The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-04


dure. Upon this story does Mrs. Gas
kell's reputation as a writer rest, and
1t Is a foundation SO constructed of pure
and simple thought; of lessons of pa
thence and endurance and self-sacrifices
which surely find their rewards, even IN
this world; so free from word or line
that an author on his deathbed would
wish blotted out, that many more am
bilious writer. many a greater genius,
could well envy 1t. Amid the thtful
fever" which for SO many of us Is life,
amid the unrestfulness and the unfulflled
strivings Of most of what we call litera-
ture, Crawford" is like a quiet glade in
odorous woods in which to rest while
and take heart again.
NNE of the strictest rules of the
Spanish court decreed that, while
~ the Queen of Spain undoubtedly
had legs, the fact was never to be re-
ferred to under any circumstances what
ever Genteel society in Crawford had a
law no less Draconic. While poverty un-
doubtedly existed among its members TO
a degree which rendered it well-nigh uni
versal, to acknowledge it IN any manner,
much less to speak of 1t openly, as that
shameless Captain Brown did, was TO lose
caste as surely as could be.
Even the Honorable Mrs. Jameson, who
lived in a big house on the outskirts of
the village and kept three maids and a
butler, practiced her elegant little econ
omies," as the Crawford ladies were so
fond of calling them, and gave her guests
remarkably weak tea and miraculously
thin sandwiches.
Mrs Jameson was stout, indolent, not
very well bred or kind hearted. but she
belonged, somehow, to the peerage (Scots)
and dominated Crawford society, while
Mulliner, the butler, dominated the lndo-
lent Mrs. Jameson. But the Honorable
Mrs. Jamiesons leadership was merely
nominal after all; the real ruler was
Miss Jenkyns-Deborah Jenkyns-'the late
rector's daughter, my dear. and nearly
related to Sir Peter Arley Of Arley Hall.
Miss Jenkyns had a strong and deter
mined mind. worshipped at the shrine of
Dr. Johnson and wrote elegant eplstles
to her friends in Johnsonese. She had a
sister, Miss Matty, or Matilda, as Debo-
rah always insisted upon calling her,
though no one else did so, who deferred
to her in everything. That poor, faded
flower of gentility, Miss Matty had been
q blooming rose once, and there We're
legends of a love story lowering about
her; but oh, all so long ago, and many
years now laid away by the gentle heart
which had thrilled to it amid the Law
ender and rosemary which perfumed with
faint doors the memory of lost and
unfulflled youth
Next in Importance In Crawford was
Mrs Forester born a TyrreP and
daughter of one army officer and widow
of another So thoroughly had the ladies
of Crawford schooled themselves to aeon
plete ignoring of the fact that such a
thing as poverty could exist in genteel So
ciety that when Mrs. Forester gave
party and her little serving maid, taken
from the workhouse, disturbed the guests
seated on the sofa in order to get the tea
tray from under it, they never dropped
word in their conversation and acted as il
it were quite the usual and proper thing
for gentlefolk to keep their tea-trays IN
such places. Also Mrs. Forester always
exhibited a complete ignorance of what
the little maid had brought up when the
refreshments appeared, though her guests
knew, and she knew that they knew, and
they knew that she knew that they knew,
that Sn0 ldQ peel DIT "Olh oil liAo 4lAol
ing preparing the edibles.
Then there was Miss Pole, who provided
always the fullest of information at all
these little gatherings of the elect of
Crawford and was abashed of nobody I'M
less it was Miss Jenkyns. No one would
have ventured to dispute with Deborah.
There was also Mrs. Fitz Adam, wild
owed sister of Mr.. Hoggins, the village
doctor and apothecary. She was not quite
well, not qute-but she was admitted on
sufferance But as for Mr.. Hoggins, he
was out of society entirely.
How could a man be named Hoggins,"
said Miss Jenkyns. But then it would
not have made any difference if his name
had been Piggins." In fact, there were
no men in Crawford society. 1t was an
Adamless Eden inhabited by mature Ewes
--spinsters and widows-who agreed that
"a man was SO in the way in the house. :"
That is, there were no men in the gen.
teel circles until Captain Brown came
there. How he ever got into society was
a mystery, for it was resolved at a great
council of the ruling powers that he was
TO be excluded because of his vulgar re-
marx ABOUT poverty. OolLAo ouo id0 d5hSQ
him in the public street why he did not
take a certain house, and the Captain
had replied, quite out loud, in fact in a
resounding military voice: II can't af-
ford it. Too poor" The abandoned crea-
ture! But the Captain was retired army
Officer, and the first thing the ladies of
Crawford knew they were having him
into their houses to look at smoky CHM
neys and to advise them in many little
ways.
So it came about. nobody know just
how, that the Captain became a guest at
the little parties and made himself in
dispensable in waiting upon the ladies',
assisting to pass around the sponge cake
( and the attenuated sandwiches, even taxi
ing a hand in their innocent little card
games The Captains two motherless
daughters were admitted as a matter of
course. There was Miss Brown, chronic
invalid, slowly dying from an incurable
disease, and her younger sister, Jessie,
who had ringlets and dimples and was
wearing out her life by devotion to the
invalid.
Miss Jenkyns severely remarked that
for a person of Miss Jesse's age-she was
1ust past 3O-she considered dimples and
ringlets decidedly improper.
But that was after Miss Jenkyns and
Captain Brown had had their memorable
battle over the relative merits of a new