He Fell In Love With His Wife by Edward Payson Roe (best books to read for students TXT) đ
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everything eventually before him in a way that will cause him to yield in glad
submission to my views of the duties, the privileges, and the
responserbilities of life.â
So active was Mrs. Mumpsonâs mind that this train of thought was complete by
the time she had ensconced herself in the rocking chair by the fireless
kitchen stove. Once more Jane seized her hand and dragged her up. âYou must
help,â said the child. âI âspect him every minnit and Iâm scart half to death
to think what heâll do, âspecially if he finds out weâve been rummaginâ.â
âJane,â said Mrs. Mumpson severely, âthat is not a proper way of expressing
yourself. I am housekeeper here, and Iâve been inspecting.â
âShall I tell him youâve been inspectinâ?â asked the girl keenly.
âChildren of your age should speak when they are spoken to,â replied her
mother, still more severely. âYou cannot comprehend my motives and duties, and
I should have to punish you if you passed any remarks upon my actions.â
âWell,â said Jane apprehensively, âI only hope weâll soon have a chance to fix
up them drawers, for if he should open âem weâd have to tramp again, and we
will anyway if you donât help me get supper.â
âYou are mistaken, Jane,â responded Mrs. Mumpson with dignity. âWe shall not
leave this roof for three months, and that will give me ample time to open his
eyes to his true interests. I will condescend to these menial tasks until he
brings a girl who will yield the deference due to my years and station in
life.â
Between them, after filling the room with smoke, they kindled the kitchen
fire. Jane insisted on making the coffee and then helped her mother to
prepare the rest of the supper, doing, in fact, the greater part of the work.
Then they sat down to wait, and they waited so long that Mrs. Mumpson began to
express her disapproval by rocking violently. At last, she said severely,
âJane, we will partake of supper alone.â
âIâd ruther wait till he comes.â
âItâs not proper that we should wait. He is not showing me due respect.
Come, do as I command.â
Mrs. Mumpson indulged in lofty and aggrieved remarks throughout the meal and
then returned to her rocker. At last, her indignant sense of wrong reached
such a point that she commanded Jane to clear the table and put away the
things.
âI wonât,â said the child.
âWhat! Will you compel me to chastise you?â
âWell, then, Iâll tell him it was all your doinâs.â
âI shall tell him so myself. I shall remonstrate with him. The idea of his
coming home alone at this time of night with an unknown female!â
âOne would think you was his aunt, to hear you talk,â remarked the girl
sullenly.
âI am a respecterble woman and most respecterbly connected. My character and
antercedents render me irrerproachful.âThis could not be said of a hussy, and
a hussy heâll probably bringâsome flighty, immerture female that will tax
even MY patience to train.â
Another hour passed, and the frown on Mrs. Mumpsonâs brow grew positively
awful. âTo think,â she muttered, âthat a man whom I have deemed it my duty to
marry should stay out so and under such peculiar circumstances. He must have
a lesson which he can never forget.â Then aloud, to Jane, âKindle a fire on
the parlor hearth and let this fire go out. He must find us in the most
respecterble room in the houseâa room befitting my station.â
âI declare, mother, you aint got no sense at all!â exclaimed the child,
exasperated beyond measure.
âIâll teach you to use such unrerspectful language!â cried Mrs. Mumpson,
darting from her chair like a hawk and pouncing upon the unhappy child.
With ears tingling from a cuffing she could not soon forget, Jane lighted the
parlor fire and sat down sniffling in the farthest corner.
âThere shall be only one mistress in this house,â said Mrs. Mumpson, who had
now reached the loftiest plane of virtuous indignation, âand its master shall
learn that his practices reflect upon even me as well as himself.â
At last the sound of horsesâ feet were heard on the wet, oozy ground without.
The irate widow did not rise, but merely indicated her knowledge of Holcroftâs
arrival by rocking more rapidly.
âHello, there, Jane!â he shouted, âbring a light to the kitchen.â
âJane, remain!â said Mrs. Mumpson, with an awful look.
Holcroft stumbled through the dark kitchen to the parlor door and looked with
surprise at the group before him,âMrs. Mumpson apparently oblivious and
rocking as if the chair was possessed, and the child crying in a corner.
âJane, didnât you hear me call for a light?â he asked a little sharply.
Mrs. Mumpson rose with great dignity and began, âMr. Holcroft, I wish to
remonstrateââ
âOh, bother! Iâve brought a woman to help you, and weâre both wet through
from this driving rain.â
âYouâve brought a strange female at this time ofââ
Holcroftâs patience gave say, but he only said quietly, âYou had better have a
light in the kitchen within two minutes. I warn you both. I also wish some
hot coffee.â
Mrs. Mumpson had no comprehension of a man who could be so quiet when he was
angry, and she believed that she might impress him with a due sense of the
enormity of his offense. âMr. Holcroft, I scarcely feel that I can meet a girl
who has no more sense of decorum than toââ But Jane, striking a match,
revealed the fact that she was speaking to empty air.
Mrs. Wiggins was at last so far aroused that she was helped from the wagon and
came shivering and dripping toward the kitchen. She stood a moment in the
doorway and filled it, blinking confusedly at the light. There was an absence
of celerity in all Mrs. Wigginsâ movements, and she was therefore slow in the
matter of waking up. Her aspect and proportions almost took away Mrs.
Mumpsonâs breath. Here certainly was much to superintend, much more than had
been anticipated. Mrs. Wiggins was undoubtedly a âpeculiar female,â as had
been expected, but she was so elderly and monstrous that Mrs. Mumpson felt
some embarrassment in her purpose to overwhelm Holcroft with a sense of the
impropriety of his conduct.
Mrs. Wiggins took uncertain steps toward the rocking chair, and almost crushed
it as she sat down. âYe gives a body a cold velcome,â she remarked, rubbing
her eyes.
Mrs. Mumpson had got out of her way as a minnow would shun a leviathan. âMay I
ask your name?â she gasped.
âViggins, Mrs. Viggins.â
âOh, indeed! You are a married woman?â
âNo, hiâm a vidder. Whatâs more, hiâm cold, and drippinâ, anâ âungry. Hi
might âaâ better stayed at the poor-us than come to a place like this.â
âWhat!â almost screamed Mrs. Mumpson, âare you a pauper?â
âHi tell ye hiâm a vidder, anâ good as you be, for hall he said,â was the
sullen reply.
âTo think that a respecterbly connected woman like meââ But for once Mrs.
Mumpson found language inadequate. Since Mrs. Wiggins occupied the rocking
chair, she hardly knew what to do and plaintively declared, âI feel as if my
whole nervous system was giving way.â
âNo âarm âll be done hif hit does,â remarked Mrs. Wiggins, who was not in an
amiable mood.
âThis from the female Iâm to superintend!â gasped the bewildered woman.
Her equanimity was still further disturbed by the entrance of the farmer, who
looked at the stove with a heavy frown.
âWhy in the name of common sense isnât there a fire?â he asked, âand supper on
the table? Couldnât you hear that it was raining and know weâd want some
supper after a long, cold ride?â
âMr. Holcroft,â began the widow, in some trepidation, âI donât approveâsuch
irregular habitsââ
âMadam,â interrupted Holcroft sternly, âdid I agree to do what you approved
of? Your course is so peculiar that I scarcely believe you are in your right
mind. You had better go to your room and try to recover your senses. If I
canât have things in this house to suit me, Iâll have no one in it. Here,
Jane, you can help.â
Mrs. Mumpson put her handkerchief to her eyes and departed. She felt that
this display of emotion would touch Holcroftâs feelings when he came to think
the scene all over.
Having kindled the fire, he said to Jane, âYou and Mrs. Wiggins get some
coffee and supper in short order, and have it ready when I come in,â and he
hastened out to care for his horses. If the old woman was slow, she knew just
how to make every motion effective, and a good supper was soon ready.
âWhy didnât you keep up a fire, Jane?â Holcroft asked.
âShe wouldnât let me. She said how you must be taught a lesson,â replied the
girl, feeling that she must choose between two potentates, and deciding
quickly in favor of the farmer. She had been losing faith in her motherâs
wisdom a long time, and this nightâs experience had banished the last shred of
it.
Some rather bitter words rose to Holcroftâs lips, but he restrained them. He
felt that he ought not to disparage the mother to the child. As Mrs. Wiggins
grew warm, and imbibed the generous coffee, her demeanor thawed perceptibly
and she graciously vouchsafed the remark, âVen youâre hout late hagâin hiâll
look hafter ye.â
Mrs. Mumpson had not been so far off as not to hear Janeâs explanation, as the
poor child found to her cost when she went up to bed.
Chapter X. A Night of Terror
As poor, dazed, homeless Alida passed out into the street after the revelation
that she was not a wife and never had been, she heard a voice say, âWell,
Hanner wasnât long in bouncing the woman. I guess weâd better go up now.
Ferguson will need a lesson that he wonât soon forget.â
The speaker of these words was Mrs. Fergusonâs brother, William Hackman, and
his companion was a detective. The wife had laid her still sleeping child
down on the lounge and was coolly completing Alidaâs preparations for dinner.
Her husband had sunk back into a chair and again buried his face in his hands.
He looked up with startled, bloodshot eyes as his brother-in-law and the
stranger entered, and then resumed his former attitude.
Mrs. Ferguson briefly related what had happened, and then said, âTake chairs
and draw up.â
âI donât want any dinner,â muttered the husband.
Mr. William Hackman now gave way to his irritation. Turning to his brother,
he relieved his mind as follows: âSee here, Hank Ferguson, if you hadnât the
best wife in the land, this gentleman would now be giving you a promenade to
jail. Iâve left my work for weeks, and spent a sight of money to see that my
sister got her rights, and, by thunder! sheâs going to have âem. Weâve
agreed to give you a chance to brace up and be a man. If we find out there
isnât any man in you, then you go to prison and hard labor to the full extent
of the law. Weâve fixed things so you canât play any more tricks. This man
is a private detective. As long as you do the square thing by your wife and
child, youâll be let alone. If you try to sneak off, youâll be nabbed. Now,
if you aint
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