The raspberry tart was put in the oven, and Mrs. Staunton went upstairs
to her own room.
She was a woman, who, as a rule, utterly disregarded dress. She gave but
little thought to her personal appearance. Like many other women of the
middle class, she had sunk since her marriage from the trim, pretty girl
to the somewhat slatternly matron.
Nothing could destroy the sweet comeliness of her face, however, but in
the struggle for life she and Fashion had fallen out--Fashion went in
one direction, and Mrs. Staunton strayed gently in another. She did not
mind whether her dress was cut according to the mode or not--she
scarcely looked at her faded but still pretty face. Now and then this
trait in her mother's character vexed Effie. Effie adored her mother,
she thought her the most beautiful of women, and anything that took from
her sweet charms annoyed her.
This evening, however, Mrs. Staunton made a careful and deliberate
toilet.
She removed her dowdy black dress, and, opening a drawer in her
wardrobe, took out a soft gray silk which lay folded between tissue
paper and sprigs of lavender. She put the dress on, and fastened soft
lace ruffles round her throat and at her wrists. The dress transformed
her. It toned with all her faded charms. She put a real lace cap over
her still thick and pretty hair, and, going down to the little parlor,
sat upright on one of the chairs near the window which looked into the
garden.
Effie came in presently, and started when she saw her mother.
"Why, mother," she said, "how sweet, how sweet you look!" She went over
and kissed her. Mrs. Staunton returned her embrace very quietly.
"It is for your father," she said. "He would like me to look nice--I am
sure he'd like us all to look nice to-night. Go upstairs, Effie, dear,
and put on your pretty blue muslin. And you, Agnes, I wish you to wear
your Sunday frock."
Agnes, who had bounded into the room at this moment, stopped short in
astonishment.
"Are we all going to a party?" she asked, excitement in her tone.
"No, no; but your father has come home."
"Only father! what does that matter?" Agnes lolled on to the sofa and
crossed her legs. "I want to read over my lecture for the High School. I
can't be bothered to change my dress!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, Aggie, go at once when mother wishes you," said Effie. "Go and put
on your Sunday frock, and tell Katie to do the same, and ask Susan to
put the younger children into their white dresses. Go at once; mother
wishes it."
Agnes flung herself out of the room, muttering.
Effie looked again at her mother.
She did not notice her, she was smiling softly to herself, and looking
out at the garden. Effie felt her heart sink lower and lower.
She went gravely upstairs, put on her blue dress, brushed out her bright
dark hair, and, looking her sweetest and freshest, came downstairs
again. Mrs. Staunton was still sitting by the window. Her cheeks were
flushed, her eyes were unusually bright. She looked twenty years younger
than she had done two hours ago--she looked beautiful. The soul seemed
to shine out of her face. When Effie came in, she stood up restlessly
and looked at the supper table.
"Yes," she said, "it is just as he likes it--the fragrant coffee, the
raspberry tart and the jug of cream, the new-laid eggs, the brown loaf
and the fresh butter. A simple sort of meal--yes, quite simple and very
wholesome. Very homelike, that's the word. Effie, there never was such a
homelike sort of man as your father. Give him home and you fill his
heart. This supper table is just what he will like best. He does not
care for new-fangled things. He is old-fashioned--he is the best of men,
Effie, the best of men."
"He will be glad to see you in your nice dress, mother--he is so proud
of you--he thinks you are so lovely."
"So I am in his eyes," said Mrs. Staunton in a wistful voice. "I am
old-fashioned like himself, and this dress is old-fashioned too. It was
a pretty dress when it was made up. Let me see, that was twelve years
ago--we went to Margate for a week, and he bought me the dress. He took
great pains in choosing the exact shade of gray; he wanted it to be
silver gray--he said his mother used to wear silver gray when she sat in
the porch on summer evenings. Yes, this dress is like a piece of old
lavender--it reminds me of the past, of the sunny, happy past. I have
had such a happy life, Effie--never a cross word said, never a dour look
given me. Love has surrounded me from the moment of my marriage until
now. I feel young to-night, and I am going to be happy, very happy. The
children must look their best too. Run up, darling, to the nursery and
see that Susan is doing them justice--they are pretty children every
one of them, worthy of your father. Now, let me see, would not a few
roses improve this table? That great jug of sweet peas in the middle is
just what he likes, but we might have roses and mignonette as well. I'll
go and gather a bunch of those Banksia roses which grow in front of the
house."
"You'll tire yourself, mother. Let me go."
"No; I never felt stronger than I do to-night. I'd like to pick them
myself."
Mrs. Staunton went out of doors. She cut great sprays from the Banksia
rose and brought them back with her. She placed them in a brown jug, and
stood the jug on the table. Then she opened both windows wide, and left
the door ajar. There was the sweetest smell wafted through the room--the
sweet peas, roses, mignonette, seemed to be floating in the air.
The children all came down dressed in their Sunday frocks. They looked
puzzled, uncomfortable, awed. One and all asked the same question:
"Is it a party, mother? Are any visitors coming to tea?"
"No. No!" replied the mother to each in his or her turn. "It is only
your father who has come home, and it is right that we should give him a
welcome."
When she had answered the last of the children, Dr. Staunton entered the
room.
He started at the pretty sight which met his eyes. The room and the
temptingly laid out supper table--the children in their best
dresses--the old wife in her gray silk--looked to him the most beautiful
sight his eyes had ever rested on.
What was all this festival about?--he drew himself up hastily--a sort
of shudder went through him. In spite of his efforts his voice was
terribly husky.
"Are we going to have company?" he asked, with a twinkle in his eyes.
All the other eyes looked back at him--he knew perfectly well even
before the children burst out with the news, that he himself was the
company.
"You have come back, father, and mother says we are to look our very
best," exclaimed little Phil.
"All right, Phil, I am more than agreeable," replied the doctor. "Now
you must excuse me, good folk. I am bound in duty to do honor to all
this company splendor, by washing my hands and putting on my
Sunday-go-to-meeting coat."
"Effie, you may fetch the coffee," said her mother.
The supper that followed was a merry meal--Dr. Staunton told his best
stories--they were capped by his wife's. Effie laughed as if she had
never heard them before, and the children made themselves riotously
agreeable.
When the meal was at an end, Dr. Staunton and his wife went out into the
garden at the back of the house. He drew his arm round her waist, and
they walked up and down together on the little rose path at the top of
the garden.
Effie watched them from the parlor window. There was a queer lump in her
throat. She could not get over the strange sensation of nervousness and
coming disaster. The foreboding which filled her could not be fought
down. She had laughed almost against her will at supper-time, but now
she ceased to smile--she no longer made the faintest attempt to be
cheerful. She hated the pretty room, and the sweet-peas, and the roses
and mignonette.
The children were idly lolling about. She turned, and spoke almost
crossly.
"Don't you know, Aggie, that it is long past the younger children's hour
for staying up? Can't you make yourself useful for once, and go up and
put them to bed?"
"Can't you come, Effie--we'd much rather have you," said little Phil and
Walter, the brother next in age. "Agnes is so cross, she pulls our hair
so when she combs it out."
"I don't, you bad boys!" exclaimed Agnes, coloring high. "Won't I give
it to you next time we are alone for saying that!"
"She does, Effie; she does indeed," said little Phil, running up to his
elder sister, and clasping his arms round her light blue dress.
"Don't, Phil; you will spoil my pretty frock!" she cried.
"Why, you are cross too," he answered, looking up at her. He was so
startled and amazed at this new tone in Effie's voice, that words failed
him altogether for a minute. It seemed to him as if a castle of cards
had tumbled all over his head, and as if he stood in the middle of the
ruins. If Effie were going to turn nasty, according to Phil's idea,
there was nothing further to be looked for in life. Walter, however, who
was older, had more discernment than his little brother.
"Effie has a headache," he said; "can't you see that she has a headache?
We'll be very good indeed, Effie, if Agnes will put us to bed."
"Come along, then," said Agnes, scuttling them out of the room in front
of her. "You must be quick about it, for I have not half prepared my
to-morrow's lessons. Now then, out you go."
The children disappeared.
The room was once more empty, except for the silent figure who stood in
the window. She could catch a glimpse of her father and mother walking
up and down in the garden. Presently the two approached the house. Mrs.
Staunton went straight upstairs to her room, and the doctor returned to
the parlor.
"Your mother is very tired to-night, Effie," he said in a grave voice.
He sat down in the armchair just where he could smell the sweet-peas and
the Banksia roses.
"Yes," he continued, "I am anxious about her." There was not a trace now
of any of the jollity which had marked him at supper. His face was gray
and worn--his voice decidedly husky. That huskiness in her father's
voice went like a stab to Effie's heart. She shut the door and went and
stood by his side.
"Don't you think you had better go upstairs and help your mother to get
to bed?"
"No; she likes best to be alone," replied Effie. "I want to sit by you.
What is the matter with your throat?"
"My throat!--why?"
"You are so husky."
"I am dead beat, that's the truth of it. I am as weak as a cat, and for
no earthly reason. Don't bother about my throat, it will be all right
after I have had a good night's rest. I tell you, Effie, I never saw a
child so ill as that little Freda Harvey. That woman who nursed her is
an angel--an angel."
"I didn't say too much about her, father, did I?" said Effie, with a
little note of triumph coming into her voice even in the midst of her
anxiety.
"That you didn't, my darling--she is one of God's angels and I say 'God
bless her!' Now I want to talk about your mother."
"Yes, father," said Effie, laying her hand on his. She started back the
moment she did so. The evening was a very hot one, and touching the
doctor's hand was like clasping fire.
"How you burn!" she exclaimed.
"That's weakness," he said. "I shall take some bromide to-night; I am
completely worn-out, shaken, and all that sort of thing. Now, Effie,
don't interrupt me. I wish to talk to you of your mother. Are you
prepared to listen?"
"Of course, father."
"She has been talking of you--she says you have got an idea into your
head that you ought to make more of your life than you can make of it
staying at home, and being the blessing of the house, and the joy of my
life and of hers."
"Oh, father, father, I did wish it," said Effie, tears springing into
her eyes. "I did long for it, but I'll give it up, I'll give it all up
if it makes you and mother unhappy."
"But it doesn't, my dear. The old birds cannot expect to keep the young
ones in the nest for ever and ever. Your mother spoke very sensibly
to-night. I never saw any woman so altered for the time being. She would
not let me imagine there was a thing the matter with her, and she spoke
all the time about you, as though she wanted to plead with me, your
father, to give you a happy life. Do you think I would deny it to you,
my dear little girl?"
"No, father; you have never denied me anything."
"I have never denied what was for your good, sweetheart."
Dr. Staunton clasped Effie to his breast. She flung her arms round him
with a sudden tight pressure.
"Easy, easy!" he exclaimed; "you are half-choking me. My breathing
certainly feels oppressed--I must have taken a chill. I'll get off to
bed as fast as I can. No, child, you need not be alarmed. I have often
noticed this queer development of hoarseness in people who have long
breathed the poisonous air which surrounds diphtheria and scarlet fever,
but in my case the hoarseness means nothing. Now, Effie, let me say a
word or two to you. I don't know what the future has in it--it is
impossible for any of us to know the future, and I say, thank God for
the blessed curtain which hides it from our view; but whatever it has in
it, my child, I wish you to understand that you are to do your best with
your life. Make it full if you can--in any case make it blessed. A month
ago, I will admit frankly, I did not approve of lady-nurses. After my
wonderful experience, however, with Dorothy Fraser, I must say that I
have completely changed my opinion. The girl with heart and nerve, with
common sense, with an unselfish spirit, can be a nurse whatever her
station in life. If to these qualifications she adds the refinements of
good breeding and the education of a lady, she is the best of all."
"Hurrah!" cried Effie--tears filled her eyes. "What a grand triumph for
Dorothy!" she exclaimed.
"She deserves every word I have said of her. If she wishes to take you
back with her to London when she goes,--if that is what is now at the
bottom of your heart,--go, child, with my blessing. We shall miss you at
home, of course, but we are not worth our salt if we are going to be
selfish."
"You never, never were that," said Effie.
"Now I have one more thing to say--it is about your mother. I have never
really told you my true fears about her. You know, of course, that she
suffers from weakness of the heart. At present that weakness springs
from no organic source, but of late there have been symptoms which make
me fear that the functional mischief may be developed into the more
serious organic form of disease, should any shock be given her. It is
that fear which haunts my life--I could not live without your mother,
child. Effie, child. I could not live without her."
The doctor's voice suddenly broke--he bowed his head on his hands, and a
broken sort of groan escaped his lips.
"We'll take all possible care of her," said Effie. "She shall not have
any pain, nor fear, nor anxiety."
"I know you will do your best," said the doctor; "but if you leave
her----"
"I'll never leave her if it is to injure her--there, I have promised."
"You are a good girl. I trust you. I lean on you. Your mother could not
live through an anxiety--a great fear, a great trouble would kill her."
"It shan't come," said Effie.
"God grant it may not come," said the doctor in his husky voice.
He rose suddenly to his feet.
"I must go to bed," he said. "I have not had a real proper sleep for
nights and nights. By the way, Effie, you know, of course, that my life
is insured for a thousand pounds. If--if at any time that should be
needed, it will be there; it is best for you to know."
"I wish you would not talk about it, father."
"Very well, I won't; but talking about things doesn't bring trouble any
nearer. I hold it as an article of faith that each man should arrange
all he can for the future of his family. Arranging for the future never
hastens matters. There is a God above. He has led me all my days. I
trust Him absolutely. I submit to His mighty will."
The doctor left the room--his broad back was bowed--he walked slowly.
Effie stood near the door of the little parlor, watching him, until his
gray head was lost to view. Then she went back and sat on the old
horse-hair sofa, with her hands clasped tightly before her.
"My father is the best man in the world," she murmured under her breath.
"I never met anyone like my father--so simple--so straightforward--so
full of real feeling--so broad in his views. Talk of a sequestered life
making a man narrower; there never was a man more open to real
conviction than father. The fact is, no girl ever had better parents
than I have; and the wonderful thing is that they give me leave to go,
and take their blessing with me. It is wonderful--it is splendid. Agnes
must be taught to do my present work. I'll train her for the next three
months; and then, perhaps, in the winter I can join Dorothy in London.
Dear father, he is nervous about mother; but while he is there, no harm
can come to her. I do not believe one could live without the other.
Well, well, I feel excited and nervous myself. I had better follow
father's example, and go to bed."