The announcement of the marriage of Sidney Sanderson to Gladys Carpenter
reached us during the latter part of June.
We were indebted to Mrs. Wilbur for the New York papers in which we read
the embellished details of the "strictly private nuptials." The several
accounts agreed in pronouncing the marriage the most noteworthy
matrimonial event of the early summer. The facts, in brief, were as
follows:
"The beautiful bride, heiress to three millions, although in deep
mourning for her father, had laid aside, only for the wedding ceremony,
the somber robes of her recent bereavement. At the close of the
impressive yet simple service, she had resumed her mourning, preparatory
to the departure for Scotland. On the historic isle, sequestered in a
romantic castle overlooking Loch Lomond, Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson would
spend their honeymoon. Society had unanimously agreed that a match more
suitable in every way had seldom occurred. The high social position of
both parties, the beauty and fortune of the bride, combined with the
popular traits of the handsome groom, pointed unmistakably to social
leadership.
"The palatial home of the late Rufus Carpenter would, doubtless, become
a recognized center, when his beautiful daughter again rejoined with her
chosen husband, the charmed circle of the Three Hundred."
This is the substance of what we knew. All that we would ever certainly
know of the two lives in question.
For us the history of Sidney Sanderson was virtually closed. I alone
claimed the privilege of imagining his uneventful end.
A creditable career he could never have. A life of indolent luxury,
environed by the ordinary excitements of club life, would be the
probable limit of his achievements.
His domestic life would, in time, become a monotonous restraint.
In dismissing him, I will always believe that he thought often during
the years of his aimless existence of Mariposilla. Her beautiful dark
eyes, flooded with adoring love, must have haunted many of the
indifferent hours spent with his highly refined, philosophical wife.
After the first cool understanding, when both the man and the woman
acknowledged the disappointment that each felt in the other, their lives
would run on quietly and indifferently, each moved by separate interests
that enormous wealth made possible.
Their elegant home I can readily picture. Artistic rooms, undisturbed by
little meddlers. Silent halls, in which echoed no voices of children.
Dark shades, often drawn close before the windows of a mansion deserted
for months at a time, by reason of the protracted absence of both
mistress and master, who seldom traveled in the same direction, finding,
as the years made plainer the remoteness of their tastes and principles,
that antipodal distances alone could insure for each a comparative
comfort.
I learned from authority that Mrs. Sanderson escaped old age.
On the verge of the dreaded boundaries of infirmity her selfish
energies gave way. An unexpected puff of disappointment chilled her
nerve, while it extinguished, midway in its socket, the brilliant candle
that had cheered no lonely heart, had illuminated no sorrowing soul.
For Mariposilla alone the announcement of Sidney's marriage contained
crushing evidences of his final desertion. The poor child had always
believed that her lover would return. We had never been able to convince
her of the hopelessness of the dream.
Now that the blow had at last descended, we hoped for much.
Through all the long weeks we had done nothing but wait. Even now we
must wait still longer. We dared not show impatience at the child's
terrible grief, when she remained as one stunned, refusing, day after
day, our sympathy and society.
It was only in the cool of the evening that she left her room to join
the family upon the veranda. Then she would slip away by herself, hiding
in the darkest corner among the vines, a listless shadow in white that
we dared neither to comfort nor to rebuke.
The summer was now at its height; the days were warmer and the cool
nights more welcome. The haze had thickened about the mountains; the sky
was often without a cloud.
The seaside resorts were crowded with pleasure-seekers. Only the
industrious ones of the Valley remained at home to attend to the immense
fruit crops, ripening every hour.
The hotels and villas were undergoing repairs for the ensuing winter.
Society, in a body, appeared to be rusticating at Santa Catalina.
We, too, would have gone to the sea, but sorrow held us down with a
relentless grip. The once happy household of the Dona Maria Del Valle
was no longer the abode of peace and joy.
Each day Mariposilla required more care, for she was now really ill. She
went about the house and garden as usual, but we had thus far failed to
arouse her from her grief. Each day she grew more silent and suspicious,
shedding fewer tears, but refusing always to listen to a word of
reproach against the man who had deceived her.
Now, in addition to the anxiety for her miserable child, another stroke
had fallen upon the Dona Maria.
The angel of death had entered again her home--her aged mother was
dying. Father Ramirez had administered the Holy Sacrament, and now only
the most powerful opiates could relieve, temporarily, the aged sufferer,
sinking away from a horrible disease that for years had been
unsuspected.
To myself fell the incessant care of Mariposilla.
It was seldom now that the sad-eyed Dona Maria left her mother's
chamber. She had procured a Mexican woman to superintend the household,
while she devoted herself, lovingly and unceasingly, to the care of the
sufferer. Day and night she watched alone, until I feared she would drop
under the strain.
It was astonishing how tenaciously the aged woman lingered. Sometimes
she would revive, with almost supernatural strength. Stimulated by the
opiates, she would protest desperately against remaining in bed. The
poor old creature seemed to think that the bed alone was responsible for
her death.
In her less painful moments, when the opiates soothed without
stupefying, she talked excitedly in Spanish, living always far back in
the days of her prosperity.
She was again on the far-reaching rancho, riding by the side of her
husband, or dispensing free hospitality to a house full of guests.
Always with her were the two little daughters, Maria and Lola.
"She remembers not the sorrows which have befallen us," the Dona Maria
would say with tearful eyes, that each day grew larger as the rings of
sorrow deepened beneath them. "She mercifully believes that my dear
sister and I are still little ones at home.
"We are continually running from her side with messages for the maids.
"Sometimes she commanded us to stop our play and go to the old church
for prayers. Again, she coaxes our father to buy more jewels, that we
may outshine in beauty our neighbors at the grand wedding, soon to occur
upon a distant rancho, where there will be for days feasting and great
joy.
"Is it not kind, dear Senora, that the old mother should depart among
pleasant memories, knowing not of my poor child's humiliation?"
As the Dona Maria spoke, the glory of unselfishness lit for a moment
with saintly beauty her dark, worn face.
"Yes, dear friend," I replied, "it is kind and sweet that the loved one
can go to rest in peace, but it is wrong for you to refuse relief from
the heavy strain of the sick-chamber. Oblige me this once by allowing
your place to be filled. You will be ill, I am sure, if you take neither
air nor rest."
"Thanks, dear Senora," she replied, "I am happy for your thoughtful
care; but I can now no longer take rest away from my mother. Sometimes I
fall, for a few moments, asleep by her side, but I wish always to be
near, that I may watch tenderly until her spirit has flown.
"I should grieve sorely if another closed forever the dear eyes."
I saw that the devoted daughter was happiest performing alone the last
few duties that after death grow measurelessly sweet, and said no more.
A few hours later the Dona Maria stood at my door quiet and tearless.
"Dear Senora," she said, "my mother is dead."
"What can I do?" I cried, daring not yet to presume with sympathy. Under
the first cold shock of the impalpable mystery, I longed for a task that
would check the dreadful, unsatisfied questions that thronged my mind.
"There is little to do. Arturo had gone for Father Ramirez.
"If only the Senora will speak to my unhappy child, I shall be most
thankful. Tell her that her grandmother is no more, but restrain her
from coming for a time into the chamber of death.
"Soon I shall have done all. I shall then come for my child and lead her
to the dear one."
As the Dona Maria finished speaking, she vanished from my side.
As I heard her close the door of her mother's room, I knew that she
would first pray before the shrine of the little Virgin.
For a moment I listened in the silence, almost longing myself to entreat
comfort of the image.
I remembered how I had fainted Christmas morning, and how gladly I had
regained consciousness in the protecting presence of the little Mother.
I knew that the Dona Maria would gain strength and courage before the
shrine of her implicit faith, and my own heart hungered for a touch of
palpable comfort.
What if the little image was only painted wood? It whispered something
to the simple, aching heart that a stern theology could never say.
Alas! I knew that for myself there was nothing but blind hope and
fruitless speculation. I could never have knelt before a picture or a
shrine, but I envied, none the less, the Spanish woman who found peace
and comfort, while I so often suffered in the dark, unsatisfied and
rebellious.
When at last I heard quiet steps, I knew that the Dona Maria had arisen
from her prayers. I knew that in her sorrowing heart there was a blessed
faith, childlike and strong, that would help her to perform, quietly and
correctly, the last sad offices for her dead.