"PLANS FOR A PURPOSE"
THE Burnhams were still seated at their dinner table, although Mrs.
Erskine Burnham had just remarked that the evening was too lovely to
spend in eating.
"Let us take a walk on the porch in the moonlight the minute we are
through dinner," she said to her husband. Apparently she paid no heed to
the slight dry cough which came so frequently from Erskine that his
mother's face took on a shade of anxiety. Erskine's coughs had been his
mother's chief anxiety concerning him through the years; he had never
been able to tamper with them; but his wife laughed at her fears and
frankly told her that Erskine was too old now to be coddled.
To all outward appearances the Burnham dining room was exhibiting a
perfect home scene. The day had been balmy, with a hint of summer in the
air, and although the evening was cool enough for a bright fire in the
grate, the mantle above it had been banked with violets, whose sweet
spring breath pervaded the air.
To Erskine Burnham who had been all day in the rush and roar of the
great city, the lovely room with its flower-laden air, and its daintily
appointed dinner table with the two ladies seated thereat in careful
toilets, formed a picture of complete and restful home life. He glanced
from wife to mother with eyes of approval and spoke joyously.
"I don't suppose you two can fully appreciate what it is to me to get
home to you after a stuffy, snarly day in town. I sit in the car
sometimes with closed eyes after a day of turmoil, to picture how it
will all look. But the reality always exceeds my imagination."
His wife laughed gayly.
"That is because you come home hungry," she said. "You want your dinner
and you like the odor of it and make believe that it is sentiment and
violets. In reality it is roast beef and jelly that charm you."
He echoed her laugh. He thought her gay spirits were charming. "The
roast beef helps, undoubtedly," he said. "Though it was violets I
noticed first, to-night. Aren't they lovely? Did you arrange them,
Irene? Hasn't it been a perfect day? Too pleasant for staying in doors
patiently. I hope you have both been out a great deal? Oh, it is Friday,
isn't it? Then you have, mamma, of course. What have you been about,
Irene?"
"I went to the lake this morning with the Bensons; and we spent an hour
or more with the Langhams; they are here for a month. It is lovely out
there, Erskine, and there are some charming cottages for rent. Two
simply ideal ones, either of which would suit us. Darling little
bird's-nests of cottages, not a great staring room in one of them. I
wish we could go there for the summer."
Erskine laughed indulgently, but at the same time shook his head.
"Too far away, dear. I couldn't get out there at night until seven, or
later. Besides, you wouldn't find it so pleasant as you fancy. Life in
one of those bird's-nest cottages is ideal only on paper. Nothing could
be pleasanter, I am sure, than our own home; and it is a delightful
drive to the lake whenever we want to go there. So the Langhams are
down."
"Oh, yes, and came to lunch with me. You should see Harry! he has shaved
his mustache, and it changes his face so that I hardly knew him."
"Oh, Harry is here, is he? His face could bear changing. What did you
think of him, mamma? He is the young man of whom I wrote you, who went
over on the same steamer that I did, last spring."
Before Mrs. Burnham could reply, his wife's voice chimed in. "She didn't
meet him. I went off with a rush, this morning. I heard through the mail
that the Langhams were down, and I was in such a hurry to see Nettie
that I thought of nothing else. I ran away, don't you think! Never said
where I was going, or anything; and then came back to luncheon so late
that I supposed of course mother had lunched long before, and was lying
down, so I wouldn't have her disturbed. And don't you think she had
waited, and so lost her luncheon altogether."
Erskine laughed genially and waited to hear his mother say that of
course that was of no consequence; but she did not speak. The cheerful
voice of his wife went on:--
"Nettie Langham has the sweetest little home, Erskine. If you could see
it, you would never say again that cottages were only nice on paper. I'm
sure I long to prove to you how perfectly charming one could be. And we
have such a host of pretty things that would fit into it. Will Langham
says he saves ten minutes night and morning by being at that end of the
town instead of this."
Erskine chose to ignore the cottage.
"You had an afternoon of calls, had you not? I met the Emersons and the
Stuarts down town and both spoke of having been here."
"Oh, yes, they were here, with the Needham girls; and Mrs. Easton and
her daughter Faye were here. We met them in New York, you know. And oh,
don't you think, Mrs. Janeway's niece that we used to hear so much about
called this afternoon with a letter of introduction from Mrs. Janeway.
She is lovely, Erskine. I was prepared to dislike her because we heard
such perfection of her; but really she is charming. And she is going to
be at one of the lake cottages for several weeks; that is another reason
for our being out there, you see."
She seemed bent on holding his attention, but Erskine turned to his
mother with a question.
"Mamma, don't you think Mrs. Stuart is looking ill? I was shocked at the
change in her. Isn't it marked, or is it because I haven't seen her
lately?"
"I did not see her to-day, my son. I did not even know she had been
here."
Mrs. Erskine Burnham pretended to frown at her husband.
"What a stupid boy you can be when you choose!" she said. "How many
times must I tell you that I thought mother was resting, this afternoon,
and did not disturb her with callers? I'm sure the Stuarts are not such
infrequent guests that one must make a special effort to meet them. I'll
tell you some other people who were here. The Hemingways, don't you
think! The last time we saw them was just as we were leaving Paris. They
came back only last month, and Mrs. Hemingway says she is already
homesick for Paris. That is the worst of living abroad for a time; one
is never afterward quite satisfied with this country."
"Mamma," said Erskine. "Do I understand that you have not been out,
to-day, Friday, though it is? Aren't you feeling well?"
There was tender solicitude in his tones, but his mother's voice was
cold.
"Quite well, Erskine. May I give you some coffee?" This he declined, and
almost immediately his wife made a movement to leave the table. She
linked her arm at once in her husband's and drew him toward the door.
"Come out on the porch, Erskine, do; this room is stuffy to-night. One
can't breathe in a house with a fire, on such charming days as these.
Why, of course, it's prudent. The air is as mild as it is in midsummer.
Don't go to housing yourself up because you have a tiny little cold; it
is the best way in the world to make it cling. Dear me! don't I know all
about that? Poor auntie was forever hunting about for draughts, and
closing doors and windows and putting shawls on herself and everybody
else. If I had to stay in the house with another invalid of that kind, I
should die."
They were on the porch by this time; she had overcome Erskine's
half-reluctance and had closed the door behind them. But the window was
open and the mother could distinctly hear the slight dry cough, more
frequent now that they were in the open air. She stood irresolute for a
moment, then turned and went swiftly up to her own rooms and closed and
locked her door. Then she went hurriedly to the front windows and drew
the curtains close; she had a feeling that she must shut out the outside
world very carefully. But she had no tears to shed; on the contrary her
eyes were very dry and bright and seemed almost to burn in their
sockets, and two red spots glowed on her cheeks.
It was a little more than six months since that October evening when
Erskine Burnham had brought home his bride, and they had been months of
revelation to his mother.
During that time she had tried--did any woman ever try harder?--to be,
in the true sense of the word, a mother to her daughter-in-law. Her
son's appeal during their first moments of privacy had touched her
deeply. He had ignored any necessity for a further explanation of his
sudden marriage, accepting it as a matter of course that his mother
would fully appreciate the simple statement that, however hard it was
for all three, it seemed to be the only right solution of their
difficulties; and went straight to his point.
"I want you to be a revelation to Irene, mommie. She knows very little
about mother-love, having had chiefly to imagine it, with, I fancy,
rather poor models on which to build her imaginings. She is singularly
alone in the world, and she doesn't make close friends easily. It is a
joy to me to think how a part of her nature that has heretofore been
starved and dwarfed will blossom out under your love and care."
Then his mother had kissed him, a long, clinging, self-surrendering
kiss, while she vowed to her secret soul never to disappoint his hopes.
What had she not done and left undone and endured during those six
months in order to try to keep that vow! What an impossible vow it was!
How utterly Erskine had misunderstood his wife in supposing that she
wanted to be loved by his mother! that she wanted anything whatever of
his mother except to efface her.
By slow degrees Mrs. Burnham was reaching the conclusion that such was
the policy of her daughter-in-law. It had come to her as a surprise.
Whatever else in her checkered life Ruth Erskine Burnham had been called
upon to bear, she had been accustomed to being recognized always as an
important force. Mrs. Erskine Burnham had not planned in that way. She
did not argue, she never openly combated any thing; she simply carried
out her own intentions without the slightest regard to the plans or the
convenience of others; or at least of one other.
From the first of her coming into this hitherto ideal home she had
assumed that her mother-in-law was a feeble old woman on whom the claims
of society were irksome, and the ordering of her home and servants a
bore. At first, Ruth, with her utterly different experience from which
to judge, did not understand the situation. When her new daughter
assured her that it was too windy or too damp or too chilly or too warm
for her to expose herself, she laughed amusedly and explained that she
was in excellent health and was accustomed to going out in all weather.
When callers came and went without her being notified, she attributed it
at first to forgetfulness, on the part of a bride, or to her ignorance
of the customs of the neighborhood; then to her over-solicitude for an
older woman's comfort, then to carelessness, pure and simple, and
finally, by closely contested steps, to the conviction that it was a
deeply laid, steadily carried-out plan, for a purpose. This day, at the
close of which she had locked herself into her room and vainly tried to
shut out the sounds of laughter on the porch below, had given her
abundant proof of the truth of this conviction.
It was Friday, the day which, ever since Erskine was graduated and they
were permanently settled in their home, she had devoted to making a
round of calls upon people who had been long ill, or who for any special
reason needed special thought. She took one or another of them for a
drive, she did errands for certain others, she carried flowers and fruit
and reading matter to such as could enjoy them; in short she gave
herself and her carriage and horses in any way that could best meet the
interests of those set apart. So much a feature of their life had this
morning programme become that Erskine was in the habit of referring to
it much as he did to Sunday.
"We must not plan for guests at luncheon on Fridays, Irene; mamma is
much too tired for social functions after her strenuous mornings."
"We could not have the carriage for that day, dear; it is Friday, you
remember."
Numberless times since the advent of the new member of the family, had
such reference to the special custom been made; the mother's eyes being
now opened, she recalled instance after instance in which there had been
in progress some pet scheme for Friday, that would interfere with her
disposal of it. More than once she had tried to enter a protest; had
urged that she could wait until another day, or she could order a
carriage from the livery for that time; but Erskine's negative had been
prompt and emphatic.
"No, indeed, mamma; we don't want you to do anything of the kind. We are
interested in the Friday programme, too, remember. I consider it almost
in the light of a trust. Why, the very horses would be hurt, Irene, if
they were not allowed to go their Friday rounds, carrying roses, and
jellies, and balm. Nothing not absolutely necessary, mommie, must be
permitted to interfere with that."
Yet, on that Friday morning when Mrs. Burnham, having studied the
barometer and the sky, had sent word to an especially delicate invalid
that she believed she could safely take a drive, and had come down at
the appointed hour dressed for driving, with a couch pillow in hand and
an extra wrap over her arm, Ellen had met her at the foot of the stairs
with a flushed face and eyes that had dropped their glance to the floor
for very shame, as she said: "The carriage has gone, ma'am; I was coming
to ask you if I should 'phone for another, right away."
"Gone!" echoed her mistress, standing still on the third step, and
staring at the girl. "What do you mean, Ellen? Gone where?"
"To the station, ma'am. Jonas said Mrs. Erskine had ordered him to take
her there to meet a friend."
"Oh," said Mrs. Burnham, reaching for her watch. "Some guest just heard
from who must be met, I presume. Then they will be back very soon, of
course."
Again the maid's indignant eyes drooped as though unwilling to see her
mistress's discomfiture as she hurried her story.
"I guess not, ma'am. She ordered luncheon to be late; not earlier than
two or half past, and said there would be company; two anyway, perhaps
more. Will I 'phone for a carriage, ma'am?"