November 9. They are married. Just after dusk to-night I heard the doorbell, and Rosa came in with a queer look on her face to say that Mr.
Saychase and Mr. Weston were in the hall. I went out to them at once, and tried to act as if everything had been arranged between us. George was pale and stern. He would not look at me, and I did not exchange a word directly with him while he was in the house, except to say good-evening and good-by. I kept them waiting just a moment or two while I prepared Gertrude, and then I called them upstairs. She behaved very well, acting as if she were a little frightened, but accepting everything without a word. I suspect she is too ill really to care for anything very much. The ceremony was over quickly, and then George went away without noticing his wife further except to say good-night.
Tom came in for a moment, later, to see that everything was well, and of course I asked him how he had brought George to consent. He smiled rather grimly.
"I did it simply enough," he said. "I tried easy words first, and appealed to him as a gentleman,--though of course I knew it was no use.
If such a plea would have done any good, I shouldn"t have been there.
Then I said he wouldn"t be tolerated in Tuskamuck if he didn"t make it right for his wife. He said he guessed he could fix that, and if other people would mind their own business he could attend to his. Then I opened the door and called in Cy Turner. I had him waiting outside because I knew Weston would understand he meant business. I asked him to say what we"d agreed; and he told Weston that if he didn"t marry the woman before midnight we"d have him ridden out of town on a rail. He weakened at that. He knew we"d do it."
I could not say anything to this. It was a man"s way of treating the situation, and it accomplished its end; but it did affect me a good deal. I shivered at the very idea of a mob, and of what might have happened if George had not yielded. Tom saw how I felt, I suppose.
"You think I"m a brute, Ruth," he said, "but I knew he"d give in. He isn"t very plucky. I always knew that."
He hurried away to go to the reading-room, where he had to see to something or other, and we said nothing about our personal relations. I wonder if I fancied that he watched me very closely to see how I took his account, or if he really thought I might resent his having browbeaten George. He need not have feared. I was troubled by the idea of the mob, but I was proud of Tom, and I could not help contrasting his clear, straightforward look with the way George avoided my eyes.
November 12. Now there are two babies in the house, and Cousin Mehitable might think her prediction that I would set up an orphan asylum was coming true in earnest. In spite of Mrs. Weston"s exposure everything is going well, and we hope for the best. I sent George a note last night to tell him, and he came over for a minute. He behaved very well. He had none of the bravado which has made him so different and so dreadful, and he was more like his old self. He was let into his wife"s chamber just long enough to kiss her, but that was all. I suppose to be the father of a son must sober any man.
November 20. Tom never comes any more to see me or baby. When I discovered I cared for him I felt that of course everything was at last straightened out; and here is Tom, who only knows that he cares for me, so the case is about as it was before except that now he will never speak. I must do something; but what can I do? When I thought only of getting out of the way of George"s marriage it was bad enough to speak to Tom, and now it seems impossible. I can"t, I can"t, I can"t speak to him again!
November 23. Cousin Mehitable and her telegram arrived this time together, for the boy who drove her from the station brought the message, and gave it to her to bring into the house. She was full of indignation and amazement at what she found, and insisted upon going back to Boston by the afternoon train.
"I never know what you will do, Ruth," she said, "so of course I ought not to be surprised; but of all the wild notions you could take into your head, I must say to have Mrs. Weston come here to have her baby is the most incredible."
"You advised me to have more babies, as long as I had one," I interposed.
"I"ve a great mind to shake you," was her response. "This is a pretty reception when I haven"t seen you since I came home. To think I should be cousin to a foundling hospital, and that all the family I have left!"
I suggested that if I really did set up a foundling hospital, she would soon have as large a family as anybody could want, and she briskly retorted that she had more than she wanted now. She had come down to persuade me to go to Boston for the winter, to make up, she said, for my not going abroad with her, and she brought me a wonderful piece of embroidered crepe for a party dress. She was as breezy and emphatic as ever, and she denounced me and my doings in good round terms.
"I suppose if you did come to Boston," she said, "you"d be mixed up in all the dreadful charities there, and I should never see you."
"But you know, Cousin Mehitable," I protested, "you belong to two or three charitable societies yourself."
"But those are parish societies," was her reply. "That is quite different. Of course I do my part in whatever the church is concerned in; but you just do things on your own hook, and without even believing anything. I think it"s wicked myself."
I could only laugh at her, and it was easy to see that her indignation was not with any charitable work I did, but only with the fact I would not promise to leave everything and go home with her.
Before she went home I told her I had a confession to make. She commented, not very encouragingly, that she supposed it was something worse than anything had come yet, but that as she was prepared for anything I might as well get it out.
"If you"ve decided to be some sort of a Mormon wife to that horrid Mr.
Weston," she added, "I shouldn"t be in the least surprised. Perhaps you"ll take him in with the rest of his family."
I said I did indeed think of being married, but not to him.
"Let me know the worst at once, Ruth," she broke out, rather fiercely.
"At my age I can"t stand suspense as I could once. What tramp or beggar or clodhopper have you picked out? I know you too well to suppose it"s anybody respectable."
When I named Tom, she at first pretended not to know him, although she has seen him a dozen times in her visits here, and once condescended to say that for a countryman he was really almost handsome.
"I know it"s the same name as that baby"s father"s," she ended, her voice getting icier and icier, "but of course no respectable woman would think of marrying him."
"Then I"m not a respectable woman," I retorted, feeling the blood rise into my face, "for I"m thinking of it."
We looked for a moment into each other"s eyes, and I felt, however I appeared, as if I were defying anything she could say.
"So he has taken advantage of your mothering his baby, has he?" she brought out at last.
I responded that he did not even suspect I meant to marry him. She stared, and demanded how he was to find out. I answered that I could think of no way except for me to tell him. She threw up her hands in pretended horror.
"I dare say," she burst out, "he only got you to take the baby so that you"d feel bound to him. I should think when he"d disgraced himself you might have self-respect enough to let him alone. Oh, what would Cousin Horace say!"
Then she saw she was really hurting me, and her eyes softened somewhat.
"I shan"t congratulate you, Ruth, if that"s what you expect; but since you will be a fool in your own obstinate way, I hope it"ll make you happy."
I took both her hands in mine.
"Cousin Mehitable," I pleaded, "don"t be hard on me. I know he"s done wrong, and it hurts me more than I can tell you. I am so sorry for him and I really, really love him. I"m all alone now except for baby, and I am sure if Father were alive he would see how I feel, and approve of what I mean to do."
The tears came into her eyes as I had never seen them. She drew her hands away, but first she pressed mine.
"Ruth," she said, "never mind my tongue. If you"ve only baby, I"ve n.o.body but you, and you won"t come near me. Besides, you are going to have him. I can"t pretend I like it, Ruth; but I do like you, and I do dearly hope you"ll be happy. You deserve to be, my dear; and I"m a selfish, worldly old woman, with a train to catch. Now don"t say another word about it, or I"ll disinherit you in my will."
So we kissed each other, and she went away with my secret.
November 25. Kathie has come home for her Thanksgiving vacation, and I never saw a creature so transformed. She is so interested in her school, her studies, her companions, that she seems to have forgotten that anybody ever frightened her about her soul; and she is just a merry, happy girl, bright-eyed and rather high-strung, but not in the least morbid. She hugged me, and kissed Tomine, and the nonsense of her jealousy, as of her having committed the unpardonable sin, was forgotten entirely. It is an unspeakable comfort to me that the experiment of sending her away has turned out so well.
Miss Charlotte came in while Kathie was here, and watched her with shrewd, keen eyes as she rattled on about the things she is studying, the games she plays, and the friends she has made. When she had gone, Miss Charlotte looked at me with one of her friendly regards.
"She"s made over, like the boy"s jackknife that had a new blade and a new handle," was her comment. "I think, my dear, you"ve saved her soul alive."
I was delighted that she thought Kathie so much improved, though of course I realized I had not done it.
November 26. I have invited George to Thanksgiving dinner. I do hope Gertrude will be able to come downstairs; if she is not I shall have to get through as best I can without her. Miss Charlotte will come, and that will prevent the awkwardness of our being by ourselves.
George comes every day to see his wife, and I think his real feelings, his better side, have been called out by her illness. She is the mother of his son, and she is so extremely pretty and pathetic as she lies there, that I should not think any man could resist her. She is so softened by what she has gone through, and so grateful for kindness, she seems a different person from the over-dressed woman we have known without liking very much.
She told me yesterday a good deal about her former life. She has been an orphan from her early girlhood, largely dependent upon an aunt who wanted to be rid of her. It was partly by the contrivance of her aunt, and partly because she longed to escape from a position of dependence, that she married her first husband. She did not stop, I think, to consider what she was doing, and she found her case a pretty hard one.
Her husband abused her, and before they had been married a year he ran away to escape a charge of embezzlement. Word was sent to her soon after that he was drowned. She took again her maiden name, and came East to escape all shadow of the disgrace of her married life. She earned her living as a typewriter, until she saw George at Franklin, where she was employed in the bank. She confessed that she came here to secure him, and she wept in begging my pardon for taking him away from me.
If she can keep to her resolutions and if George will only be still fond of her, things may yet go well with them. Aunt Naomi dryly observed yesterday that what has happened will be likely to prevent Mrs. Weston for a long time to come from trying to make a display, and so it may be the best thing that could have befallen her. So much depends upon George, though!
November 30. The dinner went off much better than I could have hoped.