Mam'selle JoComstock, Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa)
General
Mam'selle Jo
Comstock, Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa)
Saint Lawrence River Valley -- Fiction; Self-sacrifice -- Fiction; Single women -- Fiction
The Mam’selle knows her world, however, and all worlds are pretty much
alike, Andy, and she is prepared, in exchange for her child’s happiness,
to renounce her! It almost broke my heart as she told me; she saw no
other way and she fiercely demands that justice be shown the girl. I
tell you it takes the fine, large courage to renounce, when love tempts.
Mam’selle loves this child as such children often are loved,
passionately because they cost so much.
And this Mam’selle Morey came to me. She felt I could understand,
advise. Well, I do understand because of Jack’s attitude toward such
things, and yours and father’s. Thank God, the men I have known have
helped me uphold my standard, and I understand because of my dear, dear
babies, who left so much of themselves with me when they had to go away.
I grew hot and cold as I listened, Man-Andy, and I grew puffed up and
chesty, too. How I gloried, for the moment, in my power. It’s all right
to have power if you keep it in its proper place.
I kept saying to myself, "Mam’selle, you and I will win out! And you
shall not be the sacrifice, either! Together we can play the game; two
women ought to be able to see that one innocent child has its rights!"
Man-Andy, I rolled up my sleeves, then and there, and that dear old poem
you love came to my mind, it often does; that one about tears:
By every cup of sorrow that ye had
Loose us from tears and make us see aright
How each hath back what once he stayed to weep
Homer, his sight; David, his little lad?
I thought of dear old blind Revelle; he has something back, even though
much is withheld. He has safety, and his fiddle. And then I vowed that
this brave, strong Mam’selle Morey should have her little lass. She
shall not be taken from her; I will help, and give the girl her chance,
I am quite fierce about it. And my Mam’selle shall keep her in the end,
somehow I’ll manage that. With other things, this girl shall get a
comprehension of—her mother!
Man-Andy, tell me what you think of all this and tell me of yourself; of
the Norvals, and the rest of the folks I love but do not need just now.
And tell me of your sad duty, dear man. Do you go every week to the
Lonely Place? Some day, when it is all past, you will come here to this
Walled House. You and I will go out on the highway and kneel under one
of the tall black and white-tipped crosses and give thanks! Man-Andy,
to-night I can give thanks that I am being used, that the power my money
can give is being used, and that I am not left to my tears.
To this long outpouring of the heart Anderson Law replied within the
month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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