Queechy Volume Ii Part 33

"I must know by what standards Mr. Carleton will be guided, before I agree to any such thing," said Fleda.

"Standards! but aren't you going to trust anybody in anything, without knowing what standards they go by ?"

"Would that be a safe rule to follow in general?" said Fleda, smiling.

"You wont be a true woman if you don't follow it, sooner or later, my dear Fleda," said Mrs. Evelyn. "Every woman must."

"The later the better, Ma'am, I cannot help thinking."

"You will change your mind," said Mrs. Evelyn, complacently.

"Mamma's notions, Mr. Stackpole, would satisfy any man's pride, when she is expatiating upon the subject of woman's dependence," said Florence.

"The dependence of affection," said Mrs. Evelyn. "Of course!

It's their lot. Affection always leads a true woman to merge her separate judgment, on anything, in the judgment of the beloved object."

"Ay," said Fleda, laughing, "suppose her affection is wasted on an object that has none?"

"My dear Fleda!" said Mrs. Evelyn, with a funny expression, "that can never be, you know; don't you remember what your favourite, Longfellow, says, ? 'Affection never is wasted'? ?

Florence, my love, just hand me 'Evangeline,' there ? I want you to listen to it, Mr. Stackpole, here it is ?

'Talk not of wasted affection: affection never was wasted: If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning Back to their springs, shall fill them full of refreshment.

That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.' "

"How very plain it is that was written by a man," said Fleda.

"Why?" said Mr. Carleton, laughing.

"I always thought it was so exquisite!" said Florence.

"_I_ was so struck with it," said Constance, "that I have been looking ever since for an object to waste _my_ affections upon."

"Hush, Constance!" said her mother. "Don't you like it, Mr.

Carleton?"

"I should like to hear Miss Ringgan's commentary," said Mr.

Stackpole; "I can't antic.i.p.ate it. I should have said the sentiment was quite soft and tender enough for a woman."

"Don't you agree with it, Mr. Carleton?" repeated Mrs. Evelyn.

"I beg leave to second Mr. Stackpole's motion," he said, smiling.

"Fleda, my dear, you must explain yourself; the gentlemen are at a stand."

"I believe, Mrs. Evelyn," said Fleda, smiling and blus.h.i.+ng ?

"I am of the mind of the old woman who couldn't bear to see anything wasted."

"But the a.s.sertion is, that it _isn't_ wasted," said Mr.

Stackpole.

" 'That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain,' " said Mrs. Evelyn.

"Yes, to flood and lay waste the fair growth of nature," said Fleda, with a little energy, though her colour rose and rose higher. "Did it never occur to you, Mrs. Evelyn, that the streams which fertilize as they flow, do but desolate if their course be checked?"

"But your objection lies only against the author's figure,"

said Mr. Stackpole ? "come to the fact."

"I was speaking as he did, Sir, of the fact under the figure ?

I did not mean to separate them."

Both the gentlemen were smiling, though with very different expression.

"Perhaps," said Mr. Carleton, "the writer was thinking of a gentler and more diffusive flow of kind feeling, which, however it may meet with barren ground and raise no fruit there, is sure, in due time, to come back, heaven-refined, to refresh and replenish its source."

"Perhaps so," said Fleda, with a very pleased answering look ?

"I do not recollect how it is brought in ? I may have answered rather Mrs. Evelyn than Mr. Longfellow."

"But granting that it is an error," said Mr. Stackpole, "as you understood it ? what shows it to have been made by a man?"

"Its utter ignorance of the subject, Sir."

"You think _they_ never waste their affections?" said he.

"By no means! but I think they rarely waste so much in any one direction as to leave them quite impoverished."

"Mr. Carleton, how do you bear that, Sir?" said Mrs. Evelyn.

"Will you let such an a.s.sertion pa.s.s unchecked?"

"I would not, if I could help it, Mrs. Evelyn."

"That isn't saying much for yourself," said Constance; "but Fleda, my dear, where did you get such an experience of waste and desolation?"

"Oh, 'man is a microcosm,' you know," said Fleda, lightly.

"But you make it out that only one-half of mankind can appropriate that axiom," said Mr. Stackpole. "How can a woman know _men's_ hearts so well?"

"On the principle that the whole is greater than a part?' said Mr. Carleton, smiling.

"I'll sleep upon that, before I give my opinion," said Mr.

Stackpole. "Mrs. Evelyn, good evening!" ?

"Well, Mr. Carleton!" said Constance, "you have said a great deal for women's minds."

"Some women's minds," he said, with a smile.

"And some men's minds," said Fleda. "I was speaking only in the general."