Mrs. Lee

“ With all his ugly language, which he reserved for conversation with men, he was the soul of consideration for a woman. Mrs. Lee had no fear of any rude expression from his lips. She didn't like him because she felt in his personality the touch of mob insanity which the Slavery question had kindled. She dreaded this appeal to blind instinct and belief. With a woman's intuition she felt the tragic possibility of such leadership North and South. ”

“ Lee's. At her [Pg 94] age, too, with disease helping time to chase away what beauty one has left, how she must feel it!"
"You quite mistake the case, madam," I answered; "Mrs. Lee never depended on her beauty, which, however, no one can dispute, as a means of winning love; her sincerity, intelligence, and gentle wisdom are enough to outlive the loveliness of a Venus."
"You are enthusiastic, Miss Hyde."
"I love Mrs. Lee, and speak as I feel."
"I am afraid," she said, in her blandest manner, "that my interest in the dear lady has led me into obtrusiveness, or, at least, that you think so. ”

“ It was this feeling which tempted me to ask for the privilege of paying my respects;—I see now that it was inopportune; but a warm heart is always getting one into scrapes, Miss Hyde. I shall never learn how to tame mine down. It seemed to me that the sweet invalid yonder must feel lonely in her room, and this was why that importunate request was made."
"Mrs. Lee is a woman who would find something of paradise in any position. Her sitting-room, up in the tower yonder, has always been considered the pleasantest apartment in the house." ”

“ Mearely but because Mrs. Lee instinctively greeted all the world lovingly. Under the white hair and dainty, white lace cap, the kind eyes, which had seen seventy years of life—with its human sun and shadow—go by, would beam out of the delicately wrinkled face with a delight in the flowers’ beauty and fragrance as spontaneous and young as youth itself—the spirit which37 discounts time because its habitation is with the good and the eternal. ”

“ We have grown to be great friends in an amazingly short time. Our music, our appreciation of each other's ability, has strengthened the bond between us. Mrs. Lee sends me many invitations for dinner and week-ends in her beautiful home, so that Mr. Lee and I are already well acquainted. He has asked me to call him Royal and if he might call me Phœbe. I've told him all about my life on the farm, my friends up there, and the plans and dreams of my heart. He likes to tease me and call me a little Quakeress, but I don't enjoy that for he does it in a way I don't like. ”

“ Lee took her hand and tried to speak, but, as she said, she was almost choked with the palpitation at her heart.
"You think it very silly in me, dear, to be so easily startled; but it is not altogether silliness; it is I am so weak that every little noise gives me quite a fright. I shall be better, love, please God, when I come back from Southport. I am so glad you've got the order, for you've taken a deal of pains about it." Mrs. Lee sighed.
"Don't you want to go?" asked Bessy, rather sadly. "You always seem so sorrowful and anxious when we talk about it." ”

“ Lee to tell; she therefore evaded the question, "You will find her strong enough, ma'am, to perform any service you will require." Then followed the customary questions, to which Mrs. Lee replied, as she had predetermined, simply that she was a stranger in the city, and that she was compelled, by the wants consequent on her husband's protracted illness, to seek a place for her child.
"It's much the best thing for your child, good woman." ”

“ Lee: ye’ll miss her dear ways an’ her heavenly smiles; she is yer own blood, were she not an angel intirely. But oh, ma’am, she’s been to me what no words can tell; and the short life o’ me will seem without end till I go to wait on her above. Oh, what’ll I do without her, when the whole world is dark as night?”
Mrs. Lee could not reply, for she, too, was weeping. There was something in Annorah’s desolate tone that went to her heart, and inspired a pitying affection for the plain-looking girl by her side, which she would once have thought impossible. ”

“ Miss Lee looked grave. “Well,” she said, at last, “I will admit that the idea may have occurred to him. He may even have made up his mind that some day he will ask her, but he never will. He has, at bottom, the simplest of ideals. His notions of what his wife and home should be are more than conventional—they are early Victorian. He will never ask a woman he does not love to marry him. On that I will stake my reputation for knowledge of human nature.”
There was a pause, and then she added irrelevantly:
“She blacks her eyebrows.”
“Really,” said Mrs. Orvice, with pleasure. “I'll tell Jerry.” ”

“ I think there was an effort made by Miss Hyde to keep me from Mrs. Lee's sick-room, but all her petty obstacles were swept away like a handful of rushes. Let this dainty little person take care, or she may not long remain the friend par excellence of the family. Mrs. Lee is very delicate, and may at any hour drop out of life. They are enormously rich, and most of the money comes from her real estate. I suppose Lawrence knows all this, or he would not have been in the neighborhood; but he shall never marry this girl—never—never! ”

“ Lee never lacked time for the many demands of her family and friends, she was a woman who went about among the poor a great deal. Not like Aunt Josephine, who was the president of several charitable societies and sent her yellow car about the poorer parts of New York that Kingston might bestow for her deserving aid in places where she herself could not go--Mrs. Lee worked quietly, going herself into the homes of the sick and needy and carrying with her, besides warm clothing and food, the comfort and cheer that she gave to her own dear ones. ”

“ She was certainly a very beautiful woman, tall, exquisitely formed, lithe and graceful as a leopardess. Her manners were caressing, her voice sweetly modulated, and her powers of conversation wonderfully varied. At first I was fascinated by the woman. She occupied rooms that opened on the same veranda with ours, and had stolen so completely into our companionship by a thousand little attentions to Mrs. Lee, before we really [Pg 60] knew anything about her, that afterward it seemed unnecessary to make further inquiry. ”

“ But her voice broke across it joyously, speaking into the tube—"Is that you, Elise? Stephen is coming this morning! Did you know? Yes—this morning! And we want to come over to tea—if you are going to be home. . . . What is it? Yes, we are all coming! I have not seen you in an age, dear. . . . Yes, I know." The voice grew tender and seemed to follow inaudible words with murmuring assent—"I know, dear. But that is past. We are coming now—yes. Good-by."
She returned with radiant face. "She will be at home!" ”

“ She looked sad. “Dear me,” she murmured, “I’m afraid he is not much good, after all.”
“Oh, your sex’s fatal desire to come to a conclusion! The longer you delay a conclusion, Miss Lee, the better it is. Anyhow, I elicited this much; it won’t be that,” and he nodded above them, where Marie Louise in bronze paillettes was drawing all eyes to her box.
“Oh, I could have told you that myself,” returned Miss Lee, with more confidence than she felt. “He has too much taste and love of——”
“Of you,” Peale put in.
“Of breeding, I was going to say. He does not love me.” ”

“ A contrast himself!—Mr Lee was not refined or pleasing, but his grey eyes were clear and bright beneath his brows, and every line of his harsh, rugged face was graved with a decision that almost rose to power. A passionate face, but with passion well-subdued, a face untender, proud, and illiterate, not softened by love, not refined by education, not enlarged by wide views, and general sympathy. ”

“ Lee had doubtless informed her what route he would take, and so her imagination followed him while her frail form slumbered.
She stirred uneasily on her pillow, drew her black eyebrows together, and spoke again:—
"Why does he leave my Jessie? She don't want to be left with that young man;—and he, poor fellow! how frightened he is! What is that he is saying? Wants to marry my Jessie! Alas! how the heart shrinks in her bosom! My poor child! he should not distress you so! Yet it is an honest heart he offers—full of warmth, full of goodness! Can't you understand that, my darling?" ”

“ She tore up her sheets and table linen for bandages; and she and her nieces were constantly employed in attending and cheering the wounded, while all her domestics were busied in preparing food and every thing necessary for those unhappy sufferers. Even Lee felt and acknowledged the resistless force of such generous humanity. He swore, in his vehement manner, that he was sure there would be a place reserved for madame in heaven, though no other woman should be there, and that he should wish for nothing better than to share her final destiny. ”

“ Expectation, uncertainty, the passionate yearning of the mother and wife worked in my mind in a torment that delay173 would render insupportable, and I made up my mind that if General Ramsay did not answer Mrs. Lee’s letter within four days of the time of her writing to him I would deafen my ears to every possible objection that Mrs. Lee might make, and go myself to Bath. ”

“ He was looking at her intently, and she returned the look, the flush flitting again in her face.
"Why, of course!" she said cordially. "I shall be glad to see you any time. . . . Only—" She paused a moment. "I am often away from home, you know."
"Then I shall come again—if I find you out. You will not get rid of me so easily—with an excuse!" And he touched his hat and moved away through the swinging door.
Her eyes followed the tall figure passing into the crowd. At the edge of the sidewalk he turned and looked back and raised his hat gravely to her, before he disappeared in the crowd. ”

“ I'm going to enjoy, thoroughly enjoy, my music lessons.
Mr. Lee called for me after the lesson. I told him I could find the way back to the boarding-house alone, but he said he'd consider it a pleasure and privilege to call for me. He has the nicest manners! He never needs to flounder around for the right thing to say, it just slips from his tongue like butter. Aunt Maria always says, "look out for them smooth apple-sass talkers," but I'm sure Mr. Lee is a gentleman and just the right kind for a country girl to know.
When he called at the studio this morning I felt proud to walk away with him. ”

“ On the evening of the eleventh Lee selected her gown with unusual care. During the past three years she had dressed for no man but her husband, who occasionally informed her that she always looked exactly the same to him no matter what she had on, and she had been as indifferent to the admiring glances of other men as a beautiful woman can be. She had not indulged in so much as a dinner flirtation, and had kept her ideal of matrimonial bliss so close to her eyes that she had occasionally received a hint of myopic dangers and a benumbing of certain mental faculties. ”

“ The 'brilliant coquette' with whom he could associate with safety has at least learned how to conceal her anguish. He shall yet find how fatal and poisonous is the hatred growing up like a upas-tree in the desert he has made. My acquaintance with Mr. Lee thrives. I [Pg 374] have become the intimate friend of his daughter, a tender nurse to his invalid wife. They are a singularly refined and intelligent family, so loving and true that I almost envy the simplicity which springs from so much goodness. In my friendship for his wife and daughter I find the surest means of interesting Mr. Lee. ”

“ She laughed lightly.
"You are not tired!" He was looking up at her, the puzzled look still in his eyes. "You are your own daughter!" he declared.
She smiled beneath the white border of the cap—a smile that startled him, so luminous was it, and clear and care free, "I am young," she said. "I mean never to grow old."
"You never will," he replied, lifting his hat as he left her.
She went slowly up the stairs, the little smile still on her lips.
In the library the old man with the boy's face fumbled with the papers, gathering them up in trembling hands and putting them away in the table drawer. ”

“ On the other, just within the frost-like shadow of the curtains, an angel, of the same size, knelt, with downcast face, and hands pressed softly together, praying. This was the room into which Mr. Lee carried his wife, after she had rested a few minutes in the drawing-room. He laid her upon the couch with gentle care, but she rose at once, and leaning upon her elbow, looked around. Everything was new and strange; but, oh, how beautiful! tears came into her eyes; she leaned back upon the cushions, and held out both hands.
"And you have done all this," she said. "Was ever a woman so blessed?" ”

“ Herman's mother exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with gladness; and although it was night, and the streets were dangerous for a woman to venture out, the thought of a father's and a sick mother's inexpressible anxiety, more painful because of her sense of helplessness, induced her to undertake the errand.
They kept each other company up to the point where they were compelled to part.
"Where is Mistress Margaret?" Herman asked, when he and Heinrich, watching his mother disappear at the bend of a street, turned into an alley. ”