This FreedomHutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
General
This Freedom
Hutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- Social and moral questions -- Fiction
Yes, it showed the difference! And was not seen by him! Yes, injurious.
Yes, could conceive a grudge....
There was a mirage in her face. Her face, that had been boy’s and
mutinous these weeks, was Mary’s and was lovely in maternal love when it
was turned towards the scrap that on a morning lay against her breast;
her thoughts, that had been stubborn, hard, resentful while her days
approached, welled in remorse, compassion, yearning, joy, when they were
past and this was come. She’d grudged him, this littlest one! Grudged
his right, put her own right against it, this tiny, helpless one! When,
added to these thoughts, Huggo and Doda, those lovely darlings, were
permitted to see him, asleep beside her, he was so wee, so almost
nothing against their sturdy limbs, and had come so unwanted--yes,
unwanted, this cherishable one of all!--that she knew instantly what
name he must be given. Her Benjamin!
Lying much alone in the succeeding days, contrite, adoring; with
frequent happy tears (she was left weak): with tender, thank-God,
charged with meaning tears, she found a vindication of her self-reproach
that immensely bound her up, forgave her, gave her comfort. She could
give up her work! She could leave all and be with her darlings! Of
course she could! At any time! She had grudged the right to come of
this defenceless scrap. She had set against his right her own right. Ah,
dangerous! A long road lay that way! In conflict of his coming, with her
own rights she had been much engaged. Here, on the sheet beside her, and
in the nursery, overhead, were other rights. Well, when they claimed....
Of course she could! She had not thought enough about these things....
There is to be said for her that she thought not very widely nor
very deeply upon them now. Her resolution that she could, when it was
necessary, give up her work, scattered them. It came to her as comes to
a man, beset by poverty, scheming by this way and by that to abate it,
news of a legacy. He ceases, in his relief, his present schemes; he
has “no need to worry now.” Or came to her as comes a sail to one
shipwrecked and adrift, painfully calculating out his final dregs
of food and water. He ceases, at that emblem, his desperate plans to
stretch his days. He’s all right now.
It was like that with Rosalie.
While only she had realised her resentment of this baby’s claims, and
only now her contrite yielding to them; before she had conjectured
deeply on all the problem thus revealed; there came to her, like way
of escape to one imprisoned, like instantaneous lifting of a fog to one
therein occluded, the thought, “I can give up the work.”
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