For herself, she was growing into a love for Mr. Digby which was almost like that of a mother for a son; as indeed his manner towards her was much like that of a son towards his mother. It was not the benefits conferred and received; it was a closer bond which drew them together, and a deeper relation. They looked into each other"s faces, and saw there, each in the other, what each recognized as the signature of a handwriting that they loved; the stamp of a likeness that was to them both the fairest of all earthly things. Then came the good offices rendered and accepted; the frequent familiar intercourse; the purely human conditions of acquaintanceship and friendship; and it was no matter of surprise if by and by the care on the one part and the dependence on the other grew to be a thing most natural and most sweet.
So it came about, that by degrees the look of things changed in Mrs.
Carpenter"s small dwelling place. As the cold of the winter began to give way to the harshness of spring, and March winds blew high, the gaseous fumes from the little anthracite coal stove provoked Mrs. Carpenter"s cough sadly. "She was coughing all day," Mrs. Cord told their friend in private; "whenever the wind blew and the gas came into the room." Mr.
Digby took his measures. The little cooking stove was removed; a little disused grate behind it was opened; and presently a gentle fire of Liverpool coal was burning there. The atmosphere of the room as well as the physiognomy of it was entirely changed; and Mrs. Carpenter hung over the fire and spread out her hands to it with an expression of delight on her wasted face which it was touching to see. Mr. Digby saw it, and perhaps to divert the feeling which rose in him, began to find fault with something else.
"That"s a very uncomfortable chair you are sitting in!" he said with a strong expression of disapproval.
"O it does very well indeed," answered Mrs. Carpenter. "I want nothing, I think, having this delightful fire."
"How do you rest when you are tired?"
"I lean back. Or I lie down sometimes."
"Humph! Beds are very well at night. I do not think they are at all satisfactory by day."
"Why what would you have?" said Mrs. Carpenter, smiling at him.
"I"ll see."
It was the next day only after this that Rotha, having finished her work for her teacher and nothing else at the moment calling for attention, was standing at the window looking out into the narrow street. The region was poor, but not squalid; nevertheless it greatly stirred Rotha"s disgust.
If New York is ever specially disagreeable, it finds the occasion in a certain description of March weather; and this was such an occasion. It was very cold; the fire in the grate was well made up and burning beautifully and the room was pleasant enough; but outside there were gusts that were almost little whirlwinds coursing up and down every street, carrying with them columns and clouds of dust. The dust accordingly lay piled up on one side of the way, swept off from the rest of the street; not lying there peacefully, but caught up again from time to time, whirled through the air, shaken out upon everybody and everything in its way, and finally swept to one side and deposited again.
"It"s the most horrid weather, mother, you can think of!" Rotha reported from her post of observation. "I shouldn"t think anybody would be out; but I suppose they can"t help it. A good many people are going about, anyhow. Some of them are so poorly dressed, mother! there was a woman went by just now, carrying a basket; I should say she had very little on indeed under her gown; the wind just took it and wrapped it round her, and she looked as slim as a post."
"Poor creature!" said Mrs. Carpenter.
"Mother, we never saw people like that in Medwayville."
"No."
"Why are they here, and not there?"
"You must ask Mr. Digby."
"I don"t want to ask Mr. Digby!--There are two boys; ragged;--and barefooted. I don"t know what they are out for; they have nothing to do; they are just playing round an ash-barrel. I should think they"d be at home."
"Such people"s home is often worse than the streets."
"But you don"t know how it blows to-day. I should think, mother," said Rotha slowly, "New York must want a great many good people in it."
"There are a great many good people in it."
"What are they doing, then?"
"Looking out for Number One, mostly," Mrs. Cord answered, who happened to be in the room.
"But it wants people rich enough to look out for Number One, and for Number Two as well."
Mrs. Carpenter sighed. She knew there were more sides to the problem than the simple "one and two" which appeared to Rotha.
"There comes a coal cart, mother; that has to go, I suppose, for somebody wants it. I should hate to drive a coal cart! Mother, who wants it here?
It is backing down upon our sidewalk."
"Mrs. Marble, I suppose."
"No, she don"t; she has got her coal all in; and this isn"t her coal at all; it is in big lumps some of it, like what came for the grate, and it isn"t shiny like the stove coal. It must be for you, I guess."
Rotha ran down to see, and came back with the receipt for her mother to sign. Mrs. Carpenter signed with a trembling hand, and Rotha flew away again.
"It is a whole cart-load, mother," she said coming back.
"There is one good rich man in New York," said Mrs. Carpenter tremulously.
"Do you think he is rich?"
"I fancy so."
"He hasn"t spent so very much on us, has he?" asked Rotha consideringly.
"It seems much to me. More than our share, I am afraid."
"Our share of what?"
"His kindness."
"Who has the other shares?"
"I cannot tell. Other people he knows, that are in need of it."
"Mother, we are not in _need_ of it, are we? We could get along without oysters, I suppose. But what I am thinking of is, if he gives other people as good a share of his time as he gives us, he cannot live at home much. Where _does_ Mr. Digby live, Mrs. Cord?"
"I don"t know as I can say, Rotha. It is a hotel somewheres, I believe."
"I should not think anybody would live in a hotel," said Rotha, remembering her own and her mother"s experience of the "North River."
"Now here comes another cart the carts have to go in all sorts of times; but O how the dust blows about! This cart is carrying something--I can"t see what it"s all wrapped up."
"My dear Rotha," said her mother, "I am not interested to know what the carts in the street are doing. Are you?"
"This one is stopping, mother. It is stopping _here!_"
"Well, my dear, what if it is. It is no business of ours."
"The other cart was our business, though; how do you know, mother? It has stopped here, and the man is taking the thing off."
Mrs. Cord came to the window to look, and then went down stairs. Rotha, seeing that the object of her interest, whatever it were, had disappeared within doors, presently followed her. In the little bit of a hall below stood a large something which completely filled it up; and on one side and on the other, Mrs. Marble and Mrs. Cord were taking off the wrappings in which it was enfolded.
"Well, I declare!" said the former, when they had done. "Aint that elegant!"
"Just like him," said Mrs. Cord. "I guessed this was coming, or something like it."