Priscilla and Charybdis: A Story of AlternativesMoore, Frank Frankfort
General
Priscilla and Charybdis: A Story of Alternatives
Moore, Frank Frankfort
Fiction
Another delightful week elapsed, with yacht cruises and adventures by
flood and field, and then Priscilla, never giving herself up with such
complete abandonment to the intoxication of the first month of marriage
as to be incapable of observing the changes of time and temper and
temperature--the variations in the pulse of that little spiritual animal
known by the pet name of Love, began to perceive that Jack was thinking
about home; and that meant that she had been wholly successful in her
treatment of that happiness of his which demanded the wisest nursing,
with a mental chart of its variations from day to day. Women who are
wise adopt the modern system of therapeutics, and devote all their
thought to the nursing of that happiness which has been entrusted to
their care when it is still in its cradle, and do not trouble about
the Pharmacopoeia. It had been her aim to lead him to think about his
home--their home--as that was where she meant him to spend most of his
time; and the wife who can keep her husband’s attention most closely
directed to home is the wisest as well as the happiest. The accountants
who were going over the books of the estate, kept in a culpably slovenly
way by Mr. Dunning, were, he was informed, approaching the end of
their labours; and the new agent, who had been found with really only a
reasonable amount of difficulty, was by the side of the accountants and
the stewards and the bailiffs, mastering the details of the old system,
which had been far from systematic, and, as Jack and Priscilla could see
by his letters, instituting a new _regime_ on a proper basis.
This was satisfactory; but Priscilla could see that the establishment of
routine did not greatly interest her husband. He was imaginative, though
no one but herself had suspected it, and she meant that he should
have something to appeal to his imagination. Even before they had been
married she had seen some splendid possibilities in connection with the
trout stream that flowed through the glen, though at that time she had
not so much as hinted at them; but now she felt that she could do
so with good effect if the opportunity should arise; and when an
imaginative young woman is on the look-out for an opportunity, the
opportunity invariably presents itself. A letter from Mrs. Wingfield
mentioned the services of a new footman who had succeeded in putting
out a fire--the result of a lamp accident in the still-room and a
housemaid’s carelessness. Owing to the exertions of the man and the
training which he had received at his last place, the fire had done very
little injury; but if it had not been dealt with in time the Manor House
would certainly have been done for, said the letter.
“Confound those lamps! That’s the third fire within two years, and all
through those antiquated abominations,” cried Jack.
“Sell them for scrap metal, and trust to electric light,” said Priscilla
in a second.
“Who is to pay for a cable from Gallingham--nine miles?” he enquired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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