Rebecca; or, A woman's secret

Preface

It is not strictly as a work of art that this hook appeals to public favor and criticism. It has not been written for immortality, but to serve, if it may, a single purpose to the present day and generation.

It has seemed to the writer that the ideas of the relative positions of the sexes, the status and work of woman, and the nature and office of love, require a new setting forth at the hands of this generation. The old method of expressing these things, and the old faith concerning them, were wise and good in the olden time; but now, as in the days of Christ, new bottles must be fashioned for the new wine of advancing civilization.

In attempting to contribute her mite to this yawning treasury, the writer has not been in the mood, indeed she is not sufficiently learned, to touch statistics, but has been content to leave them to the handling of those exact minds who are already working with so much effectiveness among them. Neither could she always, from the nature of the work, cite authorities nor answer objections. Many themes have been simply touched, which would require volumes for their elaboration; and many weighty arguments have been omitted, because they did not come within the scope of the work, or would have clogged too much the flow of the narrative. What the writer has mainly aimed to do, has been to get at a few underlying principles as old as the hills and place them in, possibly, a new light before the reader.

Concerning anything in the subject matter of this book which may seem unusual, the writer can only say, that throughout her whole work she has labored under an imposition of conscience, and

“When God commands to take the trumpet.

And blow a dolorous or a thrilling blast,

It rests not with man’s will what he shall say.

Or what he shall conceal.”

Chicago, October, 1877.

C. F. C.

“Force rules the world still;

Has ruled it; shall rule it.

Meekness is weakness ;

Strength is triumphant;

Over the whole earth Still it is Thor’s day.”

Longfellow.

Ere long a fairer morn shall rise,

With purer air and brighter skies, When Force shall lay his scepter down. And Strength shall abdicate his crown, And Love incarnate sway the race.

With wisest power and tenderest grace.

Contents

PAGE.

A Bachelor and aBaby- - - - - 11

Business versus Love Making 57

Chapter II. The Lion And The Mouse

Moses Moss was the cobbler of Wyndnam. His little brown cottage, standing apart from the town, in the corner of a pasture, with only an ancient chestnut on one side, and an elm in the front of it, and a tiny thread of a brook winding through its alders just below, to give it a picturesque look, had not at all the air of being of importance in any story. But on this particular morning, of which we write, the situation within its four rude walls was highly dramatic.

Moses himself was at his wits’ ends. In fact, though he was what is called a good natured man, it was a short road to the end of his wits. The truth was, his wife, decidedly the better half of him, was sick in her bed, for the eleventh time, of that same illness. There was no warm, soft morsel of pink humanity wrapped up in flannels this time. Poor broken-down nature had failed in the last crowning essential of life-giving. They had borne out the little, still, cold body, the semblance of a living baby, and consigned it to the care of mother nature, who has uses for all such things, and never scorns the humblest gift.

In the little bed-room, which opened off the living room, kitchen, dining-room, nursery, all in one, — parlor there was none— lay Rachel Moss, groaning with pain, the consequence of nature’s efforts to restore her poor worn-out, shattered frame, drained of all its best forces by this constant creating and equipping of new lives, to something like

REBECCA; OR A WOMANS SECRET.

working order. The noise from the kitchen distracted her ; the cry of her year-old baby, who fretted with his coming teeth, tore her heart with nervous sympathy and yearning ; and the impatient fretting and scolding of her husband, who was trying to keep the children in order, and get them dressed, and at the same time prepare their scanty breakfast, added the last note to the screeching discord which assailed her.

4* I say, Rachel,” he said, appearing at the door, “can’t you call some of the children in there. They’re all right ’round under foot, and a-yellin’ and a-screamin’ so’t I can’t hear myself think. I do wish you would hurry and get well, or I shall go crazy.”

With that the mother raised her feeble voice : “ Sallie, bring the baby here, and put him in my bed. Now bring the comb, and comb your hair. Poor baby, mamma’s sorry for him.”

Moses had still as much as he could deal with outside. He was a short, round-favored man, with a red face, which hinted of whisky, a muddy blue eye, but, on the whole an expression of that kind of good nature which comes, from a lymphatic temperament, and a want of those keen, nervous forces, which, if they make a man irritable, also make him capable. Just now, however, whatever there was in him of resistance was roused to its utmost. The brood around him was very numerous and very insubordinate. There was first, Theodore, a boy of fourteen. After him, Jane, and then some six or eight, — it is immaterial,— crude youngsters, some inheriting the paternal obesity, some the maternal angularity, and rejoicing, it seemed to an uninitiated observer, quite indiscriminately in the names of Sallie, Tommy, Teddy, Belindy, and the like. Then there was Theodore’s dog, Badger, an illlooking cur of some mongrel breed, and chiefly remarkable

THE LION AND THE MOUSE.

for its ugliness, both physical and moral ; and at last a great gray cat, wonderfully sleek and well-conditioned, considering that it stood at the tail of so long a line of mouths. The truth was, that Diana, or Di-a-ny, as the family orthoepy went, was a mighty huntress, and so had resources of her own. In fact, she owed her name to this accomplishment, and the inkling of mythological lore, which Mrs. Moss had contrived to pick up in her somewhat heterogeneous reading. These all, it seemed this morning to Moses, were separate sources of anarchy and misrule.

“Children,” broke out the distracted paterfamilias at length, “if you don’t stop this racket, this infernal hullabelloo, I’ll horsewhip every one of you.”

“Specially Theodore,” added the five-year-old Belinda, gravely; and the specialty was well • taken, for that hopeful youth had harnessed the cat and dog together with hemp twine, to the infinite harassment of those two sworn foes, who were manifesting the same by sundry edifying yelps and growls.

“Theodore, get out of this house and take that dog with you,” roared Moses. “Now, Jane, take up the potatoes, and we’ll try to get some breakfast.”

“Pa,” said Belinda, “Theodore’s going to set Badg on to that woman. Don’t let him. May be she’s coming to bring us something good.”

Moses rose from the seat at table where he had just bestowed himself, with a groan. Ordinarily he would have paid little attention to any freak of Theodore, but this morning he felt that if any woman was approaching his door, it was for his best interest to conciliate her. A woman, somehow, just then seemed to Moses a most desirable thing. He rushed out-of-doors hatless, expecting to see some woman of the village bringing, perhaps, a bowl of gruel to Mrs. Moss. He was too much excited to discriminate, and seizing a stick of wood, with which, used as a missile, to persuade Badg into a retreat, exclaimed to Theodore:

“Go into the house, you villain. I’ll teach you to insult a woman.”

UI wish you’d just make up your mind where you want me,” said Theodore, with a provoking semblance of humility. “ ’Tain’t three minutes since you sent me out doors. Guess I’ll go in and get my breakfast while the fit is on ye.”

Moses had discovered by this time that the female in question was a stranger to him. She was young, at least not thirty, it seemed to him, with a pale, and rather pretty face, that yet had a look of sorrow in it, which even Moses’ blunt perceptions could not fail to notice. She wore a plain gray dress, and her whole appearance was neat and lady-like. She stood just outside the gate, having wisely kept that defense between her and Badg’s teeth.

“Morning, ma’am,” said Moses, with as bland an air as he could assume at a moment’s notice — “was you a-coming in?”

“I wished to stop,” she said, uneasily, yet with a voice that must ordinarily be a very cheerful and pleasant one, “to inquire if you knew of any one who needed help. 1 want to get a situation as — as — a servant.”

“Want to hire out, do you?” said Moses, easily putting her application into the vernacular of the district.

“Yes, sir, that’s it.”

Moses was about to answer in the negative, when a bold thought struck him. He had never in all his married life hired a day’s work done in the house, but never before, it seemed to him, had things come to just such a desperate

THE LION AND THE MOUSE.

pass as on this morning. If this woman’s services could be obtained, he felt justified in employing her; whether or not she was ever paid, was her own lookout.

“What wages do you ask?” inquired Moses, putting on as shrewd a look as he was capable of.

“I’m not very particular about wages at present,” she said. “I want to find a home; and when I have shown what I can do, it will be time enough to decide about wages.”

“That’s sensible,” said Moses. “ ’Tain’t everybody that feels so, though. But you don’t look as if you knew much about housework.”

The woman waived the question. “Were you wishing to hire?” she asked.

“Well, yes,” said Moses, rather sheepishly, “I was thinkin’ of it. Ye see, my old woman’s sick — that is, she’s laid up, and what with the children and all, I ain’t getting on very well. I don’t know as I can promise very big pay, but if you’re a mind to come in and take hold, ye can have your vittles, leastwise for a day or two. After that ye can look around and do better, may be.”

The woman looked at the house. It was very humble, but after all had not the squalid look she might have expected from its owner’s appearance. After a moment’s reflection, she replied:

“I think I will stop, thank you; if your wife is sick, I may at least be able to do her some good.”

Moses opened the gate with the look of a man who has driven a shrewd bargain, and is well pleased with himself therefor, and escorted his help into the house.

“You can sit down, Miss . I didn’t ask your

name.”

“Rebecca March,” she replied, after a moment’s hesitation.

REBECCA; OR A WOMAN’S SECRET.

“Very well, Miss March, we were just having breakfast, as you see, and if you’ll take off your things you may as well sit up to the table with us.”

“Thank you,” said Rebecca, “I’ve breakfasted already. Perhaps while you are eating I’d better go and sit with the sick lady.”

“Very well,” said Moses, looking pleased, “I’ll show you in there.”

As they entered the bed room, Moses addressed his wife:

“Mother, this is Miss March. She wants to hire out and ain’t particular about wages, and I thought I’d have her stay here a day or two, till we get a little to rights again. My name’s Moses Moss,” to Miss Rebecca, “and this is Mrs. Moss.”

The introduction thus successfully accomplished, Moses withdrew, leaving the two women together.

“I’m glad to see you, Pm sure,” said Mrs. Moss, faintly. “I’m afraid you won’t want to stay long, though.”

The stranger, with quick, silent, womanly intuitions, was taking in the whole significance of the scene. The poor, meager furniture of the room, the pale, sick face, with its hollow eyes, the matted, yellow hair, the hard struggle for neatness and self-respect, against weakness and poverty, and that horde of active, healthy, untrained children. The hopeless sorrow and dejection of her face seemed softened by a shade. Here, at least, she could be useful, could win back confidence in herself and her ability to struggle with the hard problems of her life. The energy, and cheerfulness, and vivacity of her nature, which some great storm of sorrow would seem to have over-swept and paralyzed, began to tremble again into conscious life and action.

“You’ve been having a hard time,” she said to Mrs. Moss, after the latter had given her a little account of her

TUE LION AND THE MOUSE.

illness. “But you must give up all care now, and we’ll keep you as still as possible, and in a few days I think you’ll be better.”

Then she went quietly to work to comb out the long^ yellow hair, and put it up comfortably under the cap. She bade the sufferer be quite still, while she gently washed her face and hands with tepid water. She smoothed the pillows and straightened the bed-clothes, and, asking a few words of direction, went out into the kitchen and made a bowl of very palatable gruel. Thus rested and refreshed, Mrs. Moss declared herself able to get a little sleep, if left alone. Therefore, breakfast being over by this time, Rebecca went out and closed the door, and began upon her day’s work in the kitchen.

It seemed at first an almost hopeless task to bring order out of the confusion and anarchy which Moses’ short reign had introduced. But that dignitary, glad to resign his scepter into hands apparently so worthy, took himself off to the village tavern, and left a clear field for his successor. He couldn’t have done her a. greater favor.

The first thing necessary was to organize her forces. Jane was set to washing dishes ; Theodore was cajoled, by the promise of sweet cake for dinner, into sawing wood with which to cook it. The baby was fed and put to sleep, and the remainder of the urchins delighted with the task of finding out how many noses there were in the illustrations of an old copy of Fox’s Book of Martyrs, which Rebecca had found upon the shelf. It was a new idea, and took amazingly.

With her forces so disposed, the new housemaid set about a rigorous process of sweeping, and dusting, and scouring, until, by ten oclock, the little room was made so neat and cheerful that one would scarcely have recognized it for the same disorderly, dirty place she had entered in

REBECCA*, OR A WOMAN’S SECRET.

the morning. The coarse rag carpet was so cleanly and thoroughly swept, that it seemed to have been dipped in new dyes, so clear and bright its colors shone. The paper curtains at the windows were rolled up evenly, and let in the bright spring sunshine over the floor ; the table and chairs were all in their places ; the few books upon the clock-shelf were well dusted, and arranged in proper order. Robinson Crusoe, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim, and Thaddeus of Warsaw, Don Quixote, and the Scottish Chiefs, making a very goodly assemblage, with coats so little torn, and faded, and soiled, as to testify to the care which somebody had exercised over them during the boisterous infancy of all these children. Whatever else went to destruction in that house, books were always held sacred by Mrs. Moss.

Rebecca’s face looked really cheerful, the children were good-natured, and even old Diana, coming in from her morning hunt, and finding that Badg had been put out of doors, with the bribe of a great marrow-bone, which would keep him busy for an hour at least, lay down by the fire, and, after licking herself into becoming neatness, curled herself up for a nap.

Just then there was a cry from the commentators on the martyrs, who were clustered about a window.

u Here comes the doctor ! Here comes the doctor !”

Rebecca, who was moulding a batch of bread at the kitchen table, stopped for a moment, and turned very pale. Then she went on with an effort at composure, just lifting her eyes to glance out at the shabby old chaise and sturdy white horse which had stopped at the gate, and from which Dr. Gaines alighted.

The doctor opened the door without ceremony, and walked in. He didn’t speak at first, running his eye critically over the details of the room.

THE LION AND THE MOUSE.

“H’m ! H’m!” to himself. Then, with a civil bow to Rebecca, “Good morning, ma’am.”

“ Good morning,” she replied, commencing to work her hands out of the dough, for the purpose of attending to him.

“Oh ! don’t hurry,” said the doctor, “don’t hurry. I’m — going — to warm — my hands. Moses isn’t at home, it seems.”

“ No, sir. He went out after breakfast.”

“ You’re some relation of his, I take it ?”

“No, sir.”

“ H’m ! You go out nursing ?”

She hesitated a little and colored. “Not exactly ; I happened in here, and seeing how much help was needed, concluded to remain a day or two.”

“H’m ! What — is — your name ?” squarely, as if it had been a judicial duty to ask it.

“Rebecca March, sir.”

“You don’t live around here, I reckon ?”

“ No, sir.”

The investigation was getting painful to Rebecca. The doctor saw it, and calculated on the sooner getting at what he wanted to know.

“Have lived in the city, I judge ?”

“ I don’t know why you judge so,” she said, with the sweet severity impossible except to a woman, “unless because my manners are different from those of country people.”

By this time she had her hands clear of the dough, and went into Mrs. Moss’ room, leaving the doctor to meditate.

If Miss March desired ever to be on good terms with the doctor, she had greatly imperiled her cause, for his self-love was very tender, and his memory very long. In one way only could she hope to make him forget the affront she had offered him. To solid, substantial worth he was never contumacious.

eebecca; or a woman’s secjret.

Rebecca found Mrs. Moss awake and smiling ; evidently she had heard the conversation.

I’m glad you said it,” she exclaimed ; 44 the doctor is so meddlesome. But then, he’s a good man, and a first rate doctor. Let him come right in.”

The doctor didn’t make a long call. The door into the kitchen was open, and he asked no more questions about Miss March. But he looked around the bedroom,, remarked its neatness, and the tidy appearance of the bed, and as he reached the door going out, having first satisfied himself that Rebecea was not within hearing, he said : “I don’t know who that woman is. It isn’t any matter. You’d better keep her a few days. Better — keep — her — a — few — days.”

But the doctor wasn’t balked yet. On his way home he met Moses, and drew his old gray horse to a deliberate halt.

44 That’s — a — pretty — good — looking — woman you’ve got at your house, Moses. Who is she ?”

44 Yes,” said Moses, who had evidently been comforting himself with a glass. 44 Yes, sir, pretty trim built. Wants to hire out. Do you know of anybody who wants help ?”

44 No, no,” said the doctor, pensively. 44 I don’t know of anybody who wants help. From the city ?”

44 1 reckon so, by the looks. Come along by my house this morning, and wanted to know if I knew anybody wanting to hire. Things wasn’t going just right— never do, you know, when the woman’s laid up— so I took her. Gruess she’ll do.”

“ Yes,” said the doctor, again with that pensive inflection. 41 She’ll — do. She’ll do. Gr long.”

woman’s wit.

CHAPTER III. woman’s wit.

Dr. Gaines felt an interest in this stranger. First, because she was a woman, and the doctor, though a bachelor, had a weakness for women. Second, because she was so pretty a woman, and so evidently out of place in Moses Moss’ cottage; and third, and not least, because the doctor had for years been the best informed man in the town concerning all its domestic history, and he didn’t like to leave such a neat little mystery as this unfathomed.

Intellectual philosophers assert that all objective knowledge is obtained in two ways, by observation and testimony. The latter resource having failed him, the doctor was thrown back upon observation. Therefore, when he called at the cottage next morning, he became more than usually social, and prolonged his call at least fifteen minutes beyond its usual limits.

But Rebecca had the advantage of him. She had been having a chat with Mrs. Moss concerning him, and was by this means well up in his peculiarities. It was strange how these two women seemed to take to each other. Mrs. Moss had had too much hard work to do all her life, and was, besides, for reasons which will develop themselves hereafter, too unsocial in her habits to be a gossip. Therefore, if she thought at all concerning the previous history of this stranger, she cherished no curiosity on the subject. She knew that Rebecca was refined and gentle

REBECCA; OR A WOMAN’S SECRET.

in her manners, to a degree which had never been possible to her. She read in her face the traces of deep sorrow, to which her tried, sympathetic heart responded fully; and she felt, moreover, the deepest gratitude for the gentle, womanly help she had received from her. In her eyes, Rebecca was a lady, an angel, a ministering spirit, and by all these claims possessed herself of the poor woman’s gratitude and admiration.

As for Rebecca, I think it was simply the feeling of community in sorrow which drew her toward Mrs. Moss. She had a deadly fear of being observed and questioned, and in truth it had not been boldness but sheer desperation, which had resolved her to rebuff the doctor as she had done. After he had gone the reaction had saddened her. Mrs. Moss had even detected tears in her eyes, and a dejection in her manner which the good woman felt determined to cheer.

“You mustn’t mind the doctor,” she had said. “He’s the oddest man living, but he’s very kind. What do you think he did the other day, when he was down to New York?”

Rebecca looked up with deep interest in her manner.

“Why, he found a poor little baby on the street, that its cruel mother had left, and he just took it home with him to adopt.”

“Hasn’t he children of his own?” asked Rebecca, in a ] ow tone.

“Bless yon, no. He ain’t married!”

“Who will take care of the baby then?”

“Oh! there’s women enough about the house. There’s his mother, old Mrs. Gaines, she’s just the finest woman in these parts. And then, there’s Joanna, that’s an old maid sister of the doctor’s. I wish you could see Miss Joanna, she’s such a sweet lady. She’s tall like the doctor, but not fleshy — woman’s wit.

quite thin and so pale. She lost her lover when she was a girl, and so has never married. The doctor has often said that Joanna ought to marry, just to have a baby. He says every woman needs the care and company of children to make them really women. I reckon he was thinking of Joanna, as much as anybody, when he took that baby.”

u And how was Miss Joanna pleased ?”

“Lucretia, that’s their hired girl, she’s been with ’em thirty years or more, said it was the queerest sight to see her. First, she seemed to be afraid to handle it, for fear ’twould break, and she was as bashful about it as a young girl ; but after a little she got used to it, and now she takes all manner of care of it. Day or night she won’t never let it out of her sight. She’s got a little crib for it, and it sleeps right in front of her bed, and there’s no end to the pretty clothes she’s making for it. Lucretia says it seems as if she’s grown ten years younger already. And there’s such a pretty color a-comin’ into her face.”

Rebecca’s face was very pale. She couldn’t speak, so she hushed the wailing, year old babe in her arms, and began to walk with it up and down the room, holding it so tightly, oh! so tightly, to her breast.

Mrs. Moss went on : “ The doctor is so fond of his mother and sister — he just thinks his two eyes of ’em. Never says much, but then he’s so careful of ’em. For that matter, Dr. Gaines knows the most about women of any man I ever saw. It seems to me, sometimes, that most men are born fools, or else stark, staring mad, about women. They’ll be sensible enough about everything else, but when they come to that one thing, they act just as if they hadn’t eyes in their head, nor understanding in their brains ; and they mean well enough, too, a good many times ; the Lord help ’em.”

This last exclamation was spoken in such an earnest, heartfelt way, that Rebecca, in spite of herself, was forced to smile.

11 J don’t know what it was,” continued Mrs. Moss, “that made the doctor so different from other men, ’less ’twas having such a mother. I tell you, to make a first-rate man you’ve got to give him a first-rate mother. Then, being a doctor, and setting so much by Joanna, that s been a help to him, till it just seems as if there wasn’t nothing about a woman that he didn’t know. He can just tell when they need medicine, and when they need kind o pityin , and when they need cheerin’ up with a bright word or a pleasant smile. ’Pears to me, if more men knew as much, there wouldn’t be so many miserable, broken-down women in the world. But, then, as I was saying, he’s dreadful inquisitive. I do think he got the habit prying into all the causes of his patient’s sickness ; for what makes folks sick ain’t often on the surface, to my way o’ thinkin’, and the doctor is awful inquisitive, but, then, he don’t mean no harm, and he don’t often say much. If I had a secret that I really wanted to keep, I should think a pretty good way to do it would be to tell it to the doctor, for then he’d stop prying ; and if you told him in confidence, two yoke of oxen couldn’t draw it out of him.”

If this had been said as a suggestion, it failed of its intended effect, for Rebecca only held the child closer to her bosom, and continued to walk up and down the room, her face retaining its fixed, steady look.

Yet, somehow, this long gossiping talk with Mrs. Moss had softened Rebecca’s heart toward the doctor. The look of sickening, deathly anxiety faded from her eyes, and if her nights were sometimes spent in weeping, she had yet courage and cheerfulness, during the day, to brighten up that somber home with the soft, spiritual woman’s wit.

illumination which only the presence of a gentle, loving woman can supply, and make the place seem nearer heaven to Moses Moss than any he could remember in the whole course of his life, unless, perhaps, the warmth and shelter of his mother’s bosom, or his own home during those first months or years before the gold of his married life had tarnished. For even Moses, bound thrall that he wa.s to his slavish, sensual appetites, could remember rare occasions on which he had turned his soul sunward and caught glimpses, through his dimmed and bleared vision, of a spiritual light and beauty, of which his ordinary life was very bare. These scanty flashes of illumination occurred while the priestess at his altar retained the spiritual strength and freshness of her youth, before years of ignorant and profane handling had converted her from a household divinity to a household drudge.

The days had grown to weeks ; Rachel was sitting up, and began to talk of taking hold of household tasks again.

“Do you keep still,” said Rebecca, quietly ; “I require no wages of you and the food I eat is no loss to the family, for you’d not be a bit more forehanded six months from now, if I were away. In fact, I rather think, by superior economy, I save you more than that amount. There may not come such a season of rest to you again for years. Therefore keep quiet. I’ll be answerable for Mr. Moss’ good behavior ; and do you give yourself time to get back a little of your wasted youth.”

The doctor, who still dropped in once or twice a week, confirmed this advice, talking over the matter in a quiet way, which brought out the fact that, though Rebecca had not lost sight of her original intention of going out to service, she was not in immediate or pressing need of doing so. The doctor had not forgotten to pursue his laudable researches, and while he sat gossiping in Mrs.