THE MENIAL.
Things had been going nowise really better with Mary, though there was
now more lull and less storm around her. The position was becoming less
and less endurable to her, and she had as yet no glimmer of a way out
of it. Breath of genial air never blew in the shop, except when this
and that customer entered it. But how dear the dull old chapel had
grown! Not that she heard anything more to her mind, or that she paid
any more attention to what was said; but the memory of her father
filled the place, and when the Bible was read, or some favorite hymn
sung, he seemed to her actually present. And might not love, she
thought, even love to her, be strong enough to bring him from the
gracious freedom of the new life, back to the house of bondage, to
share it for an hour with his daughter?
When Hesper entered, she was disappointed to see Mary so much changed.
But when, at sight of her, the pale face brightened, and a faint, rosy
flush overspread it from brow to chin, Mary was herself again as Hesper
had known her; and the radiance of her own presence, reflected from
Mary, cast a reflex of sunshine into the February of Hesper's heart:
had Mary known how long it was since such a smile had lighted the face
she so much admired, hers would have flushed with a profounder
pleasure. Hesper was human after all, though her humanity was only
molluscous as yet, and it is not in the power of humanity in any stage
of development to hold itself indifferent to the pleasure of being
loved. Also, poor as is the feeling comparatively, it is yet a reflex
of love itself--the shine of the sun in a rain-pool.
She walked up to Mary, holding out her hand.
"O ma'am, I am so glad to see you!" exclaimed Mary, forgetting her
manners in her love.
"I, too, am glad," drawled Hesper, genuinely, though with
condescension. "I hope you are well. I can not say you look so."
"I am pretty well, thank you, ma'am," answered Mary, flushing afresh:
not much anxiety was anywhere expressed about her health now, except by
Beenie, who mourned over the loss of her plumpness, and told her if she
did not eat she would soon follow her poor father.
"Come and have a drive with me," said Hesper, moved by a sudden
impulse: through some hidden motion of sympathy, she felt, as she
looked at her, that the place was stuffy. "It will do you good," she
went on. "You are too much indoors.--And the ceiling is low," she
added, looking up.
"It is very kind of you," replied Mary, "but--I don't think I could
quite manage it to-day."
She looked round as she spoke. There were not many customers; but for
conscience sake she was trying hard to give as little ground for
offense as possible.
"Why not?--If I were to ask Mr.--"
"If you really wish it, ma'am, I will venture to go for half an hour.
There is no occasion to speak to Mr. Turnbull. Besides, it is almost
dinner-time."
"Do, then. I am sure you will eat a better dinner for having had a
little fresh air first. It is a lovely morning. We will drive to the
Roman camp on the top of Clover-down."
"I shall be ready in two minutes," said Mary, and ran from the shop.
As she passed along the outside of his counter coming back, she stopped
and told Mr. Turnbull where she was going. Instead of answering her, he
turned himself toward Mrs. Redmain, and went through a series of bows
and smiles recognizant of favor, which she did not choose to see. She
turned and walked from the shop, got into the brougham, and made room
for Mary at her side.
But, although the drive was a lovely one, and the view from either
window delightful, and to Mary it was like getting out of a tomb to
leave the shop in the middle of the day, she saw little of the sweet
country on any side, so much occupied was she with Hesper. Ere they
stopped again at the shop-door, the two young women were nearer being
friends than Hesper had ever been with any one. The sleepy heart in her
was not yet dead, but capable still of the pleasure of showing sweet
condescension and gentle patronage to one who admired her, and was
herself agreeable. To herself she justified her kindness to Mary with
the remark that _the young woman deserved encouragement_--whatever that
might mean--_because she was so anxious to improve herself!_--a duty
Hesper could recognize in another.
As they went, Mary told her something of her miserable relations with
the Turnbulls; and, as they returned, Hesper actually--this time with
perfect seriousness--proposed that she should give up business, and
live with her.
Nor was this the ridiculous thing it may at first sight appear to not a
few of my readers. It arose from what was almost the first movement in
the direction of genuine friendship Hesper had ever felt. She had been
familiar in her time with a good many, but familiarity is not
friendship, and may or may not exist along with it. Some, who would
scorn the idea of a _friendship_ with such as Mary, will be familiar
enough with maids as selfish as themselves, and part from
them--no--part _with_ them, the next day, or the next hour, with never
a twinge of regret. Of this, Hesper was as capable as any; but
friendship is its own justification, and she felt no horror at the new
motion of her heart. At the same time she did not recognize it as
friendship, and, had she suspected Mary of regarding their possible
relation in that light, she would have dismissed her pride, perhaps
contempt. Nevertheless the sorely whelmed divine thing in her had
uttered a feeble sigh of incipient longing after the real; Mary had
begun to draw out the love in her; while her conventional judgment
justified the proposed extraordinary proceeding with the argument of
the endless advantages to result from having in the house, devoted to
her wishes, a young woman with an absolute genius for dressmaking; one
capable not only of originating in that foremost of arts, but, no
doubt, with a little experience, of carrying out also with her own
hands the ideas of her mistress. No more would she have to send for the
dressmaker on every smallest necessity! No more must she postpone
confidence in her appearance, that was, in herself, until Sepia,
dressed, should be at leisure to look her over! Never yet had she found
herself the best dressed in a room: now there would be hope!
Nothing, however, was clear in her mind as to the position she would
have Mary occupy. She had a vague feeling that one like her ought not
to be expected to undertake things befitting such women as her maid
Folter; for between Mary and Folter there was, she saw, less room for
comparison than between Folter and a naked Hottentot. She was
incapable, at the same time, of seeing that, in the eyes of certain
courtiers of a high kingdom, not much known to the world of fashion,
but not the less judges of the beautiful, there was a far greater
difference between Mary and herself than between herself and her maid,
or between her maid and the Hottentot. For, while the said beholders
could hardly have been astonished at Hesper's marrying Mr. Redmain,
there would, had Mary done such a thing, have been dismay and a hanging
of the head before the face of her Father in heaven.
"Come and live with me, Miss Marston," said Hesper; but it was with a
laugh, and that light touch of the tongue which suggests but a flying
fancy spoken but for the sake of the preposterous; while Mary, not
forgetting she had heard the same thing once before, heard it with a
smile, and had no rejoinder ready; whereupon Hesper, who was, in
reality, feeling her way, ventured a little more seriousness.
"I should never ask you to do anything you would not like," she said.
"I don't think you could," answered Mary. "There are more things I
should like to do for you than you would think to ask.--In fact," she
added, looking round with a loving smile, "I don't know what I
shouldn't like to do for you."
"My meaning was, that, as a thing of course, I should never ask you to
do anything menial," explained Hesper, venturing a little further
still, and now speaking in a tone perfectly matter-of-fact.
"I don't know what you intend by _menial_," returned Mary.
Hesper thought it not unnatural she should not be familiar with the
word, and proceeded to explain it as well as she could. That seeming
ignorance may be the consequence of more knowledge, she had yet to
learn.
"_Menial_, don't you know?" she said, "is what you give servants to do."
But therewith she remembered that Mary's help in certain things wherein
her maid's incapacity was harrowing, was one of the hopes she mainly
cherished in making her proposal: that definition of _menial_ would
hardly do.
"I mean--I mean," she resumed, with a little embarrassment, a rare
thing with her, "--things like--like--cleaning one's shoes, don't you
know?--or brushing your hair."
Mary burst out laughing.
"Let me come to you to-morrow morning," she said, "and I will brush
your hair that you will want me to come again the next day. You
beautiful creature! whose hands would not be honored to handle such
stuff as that?"
As she spoke, she took in her fingers a little stray drift from the
masses of golden twilight that crowned one of the loveliest temples in
which the Holy Ghost had not yet come to dwell.
"If cleaning your shoes be menial, brushing your hair must be royal,"
she added.
Hesper's heart was touched; and if at the same time her _self_ was
flattered, the flattery was mingled with its best antidote--love.
"Do you really mean," she said, "you would not mind doing such things
for me?--Of course I should not be exacting."
She laughed again, afraid of showing herself too much in earnest before
she was sure of Mary.
"You would not ask me to do anything _menial_?" said Mary, archly.
"I dare not promise," said Hesper, in tone responsive. "How could I
help it, if I saw you longing to do what I was longing to have you do?"
she added, growing more and more natural.
"I would no more mind cleaning your boots than my own," said Mary.
"But I should not like to clean my own boots," rejoined Hesper.
"No more should I, except it had to be done. Even then I would much
rather not," returned Mary, "for cleaning my own would not interest me.
To clean yours would. Still I would rather not, for the time might be
put to better use--except always it were necessary, and then, of
course, it couldn't. But as to anything degrading in it, I scorn the
idea. I heard my father once say that, to look down on those who have
to do such things may be to despise them for just the one honorable
thing about them.--Shall I tell you what I understand by the word
_menial_? You know it has come to have a disagreeable taste about it,
though at first it only meant, as you say, something that fell to the
duty of attendants."
"Do tell me," answered Hesper, with careless permission.
"I did not find it out myself," said Mary. "My father taught me. He was
a wise as well as a good man, Mrs. Redmain."
"Oh!" said Hesper, with the ordinary indifference of fashionable people
to what an inferior may imagine worth telling them.
"He said," persisted Mary, notwithstanding, "that it is menial to
undertake anything you think beneath you for the sake of money; and
still more menial, having undertaken it, not to do it as well as
possible."
"That would make out a good deal more of the menial in the world than
is commonly supposed," laughed Hesper. "I wonder who would do anything
for you if you didn't pay them--one way or another!"
"I've taken my father's shoes out of Beenie's hands many a time," said
Mary, "and finished them myself, just for the pleasure of making them
shine for _him_."
"Re-a-ally!" drawled Hesper, and set out for the conclusion that after
all it was no such great compliment the young woman had paid her in
wanting to brush her hair. Evidently she had a taste for low
things!--was naturally menial!--would do as much for her own father as
for a lady like her! But the light in Mary's eyes checked her.
"Any service done without love, whatever it be," resumed Mary, "is
slavery--neither more nor less. It can not be anything else. So, you
see, most slaves are made slaves by themselves; and that is what makes
me doubtful whether I ought to go on serving in the shop; for, as far
as the Turnbulls are concerned, I have no pleasure in it; I am only
helping them to make money, not doing them any good."
"Why do you not give it up at once then?" asked Hesper.
"Because I like serving the customers. They were my father's customers;
and I have learned so much from having to wait on them!"
"Well, now," said Hesper, with a rush for the goal, "if you will come
to me, I will make you comfortable; and you shall do just as much or as
little as you please."
"What will your maid think?" suggested Mary. "If I am to do what I
please, she will soon find me trespassing on her domain."
"I never trouble myself about what my servants think," said Hesper.
"But it might hurt her, you know--to be paid to do a thing and then not
allowed to do it."
"She may take herself away, then. I had not thought of parting with
her, but I should not be at all sorry if she went. She would be no loss
to me."
"Why should you keep her, then?"
"Because one is just as good--and as bad as another. She knows my ways,
and I prefer not having to break in a new one. It is a bore to have to
say how you like everything done."
"But you are speaking now as if you meant it," said Mary, waking up to
the fact that Hesper's tone was of business, and she no longer seemed
half playing with the proposal. "_Do_ you mean you want me to come and
live with you?"
"Indeed, I do," answered Hesper, emphatically. "You shall have a room
close to my bedroom, and there you shall do as you like all day long;
and, when I want you, I dare say you will come."
"Fast enough," said Mary, cheerily, as if all was settled. In contrast
with her present surroundings, the prospect was more than attractive.
"--But would you let me have my piano?" she asked, with sudden
apprehension.
"You shall have my grand piano always when I am out, which will be
every night in the season, I dare say. That will give you plenty of
practice; and you will be able to have the best of lessons. And think
of the concerts and oratorios you will go to!"
As she spoke, the carriage drew up at the door of the shop, and Mary
took her leave. Hesper accepted her acknowledgments in the proper style
of a benefactress, and returned her good-by kindly. But not yet did she
shake hands with her.
Some of my readers may wonder that Mary should for a moment dream of
giving up what they would call her independence; for was she not on her
own ground in the shop of which she was a proprietor? and was the
change proposed, by whatever name it might be called, anything other
than _service_? But they are outside it, and Mary was in it, and knew
how little such an independence was worth the name. Almost everything
about the shop had altered in its aspect to her. The very air she
breathed in it seemed slavish. Nor was the change in her. The whole
thing was growing more and more sordid, for now--save for her part--the
one spirit ruled it entirely.
The work had therefore more or less grown a drudgery to her. The spirit
of gain was in full blast, and whoever did not trim his sails to it was
in danger of finding it rough weather. No longer could she, without
offense, and consequent disturbance of spirit, arrange her attendance
as she pleased, or have the same time for reading as before. She could
encounter black looks, but she could not well live with them; and how
was she to continue the servant of such ends as were now exclusively
acknowledged in the place? The proposal of Mrs. Redmain stood in
advantageous contrast to this treadmill-work. In her house she would be
called only to the ministrations of love, and would have plenty of time
for books and music, with a thousand means of growth unapproachable in
Testbridge. All the slavery lay in the shop, all the freedom in the
personal service. But she strove hard to suppress anxiety, for she saw
that, of all poverty-stricken contradictions, a Christian with little
faith is the worst.
The chief attraction to her, however, was simply Hesper herself. She
had fallen in love with her--I hardly know how otherwise to describe
the current with which her being set toward her. Few hearts are capable
of loving as she loved. It was not merely that she saw in Hesper a
grand creature, and lovely to look upon, or that one so much her
superior in position showed such a liking for herself; she saw in her
one she could help, one at least who sorely needed help, for she seemed
to know nothing of what made life worth having--one who had done, and
must yet be capable of doing, things degrading to the humanity of
womanhood. Without the hope of helping in the highest sense, Mary could
not have taken up her abode in such a house as Mrs. Redmain's. No
outward service of any kind, even to the sick, was to her service
enough to _choose_; were it laid upon her, she would hasten to it; for
necessity is the push, gentle or strong, as the man is more or less
obedient, by which God sends him into the path he would have him take.
But to help to the birth of a beautiful Psyche, enveloped all in the
gummy cerecloths of its chrysalis, not yet aware, even, that it must
get out of them, and spread great wings to the sunny wind of God--that
was a thing for which the holiest of saints might well take a servant's
place--the thing for which the Lord of life had done it before him. To
help out such a lovely sister--how Hesper would have drawn herself up
at the word! it is mine, not Mary's--as she would be when no longer
holden of death, but her real self, the self God meant her to be when
he began making her, would indeed be a thing worth having lived for!
Between the ordinarily benevolent woman and Mary Marston, there was
about as great a difference as between the fashionable church-goer and
Catherine of Siena. She would be Hesper's servant that she might gain
Hesper. I would not have her therefore wondered at as a marvel of
humility. She was simply a young woman who believed that the man called
Jesus Christ is a real person, such as those represent him who profess
to have known him; and she therefore believed the man himself--believed
that, when he said a thing, he entirely meant it, knowing it to be
true; believed, therefore, that she had no choice but do as he told
her. That man was the servant of all; therefore, to regard any honest
service as degrading would be, she saw, to deny Christ, to call the
life of creation's hero a disgrace. Nor was he the first servant; he
did not of himself choose his life; the Father gave it him to
live--sent him to be a servant, because he, the Father, is the first
and greatest servant of all. He gives it to one to serve as the rich
can, to another as the poor must. The only disgrace, whether of the
counting-house, the shop, or the family, is to think the service
degrading. If it be such, why not sit down and starve rather than do
it? No man has a right to disgrace himself. Starve, I say; the world
will lose nothing in you, for you are its disgrace, who count service
degrading. You are much too grand people for what your Maker requires
of you, and does himself, and yet you do it after a fashion, because
you like to eat and go warm. You would take rank in the kingdom of
hell, not the kingdom of heaven. But obedient love, learned by the
meanest Abigail, will make of her an angel of ministration, such a one
as he who came to Peter in the prison, at whose touch the fetters fell
from the limbs of the apostle.
"What forced, overdriven, Utopian stuff! A kingdom always coming, and
never come! I hold by what _is._ This solid, plowable earth will serve
my turn. My business is what I can find in the oyster."
I hear you, friend. Your answer will come whence you do not look for
it. For some, their only answer will be the coming of that which they
deny; and the _Presence_ will be a very different thing to those who
desire it and those who do not. In the mean time, if we are not yet
able to serve like God from pure love, let us do it because it is his
way; so shall we come to do it from pure love also.
The very next morning, as she called it--that is, at four o'clock in
the afternoon--Hesper again entered the shop, and, to the surprise and
annoyance of the master of it, was taken by Mary through the counter
and into the house. "What a false impression," thought the great man,
"will it give of the way _we_ live, to see the Marstons' shabby parlor
in a warehouse!" But he would have been more astonished and more
annoyed still, had the deafening masses of soft goods that filled the
house permitted him to hear through them what passed between the two.
Before they came down, Mary had accepted a position in Mrs. Redmain's
house, if that may be called a position which was so undefined; and
Hesper had promised that she would not mention the matter. For Mary
judged Mr. Turnbull would be too glad to get rid of her to mind how
brief the notice she gave him, and she would rather not undergo the
remarks that were sure to be made in contempt of her scheme. She
counted it only fair, however, to let him know that she intended giving
up her place behind the counter, hinting that, as she meant to leave
when it suited her without further warning, it would be well to look
out at once for one to take her place.
As to her money in the business, she scarcely thought of it, and said
nothing about it, believing it as safe as in the bank. It was in the
power of a dishonest man who prided himself on his honesty--the worst
kind of rogue in the creation; but she had not yet learned to think of
him as a dishonest man--only as a greedy one--and the money had been
there ever since she had heard of money. Mr. Turnbull was so astonished
by her communication that, not seeing at once how the change was likely
to affect him, he held his peace--with the cunning pretense that his
silence arose from anger. His first feeling was of pleasure, but the
man of business must take care how he shows himself pleased. On
reflection, he continued pleased; for, as they did not seem likely to
succeed in securing Mary in the way they had wished, the next best
thing certainly would be to get rid of her. Perhaps, indeed, it was the
very best thing; for it would be easy to get George a wife more
suitable to the position of his family than a little canting dissenter,
and her money would be in their hands all the same; while, once clear
of her haunting cat-eyes, ready to pounce upon whatever her soft-headed
father had taught her was wicked, he could do twice the business. But,
while he continued pleased, he continued careful not to show his
satisfaction, for she would then go smelling about for the cause!
During three whole days, therefore, he never spoke to her. On the
fourth, he spoke as if nothing had ever been amiss between them, and
showed some interest in her further intentions. But Mary, in the
straightforward manner peculiar to herself, told him she preferred not
speaking of them at present; whereupon the cunning man concluded that
she wanted a place in another shop, and was on the outlook--prepared to
leave the moment one should turn up.
She asked him one day whether he had yet found a person to take her
place.
"Time enough for that," he answered. "You're not gone yet."
"As you please, Mr. Turnbull," said Mary. "It was merely that I should
be sorry to leave you without sufficient help in the shop."
"And _I_ should be sorry," rejoined Turnbull, "that Miss Marston should
fancy herself indispensable to the business she turned her back upon."
From that moment, the restraint he had for the last week or two laid
upon himself thus broken through, he never spoke to her except with
such rudeness that she no longer ventured to address him even on
shop-business; and all the people in the place, George included,
following the example so plainly set them, she felt, when, at last, in
the month of November, a letter from Hesper heralded the hour of her
deliverance, that to take any formal leave would be but to expose
herself to indignity. She therefore merely told Turnbull, one evening
as he left the shop, that she would not be there in the morning, and
was gone from Testbridge before it was opened the next day.