Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/540

506 would be at the meeting in the Town Hall. Orrin promised to meet him there. He can't bear for me to be alone, so he offered to leave me to a comfortable dish of gossip with you while he looked after the public welfare. Of course it is very gratifying to have one's husband so popular, but I often tell Orrin that I don't see half as much of him as I ought. It is a consolation to know that he regrets this quite as much as I do. What are you so busy about?"

Jessie's work-basket was heaped with calico and flannel.

"Making clothes for some poor children," she answered. "If you will excuse me, I will go on with my work."

"Certainly! I shall be more at my ease if you do not seem to mind my being here. You are the most industrious woman I know. And I haven't a thing to do from morning until night! True our house is large—ridiculously large—as I told papa when he bought it. And as Orrin is fond of style we keep up a preposterous establishment, when one considers the size of our family. 'Four servants to wait upon two people, my love!' I said to Orrin this very evening. 'It is absurd!' But he insists that I shall be relieved from all drudgery, knowing how delicately I have been reared. In consequence, I am actually puzzled how to employ myself at the hours when there are no visitors. Your protegés are some of your Beechdale parishioners, I suppose?"

"No. The few poor there are so well cared for by their neighbors as not to require my help. This is work allotted me by the managers of the Hamilton Charitable Society. There is much suffering here this winter."

"Ah!" indifferently. "The weather is severe—isn't it? But the skating and sleighing are superb! I was on the ice several times last week with Orrin. He is such a splendid skater. I am proud to be seen with him. I suppose you have heard how much attention we attract whenever we appear. And while I think of it, do let me call by for you to-morrow in the sleigh! Orrin and I have talked of it, scores of times—but to confess the truth, we are just a trifle selfish. We so enjoy riding together that we neglect our friends. Before I married Orrin, some officious acquaintances advised me not to expect much attention from him after the wedding, 'because he was such a ladies' man.' Such were notoriously indifferent to their wives' comfort, I was told. I turned a deaf ear to their croakings, and obeyed the dictates of my own heart. Now, I am reaping the reward of my wise action. It may sound boastful in me to say it, but I don't believe Orrin has his equal as a husband in the universe. His devotion to me is marvellous. I understand we have the reputation of being the most love-sick couple in town, but I don't care! Let those laugh that win—and I have won! The women try to ridicule us because they are envious. It is not for me to say why the young men do!" with a conscious giggle. "The worst they can say is that we are more in love with one another now than we were before our marriage. It is true, and we glory in it. My only fear is lest my darling husband should become too domestic in his perfect content with his wife and his home. I often force him to go abroad with and without me to correct this tendency."

Jessie stitched on diligently, with a half-smile the visitor mistook for pleased interest in her theme, when it was, in reality, made up of amusement and contempt. Through Mrs. Baxter Mrs. Fordham had learned that the exactions, caresses and braggadocio of Orrin's bride made him the laughing-stock of his associates. Her fortune was settled upon herself in such a manner as to put it beyond his management, and his graceful insouciance had occasionally proved insufficient to cover his chagrin at her unsparing use of the power this