Family Pride CHAPTER 5.
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Poor Watson was dreadfully shocked at the idea so suddenly suggested by his wife, and also greatly distressed at the evident imbecility which was again stealing upon her mind. Through the whole of that day, he looked in vain for some tidings of his child. But no word of her, reached his anxious ears. And day after day, and week after week passed, and yet nothing was heard of her.
From the morning on which his wife had started the idea that she had been stolen away, she evinced no hope. She soon fell into a state of musing melancholy, and evinced no interest in anything, not even in her husband. In this condition, she continued for many months. Gradually, however, she began to recover from this gloomy state, and to show some little care for her husband. But even in him, she became little interested. Two years passed away from the time the child had disappeared, and the mother was still moping, gloomy, and uninterested. From this state, she was aroused by the sudden and alarming illness of her husband. Ten days were enough to work destruction on his frame; at the end of that period he passed into the eternal world.
Every perception of her mind was now acutely sensitive. The tenderness and affection which had slumbered for two years, were all awakened; but alas! were active now, only to bring intense and abiding grief. The body of her husband was soon buried out of her sight, and she was left, in every sense of the word, alone. During the six years of her marriage, she had not paid a single visit, nor made a single acquaintance. And now, besides the family servant, there was not a familiar face for her, nor a familiar voice. The image of her lost child had never once faded from her mind, during all the months of her gloomy abstraction, and now its sweet face came up before her more vividly than ever, and her bosom yearned toward it with a more fond and maternal desire.
The new impulse which the character of her husband had received, had made him more earnestly bent upon accumulating property. His sudden death occurred, just as his prospects were rapidly opening. During six years he had saved something like two thousand dollars, and this was paid over into the hands of his widow by the executor. In a condition of aimless and gloomy isolation, never once venturing beyond the threshold of her dwelling, did Mrs. Watson live for the next four years, when she found the meanswhich had thus far supported her, just upon the eve of exhaustion. This aroused her from a state of lethargy, into one of anxious solicitude. What could she do? No single available resource did she possess within herself, and almost her last dollar was spent.
Finally, all her money was exhausted, and the stern necessity of her poor condition drove her into action. By the aid of her black hired servant, who had become attached to her, she procured the services of an auctioneer, who sold for her every piece of furniture that she could possibly spare. The proceeds of this sale was two hundred dollars. With her few remaining articles of furniture, she removed into one room, which she had rented in a house where her servant could have the use of the kitchen and garret.
It was about six months from this time, that she found herself reduced to extremity again, and with no further resource. Absolute starvation stared her in the face. A willingness to do something for a living arose in her mind, but she could think of nothing. In this state of acute distress of mind, after a long debate, she finally resolved to seek, humbly, in brokenness of spirit, a reconciliation with her parents, and to beg a home where she might find rest and protection, for the few brief years that she felt were to bring the hour of her release from temporal evil. Once resolved, she lost no time in putting her resolution into effect.
It was about ten o'clock in the morning, when she stood, for the first time in ten years, upon the door-stone of her father's house — that house from which she had been banished. The pulsations of her heart were quick and fluttering while she waited almost breathlessly, for an answer to the summons she had given. In a few moments the door was opened by a well-known servant, one who had grown old in the family.
"Miss Emily!" she exclaimed, startling and lifting her hands in astonishment, as the attenuated and trembling form of her young mistress stood before her.
Then turning suddenly, she ran upstairs, and bursting into the chamber where the mother of Emily was sitting, exclaimed, hurriedly,
"O, mam, Miss Emily is downstairs! I don't know what she wants, but she looks as white as a sheet, and trembles all over!"
"Tell her to go out of the house!" said Mrs. Thompson, rising up instantly, her face flushed with anger, and sudden alarm. Tell her to go away at once! She can't come here!"
"O mistress!" said the old servant in an appealing voice.
"Do you hear me, Nell?" she answered in an excited tone, stamping her foot upon the floor. "Obey me this instant!"
The servant descended the stairs, into the hall where Mrs. Watson was standing with an aching heart.
"Your mother will not see you, Miss Emily," she said to her in a mournful tone.
"But I must see her, Nelly! Tell her I must see her."
"Indeed, indeed, Miss Emily, it's no use; your mother won't see you. She is very angry."
"Is father home?" now asked Mrs. Watson.
"No, he has been out an hour."
"Then I'll wait here until he comes," she said, seating herself in the hall.
For nearly an hour did Mrs. Watson sit, trembling between hope and fear, and struggling against a depressing gloom, under which she seemed every moment about to sink. While seated there, a little girl, about nine years old, came dancing and singing along the passage. When she saw a stranger, she paused suddenly, and then with a child's curiosity, came slowly up to her, surveying her all the while, with a look of curious interest.
A strange and sudden thrill passed through the heart of Mrs. Watson, when she heard the voice of the little girl, and as she approached, her eyes were riveted upon her young and innocent face, with a look of intense and yearning interest. The child seemed slightly alarmed by the steady gaze that was fixed upon her, and, slowly retreating, she went upstairs, turning at every step to catch the earnest look of the stranger. Mrs. Watson felt an impulse to spring forward and follow the child, she scarcely knew why — when the front door was swung open and her father came in with his usual measured and heavy tread.
"O my father!" exclaimed the poor creature, suddenly springing to her feet, and standing before him with clasped hands.
"Away!" he said angrily, hurrying past her. "I have no child!"
"Father! father!" she cried after him, but he passed up the stairs at two or three strides, and disappeared from her sight.
In a few minutes, a strange man-servant came down, and told her she must leave the house. She went out of the door mechanically, and seated herself upon the marble steps. Here she had remained for nearly an hour, motionless, and almost in a state of unconsciousness, when an order was procured by the direction of her father, for her admission into theAlms-House, where she was removed, as the reader has seen.
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