Mrs. Thorpe

“ Thorpe blushed like a young girl.
"Oh, yes. Have you not heard? He has a parish in London, among the French weavers, where he is doing a great deal of good."
"I am right glad to hear it," said Amabel. "He is an excellent man."
"Then, perhaps, you will not be sorry to hear that he—that I—in short, we are going to be married!" said Mrs. Thorpe, smiling, in the midst of her confusion, at our astonishment. "You see, he is such a babe in the woods in respect of English ways, and needs some one to care for him, and I thought I could do as much good in that way as any other. ”

“ The face was the dark, passion-stamped face of Margaret McGowan.
The doctor crossed the room and laid his burden on the couch as Mrs. Thorpe directed him. Then he straightened himself and looked into Mrs. Thorpe's face.
Never in her life had she seen a face so haggard, so deadly white and set. The time may come to a human heart when sympathy is as keenly craved as is food and drink to a man stranded in the desert. For one long minute the doctor held Mrs. Thorpe's eyes with his, and she read in their awful depths the tragedy of his life. ”

“ And so it is settled, and baby March henceforth becomes an important member of the Thorpe household.
If I were giving a sermon, instead of attempting to write a story, I should here remark that Mrs. Thorpe was of the type of women that many men most desire for a wife—pretty, gentle, submissive, yielding, and for the good of the human race in general. I would urge the fair sex to fashion themselves in an entirely different mould; and, whether matron or maid, to stand firm and self-reliant in their own true womanhood ”

“ But it was not he, it was Barnabas Thorpe who had awakened it.
"Do you believe that the preacher hasn't injured me?" he cried, with a hot bitterness in his heart. "Oh, yes; he has won, all the way round."
He walked to his desk, unlocked it, and held out the diamonds. "You shall have what you ask," he said; "because you ask it; but never tell any one, Mrs. Thorpe, for I am ashamed of being such a fool."
Then, as she gave a little cry of joy, his fingers closed again on the locket.
"Margaret, Margaret! is his life worth a kiss?" he said. "You shall give me that for it. Ah, God! ”

“ Thorpe's outraged soul were depicted upon her face and gleamed from her dilated eyes. She had trained her mind to dwell on the divine attributes in man; but alas, how human, how very human, she felt this passion to be that possessed her now! Her blood was like fire in her veins, a strange noise was in her ears and hot, scathing words leaped to her lips.
"Dr. Eldrige," she said, and the words came keen and sharp; all her anguish and passionate anger were there, but she caught her breath sharply and stopped. Then again: "Dr. Eldrige--" Her voice wavered, fell and broke. ”

“ Thorpe kept Margaret employed; kept her hands at works of kindness and her mind filled with thoughts of others.
Among the members of the Benevolent Society there was one who took an active interest in the relief work, one who cared to go among the people and know them. This was Geraldine Vane, who had become a frequent visitor in Mrs. Thorpe's home. The trouble that had come to Geraldine had turned her thoughts from her own favored life and made her more thoughtful of others, and in Mrs. Thorpe she had found a friend such as many a girl craves, a woman older and more mature than herself. ”

“ One might study her very closely, however, and catch no hint that these facts in any degree disconcerted her.
Thorpe studied her a good deal, in a furtive way, with a curiosity born of his knowledge that the Duke had preferred her, when he might have married his widowed cousin, who was now Thorpe's own wife. How he had come to know this, he could never have told. He had breathed it in, somehow, with the gossip-laden atmosphere of that one London season of his. ”

“ Thorpe's pelisse was not half so handsome as that on her own.
"Here come my dear girls," cried Mrs. Thorpe, pointing at three smart looking females, who, arm in arm, were then moving towards her. "My dear Mrs. Allen, I long to introduce them; they will be so delighted to see you: the tallest is Isabella, my eldest; is not she a fine young woman? The others are very much admired too, but I believe Isabella is the handsomest."
The Miss Thorpes were introduced; and Miss Morland, who had been for a short time forgotten, was introduced likewise. ”

“ Thorpe, responding to the check. “It appears that you’ve consulted Miss Fanny Kirke about the date.”
“Yes,” said Andy. “I expected she would know all the details.”
“Everybody knows them,” said Mr. Thorpe. “They’re always the same. But you ought to have gone to some responsible lady like Mrs. Thorpe or Mrs. Will Werrit. I, myself, make nothing of being churchwarden. But Mrs. Thorpe seems to think that, in the position of churchwarden’s wife, she ought to have been asked to fix the date. Or Mrs. Tom Werrit. Or Mrs. Will.” He rose. ”

“ Without any striking beauty in the landscape about Thorpe, a certain pastoral and homely charm in the thatched cottages, the fields, the blossoming orchards, and even in such unromantic details as the shallow duck-pond under Widow Andrews’s wall, made a more exacting demand upon the affections of those who lived among them than could altogether be understood by such as only looked upon them from the outside. ”

“ Corbet's voice in that most beautiful song—'I know that my Redeemer liveth'—the most wonderful song ever written, to my mind."
Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs. Crump undertook our packing for us, so that we might have as much as possible of the time that yet remained for our lessons. Sir Julius had desired Mrs. Thorpe to provide us with a maid—a luxury to which we had never aspired, and which, to say truth, we had not desired. To our great joy, Mrs. Thorpe proposed that we should take her own apprentice, Mary Lee.
"It will be better for the girl than sitting closely at her sewing," said she. ”

“ Thorpe determined not to go to the house again until either Nina or Mr. Randolph sent for him. He would not run after any woman, he told himself angrily; and once or twice he was in a humour to snap the affair in two where it was and leave the country. But, on the whole, the separation whetted his passion. That airy fabric of sentiment, imagination, and civilisation called spiritual affinity, occasionally dominated him, but not for long. ”

“ Always, so long as life should be with him, Thorpe was destined to see in this tall graceful girl with the red lips and the white skin and the corn-silk hair, more beauty, more of the great mysterious spiritual beauty which is eternal, than her father or her mother or her dearest and best. ”

“ Thorpe, and you will see the same difference every where," answered the captain. "Look at the Swiss cantons, for instance. You can tell the moment, you pass from a Protestant to a Roman Catholic canton, by the look of the farms and the people."
I had seen young Mr. Thorpe several times, though his aunt did not greatly encourage his visits. But he had taken us all to see his ship, and we had gone in company once to visit good Mrs. Davis in the country. He was moreover a constant attendant at St. Anne's, and dutifully gave Mrs. Thorpe his arm home to her own door every Sunday. ”

“ I tell you, my boy, when the Lord put Adam out of the Garden for fear he might take on too much knowledge, and set him working for his living, it showed mighty plain that there are a lot of things in this old world of ours that he never intended for man to find out. Mrs. Thorpe's mind is at the bottom of this trouble; she has let it get the upper hand of her. And I don't know but an over-dose of morphine would be the best thing for her now. It wouldn't sound bad to say that Mrs. Thorpe, wife of the Reverend Maurice Thorpe, died of heart failure during one of her nervous attacks. ”

“ There is a little woman here on the Flat that chides me for this attitude, and tells me that I am wasting good strength fighting windmills. But I have not arrived at a place where I can view other people's unaccountable conduct and shortcomings in the calm, unruffled manner in which Mrs. Thorpe views them."
"I find no difficulty in seeing Mrs. Thorpe's viewpoint, Max. She proves by her daily life and work that she is a follower of the one perfect Man; she heals the sick and reforms the sinner through her understanding of the Divine Law. ”

“ Thorpe's thoughts, however, were not upon types. “Well”—he said, from the opposite chair, in his roundest, heartiest voice, when the other had with diffidence suffered himself to be served, and had deferentially lighted on one side the big cigar pressed upon him—“Well—and how's the world been using you?”
“Not very handsomely, Mr. Thorpe,” the other responded, in a hushed, constrained tone.
“Oh, chuck the Misters!” Thorpe bade him. “Aren't we old pals, man? You're plain Tavender, and I'm plain Thorpe.” ”

“ Thorpe expressed himself as in agreement. As the half-quizzical conversation progressed, he found their relations adjusting themselves with increasing rapidity. He had been successively the mystic devotee before his vision, the worshipper before his goddess; now he was unconsciously assuming the attitude of the lover before his mistress. It needs always this humanizing touch to render the greatest of all passions livable. ”

“ You can dope them and dupe them quite as well as I can. Now here's a message from the Reverend Maurice Thorpe. It came an hour ago. Mrs. Thorpe has another attack of headache. Whatever that woman does to bring on those cursed spells is more than I know. If it were not for the holy fool her husband is, I should think she quarreled with him. But whatever the trouble is, all the reverends and the chosen of the Lord could go into fits and the earth be rid of them while you are to your ears in Flat mire. Now make yourself presentable and go and give Mrs. Thorpe a dose of morphine."
Dr. Eldrige Jr. ”

“ Thorpe? Estenega and Chonita go too.”
And Thorpe gratefully accepted.
As they returned, they saw the great company streaming down from the Mission, a mass of colour. Few were on foot. No Californian walked a mile, if he had a horse to ride.
Thorpe hastened to his room to make his morning toilet. When he left it, the court and corridors were crowded with the brilliantly plumaged men and women. Reinaldo, in blue silk, was strutting about among the girls, as proud and happy as a girl dressed for her first party. ”

“ A great deal more than half the house is shut up. See, this is Mother Superior's door."
Amabel scratched on the door with her nails as our convent fashion was, and it was opened to us by Mother Prudentia. The Superior received Mrs. Thorpe very graciously; it was not in her nature to be otherwise than kind even to a heretic. Mrs. Thorpe was evidently greatly impressed, and somewhat awe struck with the lady's dignity—nevertheless she conducted herself toward her with a kind of respectful frank independence, which made me like her all the more. ”

“ There were two adjoining houses to be leased and connected with Saint Ruth's; a matter of arrangement was submitted by Dr. Thorpe. Sir Peter paced off the rooms for himself and gave his opinion. Dr. Thorpe consulted strangers on problems of obvious solution; the hard ones he and Mrs. Thorpe thought out after they went to bed.
They occupied front seats for the entertainment and Phyllis pointed people out to him.
"There is Father Carroll," she said, indicating direction with her programme. "Dr. Thorpe and Father Carroll and Mr. Landless are the committee. ”

“ But her eyes did not smile; they had a curious, almost hard, intentness which forced Thorpe to believe that her brain was casting up something more than the froth of a passing mood.
“I am afraid you won’t meet your hero of all the virtues,” he said, “even in a picturesque old continental town. But I think I understand your feeling. It is the principle of good in you demanding its proper companionship and setting.”
“Yes, that is it,” she said, softly. “That is it. I am no worse than other girls; but I flirt and waste my time abominably. ”

“ Thorpe afterward often wondered what had become of them. It is doubtful if there is a living soul who knows.
Occasionally Thorpe picked up a heap of [Pg 80] woman in the street, put it in a carriage, and saw it safely to a night’s lodging. Sometimes the woman mumbled feeble gratitude, as often cursed him because he would not give her drink. One night, when rambling about alone, he knocked down a man who was beating a pretty young Mexican woman, then collared and carried him off to the calaboose. ”

“ Harry Thorpe experienced a glow of pride each time he read this part of the letter. He liked the frankness of the lack of pretence; he admired the penetration and self-analysis which had taught her the truth that, although learning a new thing is always interesting, the practising of an old one is monotonous. And her pluck appealed to him. It is not easy for a girl to step from the position of mistress of servants to that of helping about the housework of a small family in a small town for the sake of the home to be found in it. ”

“ He was looking at Winifred as he spoke, and thinking that Thorpe had other pretty things to show Anthony. There was a soft gloom in the house, out of which seemed to spring the delicate green feathery ferns full of still strange life, and Winifred, standing among them, had a sweet light in her eyes and a half-smile on her lips. It was not very often that people agreed she was pretty, and then they were probably thinking of the fresh colouring, the bright hair, and that indescribable fairness of youth which, even without other claim to beauty, carries with it so great a charm ”