Rose in Bloom (1876)
Coming Home
Rose, Phebe, and Uncle Alec return from two years in Europe. Jamie, Archie, Mac, and Charlie meet them at the docks. “[S]he received the impression that Archie was about the same, that Mac had decidedly improved, and that something was amiss with Charlie.”
Archie has joined the family shipping business, Mac graduated from College (Harvard I guess?) with honors, and Charlie was “suspelled or expended” as Jamie says. Aunt Peace has passed away while Aunt Plenty maintains the home fires on the Aunt-Hill.
Rose announces that she has chosen a career in philanthropy. Charlie condescends that she'll get tired of it and she responds, "I am sorry you have so low an opinion of women: there was a time when you believed in them sincerely." Then she lines the boys up and stares at them, just like they did to her in the first book. She's such a delightful character.
Phebe sings and Archie falls in love with her.
Mac to Rose: "I was thinking Leigh Hunt was about right when he said, 'A girl is the sweetest thing God ever made.'"
Amusing how LMA makes sure to signal the endgame pairing right at the beginning.
Old Friends with New Faces
Jamie is the captain of his baseball team. Mac will study medicine.
Ariadne, renamed Annabel, comes to see Rose's Paris gowns, but Rose didn't buy any, to Annabel's shock. There was a real Ariadne Blish whose name LMA heard years before and put in the book, forgetting that it was a person's. Blish found it and wrote to LMA that she was “very much hurt” at the use. LMA apologized and changed the name.
Charlie visits and tells her that Annabel and Fun See are courting. Like Amy with Laurie, Rose scolds him for being lazy, but he thinks there should be a gentleman of leisure in every family.
Miss Campbell
The narrator catches us up: Rose is now 21, which makes Phebe 23. She trained her voice in Europe. Rose confesses to Uncle Alec that she'd like to try the society life for a few months.
At her coming-out party Uncle Mac and Alec gossip. Mac Sr thinks Rose should marry Archie, but Alec doesn't approve of cousins marrying, and then says that if she were to marry anyone he would prefer Mac. “What, my Ugly Duckling?” says his father beofre joking about Alec falling in love with Phebe.
Thorns Among the Roses
Rose confides in Alec about people liking her for her money and young men proposing to her.
"Do you want another three months of this?"
"I'll tell you on New Year's day, uncle."
"Very well: try to keep a straight course, my little captain; and, if you see dirty weather ahead, call on your first mate."
"Ay, ay, sir; I'll remember."
Prince Charming
Charlie brings Rose her mail and plays secretary by answering them. Going through her desk he finds a ring his father gave her in and she suggests she visit him in Calcutta like a dutiful son.
Charlie was the only one of the boys who ever called his father "governor:" perhaps because the others knew and loved their fathers, while he had seen so little of his that the less respectful name came more readily to his lips; since the elder man seemed in truth a governor issuing requests or commands, which the younger too often neglected or resented.
He also finds some papers regarding the houses she inherited. She's having them repaired so they can be rented. Just like before, he scoffs at her charity. Now, I don't dislike Charlie, that's just what he does.
He wants to take her to Mrs. Hope's party tomorrow, but she doesn't want “to turn day into night, wasting time that might be better spent; and grow into a fashionable fast girl who can't get on without excitement.”
Polishing Mac
Mac's studying is interrupted by Rose, who wants him to take her to the party. He protests that he never goes, he has nothing to wear, and he can't dance. She knocks all that down. He asks if she's argued with “Adonis” and she says yeah. He agrees in the end:
"If I may hope for the honor," and, rising, he made her a bow which was such a capital imitation of Charlie's grand manner that she forgave him at once, exclaiming with amused surprise,- "Why, Mac! I didn't know you could be so elegant!".
♥ ♥ ♥
He arrives, dressed all properly, and lifts her into the carriage because she forgot her overshoes. She scolds him and he promises to behave like Turveydrop, the dancing teacher in Bleak House. He dances once with her and then starts chatting with a geologist.
Charlie stayed home because he's mad at her. Drama queen.
"You know Frenzel has shown that the globular forms of silicate of bismuth at Schneeburg and Johanngeorgenstadt are not isometric, but monoclinic in crystalline form; and consequently he separates them from the old eulytite, and gives them the new name Agricolite." Haha.
Mac departs with the professor, leaving Rose all alone, “both angry and amused.” She hitches a ride with Annabel's mom. He runs back to the party, then to the Aunt-hill. Rose scolds him again for wearing himself out.
Phebe
Phebe makes her own debut at a charity concert for an orphanage. She messes up the first song, but the other two go quite well and everyone sings her praises. Archie confesses his feelings and she's like oh noes. The clan won't approve, she thinks.
But Phebe shook her head with a sad smile; and answered, still with the hard tone in her voice as if forcing back all emotion that she might see her duty clearly,-
"You could do that, but I never can. Answer me this, Rose, and answer truly as you love me. If you had been taken into a house, a friendless, penniless, forlorn girl, and for years been heaped with benefits, trusted, taught, loved, and made, oh, so happy! could you think it right to steal away something that these good people valued very much? To have them feel that you had been ungrateful, had deceived them, and meant to thrust yourself into a high place not fit for you; when they had been generously helping you in other ways, far more than you deserved. Could you then say as you do now, 'Be happy and never mind them'?"
&Phebe;
Breakers Ahead
Rose tells Aunt Plenty about Archie/Phebe, and she is horrified. Rose defends them.
The boys took it much more calmly. Mac was the only one who came out strongly in Archie's favor. Charlie thought the Chief ought to do better, and called Phebe "a siren, who had bewitched the sage youth." Steve was scandalized, and delivered long orations upon one's duty to society, keeping the old name up, and the danger of mésalliances; while all the time he secretly sympathized with Archie, being much smitten with Kitty Van himself. Will and Geordie, unfortunately home for the holidays, considered it "a jolly lark;" and little Jamie nearly drove his elder brother distracted by curious inquiries as to "how folks felt when they were in love."
Uncle Mac's dismay was so comical that it kept Dr. Alec in good spirits; for he alone knew how deep was the deluded man's chagrin at the failure of the little plot which he fancied was prospering finely.
Okay, I take back what I said about not disliking Charlie. Phebe backs her trunk and leaves town.
New-Year's Calls [sic]
Everyone pays Plenty a visit. The love affair forms the main topic of conversation. Steve laughs at the idea of Mac ever falling in love. Rose on the other hand thinks he'll be “a regular Douglas, tender and true.” Who is Douglas?
Charlie arrives with a bracelet for Rose and some foreshadowing comments about drinking people's health. She warns him to be careful and as she puts a flower in his buttonhole he kisses her hand. The moment gets interrupted by Aunt Plenty bringing in Fun See and Annabel.
He comes back later, somewhat drunk, and she tells him to go home before Alec returns. But his horse ran away so he falls asleep on the sofa. Rose is Very Disappointed in him and when Alec comes in she can't even say the word drunk.
The Sad and Sober Part
Next morning, Alec has Rose promise not to love Charlie yet. "Firstly, because no woman should give her happiness into the keeping of a man without fixed principles; secondly, because the hope of being worthy of you will help him more than any prayers or preaching of mine. Thirdly, because it will need all our wit and patience to undo the work of nearly four and twenty years.”
Charlie laughs at the incident, she says she's tired of forgiving him, and he responds that she's impossible to please.
Small Temptations
Oh no, I hate this chapter. Steve and Kitty Van Tassel are engaged. This is her third engagement for she says “the only way to really know a man is to be engaged to him. While they want you, they are all devotion; but when they think they've got you, then you find out what wretches they are."
Kitty and Rose go shopping. Aunt Clara recently said she wished Rose would dress better, and she thinks of this when a clerk shows her some opal silk. But some woman named Mrs. Gardener comes in and tells her about a factory fire and Rose gives her $100 for the injured workers.
After Kitty goes home, Rose chances to meet Pemberton, one of her old suitors, and he flirts with her, oh no how horrible.
At home, she finds a French novel that Kitty left and starts reading it. Alec comes in the parlor and comments that her face is red.
The instant his eye fell on the title, he understood the look she wore, and knew what "mischief" she had been in. He knit his brows: then smiled, because it was impossible to help it; Rose looked so conscience-stricken in spite of her twenty years.
"How do you find it?- interesting?"
"Oh, very! I felt as if I was in another world, and forgot all about this."
"Not a very good world, I fancy, if you were afraid or ashamed to be found in it. Where did this come from?" asked Dr. Alec, surveying the book with great disfavor.
Rose told him, and added slowly,- "I particularly wanted to read it, and fancied I might, because you did when it was so much talked about the winter we were in Rome."
I think it's probably not meant to be an actual book. The time skip means that Rose in Bloom is set a few years into the future. It's simply French, which means sex, and I know it's a different era but come on, she's 21. Couldn't Alec be wrong once in each volume? Oh wait, any knowledge of the existence of sex immediately causes girls to go out and ravish the nearest man, I forgot about that.
At Kitty's Ball
The chapter opens with Jane and Jessie discussing the cousins, while Jessie secretly wonders why the heck Mac married Jane. They both think Rose will end up with Charlie, who's escorting her.
Annabel and Fun See are now engaged and Rose and Mac laugh over her having to eat rats and puppies. Um.
Mac asks Rose how he might catch the love-disease that is going around.
"Go about and see people; make yourself agreeable, and not sit in corners observing other people as if they were puppets dancing for your amusement. I heard Mrs. Van once say that propinquity works wonders; and she ought to know, having married off two daughters, and just engaged a third to 'a most charming young man.'"
"Good lack! the cure sounds worse than the disease. Propinquity, hey? Why, I may be in danger this identical moment, and can't flee for my life," said Mac, gently catching her round the waist for a general waltz.
Oh my gosh, just make out already.
“the four damsels streamed downstairs together like a wandering rainbow.” I like that line.
The guys at the party pressure Charlie to drink and Mac scolds them for it.
Both Sides
STEVE: I am so good at romance.
CHARLIE: Your girl doesn't have any ~notions~.
STEVE: Dude, respect her notions.
ARCHIE: Aren't you lucky.
MAC: "'His worth shines forth the brightest who in hope Always confides: the abject soul despairs,'"
Charlie expresses the opinion that “better women” ask too much of men, while Mac thinks "It is very unreasonable in us to ask women to be saints, and then expect them to feel honored when we offer them our damaged hearts, or, at best, ones not half as good as theirs. If they weren't blinded by love, they'd see what a mean advantage we take of them, and not make such bad bargains."
Rose and Kitty have their own talk about marrying in haste and repenting in leisure, as Kitty almost did with her first fiance. Kitty also says people think Rose and Charlie are engaged.
Aunt Clara's Plan
Being seriously alarmed by the fear of losing the desire of his heart, Charlie had gone resolutely to work, and, like many another young reformer, he rather overdid the matter; for, in trying to keep out of the way of temptation, he denied himself much innocent enjoyment. The artistic fit was a good excuse for the seclusion which he fancied would be a proper penance; and he sat listlessly plying crayon or paint-brush, with daily wild rides on black Brutus, which seemed to do him good; for danger of that sort was his delight.
One day Clara sends Rose a letter asking her to talk to Charlie. He plans to visit his father, and Clara will come with him - on the condition that Rose accompanies them. She declines.
Alas for Charlie!
In spite of much internal rebellion, Charlie held fast to his resolution; and Aunt Clara, finding all persuasions vain, gave in, and prepared to accompany him, in a state of chronic indignation against the world in general and Rose in particular. The poor girl had a hard time of it, and, but for her uncle, would have fared still worse. He was a sort of shield, upon which Mrs. Clara's lamentations, reproaches, and irate glances fell unavailingly, instead of wounding the heart against which they were aimed. I really don't like Aunt Clara.
Archie arrives at the house one morning. Charlie met some “cronies” who took him to a dinner party, and he went home in a storm (literal) and fell off Brutus. Archie cries, aww.
He dies the day after. Before he goes Rose reads him the Prayer for the Dying and kisses him on the lips.
Good Works
There was much mourning for the bonny Prince, but no need to tell of it except as it affected Rose; for it is with her we have most to do, the other characters being of secondary importance.
Our heroine returns to her philanthropy, such as setting up a summer resort for the orphans. Mac arrives there one day with a toddler whose mother died and asked him to look after her. Aunt Jane won't have her in the house so Rose takes her. Dead mom didn't mention a name so Rose calls her Dulcinea, Mac being her Quixote.
Among the Hay-cocks
Rose takes Dulce to Cosy Corner. Aunt Jessie secretly arranges for Phebe and Archie to meet there.
Mac also visits and they flirt - okay, not really, but when you know the ending it's shippy dialogue.
"Keats? I didn't know you condescended to read any thing so modern," she said, moving the paper to see the page beneath.
Mac looked up, snatched the book out of her hand, and shook down several more scraps; then returned it with a curiously shame-faced expression, saying, as he crammed the papers into his pocket,- "I beg pardon, but it was full of rubbish. Oh, yes! I'm fond of Keats; don't you know him?"
"I used to read him a good deal; but uncle found me crying over the 'Pot of Basil,' and advised me to read less poetry for a while or I should get too sentimental," answered Rose, turning the pages without seeing them; for a new idea had just popped into her head.
"' The Eve of St. Agnes' is the most perfect love-story in the world, I think," said Mac, enthusiastically.
He reads it to her and she asks if he writes and he denies before confessing. And in a bit of reverse nepotism on Alcott's part, he's been reading Thoreau and Emerson. When they part he notes that she looks “Sort of pre-Raphaelite, and quite refreshing after the furbelowed creatures at the hotels."
Which was it?
Rose takes his recommendation and they write back and forth discussing the essays. That sounds so nice. When she leaves Cosy Corner for home he visits her. He shaved his beard! And he's totally in love with her, though I don't think she realizes.
After that, Rose saw very little of him for several weeks, as he seemed to be making up for lost time, and was more odd and absent than ever when he did appear. As she became accustomed to the change in his external appearance, she discovered that he was altering fast in other ways, and watched the "distinguished-looking gentleman" with much interest; saying to herself, when she saw a new sort of dignity about him alternating with an unusual restlessness of manner, and now and then a touch of sentiment, "Genius is simmering, just as I predicted."
He writes her a poem for her birthday. “The whole thing suited her exactly, it was so delicate and perfect in its way; for she was tired of costly gifts, and valued very much this proof of her cousin's taste and talent, seeing nothing in it but an affectionate desire to please her.”
She kisses him for it, and he bursts out, “It isn't genius: it is- love!"
Rose replies that she's very fond of him but not in love. “I'll try to be satisfied with that," he says.
Behind the Fountain
Archie attends the church where Phebe sings. She's become quite popular there. It's been a year, but she won't return. “I want to be famous, to do something for you all, to make some sacrifice for Rose, and, if I can, to have something to give up for your sake. Let me wait and work longer: I know I haven't earned my welcome yet."
He tells her Mac loves Rose, which she already guessed from Rose's letter not talking about him.
What Mac Did
He publishes a book of poetry. “Unpretending as it was, this had the true ring, and its very simplicity showed conscious power; for, unlike so many first attempts, the book was not full of "My Lady," neither did it indulge in Swinburnian convulsions about "The lilies and languors of peace, The roses and raptures of love;" or contain any of the highly colored mediæval word-pictures so much in vogue.”
Uncle Mac and Aunt Jane are very proud, even though she isn't into poetry. Alec is even prouder.
Rose confides that she's kind of jealous of Phebe and Mac's talents, and he reminds her of all she does - nursing Plenty, mothering Dulce.
How Phebe Earned Her Welcome
Alec catches some illness from Porteguese emigrants, which is rather distasteful to read. He almost dies but Phebe nurses him through it. Hooray for her!
Short and Sweet
Rose: “You said you'd make me love you, and you've done it. Will you believe me now?"
Mac: “Now I'm satisfied! No: don't slip away so soon; let me keep you for one blessed minute, and feel that I have really found my Psyche."
Rose: “And I my Cupid.”
Echoing Amy and Laurie, they vow to work together and make the world brighter.
No review next month. I want a break.
This entry was originally posted at https://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/42307.html
Rose, Phebe, and Uncle Alec return from two years in Europe. Jamie, Archie, Mac, and Charlie meet them at the docks. “[S]he received the impression that Archie was about the same, that Mac had decidedly improved, and that something was amiss with Charlie.”
Archie has joined the family shipping business, Mac graduated from College (Harvard I guess?) with honors, and Charlie was “suspelled or expended” as Jamie says. Aunt Peace has passed away while Aunt Plenty maintains the home fires on the Aunt-Hill.
Rose announces that she has chosen a career in philanthropy. Charlie condescends that she'll get tired of it and she responds, "I am sorry you have so low an opinion of women: there was a time when you believed in them sincerely." Then she lines the boys up and stares at them, just like they did to her in the first book. She's such a delightful character.
Phebe sings and Archie falls in love with her.
Mac to Rose: "I was thinking Leigh Hunt was about right when he said, 'A girl is the sweetest thing God ever made.'"
Amusing how LMA makes sure to signal the endgame pairing right at the beginning.
Old Friends with New Faces
Jamie is the captain of his baseball team. Mac will study medicine.
Ariadne, renamed Annabel, comes to see Rose's Paris gowns, but Rose didn't buy any, to Annabel's shock. There was a real Ariadne Blish whose name LMA heard years before and put in the book, forgetting that it was a person's. Blish found it and wrote to LMA that she was “very much hurt” at the use. LMA apologized and changed the name.
Charlie visits and tells her that Annabel and Fun See are courting. Like Amy with Laurie, Rose scolds him for being lazy, but he thinks there should be a gentleman of leisure in every family.
Miss Campbell
The narrator catches us up: Rose is now 21, which makes Phebe 23. She trained her voice in Europe. Rose confesses to Uncle Alec that she'd like to try the society life for a few months.
At her coming-out party Uncle Mac and Alec gossip. Mac Sr thinks Rose should marry Archie, but Alec doesn't approve of cousins marrying, and then says that if she were to marry anyone he would prefer Mac. “What, my Ugly Duckling?” says his father beofre joking about Alec falling in love with Phebe.
Thorns Among the Roses
Rose confides in Alec about people liking her for her money and young men proposing to her.
"Do you want another three months of this?"
"I'll tell you on New Year's day, uncle."
"Very well: try to keep a straight course, my little captain; and, if you see dirty weather ahead, call on your first mate."
"Ay, ay, sir; I'll remember."
Prince Charming
Charlie brings Rose her mail and plays secretary by answering them. Going through her desk he finds a ring his father gave her in and she suggests she visit him in Calcutta like a dutiful son.
Charlie was the only one of the boys who ever called his father "governor:" perhaps because the others knew and loved their fathers, while he had seen so little of his that the less respectful name came more readily to his lips; since the elder man seemed in truth a governor issuing requests or commands, which the younger too often neglected or resented.
He also finds some papers regarding the houses she inherited. She's having them repaired so they can be rented. Just like before, he scoffs at her charity. Now, I don't dislike Charlie, that's just what he does.
He wants to take her to Mrs. Hope's party tomorrow, but she doesn't want “to turn day into night, wasting time that might be better spent; and grow into a fashionable fast girl who can't get on without excitement.”
Polishing Mac
Mac's studying is interrupted by Rose, who wants him to take her to the party. He protests that he never goes, he has nothing to wear, and he can't dance. She knocks all that down. He asks if she's argued with “Adonis” and she says yeah. He agrees in the end:
"If I may hope for the honor," and, rising, he made her a bow which was such a capital imitation of Charlie's grand manner that she forgave him at once, exclaiming with amused surprise,- "Why, Mac! I didn't know you could be so elegant!".
♥ ♥ ♥
He arrives, dressed all properly, and lifts her into the carriage because she forgot her overshoes. She scolds him and he promises to behave like Turveydrop, the dancing teacher in Bleak House. He dances once with her and then starts chatting with a geologist.
Charlie stayed home because he's mad at her. Drama queen.
"You know Frenzel has shown that the globular forms of silicate of bismuth at Schneeburg and Johanngeorgenstadt are not isometric, but monoclinic in crystalline form; and consequently he separates them from the old eulytite, and gives them the new name Agricolite." Haha.
Mac departs with the professor, leaving Rose all alone, “both angry and amused.” She hitches a ride with Annabel's mom. He runs back to the party, then to the Aunt-hill. Rose scolds him again for wearing himself out.
Phebe
Phebe makes her own debut at a charity concert for an orphanage. She messes up the first song, but the other two go quite well and everyone sings her praises. Archie confesses his feelings and she's like oh noes. The clan won't approve, she thinks.
But Phebe shook her head with a sad smile; and answered, still with the hard tone in her voice as if forcing back all emotion that she might see her duty clearly,-
"You could do that, but I never can. Answer me this, Rose, and answer truly as you love me. If you had been taken into a house, a friendless, penniless, forlorn girl, and for years been heaped with benefits, trusted, taught, loved, and made, oh, so happy! could you think it right to steal away something that these good people valued very much? To have them feel that you had been ungrateful, had deceived them, and meant to thrust yourself into a high place not fit for you; when they had been generously helping you in other ways, far more than you deserved. Could you then say as you do now, 'Be happy and never mind them'?"
&Phebe;
Breakers Ahead
Rose tells Aunt Plenty about Archie/Phebe, and she is horrified. Rose defends them.
The boys took it much more calmly. Mac was the only one who came out strongly in Archie's favor. Charlie thought the Chief ought to do better, and called Phebe "a siren, who had bewitched the sage youth." Steve was scandalized, and delivered long orations upon one's duty to society, keeping the old name up, and the danger of mésalliances; while all the time he secretly sympathized with Archie, being much smitten with Kitty Van himself. Will and Geordie, unfortunately home for the holidays, considered it "a jolly lark;" and little Jamie nearly drove his elder brother distracted by curious inquiries as to "how folks felt when they were in love."
Uncle Mac's dismay was so comical that it kept Dr. Alec in good spirits; for he alone knew how deep was the deluded man's chagrin at the failure of the little plot which he fancied was prospering finely.
Okay, I take back what I said about not disliking Charlie. Phebe backs her trunk and leaves town.
New-Year's Calls [sic]
Everyone pays Plenty a visit. The love affair forms the main topic of conversation. Steve laughs at the idea of Mac ever falling in love. Rose on the other hand thinks he'll be “a regular Douglas, tender and true.” Who is Douglas?
Charlie arrives with a bracelet for Rose and some foreshadowing comments about drinking people's health. She warns him to be careful and as she puts a flower in his buttonhole he kisses her hand. The moment gets interrupted by Aunt Plenty bringing in Fun See and Annabel.
He comes back later, somewhat drunk, and she tells him to go home before Alec returns. But his horse ran away so he falls asleep on the sofa. Rose is Very Disappointed in him and when Alec comes in she can't even say the word drunk.
The Sad and Sober Part
Next morning, Alec has Rose promise not to love Charlie yet. "Firstly, because no woman should give her happiness into the keeping of a man without fixed principles; secondly, because the hope of being worthy of you will help him more than any prayers or preaching of mine. Thirdly, because it will need all our wit and patience to undo the work of nearly four and twenty years.”
Charlie laughs at the incident, she says she's tired of forgiving him, and he responds that she's impossible to please.
Small Temptations
Oh no, I hate this chapter. Steve and Kitty Van Tassel are engaged. This is her third engagement for she says “the only way to really know a man is to be engaged to him. While they want you, they are all devotion; but when they think they've got you, then you find out what wretches they are."
Kitty and Rose go shopping. Aunt Clara recently said she wished Rose would dress better, and she thinks of this when a clerk shows her some opal silk. But some woman named Mrs. Gardener comes in and tells her about a factory fire and Rose gives her $100 for the injured workers.
After Kitty goes home, Rose chances to meet Pemberton, one of her old suitors, and he flirts with her, oh no how horrible.
At home, she finds a French novel that Kitty left and starts reading it. Alec comes in the parlor and comments that her face is red.
The instant his eye fell on the title, he understood the look she wore, and knew what "mischief" she had been in. He knit his brows: then smiled, because it was impossible to help it; Rose looked so conscience-stricken in spite of her twenty years.
"How do you find it?- interesting?"
"Oh, very! I felt as if I was in another world, and forgot all about this."
"Not a very good world, I fancy, if you were afraid or ashamed to be found in it. Where did this come from?" asked Dr. Alec, surveying the book with great disfavor.
Rose told him, and added slowly,- "I particularly wanted to read it, and fancied I might, because you did when it was so much talked about the winter we were in Rome."
I think it's probably not meant to be an actual book. The time skip means that Rose in Bloom is set a few years into the future. It's simply French, which means sex, and I know it's a different era but come on, she's 21. Couldn't Alec be wrong once in each volume? Oh wait, any knowledge of the existence of sex immediately causes girls to go out and ravish the nearest man, I forgot about that.
At Kitty's Ball
The chapter opens with Jane and Jessie discussing the cousins, while Jessie secretly wonders why the heck Mac married Jane. They both think Rose will end up with Charlie, who's escorting her.
Annabel and Fun See are now engaged and Rose and Mac laugh over her having to eat rats and puppies. Um.
Mac asks Rose how he might catch the love-disease that is going around.
"Go about and see people; make yourself agreeable, and not sit in corners observing other people as if they were puppets dancing for your amusement. I heard Mrs. Van once say that propinquity works wonders; and she ought to know, having married off two daughters, and just engaged a third to 'a most charming young man.'"
"Good lack! the cure sounds worse than the disease. Propinquity, hey? Why, I may be in danger this identical moment, and can't flee for my life," said Mac, gently catching her round the waist for a general waltz.
Oh my gosh, just make out already.
“the four damsels streamed downstairs together like a wandering rainbow.” I like that line.
The guys at the party pressure Charlie to drink and Mac scolds them for it.
Both Sides
STEVE: I am so good at romance.
CHARLIE: Your girl doesn't have any ~notions~.
STEVE: Dude, respect her notions.
ARCHIE: Aren't you lucky.
MAC: "'His worth shines forth the brightest who in hope Always confides: the abject soul despairs,'"
Charlie expresses the opinion that “better women” ask too much of men, while Mac thinks "It is very unreasonable in us to ask women to be saints, and then expect them to feel honored when we offer them our damaged hearts, or, at best, ones not half as good as theirs. If they weren't blinded by love, they'd see what a mean advantage we take of them, and not make such bad bargains."
Rose and Kitty have their own talk about marrying in haste and repenting in leisure, as Kitty almost did with her first fiance. Kitty also says people think Rose and Charlie are engaged.
Aunt Clara's Plan
Being seriously alarmed by the fear of losing the desire of his heart, Charlie had gone resolutely to work, and, like many another young reformer, he rather overdid the matter; for, in trying to keep out of the way of temptation, he denied himself much innocent enjoyment. The artistic fit was a good excuse for the seclusion which he fancied would be a proper penance; and he sat listlessly plying crayon or paint-brush, with daily wild rides on black Brutus, which seemed to do him good; for danger of that sort was his delight.
One day Clara sends Rose a letter asking her to talk to Charlie. He plans to visit his father, and Clara will come with him - on the condition that Rose accompanies them. She declines.
Alas for Charlie!
In spite of much internal rebellion, Charlie held fast to his resolution; and Aunt Clara, finding all persuasions vain, gave in, and prepared to accompany him, in a state of chronic indignation against the world in general and Rose in particular. The poor girl had a hard time of it, and, but for her uncle, would have fared still worse. He was a sort of shield, upon which Mrs. Clara's lamentations, reproaches, and irate glances fell unavailingly, instead of wounding the heart against which they were aimed. I really don't like Aunt Clara.
Archie arrives at the house one morning. Charlie met some “cronies” who took him to a dinner party, and he went home in a storm (literal) and fell off Brutus. Archie cries, aww.
He dies the day after. Before he goes Rose reads him the Prayer for the Dying and kisses him on the lips.
Good Works
There was much mourning for the bonny Prince, but no need to tell of it except as it affected Rose; for it is with her we have most to do, the other characters being of secondary importance.
Our heroine returns to her philanthropy, such as setting up a summer resort for the orphans. Mac arrives there one day with a toddler whose mother died and asked him to look after her. Aunt Jane won't have her in the house so Rose takes her. Dead mom didn't mention a name so Rose calls her Dulcinea, Mac being her Quixote.
Among the Hay-cocks
Rose takes Dulce to Cosy Corner. Aunt Jessie secretly arranges for Phebe and Archie to meet there.
Mac also visits and they flirt - okay, not really, but when you know the ending it's shippy dialogue.
"Keats? I didn't know you condescended to read any thing so modern," she said, moving the paper to see the page beneath.
Mac looked up, snatched the book out of her hand, and shook down several more scraps; then returned it with a curiously shame-faced expression, saying, as he crammed the papers into his pocket,- "I beg pardon, but it was full of rubbish. Oh, yes! I'm fond of Keats; don't you know him?"
"I used to read him a good deal; but uncle found me crying over the 'Pot of Basil,' and advised me to read less poetry for a while or I should get too sentimental," answered Rose, turning the pages without seeing them; for a new idea had just popped into her head.
"' The Eve of St. Agnes' is the most perfect love-story in the world, I think," said Mac, enthusiastically.
He reads it to her and she asks if he writes and he denies before confessing. And in a bit of reverse nepotism on Alcott's part, he's been reading Thoreau and Emerson. When they part he notes that she looks “Sort of pre-Raphaelite, and quite refreshing after the furbelowed creatures at the hotels."
Which was it?
Rose takes his recommendation and they write back and forth discussing the essays. That sounds so nice. When she leaves Cosy Corner for home he visits her. He shaved his beard! And he's totally in love with her, though I don't think she realizes.
After that, Rose saw very little of him for several weeks, as he seemed to be making up for lost time, and was more odd and absent than ever when he did appear. As she became accustomed to the change in his external appearance, she discovered that he was altering fast in other ways, and watched the "distinguished-looking gentleman" with much interest; saying to herself, when she saw a new sort of dignity about him alternating with an unusual restlessness of manner, and now and then a touch of sentiment, "Genius is simmering, just as I predicted."
He writes her a poem for her birthday. “The whole thing suited her exactly, it was so delicate and perfect in its way; for she was tired of costly gifts, and valued very much this proof of her cousin's taste and talent, seeing nothing in it but an affectionate desire to please her.”
She kisses him for it, and he bursts out, “It isn't genius: it is- love!"
Rose replies that she's very fond of him but not in love. “I'll try to be satisfied with that," he says.
Behind the Fountain
Archie attends the church where Phebe sings. She's become quite popular there. It's been a year, but she won't return. “I want to be famous, to do something for you all, to make some sacrifice for Rose, and, if I can, to have something to give up for your sake. Let me wait and work longer: I know I haven't earned my welcome yet."
He tells her Mac loves Rose, which she already guessed from Rose's letter not talking about him.
What Mac Did
He publishes a book of poetry. “Unpretending as it was, this had the true ring, and its very simplicity showed conscious power; for, unlike so many first attempts, the book was not full of "My Lady," neither did it indulge in Swinburnian convulsions about "The lilies and languors of peace, The roses and raptures of love;" or contain any of the highly colored mediæval word-pictures so much in vogue.”
Uncle Mac and Aunt Jane are very proud, even though she isn't into poetry. Alec is even prouder.
Rose confides that she's kind of jealous of Phebe and Mac's talents, and he reminds her of all she does - nursing Plenty, mothering Dulce.
How Phebe Earned Her Welcome
Alec catches some illness from Porteguese emigrants, which is rather distasteful to read. He almost dies but Phebe nurses him through it. Hooray for her!
Short and Sweet
Rose: “You said you'd make me love you, and you've done it. Will you believe me now?"
Mac: “Now I'm satisfied! No: don't slip away so soon; let me keep you for one blessed minute, and feel that I have really found my Psyche."
Rose: “And I my Cupid.”
Echoing Amy and Laurie, they vow to work together and make the world brighter.
No review next month. I want a break.
This entry was originally posted at https://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/42307.html