<p class="h2"><SPAN name="XLIV" id="XLIV"></SPAN>XLIV.</p>
<p class="h2a">MY LORD AND LADY.</p>
<p class="indent">"<span class="smcap">Please</span>, Madam Mother, could you lend me my wife for half an
hour? The luggage has come, and I've been making hay of Amy's
Paris finery, trying to find some things I want," said Laurie, coming
in the next day to find Mrs. Laurence sitting in her mother's lap, as
if being made "the baby" again.</p>
<p class="indent">"Certainly. Go, dear; I forget that you have any home but this,"
and Mrs. March pressed the white hand that wore the wedding-ring,
as if asking pardon for her maternal covetousness.</p>
<p class="indent">"I shouldn't have come over if I could have helped it; but I can't
get on without my little woman any more than a—"</p>
<p class="indent">"Weathercock can without wind," suggested Jo, as he paused for a
simile; Jo had grown quite her own saucy self again since Teddy
came home.</p>
<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 544]</span>
"Exactly; for Amy keeps me pointing due west most of the time,
with only an occasional whiffle round to the south, and I haven't had
an easterly spell since I was married; don't know anything about the
north, but am altogether salubrious and balmy, hey, my lady?"</p>
<p class="indent">"Lovely weather so far; I don't know how long it will last, but
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. Come
home, dear, and I'll find your bootjack; I suppose that's what you
are rummaging after among my things. Men are <i>so</i> helpless, mother,"
said Amy, with a matronly air, which delighted her husband.</p>
<p class="indent">"What are you going to do with yourselves after you get settled?"
asked Jo, buttoning Amy's cloak as she used to button her pinafores.</p>
<p class="indent">"We have our plans; we don't mean to say much about them yet,
because we are such very new brooms, but we don't intend to be idle.
I'm going into business with a devotion that shall delight grandfather,
and prove to him that I'm not spoilt. I need something of
the sort to keep me steady. I'm tired of dawdling, and mean to
work like a man."</p>
<p class="indent">"And Amy, what is she going to do?" asked Mrs. March, well
pleased at Laurie's decision, and the energy with which he spoke.</p>
<p class="indent">"After doing the civil all round, and airing our best bonnet, we
shall astonish you by the elegant hospitalities of our mansion, the
brilliant society we shall draw about us, and the beneficial influence
we shall exert over the world at large. That's about it, isn't it,
Madame R�camier?" asked Laurie, with a quizzical look at Amy.</p>
<p class="indent">"Time will show. Come away, Impertinence, and don't shock my
family by calling me names before their faces," answered Amy, resolving
that there should be a home with a good wife in it before she
set up a <i>salon</i> as a queen of society.</p>
<p class="indent">"How happy those children seem together!" observed Mr. March,
finding it difficult to become absorbed in his Aristotle after the young
couple had gone.</p>
<p class="indent">"Yes, and I think it will last," added Mrs. March, with the restful
expression of a pilot who has brought a ship safely into port.</p>
<p class="indent">"I know it will. Happy Amy!" and Jo sighed, then smiled
brightly as Professor Bhaer opened the gate with an impatient push.</p>
<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 545]</span>
Later in the evening, when his mind had been set at rest about the
bootjack, Laurie said suddenly to his wife, who was flitting about, arranging
her new art treasures,—</p>
<p class="indent">"Mrs. Laurence."</p>
<p class="indent">"My lord!"</p>
<p class="indent">"That man intends to marry our Jo!"</p>
<p class="indent">"I hope so; don't you, dear?"</p>
<p class="indent">"Well, my love, I consider him a trump, in the fullest sense of that
expressive word, but I do wish he was a little younger and a good
deal richer."</p>
<p class="indent">"Now, Laurie, don't be too fastidious and worldly-minded. If they
love one another it doesn't matter a particle how old they are nor
how poor. Women <i>never</i> should marry for money—" Amy caught
herself up short as the words escaped her, and looked at her husband,
who replied, with malicious gravity,—</p>
<p class="indent">"Certainly not, though you do hear charming girls say that they
intend to do it sometimes. If my memory serves me, you once
thought it your duty to make a rich match; that accounts, perhaps,
for your marrying a good-for-nothing like me."</p>
<p class="indent">"O my dearest boy, don't, don't say that! I forgot you were
rich when I said 'Yes.' I'd have married you if you hadn't a penny,
and I sometimes wish you <i>were</i> poor that I might show how
much I love you;" and Amy, who was very dignified in public and
very fond in private, gave convincing proofs of the truth of her
words.</p>
<p class="indent">"You don't really think I am such a mercenary creature as I tried
to be once, do you? It would break my heart if you didn't believe
that I'd gladly pull in the same boat with you, even if you had to get
your living by rowing on the lake."</p>
<p class="indent">"Am I an idiot and a brute? How could I think so, when you
refused a richer man for me, and won't let me give you half I want to
now, when I have the right? Girls do it every day, poor things, and
are taught to think it is their only salvation; but you had better lessons,
and, though I trembled for you at one time, I was not disappointed,
for the daughter was true to the mother's teaching. I told mamma so
yesterday, and she looked as glad and grateful as if I'd given her a
<span class="pagenum">[Pg 546]</span>
check for a million, to be spent in charity. You are not listening to
my moral remarks, Mrs. Laurence;" and Laurie paused, for Amy's
eyes had an absent look, though fixed upon his face.</p>
<p class="indent">"Yes, I am, and admiring the dimple in your chin at the same
time. I don't wish to make you vain, but I must confess that I'm
prouder of my handsome husband than of all his money. Don't
laugh, but your nose is <i>such</i> a comfort to me;" and Amy softly caressed
the well-cut feature with artistic satisfaction.</p>
<p class="indent">Laurie had received many compliments in his life, but never one
that suited him better, as he plainly showed, though he did laugh at
his wife's peculiar taste, while she said slowly,—</p>
<p class="indent">"May I ask you a question, dear?"</p>
<p class="indent">"Of course you may."</p>
<p class="indent">"Shall you care if Jo does marry Mr. Bhaer?"</p>
<p class="indent">"Oh, that's the trouble, is it? I thought there was something in
the dimple that didn't suit you. Not being a dog in the manger,
but the happiest fellow alive, I assure you I can dance at Jo's
wedding with a heart as light as my heels. Do you doubt it, my
darling?"</p>
<p class="indent">Amy looked up at him, and was satisfied; her last little jealous fear
vanished forever, and she thanked him, with a face full of love and
confidence.</p>
<p class="indent">"I wish we could do something for that capital old Professor.
Couldn't we invent a rich relation, who shall obligingly die out there
in Germany, and leave him a tidy little fortune?" said Laurie, when
they began to pace up and down the long drawing-room, arm-in-arm,
as they were fond of doing, in memory of the chateau garden.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="b187.png" id="b187.png"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/b187.png" width-obs="400" height-obs="497" alt="They began to pace up and down" title="They began to pace up and down" /></div>
<p class="indent">"Jo would find us out, and spoil it all; she is very proud of him,
just as he is, and said yesterday that she thought poverty was a beautiful
thing."</p>
<p class="indent">"Bless her dear heart! she won't think so when she has a literary
husband, and a dozen little professors and professorins to support.
We won't interfere now, but watch our chance, and do them a good
turn in spite of themselves. I owe Jo for a part of my education, and
she believes in people's paying their honest debts, so I'll get round
her in that way."</p>
<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 547]</span>
"How delightful it is to be able to help others, isn't it? That was
always one of my dreams, to have the power of giving freely; and,
thanks to you, the dream has come true."</p>
<p class="indent">"Ah! we'll do quantities of good, won't we? There's one sort of
poverty that I particularly like to help. Out-and-out beggars get
taken care of, but poor gentlefolks fare badly, because they won't ask,
and people don't dare to offer charity; yet there are a thousand ways
of helping them, if one only knows how to do it so delicately that it
does not offend. I must say, I like to serve a decayed gentleman
better than a blarneying beggar; I suppose it's wrong, but I do,
though it is harder."</p>
<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 548]</span>
"Because it takes a gentleman to do it," added the other member
of the domestic admiration society.</p>
<p class="indent">"Thank you, I'm afraid I don't deserve that pretty compliment.
But I was going to say that while I was dawdling about abroad, I
saw a good many talented young fellows making all sorts of sacrifices,
and enduring real hardships, that they might realize their dreams.
Splendid fellows, some of them, working like heroes, poor and friendless,
but so full of courage, patience, and ambition, that I was ashamed
of myself, and longed to give them a right good lift. Those are people
whom it's a satisfaction to help, for if they've got genius, it's an
honor to be allowed to serve them, and not let it be lost or delayed
for want of fuel to keep the pot boiling; if they haven't, it's a pleasure
to comfort the poor souls, and keep them from despair when
they find it out."</p>
<p class="indent">"Yes, indeed; and there's another class who can't ask, and who
suffer in silence. I know something of it, for I belonged to it before
you made a princess of me, as the king does the beggar-maid in the
old story. Ambitious girls have a hard time, Laurie, and often have
to see youth, health, and precious opportunities go by, just for want
of a little help at the right minute. People have been very kind to
me; and whenever I see girls struggling along, as we used to do, I
want to put out my hand and help them, as I was helped."</p>
<p class="indent">"And so you shall, like an angel as you are!" cried Laurie, resolving,
with a glow of philanthropic zeal, to found and endow an institution
for the express benefit of young women with artistic tendencies.
"Rich people have no right to sit down and enjoy themselves, or let
their money accumulate for others to waste. It's not half so sensible
to leave legacies when one dies as it is to use the money wisely while
alive, and enjoy making one's fellow-creatures happy with it. We'll
have a good time ourselves, and add an extra relish to our own pleasure
by giving other people a generous taste. Will you be a little
Dorcas, going about emptying a big basket of comforts, and filling it
up with good deeds?"</p>
<p class="indent">"With all my heart, if you will be a brave St. Martin, stopping, as
you ride gallantly through the world, to share your cloak with the
beggar."</p>
<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 549]</span>
"It's a bargain, and we shall get the best of it!"</p>
<p class="indent">So the young pair shook hands upon it, and then paced happily on
again, feeling that their pleasant home was more home-like because
they hoped to brighten other homes, believing that their own feet
would walk more uprightly along the flowery path before them, if they
smoothed rough ways for other feet, and feeling that their hearts were
more closely knit together by a love which could tenderly remember
those less blest than they.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="b188.png" id="b188.png"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/b188.png" width-obs="300" height-obs="375" alt="Tail-piece" title="Tail-piece" /></div>
<hr class="hr2" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 550]</span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />