Mrs. Middleton

“ She cast a suspicious glance at the toy terrier lying in serene majesty on the best cushion, and Mr. Middleton, being a man of honor, arose in defense of innocence.
“It was me, my dear,” he explained justly but ungrammatically. “I apologize; but really, it's enough to make even a human being growl.”
“What is?”
“Oh, everything—these strikes—and now my coal-shares have gone up another half.”
Mrs. Middleton returned to the happy reflection in the mirror.
“Peter, I'd like to cable that to Papa. He always said he did not believe you knew a wild-cat coal-mine from a tin tack.” ”

“ Middleton proposed to Henry that Alice should do so too, and offered to take her with us wherever we went; but he declined this offer in the most positive manner; and when his sister almost indignantly pressed him to explain his refusal, he said that Alice had peculiar notions on the subject which he did not wish to thwart.
"But we could persuade her out of those notions," persisted Mrs. Middleton; "for surely it is a great pity for you and for herself that she should remain a stranger to your friends and acquaintances, while you associate with them as much as before your marriage." ”

“ When Peter said that, I knew he was just lying. So I hunted you up in the directory and came right round.”
Dr. Gregory thrust his hands into his pockets. He was cornered, and his eyes sparkled with malice and anger.
“You're the matter with him,” he announced.
Mrs. Middleton stiffened in her chair. “You mean,” she said slowly, “I have made him ill—done him harm?”
“Yes.” He faced her defiantly and then looked hastily in another direction. Mrs. Middleton had grown very pale.
“How?” she asked, scarcely above her breath.
“He married the wrong woman,” he said brutally. ”

“ I answered, and felt my cheeks grow crimson.
"Edward," said Mrs. Middleton, "you renewed your acquaintance with Mrs. Ernsley last night; did you not?"
"Yes, I had not seen her since my return."
As he said these insignificant words, he sighed deeply. I could not help instantly connecting in my mind this sigh of his with something which I fancied Mrs. Ernsley might have told him of, that had fallen under her observation at Brandon; and I said in a tone of irritation, "I know nobody whom I would not talk to rather than to Mrs. Ernsley. She invariably takes a wrong view of people and of things." ”

“ Instead he sighed and turned to the fashionable depression of the square outside.
“I think it must be my liver,” he repeated with the Briton's religious respect for such matters. “And then—then there is the money, Susan. It weighs on me—it oppresses me. I can't explain.”
“It wants explaining,” said Mrs. Middleton, wide-eyed. “I've heard of people being oppressed by a good many things, but not money.” ”

“ Her strength seemed to increase with the demands upon it. Mrs. Middleton's broken spirit, and helpless despondency, needed her support almost as much as Henry's weakened mind. Her grandmother had returned to the cottage at Bridman, and nothing cheered the solitude of that melancholy abode, but the occasional visits of that angel who moved amidst all these various sufferings and dark associations like a messenger of peace. It was as a hard task, and many a martyr's palm has perchance been more easily won. She became identified with all their sorrows—almost with the remorse she witnessed ”

“ He said he didn't want anything, so I let him in first. Perhaps if you could come now, sir? They're getting impatient.”
Middleton went slowly toward the door. He had the broken, resigned air of a man mastered by fate. Mrs. Middleton stood in the middle of the hearthrug, her head thrown back, her eyes flashing defiance.
“Peter!”
He looked back over his shoulder.
“It's no good, dear. We've just got to see it through. Just think, thirty-four of them! My duty as steward—”
“Peter, I wont allow it. I will not be slave-driven like this. I was born a free American citizen ”

“ Middleton, coldly. “The fact is, we are necessary to each other. Each can promote the interests of the other.”
“That’s so, ma’am. Let’s shake hands on that,” said Rudolph, advancing with outstretched hand.
No, thank you,” said Mrs. Middleton, coldly. “You forget yourself, sir. Do not forget that I am a lady, and that you are—​—” “We are equal, ma’am, in this matter,” said Rudolph offended. ”

“ Middleton, which was meant to soothe and gratify me, threw me into inexpressible agitation, as it showed me that Edward, my uncle, and herself, considered me as much pledged to him, and our marriage as much the natural result of the acknowledgment, which in that hour of anguish and of terror had escaped from me, as if the settlements had been signed and the wedding-day named.
Towards evening I fancied that I saw on Mrs. Middleton's countenance an expression of uneasiness, as she came into my room; and, with trembling anxiety, I asked her how Edward was.
"He is not well ”

“ It was so unusual that a young English girl should be wandering about the country entirely alone—so much less usual that she should speak to a stranger—that Middleton scarcely knew how to account for it, but meanwhile accepted the fact readily and willingly, for in truth he found this mysterious personage a very likely and entertaining companion. There was a strange quality of boldness in her remarks, almost of brusqueness, that he might have expected to find in a young countrywoman of his own, if bred up among the strong-minded, but was astonished to find in a young Englishwoman. ”

“ Was it indeed my aunt? was it Mrs. Middleton? who had spoken of sending me away from her—away from Elmsley? Was it she that had said I was nothing to her in comparison with the selfish child whom, for her sake alone, I had endured? It was even so—I was nothing to her; I felt convinced of it at once; and it seemed to me in that moment as if a sudden chill struck to my heart, and crept through my whole frame. I have often wondered whether the sensation of moral suffering is as nearly allied to physical pain in every one else as in myself. ”

“ You are everything that's charming. Peter seemed—devoted. It's not that; it—it's the confounded money.”
Mrs. Middleton raised a pair of beautiful eyebrows in sad bewilderment. “Money?” she echoed.
“Yes, your money.” He got up, his old indignation aflame. “You probably wont understand. You are too American. But I knew Peter three years ago, and I saw him yesterday. ”

“ How happy you will all be! Of all the husbands you could have had, I would have chosen Mr. Edward Middleton for you—so handsome—so good—so clever as he is! I remember one day, that poor little Julia was still alive, I said to Mrs. Middleton, 'Now, what a nice thing it would be if your little girl was to marry her cousin some day, and those two fine fortunes were to make but one.' 'No, no,' she cried, 'he admires Ellen too much to wait for Julia;' and then she added—'Mrs. Hatton, I am afraid that I love Ellen more than Julia ”

“ Middleton nodded—speech being still impossible.
“Well, of course it was all what Papa would have called a 'put-up job.'” She gave a warm little chuckle. “And I don't regret it a bit. Of course I knew you were dead set on me—everybody knew that; you'd have seen the yellow press large with rumors if only you had kept your eyes open. Instead, you hung round our Avenue like a lost baby elephant, and the very creases of your trousers shrieked hopeless love and all the rest of it. Now a real Yankee would have stepped right up and rung the bell and saved me a lot of bother. ”

“ He hung over her bed and haunted her room, watching and praying for the return of consciousness and life. Not, perhaps, his peer in the first place, Mildred Middleton had not grown, had not kept pace with her husband, and she had truly of late fallen into deplorable habits for the head of a household. Nevertheless, he believed in her; loved her for her real warmth of heart, which her veil of sentimentality did not in any degree alter for him, for her optimism, her absolutely unfailing good nature, and for an intuitive womanliness he believed to be eminently her gift. ”

“ I should put the matter to the test and had it out with Mildred, Miss Mildred, I should say.”
The emir looked steadily at Mr. Middleton. There was surprise, annoyance, perhaps even vexation in his gaze. With incisive tones, he said:
“How could you so mistake me? Ours is a line whose lineage goes back twelve hundred years, a noble and unsullied line. Could I, sir, think of making my wife, making a princess of my race, a woman who could entertain the thought of stooping to marry a Dago cheap circus man? ”

“ When, at eleven o'clock the next day, I came into the breakfast-room, Edward was just arrived. He shook hands with me kindly; but his countenance was still more grave than usual.
As I was pouring out some tea, my hand trembled—Mrs. Middleton observed it, and said with a smile, "The effects of dissipation, Ellen. We really must pull up, or we shall have you regularly nervous." ”

“ He knew that his advances had not been too warmly received, and though it was incredible that any rumour of the Edgware Row establishment could disturb Lord Middleton’s mind, women took fanciful views and a whisper in Lady or Miss Middleton’s ear might have done much harm there. He began to feel very strongly that Emma was a disadvantage, that he had been drifting, that if he desired a wealthy marriage he must return to a handsome house in London and bury himself and his advantages no longer in obscurity. In short, that he must make a complete change in his life. ”

“ Having thus punished both her admirers, Miss Cary declined to dance—whether to keep her word; to avoid pleasing too much the young Federal Captain, or to soothe the ruffled spirits of his unsuccessful competitors, who may tell? For no one can thread the mazes of a girl’s caprice.
But this made little difference to Middleton. They strolled outside and found a seat. The moonlight appeared to Middleton more charming than he ever remembered it, and he discovered something which he had never known before. ”

“ She sat by the drawing room fire after tea, till the moment of Lady Middleton’s arrival, without once stirring from her seat, or altering her attitude, lost in her own thoughts and insensible of her sister’s presence; and when at last they were told that Lady Middleton waited for them at the door, she started as if she had forgotten that any one was expected. ”

“ But when they had tired of telling him what a fool he was, and gone away, the tailor's little daughter crept out of the shadows and patted him on the shoulder.
"I say, boy!" she whispered. "I've brought you some supper. Father doesn't know." The boy blessed her and ate his supper while she watched him like his mother and when he had done she kissed him on the lips.
"There, boy!" she said.
"You have nice golden hair," the boy said.
"See! it shines in the dusk. It strikes me it's the only gold I shall get in this town." ”

“ When opened, his gaze seemed fastened on the clouds which hung around the western horizon, reflecting the bright colors, and giving form and loveliness to the glorious tints of an American sunset. The hour, the calm beauty of the season, the occasion, all conspired to fill the spectators with solemn awe. Suddenly, while musing on the remarkable position in which he was placed, Middleton felt the hand which he held grasp his own with incredible power, and the old man, supported on either side by his friends, rose upright to his feet. ”

“ My mamma told me that when I grew up I must be the mother of the poor! And doesn't a mother feed her children?"
Middleton laughed.
"And as for that poor boy on the hill, he shall have tarts and cheese cakes, and plum pudding, and roast turkey, and new books every day; because I like him; I like him so much; I like him better than I do anything in the world except Fido!"
"Well, my dear," said Mr. Middleton, seizing this opportunity of administering an admonition, "like him as well as Fido, if you please; but do not pet him quite as freely as you pet Fido." ”

“ There resides Mrs. Middleton, the once happy wife, together with her four small children: to maintain them she takes in washing. Yes, reader, such, alas! is her destiny.
The tide of public opinion rolls from crime, even while it carries upon its bosom many a bark freighted with the unhallowed cargo, and involves many an innocent victim in its reckless and overwhelming course. She is now alone in the world, with none to sympathize, none to alleviate her anguish. Her little ones are the peopled world in which she moves; beyond that all is chaos.
410
XVI.
Addenda. ”

“ It was settled before they went, that on the next day they should dine in Brook-street; and Mrs. Middleton told me afterwards that she had arranged with Henry to use her best endeavours to persuade Mr. Lovell to meet them. He had charged her not to say before Alice that there would be any difficulty in obtaining this, as she had not the slightest idea that their marriage had been disapproved of by his family.
"Nothing seems to me so useless," added Mr. Middleton, "as to reproach, to remonstrate, or even to wonder, over an act which is past recall ”

“ Middleton was for ever released from further contact with a man who had filled her life so far with misery, and because I knew, as well as if her heart had been my own, that the hour of her girlish désillusion had struck early in the days of her wedded life, and that she had never for a moment loved him afterwards. ”