Mr. Bruce Page #5

"Mr. Bruce" by Sarah Orne Jewett is a charming novella that explores themes of community, friendship, and the complexities of human relationships. Set in a small coastal town in Maine, the story centers around the interactions between the protagonist, a young woman named Miss Bruce, and the various inhabitants of the town. Through her keen observations and gentle humor, Jewett paints a vivid picture of rural life and the bonds that tie people together. The narrative highlights the importance of understanding and compassion in relationships, capturing the essence of small-town dynamics and the richness of everyday experiences.

• Short story

								

has callers, and I will begin this very minute to tell you. It is the
middle of the morning, but I am just down: I was up very late last
night; and oh, we had such fun! Just to think how poor Mr. Bruce and I
have puzzled our brains about each other! It is all out now, and I'm
so greatly relieved. I never knew how much I cared about it till now.
I didn't stop to date my letter, but to-day is Thursday; and Monday
morning, as you already know, Aunt Kate came home, to my great
delight, though I was broken-hearted to leave Alice's, where I have
had such a charming time. Uncle Rob's mother is very much better; and
aunty doesn't think she will have to go back, and says I must finish
my visit. But I cannot stop to write about that. I came back here in
the afternoon; and, Tuesday morning, who should appear but uncle Rob
from Savannah, two weeks before we expected him. That night, when he
came home to dinner, he said with great glee, 'Kate, I saw young Bruce
down town to-day, whom I met in London, and liked so very much. I have
invited him to dine with us to-morrow. He is a capital young fellow;
and I'm glad we have this young niece to help us entertain him. Have
you never met him, Kitty? I'm not going to ask any one else, so I can
have him all to myself. I want to ask him about my friends in London;
and he tells me he has some letters and messages for me, with which he
called at my office, probably just after I went South.' So he rattled
on,--you know how fast he talks,--and presently Aunt Kate introduced
some other subject, and I wasn't obliged to tell the state of affairs
between us. I supposed, of course, Mr. Bruce would treat me in a
proper and becoming manner in my uncle's house; and I thought--which
proved true--that he might not know I was uncle's niece; and that it
might help the matter a little. Oh, it is too funny, Meg! How you will
laugh! About dinner-time Mr. Bruce came in with Uncle Rob, and he
looked so astonished to see me there; and before uncle Rob had time to
get any farther in the introduction than 'Mr. Bruce,' he said, 'Oh,
yes! I have met Miss Tennant very often. Is Miss Thornton with you?'
Uncle said, 'Kitty, why haven't you told me?' Mr. Bruce looked more
surprised when uncle called me 'Kitty;' and, after that, he got more
and more involved, as he saw me whisper to aunty, and take some work
from a little cabinet, and act as if I belonged here. I explained to
Uncle Rob that he had talked so fast the night before, that he didn't
give me time to say I knew Mr. Bruce. We didn't wait long for dinner;
and the way it was all explained was by my saying, 'Uncle Rob, if you
please, I'll have some pepper.' Mr. Bruce started, and really was
pale. He looked at me and at Uncle Rob and aunty. I never saw such an
expression on any one's face. 'Will you allow me to ask what may seem
a very impertinent question?' said he, 'are you Mr. Hunter's niece,
Miss Tennant?'--'No,' I answered, 'but I'm Mrs. Hunter's.'--'Oh!' said
he, 'I'm inexpressibly relieved: and yet I'm sure it was you; I cannot
have been mistaken. There never could be another person so exactly
like you, and I remember your face perfectly.' Here he blushed
furiously; and, I regret to say, I did too. 'It's a dreadful question
to have to ask Mrs. Robert Hunter's niece, and I beg you not to be
offended with me; but was it you, or your wraith, who waited upon the
table at a house where I dined, just a year ago, in Boston? I haven't
the faintest idea what the name was. It was a gentleman to whom I had
letters from my father, who had some business with him. He was
exceedingly kind to me, and his house was charming; and he had such a
pretty little daughter,'--hear that, Meg!--'and I have remembered the
table-girl ever since. It cannot have been you; for I have heard you
say you were always away at school, except in the summer; and yet I am
so sure of your face and figure and hair and every thing about you,
only you have lost a strong brogue you had then. Not you, of course,
but the person I saw. I have been so foolishly sure about it, and
supposed some one had become interested in you, as I was at the
time,'--here he blushed again,--'and had educated you where you met
Miss Thornton, and that you had a vast deal of tact, and were deluding
her and her friends. I have treated you dreadfully, and Miss Alice
too; and only the other night I had the most supreme contempt for you,
because you were apparently so innocent concerning young women being
raised above their station, and all that sort of thing. It would come
over me once in a while that you could not be carrying this all out,
and I didn't believe in my previous idea at all; and yet the face is
the same. I am as much in the dark as ever,' said the poor man
solemnly.

"All this time I was pinching my fingers under the table to keep from
laughing; but when he stopped, looking to me for a solution of all his
troubles, with that ridiculously perplexed face, and I saw uncle Rob's
and aunt Kitty's faces, it would come, and I fairly shrieked, and
rushed from the table into the library, and threw myself into an
easy-chair; and I truly never laughed so in my life. I believe I had
hysterics at last, and they came in in dismay. Don't you know what
it was, Margaret? Don't you remember the day, last Easter vacation,
when Ann had gone down to Salem with her sister, and papa had four
strange gentlemen to dine with him, and I put on one of Ann's aprons,
and waited on the table for fun? I think it was idiotic in me not to
have recognized Mr. Bruce before. Only think how much it would have
saved us! He was the handsome young Englishman who went to the
drawing-room with you and mamma, instead of the library, and then went
away early. You remember all about him now, don't you? I went back to
the dining-room, and told the whole story from beginning to end, and
if we didn't enjoy ourselves over it! Poor uncle Rob made himself ill
with the extent of his laughter, and Mr. Bruce and I are the best of
friends. Did you ever know any thing funnier to happen at
Mrs. Walkintwo's? If you did, do write me. How I shall enjoy telling
papa and mamma! There's Alice coming. Good-by, my dear. But wasn't he
a goose?"

"Knowing," said Miss Margaret, "that Kitty has been Mrs. Bruce for
nearly thirty years, you can imagine what followed. Mr. Bruce made
full amends for his rudeness, and after a while it came to their
having long walks and talks together. Uncle Rob approved the match;
and, when it was time for her to come home, Mr. Bruce wisely concluded
to sail from Boston, and to serve as escort to Aunt Kate and Kitty. So
he was all ready to ask papa's consent when he arrived, and it was
readily given. He became his father's American partner, and they were
married in a year or so, and settled down in the house we left
to-night; for Kitty was always loyal to Boston, like the true Tennant
that she is. And they have always been the happiest couple in the
world, and Kitty's little personification of the absent Ann turned out
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