CHAPTER X.MY WIFE AND I.I KNEW very well that this note would produce a tremendous sensation in the Oliphant family, and, as I walked down to the bank, I considered whether so violent a demonstration was justifiable. But I soon came to the conclusion that it was not a mere feint, and that if my wife would not live with me in Needham Street, she could not live with me anywhere else. If she did not choose to share my lot in the pretty residence I had provided for her, I would not pay her board in Tremont Street.I wanted my wife. I had not married Mrs. Oliphant, and was willing to dispense with the benefit of her advice. Perhaps it was reckless in me to do so, but no man had ever made up his mind on any point more decidedly than I had made up mine on this one. I attended to my duties as usual, but there was a sort of grimness about everything I did which astonished me, if it did not any one else.At my usual hour I rang the bell of my house with a more intense anxiety than had before agitated me. If the savage measure I had taken did not bring Lilian and her mother to their senses, nothing would, and the breach must be regarded as permanent. I hoped and confidently expected to find my wife in the house, and I braced my nerves for the scene which must ensue. Biddy opened the door, with a sweet smile on her face which augured well for my anticipations.“There’s a bit of a letther on the table for ye’s, sir,” said she, as I hung up my hat in the hall. “Shtop! and I’ll bring it to ye’s.”“A bit of a letther!” Was that all? Of course it was from Lilian. She did not intend to surrender without conditions, Biddy handed me the missive. It was in my wife’s pretty hand-writing, but I was disappointed, and more than ever disposed to be morose. I opened the envelope.“Come and see me this afternoon, Paley.“Lilian.”That was all. The case did not look hopeful. If I went I must fight the battle with “dear ma.” I promptly decided that it would be worse than folly for me to heed this request. It was only an ingenious device of Mrs. Oliphant to carry herpoint by some new strategy. To go would be to throw myself into the toils of the enemy.Biddy stood looking at me while I read the “bit of a letther.” If she did not suspect the trouble, she was more stupid than I supposed. She was a good girl, though her manners needed some improvement. If the wife was ill, the place of the husband was at her side. My gem of the Green Isle could reason out this proposition without exploding her brain. She must understand that a family tempest was gathering.“Av coorse the bit of a letther is from the missus,” said she. “I hope she is betther.”“Is dinner ready, Biddy?” I replied, trying to laugh.“All ready, sir. Sure the missus must be betther, for she brought the letther herself.”“She is better, Biddy. There is trouble between us.”“Faix, I knew it from the firsht!”“Let me have my dinner now, and we will talk about it another time.”She seemed to be proud to have even so much of my confidence, and she flew around with an alacrity which was as creditable to her locomotive powers as it was to her Irish heart. Even herlooks were full of respectful sympathy. I sat down to the table, and taking her place behind my chair, she waited upon me with a zeal which would have shamed the black coats of a fashionable hotel.“In a word, Biddy, my wife refuses to live in this house with me. That’s all the trouble we have,” said I, as I began to eat my dinner.“Bad luck to her for that same!”It was very undignified for me to say anything to my servant, or to any one, indeed, about a matter of this kind, but I was absolutely hungry for a confidant to whom I could pour out my griefs. If the matter was to go any farther, I intended to send for Tom Flynn, and talk over the situation with him. It seemed as though my brain would burst, if I could not relieve it by exhibiting the cause of my sorrows. If Biddy had not known so much I would not have told her any more. I had informed her in the beginning about the “pleasant surprise” I was preparing for my wife. She had seen Lilian when she called, and it was stupid in me to attempt to conceal anything from her. I explained to her the difficulty as far as I deemed it necessary. Biddy was my strongest friend, then. She would not have left me even to save her “charrackter.”She rehearsed the whole matter, declared that I was an angel, and the house a palace. It was not only unreasonable, but cruel and barbarous, for my wife to refuse to share my lot. Thus spake Biddy, and I endorsed her sentiments. When I had finished my dinner I wrote a brief note to Lilian, declining to see her again, until we could meet in “our own house.” Biddy was a zealous messenger. She was instructed to deliver it without any words, and without answering any questions, for I was afraid she would take the matter into her own hands, and complicate the difficulty by attempting to fight my battle for me.An hour later came the reply to my note. Lilian wrote that she was “quite indisposed,” and unable to leave the house that day. She wished to see me very much, and begged me not to deny her this favor. Perhaps she was sick. So was I—sick at heart. It would not be strange if the intense excitement attending this affair had made her ill; it had made me so. But I knew she was not so ill that she could not leave the house. She had delivered her own letter in the forenoon when she knew I was at the bank. Yet, if I did not see her when she was sick, it would make the story tell withdamaging effect upon me. I decided to see her at once—to see her as my sick wife, and not to make terms in the quarrel.In five minutes I rang the bell at the door of Mr. Oliphant’s house. It was opened as usual by Mrs. Oliphant. A smile of triumph played upon her face as she stood aside to permit me to pass into the hall.“I am glad you have concluded to come, Paley,” said she.This remark indicated that she was already in possession of the contents of my last note; in fact that she, and not Lilian, was fighting the battle.“Is Lilian sick?” I inquired.“She is not very well.”“I will go up and see her.”I went up.“O, Paley! how can you be so cruel?” exclaimed she, with much nervous excitement.“Are you sick, Lilian?” I replied, taking her hand, and kissing her as though nothing had happened.“Iamsick, Paley.”“I am sorry, Lilian.”“Do you think I am made of iron?”“Shall I go for Dr. Ingoldson?”“I do not need a doctor so much as I need peace.”“We both need that.”“Are you going to drive me into that hateful house?”“Certainly not, Lilian.”“Did you write that cruel note which came this morning, Paley? I cannot believe it.”“I did write it, Lilian; but if you are sick we will not talk about that,” I replied, tenderly, but firmly.“But we must talk about it. Do you mean to say that you will print that horrid advertisement?”“Most certainly I shall, if you persist in your present course. It is not right for me to support a wife who will not live with me. If you are sick, we will defer all action until you are better.”“I am not well, but I wanted to see you about this awful business. Have you ceased to love me, Paley?”“No, Lilian.”Perhaps Mrs. Oliphant had tried to stay down stairs, and permit her daughter to pour out her griefs to me alone; but if she had tried, she hadnot succeeded; and at this stage of the interview she entered the room, without the ceremony of knocking.“I am glad you have come, Paley, for we want to talk over this disagreeable business.”“Lilian’s note informed me that she was sick, and I came to see her, but not to talk over any matter. If she is ill—”“She isn’t very ill,” interposed Mrs. Oliphant.I thought not; at least not too ill to discuss the exciting topic.“I am glad she is not very ill. If she is, I will stay at her side and do all that a husband should do for a sick wife.”“O, we can take care of her! But I wanted to ask you if you really intended to put that advertisement into the newspapers?”“You will excuse me, but I have nothing to say on that subject beyond what I expressed in my note. If Lilian does not need any assistance from me, I will go. If Lilian is ill, I will defer the insertion of the advertisement until Monday morning.”“O, Paley!” gasped Lilian.“Are you such a monster!” exclaimed Mrs. Oliphant, her lips compressed and her eyes flashingin such a way as to indicate in what manner poor Oliphant had been conquered.“I have nothing more to say, madam,” I replied, with all the dignity I could command.I moved towards the door. Mrs. Oliphant was proceeding to rehearse the enormity of my offence, when I clipped the wings of her rhetoric by opening the door.“Good-by, Lilian, if we are to meet no more,” I added. “On Monday it will be too late.”I retreated down the stairs, and fled from the house, though Mrs. Oliphant made a lively pursuit as far as the street door, calling upon me with all her might to return.I know that my lady readers are branding me as a barbarian, but I beg to remind them again that I was not fighting the battle with my wife, but with her mother. I was striking for my own and for Lilian’s independence. If I could not have her as my wife, I would not have her at all. I did not go directly home. I called to see Tom Flynn. He was not in, but I left a message for him to see me in Needham Street as soon as he returned.I was tolerably calm, considering the amount of actual suffering I endured. Biddy was garrulous,and disposed to say harsh things of the “missus.” I checked her, declaring that Lilian was an angel herself, and that Mrs. Oliphant was the fomenter of the strife. Fortunately I was relieved from her comments by the arrival of Tom Flynn. The noble fellow looked sad when he entered, and I think he feared I intended to say I could not pay him the four hundred dollars on Monday, as I promised. He had not visited my house before, and he was lavish in his praise of the good taste displayed in the furniture. Perhaps it suggested him a doubt in regard to the safety of his money.“Where is Lilian?” he asked. “I have not seen her for a month.”The question opened the subject nearest to my heart. I began my story, and related it in the most minute detail up to the interview which had just taken place between my wife and myself. The noble fellow was astonished at the recital, and his countenance beamed with generous sympathy.“I am very sorry for all this, Paley. It is an awkward and uncomfortable predicament,” said he.“What can I do?”“I don’t know. I think you are right in your main position, though I am not quite so sure in regard to your method of treatment,” he replied, musing. “I should not quite like to advertise my wife.”“I don’t like to do it; but as sure as my name is Paley Glasswood, I will do it, if she does not come to this house before Monday morning!” I replied, quite excitedly.“However, I don’t think you will have occasion to do it,” he added. “Oliphant has had the reputation of being a hen-pecked husband ever since I first heard of him. His wife is a strong-minded woman, and I suppose he found it cheaper to yield than to fight it out. He was a prosperous man formerly, but they say his spirit was broken by this domestic tyranny. I can’t advise you to back out, though I wish you had consulted your wife before you furnished the house.”“That would only have transferred the battleground to another location. If I yield, I am lost.”It was fully settled with the advice of my friend, that I should not yield. I explained that if Lilian did not like the house or the furniture after a reasonable trial, I would change either or both. Tom Flynn stayed with me till midnight, and toldme a great many things in regard to the Oliphants that I was glad to know. It is enough for me to add that I had not misapprehended the character of “dear ma.”The next day was Saturday. I went to the bank at the usual hour, and stayed there till the close of business. I wanted to go to Springhaven that day to make my assault upon Aunt Rachel’s purse-strings. The last train left at six o’clock. I was going home, and if my wife did not appear, I intended to spend Sunday at home with my mother. It was the last day of grace, both for Lilian and the money I was to pay Tom Flynn on Monday.Biddy admitted me, but she had no tidings of my wife. Lilian had not come to my house, and had sent no message for me. Was it possible that Mrs. Oliphant meant to let the affair take its course—to make a “grass-widow” of her daughter rather than allow her to submit? It looked so, incredible as it seemed. After I had eaten my dinner, I wrote a note to Lilian, informing her that I intended to spend Sunday at my mother’s, that I would call at our house in Needham Street on Monday morning, and that, if I did not find her there, I should insert the advertisement in allthe newspapers. It was then after four o’clock, and I sent the note by Biddy with the usual instructions.I went up stairs to take a bath and dress for my visit. It was after five when I came down. Biddy had returned, and was busy with her work. I began to tell her where I was going when the door-bell rang.“Bedad! the missus has come, and brought her mother with her!” exclaimed she, as she rushed into the dining-room where I was smoking away the half hour I had to spare before going to the train.“Where are they?”“In the parlor.”It was not a very encouraging fact that Mrs. Oliphant had come with her. I went into the sitting-room where were seated my guests, for as such only could I yet regard them.“I am glad you have come, Lilian,” said I, entering the room.“But I have not come to stay,” she interposed, promptly.“Then I am sorry you have come,” I added, as promptly.“It is terrible, Paley, to think that my husbandis prepared to desert me, and to advertise me in the newspapers,” said she.“It is just as terrible for me to be deserted as for you, Lilian. I hope you will think well of it before it is too late.”“I came over to see about this business, Mr. Glasswood,” interposed Mrs. Oliphant, stiffly.“Nothing need be said, madam. I must add that I decline to discuss the question at all.”“That’s a pretty way, sir!” continued she. “You married my daughter, and you promised—”“I know I did, madam, and she promised, too. If she does not choose to occupy the house I have provided for her, that is the end of the whole matter; and also the end of all argument. I am going to Springhaven now. I have nothing more to say, except to add that when my wife returns to me I will treat her as tenderly as I know how, bury the past, and seek only her happiness.”I moved towards the door. Lilian burst into tears. I saw her glance at her mother, who sat in dignified stiffness on the sofa.“Good-by, Lilian,” I said, glancing tenderly at her.“No, no, Paley! You shall not go!” gaspedshe, springing into my arms. “I will stay here!”“Lilian!” exclaimed her mother, springing to her feet.She was my wife then.
CHAPTER X.MY WIFE AND I.I KNEW very well that this note would produce a tremendous sensation in the Oliphant family, and, as I walked down to the bank, I considered whether so violent a demonstration was justifiable. But I soon came to the conclusion that it was not a mere feint, and that if my wife would not live with me in Needham Street, she could not live with me anywhere else. If she did not choose to share my lot in the pretty residence I had provided for her, I would not pay her board in Tremont Street.I wanted my wife. I had not married Mrs. Oliphant, and was willing to dispense with the benefit of her advice. Perhaps it was reckless in me to do so, but no man had ever made up his mind on any point more decidedly than I had made up mine on this one. I attended to my duties as usual, but there was a sort of grimness about everything I did which astonished me, if it did not any one else.At my usual hour I rang the bell of my house with a more intense anxiety than had before agitated me. If the savage measure I had taken did not bring Lilian and her mother to their senses, nothing would, and the breach must be regarded as permanent. I hoped and confidently expected to find my wife in the house, and I braced my nerves for the scene which must ensue. Biddy opened the door, with a sweet smile on her face which augured well for my anticipations.“There’s a bit of a letther on the table for ye’s, sir,” said she, as I hung up my hat in the hall. “Shtop! and I’ll bring it to ye’s.”“A bit of a letther!” Was that all? Of course it was from Lilian. She did not intend to surrender without conditions, Biddy handed me the missive. It was in my wife’s pretty hand-writing, but I was disappointed, and more than ever disposed to be morose. I opened the envelope.“Come and see me this afternoon, Paley.“Lilian.”That was all. The case did not look hopeful. If I went I must fight the battle with “dear ma.” I promptly decided that it would be worse than folly for me to heed this request. It was only an ingenious device of Mrs. Oliphant to carry herpoint by some new strategy. To go would be to throw myself into the toils of the enemy.Biddy stood looking at me while I read the “bit of a letther.” If she did not suspect the trouble, she was more stupid than I supposed. She was a good girl, though her manners needed some improvement. If the wife was ill, the place of the husband was at her side. My gem of the Green Isle could reason out this proposition without exploding her brain. She must understand that a family tempest was gathering.“Av coorse the bit of a letther is from the missus,” said she. “I hope she is betther.”“Is dinner ready, Biddy?” I replied, trying to laugh.“All ready, sir. Sure the missus must be betther, for she brought the letther herself.”“She is better, Biddy. There is trouble between us.”“Faix, I knew it from the firsht!”“Let me have my dinner now, and we will talk about it another time.”She seemed to be proud to have even so much of my confidence, and she flew around with an alacrity which was as creditable to her locomotive powers as it was to her Irish heart. Even herlooks were full of respectful sympathy. I sat down to the table, and taking her place behind my chair, she waited upon me with a zeal which would have shamed the black coats of a fashionable hotel.“In a word, Biddy, my wife refuses to live in this house with me. That’s all the trouble we have,” said I, as I began to eat my dinner.“Bad luck to her for that same!”It was very undignified for me to say anything to my servant, or to any one, indeed, about a matter of this kind, but I was absolutely hungry for a confidant to whom I could pour out my griefs. If the matter was to go any farther, I intended to send for Tom Flynn, and talk over the situation with him. It seemed as though my brain would burst, if I could not relieve it by exhibiting the cause of my sorrows. If Biddy had not known so much I would not have told her any more. I had informed her in the beginning about the “pleasant surprise” I was preparing for my wife. She had seen Lilian when she called, and it was stupid in me to attempt to conceal anything from her. I explained to her the difficulty as far as I deemed it necessary. Biddy was my strongest friend, then. She would not have left me even to save her “charrackter.”She rehearsed the whole matter, declared that I was an angel, and the house a palace. It was not only unreasonable, but cruel and barbarous, for my wife to refuse to share my lot. Thus spake Biddy, and I endorsed her sentiments. When I had finished my dinner I wrote a brief note to Lilian, declining to see her again, until we could meet in “our own house.” Biddy was a zealous messenger. She was instructed to deliver it without any words, and without answering any questions, for I was afraid she would take the matter into her own hands, and complicate the difficulty by attempting to fight my battle for me.An hour later came the reply to my note. Lilian wrote that she was “quite indisposed,” and unable to leave the house that day. She wished to see me very much, and begged me not to deny her this favor. Perhaps she was sick. So was I—sick at heart. It would not be strange if the intense excitement attending this affair had made her ill; it had made me so. But I knew she was not so ill that she could not leave the house. She had delivered her own letter in the forenoon when she knew I was at the bank. Yet, if I did not see her when she was sick, it would make the story tell withdamaging effect upon me. I decided to see her at once—to see her as my sick wife, and not to make terms in the quarrel.In five minutes I rang the bell at the door of Mr. Oliphant’s house. It was opened as usual by Mrs. Oliphant. A smile of triumph played upon her face as she stood aside to permit me to pass into the hall.“I am glad you have concluded to come, Paley,” said she.This remark indicated that she was already in possession of the contents of my last note; in fact that she, and not Lilian, was fighting the battle.“Is Lilian sick?” I inquired.“She is not very well.”“I will go up and see her.”I went up.“O, Paley! how can you be so cruel?” exclaimed she, with much nervous excitement.“Are you sick, Lilian?” I replied, taking her hand, and kissing her as though nothing had happened.“Iamsick, Paley.”“I am sorry, Lilian.”“Do you think I am made of iron?”“Shall I go for Dr. Ingoldson?”“I do not need a doctor so much as I need peace.”“We both need that.”“Are you going to drive me into that hateful house?”“Certainly not, Lilian.”“Did you write that cruel note which came this morning, Paley? I cannot believe it.”“I did write it, Lilian; but if you are sick we will not talk about that,” I replied, tenderly, but firmly.“But we must talk about it. Do you mean to say that you will print that horrid advertisement?”“Most certainly I shall, if you persist in your present course. It is not right for me to support a wife who will not live with me. If you are sick, we will defer all action until you are better.”“I am not well, but I wanted to see you about this awful business. Have you ceased to love me, Paley?”“No, Lilian.”Perhaps Mrs. Oliphant had tried to stay down stairs, and permit her daughter to pour out her griefs to me alone; but if she had tried, she hadnot succeeded; and at this stage of the interview she entered the room, without the ceremony of knocking.“I am glad you have come, Paley, for we want to talk over this disagreeable business.”“Lilian’s note informed me that she was sick, and I came to see her, but not to talk over any matter. If she is ill—”“She isn’t very ill,” interposed Mrs. Oliphant.I thought not; at least not too ill to discuss the exciting topic.“I am glad she is not very ill. If she is, I will stay at her side and do all that a husband should do for a sick wife.”“O, we can take care of her! But I wanted to ask you if you really intended to put that advertisement into the newspapers?”“You will excuse me, but I have nothing to say on that subject beyond what I expressed in my note. If Lilian does not need any assistance from me, I will go. If Lilian is ill, I will defer the insertion of the advertisement until Monday morning.”“O, Paley!” gasped Lilian.“Are you such a monster!” exclaimed Mrs. Oliphant, her lips compressed and her eyes flashingin such a way as to indicate in what manner poor Oliphant had been conquered.“I have nothing more to say, madam,” I replied, with all the dignity I could command.I moved towards the door. Mrs. Oliphant was proceeding to rehearse the enormity of my offence, when I clipped the wings of her rhetoric by opening the door.“Good-by, Lilian, if we are to meet no more,” I added. “On Monday it will be too late.”I retreated down the stairs, and fled from the house, though Mrs. Oliphant made a lively pursuit as far as the street door, calling upon me with all her might to return.I know that my lady readers are branding me as a barbarian, but I beg to remind them again that I was not fighting the battle with my wife, but with her mother. I was striking for my own and for Lilian’s independence. If I could not have her as my wife, I would not have her at all. I did not go directly home. I called to see Tom Flynn. He was not in, but I left a message for him to see me in Needham Street as soon as he returned.I was tolerably calm, considering the amount of actual suffering I endured. Biddy was garrulous,and disposed to say harsh things of the “missus.” I checked her, declaring that Lilian was an angel herself, and that Mrs. Oliphant was the fomenter of the strife. Fortunately I was relieved from her comments by the arrival of Tom Flynn. The noble fellow looked sad when he entered, and I think he feared I intended to say I could not pay him the four hundred dollars on Monday, as I promised. He had not visited my house before, and he was lavish in his praise of the good taste displayed in the furniture. Perhaps it suggested him a doubt in regard to the safety of his money.“Where is Lilian?” he asked. “I have not seen her for a month.”The question opened the subject nearest to my heart. I began my story, and related it in the most minute detail up to the interview which had just taken place between my wife and myself. The noble fellow was astonished at the recital, and his countenance beamed with generous sympathy.“I am very sorry for all this, Paley. It is an awkward and uncomfortable predicament,” said he.“What can I do?”“I don’t know. I think you are right in your main position, though I am not quite so sure in regard to your method of treatment,” he replied, musing. “I should not quite like to advertise my wife.”“I don’t like to do it; but as sure as my name is Paley Glasswood, I will do it, if she does not come to this house before Monday morning!” I replied, quite excitedly.“However, I don’t think you will have occasion to do it,” he added. “Oliphant has had the reputation of being a hen-pecked husband ever since I first heard of him. His wife is a strong-minded woman, and I suppose he found it cheaper to yield than to fight it out. He was a prosperous man formerly, but they say his spirit was broken by this domestic tyranny. I can’t advise you to back out, though I wish you had consulted your wife before you furnished the house.”“That would only have transferred the battleground to another location. If I yield, I am lost.”It was fully settled with the advice of my friend, that I should not yield. I explained that if Lilian did not like the house or the furniture after a reasonable trial, I would change either or both. Tom Flynn stayed with me till midnight, and toldme a great many things in regard to the Oliphants that I was glad to know. It is enough for me to add that I had not misapprehended the character of “dear ma.”The next day was Saturday. I went to the bank at the usual hour, and stayed there till the close of business. I wanted to go to Springhaven that day to make my assault upon Aunt Rachel’s purse-strings. The last train left at six o’clock. I was going home, and if my wife did not appear, I intended to spend Sunday at home with my mother. It was the last day of grace, both for Lilian and the money I was to pay Tom Flynn on Monday.Biddy admitted me, but she had no tidings of my wife. Lilian had not come to my house, and had sent no message for me. Was it possible that Mrs. Oliphant meant to let the affair take its course—to make a “grass-widow” of her daughter rather than allow her to submit? It looked so, incredible as it seemed. After I had eaten my dinner, I wrote a note to Lilian, informing her that I intended to spend Sunday at my mother’s, that I would call at our house in Needham Street on Monday morning, and that, if I did not find her there, I should insert the advertisement in allthe newspapers. It was then after four o’clock, and I sent the note by Biddy with the usual instructions.I went up stairs to take a bath and dress for my visit. It was after five when I came down. Biddy had returned, and was busy with her work. I began to tell her where I was going when the door-bell rang.“Bedad! the missus has come, and brought her mother with her!” exclaimed she, as she rushed into the dining-room where I was smoking away the half hour I had to spare before going to the train.“Where are they?”“In the parlor.”It was not a very encouraging fact that Mrs. Oliphant had come with her. I went into the sitting-room where were seated my guests, for as such only could I yet regard them.“I am glad you have come, Lilian,” said I, entering the room.“But I have not come to stay,” she interposed, promptly.“Then I am sorry you have come,” I added, as promptly.“It is terrible, Paley, to think that my husbandis prepared to desert me, and to advertise me in the newspapers,” said she.“It is just as terrible for me to be deserted as for you, Lilian. I hope you will think well of it before it is too late.”“I came over to see about this business, Mr. Glasswood,” interposed Mrs. Oliphant, stiffly.“Nothing need be said, madam. I must add that I decline to discuss the question at all.”“That’s a pretty way, sir!” continued she. “You married my daughter, and you promised—”“I know I did, madam, and she promised, too. If she does not choose to occupy the house I have provided for her, that is the end of the whole matter; and also the end of all argument. I am going to Springhaven now. I have nothing more to say, except to add that when my wife returns to me I will treat her as tenderly as I know how, bury the past, and seek only her happiness.”I moved towards the door. Lilian burst into tears. I saw her glance at her mother, who sat in dignified stiffness on the sofa.“Good-by, Lilian,” I said, glancing tenderly at her.“No, no, Paley! You shall not go!” gaspedshe, springing into my arms. “I will stay here!”“Lilian!” exclaimed her mother, springing to her feet.She was my wife then.
MY WIFE AND I.
I KNEW very well that this note would produce a tremendous sensation in the Oliphant family, and, as I walked down to the bank, I considered whether so violent a demonstration was justifiable. But I soon came to the conclusion that it was not a mere feint, and that if my wife would not live with me in Needham Street, she could not live with me anywhere else. If she did not choose to share my lot in the pretty residence I had provided for her, I would not pay her board in Tremont Street.
I wanted my wife. I had not married Mrs. Oliphant, and was willing to dispense with the benefit of her advice. Perhaps it was reckless in me to do so, but no man had ever made up his mind on any point more decidedly than I had made up mine on this one. I attended to my duties as usual, but there was a sort of grimness about everything I did which astonished me, if it did not any one else.
At my usual hour I rang the bell of my house with a more intense anxiety than had before agitated me. If the savage measure I had taken did not bring Lilian and her mother to their senses, nothing would, and the breach must be regarded as permanent. I hoped and confidently expected to find my wife in the house, and I braced my nerves for the scene which must ensue. Biddy opened the door, with a sweet smile on her face which augured well for my anticipations.
“There’s a bit of a letther on the table for ye’s, sir,” said she, as I hung up my hat in the hall. “Shtop! and I’ll bring it to ye’s.”
“A bit of a letther!” Was that all? Of course it was from Lilian. She did not intend to surrender without conditions, Biddy handed me the missive. It was in my wife’s pretty hand-writing, but I was disappointed, and more than ever disposed to be morose. I opened the envelope.
“Come and see me this afternoon, Paley.“Lilian.”
“Come and see me this afternoon, Paley.
“Lilian.”
That was all. The case did not look hopeful. If I went I must fight the battle with “dear ma.” I promptly decided that it would be worse than folly for me to heed this request. It was only an ingenious device of Mrs. Oliphant to carry herpoint by some new strategy. To go would be to throw myself into the toils of the enemy.
Biddy stood looking at me while I read the “bit of a letther.” If she did not suspect the trouble, she was more stupid than I supposed. She was a good girl, though her manners needed some improvement. If the wife was ill, the place of the husband was at her side. My gem of the Green Isle could reason out this proposition without exploding her brain. She must understand that a family tempest was gathering.
“Av coorse the bit of a letther is from the missus,” said she. “I hope she is betther.”
“Is dinner ready, Biddy?” I replied, trying to laugh.
“All ready, sir. Sure the missus must be betther, for she brought the letther herself.”
“She is better, Biddy. There is trouble between us.”
“Faix, I knew it from the firsht!”
“Let me have my dinner now, and we will talk about it another time.”
She seemed to be proud to have even so much of my confidence, and she flew around with an alacrity which was as creditable to her locomotive powers as it was to her Irish heart. Even herlooks were full of respectful sympathy. I sat down to the table, and taking her place behind my chair, she waited upon me with a zeal which would have shamed the black coats of a fashionable hotel.
“In a word, Biddy, my wife refuses to live in this house with me. That’s all the trouble we have,” said I, as I began to eat my dinner.
“Bad luck to her for that same!”
It was very undignified for me to say anything to my servant, or to any one, indeed, about a matter of this kind, but I was absolutely hungry for a confidant to whom I could pour out my griefs. If the matter was to go any farther, I intended to send for Tom Flynn, and talk over the situation with him. It seemed as though my brain would burst, if I could not relieve it by exhibiting the cause of my sorrows. If Biddy had not known so much I would not have told her any more. I had informed her in the beginning about the “pleasant surprise” I was preparing for my wife. She had seen Lilian when she called, and it was stupid in me to attempt to conceal anything from her. I explained to her the difficulty as far as I deemed it necessary. Biddy was my strongest friend, then. She would not have left me even to save her “charrackter.”
She rehearsed the whole matter, declared that I was an angel, and the house a palace. It was not only unreasonable, but cruel and barbarous, for my wife to refuse to share my lot. Thus spake Biddy, and I endorsed her sentiments. When I had finished my dinner I wrote a brief note to Lilian, declining to see her again, until we could meet in “our own house.” Biddy was a zealous messenger. She was instructed to deliver it without any words, and without answering any questions, for I was afraid she would take the matter into her own hands, and complicate the difficulty by attempting to fight my battle for me.
An hour later came the reply to my note. Lilian wrote that she was “quite indisposed,” and unable to leave the house that day. She wished to see me very much, and begged me not to deny her this favor. Perhaps she was sick. So was I—sick at heart. It would not be strange if the intense excitement attending this affair had made her ill; it had made me so. But I knew she was not so ill that she could not leave the house. She had delivered her own letter in the forenoon when she knew I was at the bank. Yet, if I did not see her when she was sick, it would make the story tell withdamaging effect upon me. I decided to see her at once—to see her as my sick wife, and not to make terms in the quarrel.
In five minutes I rang the bell at the door of Mr. Oliphant’s house. It was opened as usual by Mrs. Oliphant. A smile of triumph played upon her face as she stood aside to permit me to pass into the hall.
“I am glad you have concluded to come, Paley,” said she.
This remark indicated that she was already in possession of the contents of my last note; in fact that she, and not Lilian, was fighting the battle.
“Is Lilian sick?” I inquired.
“She is not very well.”
“I will go up and see her.”
I went up.
“O, Paley! how can you be so cruel?” exclaimed she, with much nervous excitement.
“Are you sick, Lilian?” I replied, taking her hand, and kissing her as though nothing had happened.
“Iamsick, Paley.”
“I am sorry, Lilian.”
“Do you think I am made of iron?”
“Shall I go for Dr. Ingoldson?”
“I do not need a doctor so much as I need peace.”
“We both need that.”
“Are you going to drive me into that hateful house?”
“Certainly not, Lilian.”
“Did you write that cruel note which came this morning, Paley? I cannot believe it.”
“I did write it, Lilian; but if you are sick we will not talk about that,” I replied, tenderly, but firmly.
“But we must talk about it. Do you mean to say that you will print that horrid advertisement?”
“Most certainly I shall, if you persist in your present course. It is not right for me to support a wife who will not live with me. If you are sick, we will defer all action until you are better.”
“I am not well, but I wanted to see you about this awful business. Have you ceased to love me, Paley?”
“No, Lilian.”
Perhaps Mrs. Oliphant had tried to stay down stairs, and permit her daughter to pour out her griefs to me alone; but if she had tried, she hadnot succeeded; and at this stage of the interview she entered the room, without the ceremony of knocking.
“I am glad you have come, Paley, for we want to talk over this disagreeable business.”
“Lilian’s note informed me that she was sick, and I came to see her, but not to talk over any matter. If she is ill—”
“She isn’t very ill,” interposed Mrs. Oliphant.
I thought not; at least not too ill to discuss the exciting topic.
“I am glad she is not very ill. If she is, I will stay at her side and do all that a husband should do for a sick wife.”
“O, we can take care of her! But I wanted to ask you if you really intended to put that advertisement into the newspapers?”
“You will excuse me, but I have nothing to say on that subject beyond what I expressed in my note. If Lilian does not need any assistance from me, I will go. If Lilian is ill, I will defer the insertion of the advertisement until Monday morning.”
“O, Paley!” gasped Lilian.
“Are you such a monster!” exclaimed Mrs. Oliphant, her lips compressed and her eyes flashingin such a way as to indicate in what manner poor Oliphant had been conquered.
“I have nothing more to say, madam,” I replied, with all the dignity I could command.
I moved towards the door. Mrs. Oliphant was proceeding to rehearse the enormity of my offence, when I clipped the wings of her rhetoric by opening the door.
“Good-by, Lilian, if we are to meet no more,” I added. “On Monday it will be too late.”
I retreated down the stairs, and fled from the house, though Mrs. Oliphant made a lively pursuit as far as the street door, calling upon me with all her might to return.
I know that my lady readers are branding me as a barbarian, but I beg to remind them again that I was not fighting the battle with my wife, but with her mother. I was striking for my own and for Lilian’s independence. If I could not have her as my wife, I would not have her at all. I did not go directly home. I called to see Tom Flynn. He was not in, but I left a message for him to see me in Needham Street as soon as he returned.
I was tolerably calm, considering the amount of actual suffering I endured. Biddy was garrulous,and disposed to say harsh things of the “missus.” I checked her, declaring that Lilian was an angel herself, and that Mrs. Oliphant was the fomenter of the strife. Fortunately I was relieved from her comments by the arrival of Tom Flynn. The noble fellow looked sad when he entered, and I think he feared I intended to say I could not pay him the four hundred dollars on Monday, as I promised. He had not visited my house before, and he was lavish in his praise of the good taste displayed in the furniture. Perhaps it suggested him a doubt in regard to the safety of his money.
“Where is Lilian?” he asked. “I have not seen her for a month.”
The question opened the subject nearest to my heart. I began my story, and related it in the most minute detail up to the interview which had just taken place between my wife and myself. The noble fellow was astonished at the recital, and his countenance beamed with generous sympathy.
“I am very sorry for all this, Paley. It is an awkward and uncomfortable predicament,” said he.
“What can I do?”
“I don’t know. I think you are right in your main position, though I am not quite so sure in regard to your method of treatment,” he replied, musing. “I should not quite like to advertise my wife.”
“I don’t like to do it; but as sure as my name is Paley Glasswood, I will do it, if she does not come to this house before Monday morning!” I replied, quite excitedly.
“However, I don’t think you will have occasion to do it,” he added. “Oliphant has had the reputation of being a hen-pecked husband ever since I first heard of him. His wife is a strong-minded woman, and I suppose he found it cheaper to yield than to fight it out. He was a prosperous man formerly, but they say his spirit was broken by this domestic tyranny. I can’t advise you to back out, though I wish you had consulted your wife before you furnished the house.”
“That would only have transferred the battleground to another location. If I yield, I am lost.”
It was fully settled with the advice of my friend, that I should not yield. I explained that if Lilian did not like the house or the furniture after a reasonable trial, I would change either or both. Tom Flynn stayed with me till midnight, and toldme a great many things in regard to the Oliphants that I was glad to know. It is enough for me to add that I had not misapprehended the character of “dear ma.”
The next day was Saturday. I went to the bank at the usual hour, and stayed there till the close of business. I wanted to go to Springhaven that day to make my assault upon Aunt Rachel’s purse-strings. The last train left at six o’clock. I was going home, and if my wife did not appear, I intended to spend Sunday at home with my mother. It was the last day of grace, both for Lilian and the money I was to pay Tom Flynn on Monday.
Biddy admitted me, but she had no tidings of my wife. Lilian had not come to my house, and had sent no message for me. Was it possible that Mrs. Oliphant meant to let the affair take its course—to make a “grass-widow” of her daughter rather than allow her to submit? It looked so, incredible as it seemed. After I had eaten my dinner, I wrote a note to Lilian, informing her that I intended to spend Sunday at my mother’s, that I would call at our house in Needham Street on Monday morning, and that, if I did not find her there, I should insert the advertisement in allthe newspapers. It was then after four o’clock, and I sent the note by Biddy with the usual instructions.
I went up stairs to take a bath and dress for my visit. It was after five when I came down. Biddy had returned, and was busy with her work. I began to tell her where I was going when the door-bell rang.
“Bedad! the missus has come, and brought her mother with her!” exclaimed she, as she rushed into the dining-room where I was smoking away the half hour I had to spare before going to the train.
“Where are they?”
“In the parlor.”
It was not a very encouraging fact that Mrs. Oliphant had come with her. I went into the sitting-room where were seated my guests, for as such only could I yet regard them.
“I am glad you have come, Lilian,” said I, entering the room.
“But I have not come to stay,” she interposed, promptly.
“Then I am sorry you have come,” I added, as promptly.
“It is terrible, Paley, to think that my husbandis prepared to desert me, and to advertise me in the newspapers,” said she.
“It is just as terrible for me to be deserted as for you, Lilian. I hope you will think well of it before it is too late.”
“I came over to see about this business, Mr. Glasswood,” interposed Mrs. Oliphant, stiffly.
“Nothing need be said, madam. I must add that I decline to discuss the question at all.”
“That’s a pretty way, sir!” continued she. “You married my daughter, and you promised—”
“I know I did, madam, and she promised, too. If she does not choose to occupy the house I have provided for her, that is the end of the whole matter; and also the end of all argument. I am going to Springhaven now. I have nothing more to say, except to add that when my wife returns to me I will treat her as tenderly as I know how, bury the past, and seek only her happiness.”
I moved towards the door. Lilian burst into tears. I saw her glance at her mother, who sat in dignified stiffness on the sofa.
“Good-by, Lilian,” I said, glancing tenderly at her.
“No, no, Paley! You shall not go!” gaspedshe, springing into my arms. “I will stay here!”
“Lilian!” exclaimed her mother, springing to her feet.
She was my wife then.