Family Pride; Or, Purified by SufferingHolmes, Mary Jane
General
Family Pride; Or, Purified by Suffering
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction; Dime novels
Never had Katy felt so embarrassed in her life as she did this night,
when seated for the first time at dinner in her husband's home, with all
those criticising eyes upon her, as she knew they were. She had been
very hungry, but her appetite was gone, and she almost loathed the rich
food offered her, feeling so glad when the dinner was ended, and Wilford
asked if she would go then to Jamie's room. He was sitting in his
wheel-chair when they went in, and his eyes turned eagerly toward them,
lighting up with pleasure when Wilford said: "This is your Aunt Katy.
You will love each other, I am sure."
That they would love each other was very apparent from the kisses Katy
pressed upon his lips, and the way in which his arms clung around her
neck as he said: "I am glad you have come, Aunt Katy, and you will tell
me of the good doctor. He is your cousin, Uncle Wilford says."
With Jamie Katy was perfectly at her ease. There was some affinity
between him and herself, and she was glad when Wilford left them alone,
as he wisely did, going back to where his mother and sisters were freely
discussing his bride, his mother calling her a mere child, who would
improve, and Juno saying she had neither manner nor style, while Bell
offered no opinion, except that she was pretty. A part of these
criticisms Wilford heard, and they made his blood tingle, for he had
great faith in their opinions, even though he sometimes savagely
combated them, and into his heart there crept a slight feeling of
dissatisfaction toward Katy, now kneeling on the floor by Jamie's side,
and with her head almost in his lap, talking to him of Morris Grant,
whose very name had a strange power to soothe her.
"You don't seem like an aunt," Jamie said at last, smoothing her short
hair; "you look so like a girl. I wonder, must I call you so? I guess
I must, though, for Uncle Will told me to, and we all mind him, grandma
and all! Do you?" and the child looked curiously at her.
Had Jamie's question been put to her two weeks ago, she would have
hesitated in her answer, and even now she had not waked to the fact that
in all essential points her husband's wish was the law she could not
help obey, but she replied, laughingly: "Yes, I mind him," while Jamie
continued: "I love him so much, and he loves us and you. I heard him
tell grandma so, and by his voice I knew he was in earnest. He never
loved any one half so well before, he said, not even--somebody--I forget
who--a funny name it was."
Katy felt almost as if she were doing wrong, but remembering what Juno
had said of Sybil Grey, she faintly asked:
"Was Sybil the name?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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