The Lifting of a Finger/Chapter 7
AFTER Bellamy's departure Mrs. Winthrop sank weakly into a chair. "Margaret!" she cried, "was the man intoxicated?"
"No, I think not," answered the girl, smiling in spite of the fact that her heart ached miserably. "It is true, mother," she went on; "I am going to marry Mr. Bellamy on the first of June."
"You must be mad. Or am I dreaming?" Mrs. Winthrop put a trembling hand to her head. "My brain seems dazed, and I can't make myself realize that your words are true. Why, you have scarcely met the man a dozen times. I have tried to make you understand that Francis Bellamy is not a fit man for you to make a friend of, and now you tell me you are going to marry him. And on the very day too you were to have wedded a man who is almost as great a rascal."
"A greater one," retorted Margaret quickly. "At least, Mr. Bellamy does not pretend to be other than he is."
"Margaret," cried her mother, "you will be the talk of the town!"
"Am I not that already?" queried Margaret.
"Yes. And I have seen you writhe under the pitying looks of your friends. How much greater will that pity be if you marry a man who is despised by everyone."
If these words stung Margaret, she did not show her hurt. "Mr. Bellamy says my friends will be so electrified at the news of my marriage that they will forget to pity me," she said calmly, "and I think he is right."
"No one will come to the wedding or receive you afterwards," declared Mrs. Winthrop.
"On the contrary, my friends will come in droves to see me married," returned her daughter. "As to their receiving me afterwards, I think you are mistaken also," the girl went on; "you see, I am going to marry a wealthy man."
After waiting a moment for her mother to speak, Margaret continued in another tone: "Why should you be so distressed, mother? You have always wanted me to marry money. You objected to Jack Somers because he was not rich enough."
Mrs. Winthrop's eyes filled with tears. "Margaret," she said, "I did wish you to marry money: I wish it still. I have lived long enough to know that while money may not bring happiness, neither is happiness likely to be secured without it. I may sometimes have urged you to marry without love, but I would rather see you in poverty all your days than married to a man you cannot respect."
Margaret crossed the room and laid her hand on Mrs. Winthrop's shoulder. She felt that until now she had misjudged her mother.
"I am afraid I shall never marry if I wait to meet someone I could respect," she said sadly. "I shall never believe in anyone again. Men are all alike, mother, except that some of them haven't been found out."
"Margaret, Margaret!" sobbed Mrs. Winthrop. "How that man's perfidy has changed you."
"Yes, it has," replied Margaret in her proud way. "Listen, mother," she added; "happiness of the kind that comes through marriage is out of the question for me. And yet I cannot go on living my old life as though all this had never happened. Life is never the same to any woman who has been so near her wedding-day only to have her trust wrecked as mine has been. The woman whose lover dies has a sweet and tender memory to brighten her lonely life, but I—I haven't even that. Can't you see that it is better for me to go away and begin a new life, a busy existence that will bring me contentment, though not happiness?"
"But, Margaret," protested her mother, "the peaceful existence you describe will be out of the question with a husband like Francis Bellamy. I understand he leads the wildest kind of a life—drinks, gambles, is dissipated in every way. He will be unkind to you; he will make you wretched."
"I do not believe he will be unkind to me," returned Margaret, "and it is not in his power to make me wretched. He is going to settle half his fortune on me, so I shall be independent of him financially, and my sole duty as a wife will be to see that the houses he intends to purchase are properly kept up. You see," concluded Margaret, "there is not much use in trying to move me; I am quite determined to marry Mr. Bellamy. My strongest reason for doing so I haven't told you yet. Have you noticed how ill father has looked lately?"
"Yes," replied Mrs. Winthrop, "I have."
"I learned to-day that he is on the verge of failure. Now you see why I dwelt on the fact that I am to marry a rich man. If father fails, he will never get over it; he is too old to begin again."
"Then I must choose between sacrificing my husband and sacrificing my child?" exclaimed poor Mrs. Winthrop.
"You will not be sacrificing me," was Margaret's rejoinder. "My marriage will save father, and I shall be quite as happy as I am now; at least, I cannot be more unhappy, and it will comfort me to feel that if I have brought notoriety to those I love, I have also saved them from poverty."
"Your father will never consent to have us saved at such a cost," cried Margaret's mother.
"He must not know," replied the girl. "Leave father to me, mother; I can convince him that what I am about to do is best for me, and that will satisfy him."
Margaret was right in thinking that her father's opposition would not be difficult to overcome. Although he was deeply shocked and pained upon hearing that she was resolved to marry Bellamy, Mr. Winthrop did not try very hard to dissuade her from her purpose.
"Perhaps you know best, my daughter," he said sadly. "You have been through a great sorrow, a sorrow none of us could share with you, and I feel that you should be allowed your own way in planning your future life. Although we may pity, we cannot blame the drowning man who catches at a straw. But with love or without it, marriage is a very serious compact, and I hope you are making no mistake."
"I believe I am not," Margaret answered, and left her father's presence feeling that her news had caused him greater sorrow than he told her of. She saw too that he was brooding over his impending failure and she longed to put an end to his anxiety, but dared not just yet. He must not be allowed to suspect that the desire to help him had shaped her course.
Margaret found her brother the hardest member of the family to deal with. Jack declared emphatically that he would stop at nothing to break Margaret's engagement, and to talk him over to her way of thinking was a task that required patience.
The engagement was several days old when a note came from Bellamy asking his fiancée to meet him at the office of his lawyer. After this the strange pair met frequently to arrange the details of their marriage. In order that the wedding-gown of white satin Margaret already had might be utilized, an evening wedding was decided upon and the time of the ceremony set for eight o'clock.
"How many bridesmaids will you have?" inquired Bellamy on one occasion. He showed a good deal of interest in the affair, and having witnessed weddings in many foreign countries, was able to offer some suggestions for quaint, unusual effects in the evening's entertainment which Mrs. Winthrop, intent upon making Margaret's marriage, since she was powerless to prevent it, the social event of the year, seized upon with alacrity.
"None," replied Margaret in answer to Bellamy's question, "but my cousin Joyce Darlington will be maid-of-honor. That reminds me, I want to ask you about your best man. And also, will you give me a list of the people to whom you wish invitations sent?"
Bellamy frowned. "I don't believe I have any friends your mother would care to see in her house," he said, "so you need not consider me in making out your lists. I don't know anyone I want to ask to be best man, either. Couldn't your brother Jack officiate?"
Jack's anger was roused again when he was asked to be Bellamy's groomsman. "It will look as though we all wanted to lend a hand in sacrificing Madge," he growled, but finally consented, because he feared that if he refused Francis might bring forward some objectionable person to take his place.
At Bellamy's suggestion the engagement was not announced. "As we want to startle your friends," he said to Margaret, "why not insure them a good shock by letting them hear of our marriage for the first time when they read the wedding-cards?"