A LIST OF THE ELSIE BOOKS AND OTHER POPULAR BOOKS
BY
MARTHA FINLEY
_ELSIE DINSMORE._
_ELSIE’S HOLIDAYS AT ROSELANDS._
_ELSIE’S GIRLHOOD._
_ELSIE’S WOMANHOOD._
_ELSIE’S MOTHERHOOD._
_ELSIE’S CHILDREN._
_ELSIE’S WIDOWHOOD._
_GRANDMOTHER ELSIE._
_ELSIE’S NEW RELATIONS._
_ELSIE AT NANTUCKET._
_THE TWO ELSIES._
_ELSIE’S KITH AND KIN._
_ELSIE’S FRIENDS AT WOODBURN._
_CHRISTMAS WITH GRANDMA ELSIE._
_ELSIE AND THE RAYMONDS._
_ELSIE YACHTING WITH THE RAYMONDS._
_ELSIE’S VACATION._
_ELSIE AT VIAMEDE._
_ELSIE AT ION._
_ELSIE AT THE WORLD’S FAIR._
_ELSIE’S JOURNEY ON INLAND WATERS._
_ELSIE AT HOME._
_ELSIE ON THE HUDSON._
_ELSIE IN THE SOUTH._
_ELSIE’S YOUNG FOLKS._
_MILDRED KEITH._
_MILDRED AT ROSELANDS._
_MILDRED’S MARRIED LIFE._
_MILDRED AND ELSIE._
_MILDRED AT HOME._
_MILDRED’S BOYS AND GIRLS._
_MILDRED’S NEW DAUGHTER._
_CASELLA._
_SIGNING THE CONTRACT AND WHAT IT COST._
_THE TRAGEDY OF WILD RIVER VALLEY._
_OUR FRED._
_AN OLD-FASHIONED BOY._
_WANTED, A PEDIGREE._
_THE THORN IN THE NEST._
[Illustration: Frontispiece]
MILDRED’S MARRIED LIFE
AND
A WINTER WITH ELSIE DINSMORE.
A Sequel to
MILDRED AND ELSIE.
BY
MARTHA FINLEY
(MARTHA FARQUHARSON),
AUTHOR OF THE “ELSIE BOOKS,” “MILDRED KEITH,” “MILDRED AT ROSELANDS,”
“MILDRED AND ELSIE,” “SIGNING THE CONTRACT,” ETC., ETC.
“Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of paradise that has survived the fall!”
COWPER.
NEW YORK:
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS.
COPYRIGHT, 1882,
BY
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
MILDRED’S MARRIED LIFE.
CHAPTER I.
“O married love! each heart shall own,
Where two congenial souls unite,
Thy golden chains inlaid with down,
Thy lamp with heaven’s own splendor bright.”
――LANGHORNE.
What a happy winter that was!――the first of Mildred’s married life.
Her cup of bliss seemed full to overflowing. She was very proud of her
husband, and not without reason, for his was a noble character; he was
a man of sterling worth, lofty aims, cultivated mind, and polished
address.
They were a pair of lovers who grew more and more enamored of each
other day by day as the weeks and months rolled on.
And while the new love flooded Mildred’s pathway with light, the old
loves, so dear, so long tried and true, had not to be given up: she
was still a member of the home circle, a sharer in all its interests
and pleasures, its cares and its joys.
There was no interruption of the mutual sympathy and helpfulness of
mother and daughter, brothers and sisters, nor was the father deprived
of the prized society of his firstborn in the family gatherings about
the table or in the cosy sitting-room or parlor when evening brought
rest from the toils and cares of the day; she was there, as of old,
ready to cheer and entertain him with music or sprightly conversation:
brighter too, and more full of a sweet and gentle gayety than of yore.
These things formed no mean or slight element in Mildred’s happiness;
yet there were times when it was bliss to be alone with her
lover-husband in the privacy of their own apartments――the room that
had always been hers and a communicating one――both of good size,
pleasant and cheery, and made doubly attractive by perfect neatness
and various tasteful little feminine devices in which Mrs. Keith and
her daughters were thought to excel.
Mildred soon discovered that her husband was far from neat and orderly
in his habits; but accepting the fact as the one inevitable yet small
thorn joined to her otherwise delicious rose, she bore the trial with
exemplary patience, indulging in never a reproachful word or even look
as she quietly picked up and put in place the books, papers, and
garments which he scattered here and there with reckless indifference
to consequences to them or himself.
Mildred thought her efforts were unappreciated if not entirely
unnoticed, until one day on opening a drawer in search of some article
which he wanted in haste, he exclaimed at the neat and orderly
arrangement of its contents, adding, “Really, Milly, my dear, I must
say with Solomon, that ‘he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing.’
In my bachelor days I’d have had many a vexatious hunt for things
which now I always find in place, ready to my hand. It has been my
daily experience since I became a benedict.”
Mildred looked up in pleased surprise. “I have been half afraid my
particularity about such things was a trifle annoying to you,
Charlie,” she said in a gratified tone.
“Not at all, but my slovenliness must have been seriously so to you,”
he returned, coming to her side. “I’ll try to reform in that respect,”
he went on playfully, “and I wish that, to help me, you would impose a
fine for every time you have my coat to hang up in the wardrobe, my
boots or slippers to put away in the closet, or――”
“Oh, I should ruin you!” Mildred interrupted with a light, gleeful,
happy laugh.
“Not particularly complimentary that, to either my good intentions or
the supposed amount of my income,” he returned, bending over her to
caress her hair and cheek. “Besides it would depend largely upon the
weight of the fine. How heavy shall it be?”
“Fix it yourself, since the idea is all your own.”
“One dollar each time for every article left out of place; fine to be
increased to not more than five in case no improvement is manifest
within a month. How will that do?”
“Oh,” laughed Mildred, “I shall certainly impoverish you and speedily
grow rich at your expense.”
“Come now, little lady, about how often have I transgressed against
the rules of order in the two weeks that we have shared these rooms?”
“Perhaps twenty. I have kept no account; so can only guess at it.”
“Well, really!” he sighed, in mock despair, “I could not have believed
I was quite so bad as that. But all the more need for reform; you must
insist upon the fines, Milly. I can’t let you have so much trouble for
nothing.”
“O Charlie! as if your love didn’t pay me a thousand times over!” she
exclaimed, lifting to his eyes dewy with mingled emotions――love, joy,
and gratitude.
He answered with a tender caress and a smile of ineffable affection.
“And then you have been so generous with money, too,” Mildred went on.
“Why, I never was so rich before in all my life! I’ve not spent a
fourth part of the hundred dollars I found in my purse the day after
our wedding. And mother tells me you have insisted upon paying a good
deal more for our board than she thinks it worth.”
“Ah, dearest, circumstances alter cases, and with more knowledge you
and mother may change your minds,” he replied, half absently.
Then after a moment’s silence, “This is my gift to my dear wife, and I
cannot tell her how glad I am to be able to make it. My darling, will
you accept it at your husband’s hands?”
He had laid a folded paper in her lap.
“Thank you,” she said playfully, and with a pleased smile. “I can’t
imagine what it is,” opening and glancing over it as she spoke. “Why!”
half breathlessly, as she scrutinized it with more care, then let it
fall into her lap with an astonished, half-incredulous look up into
his face, “Charlie, is it real?” she asked.
“Entirely so, dear Milly,” he answered, with a tender smile.
“You have endowed me with all your worldly goods,” she said, half in
assertion, half inquiringly.
“No, my darling, not nearly half as yet. I know you thought you were
marrying a poor man――at least comparatively so――but it was a mistake.
And oh the delight of being able to give you ease and luxury! you who
have toiled so long and faithfully for yourself and others!”
He clasped her in his arms as he spoke, and with a heart too full for
speech, she laid her head upon his breast and wept for very joy and
thankfulness that such love and tender protecting care were hers.
There was space for little else in her thoughts for the moment; the
next she rejoiced keenly in the wealth that put in her power so much
that it had long been in her heart to do for others; yet rejoiced with
trembling, remembering the Master’s words, “How hardly shall they that
have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”
If adversity had its trials prosperity was not without its perils, and
a most earnest, though silent prayer went up that she might be kept
from trusting in uncertain riches or setting her affection on earthly
treasures.
“Tears, darling?” said her husband, softly stroking her hair. “I
thought to give you joy only.”
“They are happy tears, Charlie,” she murmured, lifting her face,
putting an arm about his neck, and gazing with loving eyes straight
into his; “and yet――oh, I am almost afraid of so much wealth!” And she
went on to tell him all that was in her heart.
“Ah,” he replied, “I do not fear for you, your very sense of the
danger will tend to your safe-keeping.”
“Yes; if it keeps me close to the Master and ever looking unto Him for
strength to resist temptation. Utter weakness in ourselves, we may yet
‘be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.’”
“Yes, you know Paul tells us the Lord said to him, ‘My grace is
sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’”