Mrs. Keith

“ Keith's thoughts sprang to the first time he ever saw her with a red rose near her heart--the rose he had given her, which the humming-bird had sought as its chalice.
The other ladies were all gowned in satin and velvet of rich colors, and were flaming in jewels, and as Mrs. Lancaster stood among them and they fell back a little on either side to look at her, they appeared, as it were, a setting for her. ”

“ Mrs. Wentworth, immediately after presenting Keith to one or two ladies who were receiving, had been met and borne off by Ferdy Wickersham, and was in the throng at the far end of the great apartment, and some one had stopped Norman on the stairway. So Keith was left for a moment standing alone just inside the door. He had a sense of being charmed. Later, he tried to account for it. Was it the sight before him? Even such perfect harmony of color could hardly have done it. It must be the dazzling radiance of youth that almost made his eyes ache with its beauty. ”

“ Keith, who came late in the afternoon to present her compliments on his recovery. She displayed an almost sisterly graciousness, enhanced by a lingering spice of coquetry; but somehow, as she talked, he felt as if she were an old woman and he still a young man. It seemed a sort of hearsay that they should ever have been mistress and lover. "Nora will have told you," he said, "of my wishing you kindly to keep her awhile longer. I can give you no better proof of my regard, for the fact is, my dear friend, I am in love with her." ”

“ Sit, Keith; go back to bed, Keith; Go to the bathroom, Keith: In this camp I shape the minutes of his life To some acceptable pattern. He rubs his hands together As if trying to spark fire For the inhabitants Of his imaginary world. Stop that, Keith, I say. Sit, Keith. Keith sits: There is no coming out For him after twenty years This way, Or perhaps for me. The pale gas lamps are strewn around A small area of limbs In a corner of the sky-- All but patches are aflame Like a roof of a tent around The stakes, ready to break off And fall. ”

“ Mrs. Keith found means to take him aside. "Seeing is better than hearing," she said, "and I am dying to see her. Bring her this evening to dinner, and we shall have her to ourselves."
Mrs. Keith had long been for Nora an object of mystical veneration. Roger had been in the habit of alluding to her, not freely nor frequently, but with a certain implicit consideration which more than once had set Nora wondering. She entered the lady's drawing-room that evening with an oppressive desire to please. ”

“ Mrs. Keith went on; "especially as with such inefficient help in the kitchen and with general housework, I shall often be compelled to call upon you; or rather," she added, with a slight caress, "to accept the assistance you are only too ready to give."
"It is too bad!" cried the girl, indignantly; "that Viny doesn't earn her salt! I wonder how you can have patience with her, mother, if I were her mistress I'd have sent her off at a moment's warning long before this."
"Let us try to imitate God's patience with us, which is infinite;" Mrs. Keith answered low and reverently ”

“ The glow of the Trocadero's lights served, an instant, to reveal his face, shaded by the broad brim of his hat, and then he vanished into the dark. Keith leaning far out, yet keeping well within the shadows, heard the faint creak of the vestibule door and the soft murmur of distant voices. Then he drew back suddenly, his hand again grasping Fairbain. Two figures—those of a man and woman—emerged into the dim light, and as quickly disappeared. Apparently her hand was upon his arm, and he was bending down so as to gain a glimpse of the face partially concealed by the folds of the mantilla. ”

“ Oh, Keith, Keith! I can not be a blight upon you forever! You must be free from me, and hold up your head once more among your fellowmen. And once free, you will some time in the future, dearest, meet some one else—"
"Stop! For God's sake, stop! How can you speak such words to me?" he groaned, desperately. "Beatrix, you are my wife; whether we live as husband and wife, or are forever separated here upon earth, does not matter. You are mine and I am yours; no one can alter that. And whether we live apart or anear, I shall always be your husband—yours alone—until death shall part us. ”

“ Keith!"—and he grasped her hand as if to call her to witness,—"I undertake to make her happy. I know what you can say,—that a woman's happiness is worth nothing unless imagination lends a hand. Well, even as a lover, perhaps I am not a hopeless case! And then, I confess, other things being equal, I would rather Nora should not marry a poor man."
Mrs. Keith spoke, on this hint. "You are a rich one, then?"
Roger folded up his pocket-handkerchief and patted it out on his knee, with pregnant hesitation. "Yes, I am rich,—I may call it so. I am rich!" ”

“ Sir Keith dined here to-night, and I have watched him with a good deal of interest. He is thoroughly at home in the house, and almost on brother-and-sister terms with the girls, which makes it difficult to guess the real nature of his feelings towards them. Almost; not quite; since he speaks carefully of Nellie as "Miss Romilly;" and though he addresses the younger girls by name, they all call him "Sir Keith."
I cannot resist an impression that somebody here is a good deal to him: but I could not say which. ”

“ Men of Keith's nature are easily held and managed by a wise woman, but the woman must be very wise. Keith loved celebrations. On the wings of an occasion he rose joyfully and readily to incredible altitudes of high-spirited but harmless recklessness. ”

“ There were few men of Keith's age in Gumbolt who did not attend its sessions and pay their tribute over the green tables that stretched along the big, low room.
In fact, Miss Terpsichore was not of that class that forget either friends or foes; whatever she was she was frankly and outspokenly. Mr. Plume informed Keith that she was "down on him."
"She's got it in for you," he said. "Says she's goin' to drive you out of Gumbolt."
"Well, she will not," said Keith, with a flash in his eye.
"She is a good friend and a good foe," said the editor. "Better go and offer a pinch of incense to Diana. ”

“ Horace Dinsmore had paid a visit to Lansdale the year before the removal of the Keiths to Indiana. The impression he had then made upon his young cousins was not at all favorable; he was silent, morose and seemed to take little or no interest in anybody or anything.
"He is not like himself," Mrs. Keith had said to Aunt Wealthy again and again; "he is in trouble, some great sorrow has come to him." ”

“ Keith held no puritanical views of life—his own experiences had been too rough and democratic for that—yet he clung tenaciously to an ideal of womanhood which could not be lowered. However interested he might otherwise feel, no Christie Maclaire could ever find entrance into the deeps of his heart, where dwelt alone the memory of his mother. ”

“ Mrs. Keith responded in the same subdued key. "If I can be of any use, I will take off my bonnet and stay; it is perfectly convenient."
The offer was gratefully accepted, a note dispatched to Mildred, entrusting the children at home to her care till such time as her mother could be of no more service at the squire's, and Mrs. Keith's gentle ministries in the sick room began.
Her quiet movements, her thoughtfulness, quick comprehension and fertility of resource, made her invaluable at such a time. ”

“ We got here last Saturday. There is not a man here."
"Isn't there?" asked Keith, wishing there were not a woman either. "How long are you going to stay?" he asked absently.
"Oh, perhaps a month. How long shall you be here?"
"Not very long," said Keith.
"I tell you who is here; that little governess of Mrs. Wentworth's she was so disagreeable to last winter. She has been very ill. I think it was the way she was treated in New York. She was in love with Ferdy Wickersham, you know? She lives here, in a lovely old place just outside of town, with her old aunt or cousin. ”

“ It looked almost as if he were still afraid of that white-haired, fragile, tight-lipped little woman, and the sight of him filled Keith with a vague uneasiness.
"Please sit down," said the grandmother at last. "I did not mean to disturb you, and Keith looks as if he might fall in a heap any moment."
"Why don't you stand up straight, Keith," asked his mother. "You will never grow up unless you do, and your grandmother will think worse of you than she already does." ”

“ She said quietly: "Mr. Keith, you have insulted me."
"I do not like kept women, either with or without a license," said he in the same even, indifferent way. "When you ceased to be a kept woman, I would help you, if I could. But no one can help a kept woman."
There was nothing to do but to rise and go away. She rose and went toward the house. At the veranda she paused. He had not moved. She returned. He was still inspecting the horizon, the cigarette depending from his lips—how DID he keep it alight? She said:
"Mr. Keith, I am sure you did not mean to insult me. ”

“ And he almost gave a gasp.
"Is she married happily?'" he asked "I hope she is happy."
"Oh, as happy as the day is long," declared Mrs. Wentworth, cheerfully. Deep down in her eyes was a wicked twinkle of malice. Her face wore a look of content. "He is not altogether indifferent yet," she said to herself. And when Keith said firmly that he was very glad to hear it, she did him the honor to disbelieve him.
"Of course, you know that Mr. Lancaster is a good deal older than Alice?"
Yes, Keith had heard so.
"But a charming man, and immensely rich."
"Yes." Keith began to look grim. ”

“ If in the throngs on the streets there were often marked contrasts, Keith was too exhilarated to remark it--at least, at first. If women with worn faces and garments unduly thin in the frosty air, carrying large bundles in their pinched hands, hurried by as though hungry, not only for food, but for time in which to earn food; if sad-eyed men with hollow cheeks, sunken chests, and threadbare clothes shambled eagerly along, he failed to note them in his first keen enjoyment of the pageant. ”

“ It was received with a puzzled stare by Captain Keith. He stepped a little away from her, and then said emphatically,—
"Yes, for Kitty's sake, and for my mother's sake. What is the matter? Why do you look at me like that?"
"I don't believe in keeping these sort of things secret," said Mollie. "It would be very much better to make a clean breast of the whole affair. It is never wrong to tell the truth. I have always acted on that motto myself."
"It is easy for a woman to act on it," replied Keith; "with a man things are different."
"They ought not to be," said Mollie, with passion. ”

“ Keith gave a little wave of his arm, as if he would sweep away his insolence.
"I have come to warn you that old Adam Rawson is in town hunting you."
Wickersham's self-contained face paled suddenly, and he stepped a little back. Then his eye fell on the clerk, who stood just inside the door. "What do you want?" he demanded angrily. "---- you! can't you keep out when a gentleman wants to see me on private business?"
The clerk hastily withdrew.
"What does he want?" he asked of Keith, with a dry voice.
"He is hunting for you. He wants to find his granddaughter, and he is coming after you." ”

“ But she confronted now a lawyer, sure of himself. Keith explosively, and contemptuously demolished her contentions. Everything was absolutely legal, every step of it. If a man hadn't a right to buy in property at any sale and sell it again where he wanted, where in thunder was our boasted liberty? Just the kind of fool notion women get! Keith in his honest pride and triumph had come for sympathy and admiration. Turned back on himself, he became vaguely resentful, and shortly left the house.
Hardly had the front door closed after him when Nan burst into tears. ”

“ As they turned, his eyes fell on Wickersham. He was standing where they had left him, his eyes fastened on them malevolently. As Keith looked he started and turned away. Mrs. Lancaster had also seen him.
"What is there between you and Ferdy?" she asked.
"Nothing."
"There must be. Did you ever have a row with him?"
"Yes; but that was long ago."
"I don't know. He has a good memory. He doesn't like you." She spoke reflectively.
"Doesn't he?" laughed Keith. "Well, I must try and sustain it as best I can."
"And you don't like him? Few men like him. I wonder why that is?" ”

“ Whom does every one say you are--all in pursuit of?"
"I am sure I do not know," said Keith, calmly. "I suppose that you are referring to Mrs. Lancaster, but I happened to know that she was not here. No; I came to see Miss Huntington." His face wore an expression of amusement.
Mrs. Nailor made some smiling reply. She did not see the expression in Keith's eyes as they, for a second, caught Lois's glance.
Just then Miss Abigail came in. She had grown whiter since Keith had seen her last, and looked older. She greeted Mrs. Nailor graciously, and Keith cordially. ”

“ Hamilton and Captain Gould adopted her and she has lived with them ever since. She has money of her own, though no two of the townspeople agree as to how much. I've heard it estimated all the way from five to fifty thousand. She never speaks of it and those queer old uncles of hers keep their affairs very much to themselves. But I agree with you, John; it is a shame that she should have to spend her life here in South Harniss. I think we ought to do something for her, if we can. I shall think it over.”
Mrs. Keith was always doing something for somebody. ”