Christian's Mistake

e wife to be, For Auld Robi

good Mrs. Ferguson, wife of James Ferguson, the well-to-do silversmith and jewel

at the University Chu

the Reverend Arnold

vonsbridge, to Christia

that place.' Will it d

to 'The Tim

Grey first," ans

been conversing-that is, responding to conversation-with Mr. Fe

-gray. The twenty-five years between him and his newly-married wife showed plainly-only too plainly-as she stood, in all her gracefulness of girlhood, which even her extreme pallor and a certain sharp, worn, unnaturally composed look could not destroy. He seemed struck

and somewhat formal politeness which was his natural manner, but which alway

it up last night. James thought it would save you trouble, master-" Mrs. Ferguson alw

n is always kind," retu

de

ential whisper, "I thought it was better only to put 'Edward Oakl

violently over his thin, worn, and yet sensitive face, as sensitive

rned scarlet. Not the sweet, rosy blush of a bride, but the dark red flush

et a bit about it. Never mind her, sir; she'll be better by-and-by." This oppression of pity would have nerved any one of reserved temperament to die rather than betray the least fragment of emotion more. Christian gathered herself up

have stated my father's occupation or my own. I

sing which could have happened to his daughter was his death. But, as by some strange and merciful law of compensation often occurs, Christian, inheriting mind and person from him, had inherited temperament, disposition, character from the lowly-born mother, who wa

m an instinct so deep and true that they are not to be judged by ordinary rules. People call it "love at first sight," and sometimes tell wonderful stories of how a man sees, quite unexpectedly, some sweet, strange, and yet mysteriously familiar face, which takes possession

arrying him, or marrying at all, was quite foreign to her thoughts. How things had come about even yet she could hardly remember or comprehend. All was a perfect dream. It seemed

antic, so intensely, childishly true, that, whatever objections she had to Dr. Grey's offer, the idea that this could form one of them-that any one could suspect her-her, Christian Oakley-of marrying for money or for a home, did not occur to her for an instant. He saw that, this lover, who, from his many years of seniority, and the exper

r luckless best to make as fine as possible, her tall, slender figure, harmonious movements and tones, being only more noticeable by the presence of that stout, gaudily-dressed, and loud- speaking woman, most people would have sai

paper to Christian, enclosed it in an

all your many kindnesses?" said he, with that manner, innately a gentleman's

rds; and he never could quite overcome the awe with which, as an Avonsbridg

, fell thicker and thicker, so that the hazy light

, pausing in her assiduous administration of cake and wine. "That

send them without fail,"

hich was to take them across country to a quiet railway station, alrea

e, who had been sitting beside her on the sofa, pas

tural tone that had been heard in her voice

nkful that when she married James Ferguson he was a bachelor, with not a soul belonging to him except an old aunt. She wouldn't like to be in poor Mrs. Grey's shoes-"dear me, no!"-with those two old ladies who have lived at the Lodge ever since the first Mrs. Grey died. She wondered

eek it-perhaps she dared not. Anyhow, during the month that had been occupied with her marriage preparations, she had scarcely been ten minutes alone, not even at night, for two children

hrough them in a sort of dream, almost without recognizing her own identity. Women, more than men, are subject to this strange, somnambulistic

oing until, suddenly, she caught sight of her wedding-ring. She regarded it with something very like affright; tried convulsively to

o good-every body says so-an

bit which, like all solitarily reared and dreamy persons, Christian had had all her life-her y

! If what is left to me is o

d more than once, and then she stoo

ey on every day of his brief "courting" days. It never altered, though he entered in a character not the pleasa

f the children are their own. They are given to hiding a great deal, but the father in them can not be hid. Why should it? Every man who has anything really manly in his nature knows well

isited a good deal, while he was deeply absorbed in his studies. And when, after a good many childless years, she brought him a girl and boy, he became excessively fond of his children. Whether this implied that he had been disappointed in his wife, nobody could tell. He certainly did not publish his w

from a man to his future wife; so much so that she had hardly missed, what, indeed, in her simplicity she hardly expected, the attention usually paid to an affianced bride from the relatives of her intended. Dr. Grey had only two, his own sister and his late wife's. These ladies, Miss Gascoigne and Miss Grey, had neither called upon nor taken the least notice of Miss Oakley. But Miss Oakley-if she thought about the matter at all- ascribed it to a fact well recognized in Avonsbridge, as in most University towns, that one mig

n crave and yearn for, with a longing that women alone can understand; a child who, beautiful as most childhood is, had a beauty you rarely see- bright, frank, merry, bold; half a Bacchus and

fat fingers and shaking his curls

who's

been put by anyone a m

r, but avoided it, tak

idding them, in a rathe

s l

the two elder ob

I don't like to be

a of our own, we were not to kiss an

ian said calmly, "Very well, then shake hand

d girl stood opposite her, holding fast by one another, and staring with all their eyes; but they said nothing more, being appare

en you'r

you'

door af

ll never

n, they gravely took their places o

ion. Of course not, because each separate case should decide itself. The only universal rule or law, if there be one, is that which applies equally to the love before marriage; that as to a complete, mutual first love, any after love is neither likely, necessary, nor desir

not only to understand this, but previously taught; as most people are so fatally ready to teach

e do, even had she recognized and felt

usly wish to be. There came to her no sting of regret, scarcely unnatural, to watch another woman's children already taking the first and best of that fatherly love which it would be such exquisite joy to see lavished upon her own. Alas! poor Christian! all thes

ort of way, but still holding out her arms. In her face and manner was that inexplicable motherliness which some

worse than orphan, and then the real orphan, without a friend or relative in the world, felt a child clinging round her neck-a child toward whom, by the laws of God and man, she was bound to fulfill all the duties of a mother-duties which, from th

ded from brow to crown-"my curl"-for Oliver immediately and proudly pointed it

en knows! But he kept them between himself and Heaven, as he did all things that were incommunicable and in

first, that you would be a

rs in her eyes, but with a gr

ill

ife, needed pardon, surely it might be won for the earnest sincerity

ot come in." Still, having expected nothing, the young step-mother was not disappointed. And when the three left, Oliver having held up his rosy mouth voluntarily for "a good large kiss," the sweetness of the caress lingered on her mouth like a chrism of consecration, sanctifying her for these new duties which see

and offered no confidences, the good lady was, to say the least, surprised. "But," as she afterward confessed to at least two dozen of her most intimate friends, "there always was somethin

instead of your own, which you have had a year and a half. Ah!" si

the last struggle of that fierce, poverty-nurtured independence, which nothing short of perfect love could have extinguished into happy humility, and she had held to her point resolute and hard; so m

ave taken her-that is, we have taken one another 'for better, for

sed him, gave her hus

es not understand, or e

, Dr. Grey's eyes rested on it lik

his hand, an attitude which was one of his peculiarities; for he had many, which

o fellow, from thence to tutor, and so on to the early dignity of mastership, the most extraordinary faculty of making people do whatsoever he liked--ay, and enjoy the doing of it. Friends, acquaintances, undergraduates, even down to children an

upposed him able to read them all. How far this was a popular superstition, and to what length his learning went, it is impossible to say. But nobody ever came quite to the end of it. He was a silent, modest man, who never spoke much of what he knew, or of himself in any wise. His strongest outward characteristic was quietness, both of manner, speech, motions, springing, it appeared, out of a corresponding quietness of soul. Whether it had

whom undoubtedly he had married for love-pure love- the only reason for which anyone, man or woman, old or young, ought to dare to marry. That he could feel as very few have the power to feel, no one who was any judge of physiognomy could doubt for a moment; yet he sat perfectly quiet-the

istian

large, somewhat bare room, in which not a thing was her own, either to miss or leave behind. For, in truth, she had nothing of her own; the small personalities which she had contrived to drag about with her from lodging to lodging having all gone to pay debts, which she had insisted -and Dr. Grey agreed-ought to be paid before

e needed for her fortnight's marriage tour. Her traveling dress lay on the bed-a plain dark silk-her only silk gown except the marriage one. She let Mrs. F

at direct to the

looked u

know-that it may be ready f

heart of any bride. Alas! this bride heard it quite unhee

istian, as it is with all womanly women, though how this poor motherless girl had ever learned womanliness at all was a marvel. She answered

it were my own wedding day, or Isabella's, or Sarah Jane's. And when they do come to be married, poor lambs! I hope it will be as

orth something-clasped the orphan-bride to her broad

and returned the kiss gently,

every thing is right; and I'll get my warm tartan shawl for you to trave

es

ear-crossed her face. She stood motionless, as if trying to collect herself, and then, with her hands all s

ht. I ought to have done i

o what-or

not a flickering fragment should be left unconsumed, were four letters-only four-written on dainty pap

nobody to believe in-except him. He is very good, and

e, as if compelling herself to

hat the last thing before she went on a journey she always opened her Bible; read a verse or two, and knelt down, if only to say, "God, take care of me, and bring me safe back again;" petitions that in many a wretched compelled wandering were not so uncalled for as some might suppose. Before this momentous journey she did the

her and his mother, and be joined unto hi

omprehend the full force of that awful uni

tried the door

y dear. You must not ke

free creature suddenly caught, tied, and bound. "Wh

was t

cred. What agonies such women must have endured, if they had any spark of feminine feeling left alive, they themselves know; and what Christian, far more guiltless than they, also endured during the three minutes that she kept Mrs. Ferguson waiting at the locke

und, gave a little present to Isabella, who had been her only bridesmaid, shook hands and said a word or two of thanks to honest James Fer

anished; her regrets become a crime. The responsibility of being no longer her own, but another's-bound fixedly and irrevocably by the mo

rriage, to run wildly anywhere-to the world's en

you are! Let me mak

She took no notice, submitted passively, and neither spoke a word more till they had driven on for two or thre

iserable, momentous weeks. She had never seen the place since, but now she recognized it-every tree, every

is not our right road

tonight; so I thought we would post across country to E____," naming a quiet cath

ye

tisfied? We could

, you

h

especially the love which, coming late in life, had a calmness and unselfishness which youthful love rarely possesses. The sort of love which, as he had once quoted to her out of an American book, could feel, deeply and solemnly, "that if a man really loves a woman, he would not marry her f

's husband, as he watched her, still silently, for another mile, till the early winter sun-set,

sed her eyes again in a pass

m, and then a light, better and holier than love, or rather the essence of all

but I shall take care

of his life, such as never, in her poor, forlorn life, had any one shown to Christian Oakley. It took away all her doubts, all her fears. For the moment she forgot she was

the world but you.

said Arn