the matter, Mrs. Dennison?"
Mrs. Dennison looked at her a moment, subdued the quivering of her lips with a great effort, and broke into a laugh so hoarse and constrained that Jessie shrunk back.
"What is the matter?" she said. "Why, nothing; only we have but just time to dress for dinner, and here you stand as if the whole world could wait." ”

“ As the sentence went on, the smile became more fixed and less pleasant.
"You ought to be ashamed to talk like that," said Adela.
Mrs. Dennison walked up the room and down again.
"So I am," she said, pausing to look down on Adela, and then resuming her walk.
"I wish to goodness this Omofaga affair—yes, and Mr. Ruston too—had never been invented. It seems to set us all wrong."
"Wrong!" cried Mrs. Dennison. "Oh, yes, if it's wrong to have something one can take a little interest in!" ”

“ Dennison comforted him, and, dismissing Ruston from the discussion, said with a smile,
"So you're thinking of settling down already, are you?" [pg 46]
"I say, Mrs. Dennison, you've always been awfully good to me; I wonder if you'd help me in this?"
"How could I help you?"
"Oh, lots of ways. Well, for instance, old Lady Valentine doesn't ask me there often. You see, I haven't got any money."
"Poor boy! Of course you haven't. Nice young men never have any money." ”

“ Dennison—but no matter about her."
Jessie stopped suddenly, and a flame of crimson spread and glowed in her cheeks.
"You don't like Mrs. Dennison, Aunt Matty?" she said, after a moment's silence.
"No, I never did like her," was my prompt reply.
"She is a strange woman," said Jessie, thoughtfully; "so brilliant, so full of attractions, everybody is charmed with her at first sight. I was." ”

“ Dennison went into his own room; then I breathed again; true, he was very near, and by changing my position I could see his white head and grand old face upon the pillow, where he had fallen asleep with a smile of thankfulness upon his lips. After all, he is generous, good, and rich in intelligence. Why is it that love will not go with the reason? ”

“ Dennison, they contrived to absorb enough of it to keep them going. But, no, it was not really home. Kate could not feel that she, personally, ever had been "home." She thought of that song of songs, "The Wanderer."
"Where art thou? Where art thou, O home so dear?"
She was thinking of this still as, her salutation over, she seated herself in the chair Dr. von Shierbrand placed for her.
"Busy thinking this morning, Miss Barrington?" Mrs. Dennison asked gently. "That tells me you're meaning to do some good thing to-day. I can't say how splendid you social workers seem to us common folks." ”

“ He knows Mr. Carlin in business. Mr. Carlin's a friend of Mr. Ruston's."
"Oh, of Ruston's? I like that Ruston. He is interesting—inspiring."
"Is he?" said Mrs. Dennison, buttoning her glove. "You'd better marry him, Berthe."
"Marry him? No, indeed. I think he would beat one."
"Is that being inspiring? I'm glad Harry's not inspiring."
"Oh, you know what I mean. He's a man who——"
Mrs. Cormack threw up her arms as though praying for the inspired word. Mrs. Dennison did not wait for it.
"There's the carriage. Good-bye, dear," she said.
Mrs. Dennison started with a smile on her face. ”

“ Ruston? Some people like being married."
"Oh, I don't claim to be above it, Mrs. Dennison," he answered with a laugh, "but a wife would have been a great hindrance to me all these years."
There was a simple and bona fide air about his statement; it was not raillery; and Mrs. Dennison laughed in her turn.
"Oh, how like you!" she murmured.
Mr. Ruston, with a passing gleam of surprise at her merriment, bade her a very unemotional farewell, and left her. She sat down and waited idly for her husband's return. Presently he came in. ”

“ Yes. She is not altogether a bad woman; but she has had a bad fortune. Ah, there she is, and he with her."
As he spoke, Mrs. Dennison and Ruston came by. Mrs. Dennison flung them a glance of recognition; it was hardly more, and even for so much she seemed to grudge the interruption. Ruston's greeting was more ceremonious ”

“ Mrs. Dennison made a pretty exclamation of surprise as she entered the room. She was full of these graceful flatteries, that proved the more effective because of their seeming spontaneousness. She took off her bonnet, and, sitting down before the toilet which stood beneath the dressing-glass, a cloud of lace and embroidery, began to smooth her hair between both hands, laughing at its disorder, and [Pg 70] wondered if anybody on earth ever looked so hideous as she did. ”

“ Dennison brought them to me. Was it not thoughtful of her? I was wishing for them last night."
"Very thoughtful," I said.
"You look tired," she observed; "sit down and we will have one of our old, quiet hours. Mr. Lee had to go out, and Mrs. Dennison has gone to Jessie's room; so we shall be all alone."
Another falsehood! My blood fairly boiled! Lottie had just seen the pair in the garden. But I could not speak—a word, a look might have destroyed that poor creature's peace forever! No syllable from my lips should send a thought of suspicion to her heart! ”

“ The hardest thing about great resolves and lofty [pg 146] moods is their intermixture with everyday life. The intervals, the "waits," the mass of irrelevant trivialities that life inartistically mingles with its drama, flinging down pell-mell a heap of great and small—these cool courage and make discernment distrust itself. Mrs. Dennison seemed so quiet, so placid, so completely the affectionate but not anxious wife, the kind hostess, and even the human gossip, that Marjory wanted to rub her eyes, wondering if all her heroics were nonsense—a girl's romance gone wrong. ”

“ The moment he was gone, Adela put on her hat and drove to Curzon Street. She found Mrs. Dennison alone, and opened fire at once.
"What have you done, Maggie?" she cried, flinging her gloves on the table and facing her friend with accusing countenance.
Mrs. Dennison was smelling a rose; she smelt it a little longer, and then replied with another question.
"Why can't men hate quietly? They must make a fuss. I can go on hating a woman for years and never show it."
"We have the vices of servility," said Adela. [pg 88]
"Harry is a melancholy sight," resumed Mrs. Dennison. ”

“ Dennison felt himself roll with pain.
So the shelling had gotten his arm!
It was lying there beside him, and he was powerless to move it: smashed bones, shredded flesh, stinking flesh ... that's how it was! Still he wanted to see his arm and attempted to turn his head, his mind at loose ends: but he was being wheeled on the gurney; he sank into his pillow, moaning.
"I can't go through life without an arm," he said to the nurse as he rolled through a hallway. "I can't..."
Back in his room, he called Sister Blanche to his side. ”

“ How could a woman of right principles feel otherwise? Thus I explained it away, and soothed myself into a belief that any true-hearted person living in that family as I did must have felt all the miserable sensations that tortured me.
These thoughts made me dizzy. When I could see clearly again, Jessie was gone, and Mr. Lee sat a little more upright in his chair, looking hard at the wall over the top of his book. I was glad those stern eyes were not turned on me.
Mrs. Dennison came sweeping out of her chamber, leaving a scarcely perceptible perfume in the hall as she passed. ”

“ Dennison swore, gutter filth, wild, French, English.
The doctor dictated more notes to Blanche--oblivious.
"Now for the injection," he said to her. "We'll take him as soon as the theater is free."
As Dennison began to go under the strong sedative, he heard Sister Blanche talking:
"You talk big ... very big ... of course you must talk like that ... it kills some of the pain ... it helps ... I know ... I had two nephews, good at swearing. Dr. Phelan's right ... you know ... you see, I've helped him through the years. Sleep now, my son. Be quiet in your mind, Orville. God will take care of you. ”

“ Dennison. "He's always going into the dairy—he's been walks with her—he's always getting me to ask her in here to play the piano——"
"And uncommon well she plays it, too!" grunted Matthew.
"—and now he's taken her off to church!" concluded Mrs. Dennison. "He's smitten, Matthew, he's smitten!"
Matthew stirred uneasily in his chair.
"Well, well, my lass!" he said. "Ye know what young folks are—they like each other's company. What d'ye think I sought your company for? Not to sit and stare at you, as if you were a strange image, I know!" ”

“ Belford. "And I know that your husband shares my views. It's bound to be the greatest success of the day. Ah, here's Dennison!"
Harry came in wiping his brow. Belford rushed to him, and drew him to the window, button-holing him with decision. Lord Semingham smiled lazily and pulled his whisker.
"Don't you want to hear the news?" Mrs. Dennison asked.
"No! He's been to Ruston."
Mrs. Dennison looked at him for an instant with something rather like scorn in her eye. Lord Semingham laughed. ”

“ Around the corner of the Cosmopolitan came a little procession not irreverently conveying upon a shutter something over which a sheet had been loosely spread. The air was raw and cold. “Careful—that’s it—steady now,” cautioned Dennison in a low voice as they mounted the Cosmopolitan doorstep. “Mister,” Rioba Jack, Big Jinny, and Pearl Kate set down their burden at the upper end of the dance-room. “Come gals, fly round,” exhorted Dennison, “there’s all the bar to be set up across there—them windows has got to be darkened up—there ain’t no time to waste. ”

“ Dennison, the Rioba, “Mister” and the women stood for a moment motionless beside the body—their tasks completed.
“A becomin’ caskit, altogether,” exclaimed the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan, eyeing it critically.
“There’s somethin’ wanting all the same,” quoth “Mister,” after the continued pause had grown oppressive.
“Wantin’,” retorted Dennison; “I’d like to know what it is. Look at them there flags over the windows! Look at that there bar, where all that a man’s got to do is to walk up, after he’s paid his dollar, and help himself or let Pearl and Jinny here help him! ”

“ Dennison was saying as I came up, treading so softly, that he had no idea of my presence: [Pg 340]
"'My friend, it would be a little thing compared to this, that you had saved my life, for no human being will ever guess how much dearer this sweet creature is to me than that.'
"'She is indeed a most lovely woman,' answered Lawrence; 'any man might hold his existence light, in comparison with hers.'
"He spoke quietly, but I observed that his eyes did not seek those of my husband, and a cold whiteness lay upon his face. ”

“ Lee drew a heavy breath and lay back in her chair, smiling.
"You have seen him," she said, at last. "How grand, how magnanimous he is, never forgetting me, never feeling [Pg 246] the solitude of this room irksome, but loving it more and more; giving me hours out of each day till, of late, he almost lives in my apartment and never finds it tiresome!"
A strange smile stole over Mrs. Dennison's lips; but she did not look up, and it passed unnoticed by its object.
As the two ladies sat together, Jessie came into the room. Mrs. Dennison did not move, but, on the contrary, leaned nearer to Mrs. Lee. ”

“ Dennison," smiled Detchmore. "You ought to go out, you know. Can't you persuade your husband to lend you to the expedition?"
Ruston could have killed the man for his malapropos jesting. Maggie Dennison seemed unable to answer it. Semingham broke in lightly, [pg 301]
"It would be a fine chance for proving the quality—and the equality—of women," said he. "I always told Mrs. Dennison that she ought to be Queen of Omofaga."
"And I hope," said Detchmore, with a significant smile, "that there'll soon be a railway to take you there." ”

“ Dennison "aunt." But Marna looked as if she liked that, too. It was their hour for liking everything. As Kate opened the outer door for them, the blast struck through her, but the lovers, laughing, ran down the stairs together. They were, in their way, outcasts; they were poor; the future might hold bitter disillusion. But now, borne by the sharp wind, their laughter drifted back like a song.
Kate wrapped her old coat about her and made her solitary way to Mrs. Dennison's depressed Caravansary.
XII ”

“ Dennison stole off to a low pan in the library for his half-hour of sleep. I usually occupied my own room at this hour, but as I went that way, our guest came in from the veranda, where he had been smoking a cigar, and laughingly entreated that I should not leave him alone.
"I ran up-stairs, threw a black lace shawl over my head, Spanish mantilla fashion, and joined him. It was sunset, and all the beautiful landscape lay wrapped in a veil of purplish mist, through which trembled a soft golden glow that brightened all the west, and shimmered through the tree-tops like flashes of fire. ”