There, oh there, might I with
thee,
O, my beloved, go
and one listener was so thrilled by the tender invitation
that she longed to say she did know the land, and
would joyfully depart thither whenever he liked.
The song was considered a great success, and the singer
retired covered with laurels. But a few minutes
afterward, he forgot his manners entirely, and stared
at Amy putting on her bonnet, for she had been introduced
simply as ‘my sister’, and no one had called
her by her new name since he came. He forgot
himself still further when Laurie said, in his most
gracious manner, at parting . . .
“My wife and I are very glad to meet you, sir.
Please remember that there is always a welcome waiting
for you over the way.”
Then the Professor thanked him so heartily, and looked
so suddenly illuminated with satisfaction, that Laurie
thought him the most delightfully demonstrative old
fellow he ever met.
“I too shall go, but I shall gladly come again,
if you will gif me leave, dear madame, for a little
business in the city will keep me here some days.”
He spoke to Mrs. March, but he looked at Jo, and the
mother’s voice gave as cordial an assent as
did the daughter’s eyes, for Mrs. March was
not so blind to her children’s interest as Mrs.
Moffat supposed.
“I suspect that is a wise man,” remarked
Mr. March, with placid satisfaction, from the hearthrug,
after the last guest had gone.
“I know he is a good one,” added Mrs.
March, with decided approval, as she wound up the
clock.
“I thought you’d like him,” was
all Jo said, as she slipped away to her bed.
She wondered what the business was that brought Mr.
Bhaer to the city, and finally decided that he had
been appointed to some great honor, somewhere, but
had been too modest to mention the fact. If
she had seen his face when, safe in his own room, he
looked at the picture of a severe and rigid young lady,
with a good deal of hair, who appeared to be gazing
darkly into futurity, it might have thrown some light
upon the subject, especially when he turned off the
gas, and kissed the picture in the dark.
MY LORD AND LADY
“Please, 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.
“Certainly. Go, dear, I forgot 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.
“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 . . .”
“Weathercock can without the wind,” suggested
Jo, as he paused for a simile. Jo had grown
quite her own saucy self again since Teddy came home.
