"You are not looking as hale as you did," said the visitor, as she seated herself; "you must have lost a good many pounds, but that was to be expected. From what I have heard, South America must be about as unhealthy a place as any part of the world, and then on top of that, living in Paris with water to drink which, I am told, is enough to make anybody sick to look at it, is bound to have some sort of an effect upon a person."
Mrs. Cliff smiled. She was used to this sort of talk from Nancy Shott.
"I am better than I was two years ago," she said, "and the last time I was weighed I found that I had gained seven pounds."
"Well, there is no accounting for that," said her visitor, "except as we grow old we are bound to show it, and sometimes aging looks like bad health, and as to fat, that often comes as years go on, though as far as I am concerned, I think it is a great misfortune to have more to carry, as you get less and less able to carry it."
Mrs. Cliff might have said that that sort of thing would not be likely to trouble Miss Shott, whose scantily furnished frame was sure to become thinner and thinner as she became older and weaker, but she merely smiled and waited to hear what would come next.
"I do not want to worry you," said Miss Shott; "but several people that were here last night said you was not looking as they had hoped to see you look, and I will just say to you, if it is anything connected with your appet.i.te, with a feeling of goneness in the mornings, you ought to buy a qua.s.sia cup and drink the full of it at least three times a day."
Miss Shott knew that Mrs. Cliff absolutely detested the taste of qua.s.sia. Mrs. Cliff was not annoyed. She hoped that her visitor would soon get through with these prefatory remarks and begin to take the stand, whatever it might be, which she had come there that morning to take.
"There has been sickness here since you last left," said Miss Shott, "and it has been where it was least to be expected, too. Barney Thompson"s little boy, the second son, has had the diphtheria, and where he got it n.o.body knows, for it was vacation time, and he did not go to school, and there was no other diphtheria anywhere in all this town, and yet he had it and had it bad."
"He did not die?" said Mrs. Cliff.
"Oh no, he got over it, and perhaps it was a bad case and perhaps it was not; but you may be sure I did not go near it, for I considered it my duty to keep away, and I did keep away, but the trouble is--"
"And did none of the other children take it?" asked Mrs. Cliff.
"No, they didn"t. But the trouble is, that when diphtheria or anything like it comes up suddenly like this, without any reason that n.o.body can see, it is just as likely to come up again without any reason, and I am expecting to hear every day of another of them Thompson children being stricken down; and I was very sorry indeed, Mrs. Cliff, to see, this very morning, w.i.l.l.y Croup coming out of Barney Thompson"s house and to hear from her afterwards that she had been to order him to come here to put up a new kitchen door, which I do not suppose is absolutely needed, and even if it is, I am sure I would wait a good while before I would have Barney Thompson come into my house with diphtheria, that very minute, perhaps, in the throats of one or maybe more of his children; but of course, if people choose to trifle with their own lives, it is their own business."
"It was not real diphtheria," said w.i.l.l.y Croup, who happened to be pa.s.sing the open door at this moment; "it was only a bad sore throat, and the child was well in two days."
"I suppose, of course," said Miss Shott, "that if the disease did get into this house, w.i.l.l.y Croup would be the first to take it, because she is such a spongy person that she takes almost anything that is in the air and is not wholesome; but then you would not want to lose her, and after a funeral in the house, no matter whose it may be, things is always gloomy for a long time afterwards, and n.o.body can feel easy if it was a catchin" disease that the person died of."
Mrs. Cliff was naturally desirous to hear all the domestic news of the town, but she would have liked to have had something pleasant thrown in among the gloomy tidings of which Miss Shott had made herself the bearer, and so she made a little effort to turn the conversation.
"I shall be glad to go about and see my old friends and neighbors," she said, "for I am interested in everything which has happened to them; but I suppose it will be some days before I can settle down and feel ready to go on in the old way. It seems to me as if I had been on the move ever since I left here, although, of course, I was not travelling all the time."
"I suppose n.o.body has told you," said Miss Shott, "that Edward Darley has ploughed up that little pasture of his and planted it with young apple trees. Now, it does seem to me that for a man like Edward Darley, who comes of a consumptive family, and who has been coughin" regularly, to my certain knowledge, for more than a year, to go and plant apple trees, which he can"t expect to live to see bear fruit, is nothing more or less than a wicked waste of money, time, and labor. I suppose if I was to go and tell him so he would not like that, but I do not know as I ought to consider it. There are people in this world who"ll never know anything if they"re not told!"
Five other topics of the town, each of a doleful nature and each indicating an evident depravity in a citizen of Plainton, were related by Miss Shott, and then she arose to go.
"I hope you"ll remember what I told you about Thompson"s children," she said, as she walked to the front door, "and if I was you, I"d have that kitchen fumigated after he has put the door in!"
"There now!" said Miss Shott to herself, as she proudly walked down the street. "The Widow Cliff can"t say I"ve done any toadying; and, no matter what she"s got, and what she hasn"t got, she can"t say to herself that I consider her any better able to give me twenty-five cents than she was when she was here before; or that it makes any difference to me whether she has much or little!"
CHAPTER IV
A LAUNCH INTO A NEW LIFE
It required the greater part of two days for Mrs. Cliff and w.i.l.l.y to open the seven trunks, and properly display and dispose of the various articles and goods, astonishing in their variety and beauty, and absolutely amazing when the difference between the price paid for them and what they would have cost in New York was considered.
During these fascinating operations it so happened that at one time or another nearly all of Mrs. Cliff"s female friends dropped in, and all were wonderfully impressed by what they saw and what they heard; but although Miss Shott did not come there during the grand opening, it was not long before she knew the price and something of the general appearance of nearly everything that Mrs. Cliff had brought with her.
Among the contents of the trunks were a great many presents for Mrs.
Cliff"s friends, and whenever Miss Shott heard of one of these gifts, she made a remark to the effect that she had not a doubt in the world that the Widow Cliff knew better than to bring her a present, for she would not want the thing, whatever it was, whether a gla.s.s pitcher or a pin-cushion, flung back at her after the fashion that she had set herself at a time when everybody was trying their best to be kind to her.
It was clearly a fact, that through the influence of the seven trunks Mrs. Cliff was becoming a very popular woman, and Miss Shott did not like it at all. She had never had any faith--at least she said so--in those lumps of gold found in a hole in some part of the world that n.o.body had ever heard of; and had not hesitated to say that fortunes founded on such wild-goose stories as these should not even be considered by people of good sense who worked for their living, or had incomes which they could depend on. But the dress goods, the ribbons, the gloves, the little clocks, the shoes, the parasols, the breast-pins, the portfolios of pictures, the jewelry, the rugs and table covers, and hundreds of other beautiful and foreign things, were a substantial evidence that Mrs. Cliff"s money was not all moonshine.
It was very pleasant for Mrs. Cliff to bring out her treasures to display them to her enthusiastic friends, and to arrange them in her house, and to behold the rapturous delight of w.i.l.l.y Croup from early morn until bed-time.
But the seven empty trunks had been carried up into the garret, and now Mrs. Cliff set her mind to the solution of the question--how was she to begin her new life in her old home? It must be a new life, for to live as she had lived even in the days of her highest prosperity during her husband"s life would be absurd and even wicked. With such an income she must endeavor as far as was possible to her to live in a manner worthy of it; but one thing she was determined upon--she would not alienate her friends by climbing to the top of her money and looking down upon them.
None of them knew how high she would be if she were to perch herself on the very top of that money, but even if she climbed up a little way, they might still feel that they were very small in her sight.
No, the money should always be kept in the background. It might be as high as the sky and as glorious as a sunset, but she would be on the ground with the people of Plainton, and as far as was possible, they should all enjoy the fine weather together.
She could not repress a feeling of pride, for she would be looked upon as one of the princ.i.p.al persons--if not the princ.i.p.al person--in Plainton; but she could not believe that any real friend could possibly object to that.
If her husband had lived and prospered, it was probable he would have been the princ.i.p.al man in Plainton, the minister always excepted; but now there was no reason whatever why any one should object to her being a princ.i.p.al personage, and, in this case, she could not see why the minister"s wife should be excepted.
But Plainton was to be her home; the Plainton people were to be her friends. How should she set about using her money in such a way that she should not be driven forth to some large city to live as ordinary wealthy people live, in a fashion to which she was utterly unsuited, and which possessed for her no attractions whatever?
Of course, she had early determined to devote a large sum to charitable purposes, for she would have thought herself a very unworthy woman if her wealth had not benefited others than herself, but this was an easy matter to attend to. The amount she had set aside for charity was not permanently invested, and, through the advice of Mr. Perley, there would be no difficulty in devoting this to suitable objects. Already she had confidentially spoken to her pastor on the subject, and had found him enthusiastic in his desire to help her in every possible way in her benevolent purposes. But who was there who could help her in regard to herself? Who was there who could tell her how she ought to live so as to gain all the good that her money should give her, and yet not lose that which was to her the highest object of material existence,--a happy and prosperous life among her old friends in her native town?
Should she choose to elevate herself in the social circle by living as ordinary very rich people live, she could not hope to elevate her friends in that way, although she would be glad enough to do it in many cases, and there would be a gap between them which would surely grow wider and wider; and yet here was this money coming in upon her in a steady stream day by day, and how was she going to make herself happier with it?
She must do that, or, she believed, it would be her duty to hand it over to somebody else who was better adapted by nature to use it.
"If I did not take so much pleasure in things which cost so little and which are so easy for me to buy," said poor Mrs. Cliff to herself, "or if I did not have so much money, I am sure I should get on a great deal better."
Mrs. Cliff"s belief that she must not long delay in selecting some sort of station in life, and endeavoring to live up to it, was soon strengthened by w.i.l.l.y Croup. During the time of the trunk opening, and for some days afterwards, when all her leisure hours were occupied with the contemplation and consideration of her own presents, w.i.l.l.y had been perfectly contented to let things go on in the old way, or any way, but now the incongruity of Mrs. Cliff"s present mode of living, and the probable amount of her fortune, began to impress itself upon her.
"It does seem to me," said she, "that it"s a sin and a shame that you should be goin" about this house just as you used to do, helpin" me upstairs and downstairs, as if you couldn"t afford to hire n.o.body. You ought to have a girl, and a good one, and for the matter of that, you might have two of "em, I suppose. And even if it wasn"t too much for you to be workin" about when there"s no necessity for it, the people are beginnin" to talk, and that ought to be stopped."
"What are they talking about?" asked Mrs. Cliff.
"Well, it"s not everybody that"s talkin"," returned w.i.l.l.y, "and I guess that them that does gets their opinions from one quarter, but I"ve heard people say that it"s pretty plain that all you got out of that gold mine you spent in buyin" the things you brought home in your trunks; for if you didn"t, you wouldn"t be livin" like this, helpin" to do your own housework and cookin"."
In consequence of this conversation, a servant-of-all-work was employed; for Mrs. Cliff did not know what she would do with two women until she had made a change in her household arrangements; and with this as a beginning, our good widow determined to start out on her career as a rich woman who intended to enjoy herself in the fashion she liked best.
She sent for Mr. Thompson, the carpenter, and consulted with him in regard to the proposed additions to her house, but when she had talked for a time, she became disheartened. She found that it would be necessary to dig a new cellar close to her present premises; that there would be stones, and gravel, and lime, and sand, and carts and horses, and men, and dirt; and that it would be some months before all the hammering, and the sawing, and the planing, and the plastering, and tinwork could be finished, and all this would be going on under her eye, and close to her ears during those first months in which she had proposed to be so happy in her home. She could not bear to give the word to dig, and pound, and saw. It was not like building a new house, for that would not be near her, and the hub-bub of its construction would not annoy her.
So she determined she would not begin a new dining-room at present. She would wait a little while until she had had some good of her house as it was, and then she would feel better satisfied to live in the midst of pounding, banging, and all-pervading dust; but she would do something.
She would have the fence which separated the sidewalk from her front yard newly painted. She had long wanted to have that done, but had not been able to afford it.
But when Mr. Thompson went to look at the fence, he told her that it would be really a waste of money to paint it, for in many places it was old and decayed, and it would be much wiser to put up a new one and paint that.
Again Mrs. Cliff hesitated. If that fence had to be taken down, and the posts dug up, and new posts put in, and the flower-bed which ran along the inside of it destroyed, it would be just as well to wait until the other work began and have it all done at once; so she told Mr. Thompson he need not send a painter, for she would make the old fence do for a while.
Mrs. Cliff sighed a little as the carpenter walked away, but there were other things to do. There was the pasture lot at the rear of her garden, and she could have a cow, and there was the little barn, and she could have a horse. The idea of the horse pleased her more than anything she had yet thought of in connection with her wealth.
In her days of prosperity it had been her greatest pleasure to drive in her phaeton with her good brown horse, generally with w.i.l.l.y Croup by her side; to stop at shops or to make calls upon friends, and to make those little excursions into the surrounding country in which she and w.i.l.l.y both delighted. They had sometimes gone a long distance and had taken their dinner with them, and w.i.l.l.y was really very good in unharnessing the horse and watering him at a brook, and in giving him some oats.