Mrs. Page

“ On my word, it will serve him; she’s as big as he is: and there’s her thrummed hat, and her muffler too. Run up, Sir John.
Mrs Ford. Go, go, sweet Sir John: Mistress Page and I will look some linen for your head.
70 Mrs Page. Quick, quick! we’ll come dress you straight: put on the gown the while. Exit Falstaff.
Mrs Ford. I would my husband would meet him in this shape: he cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she’s a witch; forbade her my house, and hath IV. 2.
75 threatened to beat her.
Mrs Page. Heaven guide him to thy husband’s cudgel, and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards! ”

“ Mrs Ford. He’s a-birding, sweet Sir John.
Mrs Page. [Within] What, ho, gossip Ford! what, ho!
Mrs Ford. Step into the chamber, Sir John.
Exit Falstaff.
Enter Mistress Page.
10 Mrs Page. How now, sweetheart! who’s at home besides yourself?
Mrs Ford. Why, none but mine own people.
Mrs Page. Indeed!
Mrs Ford. No, certainly. [Aside to her] Speak louder.
15 Mrs Page. Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here.
Mrs Ford. Why?
Mrs Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes again: he so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails against all married mankind ”

“ Now, at forty-five, in spite of her family of children, her figure was as spare and meagre as it had been at twenty, and the gown she wore, a black silk, slightly cut out at the neck, and trimmed with cheap coffee lace, was as dowdy as any of the dresses of her girlhood.
Miss Page walked with a charming dignity, her long gown moving over the floor with a soft frou-frou suggestive of silk, and cloudy concealed frills. Her appearance as she bent [7] towards the dowdy little woman, made a contrast almost ludicrous, if it had not also been somewhat pathetic. ”

“ The wood fire crackled, and the lamp illumined the comfortable room with its fifteenth-century beams overhead, its panelled walls and its red-covered sofa and chairs.
“Anne Page is not a woman to fool with,” [196] said François at last. He was thinking of what she had once said, sitting in the sunshine of the garden. “Then an artist ought to keep out of the way of any woman who cares. ”

“ She was expecting friends to dinner, but unable to resist the temptation of the garden, she had wandered from the drawing-room into the sweet evening air. She wore a dress the colour of which, in its shades of grey-green and purple, might have been suggested by the lavender in the borders. It was a graceful flowing dress; beautiful naturally, inevitably. Anne Page possessed the gift of surrounding herself with everything that was exquisite, as simply as a flower surrounds itself with leaves and dainty buds. ”

“ Yes, Zura, grape juice is what I said. Page can drink every gallon I have if he wants it, and I'll toast cheese and crackers for him all night."
[Pg 216] The twist in Jane Gray's tongue might lead to laughter, but her heart never missed the road to thoughtful kindness.
Very soon Page said he felt much better and would get home and to bed. When he took his coat and hat from the hall he looked so weak, so near to illness, I begged him to stay and let us care for him. He gently refused, saying he would be all right in the morning. I followed him to the gate. He turned to say good-night. ”

“ Mrs. Tarbury, a large, uncorseted woman, presided. Her boarders, girls for the most part, were scattered down the long table. Luncheon was properly over, but the girls were still gossiping over their tea. Flies buzzed in the sunny window, and the rumpled tablecloth was covered with crumbs. Mrs. Tarbury kissed Mrs. Page, and Julia settled down between two affectionate chorus girls.
"You know you're getting to be the handsomest thing that ever lived, Ju!" said one of these. Julia smiled without raising her eyes from the knives and forks with which she was absently playing. ”

“ It was still early in the evening when Julia bundled up the sleeping Anna, and sent her to the motor car by Chester, a gentle gray-haired man, who had been extremely appreciative of a good dinner, and who had been sitting with his wet socks in the oven, and his stupid kindly eyes contentedly fixed upon Julia and her mother.
"I may not see you again, Julie," Mrs. Page said with trembling lips. "Mama ain't strong like she once was, dear. ”

“ Page. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let’s away; follow me.
Exeunt.
V. 3 Scene III. A street leading to the Park. Enter Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Doctor Caius.
Mrs Page. Master doctor, my daughter is in green: when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before into the Park: we two must go together.
5 Caius. I know vat I have to do. Adieu.
Mrs Page. Fare you well, sir. [Exit Caius.] ”

“ Blessing on your heart for ’t!
FALSTAFF.
But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford’s wife and Page’s wife acquainted each other how they love me?
MISTRESS QUICKLY.
That were a jest indeed! They have not so little grace, I hope. That were a trick indeed! But Mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves. Her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page; and, truly, Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in Windsor leads a better life than she does. ”

“ François smiled as he looked up from his drawing, and met her blue eyes, candid as a child’s, but a woman’s eyes nevertheless.
“Sweet Anne Page!” he exclaimed. “Why shouldn’t he find the right wife? The chances are a million to one against it. Even if she exists. She would have to be a miracle of self-sacrifice and comprehension, and tact and wisdom, if she were not to stand in his way. René is an artist to his finger tips, and if only out of consideration for women, no great artist should marry. No! René must always love and ride away. ”

“ Miss Mary having the greater intuition, was the first to offer a solution. “Can it be Eileen?” she asked with dread—“Eileen and Lawrence Blake?”
They looked into each other’s eyes with a sudden sense of awakening.
“Surely not—” murmured Miss Jane, but her face belied her words.
“Oh, sister,” breathed little tender-hearted Miss Mary, “if it is true he will suffer so. I can’t bear to think of our boy suffering,” and two big tears gathered in her eyes. ”

“ Anne Page was always young, in the sense that the brooks and the hawthorn-trees and the roses are always young.”
The smile was still on his lips, and Mrs. Dakin blushed.
“Oh yes, I know,” she began hurriedly. “One never thinks of age with regard to her. I didn’t mean that exactly.”
“He must have been in love with her!” The idea ran into the undercurrent of her thoughts. “Perhaps he is still. It would be awfully romantic. And not absurd at all,” she added, as a sudden mental supplement. “Sweet Anne Page is quite pretty.” ”

“ They are dear people. I can’t tell you half their kindness to me.”
“It’s not difficult to be kind to sweet Anne Page.”
She gave him a quick glance. “It’s nice to hear the old name again.”
“No name ever suited a woman better. So you can live with the inhabitants of Dymfield without boring yourself to extinction? But of course you can. I never saw you bored.”
“Boredom is a modern disease, isn’t it? And you know I am not a modern woman.” ”

“ Yet, by some equally mysterious compensation, a woman was often so fashioned that if she could feel the upward flight was won through her, she might rest statisfied even though him she loved had soared away. It was the mother-love blending strangely with the wife-love; the protecting, inspiring, unselfish, mothering instinct, lying in the soul of every true-hearted woman.
Standing gazing at the flashing river, Lorraine, in the midst of her probing, knew that it was his ultimate success and good she wanted, as well as his freshness to sweeten her own life. ”

“ Perhaps if Miss Toland and Miss Page would dress in dark things, and assure Good Mother that they would not speak to the girls—
"Oh, certainly!" Miss Toland had agreed eagerly. Julia, awed by the airy, sombre interior of the great building, the closed doors, the far-away echoes of footsteps and subdued voices, was a little pale.
"And this is your little assistant?" said Good Mother, suddenly, turning a smile of angelic brightness upon Julia. "Well, come to mass by all means, both of you. And pray for our poor children, dear child; we are always in need of prayers." ”

“ If Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius’ wife.
Enter Slender.
SLENDER
Whoa, ho, ho, father Page!
PAGE.
Son, how now! How now, son, have you dispatched?
SLENDER.
Dispatched? I’ll make the best in Gloucestershire know on’t. Would I were hanged, la, else!
PAGE.
Of what, son?
SLENDER.
I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne Page, and she’s a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i’ the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir! And ’tis a postmaster’s boy. ”

“ All the same, I’d like to see Hal safely anchored to a real good fellow. Flip, if you could persuade her to try, she’d make you a splendid wife.”
“And what in the world should I do with a splendid wife?” laughing frankly into her face—“what an appalling possession! Lorry, old girl, I’ve got a splendid woman pal, and that’s good enough for me. If I ever want a wife you shall have the privilege of finding me one: but it won’t be until I am old and gouty, and then she had better be a hospital nurse, inured to irritability.” ”

“ You, also, are a student of psychology, doctor, and it has always seemed to me that Anne Page is a singularly interesting study.
“Nowadays in this age of modern thought, perhaps I should rather say in this age of fads and cranks, through which men and women are groping towards a different conception of life, her conduct would not have been so amazing. ”

“ Anne’s was not the usual case; he could imagine no one further from the type of woman who with sang-froid watches the departing cavalier.
The idea was preposterous, ludicrous to entertain side by side with the idea of Anne [181] Page. If Anne fell in love—heavens! if Anne fell in love!
His brain almost ceased working at the bare notion.
“René would be done for,” he reflected incoherently. “I know his idiocy where women are concerned. And if a woman like Anne Page falls in love, there’ll be the devil to pay! He’d have to marry her. A woman years older than himself. ”

“ A cynic might have smiled at the simplicity of her reasoning. Not one thought of her changed circumstances entered into her reflections. She did not consider that Anne Page the penniless companion was a very different being [207] from Anne Page the lady of great means. To her mind it only affected the situation in so far that it gave her freedom; made it possible for her to follow her own course without burdening man, woman, or child. It was only courage that was necessary. Courage to stake high, and not to shrink when sooner or later the odds should turn against her. ”

“ Page says if she would let herself go she would be the most popular teacher in school, but as it is, while she is not unpopular, she is not regarded at all. She is awfully interesting but the girls don't know it. They know she has a good voice and teaches with good method but she might as well be a phonograph for all the human interest they have in her. She is coach for the backward and wayward in Math. I believe Page Allison will have to have her, and I bet on Page for drawing her out.
I tell you that girl has done wonders with Annie Pore. ”

“ Then abruptly, after a moment, “I wish I could give Madge the life that would suit her!” he exclaimed, jerking out the words awkwardly.
Miss Page waited a moment. “What do you think would suit her?” she asked gently.
The doctor shrugged his shoulders. “She wants to live in London, you know. She [83] wants a gayer life. But I should be no use in town. I shouldn’t make a living even. I haven’t the manner. It’s as much as I can do to hold my own here.”
“Every one who knows you, ends by being thankful to find a splendid friend as well as an excellent doctor,” returned Anne. ”

“ Mother and father will be very angry, I’m afraid, but I can’t help it. It’s too good to lose, and one can’t sacrifice the whole of one’s future because of one’s parents. Besides later on, they will see how wise I’ve been. Oh dear Miss Page, when are you coming back? I want to see you so much, because by that time everything will be settled, and I can tell you all about it. I’m too excited to write any more. Only I want you very badly. Do, do come home soon.
“Your ever loving
“Sylvia.”
Anne returned the note to its envelope with a slightly worried look. ”

“ Except physically. She’s a mortal woman if ever there was one. She’s just what she always was, sweet Anne Page.”
Twilight was creeping into the studio. The polished floor with its costly rugs, the pictures on the walls, the outlines of cabinets [133] and tables, all were growing dim and indistinct. The last light from the window above the men’s heads fell across the face of the portrait on the easel. It looked down upon them gently with the wavering uncertain smile in the eyes, and on the lips, red and soft as the petals of a rose. ”

“ There was a call, and the hurried steps of some one running, just outside the door, and Lucy Ann burst into the room, her face ashy pale.
"The yard's full o' mens—Yankees," she gasped, just as the General and Hugh rose from the table.
"How many are there?" asked both gentlemen.
"They's all 'roun' the house ev'y which a-way."
The General looked at his sweetheart. She came to his side with a cry.
"Go up stairs to the top of the house," called the boys' mother.
"We can hide you; come with us," said the boys.
"Go up the back way, Frank 'n' Willy, to you-all's den," whispered Lucy Ann. ”