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diff --git a/3700-h/3700-h.htm b/3700-h/3700-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b1d6ce --- /dev/null +++ b/3700-h/3700-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1790 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Courtship of Susan Bell, by Anthony Trollope</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Courtship of Susan Bell, by Anthony +Trollope, Illustrated by Marcus Stone + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: The Courtship of Susan Bell + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: January 16, 2015 [eBook #3700] +[This file was first posted on July 25, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman & Hall, “Tales of +All Countries,” edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Courtship of Susan Bell, a frontispiece by Marcus Stone" +title= +"The Courtship of Susan Bell, a frontispiece by Marcus Stone" + src="images/fps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL.</h1> +<p><span class="smcap">John Munroe Bell</span> had been a lawyer +in Albany, State of New York, and as such had thriven well. +He had thriven well as long as thrift and thriving on this earth +had been allowed to him. But the Almighty had seen fit to +shorten his span.</p> +<p>Early in life he had married a timid, anxious, pretty, good +little wife, whose whole heart and mind had been given up to do +his bidding and deserve his love. She had not only deserved +it but had possessed it, and as long as John Munroe Bell had +lived, Henrietta Bell—Hetta as he called her—had been +a woman rich in blessings. After twelve years of such +blessings he had left her, and had left with her two daughters, a +second Hetta, and the heroine of our little story, Susan +Bell.</p> +<p>A lawyer in Albany may thrive passing well for eight or ten +years, and yet not leave behind him any very large sum of money +if he dies at the end of that time. Some small modicum, +some few thousand dollars, John Bell had amassed, so that his +widow and daughters were not absolutely driven to look for work +or bread.</p> +<p>In those happy days when cash had begun to flow in plenteously +to the young father of the family, he had taken it into his head +to build for himself, or rather for his young female brood, a +small neat house in the outskirts of Saratoga Springs. In +doing so he was instigated as much by the excellence of the +investment for his pocket as by the salubrity of the place for +his girls. He furnished the house well, and then during +some summer weeks his wife lived there, and sometimes he let +it.</p> +<p>How the widow grieved when the lord of her heart and master of +her mind was laid in the grave, I need not tell. She had +already counted ten years of widowhood, and her children had +grown to be young women beside her at the time of which I am now +about to speak. Since that sad day on which they had left +Albany they had lived together at the cottage at the +Springs. In winter their life had been lonely enough; but +as soon as the hot weather began to drive the fainting citizens +out from New York, they had always received two or three +boarders—old ladies generally, and occasionally an old +gentleman—persons of very steady habits, with whose pockets +the widow’s moderate demands agreed better than the hotel +charges. And so the Bells lived for ten years.</p> +<p>That Saratoga is a gay place in July, August, and September, +the world knows well enough. To girls who go there with +trunks full of muslin and crinoline, for whom a carriage and pair +of horses is always waiting immediately after dinner, whose +fathers’ pockets are bursting with dollars, it is a very +gay place. Dancing and flirtations come as a matter of +course, and matrimony follows after with only too great +rapidity. But the place was not very gay for Hetta or Susan +Bell.</p> +<p>In the first place the widow was a timid woman, and among +other fears feared greatly that she should be thought guilty of +setting traps for husbands. Poor mothers! how often are +they charged with this sin when their honest desires go no +further than that their bairns may be “respectit like the +lave.” And then she feared flirtations; flirtations +that should be that and nothing more, flirtations that are so +destructive of the heart’s sweetest essence. She +feared love also, though she longed for that as well as feared +it;—for her girls, I mean; all such feelings for herself +were long laid under ground;—and then, like a timid +creature as she was, she had other indefinite fears, and among +them a great fear that those girls of hers would be left +husbandless,—a phase of life which after her twelve years +of bliss she regarded as anything but desirable. But the +upshot was,—the upshot of so many fears and such small +means,—that Hetta and Susan Bell had but a dull life of +it.</p> +<p>Were it not that I am somewhat closely restricted in the +number of my pages, I would describe at full the merits and +beauties of Hetta and Susan Bell. As it is I can but say a +few words. At our period of their lives Hetta was nearly +one-and-twenty, and Susan was just nineteen. Hetta was a +short, plump, demure young woman, with the softest smoothed hair, +and the brownest brightest eyes. She was very useful in the +house, good at corn cakes, and thought much, particularly in +these latter months, of her religious duties. Her sister in +the privacy of their own little room would sometimes twit her +with the admiring patience with which she would listen to the +lengthened eloquence of Mr. Phineas Beckard, the Baptist +minister. Now Mr. Phineas Beckard was a bachelor.</p> +<p>Susan was not so good a girl in the kitchen or about the house +as was her sister; but she was bright in the parlour, and if that +motherly heart could have been made to give out its inmost +secret—which however, it could not have been made to give +out in any way painful to dear Hetta—perhaps it might have +been found that Susan was loved with the closest love. She +was taller than her sister, and lighter; her eyes were blue as +were her mother’s; her hair was brighter than +Hetta’s, but not always so singularly neat. She had a +dimple on her chin, whereas Hetta had none; dimples on her cheeks +too, when she smiled; and, oh, such a mouth! There; my +allowance of pages permits no more.</p> +<p>One piercing cold winter’s day there came knocking at +the widow’s door—a young man. Winter days, when +the ice of January is refrozen by the wind of February, are very +cold at Saratoga Springs. In these days there was not often +much to disturb the serenity of Mrs. Bell’s house; but on +the day in question there came knocking at the door—a young +man.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bell kept an old domestic, who had lived with them in +those happy Albany days. Her name was Kate O’Brien, +but though picturesque in name she was hardly so in person. +She was a thick-set, noisy, good-natured old Irishwoman, who had +joined her lot to that of Mrs. Bell when the latter first began +housekeeping, and knowing when she was well off; had remained in +the same place from that day forth. She had known Hetta as +a baby, and, so to say, had seen Susan’s birth.</p> +<p>“And what might you be wanting, sir?” said Kate +O’Brien, apparently not quite pleased as she opened the +door and let in all the cold air.</p> +<p>“I wish to see Mrs. Bell. Is not this Mrs. +Bell’s house?” said the young man, shaking the snow +from out of the breast of his coat.</p> +<p>He did see Mrs. Bell, and we will now tell who he was, and why +he had come, and how it came to pass that his carpet-bag was +brought down to the widow’s house and one of the front +bedrooms was prepared for him, and that he drank tea that night +in the widow’s parlour.</p> +<p>His name was Aaron Dunn, and by profession he was an +engineer. What peculiar misfortune in those days of frost +and snow had befallen the line of rails which runs from +Schenectady to Lake Champlain, I never quite understood. +Banks and bridges had in some way come to grief, and on Aaron +Dunn’s shoulders was thrown the burden of seeing that they +were duly repaired. Saratoga Springs was the centre of +these mishaps, and therefore at Saratoga Springs it was necessary +that he should take up his temporary abode.</p> +<p>Now there was at that time in New York city a Mr. Bell, great +in railway matters—an uncle of the once thriving but now +departed Albany lawyer. He was a rich man, but he liked his +riches himself; or at any rate had not found himself called upon +to share them with the widow and daughters of his nephew. +But when it chanced to come to pass that he had a hand in +despatching Aaron Dunn to Saratoga, he took the young man aside +and recommended him to lodge with the widow. +“There,” said he, “show her my +card.” So much the rich uncle thought he might +vouchsafe to do for the nephew’s widow.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bell and both her daughters were in the parlour when +Aaron Dunn was shown in, snow and all. He told his story in +a rough, shaky voice, for his teeth chattered; and he gave the +card, almost wishing that he had gone to the empty big hotel, for +the widow’s welcome was not at first quite warm.</p> +<p>The widow listened to him as he gave his message, and then she +took the card and looked at it. Hetta, who was sitting on +the side of the fireplace facing the door, went on demurely with +her work. Susan gave one glance round—her back was to +the stranger—and then another; and then she moved her chair +a little nearer to the wall, so as to give the young man room to +come to the fire, if he would. He did not come, but his +eyes glanced upon Susan Bell; and he thought that the old man in +New York was right, and that the big hotel would be cold and +dull. It was a pretty face to look on that cold evening as +she turned it up from the stocking she was mending.</p> +<p>“Perhaps you don’t wish to take winter boarders, +ma’am?” said Aaron Dunn.</p> +<p>“We never have done so yet, sir,” said Mrs. Bell +timidly. Could she let this young wolf in among her +lamb-fold? He might be a wolf;—who could tell?</p> +<p>“Mr. Bell seemed to think it would suit,” said +Aaron.</p> +<p>Had he acquiesced in her timidity and not pressed the point, +it would have been all up with him. But the widow did not +like to go against the big uncle; and so she said, “Perhaps +it may, sir.”</p> +<p>“I guess it will, finely,” said Aaron. And +then the widow seeing that the matter was so far settled, put +down her work and came round into the passage. Hetta +followed her, for there would be housework to do. Aaron +gave himself another shake, settled the weekly number of +dollars—with very little difficulty on his part, for he had +caught another glance at Susan’s face; and then went after +his bag. ’Twas thus that Aaron Dunn obtained an +entrance into Mrs. Bell’s house. “But what if +he be a wolf?” she said to herself over and over again that +night, though not exactly in those words. Ay, but there is +another side to that question. What if he be a stalwart +man, honest-minded, with clever eye, cunning hand, ready brain, +broad back, and warm heart; in want of a wife mayhap; a man that +can earn his own bread and another’s;—half a dozen +others’ when the half dozen come? Would not that be a +good sort of lodger? Such a question as that too did flit, +just flit, across the widow’s sleepless mind. But +then she thought so much more of the wolf! Wolves, she had +taught herself to think, were more common than stalwart, +honest-minded, wife-desirous men.</p> +<p>“I wonder mother consented to take him,” said +Hetta, when they were in the little room together.</p> +<p>“And why shouldn’t she?” said Susan. +“It will be a help.”</p> +<p>“Yes, it will be a little help,” said Hetta. +“But we have done very well hitherto without winter +lodgers.”</p> +<p>“But uncle Bell said she was to.”</p> +<p>“What is uncle Bell to us?” said Hetta, who had a +spirit of her own. And she began to surmise within herself +whether Aaron Dunn would join the Baptist congregation, and +whether Phineas Beckard would approve of this new move.</p> +<p>“He is a very well-behaved young man at any rate,” +said Susan, “and he draws beautifully. Did you see +those things he was doing?”</p> +<p>“He draws very well, I dare say,” said Hetta, who +regarded this as but a poor warranty for good behaviour. +Hetta also had some fear of wolves—not for herself perhaps; +but for her sister.</p> +<p>Aaron Dunn’s work—the commencement of his +work—lay at some distance from the Springs, and he left +every morning with a lot of workmen by an early +train—almost before daylight. And every morning, cold +and wintry as the mornings were, the widow got him his breakfast +with her own hands. She took his dollars and would not +leave him altogether to the awkward mercies of Kate +O’Brien; nor would she trust her girls to attend upon the +young man. Hetta she might have trusted; but then Susan +would have asked why she was spared her share of such +hardship.</p> +<p>In the evening, leaving his work when it was dark, Aaron +always returned, and then the evening was passed together. +But they were passed with the most demure propriety. These +women would make the tea, cut the bread and butter, and then sew; +while Aaron Dunn, when the cups were removed, would always go to +his plans and drawings.</p> +<p>On Sundays they were more together; but even on this day there +was cause of separation, for Aaron went to the Episcopalian +church, rather to the disgust of Hetta. In the afternoon, +however, they were together; and then Phineas Beckard came in to +tea on Sundays, and he and Aaron got to talking on religion; and +though they disagreed pretty much, and would not give an inch +either one or the other, nevertheless the minister told the +widow, and Hetta too probably, that the lad had good stuff in +him, though he was so stiff-necked.</p> +<p>“But he should be more modest in talking on such matters +with a minister,” said Hetta.</p> +<p>The Rev. Phineas acknowledged that perhaps he should; but he +was honest enough to repeat that the lad had stuff in him. +“Perhaps after all he is not a wolf,” said the widow +to herself.</p> +<p>Things went on in this way for above a month. Aaron had +declared to himself over and over again that that face was sweet +to look upon, and had unconsciously promised to himself certain +delights in talking and perhaps walking with the owner of +it. But the walkings had not been achieved—nor even +the talkings as yet. The truth was that Dunn was bashful +with young women, though he could be so stiff-necked with the +minister.</p> +<p>And then he felt angry with himself, inasmuch as he had +advanced no further; and as he lay in his bed—which perhaps +those pretty hands had helped to make—he resolved that he +would be a thought bolder in his bearing. He had no idea of +making love to Susan Bell; of course not. But why should he +not amuse himself by talking to a pretty girl when she sat so +near him, evening after evening?</p> +<p>“What a very quiet young man he is,” said Susan to +her sister.</p> +<p>“He has his bread to earn, and sticks to his +work,” said Hetta. “No doubt he has his +amusement when he is in the city,” added the elder sister, +not wishing to leave too strong an impression of the young +man’s virtue.</p> +<p>They had all now their settled places in the parlour. +Hetta sat on one side of the fire, close to the table, having +that side to herself. There she sat always busy. She +must have made every dress and bit of linen worn in the house, +and hemmed every sheet and towel, so busy was she always. +Sometimes, once in a week or so, Phineas Beckard would come in, +and then place was made for him between Hetta’s usual seat +and the table. For when there he would read out loud. +On the other side, close also to the table, sat the widow, busy, +but not savagely busy as her elder daughter. Between Mrs. +Bell and the wall, with her feet ever on the fender, Susan used +to sit; not absolutely idle, but doing work of some slender +pretty sort, and talking ever and anon to her mother. +Opposite to them all, at the other side of the table, far away +from the fire, would Aaron Dunn place himself with his plans and +drawings before him.</p> +<p>“Are you a judge of bridges, ma’am?” said +Aaron, the evening after he had made his resolution. +’Twas thus he began his courtship.</p> +<p>“Of bridges?” said Mrs. Bell—“oh dear +no, sir.” But she put out her hand to take the little +drawing which Aaron handed to her.</p> +<p>“Because that’s one I’ve planned for our bit +of a new branch from Moreau up to Lake George. I guess Miss +Susan knows something about bridges.”</p> +<p>“I guess I don’t,” said +Susan—“only that they oughtn’t to tumble down +when the frost comes.”</p> +<p>“Ha, ha, ha; no more they ought. I’ll tell +McEvoy that.” McEvoy had been a former engineer on +the line. “Well, that won’t burst with any +frost, I guess.”</p> +<p>“Oh my! how pretty!” said the widow, and then +Susan of course jumped up to look over her mother’s +shoulder.</p> +<p>The artful dodger! he had drawn and coloured a beautiful +little sketch of a bridge; not an engineer’s plan with +sections and measurements, vexatious to a woman’s eye, but +a graceful little bridge with a string of cars running under +it. You could almost hear the bell going.</p> +<p>“Well; that is a pretty bridge,” said Susan. +“Isn’t it, Hetta?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know anything about bridges,” said +Hetta, to whose clever eyes the dodge was quite apparent. +But in spite of her cleverness Mrs. Bell and Susan had soon moved +their chairs round to the table, and were looking through the +contents of Aaron’s portfolio. “But yet he may +be a wolf,” thought the poor widow, just as she was +kneeling down to say her prayers.</p> +<p>That evening certainly made a commencement. Though Hetta +went on pertinaciously with the body of a new dress, the other +two ladies did not put in another stitch that night. From +his drawings Aaron got to his instruments, and before bedtime was +teaching Susan how to draw parallel lines. Susan found that +she had quite an aptitude for parallel lines, and altogether had +a good time of it that evening. It is dull to go on week +after week, and month after month, talking only to one’s +mother and sister. It is dull though one does not oneself +recognise it to be so. A little change in such matters is +so very pleasant. Susan had not the slightest idea of +regarding Aaron as even a possible lover. But young ladies +do like the conversation of young gentlemen. Oh, my +exceedingly proper prim old lady, you who are so shocked at this +as a general doctrine, has it never occurred to you that the +Creator has so intended it?</p> +<p>Susan understanding little of the how and why, knew that she +had had a good time, and was rather in spirits as she went to +bed. But Hetta had been frightened by the dodge.</p> +<p>“Oh, Hetta, you should have looked at those +drawings. He is so clever!” said Susan.</p> +<p>“I don’t know that they would have done me much +good,” replied Hetta.</p> +<p>“Good! Well, they’d do me more good than a +long sermon, I know,” said Susan; “except on a +Sunday, of course,” she added apologetically. This +was an ill-tempered attack both on Hetta and Hetta’s +admirer. But then why had Hetta been so snappish?</p> +<p>“I’m sure he’s a wolf;” thought Hetta +as she went to bed.</p> +<p>“What a very clever young man he is!” thought +Susan to herself as she pulled the warm clothes round about her +shoulders and ears.</p> +<p>“Well that certainly was an improvement,” thought +Aaron as he went through the same operation, with a stronger +feeling of self-approbation than he had enjoyed for some time +past.</p> +<p>In the course of the next fortnight the family arrangements +all altered themselves. Unless when Beckard was there Aaron +would sit in the widow’s place, the widow would take +Susan’s chair, and the two girls would be opposite. +And then Dunn would read to them; not sermons, but passages from +Shakspeare, and Byron, and Longfellow. “He reads much +better than Mr. Beckard,” Susan had said one night. +“Of course you’re a competent judge!” had been +Hetta’s retort. “I mean that I like it +better,” said Susan. “It’s well that all +people don’t think alike,” replied Hetta.</p> +<p>And then there was a deal of talking. The widow herself, +as unconscious in this respect as her youngest daughter, +certainly did find that a little variety was agreeable on those +long winter nights; and talked herself with unaccustomed +freedom. And Beckard came there oftener and talked very +much. When he was there the two young men did all the +talking, and they pounded each other immensely. But still +there grew up a sort of friendship between them.</p> +<p>“Mr. Beckard seems quite to take to him,” said +Mrs. Bell to her eldest daughter.</p> +<p>“It is his great good nature, mother,” replied +Hetta.</p> +<p>It was at the end of the second month when Aaron took another +step in advance—a perilous step. Sometimes on +evenings he still went on with his drawing for an hour or so; but +during three or four evenings he never asked any one to look at +what he was doing. On one Friday he sat over his work till +late, without any reading or talking at all; so late that at last +Mrs. Bell said, “If you’re going to sit much longer, +Mr. Dunn, I’ll get you to put out the candles.” +Thereby showing, had he known it or had she, that the +mother’s confidence in the young man was growing +fast. Hetta knew all about it, and dreaded that the growth +was too quick.</p> +<p>“I’ve finished now,” said Aaron; and he +looked carefully at the cardboard on which he had been washing in +his water-colours. “I’ve finished +now.” He then hesitated a moment; but ultimately he +put the card into his portfolio and carried it up to his +bedroom. Who does not perceive that it was intended as a +present to Susan Bell?</p> +<p>The question which Aaron asked himself that night, and which +he hardly knew how to answer, was this. Should he offer the +drawing to Susan in the presence of her mother and sister, or on +some occasion when they two might be alone together? No +such occasion had ever yet occurred, but Aaron thought that it +might probably be brought about. But then he wanted to make +no fuss about it. His first intention had been to chuck the +drawing lightly across the table when it was completed, and so +make nothing of it. But he had finished it with more care +than he had at first intended; and then he had hesitated when he +had finished it. It was too late now for that plan of +chucking it over the table.</p> +<p>On the Saturday evening when he came down from his room, Mr. +Beckard was there, and there was no opportunity that night. +On the Sunday, in conformity with a previous engagement, he went +to hear Mr. Beckard preach, and walked to and from meeting with +the family. This pleased Mrs. Bell, and they were all very +gracious that afternoon. But Sunday was no day for the +picture.</p> +<p>On Monday the thing had become of importance to him. +Things always do when they are kept over. Before tea that +evening when he came down Mrs. Bell and Susan only were in the +room. He knew Hetta for his foe, and therefore determined +to use this occasion.</p> +<p>“Miss Susan,” he said, stammering somewhat, and +blushing too, poor fool! “I have done a little +drawing which I want you to accept,” and he put his +portfolio down on the table.</p> +<p>“Oh! I don’t know,” said Susan, who +had seen the blush.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bell had seen the blush also, and pursed her mouth up, +and looked grave. Had there been no stammering and no +blush, she might have thought nothing of it.</p> +<p>Aaron saw at once that his little gift was not to go down +smoothly. He was, however, in for it now, so he picked it +out from among the other papers in the case and brought it over +to Susan. He endeavoured to hand it to her with an air of +indifference, but I cannot say that he succeeded.</p> +<p>It was a very pretty, well-finished, water-coloured drawing, +representing still the same bridge, but with more adjuncts. +In Susan’s eyes it was a work of high art. Of +pictures probably she had seen but little, and her liking for the +artist no doubt added to her admiration. But the more she +admired it and wished for it, the stronger was her feeling that +she ought not to take it.</p> +<p>Poor Susan! she stood for a minute looking at the drawing, but +she said nothing; not even a word of praise. She felt that +she was red in the face, and uncourteous to their lodger; but her +mother was looking at her and she did not know how to behave +herself.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bell put out her hand for the sketch, trying to bethink +herself as she did so in what least uncivil way she could refuse +the present. She took a moment to look at it collecting her +thoughts, and as she did so her woman’s wit came to her +aid.</p> +<p>“Oh dear, Mr. Dunn, it is very pretty; quite a beautiful +picture. I cannot let Susan rob you of that. You must +keep that for some of your own particular friends.”</p> +<p>“But I did it for her,” said Aaron innocently.</p> +<p>Susan looked down at the ground, half pleased at the +declaration. The drawing would look very pretty in a small +gilt frame put over her dressing-table. But the matter now +was altogether in her mother’s hands.</p> +<p>“I am afraid it is too valuable, sir, for Susan to +accept.”</p> +<p>“It is not valuable at all,” said Aaron, declining +to take it back from the widow’s hand.</p> +<p>“Oh, I am quite sure it is. It is worth ten +dollars at least—or twenty,” said poor Mrs. Bell, not +in the very best taste. But she was perplexed, and did not +know how to get out of the scrape. The article in question +now lay upon the table-cloth, appropriated by no one, and at this +moment Hetta came into the room.</p> +<p>“It is not worth ten cents,” said Aaron, with +something like a frown on his brow. “But as we had +been talking about the bridge, I thought Miss Susan would accept +it.”</p> +<p>“Accept what?” said Hetta. And then her eye +fell upon the drawing and she took it up.</p> +<p>“It is beautifully done,” said Mrs. Bell, wishing +much to soften the matter; perhaps the more so that Hetta the +demure was now present. “I am telling Mr. Dunn that +we can’t take a present of anything so valuable.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear no,” said Hetta. “It +wouldn’t be right.”</p> +<p>It was a cold frosty evening in March, and the fire was +burning brightly on the hearth. Aaron Dunn took up the +drawing quietly—very quietly—and rolling it up, as +such drawings are rolled, put it between the blazing logs. +It was the work of four evenings, and his +chef-d’œuvre in the way of art.</p> +<p>Susan, when she saw what he had done, burst out into +tears. The widow could very readily have done so also, but +she was able to refrain herself, and merely +exclaimed—“Oh, Mr. Dunn!”</p> +<p>“If Mr. Dunn chooses to burn his own picture, he has +certainly a right to do so,” said Hetta.</p> +<p>Aaron immediately felt ashamed of what he had done; and he +also could have cried, but for his manliness. He walked +away to one of the parlour-windows, and looked out upon the +frosty night. It was dark, but the stars were bright, and +he thought that he should like to be walking fast by himself +along the line of rails towards Balston. There he stood, +perhaps for three minutes. He thought it would be proper to +give Susan time to recover from her tears.</p> +<p>“Will you please to come to your tea, sir?” said +the soft voice of Mrs. Bell.</p> +<p>He turned round to do so, and found that Susan was gone. +It was not quite in her power to recover from her tears in three +minutes. And then the drawing had been so beautiful! +It had been done expressly for her too! And there had been +something, she knew not what, in his eye as he had so +declared. She had watched him intently over those four +evenings’ work, wondering why he did not show it, till her +feminine curiosity had become rather strong. It was +something very particular, she was sure, and she had learned that +all that precious work had been for her. Now all that +precious work was destroyed. How was it possible that she +should not cry for more than three minutes?</p> +<p>The others took their meal in perfect silence, and when it was +over the two women sat down to their work. Aaron had a book +which he pretended to read, but instead of reading he was +bethinking himself that he had behaved badly. What right +had he to throw them all into such confusion by indulging in his +passion? He was ashamed of what he had done, and fancied +that Susan would hate him. Fancying that, he began to find +at the same time that he by no means hated her.</p> +<p>At last Hetta got up and left the room. She knew that +her sister was sitting alone in the cold, and Hetta was +affectionate. Susan had not been in fault, and therefore +Hetta went up to console her.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Bell,” said Aaron, as soon as the door was +closed, “I beg your pardon for what I did just +now.”</p> +<p>“Oh, sir, I’m so sorry that the picture is +burnt,” said poor Mrs. Bell.</p> +<p>“The picture does not matter a straw,” said +Aaron. “But I see that I have disturbed you +all,—and I am afraid I have made Miss Susan +unhappy.”</p> +<p>“She was grieved because your picture was burnt,” +said Mrs. Bell, putting some emphasis on the “your,” +intending to show that her daughter had not regarded the drawing +as her own. But the emphasis bore another meaning; and so +the widow perceived as soon as she had spoken.</p> +<p>“Oh, I can do twenty more of the same if anybody wanted +them,” said Aaron. “If I do another like it, +will you let her take it, Mrs. Bell?—just to show that you +have forgiven me, and that we are friends as we were +before?”</p> +<p>Was he, or was he not a wolf? That was the question +which Mrs. Bell scarcely knew how to answer. Hetta had +given her voice, saying he was lupine. Mr. Beckard’s +opinion she had not liked to ask directly. Mr. Beckard she +thought would probably propose to Hetta; but as yet he had not +done so. And, as he was still a stranger in the family, she +did not like in any way to compromise Susan’s name. +Indirectly she had asked the question, and, indirectly also, Mr. +Beckard’s answer had been favourable.</p> +<p>“But it mustn’t mean anything, sir,” was the +widow’s weak answer, when she had paused on the question +for a moment.</p> +<p>“Oh no, of course not,” said Aaron, joyously, and +his face became radiant and happy. “And I do beg your +pardon for burning it; and the young ladies’ pardon +too.” And then he rapidly got out his cardboard, and +set himself to work about another bridge. The widow, +meditating many things in her heart, commenced the hemming of a +handkerchief.</p> +<p>In about an hour the two girls came back to the room and +silently took their accustomed places. Aaron hardly looked +up, but went on diligently with his drawing. This bridge +should be a better bridge than that other. Its acceptance +was now assured. Of course it was to mean nothing. +That was a matter of course. So he worked away diligently, +and said nothing to anybody.</p> +<p>When they went off to bed the two girls went into the +mother’s room. “Oh, mother, I hope he is not +very angry,” said Susan.</p> +<p>“Angry!” said Hetta, “if anybody should be +angry, it is mother. He ought to have known that Susan +could not accept it. He should never have offered +it.”</p> +<p>“But he’s doing another,” said Mrs. +Bell.</p> +<p>“Not for her,” said Hetta.</p> +<p>“Yes he is,” said Mrs. Bell, “and I have +promised that she shall take it.” Susan as she heard +this sank gently into the chair behind her, and her eyes became +full of tears. The intimation was almost too much for +her.</p> +<p>“Oh, mother!” said Hetta.</p> +<p>“But I particularly said that it was to mean +nothing.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, that makes it worse.”</p> +<p>Why should Hetta interfere in this way, thought Susan to +herself. Had she interfered when Mr. Beckard gave Hetta a +testament bound in Morocco? had not she smiled, and looked +gratified, and kissed her sister, and declared that Phineas +Beckard was a nice dear man, and by far the most elegant preacher +at the Springs? Why should Hetta be so cruel?</p> +<p>“I don’t see that, my dear,” said the +mother. Hetta would not explain before her sister, so they +all went to bed.</p> +<p>On the Thursday evening the drawing was finished. Not a +word had been said about it, at any rate in his presence, and he +had gone on working in silence. “There,” said +he, late on the Thursday evening, “I don’t know that +it will be any better if I go on daubing for another hour. +There, Miss Susan; there’s another bridge. I hope +that will neither burst with the frost, nor yet be destroyed by +fire,” and he gave it a light flip with his fingers and +sent it skimming over the table.</p> +<p>Susan blushed and smiled, and took it up. “Oh, it +is beautiful,” she said. “Isn’t it +beautifully done, mother?” and then all the three got up to +look at it, and all confessed that it was excellently done.</p> +<p>“And I am sure we are very much obliged to you,” +said Susan after a pause, remembering that she had not yet +thanked him.</p> +<p>“Oh, it’s nothing,” said he, not quite +liking the word “we.” On the following day he +returned from his work to Saratoga about noon. This he had +never done before, and therefore no one expected that he would be +seen in the house before the evening. On this occasion, +however, he went straight thither, and as chance would have it, +both the widow and her elder daughter were out. Susan was +there alone in charge of the house.</p> +<p>He walked in and opened the parlour door. There she sat, +with her feet on the fender, with her work unheeded on the table +behind her, and the picture, Aaron’s drawing, lying on her +knees. She was gazing at it intently as he entered, +thinking in her young heart that it possessed all the beauties +which a picture could possess.</p> +<p>“Oh, Mr. Dunn,” she said, getting up and holding +the telltale sketch behind the skirt of her dress.</p> +<p>“Miss Susan, I have come here to tell your mother that I +must start for New York this afternoon and be there for six +weeks, or perhaps longer.”</p> +<p>“Mother is out,” said she; “I’m so +sorry.”</p> +<p>“Is she?” said Aaron.</p> +<p>“And Hetta too. Dear me. And you’ll be +wanting dinner. I’ll go and see about it.”</p> +<p>Aaron began to swear that he could not possibly eat any +dinner. He had dined once, and was going to dine +again;—anything to keep her from going.</p> +<p>“But you must have something, Mr. Dunn,” and she +walked towards the door.</p> +<p>But he put his back to it. “Miss Susan,” +said he, “I guess I’ve been here nearly two +months.”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir, I believe you have,” she replied, +shaking in her shoes, and not knowing which way to look.</p> +<p>“And I hope we have been good friends.”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” said Susan, almost beside herself as +to what she was saying.</p> +<p>“I’m going away now, and it seems to be such a +time before I’ll be back.”</p> +<p>“Will it, Sir?”</p> +<p>“Six weeks, Miss Susan!” and then he paused, +looking into her eyes, to see what he could read there. She +leant against the table, pulling to pieces a morsel of +half-ravelled muslin which she held in her hand; but her eyes +were turned to the ground, and he could hardly see them.</p> +<p>“Miss Susan,” he continued, “I may as well +speak out now as at another time.” He too was looking +towards the ground, and clearly did not know what to do with his +hands. “The truth is just this. I—I love +you dearly, with all my heart. I never saw any one I ever +thought so beautiful, so nice, and so good;—and +what’s more, I never shall. I’m not very good +at this sort of thing, I know; but I couldn’t go away from +Saratoga for six weeks and not tell you.” And then he +ceased. He did not ask for any love in return. His +presumption had not got so far as that yet. He merely +declared his passion, leaning against the door, and there he +stood twiddling his thumbs.</p> +<p>Susan had not the slightest conception of the way in which she +ought to receive such a declaration. She had never had a +lover before; nor had she ever thought of Aaron absolutely as a +lover, though something very like love for him had been crossing +over her spirit. Now, at this moment, she felt that he was +the beau-idéal of manhood, though his boots were covered +with the railway mud, and though his pantaloons were tucked up in +rolls round his ankles. He was a fine, well-grown, +open-faced fellow, whose eye was bold and yet tender, whose brow +was full and broad, and all his bearing manly. Love +him! Of course she loved him. Why else had her heart +melted with pleasure when her mother said that that second +picture was to be accepted?</p> +<p>But what was she to say? Anything but the open truth; +she well knew that. The open truth would not do at +all. What would her mother say and Hetta if she were rashly +to say that? Hetta, she knew, would be dead against such a +lover, and of her mother’s approbation she had hardly more +hope. Why they should disapprove of Aaron as a lover she +had never asked herself. There are many nice things that +seem to be wrong only because they are so nice. Maybe that +Susan regarded a lover as one of them. “Oh, Mr. Dunn, +you shouldn’t.” That in fact was all that she +could say.</p> +<p>“Should not I?” said he. “Well, +perhaps not; but there’s the truth, and no harm ever comes +of that. Perhaps I’d better not ask you for an answer +now, but I thought it better you should know it all. And +remember this—I only care for one thing now in the world, +and that is for your love.” And then he paused, +thinking possibly that in spite of what he had said he might +perhaps get some sort of an answer, some inkling of the state of +her heart’s disposition towards him.</p> +<p>But Susan had at once resolved to take him at his word when he +suggested that an immediate reply was not necessary. To say +that she loved him was of course impossible, and to say that she +did not was equally so. She determined therefore to close +at once with the offer of silence.</p> +<p>When he ceased speaking there was a moment’s pause, +during which he strove hard to read what might be written on her +down-turned face. But he was not good at such +reading. “Well, I guess I’ll go and get my +things ready now,” he said, and then turned round to open +the door.</p> +<p>“Mother will be in before you are gone, I +suppose,” said Susan.</p> +<p>“I have only got twenty minutes,” said he, looking +at his watch. “But, Susan, tell her what I have said +to you. Goodbye.” And he put out his +hand. He knew he should see her again, but this had been +his plan to get her hand in his.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Mr. Dunn,” and she gave him her +hand.</p> +<p>He held it tight for a moment, so that she could not draw it +away,—could not if she would. “Will you tell +your mother?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Yes,” she answered, quite in a whisper. +“I guess I’d better tell her.” And then +she gave a long sigh. He pressed her hand again and got it +up to his lips.</p> +<p>“Mr. Dunn, don’t,” she said. But he +did kiss it. “God bless you, my own dearest, dearest +girl! I’ll just open the door as I come down. +Perhaps Mrs. Bell will be here.” And then he rushed +up stairs.</p> +<p>But Mrs. Bell did not come in. She and Hetta were at a +weekly service at Mr. Beckard’s meeting-house, and Mr. +Beckard it seemed had much to say. Susan, when left alone, +sat down and tried to think. But she could not think; she +could only love. She could use her mind only in recounting +to herself the perfections of that demigod whose heavy steps were +so audible overhead, as he walked to and fro collecting his +things and putting them into his bag.</p> +<p>And then, just when he had finished, she bethought herself +that he must be hungry. She flew to the kitchen, but she +was too late. Before she could even reach at the loaf of +bread he descended the stairs, with a clattering noise, and heard +her voice as she spoke quickly to Kate O’Brien.</p> +<p>“Miss Susan,” he said, “don’t get +anything for me, for I’m off.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Mr. Dunn, I am so sorry. You’ll be so +hungry on your journey,” and she came out to him in the +passage.</p> +<p>“I shall want nothing on the journey, dearest, if +you’ll say one kind word to me.”</p> +<p>Again her eyes went to the ground. “What do you +want me to say, Mr. Dunn?”</p> +<p>“Say, God bless you, Aaron.”</p> +<p>“God bless you, Aaron,” said she; and yet she was +sure that she had not declared her love. He however thought +otherwise, and went up to New York with a happy heart.</p> +<p>Things happened in the next fortnight rather quickly. +Susan at once resolved to tell her mother, but she resolved also +not to tell Hetta. That afternoon she got her mother to +herself in Mrs. Bell’s own room, and then she made a clean +breast of it.</p> +<p>“And what did you say to him, Susan?”</p> +<p>“I said nothing, mother.”</p> +<p>“Nothing, dear!”</p> +<p>“No, mother; not a word. He told me he +didn’t want it.” She forgot how she had used +his Christian name in bidding God bless him.</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” said the widow.</p> +<p>“Was it very wrong?” asked Susan.</p> +<p>“But what do you think yourself, my child?” asked +Mrs. Bell after a while. “What are your own +feelings.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Bell was sitting on a chair and Susan was standing +opposite to her against the post of the bed. She made no +answer, but moving from her place, she threw herself into her +mother’s arms, and hid her face on her mother’s +shoulder. It was easy enough to guess what were her +feelings.</p> +<p>“But, my darling,” said her mother, “you +must not think that it is an engagement.”</p> +<p>“No,” said Susan, sorrowfully.</p> +<p>“Young men say those things to amuse +themselves.” Wolves, she would have said, had she +spoken out her mind freely.</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, he is not like that.”</p> +<p>The daughter contrived to extract a promise from the mother +that Hetta should not be told just at present. Mrs. Bell +calculated that she had six weeks before her; as yet Mr. Beckard +had not spoken out, but there was reason to suppose that he would +do so before those six weeks would be over, and then she would be +able to seek counsel from him.</p> +<p>Mr. Beckard spoke out at the end of six days, and Hetta +frankly accepted him. “I hope you’ll love your +brother-in-law,” said she to Susan.</p> +<p>“Oh, I will indeed,” said Susan; and in the +softness of her heart at the moment she almost made up her mind +to tell; but Hetta was full of her own affairs, and thus it +passed off.</p> +<p>It was then arranged that Hetta should go and spend a week +with Mr. Beckard’s parents. Old Mr. Beckard was a +farmer living near Utica, and now that the match was declared and +approved, it was thought well that Hetta should know her future +husband’s family. So she went for a week, and Mr. +Beckard went with her. “He will be back in plenty of +time for me to speak to him before Aaron Dunn’s six weeks +are over,” said Mrs. Bell to herself.</p> +<p>But things did not go exactly as she expected. On the +very morning after the departure of the engaged couple, there +came a letter from Aaron, saying that he would be at Saratoga +that very evening. The railway people had ordered him down +again for some days’ special work; then he was to go +elsewhere, and not to return to Saratoga till June. +“But he hoped,” so said the letter, “that Mrs. +Bell would not turn him into the street even then, though the +summer might have come, and her regular lodgers might be +expected.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear, oh dear!” said Mrs. Bell to herself, +reflecting that she had no one of whom she could ask advice, and +that she must decide that very day. Why had she let Mr. +Beckard go without telling him? Then she told Susan, and +Susan spent the day trembling. Perhaps, thought Mrs. Bell, +he will say nothing about it. In such case, however, would +it not be her duty to say something? Poor mother! She +trembled nearly as much as Susan.</p> +<p>It was dark when the fatal knock came at the door. The +tea-things were already laid, and the tea-cake was already baked; +for it would at any rate be necessary to give Mr. Dunn his +tea. Susan, when she heard the knock, rushed from her chair +and took refuge up stairs. The widow gave a long sigh and +settled her dress. Kate O’Brien with willing step +opened the door, and bade her old friend welcome.</p> +<p>“How are the ladies?” asked Aaron, trying to +gather something from the face and voice of the domestic.</p> +<p>“Miss Hetta and Mr. Beckard be gone off to Utica, just +man-and-wife like! and so they are, more power to +them.”</p> +<p>“Oh indeed; I’m very glad,” said +Aaron—and so he was; very glad to have Hetta the demure out +of the way. And then he made his way into the parlour, +doubting much, and hoping much.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bell rose from her chair, and tried to look grave. +Aaron glancing round the room saw that Susan was not there. +He walked straight up to the widow, and offered her his hand, +which she took. It might be that Susan had not thought fit +to tell, and in such case it would not be right for him to +compromise her; so he said never a word.</p> +<p>But the subject was too important to the mother to allow of +her being silent when the young man stood before her. +“Oh, Mr. Dunn,” said she, “what is this you +have been saying to Susan?”</p> +<p>“I have asked her to be my wife,” said he, drawing +himself up and looking her full in the face. Mrs. +Bell’s heart was almost as soft as her daughter’s, +and it was nearly gone; but at the moment she had nothing to say +but, “Oh dear, oh dear!”</p> +<p>“May I not call you mother?” said he, taking both +her hands in his.</p> +<p>“Oh dear—oh dear! But will you be good to +her? Oh, Aaron Dunn, if you deceive my child!”</p> +<p>In another quarter of an hour, Susan was kneeling at her +mother’s knee, with her face on her mother’s lap; the +mother was wiping tears out of her eyes; and Aaron was standing +by holding one of the widow’s hands.</p> +<p>“You are my mother too, now,” said he. What +would Hetta and Mr. Beckard say, when they came back? But +then he surely was not a wolf!</p> +<p>There were four or five days left for courtship before Hetta +and Mr. Beckard would return; four or five days during which +Susan might be happy, Aaron triumphant, and Mrs. Bell +nervous. Days I have said, but after all it was only the +evenings that were so left. Every morning Susan got up to +give Aaron his breakfast, but Mrs. Bell got up also. Susan +boldly declared her right to do so, and Mrs. Bell found no +objection which she could urge.</p> +<p>But after that Aaron was always absent till seven or eight in +the evening, when he would return to his tea. Then came the +hour or two of lovers’ intercourse.</p> +<p>But they were very tame, those hours. The widow still +felt an undefined fear that she was wrong, and though her heart +yearned to know that her daughter was happy in the sweet +happiness of accepted love, yet she dreaded to be too +confident. Not a word had been said about money matters; +not a word of Aaron Dunn’s relatives. So she did not +leave them by themselves, but waited with what patience she could +for the return of her wise counsellors.</p> +<p>And then Susan hardly knew how to behave herself with her +accepted suitor. She felt that she was very happy; but +perhaps she was most happy when she was thinking about him +through the long day, assisting in fixing little things for his +comfort, and waiting for his evening return. And as he sat +there in the parlour, she could be happy then too, if she were +but allowed to sit still and look at him,—not stare at him, +but raise her eyes every now and again to his face for the +shortest possible glance, as she had been used to do ever since +he came there.</p> +<p>But he, unconscionable lover, wanted to hear her speak, was +desirous of being talked to, and perhaps thought that he should +by rights be allowed to sit by her, and hold her hand. No +such privileges were accorded to him. If they had been +alone together, walking side by side on the green turf, as lovers +should walk, she would soon have found the use of her +tongue,—have talked fast enough no doubt. Under such +circumstances, when a girl’s shyness has given way to real +intimacy, there is in general no end to her power of +chatting. But though there was much love between Aaron and +Susan, there was as yet but little intimacy. And then, let +a mother be ever so motherly—and no mother could have more +of a mother’s tenderness than Mrs. Bell—still her +presence must be a restraint. Aaron was very fond of Mrs. +Bell; but nevertheless he did sometimes wish that some domestic +duty would take her out of the parlour for a few happy +minutes. Susan went out very often, but Mrs. Bell seemed to +be a fixture.</p> +<p>Once for a moment he did find his love alone, immediately as +he came into the house. “My own Susan, you do love +me? do say so to me once.” And he contrived to slip +his arm round her waist. “Yes,” she whispered; +but she slipped like an eel from his hands, and left him only +preparing himself for a kiss. And then when she got to her +room, half frightened, she clasped her hands together, and +bethought herself that she did really love him with a strength +and depth of love which filled her whole existence. Why +could she not have told him something of all this?</p> +<p>And so the few days of his second sojourn at Saratoga passed +away, not altogether satisfactorily. It was settled that he +should return to New York on Saturday night, leaving Saratoga on +that evening; and as the Beckards—Hetta was already +regarded quite as a Beckard—were to be back to dinner on +that day, Mrs. Bell would have an opportunity of telling her +wondrous tale. It might be well that Mr. Beckard should see +Aaron before his departure.</p> +<p>On that Saturday the Beckards did arrive just in time for +dinner. It may be imagined that Susan’s appetite was +not very keen, nor her manner very collected. But all this +passed by unobserved in the importance attached to the various +Beckard arrangements which came under discussion. Ladies +and gentlemen circumstanced as were Hetta and Mr. Beckard are +perhaps a little too apt to think that their own affairs are +paramount. But after dinner Susan vanished at once, and +when Hetta prepared to follow her, desirous of further talk about +matrimonial arrangements, her mother stopped her, and the +disclosure was made.</p> +<p>“Proposed to her!” said Hetta, who perhaps thought +that one marriage in a family was enough at a time.</p> +<p>“Yes, my love—and he did it, I must say, in a very +honourable way, telling her not to make any answer till she had +spoken to me;—now that was very nice; was it not, +Phineas?” Mrs. Bell had become very anxious that +Aaron should not be voted a wolf.</p> +<p>“And what has been said to him since?” asked the +discreet Phineas.</p> +<p>“Why—nothing absolutely decisive.” Oh, +Mrs. Bell! “You see I know nothing as to his +means.”</p> +<p>“Nothing at all,” said Hetta.</p> +<p>“He is a man that will always earn his bread,” +said Mr. Beckard; and Mrs. Bell blessed him in her heart for +saying it.</p> +<p>“But has he been encouraged?” asked Hetta.</p> +<p>“Well; yes, he has,” said the widow.</p> +<p>“Then Susan I suppose likes him?” asked +Phineas.</p> +<p>“Well; yes, she does,” said the widow. And +the conference ended in a resolution that Phineas Beckard should +have a conversation with Aaron Dunn, as to his worldly means and +position; and that he, Phineas, should decide whether Aaron +might, or might not be at once accepted as a lover, according to +the tenor of that conversation. Poor Susan was not told +anything of all this. “Better not,” said Hetta +the demure. “It will only flurry her the +more.” How would she have liked it, if without +consulting her, they had left it to Aaron to decide whether or no +she might marry Phineas?</p> +<p>They knew where on the works Aaron was to be found, and +thither Mr. Beckard rode after dinner. We need not narrate +at length the conference between the young men. Aaron at +once declared that he had nothing but what he made as an +engineer, and explained that he held no permanent situation on +the line. He was well paid at that present moment, but at +the end of summer he would have to look for employment.</p> +<p>“Then you can hardly marry quite at present,” said +the discreet minister.</p> +<p>“Perhaps not quite immediately.”</p> +<p>“And long engagements are never wise,” said the +other.</p> +<p>“Three or four months,” suggested Aaron. But +Mr. Beckard shook his head.</p> +<p>The afternoon at Mrs. Bell’s house was melancholy. +The final decision of the three judges was as follows. +There was to be no engagement; of course no correspondence. +Aaron was to be told that it would be better that he should get +lodgings elsewhere when he returned; but that he would be allowed +to visit at Mrs. Bell’s house,—and at Mrs. +Beckard’s, which was very considerate. If he should +succeed in getting a permanent appointment, and if he and Susan +still held the same mind, why then—&c. &c. +Such was Susan’s fate, as communicated to her by Mrs. Bell +and Hetta. She sat still and wept when she heard it; but +she did not complain. She had always felt that Hetta would +be against her.</p> +<p>“Mayn’t I see him, then?” she said through +her tears.</p> +<p>Hetta thought she had better not. Mrs. Bell thought she +might. Phineas decided that they might shake hands, but +only in full conclave. There was to be no lovers’ +farewell. Aaron was to leave the house at half-past five; +but before he went Susan should be called down. Poor +Susan! She sat down and bemoaned herself; uncomplaining, +but very sad.</p> +<p>Susan was soft, feminine, and manageable. But Aaron Dunn +was not very soft, was especially masculine, and in some matters +not easily manageable. When Mr. Beckard in the +widow’s presence—Hetta had retired in obedience to +her lover—informed him of the court’s decision, there +came over his face the look which he had worn when he burned the +picture. “Mrs. Bell,” he said, “had +encouraged his engagement; and he did not understand why other +people should now come and disturb it.”</p> +<p>“Not an engagement, Aaron,” said Mrs. Bell +piteously.</p> +<p>“He was able and willing to work,” he said, +“and knew his profession. What young man of his age +had done better than he had?” and he glanced round at them +with perhaps more pride than was quite becoming.</p> +<p>Then Mr. Beckard spoke out, very wisely no doubt, but perhaps +a little too much at length. Sons and daughters, as well as +fathers and mothers, will know very well what he said; so I need +not repeat his words. I cannot say that Aaron listened with +much attention, but he understood perfectly what the upshot of it +was. Many a man understands the purport of many a sermon +without listening to one word in ten. Mr. Beckard meant to +be kind in his manner; indeed was so, only that Aaron could not +accept as kindness any interference on his part.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you what, Mrs. Bell,” said +he. “I look upon myself as engaged to her. And +I look on her as engaged to me. I tell you so fairly; and I +believe that’s her mind as well as mine.”</p> +<p>“But, Aaron, you won’t try to see her—or to +write to her,—not in secret; will you?”</p> +<p>“When I try to see her, I’ll come and knock at +this door; and if I write to her, I’ll write to her full +address by the post. I never did and never will do anything +in secret.”</p> +<p>“I know you’re good and honest,” said the +widow with her handkerchief to her eyes.</p> +<p>“Then why do you separate us?” asked he, almost +roughly. “I suppose I may see her at any rate before +I go. My time’s nearly up now, I guess.”</p> +<p>And then Susan was called for, and she and Hetta came down +together. Susan crept in behind her sister. Her eyes +were red with weeping, and her appearance was altogether +disconsolate. She had had a lover for a week, and now she +was to be robbed of him.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Susan,” said Aaron, and he walked up to +her without bashfulness or embarrassment. Had they all been +compliant and gracious to him he would have been as bashful as +his love; but now his temper was hot. “Good-bye, +Susan,” and she took his hand, and he held hers till he had +finished. “And remember this, I look upon you as my +promised wife, and I don’t fear that you’ll deceive +me. At any rate I shan’t deceive you.”</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Aaron,” she sobbed.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, and God bless you, my own +darling!” And then without saying a word to any one +else, he turned his back upon them and went his way.</p> +<p>There had been something very consolatory, very sweet, to the +poor girl in her lover’s last words. And yet they had +almost made her tremble. He had been so bold, and stern, +and confident. He had seemed so utterly to defy the +impregnable discretion of Mr. Beckard, so to despise the demure +propriety of Hetta. But of this she felt sure, when she +came to question her heart, that she could never, never, never +cease to love him better than all the world beside. She +would wait—patiently if she could find patience—and +then, if he deserted her, she would die.</p> +<p>In another month Hetta became Mrs. Beckard. Susan +brisked up a little for the occasion, and looked very pretty as +bridesmaid. She was serviceable too in arranging household +matters, hemming linen and sewing table-cloths; though of course +in these matters she did not do a tenth of what Hetta did.</p> +<p>Then the summer came, the Saratoga summer of July, August, and +September, during which the widow’s house was full; and +Susan’s hands saved the pain of her heart, for she was +forced into occupation. Now that Hetta was gone to her own +duties, it was necessary that Susan’s part in the household +should be more prominent.</p> +<p>Aaron did not come back to his work at Saratoga. Why he +did not they could not then learn. During the whole long +summer they heard not a word of him nor from him; and then when +the cold winter months came and their boarders had left them, +Mrs. Beckard congratulated her sister in that she had given no +further encouragement to a lover who cared so little for +her. This was very hard to bear. But Susan did bear +it.</p> +<p>That winter was very sad. They learned nothing of Aaron +Dunn till about January; and then they heard that he was doing +very well. He was engaged on the Erie trunk line, was paid +highly, and was much esteemed. And yet he neither came nor +sent! “He has an excellent situation,” their +informant told them. “And a permanent one?” +asked the widow. “Oh, yes, no doubt,” said the +gentleman, “for I happen to know that they count greatly on +him.” And yet he sent no word of love.</p> +<p>After that the winter became very sad indeed. Mrs. Bell +thought it to be her duty now to teach her daughter that in all +probability she would see Aaron Dunn no more. It was open +to him to leave her without being absolutely a wolf. He had +been driven from the house when he was poor, and they had no +right to expect that he would return, now that he had made some +rise in the world. “Men do amuse themselves in that +way,” the widow tried to teach her.</p> +<p>“He is not like that, mother,” she said again.</p> +<p>“But they do not think so much of these things as we +do,” urged the mother.</p> +<p>“Don’t they?” said Susan, oh, so +sorrowfully; and so through the whole long winter months she +became paler and paler, and thinner and thinner.</p> +<p>And then Hetta tried to console her with religion, and that +perhaps did not make things any better. Religious +consolation is the best cure for all griefs; but it must not be +looked for specially with regard to any individual sorrow. +A religious man, should he become bankrupt through the +misfortunes of the world, will find true consolation in his +religion even for that sorrow. But a bankrupt, who has not +thought much of such things, will hardly find solace by taking up +religion for that special occasion.</p> +<p>And Hetta perhaps was hardly prudent in her attempts. +She thought that it was wicked in Susan to grow thin and pale for +love of Aaron Dunn, and she hardly hid her thoughts. Susan +was not sure but that it might be wicked, but this doubt in no +way tended to make her plump or rosy. So that in those days +she found no comfort in her sister.</p> +<p>But her mother’s pity and soft love did ease her +sufferings, though it could not make them cease. Her mother +did not tell her that she was wicked, or bid her read long +sermons, or force her to go oftener to the meeting-house.</p> +<p>“He will never come again, I think,” she said one +day, as with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders, she leant with +her head upon her mother’s bosom.</p> +<p>“My own darling,” said the mother, pressing her +child closely to her side.</p> +<p>“You think he never will, eh, mother?” What +could Mrs. Bell say? In her heart of hearts she did not +think he ever would come again.</p> +<p>“No, my child. I do not think he +will.” And then the hot tears ran down, and the sobs +came thick and frequent.</p> +<p>“My darling, my darling!” exclaimed the mother; +and they wept together.</p> +<p>“Was I wicked to love him at the first,” she asked +that night.</p> +<p>“No, my child; you were not wicked at all. At +least I think not.”</p> +<p>“Then why—” Why was he sent +away? It was on her tongue to ask that question; but she +paused and spared her mother. This was as they were going +to bed. The next morning Susan did not get up. She +was not ill, she said; but weak and weary. Would her mother +let her lie that day? And then Mrs. Bell went down alone to +her room, and sorrowed with all her heart for the sorrow of her +child. Why, oh why, had she driven away from her door-sill +the love of an honest man?</p> +<p>On the next morning Susan again did not get up;—nor did +she hear, or if she heard she did not recognise, the step of the +postman who brought a letter to the door. Early, before the +widow’s breakfast, the postman came, and the letter which +he brought was as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. +Bell</span>,</p> +<p>“I have now got a permanent situation on the Erie line, +and the salary is enough for myself and a wife. At least I +think so, and I hope you will too. I shall be down at +Saratoga to-morrow evening, and I hope neither Susan nor you will +refuse to receive me.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours affectionately,<br /> +“<span class="smcap">Aaron Dunn</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>That was all. It was very short, and did not contain one +word of love; but it made the widow’s heart leap for +joy. She was rather afraid that Aaron was angry, he wrote +so curtly and with such a brusque business-like attention to mere +facts; but surely he could have but one object in coming +there. And then he alluded specially to a wife. So +the widow’s heart leapt with joy.</p> +<p>But how was she to tell Susan? She ran up stairs almost +breathless with haste, to the bedroom door; but then she stopped; +too much joy she had heard was as dangerous as too much sorrow; +she must think it over for a while, and so she crept back +again.</p> +<p>But after breakfast—that is, when she had sat for a +while over her teacup—she returned to the room, and this +time she entered it. The letter was in her hand, but held +so as to be hidden;—in her left hand as she sat down with +her right arm towards the invalid.</p> +<p>“Susan dear,” she said, and smiled at her child, +“you’ll be able to get up this morning? eh, +dear?”</p> +<p>“Yes, mother,” said Susan, thinking that her +mother objected to this idleness of her lying in bed. And +so she began to bestir herself.</p> +<p>“I don’t mean this very moment, love. +Indeed, I want to sit with you for a little while,” and she +put her right arm affectionately round her daughter’s +waist.</p> +<p>“Dearest mother,” said Susan.</p> +<p>“Ah! there’s one dearer than me, I guess,” +and Mrs. Bell smiled sweetly, as she made the maternal charge +against her daughter.</p> +<p>Susan raised herself quickly in the bed, and looked straight +into her mother’s face. “Mother, mother,” +she said, “what is it? You’ve something to +tell. Oh, mother!” And stretching herself over, +she struck her hand against the corner of Aaron’s +letter. “Mother, you’ve a letter. Is he +coming, mother?” and with eager eyes and open lips, she sat +up, holding tight to her mother’s arm.</p> +<p>“Yes, love. I have got a letter.”</p> +<p>“Is he—is he coming?”</p> +<p>How the mother answered, I can hardly tell; but she did +answer, and they were soon lying in each other’s arms, warm +with each other’s tears. It was almost hard to say +which was the happier.</p> +<p>Aaron was to be there that evening—that very +evening. “Oh, mother, let me get up,” said +Susan.</p> +<p>But Mrs. Bell said no, not yet; her darling was pale and thin, +and she almost wished that Aaron was not coming for another +week. What if he should come and look at her, and finding +her beauty gone, vanish again and seek a wife elsewhere!</p> +<p>So Susan lay in bed, thinking of her happiness, dozing now and +again, and fearing as she waked that it was a dream, looking +constantly at that drawing of his, which she kept outside upon +the bed, nursing her love and thinking of it, and endeavouring, +vainly endeavouring, to arrange what she would say to him.</p> +<p>“Mother,” she said, when Mrs. Bell once went up to +her, “you won’t tell Hetta and Phineas, will +you? Not to-day, I mean?” Mrs. Bell agreed that +it would be better not to tell them. Perhaps she thought +that she had already depended too much on Hetta and Phineas in +the matter.</p> +<p>Susan’s finery in the way of dress had never been +extensive, and now lately, in these last sad winter days, she had +thought but little of the fashion of her clothes. But when +she began to dress herself for the evening, she did ask her +mother with some anxiety what she had better wear. +“If he loves you he will hardly see what you have +on,” said the mother. But not the less was she +careful to smooth her daughter’s hair, and make the most +that might be made of those faded roses.</p> +<p>How Susan’s heart beat,—how both their hearts beat +as the hands of the clock came round to seven! And then, +sharp at seven, came the knock; that same short bold ringing +knock which Susan had so soon learned to know as belonging to +Aaron Dunn. “Oh mother, I had better go up +stairs,” she cried, starting from her chair.</p> +<p>“No dear; you would only be more nervous.”</p> +<p>“I will, mother.”</p> +<p>“No, no, dear; you have not time;” and then Aaron +Dunn was in the room.</p> +<p>She had thought much what she would say to him, but had not +yet quite made up her mind. It mattered however but very +little. On whatever she might have resolved, her resolution +would have vanished to the wind. Aaron Dunn came into the +room, and in one second she found herself in the centre of a +whirlwind, and his arms were the storms that enveloped her on +every side.</p> +<p>“My own, own darling girl,” he said over and over +again, as he pressed her to his heart, quite regardless of Mrs. +Bell, who stood by, sobbing with joy. “My own +Susan.”</p> +<p>“Aaron, dear Aaron,” she whispered. But she +had already recognised the fact that for the present meeting a +passive part would become her well, and save her a deal of +trouble. She had her lover there quite safe, safe beyond +anything that Mr. or Mrs. Beckard might have to say to the +contrary. She was quite happy; only that there were +symptoms now and again that the whirlwind was about to engulf her +yet once more.</p> +<p>“Dear Aaron, I am so glad you are come,” said the +innocent-minded widow, as she went up stairs with him, to show +him his room; and then he embraced her also. “Dear, +dear mother,” he said.</p> +<p>On the next day there was, as a matter of course, a family +conclave. Hetta and Phineas came down, and discussed the +whole subject of the coming marriage with Mrs. Bell. Hetta +at first was not quite certain;—ought they not to inquire +whether the situation was permanent?</p> +<p>“I won’t inquire at all,” said Mrs. Bell, +with an energy that startled both the daughter and +son-in-law. “I would not part them now; no, not +if—” and the widow shuddered as she thought of her +daughter’s sunken eyes, and pale cheeks.</p> +<p>“He is a good lad,” said Phineas, “and I +trust she will make him a sober steady wife;” and so the +matter was settled.</p> +<p>During this time, Susan and Aaron were walking along the +Balston road; and they also had settled the matter—quite as +satisfactorily.</p> +<p>Such was the courtship of Susan Dunn.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 3700-h.htm or 3700-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/0/3700 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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