Chapter X: The Sisters Away From Home

“It was six months before I saw the gals again. They stayed some time with Aunt Mary, and, after that, Sarah wrote us word that they had gone to the shore on Long Island, where board was cheap and sea-bathing capital. Sarah complained a great deal of her feeble health, but thought the coast air did her a world of good. She said very little about Hetty, only that she could not get along without her for a day. Her letters were short, but punctual. She seemed anxious to keep the old people satisfied with her long stay from home; and seldom wrote for money, as she and Hetty supplied themselves, she said, by doing fine needlework for a store in Broadway, which she went to the city, now and then, to get and return.

“It was fall before my sisters came home. The sea-air might have done them good, but they both looked thin and pale, as if overworked; and I reproached myself for letting them toil so hard for their own board so long, though, as I have told you, the old folks were in debt, and could not help it.

“Well, my sisters went to work again in the homestead, and the old place began to brighten up, for Sarah grew more easy and cheerful, saying that hard work was just what she wanted; while Hetty took up her old ways, only it seemed to us that she was more still and sad than ever, spending a great deal of time in her own room, where I sometimes saw a candle burning after eleven o’clock at night.

“Not long after they got back, I found out two secrets: one was, that Mr. Bentley had often visited the gals while with their aunt; and the other, that they brought needlework from New York, which they sat up nights to finish.

“Sarah was obliged to make me her confidant in this, for every month she wanted me to take her down to the river on her road to York, where she would be gone a day or two on a visit to her aunt. When I wanted to know why she took this extra work, and what she did with the money, she reminded me of her music-lessons that were to be paid for, and of a hundred pretty things which she and Hetty were always wanting, but, to my knowledge, never got.

“I think Sarah saw Mr. Bentley in some of these visits to the city, for she came back more and more cheerful each month, but kept on working day and night all the same.

“On her third trip down the river she came back full of excitement, and told me, as a great secret, which I was to reveal to no one, that she had given up needlework now. When I questioned her, she told me with blushes and half crying, for when a pleasant thing came to Sarah her eyes always would fill, though she bore trouble like a hero:—well, she told me that perhaps, if anybody asked her, she might get married some fine day, and we both laughed at the joke. She was very frank and happy during our drive home, for I met her at the boat as usual; and at last told me that she had seen Mr. Bentley in New York, and that he was coming up to the homestead in a week or two if—if I thought father would have no objection.

“‘Objection! What objection could my father have to Mr. Bentley, whose conduct toward him and his had been more than kind? Surely he might expect to be made welcome in a house that was almost his own.’

“‘Yes,’ said Sarah, turning her face toward the sunset, though I could see a smile quivering on her lip, ‘but—but Mr. Bentley wants to take me away with him; he thinks now that he loves me well enough for that!’

“I was rejoiced, and gave my horses a triumphant crack of the whip that sent them off on a run. I knew well enough that Sarah was no fit wife for any of the young fellows in our neighborhood. Her high spirits, her wit, and the bright thoughts that made every one admire her, were not gifts to be buried on a farm, nor drudged into tameness by hard work. I had knowledge of the world and sense enough to know that, if I had been brought up in the country. It would have been like forcing a canary bird to dive for its food like a fish-hawk. But this was another affair.

“Your father was the man of all I had ever seen for the husband of a gal like our Sarah. With a college education, an honest, strong mind, as handsome a figure as you see in a day’s walk, and any amount of property, where could another man be found like him? Yet I felt that Sarah was his match every inch of it: her virtues were home-virtues, and her studies home-studies, but genuine for all that. Even he could talk on but few subjects that Sarah did not know something about; and as for manners, if ever there was a born lady it was my sister Sarah, if I do say it.

“Sarah was delighted to see how I took the news, and told me in her old, frank way how she had loved Mr. Bentley long before she was quite certain that he cared for her—how he had almost proposed while she was with her aunt, but had been checked off when they went to the Long Island shore, without telling him a word about it, and seemed to have given her up without a struggle; but in her late visit she had met him by accident in the street; they had walked a long way together, she could not tell how or where, for it seemed like heaven to her, for he was telling her of his love—his disappointment at her sudden departure; which he looked upon as a rebuff, and of the bright hopes that he could scarcely believe real, though she had listened to him with so much patience. ‘It was all like a dream—a sweet, bright dream,’ she said, ‘but real, beautifully real, though she never could believe it, never!’

“It was pleasant to hear her talk so gently of her love, and to see the color come and go in her face with every look I gave it. I do believe that day she was the happiest creature on earth. She exclaimed at the beauty of every thing—the old apple trees with their scraggy branches, the patches of moss on the wayside, and the sunset. ‘It certainly was,’ she said, ‘the most heavenly sunset that ever she saw in her life.’

“To me now it was a bank of yellow and red clouds piled up and heaped against each other, with streaks of purple and flame color breaking through; but she saw a thousand other bright things, as people who love poetry and dream dreams are sure to do.

“I told the old folks of the news, and Sarah told Hetty, who chirked up like a bird for two or three days, and hovered around her sister in a quiet flutter of happiness, like a robin when its mate is on the nest.

“The old gentleman took every thing that came in his way as a matter of course. Nothing could arouse his pride, for he held things that turn the heads of most people at their due worth.

“‘Bentley is an honest man,’ he said, ‘and Sarah is a good, bright gal: they’ll make a couple that we needn’t be ashamed of, Dan—you may be sure of that.’

“I was satisfied. When my father pronounced any one an honest man, praise had no higher term for him. His pride of integrity was wonderful: he acknowledged no superiority but that of goodness and industry. There, he was unyielding: a want of integrity the old man never could forgive. I think that an absolutely wrong act in one of his family would have broken his heart. He was the proudest man I ever saw, and the meekest too.

“His children all knew this, and respected him accordingly. My sisters, above all, had great reverence for this trait of character, and dreaded his disapprobation above all things. Observe me, father was not a cross nor severe man—only a downright honest one, whose good character was the life of his life.

“Of course a man like this could rejoice in his daughter’s prosperity in marrying a man so much above your father, for he knew the full value of property, and was glad to get it in the family; but it was the intelligence and sterling goodness of Mr. Bentley that touched the old man nearest. Had these been wanting, property and position would have gone for nothing with a man of your grandfather’s stamp.

“Well, the time came. Bentley asked the old man’s consent in person, and with a few kind, hearty words was taken into the family.

“Sarah was very happy then. For days and days she was beautiful—so beautiful that I would stop to look at her. With a creature so smart and full of feeling, happiness was beauty, and it shone through her face like light through a lamp. In truth, I have seen a great many prettier women than our Sarah, but never one whose look would bring the heart into your mouth with such a throb of warm feeling. So she was happy as the day was long till after the wedding-day was set. Then I saw that she began to pine a little; once I found her in Hetty’s room, and they were both crying. But this was natural enough, you know: the two gals had never been separated in their lives, and it was hard to give each other up.”