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
MY GIRL: you have only proved yourself. It took a little time, but I
knew you were not the sort to hide your face and run. Revelle and his
fiddle are about the best combination I know, I certainly hadn’t counted
on the fiddle. I thought with care and safety he’d find peace and I
knew he would be good for you; but I feared his blindness would kill his
music.
It’s a great thing, too, girl, that your children did not shut the door
of your motherhood when they went out. You’d hardly have been worthy of
them if you had not learned the lesson they taught.
As for us here: Jim Norval is doing some good things in his moments of
genius. When plain talent grips him, he’s not so good. Katherine, from
perfectly exalted motives, is driving him to hell. It’s the most
puzzling situation I ever saw. You cannot advise a man to leave a
high-natured, moral, devoted wife just because she’s pushing him to
perdition and depriving him of his birthright, but that’s the situation
in the Norval family. Their child somehow did not get its lesson over!
The Lonely House still holds my duty, but if the time ever comes when I
can stand beside you under the cross, there will be many things, hard to
bear now, that will then make thanks possible. ANDY.
Law’s letter came after Donelle had entered the Walled House where she
was to stay from Monday till Friday of each week. The week-ends
belonged to Mam’selle Jo!
"For awhile, Mam’selle," Alice Lindsay had said, holding Jo’s hands as
she had made plain her understanding, "I will teach the child myself and
learn to know her. We need not plan far ahead. There is a dear, old,
blind musician living with me; if the girl has any inclination for
music, she will be a god-send to him."
"I am sure she will have, Mrs. Lindsay," Jo’s plain face was radiant,
"her father had, and she sings the day through."
"You must bring her at once, Mam’selle, and believe me, whatever comes
or does not come, she will always be yours. She is your recompense."
And within the week Donelle Morey came to the Walled House.
Her entrance was dramatic and made a deep impression upon Mrs. Lindsay.
There had been a struggle between Jo and Donelle before the matter had
been arranged, so, while not sullen, the girl was decidedly on guard.
Propelled by Jo she came into the great, sunny hall. She was very pale
and her yellow eyes were wide and alert.
"My dear," Alice Lindsay had said, "I hope you are going to be very
happy here."
"I did not come to be happy, I came to learn," Donelle returned, and her
voice saved the words from rudeness.
"Perhaps you can be both, dear," but Donelle looked her doubts.
Still from the first she played her part courageously. She studied
diligently and, when she was given the freedom of the library, she
showed a keen and vital interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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