Mrs. Herrick

“ Mrs. Herrick, so calm in her reposeful attitude, calm as the old portrait on the wall behind her, none the less began to show a curious sparkle of excitement in her face. "If I were [Pg 375] sure that person's life did depend on me," she measured out her words deliberately. "But that so seldom happens, and it is so hard to tell."
"But if you were sure, sure, sure!" Flora rang it out certainly.
Mrs. Herrick in her turn leaned forward. "Ah, even then it would depend on him. And do you think you can make a man do otherwise than his nature?"
"You think I should fail?" Flora took it up fearlessly. ”

“ Herrick had talked, Flora waited, [Pg 407] fully dressed. It had been early when they had separated. The strain of the four together had been terrific; and she was still feeling it, though an hour had passed. She was feeling that, now her situation was upon her, she was alone. Mrs. Herrick could only be near her, not with her, and Kerr was still an unknown quantity—except that he was fire.
And there was Harry, with his terrible certainty, and no apparent thing to account for it. It could not be there were men in the house without the servants remarking it; but in the garden? ”

“ Mrs. Herrick sighed. "But it sounds to me a risk too great for any reward that could come of its success." She thought. "If you could tell me more." Then, as Flora only looked at her wistfully and silently: "Isn't there some one you can confide in? Not Mrs. Britton?"
"Clara? Oh, no; never!" Flora startled Mrs. Herrick with the passionate repudiation.
"But could not Mr. Cressy—" and with that [Pg 376] broken sentence several things that Mrs. Herrick had been keeping back looked out of her face.
Flora answered with a stare of misery. ”

“ For a moment Flora knew that she was preposterous in Mrs. Herrick's eyes—and then that she was pathetic. Her companion was looking at her with a sad sort of humor. [Pg 374] "My dear, are you sure that that is your responsibility?"
Flora's answering smile was faint. "It seems as strange to me as it seems absurd to you, but I think I have done something already."
"Are you sure, or has he only let you think so? We have all at some time longed, or even thought it was our duty, to adjust something when it would have been safer to have kept our hand off," Mrs. Herrick went on gently. ”

“ Herrick spoke of it at once.
"Anna is not looking her best this evening, Malcolm," she said as he sat down between them; "this great heat tries her. Dr. Armstrong thinks we ought to leave town as soon as possible, so we are going to Whitby a week earlier."
"Mother has cancelled a lot of her engagements," observed Anna, looking at her affectionately. "I am so sorry to give her all this trouble." But Mrs. Herrick would not allow her to finish.
"Mothers are only too glad to take trouble for their children," she said kindly. "Anna has been behaving badly, Malcolm ”

“ As a grown woman her squat figure, large and slightly round-shouldered, betrayed these early years of stooping labor, and her colorless complexion, not a sickly pallor but a neutral white beneath the thick black hair, was the result of years spent in a dark, misty atmosphere, through which even the gas-lights burned dimly. In those early days when Ernestine scurried across the city in the procession of working-girls, mornings at seven forty-five and evenings at six, she was very much like all the others,—a not wholly unattractive young woman with quick eyes. ”

“ Herrick's Noble Numbers seldom rises above the expression of a cheerful gratitude and contentment. He had not the subtlety and elevation of Herbert, but he surpassed him in the grace, melody, sensuous beauty, and fresh lyrical impulse of his verse. The conceits of the metaphysical school appear in Herrick only in the form of an occasional pretty quaintness. He is the poet of English parish festivals and of English flowers, the primrose, the whitethorn, the daffodil. ”

“ It’s the night of all others I’d go somewhere—get something. No! I won’t give in. I’ll get away from it, forget it, and be happy again. I will—see me do it.... They dine at half-past eight. Have the carriage at eight. I shall be ready.”
He walked to and fro in the dressing-room, wishing to say something that could soften her mood. At last he put his hand gently on her beautiful bare shoulders and lowered his face to hers.
“We must take this together, love,” he whispered simply.
“Don’t speak of it!” she cried, drawing herself from his touch. “Don’t touch me. I shall go mad, mad! ”

“ A husband should show some good manners to a woman, even if she was his wife!
Their chairs were not far apart, but the tones of their voices indicated an immeasurable gulf that had been deepening for years. Falkner cleared his voice.
"As I have told you so often, Bessie, we are running behind all the time.
It has got to a point where it must stop."
"What do you suggest?"
"You say that three servants are necessary?"
"You can see for yourself that they are busy all the time. There's work for four persons in this house, and there ought to be a governess beside. ”

“ Pity, Mr. Anthon mused, that Erard should be thrown into her hands. She looked so—cheap. Mrs. Warmister’s face wore a perpetual grimace. She had been told that her power lay in expression, and consequently she had cultivated a distressingly perpetual mobility.
“Don’t let her do it, Erard,” the heavy young man pleaded with pathetic intensity. “Think what it means for our reputation as connoisseurs.”
“Well!” Mrs. Warmister rose, laughing nervously. [60] “Whatever Mr. Erard decides, I suppose I shall do. I am in his hands.” Then she departed, taking the urgent Mr. Salters with her. ”

“ I am sorry for her."
"I suppose the reason why a man and a woman hurt instead of help each other in marriage is never known to any one but themselves," Margaret observed dryly, urging on the horse. "And perhaps not even to themselves!"
There was a change in Margaret, an inner ferment that displayed itself in the haze in her clear eyes,—the look of one whose mind broods over the past,—a heightened color, a controlled restlessness of mood. 'No, it is not settled,' thought Isabelle. 'Poor Margaret!' She went about her many duties with the same silent sureness, the same poise as before. ”

“ When another nurse had come to relieve Isabelle, she left the ward with the doctor. As they went through the passageway that led to the house, Renault said in his usual abrupt tone:—
"You had better run home, Mrs. Lane, and get some sleep. To-morrow will be another hard day."
She wheeled suddenly and faced him.
"How dare you say that life is good for any other human being! What do you know of another's agony,—the misery that existence may mean, the daily woe?" ”

“ From the moment that the fat little tender touched the steamer, amid a babble of tongues, Milly was breathless with excitement. She squeezed her husband's arm, like an ecstatic child who had at last got what it wanted. "I'm so happy," she chirped. "Isn't it all wonderful,—that we are really here, you and I?"
He laughed in superior male fashion at her enthusiasm, and stroked his small mustache, but in his own way he was excited at sight of the promised land. ”

“ She started involuntarily, but the doctor restrained her.
[73] “They will take him away,” he whispered, “in a minute.”
Evidently that was what his companions were endeavoring to do, but Simmons with drunken obstinacy persisted in his point.
“Yes,” he said, in his loud, confident voice, “I’ll go with you all right, just as soon as I find my wife. Never left my wife. It wouldn’t be right, you know!”
She slipped her arm from her companion, and walked rapidly toward the terrace, Vessinger following her.
“I am here, Olaf,” she said, going up to the knot of men. “Are you looking for me?” ”

“ Rose——" For a moment Herrick's wits deserted him beneath this recapitulation; and before he could hit on the right words, Toni had begun again.
"They said it was a pity for a clever man to be tied to an ignorant wife, that I bored him to death; and Lady Martin said I was a parasite, clinging to him for money and food, and that I had spoilt his life and ruined his career——"
"Oh, that is nonsense!" Herrick shook off the mental paralysis which had held him tongue-tied, and spoke vigorously. "No man's life was ever spoilt by the possession of a pretty, loving wife—like you." ”

“ The household on Bello Sguardo had received her as a prodigal,—Luisa with loud exclamations of joy, Pina with roses, and Molly with a kiss. Yet she knew that the end was not yet. Erard would not let her slip so simply, and in a way that humiliating retreat from Rome had left her more powerless than ever. While she waited Walter Anthon came with real news: the divorce had been granted in chambers. Or, in Walter’s solemn words,—
“Your husband has taken the measure which society allows him. You are no longer Mrs. John Wilbur.” ”

“ Here the Judge's wife had come to live when her husband died, forsaking
Washington, which had grown "too busy for an old woman." ...
At the end of the garden, which was shaded by the high wall, Margaret sat, an uncut book on her knees, her eyes resting on the green marsh to be seen through the open door. Near by Ned in his little invalid chair was picking the mortar from the brick wall with a nail he had been able to reach. The two were often alone like this for hours, silent.
"Mother," the child said at last, as Margaret took up the book. ”

“ Have I divorc'd thee only to combine
In hot adult'ry with another wine?
True, I confess I left thee, and appeal
'Twas done by me more to confirm my zeal
And double my affection on thee, as do those
Whose love grows more inflam'd by being foes.
But to forsake thee ever, could there be
A thought of such-like possibility?
When thou thyself dar'st say thy isles shall lack
Grapes before Herrick leaves canary sack.
Thou mak'st me airy, active to be borne,
Like Iphiclus, upon the tops of corn. ”

“ Margaret exclaimed disgustedly to Falkner as they went back to the camp.
"Our excellent hostess? What is the matter with her?"
"She's a whiner!" Margaret replied hotly. "The woman is always the whiner,—it makes me despise my sex. What do you suppose she wants? She has a sister in Lawrence, Mass., and Lawrence, Mass., is her Paris! She wants her husband to give up this, all the life he's known since he was a boy, and go to live in Lawrence, Mass., so that she can walk on brick sidewalks and look into shop windows. There's an ideal for you, my dear!" ”

“ We women have it about us somewhere, and certain topics are likely to call it out. There is convention—you and I agree that is senseless and boring. There is intelligence—you and I value that quite highly enough. And there is life and honour and love: on such matters you are not fitted to talk, and I grow theatrical. If you will ring that bell in the arbour, Pina will bring you some wine and cigarettes. There are the voices of Mr. Jennings and Molly. We have had just time enough for our little understanding, Mr. Simeon Erard. ”

“ At first, however, a man could think of but one thing in the presence of Mrs. Phillips: "You are a woman, and a very inviting one!"
Doubtless she meant that men should think that, and nothing more, at first. Those who had come through the fire, to whom she was cold and hard, like an inferior gem, might say later with the judge:—
"Louise flings her sex at you from the first smile. If you feel that sort of thing, the only thing to do is to run."
Jackson Hart had not yet reached this point of human experience. ”

“ Thus at thirty-five Larry was range and a commuter. He dressed well, kept up one of his clubs, talked the condition of the country, and was a kind father to his boys.... 'What more should a woman expect?' Margaret asked herself, thinking of her father's words and enumerating her blessings. Three healthy children, a home and enough to eat and wear, a husband who (in spite of Conny's gossip) neither drank to excess nor was unfaithful nor beat her,—who had none of the obvious vices of the male! Good God! Margaret sighed with a bitter sense of irony. ”

“ Francis replied. "What do we care whether they come back or not?" and he leaned forward to peer at Herrick; but the pirate's face was inscrutable. He straightened back with a sigh, and looked up to where I lay.
"It is a shame," the priest went on, "to keep so gallant a gentleman here in this hole. If he loves the maid, let him have her, and be hanged to him."
"Thou wilt sing a different tune, when I tell the Count what thou hast said," Herrick answered, and he leaned back calmly against the rock.
"Hell and the furies!" cried the old rogue, his face white with terror. ”

“ And there was Elsie Beals,—quite elegant, the only daughter of the President of the A. and P. The Woodyards, Percy and Lancey, classmates of Vickers at the university, both slim young men, wearing their clothes carelessly,—clearly not of the Hollenby manner,—had attached themselves here. Behind them was Nan Lawton, too boisterous even for the open air. At the head of the procession, now nearly topping the hill beneath the house, was that silent married couple, the heavy, sober man and the serene, large-eyed woman, who did not mingle with the others. ”

“ Margaret had said; "interlocked activity, with emotional satisfaction. Mrs. Short's climax of the day is her hot supper laid before her lord.... Do you see how they talk without words across the table? They know what the other is thinking always. So the Shorts have found what so many millions miss,—a real marriage!"
To-night when Falkner came back with Margaret for supper, this note of perfect domesticity was at its best. Mr. Short had gone to the cellar for a bottle of cider wine in honor of the guest from Panama, and his wife rustled in black silk. ”