Rhoda

“ At other times she would sit silent; but though she sat silent, she held her own. Some people have this gift of voiceless emotion, of silent expression. Rhoda was never unnoticed: in her corner, crossing a street, or passing a stranger in a crowded room, she would mark her way as she passed along. It was this influence which had haunted poor George all his life, which made itself felt now as it had never done before. Rhoda now seemed suddenly to have bloomed into the sweetness and delicate brightness which belongs to some flowers, such as cyclamen and others I could name. ”

“ Delavan was at Rhoda’s elbow, looking at the miniature with her, and now and then stealing a glance from the portrait to the girl’s face. “You needn’t do that, Jeff,” Mrs. Ware smiled at him, “for you can’t find the least resemblance to me in Rhoda’s features. She’s like her father in looks and disposition and everything,” and her eyes rested fondly upon her first-born.
“But how much it is like Charlotte!” Rhoda insisted, and pointed out the likeness in mouth [37] and chin, nose and brow, in expression and in coloring. ”

“ A little later, when her father had taken Captain Brown into his office, Rhoda found Charlotte with Bully Brooks in her lap, alternately soothing [336] his ruffled dignity and stirring him to angry protest.
“Rhoda, who is that horrid old man?” she demanded.
“Why do you call him horrid? He is the finest, noblest-looking old man I’ve ever seen, and his character is as noble as his appearance.” ”

“ But she had scarcely done so when she caught sight of something which she could dimly discern to be a man, disappearing into the drawing-room, and the next moment she heard sounds within the room as of a scuffle and stifled cries.
Trembling and horror-struck, Rhoda was unable to decide whether she ought to go upstairs and call for help, when, panting and drawing deep breaths the figure stole out of the room again, shutting the door softly. ”

“ But no one ever accounted Rhoda so handsome as her younger sister. Even those who admired her most thought her forehead too high and her cheek bones too prominent for beauty.
“And this muslin is for a dress for you, Charlotte,” Rhoda went on, holding it up for their inspection. “Isn’t this vine a lovely pattern, mother? We must make it with three wide flounces, from the foot to the waist, and the skirt even wider than these we’re wearing now. And this white silk is to make a drawn bonnet for you, mother. I saw several of them in Cincinnati—they’re quite the latest thing. ”

“ Rhoda knew what long years of endeavor and sacrifice he had spent in the anti-slavery cause and how ardent had been his hope that he might live to see slavery ended and the whole country made free. She watched him now, her cheeks flushing and her heart responding with full sympathy to the grief and despair that filled his breast. ”

“ Ware speak to each other about it, although it was uppermost in both their thoughts. The renewed tenderness between them was too sacred for either to dare the risk of marring its bloom by even so much as an allusion to a subject upon which they were so widely divided.
On the fourth day of her surrender Rhoda sat at her window reading a letter from her friend, Julia Hammerton. Her active spirit was beginning to bestir itself again and as she finished the epistle she stretched her arms above her head and with a little frown remembered that she had that morning neglected one of her usual duties. ”

“ Rhoda wondered sometimes whether he did not begin to remember her; for she would find him regarding her as it were by stealth, with a frown of pain upon his face, and although he asked no questions, she felt sure that he must already be wondering whether he had not met her before.
To Rhoda the sadness in his quiet face was infinitely touching, and little by little she found ways of making herself useful to him, by copying the notes he had made concerning his curios, as well as by letting him talk to her concerning them. ”

“ They heard the neigh of a horse, over in the road, and an answering call from Rhoda’s mare, which she had left tied to the fence. “Are we nearly there?” asked the mulatto.
The path sloped downward again and she sped onward, her thoughts flashing, lightning like, across her mind. If the slaves really did not want freedom, if they were happy and contented in slavery, why was this man taking such desperate chances? Perhaps he was fleeing from a master as cruel as Uncle Tom’s. She would ask him—at last she could find out the truth from one of those who alone knew what was the truth. ”

“ At her window that night, Rhoda pondered long upon these words. “I suppose Mrs. Benedict is right,” she said to herself finally. “It was only my pride—and my love, that made me think I could atone for even this one bit of his wrongdoing. He will have to suffer for it, for all of it, himself, before he can see that it is wrong. And we shall all have to suffer, North and South alike, for this awful sin of slavery, for the North is to blame almost as much as the South.
“‘Sweat and suffer stripes’! Bloody sweat, father thinks it will be,—he is so sure that it will end in war. ”

“ I am afraid that poor dear Rhoda— (I may talk without scruple of her, because, as you know, I admire her so much, and have such a real affection for her) —I am sadly afraid that Rhoda, with all her beauty, will be what my boys call nowhere. She has not an idea, poor child, no, not the very slightest, de se faire valoir. Girls with less than half her good looks would make their way twice as well from the mere fact that Rhoda is simply good and shy and unaffected, and knows no more than my toy-terrier does how to make the most of herself. ”

“ Rhoda was so desperately interested in him and his happiness that, as soon as an opening came for her to help, her instinct came to her aid and once more she said the right thing in the right way.
“Take her away,” said she. “Don’t let her go away by herself, but make her travel with you. When you’re once away from your pictures and curios you will have to depend upon her. And you must teach her to depend upon you.” ”

“ Rhoda drew her bonnet on, and caught her black silk mantle in her hand, and without strength to throw it across her shoulders, dropped before her bed, and uttered a strange prayer. "Let her die rather than go back to disgrace, my God! my God!"
She tried to rise, and failed in the effort, and superstitiously renewed her prayer. "Send death to her rather!"—and Rhoda's vision under her shut eyes conjured up clouds and lightnings, and spheres in conflagration.
There is nothing so indicative of fevered or of bad blood as the tendency to counsel the Almighty how he shall deal with his creatures. ”

“ That northern blood is half brine.'
Rhoda stood speechless; her anger, shame, and pain transcended blushes, and she changed to dead white.
'And you pick out one who can love like a man, who fires at a word or a look, and him you delight to stab and torment with your cruel tongue, while you use him for your ends. Shameless! You have dropped yourself into his arms even, so to heat the Alien from his fishes' blood. ”

“ As she straightened the piano cover and set the chairs against the wall Rhoda’s lips curved in [187] a proud little smile at the thought that his love for her was strong enough, her attraction for him potent enough, to hold his heart thus steadily against her constant refusal of his wish. For herself, she knew that she would never marry any one else. But it was different, she told herself, with a man. ”

“ Charlotte tossed her head and her saucy countenance twinkled with mischief. Rhoda noted her expression and wondered what it might portend, but said nothing. “If you’re not going to marry Jeff Delavan,” she went on, “it’s time somebody else did! The idea of letting such a fine young man, with a beautiful old estate like Fairmount, pine away in single misery!” ”

“ Very charming did she look when the sofa was wheeled into the dining-room, and she lay in her pretty pink fineries the centre of attraction and attention; but the flush of excitement soon faded, and the dark eyes looked pathetic in spite of their smiles. Rhoda watched the faces of father and mother, and her heart sank as she saw the elder man knit his brow, and the younger look away quickly and bite his lip under his moustache as if the sight were too painful to be endured. ”

“ He drew a little toward her again and as she looked down into his face and read his heart in it she felt her own stir in response.
“But, Rhoda,” his voice was tender and lingered over her name, “you don’t realize what you are doing.” Unconsciously her figure relaxed into less rigid lines and within her breast she began to feel a soft, insidious longing. “In hiding a runaway slave you are disobeying the law—you are guilty of a criminal act. The marshal and his men were just behind me—they went down the other road, but are coming back. They’ll be here soon!” ”

“ It makes everything so bare and hopeless! It makes me fear that you have killed your love. Rhoda, you do love me, yet?”
She turned slowly toward him and lifted her downcast face, alight with all the glow that was in her heart. “Jeff,” and the word as it came from her tenderly smiling lips was a caress, “Jeff, I love you so much that my heart has made me forgive you even that you allowed Mary Ellen—Lear White—to be sold.” ”

“ Dismounting they led their horses across the hills, the fallen autumnal glories billowing beneath their feet.
[361] Already Rhoda’s mood had begun to sober. The Puritan was claiming his own again. Down that wood road she had driven her buggy, on a winter day, to bring out the fugitive negro lad whom she had sent flying to the cave for safety from the pursuing marshal. They passed the cave itself, where, more than three years previous, she had hidden the mulatto, running for the freedom dearer than life from this very man who was bending near her now with ardent looks of love. ”

“ So, now, she made no sign to either her husband or her daughter that she had any knowledge of the Underground activities in which they were engaged or of the fugitive slaves who were sheltered in the house. Rhoda was never able to guess whether she knew much or little of what went on under her roof nor whether or not she resented it or was grieved by it. But the girl’s heart ached constantly with sympathy for what she felt must be her mother’s pain. ”

“ He spoke in a queer, wheezy voice, like a cracked flute, combined with the effect of an ill-resined fiddle-bow.
"You are in the garden of Queen Anne's Farm," said Rhoda.
"And you're my pretty little niece, are you? 'the darkie lass,' as your father says. "Little," says I; why, you needn't be ashamed to stand beside a grenadier. Trust the country for growing fine gals."
"You are my uncle, then?" said Rhoda. "Tell me how my sister is. Is she well? Is she quite happy?"
"Dahly?" returned old Anthony, slowly.
"Yes, yes; my sister!" Rhoda looked at him with distressful eagerness. ”

“ Then Rhoda arose in a towering rage. “You are a detestable creature! I wish I had never seen you. If I were a man, I’d—I’d fight a duel with you, and—”
“Kill me?” said James, leaning toward her. “You can slay me now with your killing glances if you will. ’Deed, Miss Rhoda, I do love to make you mad. You are always running down Maryland, you know, and calling us fire-eaters, and it just does me good to make the sparks fly. ”

“ In spite of all that she knew and all that she guessed, Rhoda found it impossible to be as stiff and cold to him as she wished. How could she retain her belief that he was guilty of manslaughter, if not of actual murder, when he could laugh so merrily, and speak so light-heartedly, that she could scarcely believe the man of thirty to be more than a boy still? ”

“ The three of them were in an upstairs chamber used as a sewing-room, Rhoda fitting upon her sister the bodice of a white gown and Mrs. Ware, between stitches as she darned a three-cornered tear in the muslin window curtain which the kitten had just made, looking on and making suggestions.
Charlotte tossed her head and tilted her hoopskirts as she did some dancing steps in front of the mirror. “Oh, what’s the use, as long as Rhoda likes to sew and I don’t! You couldn’t, mother, when you were my age. I hope she won’t marry anybody as long as I’m at home. ”

“ With Rhoda, a new Adelaide was as well created. But in the counterpoint played by these sisters upon Quincy, the elder had the upper hand.
It was the common mistake of most people to call Rhoda the prettier of the two. Such are the triumphs of an aggressive spirit. For although the younger girl was essentially the finer girl, her subdued nature shone forth badly beside the obvious brilliance of her sister. Rhoda was tall and dark; Adelaide was short and blonde. Rhoda’s eyes were large, brown, pent-up always with whatever mood possessed her. ”

“ What better can I do in the world than to help my beloved South to maintain and extend her social order in which the negro, a mere animal, does the work for which he is fitted and to which he was appointed by the Creator, and the white man, created by God in His own image, is left unhampered to develop his own God-given talents and so produce such splendid results? But I am lonely, my dear one, and I long always for the presence and the companionship of the mate God made for me. Rhoda, darling, do not be cruel any longer! ”