Without the least intention on the part of either, chance words had been
spoken which would not be without effect. He had told her to do everything in
her own way because the moment he thought of it he knew he liked her ways.
They possessed a novelty and natural grace which interested him. There are
both a natural and a conventional grace, and the true lady learns to blend the
one with the other so as to make a charming manner essentially her own--a
manner which makes a woman a lady the world over. Alida had little more than
natural grace and refinement, unmodified by society. This the plain farmer
could understand, and he was already awakening to an appreciation of it. It
impressed him agreeably that Alida should be trim and neat while about her
work, and that all her actions were entirely free from the coarse, slovenly
manner, the limp carriage, and slatternly aspect of the whole tribe which had
come and gone during the past year. They had all been so much alike in
possessing disagreeable traits that he felt that Alida was the only peculiar
one among them. He never thought of instituting comparisons between her and
his former wife, yet he did so unconsciously. Mrs. Holcroft had been too much
like himself, matter of fact, materialistic, kind, and good. Devoid of
imagination, uneducated in mind, her thoughts had not ranged far from what she
touched and saw. She touched them with something of their own heaviness, she
saw them as objects--just what they were--and was incapable of obtaining from
them much suggestion or enjoyment. She knew when the cherry and plum trees
were in blossom just as she knew it was April. The beautiful sounds and
changes in nature reminded her that it was time to do certain kinds of work,
and with her, work was alpha and omega. As her mother had before her, she was
inclined to be a house drudge rather than a housewife. Thrift, neatness,
order, marked the limits of her endeavor, and she accomplished her tasks with
the awkward, brisk directness learned in her mother's kitchen. Only mind,
imagination, and refinement can embroider the homely details of life. Alida
would learn to do all that she had done, but the woman with a finer nature
would do it in a different way. Holcroft already knew he liked this way