Mrs. Livingstone

“ Livingstone's husband was only an ordinary being who knew nothing whatever of Art; and it was a relief to her—and perhaps to him, poor man—when he departed this life, and left her to an artistic widowhood with anything but an artistic income—if size counts in Art. But one must eat, and one must wear clothes (in chilly, civilized Boston, at least) , and Mrs. Livingstone suddenly realized that something must be done toward supplying these necessities of life for herself and her young daughter, Mabel. ”

“ Livingstone, John Jr., Carrie, and Anna, in the same breath.
“With Miss Polly Atherton, that nice old colored lady in the kitchen,” said Mrs. Nichols.
The scowl on Mrs. Livingstone’s face darkened visibly, while her husband, thinking it time to speak, said, “It is my wish, mother, that you keep away from the kitchen. It does the negroes no good to be meddled with, and besides that, when you are hungry the servants will take you something.” ”

“ Livingstone it was the same. They thought that this was fitted to secure respect for themselves, and that it was for the good of the natives too, as it was so difficult to impress them with proper ideas on the subject of dress. "Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone were much attached, and thoroughly understood each other. The doctor was sportive and fond of a joke, and Mrs. Livingstone entered into his humor. Mrs. Livingstone was terribly anxious about her husband when he was in Africa, but before others she concealed her emotion. In society both were reserved and quiet. ”

“ Livingstone now turned upon Mabel, abusing her until John Jr. sternly commanded her to desist, bidding her “confine her remarks to himself, and let his wife alone, as she was not in the least to blame.”
“Your wife!” repeated Mrs. Livingstone—“very affectionate you’ve grown, all at once. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that you married her to spite Nellie, who you then believed was the bride of Mr. Wilbur, but you surely remember how you fainted when you accidentally learned your mistake.” ”

“ Livingstone’s modesty strikes him into a heap of confusion. “He sighs and looks, and looks and sighs again,”—he does not know “what to say, or how to say it; so that the trembling bachelor may become a wise and good lover.” He stutters and hems in the utmost distress; to increase which, all his tormentors turn up the stage, leaving him to entertain the lady alone. The sketches naturally suggest a topic, and, plunging in medias res at once, he vehemently praises her legs! The lady is astonished, and the mamma alarmed ”

“ Having for once lifted the domestic veil, we cannot resist the temptation to look into another corner of the home circle. Among the letters of congratulation that poured in at this time, none was more sincere or touching than that which Mrs. Livingstone received from her mother, Mrs. Moffat [48] . In the fullnes of her congratulations she does not forget the dark shadow that falls on the missionary's wife when the time comes for her to go back with her husband to their foreign home, and requires her to part with her children ”

“ Livingstone to the scene of action,
“Can’t my vases stay in here? Nobody’ll hurt ’em, and they’ll look so pretty,” said Anna.
“Can’t that hateful John behave, and let me alone?” said Carrie.
“And can’t Carrie quit sticking her nose in other folks’ business?” chimed in John Jr.
“Oh Lordy, what a fuss,” said Corinda, while poor Mrs. Livingstone, half distracted, took refuge under one of her dreadful headaches, and telling her children “to fight their own battles and let her alone,” returned to her room. ”

“ On their leaving Sierra Leone, the weather became very rough, and from the state of Mrs. Livingstone's health, inclining very much to fever, it was deemed necessary that she, with Oswell, should be left at the Cape, go to Kuruman for a time, and after her coming confinement, join her husband on the Zambesi in 1860. "This," says Livingstone in his Journal, "is a great trial to me, for had she come on with us, she might have proved of essential service to the Expedition in case of sickness or otherwise; but it may all turn out for the best." ”

“ The light caught him exactly and he stood and looked himself full in the face. What he saw horrified him. He felt his heart sink and saw the pallor settle deeper over his face. His hair was almost white. He was wrinkled. His eyes were small and sharp and cold. His mouth was drawn and hard. His cheeks were seamed and set like flint. He was a hard, wan, ugly old man; and as he gazed, unexpectedly in the mirror before his eyes, flashed those cursed figures.
With almost a cry Livingstone turned and looked at the portraits on the wall. ”

“ Livingstone for some medicine for old Aunt Polly, the superannuated negress, who will be remembered as having nursed Mrs. Nichols during her attack of rheumatism, and for whom grandma had conceived a strong affection. For many days she had been very ill, causing Mrs. Livingstone to wonder “what old niggers wanted to live for, bothering everybody to death.” ”

“ March 13th.—The last day of my stay with Livingstone has come and gone, and the last night we shall be together is present, and I cannot evade the morrow! I feel as though I would rebel against the fate which drives me away from him. The minutes beat fast, and grow into hours. ”

“ Not liking Glasgow, they returned to Blantyre. In a humble home there, five sons and two daughters were born. Two of the sons died in infancy, to the great sorrow of the parents. Mrs. Livingstone's family spoke and speak of her as a very loving mother, one who contributed to their home a remarkable element of brightness and serenity. Active, orderly, and of thorough cleanliness, she trained her family in the same virtues, exemplifying their value in their own home. ”

“ The Expedition had been recalled; his heart had not recovered from the desolation caused by the death of the Bishop and his brethren, as well as the Helmores in the Makololo country, and still more by the removal of Mrs. Livingstone, and the thought of his motherless children; the most heart-rending scenes had been witnessed everywhere in regions that a short time ago had been so bright; all his efforts to do good had been turned to evil, every new path he had opened having been seized as it were by the devil and turned to the most diabolical ends ”

“ Erelong, better feelings came to her aid, and with her arms wound round Mabel’s neck, as if to ask forgiveness for her unkind thoughts, she fell asleep.
CHAPTER XV.
MRS. LIVINGSTONE’S CALLS AND THEIR RESULT.
After leaving Mr. Douglass’s, Mrs. Livingstone ordered her coachman to drive her around to the house of Mrs. Atkins, where she was frequently in the habit of stopping, partly as a matter of convenience when visiting in town, and partly to learn the latest news of the day, for Mrs. Atkins was an intolerable gossip. ”

“ Probably no human being was ever in circumstances parallel to those in which Livingstone now stood. Years had passed since he had heard from home. The sound of his mother-tongue came to him only in the broken sentences of Chuma or Susi or his other attendants, or in the echoes of his own voice as he poured it out in prayer, or in some cry of home-sickness that could not be kept in. In long pain and sickness there had been neither wife nor child nor brother to cheer him with sympathy, or lighten his dull hut with a smile. ”

“ James Gordon Bennett, Jr., of the New York Herald newspaper, grasped the hand of David Livingstone. An angel from heaven could hardly have been more welcome. In a moment the sky brightened. Stanley was provided with ample stores, and was delighted to supply the wants of the traveler. The sense of sympathy, the feeling of brotherhood, the blessing of fellowship, acted like a charm. Four good meals a day, instead of the spare and tasteless food of the country, made a wonderful change on the outer man; and in a few days Livingstone was himself again--hearty and happy and hopeful as before. ”

“ Miss Allen stepped quickly towards him, smiling and saying, "Oh, Mr. Livingstone, we were meaning to tell you anyhow.... Mr. Crittenden and I are going to be married."
She smiled at him dazzlingly as she spoke, but Livingstone was not at all sure from the expression of her eyes that she saw him. It crossed his mind that she would have smiled as dazzlingly as that if a lamp-post had stood in his place.
"Married!" he cried, really aghast for both of them. That sensitive, imaginative girl tied for life to that unfeeling, rough, hard fellow. ”

“ With Lena and Anna he seemed better pleased, holding their hands and smiling down upon them through rows of teeth which Anna pronounced the whitest she had ever seen.
Mr. Livingstone was not at home, and when his mother appeared, Mrs. Livingstone did not think proper to introduce her. But if by this omission she thought to keep the old lady silent, she [Pg 268] was mistaken, for the moment Mrs. Nichols was seated, she commenced with, "Your name is Everett, I b'lieve?" ”

“ That mortals should never despair,
For He that takes care of an insect,
Much more for His children will care.
And though, to our short-sighted vision,
No way of escape may appear,
Let us trust, for when least we expect it,
The help of our Father is near. THE WIFE.
Dr. Livingstone, in his travels in Africa, came one night to the house of Mozinkwa, a friendly man, with a pleasant-looking wife and fine family of children, very "black, but comely." Perhaps their hospitable, kind ways made them look handsome to the lonely missionary, so far from home and friends. ”

“ Livingstone replied, “Not at all—not at all. I mean that my daughters shall learn everything, so that their husbands will find in them every necessary qualification.”
“Then you confidently expect them to catch husbands some time or other,” said John Jr., whereupon Carrie blushed, and looked very interesting, while Anna retorted, “Of course we shall. I wouldn’t be an old maid for the world—I’d run away first!”
And amidst the laughter which this speech called forth the company retired from the table. For some time past Mrs. Nichols had walked with a cane, limping even then. ”

“ This idea of persuading two persons into the bonds of love—of having all the courting done at second-hand, is admirably worked out. Livingstone is a well-drawn character; so well, so naturally painted, that he hardly deserves to be the hero of a farce. ”

“ It would be impossible for us to depict Mrs. Livingstone’s look of surprise and anger at this proposition. Her face alternately flushed and then grew pale, until at last she found voice to say, “I greatly prefer being alone, madam. It annoys me excessively to have any one round.”
“Considerable kind o’ touchy,” thought Mrs. Nichols, “but then the poor critter is sick, and I shan’t lay it up agin her.”
Taking out her snuff-box, she offered it to her daughter, telling her that “like enough ’twould cure her headache.” Mrs. ”

“ Indeed, he never considered himself; there were too many others to think of. One thought was that he was glad his friend had such a good servant as James to look after him. Another was pity that Livingstone had never known the joy that was awaiting himself when at the end of that mile of snow he should peep into the little cosy back room (for the front room was mysteriously closed this evening) , where a sweet-faced, frail-looking woman would be lying on a lounge with a half-dozen little curly heads bobbing about her. ”

“ The master is dead: the mistress is an old woman, hardened and repulsive, the embodiment of all that is evil, who is counting coppers in a room filled with bush, skulls, sacrifices, and charms. A number of half-starved cowed women and girls covered with dirt and sores are quarrelling over a pipe. The shrill voice and long arms of the mistress settle the matter, and make them fly helter- skelter. They call on Mary to speak, and after many interruptions she subdues and controls them, and leaves them, for the moment, impressed. ”

“ But so far from thinking of taking things more easily than before, he actually enlarges his programme, and resolves to "finish up by going round outside and south of all the sources." His spirit seems only to rise as difficulties are multiplied.
He writes to his daughter Agnes at the same time: "You remark that you think you could have traveled as well as Mrs. Baker, and I think so too. Your mamma was famous for roughing it in the bush, and was never a trouble." The allusion carries him to old days--their travels to Lake 'Ngami, Mrs. Livingstone's death, the Helmores, the Bishop, Thornton. ”

“ It was certainly, thought Livingstone, a most agreeable way to do sight-seeing, in the company of two such good-looking girls, one of them with money to burn. Of course he could have wished, they all would have preferred, some one less lumpish than that great, grim Crittenden to complete their quartet. But not every American is capable, thought Livingstone, tying his necktie in the morning and looking at himself in the glass, not every American is capable of taking on European polish. And of an American business-man what could you expect? ”

“ Guy heard her murmur, very low and plaintively, "I have loved you so long—so dearly!"
Mistress as she was of every art that can deceive, I believe she only spoke the simple truth then. With all the energy of her strong and sensual nature, I believe she did worship Livingstone. To most men she would have been far more dangerous thus, in the abandonment of her sorrow, than ever she had been in the insolence of her splendid beauty.
There are some women, very few (Johnson's fair friend, Sophy Streatfield, was one) , whom weeping does not disfigure. Their eyelids do not get red or swollen ”