Mrs. Mitchell

“ Mr. Mitchell had gone to work again; she had herself made a summer mantle for one of Miss Sutton's friends, and had been paid four [69] and sixpence for it. Albert had got a rise of a shilling a-week; and baby's cheeks were getting to have quite a colour. Mrs. Mitchell was sure that Juliet was very good and very happy, and making herself useful to her aunt and uncle. And when they could spare her to come back to London she must get a little place, and earn her own living like a woman. If Mrs. Mitchell had any fresh troubles since Juliet left home, she did not mention them in her letter. ”

“ Mitchell of her simple grace, her love of God, or love for her fellow man. In all institutions where support or home comforts were extended to unfortunate women Mrs. Mitchell was ever ready with advice and assistance. For years after leaving Milwaukee she supported a mission kindergarten, where, daily, nearly a hundred children from the lowest grades of society were taught to be self-respecting and self-sustaining men and women. In 1858 Mrs. Mitchell was elected vice-regent of the Mount Vernon Association for Wisconsin, a position she holds to the present day. ”

“ Mrs Mitchell gladly told Edith all about Aylmer Ross, how clever he was, how nice, how devoted to his little boy. He had married very young, it seemed, and had lost his wife two years after. This was ten years ago, and according to Mrs Mitchell he had never looked at another woman since. Women love to simplify in this sentimental way. ”

“ How much Mrs Mitchell did to brighten the life and to minister to the happiness of the Professor can be known only to those who have had the privilege of being admitted into the inner circle of their friends, and there are not a few who have very pleasant reminiscences of delightful intercourse with them in their house at 56 South Street, where the duty of entertaining strangers seemed never to be forgotten. ”

“ Ever sympathetic with the sufferings of others, especially of little children, she, with a few earnest women, early in the forties organized what is now known as the Protestant Orphan Asylum. Mrs. Mitchell was its first treasurer. That institution still stands, a monument to the self-sacrificing women who realized its needs while yet Milwaukee was in its infancy. As the years rolled by, children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, and great wealth rewarded their zeal, but neither prosperity nor popularity ever deprived Mrs. ”

“ Mitchell is rather under than over the average height, broad-shouldered and squarely shaped, the complexion fresh and ruddy, the nose slightly aquiline, the lips firmly shut, the glance of the eye kindly but keen. ”

“ I can learn to read without that old woman to teach me.”
“Really, Mrs. Mitchell,” said my father, taking me by the hand and leading me towards her, where she stood visibly flaming with rage and annoyance, “really, Mrs. Mitchell, you are taking too much upon you! I never said the child was to go to that woman’s school. In fact I don’t approve of what I hear of her, and I have thought of consulting some of my brethren in the presbytery on the matter before taking steps myself. I won’t have the young people in my parish oppressed in such a fashion. Terrified with dogs too! It is shameful.” ”

“ Miss Mitchell had a stock of conundrums on hand, and was a good guesser. She told her stories at all times when they happened to come into her mind. She would arrive at her sister's house, just from Poughkeepsie on a vacation, and after the threshold was crossed and she had said "Good morning," in a clear voice to be heard by all within her sight, she would, perhaps, say, "Well, I have a capital story which I must tell before I take my bonnet off, or I shall forget it!" ”

“ Erect, with burning cheeks, she looked down into his startled eyes with an expression that brought him sharply to his senses. It was a look of amazement, of incredulity, of contempt–of everything in short that he had hoped never to encounter in her face again. For a moment she stood regarding him, her breast heaving, a stray lock of hair across a hot cheek, the most distant, the most exalted, and the most beautiful figure he had ever seen. Then, without a word, she walked away. Across the open, sunlit space his eyes followed her, until, through the doorway of the cottage, she disappeared. ”

“ He swept Jane out of the circle of light from the street lamp, into the black shadow of the Farraday shrubbery, and into a breathless embrace. "You—little—rascal—" he said, huskily, gasping a trifle as he always did in moments of high emotion. "You—little—witch! Now I've got you—and I'm going to keep you! Now I guess you'll listen to what I've got to say and—and answer me!" His broad, warm face was coming inexorably nearer; life—the pleasant and placid pattern of Wetherby Ridge—was coming inexorably nearer; life with melted marshmallows floating on its surface!
"Oh, Marty, please!" ”

“ Oh, rare, very rare. Not quite fit for a young woman—a head veil."
"Are they all mine, Mother?" cried Margaret.
"Yes, my child."
"Then, Madame," she said, with rising color and engaging frankness, "may I not have the honor to offer thee the lace?"
"Why not?" said Gainor, pleased at the pretty way of the girl.
"Oh, quite impossible, child," said the vicomtesse. "It is quite too valuable."
"Please!" said Pearl. "It would so become thee."
"I really cannot."
"Thy roquelaure," laughed Mrs. Swanwick, "was—well—I did remonstrate. Why may not we too have the pleasure of extravagance?" ”

“ Miss Margaret looks ill. No one could endure it, and in the counting-house it is dreadful, and with no work to distract me."
"The Pearl goes again to Gray Court to-morrow," said the German.
"Indeed."
"Yes. I shall miss her, but it is as well. And, you, René—it is not the heat. Why do you put me off with such excuses?"
"Well, no. It is of course that villain," and he told of Girard and the invitation.
"René, a day will come when you will meet that man, and then the thing will somehow end. You cannot go on suffering as you are doing."
"I know; but a devil of indecision pursues me." ”

“ And inasmuch as I am making you my father confessor, I may as well tell you, my dear Johns, that no particular self-denial would be involved in a marriage with Mademoiselle Chalet. For myself, I am past the age of sentiment; my fortune is now established; neither myself nor my child can want for any luxury. The mother, by her present associations and by the propriety of her life, is above all suspicion ”

“ Here was maternity, parenthood, another breed than that of the Teddy-bear's hot, pink nursery.
Jane picked up the baby's stubby little hand and patted it. "Then, why do you?"
Ethel's face flamed, but she looked her inquisitor more fully in the eye than she had done at any time before. "Because—Jerry! Jerry! That's why."
"Oh ... I see. You care more for him than for your baby?"
Now there came into the childish face a look of shrewd and calculating wisdom. "I can—I could—have other babies, but I couldn't ever have another—him!" Strength here, of a sort, it appeared, in this Weak Sister. ”

“ Mitchell smiled skeptically. “Better be dismissed as an incompetent nurse than be charged with murder. But you jump to conclusions, doctor. I did not allude to Miss Vera Deane a moment ago, but to her sister, Dorothy.”
“Dorothy!”
“Yes,” continued Mitchell. “I went to the Tribune office this afternoon, and she had the effrontery to tell me that the article Miss Porter threw into the unused well on the side hill was nothing but a ‘cut’ of her photograph.” ”

“ She suspected from something she had heard that the Diva was in this vicinity.
"Now, tell me, Doctor. Where is she?"
"She? In this vicinity?"
"Come now, I am not to be deceived. You may as well tell me at once. Where is she? You are one of her intimates and I saw you come down that avenue. As the only truthful man in Austria, you may as well confess that she lives at the end of it."
The truthful man raised his Mephistophelean eyebrows, smiled and slowly shook his head. "Alas, I [15] wish, indeed, she were there! There is a villa, Countess, but no Diva in it." ”

“ When Carter Van Meter reached Los Angeles and his tearfully happy mother he drew her into the library and closed the door. "Mater," he said with an odd air of intense repressed excitement, "I'm going to show you something, but you must promise me on your honor not to breathe it to a living soul, least of all, Mrs. Lorimer."
"Oh, dearest," gasped his mother, "I promise faithfully——"
He took Honor's telegram out of his wallet and unfolded it and smoothed it out for her to read the single word it contained. Then, at her glad cry, "Sh ... Mater! It isn't—exactly—what you think. ”

“ Pats was struck afresh this morning by Miss Marshall’s appearance. She wore a light gray dress and a hat with an impressive bunch of black, and he saw, with sorrowing eyes, that she and all that pertained to her had become more distantly patrician, more generally exalted and unattainable, if possible, than heretofore. He knew little of women’s dress, but in the style and cut of this particular gown there existed an indefinable something that warned him off. No mortal woman in such attire could fail to realize her own perfection. ”

“ I might hesitate to apply it to a whole flock. I think men are more apt to use it than women."
"I stand by my adjective. Take care of your laurels, Miss Grey. I am lucky enough to have two dances with Miss Ramsay. Her brother is a cadet."
"Introduce him to me. What myriads of violets!"
"Do you remember how, when we were small, we used to fight violets?"
"How long ago it seems, John. It must have been the first June after you appeared in that amazing cap and—the cane I have it yet. Let's fight violets. It may have a charm to make me look young again—I feel so old sometimes." ”

“ Mitchell inquired.
"Oh, no, everything's all right."
"Letter from her, ain't it?"
"Yes. She's in Michigan."
"I used to go with a woman from Michigan," said the hired man. "And I thought I'd like to marry her, but I found out she'd been married twice, and I didn't feel like bein' no third choice."
"I didn't suppose you'd object to that," Milford replied, folding his letter.
"Well, I may be more particular than most fellers, but it sorter stuck in my crop. I guess it's a good plan to let all the women alone. For awhile at least," he added. "The best of 'em don't bring a man nothin' but trouble. ”

“ Her father took Rose up in his own canoe, and at the Island Camp they found their new friends. Mr. Ellett went off to take their pool, and Rose was soon seated in Carington’s canoe, facing the stern of the boat.
“No,” he said gaily, “I shall sit between you and Michelle, here in the bottom. I shall be very comfortable, and I shall be able to criticize your casts. No, I don’t mean to fish. It is your day—all yours. We shall beat you, Mr. Lyndsay. Mind, Michelle, we are bent on wholesale business.” ”

“ She had left them alone to give Martin Wetherby his chance, but ancient girl loyalty had winged her heels.
"Yes," said Jane, slipping her hand through Sarah's arm. "Sally, I've just been telling Marty that I'm going away for a while."
"Jane Vail! Going away? What for? Where?" She stood still on the sidewalk, exploding into tiny, staccato sentences.
"To New York," Jane heard herself saying with entire conviction. "I'm going away to work."
"To work?" They were all in the brightness of the street light now, and Sarah brought her nearsighted gaze close to Jane's glowing face. ”

“ What she said to her mother may be easily guessed. The vicomtesse was as usual at the evening meal, where René exerted himself to talk of his journey to Mrs. Swanwick, less interested than was her way.
The day drew to a close. The shadows came with coolness in the air. The endless embroidery went on, the knitting needles clicked, and a little later in the dusk, Margaret smiled as René went down the garden to the river, a towel on his arm. ”

“ She appeared unconscious of his steady gaze, her attention apparently centered on the flickering fire, and her hands, clasped together, rested idly in her lap. Mitchell’s profession had made him a close student of human nature and as he studied her face, partly turned from him, he concluded that Kitty did not lack strength of character and will power, whatever her faults might be. ”

“ Meanwhile he sat on the ferns at her feet. As she spoke, her color-box fell. Carington set it aside. She made no further remonstrance.
“What o’clock is it, Mr. Carington?”
“You are here till six. You can’t get away. What is the use of asking the time?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. It is my hour, Rose Lyndsay.” And he looked up. “For a year we have been seeing one another in the midst of a fog of conventionalities, and the game has been all in your hands. One cannot love and respect a woman and wish to force her to abrupt decisions, and she can always escape. I have waited.” ”

“ At last, with some final whisky, Mr. Grey went to bed.
Ann, who was waiting anxiously, eager to get through with the talk she dreaded, went at once into the library. Penhallow rising threw his cigar into the fire. She laughed, but not in her usual merry way, and cried, "Do smoke, James, I shall not mind it; I am forever disciplined to any fate. There is a spittoon in the hall—a spittoon!"
The Squire laughed joyously, and kissed her. "I can wait for my pipe; we can't have any lapse in domestic discipline." Then he added, "I hear that my good Josiah has gone away—I may as well say, run away." ”