Gray youth: The story of a very modern courtship and a very modern marriageOnions, Oliver
General
Gray youth: The story of a very modern courtship and a very modern marriage
Onions, Oliver
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- Social and moral questions -- Fiction
"I'm glad. I say I'm glad. I'm vurry glad. I rejoice. And I should like
to shake Mr. Stan by the hand. I should like to shake you by the hand
too, Mrs. Tasker." Then, when he had done so: "It's the Mother-Idee.
The same, old-fashioned Idee, like our own mothers. It makes one feel
good. Reverent. I got no use for a young man but what he shows lats
of reverence for his mother. The old Anglo-Saxon-Idee--reverence
for motherhood.... And when, if an old married man may ask the
question----?"
Dorothy laughed and blushed and told him. Mr. Miller, dropping his
voice yet another tone, told her in return that he knew of no holier
place on oith than the chamber in which the Anglo-Saxon-Idee of
veneration for motherhood was renewed and sustained. And then, after he
had said once more that he rejoiced, there fell a silence.
Dorothy liked Mr. Miller. Once you got over his remarkable aptitude
for sincerities he had an excellent heart. Nevertheless she could not
imagine why he had come. She shuddered as he seemed for a moment to be
once more on the point of removing his shoes at the door of the Mosque
of Motherhood, but apparently he thought better of it. Squaring his
shoulders again, and no doubt greatly fortified by his late exercise,
he said, "Well, I always feel more of a man after I felt the throb of a
fellow-creature's heart. That's so. And now you'll be wondering what's
brought me up here? Well, the fact is, Mrs. Tasker, I'm wurried. I got
wurries. You can see the wurry-map on my face. Hallowells' is wurrying
me. I ain't going to tell you Hallowells' ain't what it was in its
pammy days; it may be, or it may not; mebbe you've heard the talk
that's going around?"
"No," said Dorothy.
"Is that so? Well, there is talk going around. There's a whole push
of people, knocking us all the time. They ain't of much account
themselves, but they knock us. It's a power the inferior mind has. And
I say I'm wurried about it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account