Mrs. Smithers

“ Smithers under her breath. She brooded over this information for a minute, in which her companion became aware that Sigrid was speaking again—very quietly. If she had spoken angrily Mary Compton would not have felt her heart beating against her ribs in an absurd, horrible excitement. "It's amazing what a little a lot of money is," Mrs. Smithers philosophized gloomily. "I've done a powerful lot of saving, and two thousand pounds seems a powerful lot to have saved, but what's eighty pounds a year? A mere drop in an ocean. One couldn't keep oneself in boots and shoes with it." ”

“ An old woman like me doesn't want much. Take it, Sigrid; it'll keep you for a bit, until—until——"
"It won't do, Smithy—I want money—a great deal of money. It costs so much to live magnificently—" She spoke with great slowness and deliberation. Suddenly she turned. There was a kind of panic in her eyes. "Life's not got to be too strong for me—I've got to go on as I will—stick to me!"
A wave of delicate, youthful colour swept up into Mrs. Smithers's cheeks. Her whole life, lived selflessly, loyally, in another's splendour culminated in this moment—in this appeal. ”

“ Smithers,” cried Dorothy, almost moved to tears, “please don’t leave me in the lurch! What should I do without you, with all these people on my hands? Don’t think of such a thing as leaving me!”
“Miss Carr,” said Mrs. Smithers, solemnly, with one long bony finger laid alongside of her hooked nose, “’t ain’t necessary for you to run no Summer hotel, that’s what it ain’t. These ’ere all be relations of your uncle’s wife and none of his’n except by marriage. Wot’s more, your uncle don’t want ’em ’ere, that’s wot ’e don’t.” ”

“ Smithers was very fond of his own two children, Harold Stamford and Alice Regina, both of whom he spoiled dreadfully.
One was eleven, the other ten, and they were as disagreeable, self-willed and conceited as overindulgence could make them.
Perhaps Smithers had a stepfather's dislike for Tommy.
One thing is certain, he frequently beat him and rarely said a word to the others.
Mrs. Smithers always looked sad and worried, which was no wonder, as she had to put up with a great deal from her husband. ”

“ Just to make us all hate each other, just to show us what a silly, colourless world we live in? Smithy, this means a divorce for me. I shall desert Archie. I shall live at stage-doors and spend my fortune on front seats in the pit. I shall see her dance at last——"
The very poignant feeling which underlay her desperate humour touched Mrs. Smithers to the quick. At all times she was inclined to treat facetiousness seriously, most of life's jokes having been made at her expense, and she saw more of Mary Compton's grief than the latter knew. ”

“ Mrs. Smithers rejoined. "You oughtn't to blame him for that; as he grows older he'll know better."
"I doubt it, ma'am. I doubt it very much," replied her husband, seating himself before the stove.
Mr. Smithers was a tall, consequential man, in the prime of life, dark in complexion and not bad looking.
His wife was a widow when he married her, and she had one son, the Tommy of whom Smithers was now complaining.
Our friend was commonly called "Soft" Tommy, on account of the simplicity of his nature and the numerous mistakes he was constantly making. ”

“ Later, the medal would be produced. Poor Alfred Smithers! Nature's low comedian, and yet smitten with a raging madness [Pg 128] for the strut, the soliloquy, the limelight, the sympathetic music, the roar of applause!
In his new part of hero he invented business that was not good. He began to be, as he phrased it, "master in his own house." He interfered in matters which were the special province of Mrs Smithers. He gave detailed instructions in domestic subjects of which he was completely ignorant, and brought upon himself ridicule. ”

“ Smithers,” said Dorothy, severely, 79 “I do not want to hear any more about dead people, or resurrected cats, or anything of that nature. What’s gone is gone, and there’s no use in continually referring to it.”
At this significant moment, Claudius Tiberius paraded somewhat ostentatiously through the kitchen and went outdoors.
“You see, Miss?” asked Mrs. Smithers, with ill-concealed satisfaction. “Wot’s gone ain’t always gone for long, that’s wot it ain’t.” ”

“ Mrs. Smithers only answers her letters by threats of vengeance if she dares go to Mullen House. I can't write to uncle Tom; for Mrs. Smithers hates him for having tried to make her behave decently, and, now that she is independent, she will do nothing for him. Cannot you do something, Patty, to help this poor girl? She looks half dead, and she has always been delicate.
I am too troubled about this to write about any thing else; but I hope you will have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Very truly yours,
Hazard Breck. ”

“ Dodd’s Third Husband
Insidiously, a single idea took possession of the entire household. Mrs. Smithers kept a spade near at hand and systematically dug, as opportunity offered. Dorothy became accustomed to an odorous lantern which stood near the back door in the daytime and bobbed about among the shrubbery at night.
There was definite method in the madness of Mrs. Smithers, however, for she had once seen the departed Mr. Judson going out to the orchard with a tin box under his arm and her own spade but partially concealed under his long overcoat. ”

“ Smithers coughed apologetically.
"I never was a hand at figures, Sigrid."
"Never mind. Take your time."
"I don't know rightly—it looks to me like a thousand."
"That must be about right. Well, that's what we've got. No more. What would you have me do—teach dancing to loutish girls in some stuffy English suburb? No, Smithy. You wouldn't. In my art there is no one greater than I—there never has been—and though I want to live I mustn't burn out like some poor candle. I must be a splendid rocket, lighting up all the country, and most splendid of all at the last. Then darkness." ”

“ Still, they are not on a par with us, and if your first husband was a mechanic and left you with an only child, an infant at that, to go and work and die in the Nevada mines, I am not supposed to share your tastes."
"Poor man," said Mrs. Smithers, "there was no work [Pg 11] for him here. He thought he would do so much better for all of us out West. He promised to send for me and Tommy soon."
"Well, he died, and he couldn't help it," put in Smithers, who was in a bad temper.
"We can't always do what we propose; and Thompson, my dear, dear first husband, was as good as they make them." ”

“ You know that Smithers woman who has got possession of Mullen House, and [301] I dare say you have heard folks blame uncle Tom for taking so much care of her. He has always treated her better than she deserved. When her daughter ran away, she came after him to help find her; but they lost all trace till now. I am mixing things all up, for I hate to tell you the truth: it must come, though. You know well enough what father was, and—think how hard it is for me to tell you, Patty, and you'll excuse my writing this—Mrs. Smithers always said that this girl, her daughter, was my half-sister. ”

“ If I'd been myself I'd sooner have cut off my right hand—"
"That'll do," said Mr Begg. "No more need be said about it in that case. But when you are troubled with toothache again I should advise you either to take a little less laudanum or to take a good deal more. Now get on with your work."
Thus tact triumphed.
Mrs Smithers kept her word, and Mrs Warboys and the relict of the late Charles Push have missed a story [Pg 136] which would undoubtedly have amused them. Smithers has returned to his natural rôle. ”

“ My dear Agnes, it really wasn't." [Pg 132]
"Tell your own story," said Mrs Smithers, with a victor's easiness.
"I was awoke sudden," said Smithers. "I don't suppose I was more than half awake, which accounts for the error of judgment. I'm a man, and not a machine. We all blunder at times. I own I made a mistake, and I can afford to laugh at it." ”

“ Miss Smithers received all who called, and thus saved them from many painful interviews. For at [186] such times when there are many hearts to feel for us, and to offer the most delicate expressions of sympathy, there are always coarse natures who know no other manner of showing their sympathy than by opening up our wounds and making us bleed afresh.
"How many friends we have, Agnes. I did not know so many cared for us. If Guy recovers we shall be very happy," said Ruth, as Miss Smithers told them of the many who had called. ”

“ And a little later Alfred Smithers, with a distinct chill on the heroism, went up to bed.
The chill was even more distinct when in the small hours of the morning Mrs Smithers shook [Pg 131] him by the shoulder, awoke him, told him that there was a burglar in the kitchen, and asked him to go down.
In the small hours of the morning one's vitality is low. ”

“ Smithers was silent.
"What!" cried the robber, angrily; "will you not purchase your life and your property at so cheap a price?"
"I want my wife, whom you have no right to detain. Take all I have, and give me her!" exclaimed Smithers.
"By your own admission, all you are entitled to are these children," said the captain. "Do you comply with my conditions, or shall I shoot you where you stand?"
"No, no!" exclaimed Smithers, shrinking back from the uplifted pistol. "Life is sweet! life is precious!" ”

“ Carr, sternly, “it was a piece of furniture.”
“I’ve never knowed furniture,” observed Mrs. Smithers, doubtfully, “to get up and ’it people in the face wot wasn’t doin’ nothink to it. If you disturb a rockin’-chair at night w’en it’s restin’ quiet, you’ll get your ankle ’it, but I’ve never knowed no furniture to ’it people under the eye unless it ’ad been threw, that’s wot I ain’t.
“I mind me of my youngest sister,” Mrs. Smithers went on, her keen eyes uncomfortably fixed upon Dorothy. ”

“ Smithers, Tommy's mother had two children, a boy and a girl, who had respectively received the high-sounding names of Harold Stamford Smithers and Alice Regina Smithers.
Mr. Smithers himself was a clerk in a New York dry-goods house, and he resided in a quiet part of Jersey City, about half a mile from the ferry.
He prided himself upon being high-toned, and above all things boasted that he was master in his own house. ”

“ Smithers, who at once pushed it with a careless gesture towards his companion. You can of course guess the date I made use of: July 17, 19—. Mr. T——, who had evidently looked upon this matter as mere play, flushed scarlet as he read these words, and for one instant looked as if he had rather fly the house than answer Joe Smithers's nonchalant glance of inquiry.
"I have given my word and will keep it," he said at last, but with a look in my direction that sent me reluctantly back to my retreat. "I don't suppose you want names," he went on ”

“ Smithers sees plainly enough that the end is near. The fugitive touches the ground with only the balls of his feet, as if each step were torture, and expels his breath with unceasing violence. He does not gasp or pant,—he groans. ”

“ Look at this.
(Smithers comes forward and looks at pot as she indicates.)
Smithers.
I see nothing there, Miss.
Loveday.
The earth has been disturbed here—look, the rest of the pot is covered with moss.
Duchess.
Oh, Loveday, Loveday. The gardener has pulled up a weed, I suppose. Pulling up weeds always does disturb the moss. Even the Government knows that.
Loveday.
Gordon, Mr. Smithers—haven’t you a penknife one of you? Dig just there for me, please do.
Varlie.
(Gets suddenly restive in his keepers’ hands.) This is the limit! This beats everything. She put it there herself.
Smithers. ”

“ I agree with Miss Fielding that nothing could be more piquant than an encounter with Monck and his fierce band,” put in Mr. Montgomery Fitz Smithers, a huge six-footer, with the body of a giant and the spirit of a pigmy, who had crept out of the draft upon the plea of being the only nephew of a maiden aunt, or something of the sort.
“The spice of danger you speak of may add to your enjoyment, gentlemen; but it can scarcely add to the comfort of the young ladies of your party,” said Erminie. ”

“ In the course of conversation with the landlord Smithers learnt that one of the family (which his informant could not tell him) was still living, and that a messenger, supposed from Fern Vale, had come over that morning for the doctor. Smithers communicated this to Rainsfield, who then remembered for the first time that he had not visited the room of Eleanor, and therefore inferred that it must be she, he having had too clear a demonstration of the total absence of life in the bodies of his wife and children. ”

“ If she has got the spirit I think she has she will treat him with that contempt which he deserves."
"I see how it is," exclaimed Rainsfield, "you are prejudiced against Smithers."
"Prejudiced against Smithers, John?" replied his wife; "yes, I may be, but not in the sense you mean. You fancy I dislike the man because I would prefer Eleanor to accept another but you are mistaken. Hitherto I never disliked Smithers as a man, but as a suitor of Eleanor I certainly abhor him ”

“ It had the effect of suborning his countenance to the match, and enlisting his strenuous exertions, to induce Eleanor to accede to the wishes of the Smithers family, [121] and plight herself anew to the man who had already received her youthful acquiescence.
The offer that Smithers had made to Rainsfield was this. That they should enter into partnership, and throw their respective properties into one concern, and work together on equal terms. Smithers was to embark all the country he was then possessed of, or the proceeds arising from the sale of any portion, and what capital he could command ”