ALONE WITH HIS DEAD.
At breakfast Mr. Winthrop was more insistent in his curiosity about the
concert of the previous evening. Mrs. Flaxman assured him that we were
all agreeably disappointed in our evening's entertainment.
"Mr. Bovyer was especially charmed with Medoline's appreciation of his
favorite composer. He asked permission to call on her to-day."
He gave me a keen glance, saying: "I hope you did not grow too
enthusiastic. One need not hang out a placard to prove we can comprehend
the intricate and profound."
Mrs. Flaxman answered hastily for me.
"No, indeed; she was too quiet; and only Mr. Bovyer and myself detected
the tears dropping behind her fan. But Mr. Bovyer seemed gratified at the
meaning he read from them."
My face was burning; but after a few seconds' silence I stole a glance
at Mr. Winthrop. He was apparently absorbed in his breakfast, and
Beethoven's Symphonies were not mentioned in his presence until evening,
when Mr. Bovyer, true to his appointment, sat chatting for two or three
hours with Mr. Winthrop and his other guests. As usual, I sat a silent
listener, comprehending readily a good many things that were said; but
some of the conversation took me quite beyond my depth. I found Mr.
Bovyer could grow eloquent over his favorite topics, which, from his
phlegmatic appearance, surprised me. He seemed thoroughly acquainted
with other subjects than music, and I noticed that even Mr. Winthrop
listened to his remarks with deference. Before the evening closed Mr.
Winthrop asked him for some music. He complied so readily that I fell to
contrasting his unaffected manner with that of lady musicians who, as a
rule, take so much coaxing to gratify their friends' desire for music,
and their own vanity at the same time. I noticed Mr. Winthrop settling
back into his favorite position in his arm-chair--his head thrown back
and eyes closed. Mrs. Flaxman took up her fan and held it as if shielding
her eyes from the light. I discovered afterward it was merely a pretext
to conceal the emotion Mr. Bovyer usually awakened when she listened to
his music.
His first touch on the piano arrested me, and I turned around to watch
his face. I recognized the air--the opening passage from Haydn's
Creation. I was soon spellbound, as were all the rest. Mrs. Flaxman laid
down her fan; there were no melting passages to bring tears in this
symphony, descriptive of primeval darkness, and confusion of the
elements, the evil spirits hurrying away from the glad, new light into
their native regions of eternal night--the thunder and storm and
elemental terrors. Presently I turned to Mr. Winthrop. He was sitting
erect in his chair, his eyes no longer closed in languorous enjoyment;
when suddenly the measure changed to that delicious passage descriptive
of the creation of birds. Mr. Bovyer's voice was a trifle too deep and
powerful for the air, but it was sympathetic and rarely musical.
He ended as abruptly as he began and glided off into one of those old
English glees,--"Hail, Smiling Morn."
Presently turning around he asked: "Are you tired?"
"We have failed to take note of the flight of time; pray go on," Mr.
Winthrop urged.
"What do you say, Miss Selwyn?"
"I would like if you could make Mr. Winthrop cry. If you tried very hard,
you might touch his fountain of tears."
"Bravo! I will try," he exclaimed amid the general laugh. He touched the
keys, and then pausing a moment, left the instrument.
"I am not in the mood to-night for such a difficult task. I may make the
attempt some stormy winter's night at Oaklands. I believe I have a
standing invitation there," he said, joining us around the fire.
Mr. Winthrop threw me an amazed look, but instantly recovering himself he
said heartily:--"The invitation holds good during the term of our natural
lives. The sooner it is accepted the more delighted we shall be."
Mr. Bovyer bowed his thanks, and coming to my side asked if I would care
to attend another concert the following evening.
"It depends on what the music is to be. I am not so sensitive as Mr.
Winthrop to a few false notes now and then. The composer has more power
to give me pain than the performers, I believe."
"I should say, then, that your comprehension of music was more subtle
than his."
"I do not pretend to compare myself with Mr. Winthrop in any way. It
would be like the minnow claiming fellowship with the leviathan."
Mr. Winthrop suggested very politely:--
"Humility is becoming until it grows abject."
"Your guardian is an incorrigible bachelor. Ladies do not get the
slightest mercy from him," Mr. Bovyer remarked.
"I have ceased to look for any," I said, with an evenness of voice that
surprised me.
"I am glad to find myself in such good company," Mr. Winthrop said, with
a graceful bend of the head, which included each of his guests in the
list of single blessed ones.
"Are you all going to be old bachelors?" I asked, forgetting myself in
the surprise of the moment.
"I am not aware that we are all irrevocably committed to that terrible
fate," Mr. Bovyer said, as he united in the general smile at my expense.
"It might be more terrible for some of your wives than if you remained
single. I think some persons are fore-ordained to live single." I looked
steadily in the fire lest my eyes might betray too much.
"Do you imagine those blighted lives are confined solely to one sex?" Mr.
Winthrop blandly inquired.
"Oh, no; nature does not confine her oddities to one sex; but a woman can
better conceal the lack of a human heart and sympathies."
"You mean they are better actresses?"
"Yes, I think so."
"I must tell you, gentlemen, this little ward of mine is a natural
philanthropist. You would be amazed to see how she sympathizes with
widows and the broken-hearted of both sexes. I have been forced to limit
her charities to a certain yearly amount lest her husband may one day
call me to account for her wasted means."
"It is the most beautiful trait in womankind." Mr. Bovyer responded,
heartily, just as a passionate retort had sprung to my lips. The second's
interruption gave me time to regain my self-control; but the color flamed
over brow and cheek as I rose and walked to the farther end of the room
and stood turning over the leaves of a book lying on the table. I could
still hear what was said and was surprised that Mr. Winthrop turned the
conversation so cleverly into other channels. It was growing late, and
before long the guests retired. Mr. Bovyer, as he shook hands with me,
said: "You have not answered my question yet. Will you come to the
Philharmonic to-morrow evening?"
I looked to Mr. Winthrop for a reply.
"I think you must deny yourself that pleasure, as we shall probably go
home to-morrow."
"So soon?" I asked with surprise.
"The time I limited myself to expired yesterday. We can return this
winter, and complete any unfinished business or pleasure that you now
leave undone."
"My business is finished. It happens to be a pleasure to return to
Oaklands."
I murmured my thanks to Mr. Bovyer, and withdrew the hand he was still
holding.
When we were at last alone, Mrs. Flaxman drew her chair near the fire and
settling back comfortably as if she were in no hurry to retire, said very
seriously:--"This is unexpected--our going home to-morrow."
"I am afraid Bovyer is about making an ass of himself. Strange what
weaknesses come over strong men sometimes! He was the last I should
have expected such a thing from," Mr. Winthrop said.
"Was it fear of this that sends you home so abruptly?" Mrs. Flaxman
asked, with a look of amusement.
"One reason."
"He would be a very good _parti_; only a little too old, perhaps."
"What are you thinking of? I shall not let that child get entangled for
years." He said, almost angrily.
"What has Mr. Bovyer done?" I inquired, a good deal mystified.
"You are too young to have everything explained. I want you to keep your
child's heart for a good many years yet."
"What a pity young people cannot keep the child's heart until they get
some good out of life. Not begin at once with its storms and passions,"
Mrs. Flaxman remarked, in a moralizing tone.
"Do you mean falling in love, Mrs. Flaxman?"
"Possibly that was what I meant, but it is to be a tabooed topic with you
for some years yet, Mr. Winthrop decides."
"You have been unusually fortunate in that respect, Mr. Winthrop. I
used to think every one fell in love before they came to your age." Mrs.
Flaxman glanced at him with a pained, startled look which I did not
understand. I noticed that his face though grave was unruffled; but he
made me no reply.
I could not explain the reason, but I felt grieved that I had made the
remark, and slipped quietly out of the room without my usual good-night.
The next day we left for home. Mr. Winthrop was not fortunate in meeting
friends; so he sat beside us. I would have preferred being alone with
Mrs. Flaxman, without the restraint of his society. We had not been able
on that train to secure a parlor car, for which I was very glad. There
seemed more variety and wider types of humanity in the plainer car, and I
liked to study the different groups and indulge in my dreams concerning
them. My attention was suddenly attracted, at a station we were
approaching, by a hearse and funeral procession apparently waiting for
us. The cars moving along presently hid them from my view, and my
attention was suddenly distracted from this melancholy spectacle by the
unusual circumstance of a man coming alone into the car with an infant in
his arms. The cars scarcely paused, and while I watched to see the mother
following her baby the brakeman came in with an armfull of shawls,
satchels, and baskets. The baby soon began to cry; when it was pitiful to
watch the poor fellow's futile efforts to hush its wailings, while he
tossed over the parcels apparently in search of something; but the baby's
cries continued to increase in volume, and the missing article, whatever
it was, refused to turn up.
Mr. Winthrop cast a look on it that might have annihilated a much
stronger specimen of humanity; but the father, as I supposed him to be,
intercepted the wrathful gaze, and his face, already sorrowful looking,
became more distressed than ever.
I waited impatiently for some older woman to go to his relief; but men
and women alike seemed to regard the little waif with displeasure; so at
last slipping swiftly out of my seat lest Mr. Winthrop might intercept
me, I went straight to the poor fellow's relief.
"What is the matter with the baby?" I asked, as sympathetically as I
could.
"He is hungry, and they have taken his food by mistake, I am afraid, to
the baggage car."
"May I take care of him while you go for it?"
"If you only would, I would be so grateful."
I sat down and he put the bit of vocality in my arms, and then hastened
after its dinner. I glanced towards Mr. Winthrop. I fancied that his face
expressed volumes of shocked proprieties; so I quickly withdrew my gaze,
since it was not at all comforting, and devoted myself exclusively to the
poor little baby. Its clothing had got all awry, its hands were blue with
cold, and the tears from its pretty, blurred eyes were running in a
copious stream. I dried its face, took off its cap and cloak, and got its
garments nicely straightened out, and then to complete the cure, for want
of something better, gave it my long suffering watch to nibble. The
little creature may have recognized the soothing effect of a woman's
hands, or it may have been the bright tick, tick which it was gazing at
now with pleased expression, and with its untutored tongue was already
trying to imitate. What the cause was I could not say; but when the
father returned, silence reigned in the car so far as his offspring was
concerned. His face brightened perceptibly. "It does seem as if a baby
knew a woman's touch," he said, with such a sigh of relief.
"They know when their clothes are comfortable and their hands warm."
"His mother always attended to him. He and I were only playfellows."
"Where is his mother now?" I asked, no longer able to restrain my
curiosity.
"In the freight room." His eyes filled with tears.
"Was it her coffin I saw in the hearse awhile ago?"
"Yes."
"Oh I am so sorry;" and I too burst into tears. He busied himself getting
a spirit lamp lighted, and soon the baby's milk was simmering, and almost
before good humor had been restored throughout the car the baby had
comfortably dined, and gone off into a refreshing slumber. I made him a
snug little bed out of rugs and shawls, and laid him down in blissful
unconsciousness of the cold, still form, even more unconscious than he,
in the adjoining freight room.
The passengers as well as Mr. Winthrop had been watching me curiously,
and my sudden burst of tears had mystified them.
Once the baby was nicely settled to its nap I returned to my seat. Mrs.
Flaxman eagerly asked why there was no woman to look after the baby.
I saw Mr. Winthrop listening, as if interested also in the strange
phenomenon of a man in attendance alone on an infant.
"The mother is in the freight room."
"What?" Mrs. Flaxman asked, looking a trifle alarmed.
"She is in her coffin." My lip trembled, and with difficulty I restrained
my tears once more.
"How dreadful!" she murmured, and presently I saw her wiping away her own
tears.
"And you were the only one brave enough to go to him in his trouble.
Medoline, I am proud of you, but ashamed of myself."
"I couldn't help going; he looked so distressed, and I could see he
wasn't fit to look after the baby. Men are so useless about such things,"
I said, giving Mr. Winthrop a humorous glance.
"Another case of widowers," Mr. Winthrop whispered, as he bent his head
near to mine; but I saw that he too was not unmoved, and the look he
bestowed upon me was equal to a caress.
"I am going to speak to that poor man myself." Mrs. Flaxman said very
energetically, after she had got her eyes dried.
She went, but very soon I saw her handkerchief in active service again.
They sat chatting a long time, while all the passengers seemed to have a
growing interest in their fellow traveller and his little charge. The
latter wakened while Mrs. Flaxman was still lingering beside the bereaved
father. It cried at first; but she soon got him so comfortable and
content, that he was laughing and cooing into the wintry looking faces of
his father and new nurse. I wanted to have the dear little fellow in my
own arms, he had such a bright, intelligent face, and his smile was so
sunny; but I could not muster courage to go and ask for him.
Mrs. Flaxman probably noticed my wistful look, for she presently returned
to her own seat bringing him with her. She had scarcely left the father's
side when a white-haired, kindly-faced old gentleman at the farther end
of the car got up and came stumbling along, and took a seat beside him.
The poor fellow winced. He shrank, no doubt, from opening his wound
afresh for another stranger to probe. But there was something so
sympathetic in the old man's face, and the hearty shake of the hand that
he gave without even speaking, that I concluded he would do more good
than harm. After sitting a little while in silence, I overheard him
telling how he had heard of his trouble through the conductor. I had not
asked him anything about his wife's death, that seemed a grief too sacred
to explain to a perfect stranger; but he had told Mrs. Flaxman all, and I
sat listening with a strong desire to cry while she repeated the story to
us.
"His wife died very suddenly," she said, "and they were all strangers
where they lived; but every one, he said, was so kind. He is taking his
baby home to his mother. They live a little way out of Cavendish. He said
he knew us; and was never so surprised at anything in his life as when
a beautiful young lady, like you, traveling, too, with Mr. Winthrop, came
and took his baby. Everybody was looking so crossly at the baby, he had
just begun to feel as if there was no sympathy for him in all this world
full of strangers; but, when you came, there was a great load taken off
his heart. I mean after this to be more on the watch to help others."
"Why, Mrs. Flaxman, I thought that was one of your strongest
characteristics."
"Don't ever say such a thing to me again, when if it had not been for a
tender-hearted child, with the very poorest possible opinion of herself,
we might have, amongst us, finished breaking that poor fellow's heart."
"You will make her vain if you continue praising her so much," Mr.
Winthrop remonstrated.
"She has not a natural tendency that way, and we have not helped to
foster her vanity; if we have erred, it has been in the other direction."
"Please let us cease talking personalities. Why don't you admire and
talk about this lovely boy? Wouldn't you like to have us adopt him at
Oaklands, Mr. Winthrop?"
"I expect you will not be quite satisfied until you get the position of
matron in some huge asylum for widows and orphans, with a few widowers
thrown in for variety."
"I should enjoy such a position, I believe. It never occurred to me
before. Only think! Gathering up little bits of motherless humanity
like this, and training them into noble men and women. They would go on
perpetuating my work long after my eyes were sleeping under the daisies.
Why that would be next thing to the immortality most of us long for."
"Do you really think you would like such a career?"
"Yes, really. If you would only help me to begin now, in a small way at
first, and build a pretty cottage in one of the Glens around Oaklands."
"Have you no higher ambition than to take care of children?"
"But what could be higher, at least within my reach? I am not clever
enough to write books--at least not good ones, and there are too many
fifth and sixth rate ones now in the market. My painting and music won't
ever amount to anything more than my book-writing could do; so what
remains for me but to try and make the world the better for having lived
in it? And the only way any of us can do that is to work for human
beings."
I was in such real earnest, I forgot for the time Mr. Winthrop's possible
sarcasm.
"You are not very moderate in your demands. Possibly I would be permitted
to share in the posthumous honors you mention, which would be some
recompense for the outlay. Of course, I would be called on to feed and
clothe, as well as shelter, your motley crowd."
"I forgot about that. Would it cost very much?"
"The expense would depend largely on the numbers you received, and it
might not be safe to trust to your discretion in limiting the number.
Your sympathies would be so wrought on, Oaklands would soon swarm with
blear-eyed specimens of humanity, and Mrs. Flaxman and I would be
compelled to seek some other shelter."
"If I were only rich myself," I said, with a hopeless sigh.
"You would very soon be poor," Mrs. Flaxman interjected, turning to Mr.
Winthrop. "I could scarcely restrain her from buying one of the most
expensive pieces of broadcloth for her blind friend."
"He may never have had a genuine suit of West of England broadcloth in
his life, and I wanted him to have the best. The difference in price
would only amount to a few dollars; and if we were getting ourselves
a satin or velvet gown we would not have hesitated a moment over the
difference of five or six dollars."
"My ward will need some severe lessons in economy before she can be
entrusted with a house full of children. Paris dolls and becoming dresses
for her prettiest children would soon drain the pocket."
I said no more. My enthusiasm, viewed in the light of my guardian's cold
criticism, seemed exceedingly Utopian, and I concluded that my best plan
was to do the work that came in my way cheerfully and lovingly, without
sighing hopelessly after the impossible. To make the motherless little
fleck of immortality happy that now nestled confidingly in my arms for
a brief hour, was the work that just then lay nearest to me; and I set
myself about doing it with right good will.
As we neared Cavendish, the kindly faced old gentleman started for his
own seat, but paused on the way at my side, and shook my hand cordially
as he said: "I want to thank you, Miss, for giving us all such a
wholesome lesson. I am an old man now, and can look back over the deeds
of more than three score and ten years; and I tell you there's none gives
me more real satisfaction than the acts of kindness I've done to others.
If I were beginning the journey again, I'd set myself to do such work as
that, rather than trying to pile up money that at the last I'd have to
leave to some one that mightn't thank me. I've a fancy, too, that the
kindnesses follow us into another life. If I don't mistake, when you get
old like me, you'll have many pleasant memories of the kind to look back
upon; and then you may remember the old man's words long after he has
crumbled to dust."
I smiled brightly up into his strong, wholesome face and would really
have liked to know more about him, but like many a person we meet on the
journey of life, as ships on some wide sea, signal briefly to each other
and then pass out of sight, so I never saw or heard of him afterward. He
stood a moment stroking the baby's curly head, and then with a murmured
"God bless the little lad," he passed on to his own seat. I felt
instinctively that all this sentiment would be exceedingly distasteful
to Mr. Winthrop, and was amused at the look of relief that passed over
his face when our own station was reached. As I returned the baby to his
father, he grasped my hand with a pressure that pained me and said,
scarce above a whisper:
"I will pass your kindness along to some other desolate one some day. It
is the only recompense within my power to make you."
"What I did has been a genuine pleasure. This little fellow has far
overpaid me."
"It was a great deal you did for me just at that bitter moment."
"I wish I could do more to lighten your sorrow," I said, with tears of
sympathy in my eyes as I said my final good-bye, and hastened after Mr.
Winthrop, who was waiting, I knew impatiently, on the platform. I saw
Samuel assisting Thomas to control the horses, who were always in awe of
the snorting engine; and near them stood a lumbering express, into which
the men were putting the long box that I knew contained the rigid body
of the dead mother. Presently the poor husband with his baby crowing
gleefully in his arms, climbed up to the seat beside the driver, and they
started out on their lonely journey. Mr. Winthrop was singularly patient
with me, although I kept them waiting some time while I stood watching
the loaded express pass out of sight. As I leaned back in our own
luxurious carriage, I tried to picture the poor fellow's home going, and
hoped that a welcome would be given that would help to lighten his
burdened heart.