When the twins came—bouncing, healthy boys—the excitement and joy in one house equalled that in the other. It seemed now, indeed, that they could ask nothing more of Heaven; that the brimming cup of bliss was mantled all over with rose-leaves. And when “Papa and Fred” were obliged to be absent from their homes for a week, in attendance upon the doings of a court a hundred miles away, Emma and her babes were transferred with much ceremony and rejoicing to her mother’s care; given up to the petting and admiration of the doating aunties without reservation, beyond Fred’s earnest entreaty that they would not kiss the boys away to skeletons before he returned, and a threat to have them protected by copper sheathing from the fate of St. Peter’s brazen toe.
Dear Fred! the merry, handsome, stalwart brother; their only one,—who was never to jest with them again; never again to hold wife and babes in his embrace. Imogen and Blanche mourned for him only less passionately than did she who had proudly and gladly borne his name. Poor wife! she was denied the satisfaction of hearing that her name had been the last in his thoughts and speech; that the loyal heart had never beat more lovingly for her than in its latest throbbings; for weeks passed before Mr. Hiller could speak at all, and then the disjointed utterances of the palsied tongue told nothing beyond the terrible fact that the brain had sustained serious, it might be irreparable, damage. A paralytic cripple he would remain until the day of his death, although this half-life might be prolonged for years, pronounced the best medical authorities in the land, summoned without regard to distance or expense, by the agonized wife.
Stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, the four women sat them down together in the mother’s room, a month after the double bereavement, and took mournful but deliberate counsel together. Their affairs were not at a desperate pass, as they already knew. There was the house in which they lived, free of mortgage, which would bring at least thirty thousand dollars in the market; ten thousand dollars in bank stocks and other securities—solid, paying investments, and five thousand dollars’ worth of real estate—chiefly unimproved lots in a growing part of the city, that might be very valuable in time, if they could be held and the taxes paid. Fred had invested four thousand dollars in the latter kind of property, and his life was insured for ten thousand more. If Emma were to sell everything—furniture, lots and all—she would have just seventeen thousand dollars with which to support herself, to rear and educate her boys. By living upon the interest of the life-insurance fund, and paying taxes on the real-estate for some years, she might double the little fortune bequeathed to her, without reserve, by her husband’s will.
“I shall not touch a cent of it, if I can help it,” she said, in sad decision. “It shall be the father’s provision for his sons. They will need it all, in order to educate themselves as he would have wished. For the present I shall work for them and myself. You foresaw this years ago, mother. I thank God, and thank you, that you prepared us to meet it!”
“Amen!” said her sisters fervently. “Dark as is the day—so much darker than we ever dreamed it would be,” added Imogen, tearfully, yet trying to smile, “we have much to be thankful for. We are strong; we know how to work; and there are papa and the babies, darling Fred’s sons, to work for.”
“Papa and the babies!” Even the fond wife did not resent the classification. The hale gentleman whose half-century of honest, temperate life had not bowed his head or dimmed his eye; the sage, shrewd man of business, than whom none were more respected by his fellow-citizens, was a tremulous, timid child, who wept if his meals were delayed one minute, or his wife, his faithful, tender nurse, were out of his sight for an hour.
“Utterly incapable of attending to the simplest matters connected with his business!” cried open-eyed Everybody, hovering, harpy-like, about the human wreck. “Why, he couldn’t count one hundred to save his life. Of course, they will get a certificate of lunacy from the court, and sell the house, lots, and whatever they can realize anything upon; put all they have together, and live as prudently as possible. The girls ought to marry before long. They are pretty and popular, in spite of their little eccentricities. It isn’t to be expected that they will make brilliant matches now, of course; but they must bring down their ambition to a reasonable level. Beggars mustn’t be choosers. It is unfortunate that poor Mrs. Corwin has those two children. But they may not live. Twins are more likely to die than other babies. And, if they should be taken, she’ll be likely to pick up another husband. Her little property would be a consideration to some men.”
Even the true friends of the sorely-tried family wished sincerely and aloud that “each of the dear girls had a husband to take care of her;” recommended them warmly to the compassionate and favorable notice of their bachelor acquaintances, and devised pious plans of matchmaking for their relief from the inconveniences of their altered circumstances.
“The worst part of it all was that poor Emma was encumbered with the children, who would be more and more expensive every year, and that poor, dear Mr. Hiller would be a helpless imbecile all his life. And what a mistake in them to refuse to treat him as such, and have him examined by a commission who would give his family the right to dispose of his property!”
If the Ruler of the intellects and lives of men had hearkened to these benevolent economists, the crippled man and the brace of “unfortunate” infants would have been taken speedily and comfortably out of this present evil world.