Victorian Short Stories, Vol. 2 | Page 2

no
knowing whether what she liked one day she would like the next, or not.
At length she went to such extremes of crossness that Alice was only
too glad to shut her eyes and rush blindly at the chance of escape from
domestic tyranny offered her by a marriage with her cousin; and, liking
him better than any one in the world, except her uncle (who was at this
time at sea), she went off one morning and was married to him, her
only bridesmaid being the housemaid at her aunt's. The consequence
was that Frank and his wife went into lodgings, and Mrs Wilson
refused to see them, and turned away Norah, the warm-hearted
housemaid, whom they accordingly took into their service. When
Captain Wilson returned from his voyage he was very cordial with the
young couple, and spent many an evening at their lodgings, smoking
his pipe and sipping his grog; but he told them, for quietness' sake, he
could not ask them to his own house; for his wife was bitter against
them. They were not, however, very unhappy about this.
The seed of future unhappiness lay rather in Frank's vehement,
passionate disposition, which led him to resent his wife's shyness and
want of demonstrativeness as failures in conjugal duty. He was already
tormenting himself, and her too in a slighter degree, by apprehensions
and imaginations of what might befall her during his approaching

absence at sea. At last, he went to his father and urged him to insist
upon Alice's being once more received under his roof; the more
especially as there was now a prospect of her confinement while her
husband was away on his voyage. Captain Wilson was, as he himself
expressed it, 'breaking up', and unwilling to undergo the excitement of
a scene; yet he felt that what his son said was true. So he went to his
wife. And before Frank set sail, he had the comfort of seeing his wife
installed in her old little garret in his father's house. To have placed her
in the one best spare room was a step beyond Mrs Wilson's powers of
submission or generosity. The worst part about it, however, was that
the faithful Norah had to be dismissed. Her place as housemaid had
been filled up; and, even if it had not, she had forfeited Mrs Wilson's
good opinion for ever. She comforted her young master and mistress by
pleasant prophecies of the time when they would have a household of
their own; of which, whatever service she might be in meanwhile, she
should be sure to form a part. Almost the last action Frank did, before
setting sail, was going with Alice to see Norah once more at her
mother's house; and then he went away.
Alice's father-in-law grew more and more feeble as winter advanced.
She was of great use to her stepmother in nursing and amusing him;
and although there was anxiety enough in the household, there was,
perhaps, more of peace than there had been for years, for Mrs Wilson
had not a bad heart, and was softened by the visible approach of death
to one whom she loved, and touched by the lonely condition of the
young creature expecting her first confinement in her husband's
absence. To this relenting mood Norah owed the permission to come
and nurse Alice when her baby was born, and to remain and attend on
Captain Wilson.
Before one letter had been received from Frank (who had sailed for the
East Indies and China), his father died. Alice was always glad to
remember that he had held her baby in his arms, and kissed and blessed
it before his death. After that, and the consequent examination into the
state of his affairs, it was found that he had left far less property than
people had been led by his style of living to expect; and what money
there was, was settled all upon his wife, and at her disposal after her
death. This did not signify much to Alice, as Frank was now first mate
of his ship, and, in another voyage or two, would be captain.

Meanwhile he had left her rather more than two hundred pounds (all his
savings) in the bank.
It became time for Alice to hear from her husband. One letter from the
Cape she had already received. The next was to announce his arrival in
India. As week after week passed over, and no intelligence of the ship
having got there reached the office of the owners, and the captain's wife
was in the same state of ignorant suspense as Alice herself, her fears
grew most oppressive. At length the day came when, in reply to her
inquiry at the shipping office, they told her that the owners