AFTER THE WEDDING.
Our Jessie was born in Paris, a little more than a year after her
parents were married, and a lovelier child never drew breath. I was in
school then, and she was two months old before I saw her, but she had
learned to smile, and was a beautiful, bright little creature even then.
How I worshipped the child! no elder sister ever rendered her heart more
completely up to an infant of her own blood, than I gave mine. All the
affection I had ever felt for the parents was intensified and softened
into infinite tenderness for their little girl. In her I resolved to
repay some of the kindness which had been so lavishly bestowed on me.
How this was to be done, I could not tell, but I had dreams of great
sacrifices, unlimited devotion, and such care as one human being never
took of another. Thus the first existence of this child was woven into
my own better life and became a part of it.
Our Jessie was two years old when Mr. Olmsly joined us in Europe, and
for the first time saw his little grandchild; before she had counted
another year, the good old man was dead and buried in a strange country.
He left a will contrary to all expectation, written after he had seen
and loved little Jessie. All his vast property was left to Mr. Lee and
his wife, but on the death of Mrs. Lee, even though the husband was
still living, one half the estate was to revert, unrestricted and
uncontrolled, to her daughter.
This was all, and with it the persons in interest were satisfied;
indeed, the property was large enough to have been divided half a dozen
times, and still have been sufficient for the ambition of any reasonable
person.
Mr. Lee did not return to the United States at the death of his
father-in-law; there was, in reality, nothing to call him home. He had
retired from active business soon after his marriage, and the old world
had so many resources of knowledge and pleasure, for persons of their
fine cultivation, that they lingered on, year after year, without a wish
for change, sometimes travelling from country to country, but making
Paris their head-quarters so long as I remained in school.
After that, we spent a year in Italy, and some months in Germany and
Spain, where I became perfect mistress of the languages, and found
happiness in imparting them to "Our Jessie," who became more lovely and
lovable every year of her life.
At last we went to the Holy Land, and lingered a while in Egypt, where
Mrs. Lee was taken ill, almost for the first time in her life, and then
came the only real sorrow that we had known since Mr. Olmsly's death.
The moment it was possible, we returned to Paris, in order to get the
best medical advice. It came all too soon; Mrs. Lee was pronounced a
confirmed invalid, some disease of the nerves, in which the spine was
implicated, threatened a tedious, if not incurable illness.
At this time Jessie was ten years old, and I had entered the first
stages of womanhood; as her mother became more and more frail, the dear
child was almost entirely given up to me, and my love for her became
absolute idolatry. The child had always been taught to call me aunt, and
for her sake I was ready to give up all the bright social prospects that
opened to me just then. Indeed, there never was a time in my life that I
could not have found pleasure in sacrificing anything to the parents or
the child.
One thing troubled Mrs. Lee at this time,--a craving desire to go home
seized upon her. With an invalid's incessant longing, she wearied of the
objects that had so pleasantly amused her, and sighed for rest. But it
had been arranged that Jessie should be educated at the same school
which I had left, and the gentle mother could not find it in her heart
to be separated from that dear one.
Now came the time for my dream to be realized. Why should "Our Jessie"
be given up to the hard routine of a school, when I could make her
studies easy and her life pleasant. It was in my power to keep the
mother and child in one home.
I found Mr. Lee and his wife together one day, and made my proposition.
I would become Jessie's governess.
My generous friends protested against this. It was, they said, the
opening of my life. In order to do this, I must give up the society
which I had but just entered, and perhaps injure my own prospects in the
future. No, no, they could not permit a sacrifice like this.
But if they were generous, I was resolute. To have Jessie always with
me, had been the brightest dream of my girlhood. I could not be
persuaded to give it up. What did I care for society, if she was to
suffer the dreary routine of the school-life from which I had but just
been emancipated? I really think it would have broken my heart had the
dear child been left behind. But great love always prevails. We sailed
for America a united family, happy even with the drawback of Mrs. Lee's
illness, which in itself was seldom painful, and her untiring
cheerfulness was never broken.
The valley of the Delaware had become highly cultivated in our long
absence. A railroad ran up the banks of the river, from which our house
could be seen standing on the hill-side miles and miles away. I started
with surprise when it first met our view. A square stone tower, three
stories high, loomed up behind the pointed gables and balconied front,
giving a castellated air to the whole building.
This had been done by Mr. Lee's orders. He had drawn the plans, and his
architect had carried them out splendidly. Our first view of the house
was accompanied with exclamations of pleasure which delighted Mr. Lee,
who had kept all his improvements a secret, that he might enjoy our
surprise. Indeed, the site of the house was so finely uplifted from the
valley, that the effect was that of many lordly mansions we had seen on
the Continent, though I do not remember one more picturesque in itself,
or that could command a landscape to compare with this in extent or
varied beauty.
It was a lovely June day when we reached the Ridge; everything had been
prepared for our reception. In the years of our absence nothing had been
permitted to go to decay, but many improvements presented themselves as
we turned up the carriage-road. A young peach-orchard had grown into
bearing trees; grape trellices were tangled thickly with vines; choice
fruit-trees of every kind had just lost their blossoms. A range of
hot-houses glittered through the trees. All this made the Ridge more
beautiful by far than it had been years before when it seemed a paradise
to me. On entering the house, we were still more pleasantly surprised.
Everything rich and rare that a long residence abroad had enabled Mr.
Lee to collect, was arranged through the rooms,--bronzes, statuettes of
marble, old china carvings, pictures, ornaments of malachite, and Lapes
lazula, met us on every hand. All this might have seemed out of place in
a country house of almost any ordinary description, where the occupant
was likely to spend half the year in town; but Mr. Lee had fitted up
this place as his principal and permanent residence. The health of his
wife demanded quiet; her tastes required beautiful objects, and all
these rare articles had been carefully selected for her pleasure. Here
she found many a precious gem of art which she had seen in her travels,
admired, but never thought to possess. But he had remembered her
faintest preference, and the proofs of his unbounded devotion met her at
every turn, as we entered, what was, in fact, the blending of an old and
new home.
Not one article of the old furniture was missing, every sweet
association had been preserved with religious care; but affection had
grafted the new life she had been leading on the reminiscences of her
girlhood, and, spite of her infirmity and fatigue, Mrs. Lee was
supremely happy as she entered her home. The square tower was entirely
modern, and everything it contained had been sent from abroad. The lower
room was a library, with pointed windows, a black-walnut floor, and a
small Gobeline carpet in the centre of the room, upon which a heavily
carved table was placed. From floor to ceiling the walls were lined with
books, richly bound, and carefully selected; the book-cases were each
surmounted with a bas-relief in bronze, representing some classical
subject, while the glass that shut in the books was pure as crystal.
Easy-chairs of every conceivable pattern stood about this room, and
between each book-case a bronze statuette reminded you of some classic
name, or hero known to history.
The second story of the tower opened into the main building; thus the
large square chamber fitted up for Mrs. Lee was connected with two
smaller rooms, one intended for her personal attendant, the other a
dressing-room.
The principal window of this room opened upon a balcony, which
overlooked the brightest portion of the terraces; near this window a
couch was drawn, from which even an invalid might attain lovely glimpses
of the clustering flowers, without changing her position. A carpet,
thick and soft as a meadow in spring, covered the floor, and in the back
part of the room stood a bed, surmounted by a canopy carved from some
rare dark-hued wood, from which curtains of lace that a countess might
have worn, swept to the floor, and clouded the bed, without in any
degree obstructing the air. In this room everything invited to repose.
The pictures were all dreamily beautiful. On one side of the large
window a marble child lay sleeping, with a smile on its lips. On the
other, just within the frost-like shadow of the curtains, an angel, of
the same size, knelt, with downcast face, and hands pressed softly
together, praying. This was the room into which Mr. Lee carried his
wife, after she had rested a few minutes in the drawing-room. He laid
her upon the couch with gentle care, but she rose at once, and leaning
upon her elbow, looked around. Everything was new and strange; but, oh,
how beautiful! tears came into her eyes; she leaned back upon the
cushions, and held out both hands.
"And you have done all this," she said. "Was ever a woman so blessed?"
Then she turned her eyes upon the window and saw the flowers gleaming
through.
"The garden is as he left it," she murmured. "I am glad of that--I am
glad of that."
Mr. Lee sat down by her couch, smiling, and evidently rejoiced that he
had given her so much pleasure. Jessie was moving about the room, happy
as a bird; to her everything was new and charming, and the restlessness
of childhood was upon her.