Boarding Round/Chapter 17

It was held with Mrs. Hale, and was very fully attended. Interest in this organization, for benevolent purposes, had increased in nearly equal ratio with that felt in the Saturday special exercises. To say that both of these gatherings had become popular is to use the truth sparingly. At this meeting, the first business, requiring attention, was to hear the report of the committee to visit the poor people, living in some undesirable quarters of the town. Mr. Sears was chairman. He gave an interesting account of their being able to relieve the wants of some aged, and some sick, persons; also they had furnished shoes for a number of barefooted children. He had found little time to devote to such work, but it had been a pleasure to the committee to do what they could. The ladies voted their thanks to the committee, with the request that they continue the same service. All heartily agreed to this, although it was suggested that while Mr. Sears be retained as chairman, the ​lady members be changed at each meeting of the society, in order that more might get the benefit of experience in such work. This was agreed to by all except some friends of the two, who were already on the committee. It was suggested by the mother of one of these, that through the little experience they had gained, they would be able to do a better work than any new recruits. The debate waxed quite warm, when the matter was decided by the old members of the committee declining to serve longer. They wished to be fair, and to show a magnanimous spirit. It was easy to perceive that they would lose nothing, in the estimate of others, by such a course. Nothing cements friendship like disinterestedness.

The ladies had labored faithfully through the afternoon, and now, with the coming of the gentlemen for the evening, they were all expected to share in the enjoyments of the social hour.

While the ladies had been alone they had had an opportunity to talk upon some matters of common interest. And especially as Mrs. Aikin was not present. She had been kept at home, this time, by indisposition; she had contracted a severe cold. No exclamations of astonishment, like those that characterized the previous meeting were now heard. The schoolmaster's course did not now seem so unusual. It had come to be within the pale of possible explanation. The night which he ​had recently spent at Mrs. Aikin's was understood to have been in response to a special invitation. So they were ready to believe that that which had preceded, and had occasioned such an eruption of exclamations, had not been from Mr. Sears' own initiative. He had been, rather than otherwise, a victim of circumstances. That he was a man of common sense, even in an eminent degree, had been fully demonstrated. But there was something else, which, while it was nothing that could be criticised, did produce a feeling of regret, on the part of some of the fond mothers present. Their blooming daughters, too, shared the same feeling; but it was nothing that could properly bring out any expressions of disapproval. They would have been glad if the master had been willing to confine the cultivation of his acquaintances within the limits of the Corner district. But they must admit that to have the opportunity of forming an acquaintance with a family like that of Dr. Colon's, was a temptation which few young men would resist. They remembered that Miss Frances came down to their Saturday exercises, and that her father brought her there. She had had no occasion to visit in the Corner district before. And it was well known to all that she was a beautiful and highly cultured young lady, and, withal, of fine Christian character. However, not every one present was ready to express openly their ​assent to this view of the matter. Why shouldn't the master visit at Dr. Colon's? It was a very natural thing for any one to do. They didn't believe that Mr. Sears thought any less of ladies in the Corner district because he had happened to visit once at the Congregational parsonage. And Miss Eunice Delano, the faithful correspondent of The Looking-glass, remarked privately to a lady near her, that she didn't think that Miss Frances Colon was the only fine young lady in town. And the one to whom this remark was made assented to it. Miss Delano did not wish to give expression to any such sentiment openly, for it was known that Mr. Sears had more than once escorted her home from the singing school. And the lady who had given assent to the remark, privately made, was Miss Sophie Haggleton, who has already been noticed in these annals, as a spinster of extraordinary activity in her sphere. Her remarks, too, were usually made quite independently of other people's opinions. She said that she thought that young ladies who had had a good deal of experience, would usually accomplish more, and in a better way, than young ladies who had had less experience; and, if the young men could understand this, the young ladies of experience would not be so often overlooked as they are now.

This is only a suggestion of what the ladies had said and done, in the afternoon, when by ​themselves. It was now the social hour. The young men had come. Who should give the key note to the evening's entertainment, if not the young ladies? And they were ready to do it. But with it all, each must have the peculiar pleasure of more private personal association with the young schoolmaster. They together formed the circumference, and he the center, of attraction. They didn't care to touch upon his visit at Dr. Colon's, but certainly it would be proper for them to manifest a respectful interest in his recent delightful stay at Mrs. Aikin's. They had reason to believe that such allusion would not cause any of his delicate heartstrings to vibrate painfully.

But Miss Haggleton and Miss Delano, and the young ladies who had served on the committee, preferred to be excused from anything more than conversation on general subjects, unless it were their work for the poor. There were, however, enough besides these who had not yet been brought into such close relationship with the teacher, and were ready to do anything that would facilitate their progress in that direction. They were eager to rally him on any matter that might have an element of fun in it. Thus they might get acquainted with him. So Miss Rider, a quiet, and somewhat young, lady, made her way to where Mr. Sears was sitting. She had met ​him before; so conversation immediately ensued.

"We are all sorry that your term is drawing towards a close, and so your stay with us must be so short, Mr. Sears."

"And I am sorry, too; I have enjoyed my first attempt at teaching very much. And the people have all been so kind to me."

"But you see that we are plain folks; we haven't much in our homes to make them attractive to you, we fear."

"Oh, not so, Miss Rider. You have some fine homes here."

"Perhaps I ought to except Mrs. Aikin's. We hear that you had a splendid visit there. There's much to see in her house."

"Yes, a good many nice things."

"You must have taken particular notice of that grand old clock, that stands in the corner of the parlor."

"Yes, that's a kind of heirloom in the family."

"It makes such a funny whirring when it strikes. You must have noticed that."

"Yes, I heard it strike several times. It's interesting."

"Then it has such a leisurely tick. I've heard it. It always seems to me to say, 'Once—twice; once—twice; once—twice.' I don't know whether by the 'twice' it means to say, 'Come again,' or not."

​"Well, I don't know, either," responded the master. "It seemed to me that it was saying something. It may be you have hit upon the right interpretation."

"I think I am right, Mr. Sears, in respect to certain persons when they get into that parlor. It seems as if that old clock had a power of discrimination. It produces a mysterious effect upon those who come under the influence of its measured movement. Did you not find it so?"

"I am not, at the present moment, Miss Rider, prepared to say that your impressions are not in some measure correct."

"Well, did you not find, too, that the longer you heard it tick, the more seriously it affected your nerves?"

"Perhaps it will have some such effect if you hear it long enough."

"Till near midnight, say." Miss Rider stole a glance from one corner of her eye, to try to discover what effect this shot had had upon her victim.

"And I have heard also," continued the fair questioner, that after listening to that clock's ticking, for three or four hours in one evening, it makes one feel uncertain whether one ever will be able to retire or not. Does your experience enable you to form a reliable opinion?"

"I should say that if you sat long enough, listening to the clock, you would not get to ​bed the same night. Perhaps what I said does not make your view of the matter more clear, but it is the best I can do."

The schoolmaster wondered how any person who, as he supposed, could have no knowledge of his private affairs, would be able to ask such a series of leading questions. He was unaware that a near neighbor of Mrs. Aikin's, seeing him go in at her door, had noticed that the light in the parlor that evening was not extinguished till very late; then seeing a light in her guest chamber, till two o'clock in the morning, while detecting sounds from the feline concert, he was able, by inference, to form the connections of a story which embodied the real facts.

Now a young friend of Miss Rider's appeared at her elbow, to be introduced to the much sought-for pedagogue.

"I am happy to make your acquaintance, Miss Whiting. You ladies have a favorable evening for your society."

"Yes, sir, much better than we had the last time. You will remember that. Though you came in a sleigh; it wasn't quite so bad as walking."

This remark brought to mind that so-much-talked-about sleigh ride, and Mr. Sears began to wonder whether he was again to be catechized upon its merits and its beauties. No, he was to be saved from that, for his new acquaintance at once added:

​"But you didn't have to walk to-night. I think you are quite at home here. Mrs. Hale makes a delightful home for any one."

"Yes, indeed, she does."

But I suppose these moonlit evenings ought to make all our homes delightful. There has been but one drawback to the enjoyment of these light nights—the old cats have been favoring many places with their joyous serenades lately. Have you had your portion of this new blessing yet?"

"Well, I can't say, Miss Whiting, whether I have had as large a portion as really belongs to me or not."

"It is said that the night you spent at Mrs. Aikin's, her premises were fairly stormed by nearly all the feline population of the town. You may have been asleep then."

"No, Miss Whiting, like little George with his hatchet, I must say, I can't tell a lie."

The master reflected: "I am being catechized, after all. What next?" But he was happy. All went home in a happy mood.