Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction
The angels made three desperate efforts to prevent Ocky from crumbling.
They gave him Glory. A curious sympathy had grown up between him and the
child of Jehane's first marriage. Perhaps it was that they both suffered
from the unevenness of Jehane's temper. At any rate, he much preferred
her to his own long-lashed, slant-eyed little daughter. Riska, though
she was only seven, had learnt to be both vain and selfish; at the same
time, when there was anything she wanted, she knew how to be attractive.
She was her mother's favorite and belonged to her mother's camp. And
Madeira Lodge tended to become more and more divided into two silently
hostile parties. Ocky had the unpleasant feeling that Riska was amused
by the outbreaks which occurred, and turned them to her own profit.
Whereas Glory----
Already at ten, Glory was a woman in her forethought for him. She would
follow after him, hanging up his coat and hat, rectifying his habitual
untidiness, and stamping out the sparks which were so often the
beginnings of domestic conflagrations. Her gray eyes were always kind
when they looked at him and she was never impatient under his caresses.
“Poor little father,” she would whisper, putting her soft arms about
him, “I'm sure mother didn't mean to say that.”
And the angels gave him his baby-girl. Mary they called her, which was
contracted to Moggs as she grew older. But Riska called her the M. L.
O., which stood for Ma's Left Over, because she was so small that it
seemed as though Jehane had run short of material when she made her.
Ocky was very glad of Moggs; Moggs was too young to judge him. Even
Eustace judged him, saying, “You's been naughty, Daddy; Mumma's vewy
angwy.” There was no pity in the little boy's tone when he said it--only
sorrowful accusation.
Sitting by Moggs's cradle, Ocky would wonder whether the day would come
when she, learning what a fool she had for a father, would turn against
him. In the midst of his wondering, she would wake and he would see two
blue glimpses of heaven laughing up at him. He would take her in his
arms, promising her, because she could not understand a word he said,
that for her sake he would try not to take so much “medicine.”
“Medicine,” as a means to bolstering up his courage, was a habit which
grew upon him.
Peter, who was the third effort of the angels, noticed a change
every time he visited Uncle Waffles. On those walks across the lonely
sand-hills, Uncle Waffles no longer pretended that he drank the
“medicine” for his health.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account