Mrs. Taylor

“ Great Taylor sank into a broken armchair, her huge calloused hands rested in her lap, wrists crossed, palms turned upward, fingers stiffly curled. "I know who you are," she mumbled, leaning forward and peering through the half-light. "What do you want?"
"You hung out a sign...."
"You ain't the man I expected."
"No?" He rocked up on his toes and made a gesture that indicated the piles of junk. "You're done."
"I'm done," assented Great Taylor. "I ain't going to lay a hand on the cart again. Ten years...."
"Uhm. You have a right to the things that other women have. But...." ”

“ I had a short talk, too, with the proprietor of the hotel. He thinks very highly of Mrs. Taylor. She has lived in the one apartment for years, and he cannot say enough of her discreet and uniform life. Though she made no secret of the fact that she does not live with her husband, her conduct has always been such as to insure universal respect. He did not even make mention of eccentricities. If she is crazy, it is a late development. ”

“ Taylor, upon his hesitation. "She is pretty, and she looks clever. I think we can get some work out of her."
Thereupon she sailed gracefully in the direction of Selma. Mrs. Taylor was from Maryland. Her husband, a physician, had come to Benham at the close of the war to build up a practice, and his wife had aided him by her energy and graciousness to make friends. Unlike some Southerners, she was not indolent, and yet she possessed all the ingratiating, spontaneous charm of well-bred women from that section of the country. ”

“ Like No. five hundred and ——- Broadway, Colonnade Manor was furnished with rosewood and satin from Paris.
Mrs. Taylor, good soul, entered very little into the spirit of this magnificence. She still sat in her nursery with her younger children as much as possible, darning all the stockings of the family; an occupation which Adeline thought very ungenteel, for she never condescended to use her needle at all. To make Mrs. Taylor a fine lady had been one of the least successful of Mr. Taylor's efforts; she was much too honest by nature to assume a character for which she was so little qualified. ”

“ Taylor lives is bracing without being too cold. Mrs. Taylor herself is a most excellent person, and extremely fond of them. She seems especially interested in poor Gertie, and never wearies of relating instances of the wonderful sympathy between the twins. ”

“ During President Taylor's residency in the White House there were many illustrious men in the Senate and holding other high positions. The rivalries and jealousies in politics reached an alarming height, and as General Taylor was the victim upon whom was visited many attacks and much vituperation, his brave spirit finally succumbed, and he died July 9, 1850, surrounded by his deeply afflicted family. Accompanied by her daughter Mrs. Taylor obtained a home among her relations in Kentucky, but soon became very unhappy, because of the continued manifestations of sympathy. ”

“ Her intimate friends called her ‘Madame Roland,’ from the resemblance she bore to the French champion of liberty. Mrs. Taylor herself instructed her two daughters in philosophy, Latin, and political economy. She also contributed essays and verse to the budget read at periodic meetings of the Taylor and Martineau families, for which many of her husband's verses were composed. She died in June 1823. A monument to her and her husband was erected by their children in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich. A portrait of Mrs. John Taylor by H. Meyer is in Mrs. ”

“ Taylor was a bold youth: he feared not to tell his mind to the lady; he did not stand shilly-shally, like a whimpering lover. But we are here presented with a new character, a lady fair and free. Some commentators have thought that she was a lady of easy virtue, from the epithet free; and indeed the violence of her love and jealousy seems to favour the suspicion: but let us not be too severe; free may signify no more than that she was of a cheerful disposition, and thus of the same temper with her lover: concordes animæ! ”

“ So Mrs. Taylor read a little aloud to Mr. Mill, while Mr. Taylor took a much-needed nap in the corner.
In a few days Mr. Mill called to return Mrs. Taylor's manuscript and leave a little essay he himself had [Pg 153] written on a similar theme. Mr. Taylor was greatly pleased at this fine friendship that had sprung up between his gifted wife and young Mr. Mill—Mrs. Taylor was so much improved in health, so much more buoyant! Thursday night soon became sacred at the Taylors' to Mr. Mill, and Sunday he always took dinner with them. ”

“ Although much of the time in delicate health and doing her own housework, she has always made it a rule to spend a short time each day in study, which included the sciences, Latin, Greek, Spanish, French and German. In 1889 Mr. Taylor accepted the pastorate of a church in Bridgeton. Me., and there they have since resided. Mrs. Taylor is engaged in preaching, lecturing, writing, holding children's meetings, organizing Sunday-schools and doing missionary work. As an example of a self-educated woman succeeding under adverse circumstances, Mrs. Taylor stands in the foremost rank. ”

“ Garth said. "She followed too quickly her ruling impulse to punish the man she blamed for her tragic situation. Moreover, the realization of what she had done, as is common in such cases, returned her to approximate sanity, suggested, even without her mother's prompting, Taylor's California blind as a road from her dreadful dilemma. And McDonald's daughter, through her fright and a promise of money, could be persuaded to avoid arousing her father or Clara, to throw on one of Mrs. Taylor's dresses, to hurry with her to Albany. ”

“ SISTER LEWIS (to men holding Mrs. Taylor) I don't see how come y'all want let ole flat-behind Lucy Taylor aloose—make out she so bad, now. She may be red hot but I kin cool her. I'll ride her just like Jesus rode a jackass.
(They have subsided into their seats again, but are glaring at each other. Enter Mayor Clarke thru the pulpit door and is annoyed at the clamor going on. He tries to quell the noise with a frown.)
SISTER TAYLOR Dat ain't nothin' but talk—You looks lak de Devil before day, but you ain't so bad—not half as bad as you smell. ”

“ But ere this occurred, within a few short months of her marriage, Mrs. Davis suddenly died, and a beloved child upon whom he had garnered all his affections passed forever away, the last words she had from him being those of reproof and condemnation. This incident and the sudden death of her daughter left a deep impression upon Mrs. Taylor’s life. Naturally of a quiet disposition and living from necessity almost entirely away from influences of society, this sad domestic history was left to make the greatest possible impression upon her mind. ”

“ Mrs. Taylor glanced at her sister warningly, and they both looked at me. Then they sought to detach themselves and moved away. There was some one on the farther side of the platform whom they wished to see, and Taylor, not understanding their manoeuver—he was really anxious, I think, not to be left alone with me— started down the platform after them, I following. Mrs. Taylor and her sister walked to the end of the platform and looked across, a biscuit-toss away, to where Stoddard stood talking to the girl I had already heard described as wearing a gray coat and carrying an umbrella. ”

“ Hallett Taylor and her friends, between whom and herself she felt that a chasm of irreconcilable differences of opinion existed. Mrs. Taylor had not called on her since her return. She believed that she was glad of this, and hoped that some of the severely indignant criticism which she had uttered in regard to the Reform Club movement had reached her ears. Or was Mrs. Taylor envious of her return to Benham as the true mistress of this fine establishment on the River Drive, so superior to her own? ”

“ Her smile, which had faded, reappeared. On the lips which Taylor so much admired a little [197] pout became visible, and she looked quite enchanting.
"I do not even remember being at that hotel at all," she protested. "Did Mr. Taylor say I was there?" she inquired, with just that added look of exquisite näivete which the utterance of a lover's name should call up on the face of a prospective bride.
"No," I answered gravely; "Mr. Taylor, unhappily, was not with you that morning." She looked startled. ”

“ She could see him as he had looked that night in the cottage; she could hear his voice making the confession. The letter was like him. It seemed to fall short; it had not even the courage of his love; and yet she knew he loved her. His very weakness in this hour, when he so needed strength, touched her woman’s heart. Her abhorrence of his deed had clouded her own perception of his misery, but now, in a flash, she saw it. It was as great as hers.
She was still standing there, her head bowed, when she heard steps on the piazza and her father’s latch-key in the door. ”

“ Taylor, fervently. “John Brown, I could worship you; I could go down on my knees to you. Didn’t something tell you?—didn’t you feel that you were sent? I could kiss the hem of your laprobe.”
He was not able to speak; he was helpless with shame and fright. Mrs. Taylor went on:
“Why, just look at it all around, Julia Glossop. Any person can see the hand of Providence in it. Here at noon what do we see? We see the smoke rising. ”

“ Taylor.
"I'm afraid I'll be gone by the time he is well," said Molly, coldly; and the discreet physician said ah, and that she would find Bennington quite a change from Bear Creek.
But Mrs. Taylor spoke otherwise, and at that the girl said: "I shall stay as long as I am needed. I will nurse him. I want to nurse him. I will do everything for him that I can!" she exclaimed, with force.
"And that won't be anything, deary," said Mrs. Taylor, harshly. "A year of nursing don't equal a day of sweetheart." ”

“ Taylor, by her good sense, her modesty, her uncomplaining spirit, her faculty of adding to the comforts and surroundings of her husband’s life, filled the measure of her duty, and set an example of the true woman, especially a soldier’s wife, that her sex for all time can admire and point to as worthy of imitation. ”

“ There is not an honour which we have to bestow, which is not designed to be awarded to those who have proved their title to it by steady worth. Mrs. Taylor began life with no wealth and with no patronage from powerful friends. She was dependent on her own efforts. When she enlarged her acquaintance beyond the limits of her girlhood and youth, she did not encounter a cold and unfriendly world, or find that those who had not before known her were disposed to impede her progress, or to throw embarrassments in her path. ”

“ Duty!” she repeated scornfully, “then may no man henceforth do his duty! Such virtue is more vile than vice—such courage worse than cowardice! How dare you face me or look at me? An injured woman! I mark your white face, sir, and I marvel at its pallor; it should burn with shame.”
Spencer ground his teeth in anger. “You saucy minx,” he said, “how dared you have that man here?”
“How dared I?” she repeated, “how dared I have my husband with me? Whom should I have with me if not my husband?”
She paused for breath; her bosom rose and fell, she put her hands to her throat as if she choked. ”

“ God didn’t mean that women should feel the same about it.”
“A great many do break the bonds,” said Margaret eagerly, “and begin all over again; why shouldn’t I?” she spoke with the force of longing; hour after hour she had argued thus with herself, yet at a word her soul leaped up unconvinced and the battle began all over again; that inexorable law which binds a woman’s life and fixes it in the orbit of eternity had laid hold upon her.
“A great many do?” Mrs. Allestree’s thin lips tightened and she looked away. Then she rose and gathered up her gloves and her parasol and her spectacles. ”

“ Price hurried up the long driveway to the seminary. She was going home, and, being small and round and oldish, she panted and bubbled a little in her haste. Even her exactly appropriate garb, patterned closely on “correct and distinctive styles for more mature figures,” and her very sober little hat, shaped like a sugar-bowl, palpitated with undue excitement.
She burst in upon the dean and Fanny, who were quietly enjoying a cup of tea in the sunny little sitting-room, where a yellow rose showered its golden buds against the wide stone sills of the bay window. ”

“ Virginia laughed, blushing again.
“What would we do if we all liked the same thing?” she asked lightly, and then, very sweetly: “William, I think your wife is beautiful. At first, one can’t decide, the face is so charming, so piquant; but when she smiles and those dark eyes of hers dwell on you—she’s beautiful!”
William said nothing for a moment. He was sitting in the colonel’s chair, his hat on his knees, and Virginia could see new haggard lines in his face. He did not look at her, but away toward a distant spire that appeared above the thick foliage, like a finger pointing upward. ”

“ When I met Taylor at the club the other night, he looked so cheerful I scarcely knew him.
"What is it?" cried I, advancing with outstretched hand.
"I am going to be married," was his gay reply. "This is my last night at the club."
I was glad, and showed it. Taylor is a man for whom domestic life is a necessity. He has never been at home with us, though we all liked him and he, in his way, liked us.
"And who is the fortunate lady?" I inquired; for I had been out of town for some time and had not as yet been made acquainted with the latest society news. ”