Christian's Mistake

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giveth in

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n four walls, and every fanciful grief and morbid imagining slips off, pressed down into not

low, and put your drawers in order, and do any other little helpful office which you may need; and you miss it painfully in the matron of sixty, who, with perhaps the kindest intentions, comes to nurse you, taking for granted that she is the

annoyed at, she came into the room continually. At last it became a question almost of life and death, for the fever ran high;

s in this matter quite paralyzed; that she could rely only upon herself, and act for herself, or else tell him what he was to do, and help him to do it, just like a child. She

msoever he would; then locked the door, and for eight days and nights su

peration, gave her courage; she was neither timid nor ignorant; she knew exactly what to do, and

, of which it was impossible to foresee the end. In its terrible suspense she forgot every thing except the present; day by day and hour by hour, as

w, when he lay on his sick-bed, lingering on from day to day, in total dependence on her care, with a heavy future before him, poor child!-for he seemed seriously injured- there ca

would start up from her uncomfortable sofa-bed, listening for the slightest sound; that the sight of Arthur eating his dinner (often prepared by her own hands, for the servants of the Lodge were strangely neglectful), or of Arthur trying to play a game of draug

in her eye and a firmness in her step very different from those of the weary-looking woman who used to roam listlessly

, "My dear, how well you look still? You are sure you are not breaking down?" And Christian, grateful for the only kindly wom

y of far less moment to her than her own offended dignity. Had he been left in her sole charge, she would doubtless have done her duty to him but to stand by and see another doing it? No! a thousand times

, if any human means could do it. And sometimes, when she saw the agony and anxiety in his father's face, Christian felt a wild joy in spending herself and being spent, even to the

e, took it with a wondering complacency, half funny, half pathetic. Sometimes he would say, looking at her wistfully, "Oh, it's so nice to be ill!" And once, the first time she untied his right arm, and allowed it to move freely, he s

always calle

ere not admitted to his room, and she herself rarely left it. Dim and far away seemed all the world, and especially

at care and incessant watching ("which it is plain he will have, Mrs. Gr

is, Christian felt as if th

familiar retreat at the window-oh, what that window could have revealed of t

ld glad tidings. She had to compel herself into sudden quietness, for her husband's sake, whic

with various other matter of fact things which she thought would soonest calm the father's emotion-"Christian, Dr. Ans

in the least understand, shot through Christian's h

, that you love him

ourse

ars, once unsealed, seemed painfully quick to rise-still she was contented and at rest. Worn and weary a little, now the suspense was over the

ark leaped homeward from a stormy sea, And

nvalescence should be celebrated by a grand festival, inviting the two others to tea in his room. It was her own room, from which he had never been moved since the first night. How familiar had grown the crimson

able before it. And we will send written invitations which papa shall deliver,

th; "then papa will have to invite himself, like the wic

e bit about, and I do, and ever so many more tales. She used to tell me them in the middle of the night, when I couldn't sleep, and

said D

rned Arthur, proudly. "She said she would,

d all efforts to soothe him into drowsiness, she had tried her voice, silent for many months-silent since before she had known Dr. Grey.

little surprised, and turning full upo

I was supposed to have a very fine voice. My father wished it cultiva

liked it?-the

stakable shudder. "I would have r

y you left o

. She could keep silence to any extent, but falsehood was impossible to her. She dropped her eyes;

r husband asked her no farther question, but immediately turned the conversation to Arthur's tea-party, in the discussion

hur, he again recurred to her singing, which had e

ty little twiddle-twiddles in it-far prettier than Aunt H

he had sung it-that is properly, to a piano-forte accompaniment, played by fingers that had afterward caught hold of h

er eyes si

s delici

er lips i

ing in he

of love, the idealization of fancy and feeling, with just a glimmer of real p

rather difficult besides, Pa

. Grey, smiling, "Why not do to please

, with all the ghosts of the past that hovered round it. And soon she found how, thus fa

ng shadows,

o their inf

ost slips to his

with a gush of melody that the old walls had not known for centuries, there came upon her an intoxication of enjoyment. It was that pure enjoyment which all true artists-be they singers, pai

singing. Her face brightened; her figure, as she stood leaning against the mantel-piece as

, Dr. Grey half sighed? Only for

our mother that she is the best sin

a bird in a tree. And, then, you

at once, and laughed heartily at t

ought had been brewing in his mind for many minutes, "is

h dignity. "But afterward Aunt Henrietta locks it up and takes the key.

n had only seen him look once or twice before, and thought that there might be circumsta

ow of this,

half entreating, round upon the children. "But we will not say

e will speak of

nor for several days and Christian f

nursery, no answer was ever returned-sometimes it had occurred to Christian-gentle as she was, and too fully engrossed to notice small things-that this was not exactly the position Dr. Grey's wife ought to hold in his-and her-own house. Still she said nothing. She trusted to time and patience. And she had such a dread of domestic war-of a family

er, which had seen, with much of anxiety, much also of love that never failed, and p

at being carried in Phillis's strong arms-which he had fiercely resisted at f

e. And shortly-nay, before Arthur was well settled on the sofa, and lay pale and s

e you been doing? B

d smiled at it with an almost childish delight, as if he ha

ing me! I never heard of such a thi

t to buy it; but, now it is bought, I ho

to bring a little brightness, a little kindness, into that worn, restless, unhappy face, true reflection of the n

f my own before. And I hope Miss Gascoign

oigne's. She spoke no more, but she resolutely turned her back upon the offending i

irst. After it, the boy wearily curled up on the sofa to sleep, and

to do whenever all your family happen to be met socially together, I have t

mitted, for what must be done had best be done quickly) that he and his bride should make their long-delayed

have got your piano just in time, and may practice all day long, to be ready for your performance. Of course you will be asked to perform, since every body knows about your father and his musical genius.

oo late. Even Christian-quiet as her temper was, and strong her resolution to keep

be now, I at least know his dignity and my own too well to submit to be spoken to, or spoken of, in this manner. It is not of the slightest moment to me who among your acquaintances criticises myself or m

y the sight of that white face, its every feature trembling with righteous indignation or, perhaps, some touch of nature in the hard

would be a sad thing, indeed, Maria, if your

n not you see that I am weak and worn out, longing for a little peace, and I can not get it? I never did you any harm-it is not my fault that you hate

een fast asleep on the sofa, or she might not have

ure to be. She said hastily, "There-there-we will say no mo

ntest- the only thing Aunt Maria ever had strength to do-she re

, and might have lived to be a comfort to one another. Yet, as it was, they

n had been goaded apparently cooled the family atmosphere for a few days. But she herself f

e all people who can only see things from the stand-point of their own individuality, was somewhat given to exaggeration-Chr

yet. It would take a whole year, Dr. Anstruther said, before the injury to the lung w

bonds that she never wished them broken. Every day she grew safer and happier and every day, as she looked on Dr. Grey's kind, good face, which