Domestic Bliss
Holcroft had been given a foretaste of the phase of torment which he
was destined to endure in his domestic relations, and was planning to
secure a refuge into which he could not be pursued. He had made
himself a little more presentable for supper, instinctively aware that
nothing would escape the lynx-eyed widow, and was taking some
measurements from the floor to a stovepipe hole leading into the
chimney flue, when he became aware that someone was in the doorway.
Turning, he saw Jane with her small catlike eyes fixed intently upon
him. Instantly he had the feeling that he was being watched and would
be watched.
"Supper's ready," said the girl, disappearing.
Mrs. Mumpson smiled upon him--if certain contortions of her thin, sharp
face could be termed a smile--from that side of the table at which his
wife had sat so many years, and he saw that the low rocking chair,
which he had preserved jealously from his former "help," had been
brought from the parlor and established in the old familiar place.
Mrs. Mumpson folded her hands and assumed a look of deep solemnity;
Jane, as instructed, also lowered her head, and they waited for him to
say "grace." He was in far too bitter a mood for any such pious farce,
and stolidly began to help them to the ham and eggs, which viands had
been as nearly spoiled as was possible in their preparation. The widow
raised her head with a profound sigh which set Holcroft's teeth on
edge, but he proceeded silently with his supper. The biscuits were
heavy enough to burden the lightest conscience; and the coffee, simply
grounds swimming around in lukewarm water. He took a sip, then put
down his cup and said, quietly, "Guess I'll take a glass of milk
tonight. Mrs. Mumpson, if you don't know how to make coffee, I can
soon show you."
"Why! Isn't it right? How strange! Perhaps it would be well for you
to show me just exactly how you like it, for it will afford me much
pleasure to make it to your taste. Men's tastes differ so! I've heard
that no two men's tastes were alike; and, after all, everything is a
matter of taste. Now Cousin Abiram doesn't believe in coffee at all.
He thinks it is unwholesome. Have YOU ever thought that it might be
unwholesome?"
"I'm used to it, and would like it good when I have it at all."
"Why, of course, of course! You must have it exactly to your taste.
Jane, my dear, we must put our minds on coffee and learn precisely how
Mr. Holcroft likes it, and when the hired girl comes we must carefully
superintend her when she makes it. By the way, I suppose you will
employ my assistant tomorrow, Mr. Holcroft."
"I can't get a girl short of town," was the reply, "and there is so
much cream in the dairy that ought to be churned at once that I'll wait
till next Monday and take down the butter."
Mrs. Mumpson put on a grave, injured air, and said, "Well," so
disapprovingly that it was virtually saying that it was not well at
all. Then, suddenly remembering that this was not good policy, she was
soon all smiles and chatter again. "How cozy this is!" she cried, "and
how soon one acquires the home feeling! Why, anyone looking in at the
window would think that we were an old established family, and yet this
is but our first meal together. But it won't be the last, Mr.
Holcroft. I cannot make it known to you how your loneliness, which
Cousin Lemuel has so feelingly described to me, has affected my
feelings. Cousin Nancy said but this very day that you have had
desperate times with all kinds of dreadful creatures. But all that's
past. Jane and me will give a look of stability and respecterbility to
every comer."
"Well, really, Mrs. Mumpson, I don't know who's to come."
"Oh, you'll see!" she replied, wrinkling her thin, blue lips into what
was meant for a smile, and nodding her head at him encouragingly. "You
won't be so isolated no more. Now that I'm here, with my offspring,
your neighbors will feel that they can show you their sympathy. The
most respecterble people in town will call, and your life will grow
brighter and brighter; clouds will roll away, and--"
"I hope the neighbors will not be so ill-mannered as to come without
being invited," remarked Mr. Holcroft grimly. "It's too late in the day
for them to begin now."
"My being here with Jane will make all the difference in the world,"
resumed Mrs. Mumpson, with as saccharine an expression as she could
assume. "They will come out of pure kindness and friendly interest,
with the wish to encourage--"
"Mrs. Mumpson," said Holcroft, half desperately, "if anyone comes it'll
be out of pure curiosity, and I don't want such company. Selling
enough butter, eggs, and produce to pay expenses will encourage me more
than all the people of Oakville, if they should come in a body. What's
the use of talking in this way? I've done without the neighbors so
far, and I'm sure they've been very careful to do without me. I shall
have nothing to do with them except in the way of business, and as I
said to you down at Lemuel Weeks's, business must be the first
consideration with us all," and he rose from the table.
"Oh, certainly, certainly!" the widow hastened to say, "but then
business is like a cloud, and the meetings and greetings of friends is
a sort of silver lining, you know. What would the world be without
friends--the society of those who take an abiding interest? Believe
me, Mr. Holcroft," she continued, bringing her long, skinny finger
impressively down on the table, "you have lived alone so long that you
are unable to see the crying needs of your own constitution. As a
Christian man, you require human sympathy and--"
Poor Holcroft knew little of centrifugal force; but at that moment he
was a living embodiment of it, feeling that if he did not escape he
would fly into a thousand atoms. Saying nervously, "I've a few chores
to do," he seized his hat, and hastening out, wandered disconsolately
around the barn. "I'm never going to be able to stand her," he groaned.
"I know now why my poor wife shook her head whenever this woman was
mentioned. The clack of her tongue would drive any man living crazy,
and the gimlet eyes of that girl Jane would bore holes through a
saint's patience. Well, well! I'll put a stove up in my room, then
plowing and planting time will soon be here, and I guess I can stand it
at mealtimes for three months, for unless she stops her foolishness she
shan't stay any longer."
Jane had not spoken during the meal, but kept her eyes on Holcroft,
except when he looked toward her, and then she instantly averted her
gaze. When she was alone with her mother, she said abruptly, "We aint
a-goin' to stay here long, nuther."
"Why not?" was the sharp, responsive query.
"'Cause the same look's comin' into his face that was in Cousin
Lemuel's and Cousin Abiram's and all the rest of 'em. 'Fi's you I'd
keep still now. 'Pears to me they all want you to keep still and you
won't."
"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson in severe tones, "you're an ignorant child.
Don't presume to instruct ME! Besides, this case is entirely
different. Mr. Holcroft must be made to understand from the start that
I'm not a common woman--that I'm his equal, and in most respects his
superior. If he aint made to feel this, it'll never enter his
head--but law! There's things which you can't and oughtn't to
understand."
"But I do," said the girl shortly, "and he won't marry you, nor keep
you, if you talk him to death."
"Jane!" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, as she sank into the chair and rocked
violently.
The night air was keen and soon drove Holcroft into the house. As he
passed the kitchen window, he saw that Mrs. Mumpson was in his wife's
rocking chair and that Jane was clearing up the table.
He kindled a fire on the parlor hearth, hoping, but scarcely expecting,
that he would be left alone.
Nor was he very long, for the widow soon opened the door and entered,
carrying the chair. "Oh, you are here," she said sweetly. "I heard the
fire crackling, and I do so love open wood fires. They're company in
themselves, and they make those who bask in the flickering blaze
inclined to be sociable. To think of how many long, lonely evenings
you have sat here when you had persons in your employ with whom you
could have no affinity whatever! I don't see how you stood it. Under
such circumstances life must cloud up into a dreary burden." It never
occurred to Mrs. Mumpson that her figures of speech were often mixed.
She merely felt that the sentimental phase of conversation must be very
flowery. But during the first evening she had resolved on prudence.
"Mr. Holcroft shall have time," she thought, "for the hope to steal
into his heart that his housekeeper may become something more to him
than housekeeper--that there is a nearer and loftier relation."
Meanwhile she was consumed with curiosity to know something about the
"persons" previously employed and his experiences with them. With a
momentary, and, as she felt, a proper pause before descending to
ordinary topics, she resumed, "My dear Mr. Holcroft, no doubt it will
be a relief to your overfraught mind to pour into a symperthetic ear
the story of your troubles with those--er--those peculiar females
that--er--that--"
"Mrs. Mumpson, it would be a much greater relief to my mind to forget
all about 'em," he replied briefly.
"INDEED!" exclaimed the widow. "Was they as bad as that? Who'd 'a'
thought it! Well, well, well; what people there is in the world! And
you couldn't abide 'em, then?"
"No, I couldn't."
"Well now; what hussies they must have been! And to think you were
here all alone, with no better company! It makes my heart bleed. They
DO say that Bridget Malony is equal to anything, and I've no doubt but
that she took things and did things."
"Well, she's taken herself off, and that's enough." Then he groaned
inwardly, "Good Lord! I could stand her and all her tribe bettern'n
this one."
"Yes, Mr. Holcroft," pursued Mrs. Mumpson, sinking her voice to a loud,
confidential whisper, "and I don't believe you've any idea how much she
took with her. I fear you've been robbed in all these vicissitudes.
Men never know what's in a house. They need caretakers; respecterble
women, that would sooner cut out their tongues than purloin. How happy
is the change which has been affected! How could you abide in the
house with such a person as that Bridget Malony?"
"Well, well, Mrs. Mumpson! She abode with herself. I at least had
this room in peace and quietness."
"Of course, of course! A person so utterly unrespecterble would not
think of entering THIS apartment; but then you had to meet her, you
know. You could not act as if she was not, when she was, and there
being so much of her, too. She was a monstrous-looking person. It's
dreadful to think that such persons belong to our sex. I don't wonder
you feel as you do about it all. I can understand you perfectly. All
your senserbleness was offended. You felt that your very home had
become sacrilegious. Well, now, I suppose she said awful things to
you?"
Holcroft could not endure this style of inquisition and comment another
second longer. He rose and said, "Mrs. Mumpson, if you want to know
just what she said and did, you must go and ask her. I'm very tired.
I'll go out and see that the stock's all right, and then go to bed."
"Oh, certainly, certainly!" ejaculated the widow. "Repose is nature's
sweet rester, says the poet. I can see how recalling those dreadful
scenes with those peculiar females--" But he was gone.
In passing out, he caught sight of Jane whisking back into the kitchen.
"She's been listening," he thought. "Well, I'll go to town tomorrow
afternoon, get a stove for my room upstairs, and stuff the keyhole."
He went to the barn and looked with envy at the placid cows and quiet
horses. At last, having lingered as long as he could, he returned to
the kitchen. Jane had washed and put away the supper dishes after a
fashion, and was now sitting on the edge of a chair in the farthest
corner of the room.
"Take this candle and go to your mother," he said curtly. Then he
fastened the doors and put out the lamp. Standing for an instant at
the parlor entrance, he added, "Please rake up the fire and put out
the light before you come up. Good night."
"Oh, certainly, certainly! We'll look after everything just as if it
was our own. The sense of strangeness will soon pass--" But his steps
were halfway up the stairs.
Mother and daughter listened until they heard him overhead, then,
taking the candle, they began a most minute examination of everything
in the room.
Poor Holcroft listened also; too worried, anxious, and nervous to sleep
until they came up and all sounds ceased in the adjoining apartment.