The summer was ended, and I was not married. I am speaking now from the
standpoint of my neighbors; to my mind life did not swing on this hinge.
I had my occupations--there were a goodly number of needy folk to be
looked after; there was my reading; my music; my friends, and other
pleasures, and altogether I felt I was very well off. Not that I was
cynically opposed to marriage; I intended to marry, if the right man
called, but if he did not I was content to end life as I had begun it--in
single blessedness.
My neighbors, however, were of another mind--I must marry; and they kept
making efforts to find some one who would fit, trying on one man after
another, without his consent or mine, something as one would attempt to
force clothes on a savage.
But in spite of all such friendly offices the summer was ended, and I
was not married. I was thinking of it on this particular day, as I stood
gazing from the window--thinking of it with a sort of quiet wonder, for
with an entire neighborhood intent upon this end, it was rather
surprising that I was not double by this time. Had they succeeded I
should now occupy a very different attitude. It is only old bachelors
and old maids who speculate and theorize on marriage; when people are
really about it, they say little, and (it would often appear) think
less.
It was a day for speculation--this particular one; the dead leaves were
scurrying up the street as people ran for a train; a gusty wind was
carrying all before it for the time being, like an overbearing debater.
The trees shook and groaned, recoiled and shuddered, like human
creatures in the blast; in their agitation dropping hosts of leaves that
immediately slipped under covert, or else joined their fellows in the
race up town. The sky was non-committal, and the lake looked dark and
secretive, as if it meditated wreck and disaster.
It was only the middle of September, but there had been several of these
days--a hint, perchance, of what was to come by and by, as a gay waltz
strain sometimes dips into real life, and makes one look inward for a
moment.
The house did not invite me just at this time, and the elements did; at
least I felt that rising within me which tempted me forth to have a bout
with them.
I was walking at a goodly pace along the Boulevard--for I love the lake
in all its moods--when two men with anxious faces overtook, and hurried
past me.
"There's been a wreck, miss," one of them--a man I knew--called back.
I quickened my pace, trying to peer through the sullen fog, as I ran.
The occasional dull boom of a gun called "Help," from out the grayness,
with pathetic persistency. Soon another sound caught my ear, or rather
vibrated through my frame, for the ground beneath me seemed to tremble,
and I turned to see the swift oncoming of the life-saving crew from a
station below us.
I had barely time to jump one side, before the huge wagon, bearing the
boat and its men, swept past me, every one of those splendid horses with
his head lowered, and his fine muscles set for the race.
It was all done with the celerity and ease with which things are
accomplished in dreams. The sudden halting of the big wagon; the
swinging of the boat to the ground; the swift donning of the yellow
oilskin suits by the crew; the launch, and before one had time to wink,
the strong strokes in perfect time, that bore the boat up and down, and
up again, on those tumultuous waves.
There were other spectators beside myself, standing with strained sight
and hearing, and throbbing hearts, upon the strip of beach. And there
were other workers beside the crew. I had thought we were a small
community out there in the little suburb, and I gazed with wonder that
morning at the crowd which seemed to have dropped from the sky, or come
up from below.
The men were chiefly from the middle and laboring classes, for the
others go in on early trains, but Randolph Chance was there, his
newspaper work giving him his mornings. We spoke to one another, but
entered into no conversation. My thought was with the doomed ship, and
so was his.
"Will any of you boys join me in taking off some of those people?" he
asked the men at hand.
"It's a rough sea, Mr. Chance."
"I know it, but I understand boating; I guess we can manage it."
"Don't you think the life-saving crew can do the work?" I asked.
"No," he answered shortly, "there won't be time for them to make enough
trips. Come, boys, here she goes! Jump in, a half dozen of you that can
pull oars."
There were boats enough, and soon there were men enough, for the human
heart is kind and brave, and under a good leader men will walk up to
Death himself without flinching.
Randolph Chance was big and strong, alert, and self controlled--a good
leader. I realized all this just now, as I had not before, and I thought
how strange it was that so much goodness should be bound up with so much
folly. It was the old story of the wheat and the tares; and I said: "An
enemy hath done this," and then I thought of Miss Sprig.
I don't like to dwell on that morning; the experience was new to me, and
I can't forget it; I can't rid myself of the sound of those shrieks when
the ship went down. She struggled like a human creature under a sudden
blow--rocked, tottered, quivered, and then collapsed.
The little boats made five trips and brought ashore almost all the
passengers and crew--all but one woman, and a little child.
I was one of the many who received the chilled and frightened victims of
the storm, and indeed, as soon as we were able to dispose of the more
delicate and needy ones, we turned our thought to the brave crews of the
little boats, for their exertions had been almost superhuman, and they
were well-nigh exhausted.
I bent over Randolph Chance, and begged him to take a little brandy some
one had brought.
"Give it to the women," he said feebly.
"They are all cared for; I'm going to look out for you now, Mr. Chance."
"I wouldn't feel so done up," he said, "if it weren't for that woman.
She begged me to save her, and she had a little child in her arms," and
his voice broke.
"You mustn't think of her," I said, "you did all you could."
"Yes, I did my best to reach her, but before I could get there, she went
down. I can never forget her face. Oh, at such a time a fellow can't
help wishing he were just a little quicker, and just a little stronger."
He had risen from the beach where he had flung himself or fallen, on
leaving the boat, but he fell again. I could plainly see that the
exhaustion from which he suffered was due as much to mental distress as
to physical effort, and I thought no less of him for that.
He was finally prevailed upon to get into the wagon which had brought
the life-saving crew, and which was now loaded down with the other
boatmen, and many of the passengers from the wreck, and so he was taken
home. And I walked back alone, with a queer little feeling somewhere in
the region of my heart.
Man, after all, is a harp, I said to myself; a good player--the right
woman can draw forth wonderful music, but the wrong woman will call out
nothing but discords.
Materials don't count for everything; there's a deal in the cooking.
I was on my way home, when I met two of my neighbors hurrying toward the
scene--Mr. and Mrs. Daemon.
"You're too late," I said, "it's all over."
"I only heard of it a little while ago;" said Mrs. Daemon; "I was in the
city, and I met Mr. Daemon who had just been told there was a wreck off
this shore, and was coming out to see it, so we both took the first
train."
They hurried on, wishing to see what they could, and I walked homeward.
Their appearance had slipped into my reflections as neatly as a good
illustration slips into a discourse. I must tell you their story, and
then see if you dare say man is not a harp, and woman not a harpist.
Years ago, when I was a child, I used to see my mother wax indignant
over the wrongs inflicted upon one of her neighbors--a gentle little
woman whose backbone evidently needed restarching. She was the mother of
three children, and should have been a most happy wife, for her tastes
were domestic--her devotion to her family unbounded. Unhappily, she was
wedded to a man of overbearing, tyrannical temper--one of those ugly
natures in which meanness is generated by devotion. The more he realized
his power over his poor little wife, the more he bullied her, and
beneath this treatment she faded, day by day, until finally she closed
her tired, pathetic eyes forever. My mother used to say she had no doubt
the man was overwhelmed by her death, and would have suffered from
remorse, but for the injudicious zeal of some of the neighbors, who were
so wrought up by this culmination of years of injustice and cruelty,
that they attacked him fore and aft, as it were, creating a scandalous
scene over the little woman's remains, accusing him of being her
murderer, and assigning him to the warmest quarters in the nether world.
As a result of this outbreak of public opinion the man hardened, and
assumed a defiant attitude which he continued to maintain toward the
neighbors for some years. In the midst of all this furor, the sister of
the departed wife walked calm and still. The power of the silent woman
has often been dwelt upon, but I really do not think that half enough
has been said, although I am aware of committing an absurdity when I
recommend voluble speech on the subject of silence. Jesting and
paradoxes aside, however, the silent woman wields a power known only to
the man toward whom her silence is directed.
In this particular case the power was all for the best. Erelong the
sister-in-law obtained such mastery over the forlorn household that she
held not only the fate of the little ones, but that of the father as
well, in the hollow of her hand.
Two years slipped by, and then the neighborhood that had dozed off, as
it were, awoke to hear that the sister was going to marry that awful
man.
At once the vigilance committee arose, and took the case in hand.
"It can't be possible," it cried to the woman.
"Yes, it is true," she said.
"Why, don't you know that he killed your sister?"
"I know he did."
"And you are going to marry him, in face of that?"
"Yes."
"Well, he'll kill you."
"Oh, no, he won't kill me"--there was a peculiar light in her eyes that
puzzled them.
"What can you want to marry such a man for?" they cried, coming back to
the original question.
"To keep the children. If I don't marry him, some one else will, and
those children will go out of my hands."
Her devotion to the motherless brood had been past praise. There was
nothing more to be said, and if there had been it would have availed
nothing, for the sister had a mind of her own. She was one of those
handsome women, who walk this earth like queens, and to whom lesser folk
defer.
She married, and lo! the neighborhood was agog once more, for strange
stories came floating from out that handsome house, and it appeared for
a time that instead of his killing her she was like to kill him.
I remember one tale in particular, which my mother who, by the way, was
no gossip, and was as peaceable as a barnyard fowl, was in the habit of
rehearsing before a chosen few, occasionally, with a quiet relish that
was amusing, considering the fact that ordinarily any comment on her
neighbors' affairs was alien to her. It appeared that after a short
wedding trip, during which the bridegroom had several times shown the
cloven foot, the couple returned to their domicile. Probably the maids
who had lived there for some years and were devoted to the new wife, had
been warned of what was coming. At all events, they accepted everything
as a matter of course.
Upon the evening of the married pair's return, a handsome dinner was
served. The train was a trifle behind time; the day had been cold, and
several other untoward circumstances had conspired to let loose the
bridegroom's natural depravity. An overdone roast served to touch off
this inflammable material.
"---- these servants!" he exclaimed; "I'll kick every one of them through
the front window! Look at that roast!"
The doors being now open, a perfect storm of ugly, evil tempers poured
forth.
At such times as these it was the custom of wife number one to shiver,
shrink, implore--weep, then take the offending roast from the room, and
replace it by something else which most likely was hurled at her, in
the end.
The present Mrs. Daemon neither shivered nor shrank. She knew what to
expect when she married this man, and she was ready. The guns were
loaded and aimed, and they went off, and presto! the enemy lay dead on
the dining room floor.
Instead of a roast beef solo, there was a duet, Mrs. Daemon's feminine
soprano rising above her husband's masculine roar. She agreed with what
he said as to the disposition of the servants, only adding that she
intended to hang them all, before he put them through the front window.
"To insult us during our honeymoon with such a roast," she cried; "and
look at this gravy! It's even worse!"
And with one swift stroke of her hand she sent the gravy bowl flying
from off the table on to the handsome carpet.
"In Heaven's name, what are you about?" he bawled.
"Do you suppose I'd offer you such gravy; it ought to be flung in their
faces."
He gasped and stammered; thought of the recent wedding and regretted it;
but he was married now, and to an awful shrew!
Soon after dinner they repaired to the drawing room. In turning from the
fireplace he stumbled against a large, elegant vase.
"Confound that thing!" he exclaimed, "I always did hate those vases that
set on the floor."
"So do I!" she chimed in, and putting out her foot with an expressive
jerk, she kicked it over, and broke it into a hundred fragments.
"Do you see what you've done?" he cried, "have you forgotten that that
vase was a present from me?"
"No, I haven't, but we both hate it, and what's the use of keeping it?"
This was but the beginning; from that time on, let him but murmur
against a dish, and it was flung on to the floor; torrents of abuse
were poured upon the head of a maid with whom he found fault; some of
the handsomest furniture in the house was broken, the moment it gave
offense to him. In no vehemence was he alone--his wife's anathemas and
abuse joined and exceeded his, until--he had enough of it--an overdose, in
fact, and erelong he turned a corner--came out of Hurricane Gulch into
Peaceful Lane, and he hoped the latter would know no turning. The
servants whispered of times when he would tell his wife of guests
invited to the house, and entreat her not to make a scene while they
were there.
Sixteen years have gone by, and this woman is still above ground;
stranger still the man is alive as well; and strangest of all, they are
still under the same roof. Indeed, if report and appearance are to be
trusted, Mr. Daemon is a model husband, and Mrs. Daemon's sudden and
amazing temper has spent itself and left her a person of spirit indeed,
but in nowise unamiable, and least of all, an ugly character.
No one who saw them walk past me, arm in arm, that morning, on their way
to the wreck, would have dreamed of their past.
Truly, man _is_ a harp, and truly, woman does the harping.