Under the Country SkyRichmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
General
Under the Country Sky
Richmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
Country life -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
"Jimps, dear, I lived all my life in the hardest, narrowest economy. If
I had had all this beautiful experience Jean is having----"
"I know. But you wouldn't come back, even to this place of ours----"
"That's begging the question. For Jean it's a wonderful change, and any
one can see what it's done for her."
"Physically, yes. But I want you to find out whether she's actually
happy or not."
"I will," promised his friend with a nod; for she knew James Stuart much
too well to imagine she could put him off without complying with his
expressed desire.
It looked as if Jeannette herself were anxious to assure her cousin's
mind, for Stuart had no sooner brought Georgiana back to the porch than
his wife took possession of her.
"Georgiana, dear, I want you to tell me one thing," began Jeannette, as
the two moved slowly a little away from the rest. "Do you think we are
making a success of it?"
"A wonderful success, Jean. I couldn't have believed it, even what I see
on the surface. How about it--inside? That's a pretty searching
question, and you needn't answer it if you don't want to. Everything
about you seems to answer it."
Jeannette stopped short and turned to face her cousin. "Haven't I
written you the answer, over and over?"
"Yes. That's why I want to hear it from your own lips."
"You shall. First, though--Georgiana, you knew Antoinette Burwell
married Miles Channing last December?"
"I heard of it. How do they come on?"
"Separated; she's gone back to her father. She was the most wildly happy
bride I ever saw. Think of it, George--in six months! What do you
suppose would have happened if you----"
"Don't! I didn't." And Georgiana's grateful thoughts went back to one of
the crises in her life, the one from which Jefferson Craig had rescued
her.
"Do you know the Ralph Hendersons? Married two years now--I'm sure
you've heard me speak of them. Everybody knows they quarrel like cats
and dogs; they're hardly civil to each other in public. And I know
several more of our old set who are none too happy, if one may judge by
their looks. Yet they all married 'in their own class,' as mother is so
fond of saying, as if I didn't!--I married _above_ it! And I am supposed
to have cast away all my chances for this life, not to mention the next,
by marrying my farmer! Georgiana, I'm getting to hate that word
_farmer_! Why isn't there a new word made for the man who reads and
studies and uses the latest modern methods on his farm? There are such a
lot of them now. College graduates, like Jimps, and men who have taken
agricultural courses and are putting their brains into their work. Why
isn't there a new word?"
"The old word must be made to acquire a new dignity," Georgiana
suggested. "Never mind the word; you're glad you married your farmer?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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