| OCR Text |
Show g8 THE MORMON LION So far as I could surmise, the other girl-wives and Mrs. Polly submitted meekly to the neglect of their husband. Not improbably it may have been a relief to them. Amanda was equally self-contained. She straightened her thin lips and bided her time until the head of the house should become wearied and bethink himself of the wife of his youth-and her cooking. Cora neither bore herself with meekness nor compressed her pretty lips. For a week or more she sulked like a spoiled child, until one evening Chilcott joined us for a few minutes. In a twinkling she became radiant with delight. He barely noticed her and soon hastened out again. ' I expected the poor lady to give way to tears. Instead she stood for a moment with eyes flashing and teeth clenched on her red li I?· Then suddenly she burst into a laugh of wild gatety and darted to the piano to sing me my favourite song. After that eveninli' I never entered the house or left my bedroom without meeting the lady. She developed a flattering friendship for Amanda and was ever coming to ask her advice on difficult problems of ho':'s.ewifery---:particularly wh~n I happened to be VISiting or eatmg with my cousm. At such times her dress was always exquisitely neat and tidy except for an occasional loose wisp of hair or a dab of flour ?n. her frilled apron, most suggestive of domestic mtnnacy. . In the evening her dress so enhanced the intoxicatmg power of her beauty, and her voice and eyes alike spoke to me with such allurement that my reverent love for Lucy alone saved me from mad infatuation. Mad it truly would have been, for I well knew the danger to be mcurred from the slightest indiscretion. Yet even with fear and true love combined to draw and push me away from destruction, I at times hovered above the flame like a dazzled moth. Nor did the fascination lessen in power. More than once THE MORMON LION 99 the wings of my spirit were singed. I began to fear that I would dash headlong into the flame. Amanda soon perceived what was going on. Without mmcmg her words, she warned me that to break the seventh commandment would be to invite certain destructiOn. I called her to witness that I was entirely passive in the matter, and defended my conduct with the excuse that I could not be rude to one of the wives of my host. It was not for me to attribute wrongful motives to the lady's hospitable entertamment of her husband's guest. . My cousin'~ remonstrances to Cora were equally meffecbve .. fhe wilful lady refused to admit that her conduct Implied more than a harmless enjoyment of my company. It was absurd, she said, for Amanda to take the Situation with such tragic seriousness. Anyway:, she could either keep quiet or lose the fnendslup of one who knew how to dress her so that she lookcdten years younger. Even gnm Amanda could not resist such an argument, remforced with the blandishments and cajolery of a co-wife so accomplished and beautiful. Though I saw her apprehensiOn . deepen from evening to evenmg, she could not bnng herself to the point of complaining to their husband. A change in the situation was brought about from qwte another quarter. After a month of rest and care, Lucy had almost entirely recovered her bodily health. Though still timid and sad, she had become somewhat mured to the fearful harangues and discourses at the Tabernacle, and her profound faith mded the buoyancy of her returnmg strength to lilt her. out of her melancholy. Her face rounded again to It~ perfect oval, and her cheeks recovered their exqwsite colour. She was even more lovely than when I first met her at Florence. She had lost the last vestige of her childhood, but had gained the spmtual grace of ~arrow and suffering endured with resignatiOn and faith. |
