Ada Nicoli was just eighteen when my story opens. She was the daughter
of a wealthy New York stock-broker, who took little thought of the
welfare of his wife and children. Indeed, he had little time to devote
to anything outside the interests of Wall Street. He went to business
early in the morning before his family were down, and returned in the
evening just in time for dinner, so weary and exhausted that very often
he dined alone in his study to save the necessity of changing his
business suit for evening dress.
Ada was a beautiful girl who had been indulged in a way which would
seem almost impossible in the eyes of an English child. Before she was
twelve years old she had as many jewels in her jewel-case as a wealthy
English girl might hope to have at her wedding. She had a little pony
phaeton of her own, drawn by a pair of perfectly-trained ponies, and
guarded by a small nigger page in buttons. Ada Nicoli was the envy of
all the other children of her acquaintance. She had been brought up
by her doting mother to think of little else but her own pleasure and
beauty. She had two sisters, a good many years younger than herself,
who did not share the devotion of her mother. Marjory and Sadie were
entirely superfluous commodities in Mrs. Nicoli’s eyes. “She had no use
of them,” in her poor shallow life, for her lovely Ada was a sufficient
companion and amusement. Ada Nicoli, compared with other American girls
of her position, had received a very poor education. She had been well
trained, it is true, in all the social etiquette necessary for the
daughter of an American millionaire. In her mother’s eyes she was
destined to be the wife of some Englishman of scant income but ancient
pedigree, and her father had little time to interfere with his child’s
up-bringing. His wife had had but a meagre education herself, and yet
she managed to hold her own amongst the society hostesses of New York.
It was pure selfishness on the part of Mrs. Nicoli that her child was
thus deprived of the most valuable possession a woman can have, a
highly-cultivated mind, for Ada was a bright intelligent girl, but her
mother could not bear the sorrow of parting with her by sending her to
a boarding-school, and her lessons at the day-school where she attended
were so constantly interrupted by Mrs. Nicoli’s calling to take her
daughter out with her in her carriage that the exasperated mistress
soon learned that Ada’s education was a matter of little account in her
parent’s eyes, and treated her accordingly.
Poor pretty Ada little knew, in these luxurious days of fine
carriages and finer dresses, how bitterly she would one day regret
her willingness to leave her lessons and the strict discipline of the
schoolroom for the bright sunshine and pleasing admiration of the
fashionable world in Central Park. It was so pleasant to sit by her
pretty, delicate mother in the softly-cushioned carriage and drive
through the beautiful green park, where the wisteria arbours were
purple with long-tasselled flowers that scented the soft spring day.
How she pitied the other girls in the schoolroom, who spent their cents
as she spent dollars. What a dull life they had, and how badly their
mothers chose their dresses! She was glad her mother liked her always
to be dressed in white, it was so much prettier than anything else.
And so the pretty doll-child grew up into womanhood, conscious
only of the rich luxurious world in which she was sheltered by her
foolishly-indulgent mother. If you looked into Ada’s rose-tinted face
there was no expression there to indicate the girl’s true character.
Ada Nicoli’s soul lay dormant. At the age of eighteen she was merely
a pretty human machine that seldom went wrong, for she had excellent
health and a sweet temper.
On the afternoon when my story opens, Ada had been driving as usual
with her mother in Central Park. It was a brilliant early summer day,
and the whole world in Ada’s eyes was more than usually beautiful,
but for once her gentle and affectionate mother was in an irritable
humour. It seemed to Ada as if she were suffering from some suppressed
excitement, and as though some cruel blow had suddenly shattered her
nerves and blighted the beauty of her pretty soulless face. That drive
was the only unhappy hour Ada could ever remember having spent with her
mother. When they got home Mrs. Nicoli retired to her room, and then
a message was brought to Ada that her mother was too unwell to come
down to dinner. It was a silent, miserable dinner that night, for Mr.
Nicoli was in one of his most self-absorbed humours, and Ada knew her
father too well to try and break the silence with forced conversation.
She noticed too that his tired face was even paler than usual, and that
his dark, quickly-moving eyes were more restless than before. This was
the first little shadow of a cloud in Ada’s gay young life. She spent
that evening with the children in the schoolroom, longing for bedtime.
Before retiring to bed she knocked at her mother’s bedroom door. Her
father came out and motioned to her to be quiet. “Your mother has a
nervous headache,” he said, “and you must not ask to see her.” And with
an abrupt good-night he turned and left his daughter.
The next day Ada was astonished to see two trained nurses coming and
going from her mother’s room. She was not told what was the matter
with her mother, and there was a horrible air of mystery about the
house. Ada resented being treated like a child, and forbidden to enter
her mother’s room. And in the afternoon of that dreadful day she
waylaid a nurse coming out of the sick-room and demanded an answer to
her question—
“What is the matter with mumma?” she said, with such a look of misery
on her young face that the nurse could not put her aside. “If her
illness is not infectious, why may I not see her?”
“Your poor mumma has had some shock,” replied the nurse, “which has
upset her nerves.”
“What shock?” Ada asked. “She did not tell me, and mumma tells me
everything.”
“That’s what the doctor can’t find out, but there now, I must go back.
Nurse Hatch can’t manage her alone.”
“Can’t manage her alone,” Ada repeated. “Oh, do let me go to her. I
know I could soothe her. When mumma has a headache she likes me to be
with her.”
But the bedroom door was shut on Ada’s last words, and she heard the
lock turned from inside. She was listening to her mother’s excited
voice when her father came along the corridor. He stopped beside Ada,
and spoke abruptly to her.
“I want you to take the children for a drive in Central Park this
afternoon, and on your way tell the coachman to drive up and down
Fourth Avenue. Put on your own and the children’s smartest dresses, and
stop and speak to anyone you know. Say that your mother has got a bad
headache, and don’t go showing the world that miserable face.”
Ada looked at him in surprise.
“But I am miserable,” she said, “because mumma is ill; two trained
nurses are not necessary for a nervous headache. What is the matter
with my mother? What shock has she had? I have a right to know.”
It was her father’s turn to look at his daughter in surprise. Was
this his mild, gentle Ada, whose very beauty suggested a weakness of
character which her strong little chin contradicted.
“Who said she had had a shock?” he said nervously. “It is your duty to
do what I tell you, and not to ask questions.”
“I have always asked questions, poppa, and have always had them
answered. One of the nurses told me mother had had a shock.”
“Then I will tell her to hold her tongue. Now, do what I tell you; go
to any ‘at home’ you have been asked to; get some friend to chaperone
you, and laugh, and talk, and look your prettiest. You can do this for
your father’s sake, surely.”
He looked at her angrily. Ada had never done anything because she loved
her father. She had always feared and avoided him, and so the first
bitter lesson of life this poor indulged girl had to learn was one of
the cruellest of all and one which it takes an older and more expert
hand to play—to wear a smiling face to hide an aching heart.
Marjorie and Sadie were so delighted to go for a drive with their
pretty elegant sister in mumma’s big carriage that their tongues
rattled on unceasingly.
“When I’m a big lady like mumma,” little Sadie said, “I’ll have four
horses in my carriage, like that one over there, Ada,” and Sadie
pointed to a fine four-in-hand coach driven by a well-known leader of
New York fashionable world; “and I’ll buy lots of little babies of my
very own, that I can wash and dress three or four times a day, but I
won’t buy them a horrid cross poppa like our poppa, I’ll buy them a
nice kind one, that plays with them, like Sissie Brown’s poppa. Why
doesn’t mumma buy a new poppa, Ada?”
“Hush, dear,” Ada said; “you can’t buy poppas.”
“Then where do they come from?” Sadie asked, with a look of wonder in
her eyes.
“God gave you yours,” Ada answered absently, for her thoughts were with
her mother, who was lying sick in her big luxurious room, watched over
by two strange women. The fight Ada was making to appear cheerful was,
I am afraid, a very pitiful affair, and more than one pair of eyes were
turned curiously upon her.
“If God sends poppas I suppose we must just be contented with His
choice, but I wish He’d asked me what kind I liked,” Sadie said softly.
Meanwhile Ada was throwing a watery little smile on some friend who
was eagerly bowing to her, a partner at some dance a few nights ago.
Responding to a bow first on this side, and then on that, a good many
of the mothers in New York who knew Mrs. Nicoli thought she had brought
up her daughter in a very foolish way, but one and all of them agreed
that it was evident that the girl’s natural disposition was too simple
and good to spoil. She had such gentle, engaging manners, and such
sweet blue eyes, no one could help loving her.
The next day passed in a very similar manner. Mrs. Nicoli’s condition
did not mend. And Ada was still kept in ignorance as to the real
character of her complaint. On the afternoon of the third day, when
she returned from her drive with the children, she found her mother’s
room was empty. The patient and the nurses had both disappeared. When
her father came in from business, Ada ran to him and asked for an
explanation. Something had prevented her questioning the servants as to
where her mother had been taken.
“Your mother has gone to a private asylum,” her father answered, with
a break in his voice. “You need not tell the children. For the present
it was necessary to put her under supervision. Don’t ask me any more
questions,” he said impatiently, as Ada, trembling with fear, held on
to his coat-sleeve to detain him. “Women like your mother are no use
at all at a crisis,” he continued. “The one moment of her married life
when I wished for her help she has failed me. You are so like her you
would do the same, I suppose.” Mr. Nicoli saw the carnation colour fade
out of Ada’s lips and cheeks, but her blue eyes never shrank from his
piercing scrutiny of her face.
“I have some of your blood in me, too,” she said haughtily. “It may be
for my good, or for my evil, time will prove, but at least it has given
me a stronger constitution than my poor mother’s. Can you not trust me
a little?”
“There is nothing to confide,” he said, with the lie choking his throat
as he spoke. “Your mother has nervous prostration,” he said.
“You are in trouble yourself,” the girl said timidly. “Could I not take
my mother’s place and help you.”
“What makes you think I am in trouble?” he replied impatiently. “Yes,
you can easily fill your mother’s place by looking pretty and spending
money.” He took out his pocket-book and drew from it a thick bundle of
notes. “Take these and spend them on chiffons and candies, and don’t
talk nonsense.”
Ada pushed away the money. “Women care for something dollars can’t buy,
poppa. I’m tired of money and all it is worth.”
Her father laughed harshly. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “Fate may
humour your new craze sooner than you think.”
Ada pondered over his words. What did they mean?
(_To be continued._)
MRS. EWING AND HER BOOKS.
Very few persons will now be inclined to question that Mrs. Ewing is
the premier story-teller for children of this generation. No library
for young people can be considered complete without most of her books.
A few of her writings may appeal more fully to older readers; but the
majority afford immense delight when placed in the hands of boys and
girls. Happily all can now be obtained at low prices.
Though Mrs. Ewing wrote no book of great length, the number and variety
of her output are considerable. Her stories range from fairy tales with
a purpose to books of adventure and domestic incident of all kinds.
We get such sketches as _The Brownies_, where two little lads act on
the happy suggestion to serve as elfish helpers of their widowed and
burdened father, and set to work to brighten the house, not without
soon learning that “there is no such cure for untidiness as clearing up
after other people; one sees so clearly where the fault lies.” We have
such tales as _Timothy’s Shoes_, with the magic shoes which make every
step like a galvanic shock when the feet are turned into wrong paths.
We have books specifically for older boys and girls: _We and the World_
is full of thrilling adventure; _Six to Sixteen_ embodies a good deal
of Mrs. Ewing’s views on education; it traces the quiet development
of a girl’s life and thought, and though perhaps the interest flags
a little in parts, it will always be popular on account of its
description of military life during a cholera epidemic and its charming
pictures of Yorkshire hospitality. A girl cannot fail to be the better
for reading it. Indeed, there is not one of Mrs. Ewing’s numerous books
that does not impart the consciousness of a tenderly sympathetic heart;
with her we feel that
No simplest duty is forgot;
Life hath no dim and lowly spot
That doth not in her sunshine share.
Even when she describes spoiled children and domestic discord, as
in _A Very Ill-Tempered Family_, we get an attractive portrait of
Isobel, who becomes the peace-maker and is herself helped in her time
of struggle by passages from Thomas à Kempis and the petitions of the
“Te Deum,” and who is enabled to conciliate and save her hot-tempered
brother. This sketch and the companion one of _A Great Emergency_ are
full of quaint wit and wisdom, though with fewer verbal quips than the
earlier tales. Mrs. Ewing has the art of wrapping up her advice in a
fascinating story, and does not make her pills with eight corners. The
felicitously chosen titles, often reminding us of John Bunyan, by no
means disappoint the reader.
Many may think that _Lob Lie by the Fire_ is her completest work of
art; and certainly it is a skilfully constructed composition, with
a fragrance as of _Cranford_ in its earlier scenes. But it is in
the trilogy of her last years that her powers culminated. Between
1879 and 1882 Mrs. Ewing produced the three works most widely
popular—_Jackanapes_, _Daddy Darwin’s Dovecot_, and _The Story of a
Short Life_. These constitute an imperishable memorial to her genius,
and have sold in enormous numbers, reaching to one hundred and fifty
thousand in the case of _Jackanapes_. In these books every sentence
is carefully chosen; no superfluous word is to be found; we get pen
pictures of rarest excellence.
In _Jackanapes_ we have the high ideal of soldierly self-sacrifice,
and in _The Story of a Short Life_ the application of military habits
and endurance to a crippled and stunted life. In _Daddy Darwin’s
Dovecot_ we have a sweet idyll of village life. The lad, John March,
on emerging from the workhouse school, has the double ambition to be a
choir-boy and to take care of doves. We delight to trace his fidelity
and diligence; his master soon sees and says that “he’s no vagrant.”
“He’s fettling up all along. Jack’s the sort that if he finds a key
he’ll look for the lock; if ye give him a knife-blade, he’ll fashion a
heft.” And in the peaceful close of the story we listen to the master,
with his last strength, saying to his adopted son, “’Twas that sweet
voice o’ thine took me back again to public worship, and it’s not the
least of all I owe thee, Jack March. A poor reason, lad, for taking up
with a neglected duty—a poor reason—but the Lord is a God of mercy, or
there’d be small chance for most of us.” As the old man died “his lips
were trembling with the smile of acutest joy.”
In most of her books Mrs. Ewing traces the progress of children from
youth to manhood and gives us an insight into the development of their
character. Thus in _Lob Lie by the Fire_, for example, we have the
foundling christened John Broom; we see him adopted by Miss Betty
and Miss Kitty in spite of the warnings of the cautious lawyer, but
under the guidance of the good clergyman who, while feeling he may
be encouraging them in grave indiscretion, feels impelled to say, “I
do know that he has a Father Whose image is also to be found in His
children—not quite effaced in any of them—and Whose care of this one
will last when yours may seem to have been in vain.” We journey with
him in all his difficult training; we are with him in his chivalrous
devotion to McAlister, the Highlander, whose honour he saves and whose
last hour he comforts. We watch him, as the beneficent “brownie” in his
village home, as he brings luck to Lingborough, and works for others.
In this tale, as in so many others, we feel that sustained personal
interest which belongs to a biography.
But it is in connection with _The Story of a Short Life_ that interest
has recently been rekindled in Mrs. Ewing in many quarters, on account
of the remarkable development of the “Guild of the Brave Poor Things,”
which has sprung into existence as the direct outcome of this tale. As
Sir Walter Besant built the “People’s Palace” by the picture painted in
his novel, so Mrs. Ewing has done an equally important work, though not
herself permitted to live to see the results of her suggestions.
In the work of this guild gatherings of afflicted people—blind,
deaf, paralysed, or otherwise incapacitated for the full activity of
ordinary life and work—are held at regular intervals in London and
other centres. Classes suitable to their varied needs are conducted;
companies of the brave who suffer, often with infinite heroism, are
inspirited by being assembled for bright meetings, in which all
that the suggestion of the atmosphere and colour of military habit
can impart, is used to make prominent the fact that the members are
as truly soldiers as the veterans of the “tented field,” that the
“courage to bear and the courage to dare are really one and the same.”
Thus the schoolrooms are decked with banners, while the roll-call of
members and the singing of the tug-of-war hymn (Bishop Heber’s “The
Son of God goes forth to war”) are looked forward to eagerly by the
sufferers, young and old, who are banded together in this comradeship
of affliction. It is almost startling to find walls emblazoned with the
motto “_Lætus sorte meâ_,” and to learn that many people, innocent of
any language but their mother-tongue, have become intelligently proud
of the words which bid them be happy in their lot.[1]
The whole of this movement, now spreading rapidly, has come from Mrs.
Ewing’s sweetly pathetic story, which appeared under its familiar
title of _A Story of a Short Life_ only four days before the death of
its author in 1885. Some three years previously it had been issued
in magazine form under the forbidding Latin title of its motto.
An Irishman, who was a Dorsetshire parson, came with a present of
magnificent climbing roses to Mrs. Ewing a short time afterwards. When
he was thanked for his gift, he said rather grumpily, “You’ve given
me pleasure enough—and to lots of others.” Then he suddenly _chirped_
up and said, “_Lætus_ cost me 2s. 6d. though. My wife bet me 2s. 6d.
I couldn’t read it aloud without crying. I thought I could. But after
a page or two I put my hand in my pocket. I said, ‘There—take your
half-crown, and let me cry comfortably when I want to!’”[2]
We understand that this tale is based largely on life; certainly it
enshrines much of the surroundings of Aldershot, where Major and
Mrs. Ewing lived for eight years. In it we have the life-history of
the lad Leonard, and trace how this high-spirited and spoiled child
conquers his peevishness and triumphs over the limitations of his lot
as a cripple. For a time after his accident his violent and irritable
temper carries all before it; his very crutches become “implements
of impatience”; but he is subdued, and eventually transfigured by
intercourse with a gallant officer wearing the Victoria Cross, who
teaches him that he, too, may be a happy warrior, and, though “doomed
to go in company with pain,” may “turn his necessity to glorious gain,”
and count himself as true a soldier as any wounded on the battle-field.
Leonard not only becomes brave and patient, but he forms a book or
register of “Poor Things,” that is, of people who, like the blind
organ-tuner, manage almost as well in spite of their troubles. In this
roll of honour he inscribes the names of those who
“argue not
Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate one jot
Or heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward.”
Hence the name of the guild, which is itself a beautiful posthumous
memorial to the genius and sympathy of its creator. And here it is
pleasing to record an incident of Mrs. Ewing’s last illness. In one of
her paroxysms of pain she expressed a fear to the doctor that she had
been impatient. He answered, “Indeed you are not. I think you deserve
a Victoria Cross for the way in which you bear it.” This afforded her
intense satisfaction, as it was known that the doctor had not read _A
Story of a Short Life_ itself.
Mrs. Ewing died when she was only forty-four years old. Her
comparatively brief life was throughout heavily streaked with periods
of much pain, endured with amazing fortitude and cheerfulness. From
her earliest days she found her chief happiness in sacrificing for
others. In the exquisite little memoir which her sister (Mrs. Eden)
has published, we have a personal interpretation supplied to some of
her writings. We learn that in the sketch of Madam Liberality we have
reminiscences of her own doings: “Here she has painted a picture of
her own character that can never be surpassed.” With such a testimony
we turn to peruse its pages with redoubled interest. In the first
sentences of this sketch we find it recorded of Madam Liberality:
“It was not her real name: it was given to her by her brothers and
sister. People with very marked qualities of character do sometimes get
such distinctive titles to rectify the indefiniteness of those they
inherit and those they receive in baptism. The ruling peculiarity of a
character is apt to show itself early in life, and it showed itself in
Madam Liberality when she was a little child.”
And then we have the account of the pleasure the child derived from
saving the plums from her cake, and how “she could ‘do without’
anything if the wherewithal to be hospitable was left to her.” Her
liberality was the outcome of continuous and rigid self-denial, and in
sharp contrast to that of her brother Tom.
“It may seem strange that Madam Liberality should even have been
accused of meanness, and yet her eldest brother did once shake his head
at her and say, ‘You’re the most meanest and generoustest person I ever
knew.’
“And Madam Liberality wept over the accusation, although her brother
was then too young to form either his words or his opinions correctly.
But it was the touch of truth in it which made Madam Liberality cry.
To the end of their lives Tom and she were alike and yet different in
this matter. Madam Liberality saved and pinched and planned and then
gave away, and Tom gave away without the pinching and the saving. This
sounds much handsomer, and it was poor Tom’s misfortune that he always
believed it to be so, though he gave away what did not belong to him,
and fell back for the supply of his own pretty numerous wants upon
other people, not forgetting Madam Liberality.”
Mrs. Eden tells us of the thoughtful kindness shown to herself and
other members of her family by her sister who, out of her literary
earnings, planned delightful holidays for them, often adding to the
pleasure by letting the patient choose her own route according to her
fancy.
In this same sketch we get an insight into the courage of Madam
Liberality, “like little body with a mighty heart.” Often tortured by
headache, toothache, and quinsy, “no sufferings abated her energy for
fresh exploits or quenched the hope that cold and damp and fatigue
could not hurt her ‘this time.’” Of Mrs. Ewing it is stated that “she
was always coughing” as a girl, but her weakness never seemed to
affect her vivacity. We read how Madam Liberality went alone to the
dentist’s and allowed him to extract a horribly difficult tooth without
flinching; she well merited the praise, “You’re the bravest little lady
I ever knew.” This incident finds its counterpart in Mrs. Ewing’s life
when she went alone to a London surgeon for an operation on her throat
in order that no friend might be present at so unpleasant a scene.
On the “ever-glorious first of June” in the year 1867 Juliana Gatty
was married to Alexander Ewing, A.P.D. After two years spent in New
Brunswick she returned to England with her husband, who for eight years
was stationed at Aldershot. Here she acquired her close familiarity
with military habits and the high appreciation of soldierly virtues
which have made her later books both pathetic and stimulating. Of
fragile frame herself, she has immortalised the famous south country
camp.
Not long after the final removal of Major Ewing from Aldershot the
health of his wife began steadily to fail. She was compelled to remain
in England when he had to serve in India, and she had to bear many
crushed hopes during the last six years of her life. But her “lamp of
zeal and high desire” continued to burn brightly.
In the early part of 1885 she was seized with an attack of
blood-poisoning. After a short period of physical and mental darkness
she said truly that she would be “more patient than before.” At her
request her sisters made a calendar for the week with the text above,
“In your patience possess ye your souls.” Each day the date was struck
through with a pencil. For another week she had the text, “Be strong
and of a good courage,” and later still, when nights of suffering were
added to days of pain, “The day is Thine; the night also is Thine.”
Her brave life was closed on May 13th, so far as her visible presence
in this life is concerned; but who can fail to appreciate the words
from the _Newcomes_, which are the last entry made in Mrs. Ewing’s
commonplace book, “If we still love those we lose, can we altogether
lose those we love?”
Whilst herself a devoted member of the Anglican Church, Mrs. Ewing
was well able to appreciate the point of view of others; thus we get
sympathetic pen portraits of devout Presbyterians, and her writings
are free from sectarian suggestions. In the realm of philanthropy we
owe much to both Mrs. Gatty and her daughter. Both bring us into close
touch with nature and inculcate a tenderer sympathy with all created
beings and objects. No one can read Mrs. Gatty’s _Parables from Nature_
without gaining some spiritual insight and a fuller conception of God’s
care and love.
F. W. NEWLAND, M.A.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Full particulars of the Guild can be obtained from its founder,
Sister Grace (Mrs. Kimmins) at the Bermondsey Settlement, where its
headquarters are.
[2] _Life and Letters of Mrs. Ewing_, p. 283 (S.P.C.K.).
LETTERS FROM A LAWYER.