Mrs. Ellison

“ Miss Lady could not tell; and it had taken, indeed, a keen student to define the real meaning of the enigmatical face of Alice Ellison, woman not yet forty, ease-loving, sensuous, yet for this time almost timorous.
"Now, a good, liberal man," began Mrs. Ellison presently, however, "is the best ambition for any young woman. For some reasons, we might do better than remain at the Big House longer. ”

“ Her son Arthur was a student and preferred his books. So eventually society introduced itself. Persons who ignored it must be interesting. When it became known that Mrs. Ellison had been the schoolmate of the beautiful and aristocratic wife of General Chetwood; when the local banker quietly spread the information that the Ellisons were comfortably supplied with stocks and bonds of a high order, society concluded that it could do very well without past history. That could come later.
When her father died, Elsa became as much at home in the Ellison house as in her own. ”

“ So, many a one might have been dressed, so they might have danced, and flirted, and chattered, on the very night when John Ellison ended that gay life and called them to death, with a brief order to close in on the Garden Mound and defend the flag that floated from its central tower. And Grace, more imaginative, more fanciful than Lesley, found her thoughts wandering more than once in a wonder whether some call to show themselves worthy of that past might not come again, come there in the midst of the lights and the laughter. ”

“ Ellison, imploringly. "Now, Vincent, promise me! You know there are crises in a woman's life when she expects a little consideration—when she expects to be petted—and have things a little her own way: well, promise me now you will be very kind to Louie—kinder than ever—why, what an omen at a wedding it would be if my chief attendant and the groomsman were to fall out——"
"Oh, we shan't fall out, aunt, be sure of that," he said good-naturedly. ”

“ If a cold hand had been laid upon the bosom of Clara, she could not have experienced a more sudden chill. She made no reply. Ellison perceived, in an instant, the extent of his error. Like a man struggling in the mire, every moment seemed but to plunge him deeper. A more painful reserve followed this brief but unhappy interview. Deeply did the young man regret not having taken the certificates when they were handed to him. That was his only right course. ”

“ Ellison's choice—presumably one of her American friends—his bride should have some additional dowry to recommend her. What were all those distant schemes, and even the brilliant future that everybody seemed to prophesy for him, to the bewildering possibilities that were almost within his reach? He went to the window. The pots of musk, and lobelia, and ox-eye daisies, in the little balcony over there, and also the Virginia creeper intertwisting its sprays through the iron bars, seemed fresh: no doubt she had sprinkled them with water before leaving with her grandfather. ”

“ Ellison, almost out, stood, weaving on his feet, fronting his adversary, a queer look of surprise in his face, and a something more. Annister, strangely enough, as has been mentioned, had, in spite of his encounter with Ellison in the smoker, conceived something for the man that had been close to liking. Somehow, rough as the man was; crooked, by all the signs; the tool of Rook and of his minions, he had the blue eye of a fighter—the straight, level look of a man who, though an enemy, would yet fight fair. ”

“ Will you stay away from the Ellisons’ dinner, or will you not?”
“I shall go,” said Carmichael, stubbornly. “I am to take in Miss Ellison, and to lead their cotillon afterward. I could not be guilty of such a departure from good form as to throw over the Ellisons because this assorted lot of paragons of yours are going to be there. Among thirty people it is hardly likely I shall run counter to them. And should I do so, I fancy my position is assured beyond any attempt at a slight they could put upon me. My dear girl, your attitude in all this is in the last degree strained and goody-goody. ”

“ Ellison laughed softly. He had a marvellous belief in this woman and in her power of attracting.
“You are not a woman’s man, Matravers, or you would know that her beauty is not a matter of curves and colouring! You cannot judge her as a piece of statuary. All your remarks you would retract if you talked with her for five minutes. I am not sure,” he continued, “that I dare not warrant you to retract them before this evening is over. At least, I ask you to stay. I will run my risk of your pulverization.”
The curtain rang up again, the play proceeded. ”

“ Slight causes, too, had been productive of disturbance. But now he was more tender in his intercourse with her than he had ever been, and seemed to have scarcely a thought that did not involve her comfort and happiness. His affection for their babe appeared every moment to increase. Clara would often find him looking at it with a tenderness of expression that was almost tearful.
On arriving in Philadelphia, Ellison avoided all the relatives of his wife. He neither received nor returned the visit of any one of them. ”

“ Ellison moved to a distant city, being invited to a higher post in the ministry of his sect; nor how curiously he and his child lived in a lodging, where, notwithstanding all his efforts to fill the place of both parents, his boy was too often seen in rags; nor how the child played leap-frog and other games with little beggars and ruffians in the streets, so cleverly, that his father might be seen gazing at him from the foot-pavement, in a rapture of admiration ”

“ It was not Conrad Ellison's way to be dishonest with any one except himself. He telephoned and told her frankly that he had been invited to a party with several of the country's most successful song writers and that he knew it would be good business to accept.
She caught the nuance of pleading in his voice and bade him go and have a go time. He told her that e was a darned good kid and rushed away to join the others, proclaiming loudly that he had the swellest little wife in the world—and then he promptly forgot her. ”

“ Ellison drew from her left hand an object, which, amid flattering enthusiasm from her guests, began its journey around the table. Little cries of delight from the women, more [33] restrained expressions of admiration from the men, followed the beautiful well of green fire in its progress.
“Now look!” said Mrs. Anstey, when it came to her. Slipping the ring upon her hand—a pretty hand, we may be sure—where it sent into prompt eclipse all the rest of her outfit of jewels, she held it up for Carmichael to view. “Did you ever see such a beauty?” ”

“ To go back again was, to one of Ellison’s temperament, next to impossible; and even if he returned, he felt now no certainty of being able to do so well as when he left. His unhappiness, which he could not conceal, troubled Clara, who understood its ground. He was talking, one day, in a desponding mood, of his doubtful prospects, when Clara said to him,
“There is no need, Alfred, of your feeling so troubled. We have enough to live on, certain, for the next four or five years, even if you do not paint a portrait ”

“ Ellison. Her eyes were brighter than usual, but she composed herself into a careful disregard of annoyance. When desire of news assailed her, she could easily conceal her personal resentments, cannily sacrificing small issues to great. "I guess there's no danger o' Parson Bond's gittin' into the paper, so long 's he behaves himself; but if anybody's got eyes, they can't help seein'. I hadn't been in the Bible class five minutes afore I guessed how he was carryin' on. Has he begun to go with Isabel North, an' his wife not cold in her grave?" ”

“ The fellow was the same who had spoken to Calvin before the jail, and Calvin imagined the man working his way rearward in the car to keep an unsuspected eye upon that small, spirited figure.
Calvin returned, thoughtfully, to his office where he ventured casually to Ellison: "Does it seem to you that we're getting much on the Royle girl?"
"We're getting nothing at all; that is, nothing more," replied Ellison promptly. "Plenty of past, apparently, but an eminently proper present. Discretion only faintly suggests the spirit of Joan Daisy Royle's doings in these days. ”

“ A man of fine presence, his face pale with profound emotion, conducted the daughter to her parents, and then asked them to give her back to him as his future wife,—his other self. The old beeches saw him take his young love in his arms, and receive the blessing of her agitated parents. They saw the mother's face, smiling through tears, raised gratefully to Heaven, and little Ernst shaking the canary's cage, that he might awaken that sleepy songster and announce to him, with great solemnity, that Elsie was betrothed. ”

“ Elsie, she had done her work, and was waiting for your father to come home, so I could get some money to pay her; for I should be ashamed to keep her out of her money, or oblige her to call again. You had spent all the change I had in the house in your afternoon shopping. It was me that asked her to stay. It was me that asked her into the parlor. It was me, your mother, that asked her to sing one of those plaintive, sweet songs, I had heard her sing to the children while at work. It was you that urged her. What for? That she might fail. Elsie, Elsie, there is envy in your heart. ”

“ You’re making Elsie’s life hell. Give her her freedom.”
“Damn you! Who are you to interfere between man and wife?” said Williams, low and fiercely. “I know what you want, both of you, but you won’t have it. Elsie’s my wife, and I shan’t let her go.”
“You’ve got to.”
Horace Williams, looking full at the youth, who was shaking from head to foot with excitement, gave his low, malevolent laugh.
Almost at the same instant Elsie heard her own voice screaming, “Don’t ... don’t...!” and saw the flash of a knife as Morrison raised his arm and struck again and again. ”

“ For Betsy Gunn had told them a harrowing tale of what took place at the other end of the village in her grandmother's time. If it was not sufficient to frighten Elsie and Tom, it was enough to make them very glad when their mother got back.
And so, when Tom came rushing in, calling, "Here's mother! Here's mother!" Elsie, too, ran to the door to kiss and welcome her.
It was only a little thing, perhaps, but this warm, dutiful welcome from her children cheered and comforted poor Mrs. Winn as nothing else could have done just now. It is a pity when young people treat their parents slightingly. ”

“ There, what did I tell you, Elsie!” exclaimed Alice, clasping her hands.
“My dear mother! my darling mother! never mind. There is one love on earth that shall never fail you. I can have no second mother,” said Elsie, rising and throwing her arms around the lady’s neck.
“Magnus, you see that I must go. I must write to-night, to prepare him for my arrival, and to-morrow I must set out myself.”
“Oh, no, mother; don’t go! It will be worse than ever now in your old home. Oh, mamma, don’t go! Write—only write. Or if it be indispensable that someone go, Magnus will. Will you not, Magnus?” ”

“ I mean that a girl who will give up a good chance in life—as this probably was to her—just to stay at home and help her mother, is not a common, vulgar girl, but has the making of a lady in her."
"Herbert, Herbert," said his mother, smiling.
"You forget, mother, her mother is your sister, very likely; so why shouldn't she be a lady? Now, what are you going to do?" he asked, the next minute.
"Do! What do you mean? Are we not going to look through this bag?"
"But—but—mother, you will surely write a letter to the governess of this school, and ask her to tell you where this Elsie Winn lives. ”

“ A week after he returned to school, he received a letter from his mother, telling him that Mr. Capon had not only written, but sent a messenger to enquire about the girl named Elsie Winn. But he found that they had moved away from the neighbourhood, and no one seemed to know where they had gone, or cared to talk about them.
"Let this satisfy you now, my dear boy," wrote his mother in conclusion. "We have done what we could to find your aunt, and failed. We have done our duty, and we can do no more." ”

“ She was not soft and slender and complex, like Elsie, but was a great Junoesque creature, with calm blue eyes and quantities of flaxen hair, a downright sort of girl, absolutely good-natured, a splendid horsewoman, a good tennis-player, always bright and smiling and equable, and in every way a desirable wife for a well-to-do squatter. Elsie did not actually dislike Rose, who did not want to give herself airs, though she had always seemed to hold herself aloof in a calmly superior way from the lesser fry of Leichardt's Town. ”

“ Elsie and Morrison went swimming together, and lay on the hot, crowded sands, and dropped behind the others when they all went for walks, and sat with locked hands and her cheek against his shoulder in the stifling, thrilling darkness of the picture theatre, watching together the representation of a love that was never anything but the reflection of their own, the eternal triumph of a Man and a Woman, pale representatives on the screen of Elsie Williams and Leslie Morrison. ”

“ From having been a desolate ruin, a shapeless pile of shattered walls and casemates, showing here and there the guns disabled and half buried in splintered wrecks of carriages, its mounds of rubbish fairly reeking with the smoke and smell of powder, Fort Sumter under fire was transformed within a year into a powerful earthwork, impregnable to assault, and even supporting the other works at the entrance of Charleston harbor with six guns of the heaviest caliber. ”