Family Pride CHAPTER 3.
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Without waiting for medical attendance, or even for the usual temporary efforts to restore fainting people, General Thompson had his daughter removed at once to his carriage, and taken home. She showed no signs of returning consciousness for several hours afterward. When the vital energies of her body again revived, it was many days before her mind was restored to any degree of activity; and, even then, it was painfully apparent, that it was with enfeebled powers.
For months, General Thompson and his wife made use of every means they possessed to dispel from her mind, the gloom which pervaded it, and to rouse within her an activity that should restore the lost vigor of her intellect. To effect this, without exhibiting her sad condition in the circles where she had once been the center, they removed temporarily to Washington City during the winter. Here she was dragged into company, and stimulated with fashionable excitement. This, with time, gradually changed her settled indifference to almost everything. She began to be something like her former self while in company, and to find, in dissipation — false fires to animate her. But it could not be concealed from her parents, that the bright star of her once brilliant mind, no longer burned with a steady light. At times, clouds would come over and obscure its luster. There was in her eye, a constant unnatural wildness; and in her temper, an unsteadiness which could not be relied upon. A year or two, made no very great change in her. She still continued the victim of nervous excitement or depression.
Gradually her disappointed parents lost all interest in, or care for her. The obstinate disposition which she would at times exhibit, estranged them more and more, and when, finally, she married a poor man into whose company she had been thrown, while indulging an erratic propensity to visit at the houses of several neighbors of whom she knew nothing — they threw her off as an encumbrance. Her husband, whose greatest fault was idleness, had hoped to obtain money enough by her, to enable him to live without labor, and with this hope, he had persuaded her to marry him clandestinely.
He was, by trade, a carpenter. With manners somewhat polished and a soft and winning address, he had succeeded in influencing the weak-minded girl to accept him. His name was Watson. The change from a rich and spacious mansion, to a very small house, poorly furnished — added to a peremptory refusal of her parents to see her or tocommunicate with her — startled her to a sudden and distressing sense of the rashness of an act which could not be recalled. Nor was her husband at all disposed to believe, that, in gaining a wife, he had added very greatly to his stock of happiness, when he found that no money was to come with her, and that she possessed none of the qualities requisite for a poor man's companion. Let us look in upon them three weeks after their marriage.
The house they occupy, is a small two story house, without a passage. The parlor in front, has a neat, plain carpet on the floor, and contains; in the way of furniture, six windsor chairs, a table, a looking glass, and a pair of small andirons, enclosed on the hearth by a green wire fender. The back parlor is used as a sitting and eating room, and here we will find the unhappy couple. The tea things having been carried down into the basement kitchen, by a black girl, the servant, and in the middle of the floor stands a pine table, stained red. An old ingrain carpet covers the floor, and upon the mantelpiece are two high plated candle-sticks, in one of which burns a candle. A half dozen common chairs make up the completion of furniture.
Watson sits moodily by the table, upon which he rests his elbow and reclines his head upon his hands. His young wife, nearly in the same position, occupies a chair at the opposite side of the table. The eyes of both are averted from each other. The appearance of Mrs. Watson, shows that she has been weeping, and the distressed expression of her face, indicates, that the cause of her tears is still active within. A deep-drawn sigh, and a sob which seems to force itself up from her heart, in spite of strong efforts to keep it down, causes her husband to make an uneasy and irritable movement. In a minute or so, they are repeated, and Watson can no longer refrain from speaking.
"I declare, Emily, I am out of all patience with you! You've done nothing but sob and cry for a week. No mortal man can endure it!"
Hitherto, he had steadily endeavored to soothe her distress, but the small share of patience which he possessed, had become as he truly said, from large draughts, entirely exhausted. His words roused up the stricken spirit of his wife, and something of her former fires were kindled within. Lifting her head, she looked him steadily in the face, while her dark bright eye, assumed an expression of wild defiance.
"What do you mean, sir, by such language to me!" she said, indignantly. "Is this the pleasant home I was promised?" glancing her eye around the small room, and upon the poor and meager furniture, while her lip curled with a scornful expression. "You have deceived me in every way! And, now that I am cut off from my father's house, and all its comforts and elegancies — I am to be denied the poor privilege of weeping over my forlorn condition! Let me tell you at once, sir, that I never have allowed myself to be trifled with, and never will!"
"Well, never mind, Emily," he replied soothingly, for he was something of a quiet man, and had no wish to have his wife remain many minutes in the passionate mood to which she had been roused; "I spoke rather warmly. But indeed, I would feel much pleasanter, if I saw you more contented. Let us make the best of our condition, now. and, I doubt not, but that it will soon be bettered."
"And how are you going to better it, I would like to know? What more can you offer me, than this dog-house, and a prospect of starving on ten dollars a week?"
"Many better people than either you or I, let me tell you, madam, have lived in a house no larger than this, and on ten dollars a week too!" retorted Watson, a good deal irritated at her remark in reference to the provision he had made for her, and which, in his idea, was very comfortable and genteel.
The eye of his young wife seemed to flash, and her face grew dark from suffocating passion. Her lips parted in the effort to make some angry reply, when her shattered intellect yielded, temporarily, to the force of excitement, and she sank to the floor, sobbing and crying hysterically.
Watson's angry feelings were instantly changed to alarm, and lifting the body of his wife, he carried her up to their chamber, and, by endearing words, and gentle manners toward her, endeavored to soothe her agitation. After a long time she grew calmer, but took no notice of her husband. In vain did he speak of his love, and of his willingness to make any sacrifice that would promote her happiness. She turned her face away from him, and neither by word nor gesture, indicated that she even heard him.
It was two months from this time, before she again gave utterance to a word in his presence. Though her mind was somewhat impaired, yet neither her pride nor her passionswere in any degree weakened; and as they were no longer under the steady control of reason, their influence over her was of course, more potent. Neither the threats, norentreaties, nor neglect of her husband could move her. Sometimes for whole days together, she did not rise from her bed, and but rarely came downstairs.
But, gradually, she became weary of her own perverseness, and showed some little disposition to recede from her state of moody reserve. This, her husband quickly perceived, and, although his angry feelings and indignation had been roused so high as to cause him seriously to think about abandoning her, his relief at finding that there was a prospect of change for the better caused him to make use of every kind attention toward her in his power. This had a good effect, and she soon recovered, in some degree, a more cheerful temper; though still there was a shadow upon her feelings.
Unexpected by her husband, she began to busy herself about the house, and to take an apparent interest in the management of its internal and economical arrangements. He could not but exhibit the pleasure he felt at this change; and this manifested pleasure, gratified her, and caused her to increase in her domestic attentions, and to study in many ways to add to his comforts. Thus were they drawn to one another, and something like true affection kindled up in their bosoms. She seemed to forget the condition in life from which she had fallen. Her little world appeared circumscribed to the interior of her own dwelling, and beyond this she never appeared, even if her thoughts wandered away from its quiet confines. For a few times, her husband urged her to go out with him, but he soon ceased to do so, for he saw that she was always disturbed by such requests.
The wild turbulence of her temper did not again break out. There was a subdued and quiet air about her, that was ever sad, unless when her husband was present — and then there was a visible effort to appear cheerful and interested, for his sake. She was beginning to entertain for him a tender affection, and gradually her feelings became intensely interested in him. At the end of a year, a babe blessed their union. A new fibre of Emily's heart was touched, and a new emotion given. She was a mother!
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