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| Dwelling upon the spiritual. |
"Well, Lawrence, I'm so glad you've come! I thought you never would. And I've had such a lesson read me!"
"Lesson? Who's been reading my wife a lesson, I should like to know?"
"Who do you think ? Nobody but that little absurd woman there that Mrs, Jim. But I never had such a lesson. Drive slow, please, and let me tell you all about it this horse does throw the gravel in your face so! I'm expecting every moment to see the spokes fly out of the wheels There, now, that's
reasonable. This horse is a perfect griffin has legs and wings, too."
"Well steady, Frolic, steady' now let's have your lesson. If there's any one can read you a lesson, Mrs. Fanny Mulgrave, I should like to hear it"
"Now, Lawrence! However, you know I came up to look at the house, for I've been having my misgivings about that big room. And when I went in, it did look so big and bare! I was dismayed. I paced it off this way and paced it off that way, and thought about what I could put in the corners', and how that window with the sea view would be as good as a picture; and how the whole mantel-piece from dado to cornice, with its white marble carvings and gildings and mirror, was a perfect illumination; and how I must confront it in that great square alcove with a mass of shadow; and we haven't a single thing to go there; and how magnificent an ebony and gold cabinet like that Mrs. Watrous and I saw at the Exhibition the one I went into ecstasies over, you know, that goes from floor to ceiling would fill the place. And the more I thought of it, the more indispensable such a great ebony and gilt cabinet seemed to be. And I knew it was perfectly impossible" -
"How did you know it, may I inquire?"
"Oh, they cost oh, hundreds of dollars. And, of course the house itself takes all you can spare. But I felt that it would be utterly out of my power to make that room look anything like what I wanted without it. And I kept seeing how beautiful it would be with those gold colored satin curtains of your aunt Sophy's falling back from the windows on each side of it. And I sat down and stared at the spot, and felt as if I didn't want the house at all if I couldn't have that cabinet. And I thought you might go without your cigars and your claret and your horses a couple of years, and we could easily have it. "
"Kind of you, and cheerful for me."
"Oh, I didn't think anything about that part of it. Just fancy! I thought you were the most selfish man in the world, and I was the most unhappy woman; and all men were selfish, and all women were slaves; and and that ebony and gold cabinet was obscuring my whole outlook on life. I felt so angry with you, and with fate, and with everything, that hot, scalding-hot tears would have shaken down if you had happened to come just then. I'm so glad you didn't, Lawrence, dear; I couldn't have spoken to save my life, and I should have run directly out of the room for fear, if I did speak, I should say something horrid.'
"Should you, indeed? And do you imagine I shouldn't have followed?"
"Oh, I should have been running."
"And whose legs are longest, puss?"
"Well, that's nothing to do with it. Just then the whirlwind came up, and the window-places being open, all the dust of the building, all the shavings and splinters and lime and sand about, seemed to make a sudden lurch into the room, and I couldn't see across it. And there I was in my new hat! And I made for the door as fast as my feet could fly."
"Silliest thing you could do."
"I suppose so; for when I was out-doors, the boards on the scaffoldings were pitching through the air at such a rate that I could neither stay there nor go back; and I saw that little shanty just round the corner, and ran in."
"That was sensible."
"Thanks. And there she was, pots and pails about the door, and a hen just blowing in 'before me, and a parcel of dirty-faced, barefooted children tumbling round. And such a place! - It fairly made me low-spirited to look at it. I was in mortal fear of getting a grease spot on my dress. But I was in before I knew it, and there was no help for it, and the wind was blowing so I had to stay.
"And the lady of that house read you a lesson?"
"Such a lesson! You'd have thought, to begin with, that it was a palace. She did the honors like a little duchess. It didn't occur to her, apparently, that things were squalid. And that made it so much easier than if she apologized, and you were forced to tell polite fibs and make believe it was all right, you know. She was a trifle vexed because the face of one of the children wasn't clean, and afterward she repentingly gave him the molasses jug to keep him quiet; but another of the children was such a little darling! Well, presently her tongue was loose."
"Humph!"
"Humph? Didn't you want to hear about it? Oh, I know the whole story of my tongue, but I find you like to listen to it."
"So I do, my dear; so I do. And then?"
"Well, as I was saying, presently her tongue was loose, and I had the benefit of her experience. And I know she has a good-for-naught of a husband, whom she loves a great deal better than I love you oh yes she does, for she seems never to have thought one hard thing concerning him, and I was thinking so many of you, you know! And there she is, and has been, with her cooking stove and table, her two chairs, a bed, and a crib, with a contented spirit and a patient soul, and her highest ambition and her wildest daydream just to have"
"An ebony and gold cabinet?"
"Oh, no, no! Do drive faster, Lawrence. How this horse does crawl' I want to get it up to her tonight. A bureau. To think of it, only a bureau! You needn't laugh at me. I've an awful cold in my head. And I mean she shall have it, if it takes every cent you gave me for my new jacket. I'll wear the
old one. I think I can get what she'll consider a beauty, though, for twelve dollars, or thereabouts. Drive to Veneer's, please, dear. I do feel in such a hurry, when it takes such a little bit to make a woman happy."
"An ebony and gold cabinet, for instance."
"Oh, nonsense! How you do love to tease, Lawrence! I never want to hear of such a thing again. I wouldn't have it now."
"Stop, stop, good wife! You'll say too much. You silly little woman, didn't you know that ebony and gold cabinet which you and Mrs. Watrous saw was made for the place between your windows?"
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