Mrs. Raymond

“ The one who stands on the bank, there, with the wreath of leaves on her hat?"
Mrs. Raymond's brother asked the question, as he sat with his sister on an elevated spot under a big tree, surveying the gay crowds roaming about in all directions.
"That? It is one of the Dering twins," answered Mrs. Raymond, with a smile of interest. "But I don't know which; they are not to be distinguished; they are lovely girls, so fresh and unaffected. ”

“ I am told he has gone to the city to seek his fortune.”
Mrs. Raymond was glad to have some one to whom she could impart her anxiety.
“I am feeling very anxious about him,” she said. “I received a letter from Harry four days ago, just after he reached New York, and I have heard nothing since.”
“No doubt he is very busy,” said the squire.
“He would not be too busy to write me a few lines. He would know that I should feel anxious,” said Mrs. Raymond.
“Don’t feel troubled, Mrs. Raymond. I know how it is with boys. They dislike writing letters. It was the way with me when I was a boy.” ”

“ Some friends will be interested in this lady,—a really beautiful character, with initials M. N. W.,—so I record something that came through from Feda on a much later occasion—in July 1916:—
Raymond's got rather a young lady with him. Not the sister who passed away a little baby. But she's young—she looks twenty-four or twenty-five. She's rather slender, rather pretty. Brown hair, oval face. Not awful handsome, but got a nice expression. She's very nice, and comes from a high sphere. She's able to come close to-night, but can't always come. ”

“ Very few women can manipulate an organ with the ease and skill shown by Mrs. Raymond. Perfect master of her instrument, her fine musical nature and cultivated taste find little difficulty in correctly rendering the works of the great masters. In 1877 she became the wife of P. V. M. Raymond, and in 1885 settled in Lincoln, Neb. Soon after that she drew together a little company of musicians for the purpose of doing chorus work. ”

“ It is a thin, straight line, which opens and shuts as he speaks, but which never curves into a smile, or contracts when he frowns.
He is deeply engaged, bending over a pack of cards spread out on the green cloth which covers the table, as if he were playing écarté without an opponent, when Raymond opens the door; but he rises at the sight of the lady, and bows low to her. He has the air of a student rather than of a man of the world.
"My good Blurosset," says Raymond, "I have brought a lady to see you, to whom I have been speaking very highly of your talents." ”

“ I saw Raymond’s coal-black charger brought to the palace gate; a small company of officers arrived soon after; care and fear was painted on each cheek, and in each eye, unrefreshed by sleep. I found Raymond and Perdita together. He was watching the rising sun, while with one arm he encircled his beloved’s waist; she looked on him, the sun of her life, with earnest gaze of mingled anxiety and tenderness. Raymond started angrily when he saw me. ”

“ Raymond is here to show you her marriage-dress, and Mr. Bainrothe calls."
"Tell them to let me sleep; don't—don't—disturb me. I am so happy—so peaceful. It is sweet, too, to think that she will be married at last. Poor thing! it was no fault of hers, though—no fault. A young actress is exposed to so many temptations, and it was better so—Harry Raymond's mistress." ”

“ L. L.—Have you any message for home?
Of course love to his mother, and to all, specially to mother. H. is doing very well. [Meaning his sister Honor.]
L. L.—In what way?
H. is helping him in a psychic way; she makes it easy for him. He doesn't think he need tell father anything, he is so certain in himself meaning Raymond, in spite of silly mistakes. It disappoints him. We must separate out the good from the bad, and not try more than one form; not the jig—jig——
L. L.—I know; jigger. [A kind of Ouija.]
No. He didn't like the jigger. He thinks he can work the table. ”

“ Time goes so fast when one is old; though I’m not really old yet, am I? Nor Chidly here, nor Dolloway, who consented, at last, to sit down to our feast with us. Ah! here’s the Mother!”
At this moment Mrs. Beckwith—one had to look twice to be sure that this round, plump matron was really the once fragile Mrs. Beckwith—appeared to add her welcome to her daughters’. She leaned proudly, as any mother might, upon the arm of a tall, broad-shouldered youth of twenty, whose upper lip had just become interesting to himself and an unfailing source of amusement to Mistress Beatrice! ”

“ You don’t believe me.”
“My dear Raymond, don’t speak so eagerly,” as his cheeks flushed.
“I must! I can’t see his happiness and yours wrecked like mine. Go with him, Anne. Don’t leave him to be poisoned. Mesmerism has its power over whoever has been under the spell. And he has—he has! She will try to turn him against you and mother.”
“Hush, Raymond! Indeed I will be on my guard. There’s no one there. What are you looking at?”
“Camilla!” he said, with eyes evidently seeing something. “Camilla! Is it not enough to have destroyed one peace?” ”

“ Timidity, which in her had almost amounted to awkwardness, was exchanged for a graceful decision of manner; frankness, instead of reserve, characterized her physiognomy; and her voice was attuned to thrilling softness. She was now three and twenty, in the pride of womanhood, fulfilling the precious duties of wife and mother, possessed of all her heart had ever coveted. Raymond was ten years older; to his previous beauty, noble mien, and commanding aspect, he now added gentlest benevolence, winning tenderness, graceful and unwearied attention to the wishes of another. ”

“ Raymond's brilliant professional career. One night, while she was dressing in her private room at the theatre, a camphene lamp exploded and her face was shockingly burned. Her beauty was destroyed forever, and her career upon the stage was ended. Thus was the public deprived of a most delightful source of entertainment, and thus was a popular actress thrown out of the profession just as she had reached the pinnacle of fame, and just as she was in a fair way to acquire a handsome fortune. ”

“ I entered.
"Well, how is Raymond?" I asked, without dissimulating my emotion.
"He is doing well. He is quiet; he has not coughed again; his breathing is regular and temperature normal. Look! he has taken the breast."
In fact, my mother seemed to be reassured, tranquillized.
Anna, seated on the bed, was nursing the infant, who drank eagerly, and, at times, during the aspiration, his lips made a slight noise. Anna's face was bent down, her eyes fixed on the carpet, motionless as bronze. ”

“ My wife said nothing, but I was very sure that she found Raymond much more attractive than me. What idiocy to bind one’s self to a person whose sentiments have nothing in common with one’s own! I said that to myself every day, and every day I spent a little less time with my wife. I left her to be amused by Raymond’s conversation; and I went off to my little bachelor apartment, to think; often I wrote there, and read, and worked; I was so comfortable there! I let my thoughts stray back to happier days; to the days when I used to find bunches of orange blossoms hung at my door. Ah! ”

“ To what condition of her soul did that unusual effusion correspond? She sang because she loved. Perhaps I am mistaken. But I shall never know the truth.
It was no longer the jealous agitation of the senses, but a more noble affliction that arose from the depths of my soul. I thought: "What remembrance has she retained of him? Has that remembrance often tormented her? The son is a living bond. She finds in Raymond something of the man to whom she has belonged; she will find more precise resemblances. ”

“ You preferred another, but he has been taken from you.”
“I thank you very much for your kind offer,” said Mrs. Raymond, “but I have never thought of marrying again since husband’s death. I do not think it would be right.”
“Such marriages take place continually.”
“I know they do; but all do not feel as I do.”
“I think your late husband would favor it. Think of your dependent condition. You have hard work to earn a poor living, and when the four hundred dollars which remain to you are gone, you will indeed be in a different position.” ”

“ We never have any secrets in our small household; and I have been so low-spirited all day over mine. Only, of course, I shall make a clean breast of the business as soon as I get home.”
“Miss Beckwith, or Beatrice, if you will let me call you so, I thank you for your confidence in me. I want to prove myself to you all that my Conrad would have been to any one dear to me, if I can. But I see very clearly that your mother is proud and self-reliant. She is not of the sort to whom one can offer pecuniary aid without offering a sting as well. I am of the same kind myself. ”

“ Raymond, I love thee now. My heart is thine and thine alone. Go forth, if thou wilt, and win honour and renown -- but thou wilt never win a higher honour and glory than I have seen thee winning day by day and hour by hour here in this very house -- and come back when and as thou wilt. Thou wilt find me waiting for thee --ever ready, ever the same. I am thine for life or death. When thou callest me I will come. ”

“ A day of sunshine falling on a dark valley, displays its before hidden characteristics; and now this smile, the same with which he first spoke love to Perdita, with which he had welcomed the protectorate, playing on his altered countenance, made me in my heart's core feel that this was Raymond.
He stretched out to me his other hand; I discerned the trace of manacles on his bared wrist. I heard my sister's sobs, and thought, happy are women who can weep, and in a passionate caress disburthen the oppression of their feelings; shame and habitual restraint hold back a man. ”

“ Raymond passed through the hall on which Lulu's room opened, a little girl, dressed in deep mourning, rose from the broad, low sill of the front window, where she had been sitting waiting for the last few minutes, and came forward to meet him. She was a rather delicate-looking, sweet-faced child, with large dark eyes, full of intelligence. ”

“ Raymond's hands were raised to his face, and he was shivering with excitement. Madge came to her father's side, and put one hand on his shoulder.
"Father, Raymond is a painter. If you were to send him to a shop, he would be a painter still. You cannot crush out what is bound up in his heart. Is it not better for him to rise to fame by painting? Some day he will be your glory and mine." ”

“ Raymond, thou wilt not forget thy vow? Thou wilt ever be true to that higher life that we have spoken of so oft together?"
Raymond's face was full of deep and steadfast purpose.
"I will be faithful, I will be true," he answered. "God helping me, I will be true to the vow we have made together. Joan shall be my witness now, as I make it anew to thee here."
"Not for fame or glory or praise of man alone," murmured John, his voice growing fainter and fainter, "but first for the glory of God and His honour, and then for the poor, the feeble, the helpless, the needy. ”

“ Raymond. "They have too sensible and lovely a mother, and besides, they are a family much devoted among themselves; there are five sisters, you will remember my telling you about the other one, Ernestine, she sang like an angel; and another one is an artist, the youngest a cripple, and—well they all seem to live solely for each other, so require little from society. ”

“ The Sun Maid laughed, just as merrily and infectiously as when she had first crept for shelter into Mercy Smith’s cabin.
“Maybe not. I’m not the judge. I’ll test my wisdom, though, by trying to help you out of that mud. I’ll be back in a moment.”
She turned to run toward the house, but Mercy remonstrated:
“You can’t help in them fine clothes. Ain’t there no men around?”
“A few. Most of them are out of the village on a big hunting frolic. We’ll manage without.” ”

“ You can’t help being wrinkley, I know that, dear Sutro, but what makes it?”
“En verdad! It may be answering thy idle questions, Little Un; yet there is one thing I would have thee know, and remember it. My soul! if thou dost not, I will be—”
“Not angry, please, Sutro!” cried Steenie, in sudden alarm.
“Maybe no. Not angry, truly. But wilt thou remember? I cannot be a hundred till the Natividad (Christmas) comes round five-and-ten times more. When I am a hundred years, thou wilt be a woman. This I know, because I asked Father Antonio when I was last at his house. ”

“ When we reached the house, I found that my wife was not anxious about me, for she was breakfasting without me. I presented Raymond, who confounded himself in compliments and high-flown praise which must have bored Pélagie; but women of little intellect often attach the greatest value to compliments; with such women one can make one’s self most agreeable with commonplace remarks, and in that respect Raymond was well endowed. ”

“ She did not hear him. She stood, resting upon her crutches, anxiously watching the toilers, straining forward, as if in that attitude she could help them, and listening—listening—with every nerve at tension. She did not see the Gray Gentleman, who had come into the park awhile before and having caught sight of his favorite’s pink frock, crossed the level space from the “Playgrounds” to the embankment to see what so interested her. As he reached the spot below the end of the trestle he, also, began to comprehend what was passing in Mary Jane’s mind and his own cheek whitened. ”