340: Except for . . .
Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 13 continues
Except for Lorna’s work in the cellar, Mrs. Stolz found that Lorna behaved as if she were as normal as anyone else. Mrs. Stolz considered this a miracle. Every night since her return, she had fallen to her knees beside her bed and prayed for Lorna’s sanity, and it seemed to her that her prayers had been answered — at least there were no screaming fits or mad scenes. Mrs. Stolz tried not to give herself credit for Lorna’s relative sanity, but she had to admit to herself that it was, most likely, her calming presence, her maturity, her regular habits and set ways, that kept Lorna on an even keel.
Lorna was pleased just to see how pleased Mrs. Stolz was, and her pleasure lasted as the years went by. Every morning, when Lorna came into the kitchen and found Mrs. Stolz bustling around, fixing breakfast and listening to Ella gush about her teachers, for each of whom she developed a heartfelt crush, Lorna was sure that she and Herb had done the right thing, that Mrs. Stolz had missed her home horribly, still considered herself the mistress of it, and was so grateful to Lorna and Herb for bringing her back that she felt she had to bustle about, cooking and cleaning, to show her gratitude and earn her keep.
As more time passed, Mrs. Stolz began to think of herself as a saint, a small and insignificant saint, perhaps, but a saintly woman just the same. She acquired a serenity from the conviction that she was filling each day, each passing year, with good works, that the dusting and cleaning she had always done, the dishes she had always washed, the meals she had always cooked, now had a point, a value, beyond merely keeping a home tidy and a family fed. She was working for someone who, she assumed, could not work for herself, and it was an elevating experience. She became so serene and self-satisfied that her old friends couldn’t stand her anymore and saw less and less of her. That suited Mrs. Stolz. She had more and more to do at home, she found. Keeping everything just right, making the home as perfect and as smooth running as could be was, she became certain, the key to Lorna’s keeping a grip on herself, confining her madness to the cellar. It was critically important, Mrs. Stolz thought, for her to listen to Ella’s descriptions of the boys with whom she fell in love in junior high school and high school, to discuss with her every possible interpretation of every smile, frown, nod, note, whisper, and argument. Knowing what she did about Lorna’s secret work in the cellar, Mrs. Stolz felt that Lorna couldn’t be trusted to take the proper attitude toward Ella’s fervent infatuations. That burden was, like other Piper family burdens, entirely on her shoulders, but it was, she felt, absolutely crucial that she not show the strain but continue to bustle with undiminished energy, whistle a happy tune, wear a smile.
Lorna began to think that Mrs. Stolz was lapsing into senility. She seemed to go at the most tedious household task with the unblinking good humor of the feeble-minded. She bustled about the house as if there were twice as many dusty corners as there were, and she developed rigid ideas about where every furnishing should be placed and how it should be aligned. She straightened the antimacassars several times a day. Lorna thanked goodness that she’d had the intuition to recognize that Mrs. Stolz needed her home, that she needed a home, and Lorna was enormously grateful to Herb for going along with her and providing it.
[to be continued on Friday, September 16]
In Topical Guide 340, Mark Dorset considers Personality Characteristics and Emotional Stability, Assessing Those of Others; and Personality Characteristics and Emotional Stability, Self-Assessment from this episode.
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