Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
There was growing in her, however, something almost of revolt against
this attitude on the part of her husband. There came back to her these
days with singular insistence some earnest words which once had
thrilled her: "We are bound to one another inseparably in this life of
ours; we make a society that is a composite. Whatever we may do to
weaken the sense of that common bond disintegrates society. Whatever
we can do to deepen the sense of that bond makes life stronger, better
for all!" This idea fed an inner hunger of spirit which her husband
had not appeased. For she had in large measure that rare instinct for
democracy, the love of being like others in joy and sorrow.
Jackson believed in charitable effort, and had urged her to accept an
invitation to join the committee of women who managed St. Isidore's
hospital. It was almost a fashionable club, this committee, and it was
a flattering thing for a young married woman to be made a member of it.
The hospital was under the special patronage of the Crawfords and the
Fosters and other well-known people in the city. And when after a
visit to the bookbinder's sickly wife, she wished to do something for
Hussey, Jackson interested himself in her effort to get together a
class of young married women to learn the art of bookbinding, which
happened to be a part of the current enthusiasm over craftsmanship.
This class met at various houses once a week and spent a morning trying
to bind paper-covered literature under Hussey's direction. Jackson,
who was a bit of a dilettante by nature, was much interested in the
work of the class. He would like to have Helen try her hand in
metal-work or design jewellery or wall-paper or model. Once he talked
to the class on the minor arts, talked with great enthusiasm and charm,
exhorting these young women of the leisure class to cultivate
intensively some one artistic interest in life.
But Helen, who hoped soon to have a child, found these things more or
less trivial.
CHAPTER XII
After a winter in the city the Harts went to live at Shoreham, taking
rooms for the season in a cottage near the club. The new station which
the railroad was building at Eversley Heights, and the Rainbows'
cottage on the ridge just west of the club, had brought the architect
considerable reputation. His acquaintance was growing rapidly among
the men who rode to and fro each day on the suburban trains of the C.
R. and N. It was the kind of acquaintance which he realized might be
very valuable to him in his profession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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