Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  “But, Lillie, I am interested in my Sunday school. I know all my people, and they know me; and no one else in the world could do for them what I could.”

  “Well, I should think you might be interested in me: nobody else can do for me what you can, and I want you to stay with me. That’s just the way with you men: you don’t care any thing about us after you get us.”

  “Now, Lillie, darling, you know that isn’t so.”

  “It’s just so. You care more for your old missionary work, now, than you do for me. I’m sure I never knew that I’d married a home-missionary.”

  “Darling, please, now, don’t laugh at me, and try to make me selfish and worldly. You have such power over me, you ought to be my inspiration.”

  “I’ll be your common-sense, John. When you get on stilts, and run benevolence into the ground, I’ll pull you down. Now, I know it must be bad for a man, that has as much as you do to occupy his mind all the week, to go out and work Sundays; and it’s foolish, when you could perfectly well hire somebody else to do it, and stay at home, and have a good time.”

  “But, Lillie, I need it myself.”

  “Need it, — what for? I can’t imagine.”

  “To keep me from becoming a mere selfish, worldly man, and living for mere material good and pleasure.”

  “You dear old Don Quixote! Well, you are altogether in the clouds above me. I can’t understand a word of all that.”

  “Well, good-by, darling,” said John, kissing her, and hastening out of the room, to cut short the interview.

  Milton has described the peculiar influence of woman over man, in lowering his moral tone, and bringing him down to what he considered the peculiarly womanly level. “You women,” he said to his wife, when she tried to induce him to seek favors at court by some concession of principle,—”you women never care for any thing but to be fine, and to ride in your coaches.” In Father Adam’s description of the original Eve, he says, —

  ”All higher knowledge in her presence falls

  Degraded; wisdom, in discourse with her,

  Loses, discountenanced, and like folly shows.”

  Something like this effect was always produced on John’s mind when he tried to settle questions relating to his higher nature with Lillie. He seemed, somehow, always to get the worst of it. All her womanly graces and fascinations, so powerful over his senses and imagination, arrayed themselves formidably against him, and for the time seemed to strike him dumb. What he believed, and believed with enthusiasm, when he was alone, or with Grace, seemed to drizzle away, and be belittled, when he undertook to convince her of it. Lest John should be called a muff and a spoon for this peculiarity, we cite once more the high authority aforesaid, where Milton makes poor Adam tell the angel, —

  ”Yet when I approach

  Her loveliness, so absolute she seems

  And in herself complete, so well to know

  Her own, that what she wills to do or say

  Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.”

  John went out from Lillie’s presence rather humbled and over-crowed. When the woman that a man loves laughs at his moral enthusiasms, it is like a black frost on the delicate tips of budding trees. It is up-hill work, as we all know, to battle with indolence and selfishness, and self-seeking and hard-hearted worldliness. Then the highest and holiest part of our nature has a bashfulness of its own. It is a heavenly stranger, and easily shamed. A nimble-tongued, skilful woman can so easily show the ridiculous side of what seemed heroism; and what is called common-sense, so generally, is only some neatly put phase of selfishness. Poor John needed the angel at his elbow, to give him the caution which he is represented as giving to Father Adam: —

  ”What transports thee so?

  An outside? — fair, no doubt, and worthy well

  Thy cherishing, thy honor, and thy love,

  Not thy subjection. Weigh her with thyself,

  Then value. Oft-times nothing profits more

  Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right

  Well managed: of that skill the more them knowest,

  The more she will acknowledge thee her head,

  And to realities yield all her shows.”

  But John had no angel at his elbow. He was a fellow with a great heart, — good as gold, — with upward aspirations, but with slow speech; and, when not sympathized with, he became confused and incoherent, and even dumb. So his only way with his little pink and white empress was immediate and precipitate flight.

  Lillie ran to the window when he was gone, and saw him and Grace get into the carriage together; and then she saw them drive to the old Ferguson House, and Rose Ferguson came out and got in with them. “Well,” she said to herself, “he shan’t do that many times more, — I’m resolved.”

  No, she did not say it. It would be well for us all if we did put into words, plain and explicit, many instinctive resolves and purposes that arise in our hearts, and which, for want of being so expressed, influence us undetected and unchallenged. If we would say out boldly, “I don’t care for right or wrong, or good or evil, or anybody’s rights or anybody’s happiness, or the general good, or God himself, — all I care for, or feel the least interest in, is to have a good time myself, and I mean to do it, come what may,” — we should be only expressing a feeling which often lies in the dark back-room of the human heart; and saying it might alarm us from the drugged sleep of life. It might rouse us to shake off the slow, creeping paralysis of selfishness and sin before it is for ever too late.

  But Lillie was a creature who had lost the power of self-knowledge. She was, my dear sir, what you suppose the true woman to be, — a bundle of blind instincts; and among these the strongest was that of property in her husband, and power over him. She had lived in her power over men; it was her field of ambition. She knew them thoroughly. Women are called ivy; and the ivy has a hundred little fingers in every inch of its length, that strike at every flaw and crack and weak place in the strong wall they mean to overgrow; and so had Lillie. She saw, at a glance, that the sober, thoughtful, Christian life of Springdale was wholly opposed to the life she wanted to lead, and in which John was to be her instrument. She saw that, if such women as Grace and Rose had power with him, she should not have; and her husband should be hers alone. He should do her will, and be her subject, — so she thought, smiling at herself as she looked in the looking-glass, and then curled herself peacefully and languidly down in the corner of the sofa, and drew forth the French novel that was her usual Sunday companion.

  Lillie liked French novels. There was an atmosphere of things in them that suited her. The young married women had lovers and admirers; and there was the constant stimulus of being courted and adored, under the safe protection of a good-natured “mari.”

  In France, the flirting is all done after marriage, and the young girl looks forward to it as her introduction to a career of conquest. In America, so great is our democratic liberality, that we think of uniting the two systems. We are getting on in that way fast. A knowledge of French is beginning to be considered as the pearl of great price, to gain which, all else must be sold. The girls must go to the French theatre, and be stared at by French débauchées, who laugh at them while they pretend they understand what, thank Heaven, they cannot. Then we are to have series of French novels, carefully translated, and puffed and praised even by the religious press, written by the corps of French female reformers, which will show them exactly how the naughty French women manage their cards; so that, by and by, we shall have the latest phase of eclecticism, — the union of American and French manners. The girl will flirt till twenty à l’Américaine, and then marry and flirt till forty à la Française. This was about Lillie’s plan of life. Could she hope to carry it out in Springdale?

  CHAPTER VIII.

  SPINDLEWOOD.

  It seemed a little like old times to Grace, to be once more going with

  Rose and John over the pretty romantic road to Spindlewood.

  Joh
n did not reflect upon how little she now saw of him, and how much of a trial the separation was; but he noticed how bright and almost gay she was, when they were by themselves once more. He was gay too.

  In the congenial atmosphere of sympathy, his confidence in himself, and his own right in the little controversy that had occurred, returned. Not that he said a word of it; he did not do so, and would not have done so for the world. Grace and Rose were full of anecdotes of this, that, and the other of their scholars; and all the particulars of some of their new movements were discussed. The people had, of their own accord, raised a subscription for a library, which was to be presented to John that day, with a request that he would select the books.

  “Gracie, that must be your work,” said John; “you know I shall have an important case next week.”

  “Oh, yes! Rose and I will settle it,” said Grace. “Rose, we’ll get the catalogues from all the book-stores, and mark the things.”

  “We’ll want books for the children just beginning to read; and then books for the young men in John’s Bible-class, and all the way between,” said Rose. “It will be quite a work to select.”

  “And then to bargain with the book-stores, and make the money go ‘far as possible,’” said Grace.

  “And then there’ll be the covering of the books,” said Rose. “I’ll tell you. I think I’ll manage to have a lawn tea at our house; and the girls shall all come early, and get the books covered, — that’ll be charming.”

  “I think Lillie would like that,” put in John.

  “I should be so glad!” said Rose. “What a lovely little thing she is! I hope she’ll like it. I wanted to get up something pretty for her. I think, at this time of the year, lawn teas are a little variety.”

  “Oh, she’ll like it of course!” said John, with some sinking of heart about the Sunday-school books.

  There were so many pressing to shake hands with John, and congratulate him, so many histories to tell, so many cases presented for consultation, that it was quite late before they got away; and tea had been waiting for them more than an hour when they returned.

  Lillie looked pensive, and had that indescribable air of patient martyrdom which some women know how to make so very effective. Lillie had good general knowledge of the science of martyrdom, — a little spice and flavor of it had been gently infused at times into her demeanor ever since she had been at Springdale. She could do the uncomplaining sufferer with the happiest effect. She contrived to insinuate at times how she didn’t complain, — how dull and slow she found her life, and yet how she endeavored to be cheerful.

  “I know,” she said to John when they were by themselves, “that you and

  Grace both think I’m a horrid creature.”

  “Why, no, dearest; indeed we don’t.”

  “But you do, though; oh, I feel it! The fact is, John, I haven’t a particle of constitution; and, if I should try to go on as Grace does, it would kill me in a month. Ma never would let me try to do any thing; and, if I did, I was sure to break all down under it: but, if you say so, I’ll try to go into this school.”

  “Oh, no, Lillie! I don’t want you to go in. I know, darling, you could not stand any fatigue. I only wanted you to take an interest, — just to go and see them for my sake.”

  “Well, John, if you must go, and must keep it up, I must try to go. I’ll go with you next Sunday. It will make my head ache perhaps; but no matter, if you wish it. You don’t think badly of me, do you?” she said coaxingly, playing with his whiskers.

  “No, darling, not the least.”

  “I suppose it would be a great deal better for you if you had married a strong, energetic woman, like your sister. I do admire her so; but it discourages me.”

  “Darling, I’d a thousand times rather have you what you are,” said

  John; for —

  ”What she wills to do,

  Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.”

  “O John! come, you ought to be sincere.”

  “Sincere, Lillie! I am sincere.”

  “You really would rather have poor, poor little me than a woman like Gracie, — a great, strong, energetic woman?” And Lillie laid her soft cheek down on his arm in pensive humility.

  “Yes, a thousand million times,” said John in his enthusiasm, catching her in his arms and kissing her. “I wouldn’t for the world have you any thing but the darling little Lillie you are. I love your faults more than the virtues of other women. You are a thousand times better than I am. I am a great, coarse blockhead, compared to you. I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings this noon; you know, Lillie, I’m hasty, and apt to be inconsiderate. I don’t really know that I ought to let you go over next Sunday.”

  “O John, you are so good! Certainly if you go I ought to; and I shall try my best.” Then John told her all about the books and the lawn tea, and Lillie listened approvingly.

  So they had a lawn tea at the Fergusons that week, where Lillie was the cynosure of all eyes. Mr. Mathews, the new young clergyman of Springdale, was there. Mr. Mathews had been credited as one of the admirers of Rose Ferguson; but on this occasion he promenaded and talked with Lillie, and Lillie alone, with an exclusive devotion.

  “What a lovely young creature your new sister is!” he said to Grace.

  “She seems to have so much religious sensibility.”

  “I say, Lillie,” said John, “Mathews seemed to be smitten with you. I had a notion of interfering.”

  “Did you ever see any thing like it, John? I couldn’t shake the creature off. I was so thankful when you came up and took me. He’s Rose’s admirer, and he hardly spoke a word to her. I think it’s shameful.”

  The next Sunday, Lillie rode over to Spindlewood with John and Rose and Mr. Mathews.

  Never had the picturesque of religion received more lustre than from her presence. John was delighted to see how they all gazed at her and wondered. Lillie looked like a first-rate French picture of the youthful Madonna, — white, pure, and patient. The day was hot, and the hall crowded; and John noticed, what he never did before, the close smell and confined air, and it made him uneasy. When we are feeling with the nerves of some one else, we notice every roughness and inconvenience. John thought he had never seen his school appear so little to advantage. Yet Lillie was an image of patient endurance, trying to be pleased; and John thought her, as she sat and did nothing, more of a saint than Rose and Grace, who were laboriously sorting books, and gathering around them large classes of factory boys, to whom they talked with an exhausting devotedness.

  When all was over, Lillie sat back on the carriage-cushions, and smelled at her gold vinaigrette.

  “You are all worn out, dear,” said John, tenderly.

  “It’s no matter,” she said faintly.

  “O Lillie darling! does your head ache?”

  “A little, — you know it was close in there. I’m very sensitive to such things. I don’t think they affect others as they do me,” said Lillie, with the voice of a dying zephyr.

  “Lillie, it is not your duty to go” said John; “if you are not made ill by this, I never will take you again; you are too precious to be risked.”

  “How can you say so, John? I’m a poor little creature, — no use to anybody.”

  Hereupon John told her that her only use in life was to be lovely and to be loved, — that a thing of beauty was a joy forever, &c., &c. But Lillie was too much exhausted, on her return, to appear at the tea-table. She took to her bed at once with sick headache, to the poignant remorse of John. “You see how it is, Gracie,” he said. “Poor dear little thing, she is willing enough, but there’s nothing of her. We mustn’t allow her to exert herself; her feelings always carry her away.”

  The next Sunday, John sat at home with Lillie, who found herself too unwell to go to church, and was in a state of such low spirits as to require constant soothing to keep her quiet.

  “It is fortunate that I have you and Rose to trust the school with,” said John; “you s
ee, it’s my first duty to take care of Lillie.”

  CHAPTER IX.

  A CRISIS.

  One of the shrewdest and most subtle modern French writers has given his views of womankind in the following passage: —

  “There are few women who have not found themselves, at least once in their lives, in regard to some incontestable fact, faced down by precise, keen, searching inquiry, — one of those questions pitilessly put by their husbands, the very idea of which gives a slight chill, and the first word of which enters the heart like a stroke of a dagger. Hence comes the maxim, Every woman lies — obliging lies — venial lies — sublime lies — horrible lies — but always the obligation of lying.

  “This obligation once admitted, must it not be a necessity to know how to lie well? In France, the women lie admirably. Our customs instruct them so well in imposture. And woman is so naively impertinent, so pretty, so graceful, so true, in her lying! They so well understand its usefulness in social life for avoiding those violent shocks which would destroy happiness, — it is like the cotton in which they pack their jewelry.

  “Lying is to them the very foundation of language, and truth is only the exception; they speak it, as they are virtuous, from caprice or for a purpose. According to their character, some women laugh when they lie, and some cry; some become grave, and others get angry. Having begun life by pretending perfect insensibility to that homage which flatters them most, they often finish by lying even to themselves. Who has not admired their apparent superiority and calm, at the moment when they were trembling for the mysterious treasures of their love? Who has not studied their ease and facility, their presence of mind in the midst of the most critical embarrassments of social life? There is nothing awkward about it; their deception flows as softly as the snow falls from heaven.