They were married in the following spring, when the planting was over,
and Cyrus's fields ran with an emerald fire. The farmer turned,
perforce, to contemplation of his house. Bare walls and rough pine
floors were well enough for him, but better should be found for Susan.
She assisted him in selecting the new furnishings, and then, with the
self-possession known only to a woman and a hen, entered upon her
kingdom.
Her presence, for a long while after, affected Todd as something in the
nature of a miracle. Women had borne little part in his life. The dainty
touches of ornament which his wife's quick fingers gave the little home,
the good, unheard-of things she cooked for him, the demonstrative
affection she was ever ready to bestow (for indeed she loved him
dearly), kept him in a sort of daze of unbelieving bliss. He felt that
he and life were even. Now he began to learn what money, hitherto a
neglected factor in his success, had the power to grant.
The plain cottage grew into an attractive, vine-held home. Going to his
fields each morning, after a perfect breakfast, he argued aloud to
himself, and frequently pinched his own arm to prove the brightness
true. Everything prospered. The men liked him, the dogs fawned upon him,
the horses whinnied at his voice. And then, just as he told himself he
couldn't possibly make room for another joy,--came Gwendolen.
Cyrus, when his eyes had cleared of the golden blur, drew a chair to the
bed, put his two elbows on the rim, set his face upon his hands, and
deliberately made acquaintance with his daughter. The miracle of his
wife's love, the immortality of springing seed, the awe left over from
his boyish dreams of heaven, all hid themselves in that small, pink
frame, and looked out upon him through its feeble gaze.
He wished to name her "Susan," after his wife, and, as it happened,
after his mother also. Mrs. Todd would not consider it. She desired her
child to have a "pretty" name, something high-sounding, even
sentimental, that would look well in a novel. Her thought whirred like a
distracted magnet between three euphonious points,--"Gwendolen,"
"Guinevere," and "Theodora." At Guinevere Cyrus at once took an
obstinate stand. It suggested to him guinea-hens.
"Then 'Theodora,' Cy. What is the matter with 'Theodora'?"
"It sounds like the tin tail to a fancy windmill. I can just see it
spin!" declared the anxious father.
"But the sentiment! It means 'gift of God,'" pleaded Mrs. Todd, in the
voice she usually kept for church.
"Shucks! She don't need a label, 'made in heaven,'" said Cy. "Nobody 'd
take her as coming up from the other place. Why, if she dropped there
now, she'd put out flames like a hand extinguisher,--the blessed
cheraphim!"
"Well, 'Gwendolen,' then. Surely you can't find any such ridiculous
objections to 'Gwendolen.'" The young wife now was plainly on the verge
of tears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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