MRS. LE GRANDE'S STRATAGEM.
The congregation slowly dispersed, Mr. Winthrop pausing, as was his wont,
for the crowd to move out. Although one of the busiest men I ever met, he
never seemed in a hurry. Besides, he had an extreme dislike to be jostled
by a hurrying crowd. When he saw the aisles getting empty he left the
pew. Mrs. La Grande apparently, like ourselves, liked plenty of
elbow-room; for she only left her pew a few steps in advance of us. Mr.
Winthrop walked leisurely towards the door. I dropped behind, not wishing
to bow to her in his presence, and not capable either of the rudeness of
passing her without a friendly nod. My heart beat thickly as I saw him
approaching nearer to her, and a moment after they were side by side. She
partly turned her face toward him, an expression of contrition and
appeal, making her beauty well-nigh irresistible. I gazed, fascinated;
then after awhile I turned my eyes to Mr. Winthrop. I felt a sudden
relief when I saw the same unconcerned expression that was habitual to
him. Mrs. Le Grande looked him, for an instant, full in the face, when a
swift change came over her own countenance. For the first time, probably,
she realized that her power and fascination had lost their effect on him.
A crimson flush of shame and anger swept over cheek and brow, as quickly
followed by a deathly pallor. Mr. Winthrop, without noticing her
presence, walked leisurely on. She stood perfectly still, leaning her
hand, as if for support, against the back of a pew. I hastened to her
side, pitying her deeply in her disappointment. She gave me a dazed look,
scarce seeming to recognize me; I paused an instant and held out my hand,
but she did not seem to notice it. She looked so wan and wretched I felt
I must try to comfort her, though at the risk of Mr. Winthrop's
displeasure.
"You are not looking well," I said compassionately. "Is there anything
I can do for you?"
"You would not dare, even if you were willing, with that merciless man so
near," she said, faintly. I paid no attention to her remark, but asked if
I might get her a glass of water.
"Yes, anything, please, to take away this deathly feeling." I drew her
into a pew and forced her to lie down, crushing thereby a most elegant
toilet. But I was afraid she was dying, she looked so pale; then, rushing
to the vestry, I found the sexton. He looked somewhat startled at sight
of me.
"Can you give me some water?--there is a lady upstairs very ill."
"That one that's such a stunner?" he said, coolly, going to a shelf near
where he had water and glasses.
"I presume it is the same," I said, seizing the glass, while wondering at
his indifference.
"You'd best not get too frightened, Miss Selwyn. I've heard of that one
afore, and she knows what she's about."
I hastened back to my charge, leaving him to follow at his leisure. I
found her on the floor, apparently unconscious. Forgetful of the dainty
Paris bonnet, I began applying the water vigorously, when she opened her
eyes, and said:
"That will do."
I dried her face, whisking away a few bountiful drops that were clinging
to her garments. She arose directly. Several persons who had been late
in leaving the church had collected around us. She glanced at them, a
look of keen disappointment passing over her face. With an amazing return
of vitality, she passed quickly out of the pew, saying, lightly:
"Your church was uncomfortably hot, and the air was very impure; it seems
a necessity to absorb one's religion and a vitiated atmosphere at the
same time."
She turned to me presently, saying:
"You get very easily alarmed, Miss Selwyn. Are you always so impetuous in
your deeds of mercy?"
"Oh, no, indeed. I never had such cause for alarm but once before, and
that was a poor widow who was utterly overcome by some good news I was
bringing her. My friends usually have sufficient nerve to endure heavy
shocks," I said, very sweetly.
Her eyes flashed, but she allowed no further sign of annoyance to escape
her. When we reached the door, she turned to me and said, very cordially:
"I shall look for you to-morrow, according to promise. Forgive me for
having kept you so long from your escort. I fear a scolding awaits you.
Mr. Winthrop I used to find very impatient, if kept waiting."
I left her standing on the church steps, and turned my face homeward.
When I reached the street I found Mr. Winthrop had got some distance
ahead; but he was walking slowly, and I soon overtook him.
"Is it your custom to remain chatting with your friends after the
sermon?" he asked, carelessly.
"Oh, no; but a lady who sat near us fainted just as I was standing by
her."
"And, of course, as a sort of mother-general of the sorrowing, you
stopped to comfort her?"
"Yes; but a few drops of water sufficed. She knew all the time I was in
danger of spoiling her bonnet."
"I am glad she snubbed you. You are too innocent to be matched against so
perfect an actress."
Then he changed the conversation, and Mrs. Le Grande was not mentioned
again that day. I noticed, however, that he partook very sparingly of
dinner; and, in the hour or two which he usually spent on the Sabbath
with us in the drawing-room, he was unusually silent. I went to the
library for a book, leaving him and Mrs. Flaxman alone, and returned just
in time to interrupt, a second time, a conversation clearly not intended
for my ears.
"Yes. She was at church this morning, looking as wickedly beautiful as
ever," he was saying, as if in answer to Mrs. Flaxman's question.
When the church bells began ringing that evening, a strong desire seized
me to claim the fulfillment of his promise to accompany me to the Beech
Street Church. He may have read it in my face.
"Are you going to take me out again to-night?"
"Do you wish to go?" I asked, with girlish eagerness.
"I have told you before it is not polite to reply to a question by asking
another."
"Then I would like very much indeed to go to Mr. Lathrop's church
to-night, if you are willing."
Mrs. Flaxman looked up from her book with amazement.
"You were never at their church before. What will those people think?"
"There must always be a first time, and probably you are aware I am not
in bondage to other people's thoughts," he said, with calm indifference.
"Won't you come, too, Mrs. Flaxman?" I urged.
"With pleasure," was the smiling response.
"What will your Dr. Hill think if he hears you have been to hear
Lathrop?"
"I must endeavor to live above public opinion, as well as you."
"I am afraid such elevation would chill you."
"Don't you want Mrs. Flaxman to go?"
"I have nothing to say against it, if she has courage to brave public
opinion."
"I did not think you reckoned me such a coward."
"That shows how little we know what our intimate friends think of us; if
there was a general laying bare of hearts, methinks there would be lively
times for a while."
I stood thinking his words over very seriously, and then turning to him
said, gravely:--
"I would be willing for nearly all my friends to see my thoughts
respecting them."
"There would be some exceptions, then. You said nearly all, remember. The
few might be the ones most anxious to know, and upon whom the restriction
would bear most heavily."
"They might not care what I thought," I said with a hot flush; something
in his look making me tremble.
"If we are to be in time for church we should leave very shortly," he
said, looking at his watch.
"And we are really going to Beech Street Church this evening?"
"Yes, really," he said, with that genial smile I was beginning to regard
like a caress.
Mrs. Flaxman and I hastened to our rooms; she nearly as well pleased as
I. It seemed quite too good to be true that we three were to go in
company to those meetings where men and women talked to each other, and
to God, of all the great things He was doing for them. I was very
speedily robed and back in the drawing-room, where Mr. Winthrop was still
sitting gazing into the fire with that indrawn, abstracted expression on
his face which was habitual to it in repose. I waited silently near until
Mrs. Flaxman should come in and interrupt his reverie. I liked to watch
his face in those rare moments, and used to speculate on what he might
be thinking, and wishing my own thoughts were high and strong enough to
follow his on their long upward flight.
He looked at me suddenly.
"What, if I could read your thoughts now, Medoline? From your intent look
I think I was the subject of your meditations." I smiled calmly.
"You would have been flattered, as you were this morning, perhaps. I was
just wishing I was capable of going with you along those high paths
where, by your face, I knew you were straying."
"Was that what you were thinking about, and that only?"
My face crimsoned, but I looked up bravely into the honest eyes watching
me.
"Must I confess even my thoughts to you, Mr. Winthrop? I have had to ask
that question before?"
"Not necessarily. But I have a fancy just now to know what else you were
thinking of."
I hesitated a moment, and then said bravely: "I was looking at your face,
and it occurred to me that in some faces there was the same power to
thrill one's soul that there is in splendid music, or poems that can
never die."
"You were in a very imaginative and sentimental mood to trace such
analogies. It is not wise to see so much in a common human face."
"Do we not sometimes get glimpses of God in that way?" I asked.
"Are you always thinking such high thoughts, Medoline?"
"Oh, no, indeed. When I have nothing to inspire them, my thoughts are
very commonplace. The brook cannot rise higher than its source; it needs
artificial help to scale mountain tops."
He looked at me kindly as he said: "You are not fashioned after the
regulation models of the woman of to-day."
"I think I have heard that idea expressed in varying phrases a good many
times since I came to America."
"It does not displease you?"
"It used to at first. Possibly I am getting used to it now. I see there
is so much genuine unhappiness in the world, I am not going to grieve
over the mild criticisms of my friends."
"A very philosophic conclusion to come to. But does it not occur to you
that other meanings than unkindly ones may be taken from these chance
remarks we let fall?"
"It would please me if I could," I said, looking at him with pleased
eagerness. Mrs. Flaxman entered the room then, ready for church. My head
was aching severely, and a distressing giddiness occasionally seized me;
but I was so eager for this long coveted privilege, I kept silent about
my feelings. Sickness and I were such strangers to each other, I scarcely
understood its premonitory warnings.