The Flight of the Shadow | Page 3

have understood her objection. I think, however, it came from a stern adherence to the factness--if I may coin the word--of things. She never called a lie a fib.
When she was angry, she always held her tongue; she feared being unfair. She had indeed a rare power of silence. To this day I do not _know_, but am nevertheless sure that, by an instinct of understanding, she saw into my uncle's trouble, and descried, more or less plainly, the secret of it, while yet she never even alluded to the existence of such a trouble. She had a regard for woman's dignity as profound as silent. She was not of those that prate or rave about their rights, forget their duties, and care only for what they count their victories.
She declared herself dead against marriage. One day, while yet hardly more than a child, I said to her thoughtfully,
"I wonder why you hate gentlemen, Martha!"
"Hate 'em! What on earth makes you say such a wicked thing, Orbie?" she answered. "Hate 'em, the poor dears! I love 'em! What did you ever see to make you think I hated your uncle now?"
"Oh! of course! uncle!" I returned; for my uncle was all the world to me. "Nobody could hate uncle!"
"She'd be a bad woman, anyhow, that did!" rejoined Martha. "But did anybody ever hate the person that couldn't do without her, Orbie?"
My name--suggested by my uncle because my mother died at my birth--was a curious one; I believe he made it himself. Belorba it was, and it means Fair Orphan.
"I don't know, Martha," I replied.
"Well, you watch and see!" she returned. "Do you think I would stay here and work from morning to night if I hadn't some reason for it?--Oh, I like work!" she went on; "I don't deny that. I should be miserable if I didn't work. But I'm not bound to this sort of work. I have money of my own, and I'm no beggar for house-room. But rather than leave your uncle, poor man! I would do the work of a ploughman for him."
"Then why don't you marry him, Martha?" I said, with innocent impertinence.
"Marry him! I wouldn't marry him for ten thousand pounds, child!"
"Why not, if you love him so much? I'm sure he wouldn't mind!"
"Marry him!" repeated Miss Martha, and stood looking at me as if here at last was a creature she could not understand; "marry the poor dear man, and make him miserable! I could love any man better than that! Just you open your eyes, my dear, and see what goes on about you. Do you see so many men made happy by their wives? I don't say it's all the wives' fault, poor things! But the fact's the same: there's the poor husbands all the time trying hard to bear it! What with the babies, and the headaches, and the rest of it, that's what it comes to--the husbands are not happy! No, no! A woman can do better for a man than marry him!"
"But mayn't it be the husband's fault--sometimes, Martha?"
"It may; but what better is it for that? What better is the wife for knowing it, or how much happier the husband for not knowing it? As soon as you come to weighing who's in fault, and counting how much, it's all up with the marriage. There's no more comfort in life for either of them! Women are sent into the world to make men happy. I was sent to your uncle, and I'm trying to do my duty. It's nothing to me what other women think; I'm here to serve your uncle. What comes of me, I don't care, so long as I do my work, and don't keep him waiting that made me for it. You may think it a small thing to make a man happy! I don't. God thought him worth making, and he wouldn't be if he was miserable. I've seen one woman make ten men unhappy! I know my calling, Orbie. Nothing would make me marry one of them, poor things!"
"But if they all said as you do, Martha?"
"No doubt the world would come to an end, but it would go out singing, not crying. I don't see that would matter. There would be enough to make each other happy in heaven, and the Lord could make more as they were wanted."
"Uncle says it takes God a long time to make a man!" I ventured to remark.
Miss Martha was silent for a moment. She did not see how my remark bore on the matter in hand, but she had such respect for anything my uncle said, that when she did not grasp it she held her peace.
"Anyhow there's no fear of it for the present!" she answered. "You heard the screed of banns