Pride and Prudence CHAPTER 5.
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After the sad, hopeless funeral of Mr. Ashton, his creditors proceeded at once to take possession of all his effects. His furniture was too costly not to be considered an object; and the principal part of this was placed under auction and sold. All that his family retained, was a few necessary articles of furniture, and the jewelry with which Mrs. Ashton had been so fond of decking her own person, and that of her daughter. The jewelry was probably worth one thousand dollars.
After almost every valuable article of furniture had been removed, the family shrank together in the only room that retained anything of its former beauty and elegance — the chamber of Mrs. Ashton, which had been spared the rude touch of the trustees to whom had been consigned the settlement of her husband's estate. Here, the mother and her two children sat hour after hour, in silent and gloomy despondency, unable to decide how to act, or which way to look.
George Ashton had no knowledge of business. Up to the hour of his father's death, he had been going to college, and had fostered in himself a proud and haughty spirit. Suddenly he found himself shorn of all his imaginary importance, and reduced to the condition of a helpless pauper. It was a terrible lesson, but one that it was far better for him to learn. His mother and sister were at once reduced to a condition worse than the poverty of the poor, for they had no means of helping themselves. He would gladly have done anything to keep them in a station such as they had been used to moving in, but that was impossible. What could he do? How could he even provide for them the necessities of life? The mechanic, the poor mechanic at whom he had so often sneered, was now a better man than he, for he could get food and clothing for his family. In view of the real condition of things, and his own utter helplessness — he felt himself for a time, almost driven to madness.
In his sister Jane, George Ashton found one with whom he could take counsel in this great extremity. But his mother's selfish distress utterly broke down his feelings, whenever any allusion was made to their destitute condition in her presence.
"We shall have to move from here in a week," he said to Jane, on the day after the removal of their furniture. "But where shall we go, and what shall we do?"
"Indeed, brother, I cannot tell," Jane said, despondingly. "If I could only get something to do, I would be willing to work night and day to support you all," said the young man, warmly. "But what can I do? Where shall I go to get employment? If I could only get into a store as clerk."
"As what?" asked the mother, coming in at the moment, and catching the last sentence.
"As clerk in some store," replied George. "As a servant, to sweep out, make fires, and run errands!" returned the mother, half sneeringly. "You cannot do a clerk's duties."
"But I am willing to try, mother."
"It's no use for you to try. I know about these things. A clerk must be raised to it, and that's what you have not been. And anyhow, I'm not going to consent for you to be put down at the desk as a base and miserable clerk!"
"I must do something," returned the young man, with some bitterness in his tone.
But George was optimistic that he could get a salary of at least a thousand dollars a year as a clerk.
"Suppose you did get a thousand dollars. We couldn't live on that," Mrs. Ashton said, fretfully.
"Not in our present style, mother," remarked Jane. "But with her four children, it doesn't cost aunt Este that much."
"Don't liken us to aunt Este, and her base-minded children!" quickly replied Mrs. Ashton, in an impatient tone.
"No — don't speak of them, if you please," responded George, also showing impatience, and a slight expression of disgust.
Just then, there was a gentle tap at the chamber door. Jane opened it, and Mrs. Este entered. George Ashton nodded coldly, and at once retired. He had been taught to foster, for years, a feeling of contempt towards his aunt as a base-minded woman. Adversity could not change his opinion of her. It seemed to him, that she must feel a triumph at their downfall, and he permitted himself to think that the frequent visits she now made, were to witness with a secret pleasure, their humiliation. The coldness and even disrespect with which George Ashton continued to treat Mrs. Este, was to her a cause of regret. She had no other feeling in regard to it.
After George had left the room, there was a long, and oppressive silence. Mrs. Ashton looked the picture of distress. Jane, however, tried to assume a cheerful air, and broke through the reserve, by asking her aunt about her children. A few words passed between them, and then Mrs. Este, turning to her sister said:
"When I saw you last, you expected to be compelled to move in a short time. Have you yet determined to go?"
"We must move from here in a week."
"True. Have you made up your mind where to go?"
"Where can we go? We have no furniture with which to fit up another house."
"But you have plenty to furnish a couple of neat rooms. One for yourself and Jane, and one for George."
"A couple of rooms!" ejaculated Mrs. Ashton, her face flushing with sudden indignation at the thought. "What do you mean by a couple of rooms?" And the lady drew herself up with offended dignity.
"Just what the words express," calmly returned Mrs. Este. "You have neither the means nor the furniture to live in any other way. Rent two neat rooms at a low price, in a retired part of the city, and there remove. George will no doubt get something to do. The amount of his earnings, with the little money you have, and what you may obtain by selling your own and Jane's jewelry, will keep you very comfortably, until George is able to command a good salary."
"Two rooms! Sell my jewelry! What does this foolish woman mean?"
"Mother! Dear mother! Don't talk so?" Jane said, in an earnest, deprecating voice, interrupting Mrs. Ashton. "It seems to me that aunt Mary is right!"
"Hush! will you? Your aunt Mary only wants to drag us down to her own base level," the proud mother retorted bitterly.
Mrs. Este rose slowly and retired, not, however, before Jane had looked her steadily in the face, with an expression that deeply touched the heart of her aunt. Mrs. Este could not help feeling hurt at the unkind and uncalled for remarks of her sister. And she was right in at once leaving her. To such a spirit, kind acts are no charity — and so Mrs. Este felt. But from her heart did she pity Jane, and for her sake, she forgave the insult which had been given.
"What did your sister want?" asked George of his mother, on entering her room an hour after. "What brings her here?"
"Who knows! Unless it is to insult us."
"No — no — indeed it is not that!" Jane broke in. "You wrong aunt Este — I know you do. She is incapable of offering us an insult."
"She has done it at least, incapable or not," Mrs. Ashton said, tightly compressing her lips.
"She has! What did she do, or say?" This was spoken by George, in a half-threatening tone.
"Why, she had the audacity to propose to us to move into two little rooms, and live like pigs in a sty, as she is living with her low minded cubs!"
"She did?"
"Yes she did!"
"And you insulted her on the spot, as I would have done?"
"She was out of the house in a minute!"
Jane felt how vain would be anything she could say, while her mother and brother were carried away by their ungenerous, angry feelings. She, therefore, kept silence, although every remark made about her aunt fell like a stroke upon her own heart.
As day after day passed by, in doubt, distress, and irresolution, both George and his mother felt more discouraged and disheartened. They did not know what to do, nor which way to turn. George had conquered his pride so far as to call upon one of his father's old mercantile friends, and ask his advice as to what he should do. He had been kindly received, but very little encouraged. The merchant told him that for the first year or two, a clerk received very little salary — sometimes not over a hundred dollars per annum. In fact, he said, there were a great many men who put their sons into stores without requiring any salary at all, considering the business knowledge they obtained as a full equivalent for their services.
"If nothing better should offer," the merchant said, at the conclusion of their interview, "I think I can get you a situation that will yield about three hundred dollars for the first year. After that, your salary will depend upon your actual value to the establishment."
George felt sick at heart as he left the store of the merchant, and turned his steps homeward. He found his mother greatly excited and distressed, at the gloomy state of affairs. One of the trustees, whose business it was to settle up the affairs of his father, had been there, and given peremptory notice that the house must be vacated within four days. This she related to her son, saying, in conclusion —
"But I'm not going to be turned out of doors in this way! They can't compel us to move, until it is convenient to do so. They've already taken away everything valuable. Let them see what more they can do!"
"We had better get away as quickly as possible," George returned, despondingly, "and into a smaller house. Into two rooms as Aunt Este advised."
The last sentence was uttered with sneering bitterness.
"Better live in two rooms," Jane said, calmly, "than be subject to demands for money that we cannot pay. We can shrink away from the eye of the world, and be happy among ourselves. I, for one, would gladly hide myself in any quiet spot, secure from all intrusion and prying curiosity. Into two rooms in fact, as our kind aunt has suggested."
George felt something like indignation rising in his heart, at the allusion. But the painful consciousness, forced upon him in spite of himself, that even to that base state, there was every prospect of falling, kept him silent.
Two days more passed, when Mrs. Este, whose kind heart really yearned towards her afflicted sister and children, again called in upon them. She was more kindly received, and her suggestion listened to with more patience and interest.
At last Mrs. Ashton left her splendid mansion, with her children, and retired to a small house, which she permitted her sister to procure for her, in the western extremity of the city. There she shrank away, neglected by all the mirthful folks who had once looked upon her as a center of attraction. To get the actual means of subsistence, there was no way but in the sale of their jewelry. And article after article of this was disposed of for them by Mrs. Este, as their needs required.
The pride of Mrs. Ashton's heart had only been wounded, not destroyed. The thought of selling anything she had, to buy bread, was humiliating enough — but she shrank from selling the articles herself. Mrs. Este had long before conquered her false pride, and she cheerfully performed for her sister, what she knew could not but be revolting to her feelings.
Time kept steadily on; weeks and months passed, and the humble resources of Mrs. Ashton gradually wasted away. George had, after many humiliating applications, finally accepted a situation in a store at three hundred dollars a year. All this, he brought home to his mother and sister, except the small sums it required to keep him in such clothing as it was necessary for him to appear in at his business. The angel-like attentions of his aunt, wrought upon his feelings, though he still maintained towards her the manner which theinjurer often does toward the injured. But even this was softening and wearing away. His heart always smote him after he had allowed her to go away, without any gentleness in his manner towards her.
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