THE NEW STEP-MOTHER.
“Perhaps she tries to do her best,” said Aunt Jane, after a long
silence, during our drive home, for neither Mrs. Mordaunt nor I had
ventured to put into words any favourable impression of the bride.
“She shows, at all events, respect for her teacher, and takes pains to
act, and look, and speak as she has been taught by the schoolmistress,
or person to whom her education has been entrusted. She is obliged to
think of her words and looks, because they cannot come naturally to her,
as they would to a person brought up differently; and though she cannot
yet be natural, she may become so in time. For now, when she has to
pronounce a word with an _h_ in it she must remember that it is to be
well sounded.”
“Well, you do always find some excuse for everybody, or some good in
them. Now, I thought it was only pretensious silliness,” said Mrs.
Mordaunt.
“We must remember that she is not speaking with her father or her
mother, consequently she knows that we shall consider it vulgar if she
spoke as they do, who put all their _h_’s wrong, and their speech is
characteristic of quite the low order from which they spring.”
“But the speech of our poor cottagers is not vulgar,” said I.
“No, because that is genuine, and their minds are refined by suffering
and humility,” said Aunt Jane. “She showed an interest in the tutor and
the governess which looked kind, and almost more than one could have
expected in a fine-dressed, and probably purse-proud woman, of her youth
and inexperience.”
“Well, I know I should not like to be her daughter-in-law,” said I.
“Nor dear Norah, I fear; but we shall see. I do not profess to know Mrs.
Chandos’s character, or even disposition, at all, in that one interview.
The improvements, or rather disfigurement of the place, had prejudiced
me more against her than her own appearance did, for I always observe
more of person’s characters by their rooms than by their faces. The bare
and tasteless rooms of rich people, rooms unmarked with the stamp of the
inhabiter’s mind, however much they may have been laden with upholstery,
have a much more depressing effect on me than even the interior of the
poorest cottage. The latter calls forth hope. Blessed are, in fact, and
will be, the poor. A life of necessary active labour must be better for
the mind than the stagnating rest or leisure in which those rich people
vegetate whose minds are too small and uncultivated to use their riches
well.”
“So that you rather regret, upon the whole, that Mr. Chandos has given
your favourite Norah a new mother?”
“Yes, for her I do; for that kind of half-bred woman, united with her
loved father, must clash with her fine sensibilities. But for the rest
of the family I can’t say, for extreme poverty is a dreadful thing.”
“Yes, it must be,” said I, with a slight shudder.
“And yet you do not know what it is.”
“No; but I fully know how delightful riches are, so I conclude that not
to be able to have all one wants, nor be able even to relieve others,
must be very, very dreadful.”
“Well, don’t look so grave, and remember that if, or whenever, the worst
trial comes, it is never so bad as we apprehended. And now, tell me, is
Mrs. Chandos handsome or not?”
“Well, I can scarcely say, for her elaborate dress and odd manner
riveted my attention more than her face, but she certainly has a good,
fair complexion, fine colour, and not bad eyes; but was she not much
disfigured by the way her hair was dressed?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said Aunt Jane. “She has a first-rate hairdresser
for her hair, who does it in the extreme of the fashion, and that
extreme is generally particularly unbecoming, for even pretty people
cannot stand it. But people in general would think Mrs. Chandos
handsome, I should think. She is so fresh and healthy-looking. She has a
large smile, though it was put on to order when we were present, yet it
had that kind of wide-spreading ripple over her countenance that will
light up her eyes, if her mind and disposition should improve; and she
has the advantage of good health, which is a great blessing, and
sometimes a great help to a good development of character. Of course,
the strong are never so interesting as those who habitually suffer, and
yet make the best of their ailments.”