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12. A Form of Use
- University of Nebraska Press
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(&& '( A Form of Use bWj[#ikcc[hYWcXh_Z][im[bj[h[ZWi Alice struggled to unpack the gatherings of two years abroad: clothes, a little furniture, even underclothing for Billy.1 She had sprained her ankle at Rye just two days before the voyage, and her searing headaches returned.2 For twenty-six months she had known her mother and two of her sons only through letters, avoiding the daily household stress that had exhausted her before. Once installed at /+ Irving Street, however, she could no longer avoid the complexities of her own life. Before leaving for home Alice had reflected on what she had learned over the past two years, discovering she could maintain her positive outlook by keeping busy, having more to do than she could accomplish but keeping her own inner balance.3 By now she had assimilated the best of both her parents’ personal traits. She had inherited her father’s courage and sense of adventure without his tendency toward substance abuse, and she possessed her mother’s deep convictions without her extreme timidity. She must retrain for the daily duties that shimmered on her near horizon, and while she knew she would have to work harder in Cambridge, she welcomed entering her own zone of creativity and production, vowing to meet these challenges.4 Alice was still beautiful despite her years and cares. In a '/&( photograph her face is smooth and unlined, her hair, pulled from her high, smooth brow, W\ehce\ki[ (&' completely gray. Her deep-set dark eyes look as lovely as they had when she was sixteen years old. William found it difficult to readjust, so Alice endured his temper that fall as she resumed her other duties. “I am getting better steadily, but my temper, under even the smallest provocation, is still liable to be orful. Ask my poor wife!” he quipped to their financial advisor, Henry Lee Higginson .5 William’s health and nerves remained precarious, and when he was tired he left for quiet retreats, as he had done all their married life. He resumed his interest in Pauline Goldmark, though in a more subdued manner. He wrote to her soon after his return, asking her to remember their hikes and wishing he were able to accompany her again.6 William required Alice’s constant vigilance to keep him from canceling the gains he had made abroad. But with her prodding he managed to complete writing the second course of Edinburgh lectures. That fall Alice traveled to Newport for Edmund Tweedy’s funeral when William was unable to make the trip.7 In addition to honoring her husband’s family, she also may have relished a chance to escape her obligations and enjoy her own company again, even if only briefly. The first weeks and months back in Cambridge, while William focused on his work and health, Alice knit together a group that had lost the habit of daily family life: an aging mother, a Harvard law student, a busy Harvard junior, an adolescent daughter who must readapt to American culture, and a ten-year-old son who scarcely knew her. The house itself also demanded immediate attention. There were leaks in the roof, and the parlor wallpaper and the stair carpet needed replacing.8 She began the necessary renovations and looked for reliable servants, she and her mother going first to an agency where none of the “haughty” domestics would even look at her.9 Now Eliza Gibbens lived at '&- Irving Street a good part of the year, except for occasional long visits to her other two daughters. Mary Gibbens Salter and her husband, Mack, were in Chicago, he working for the Society for Ethical Culture. And Eliza’s daughter Margaret had flown to Montreal with her professor-husband, Leigh Gregor. Alice must be her mother’s primary companion and mainstay. To his eternal credit, at least in Alice’s accounting, her eldest son, Harry, now in his second year of law studies at Harvard after a year spent in [3.229.122.112] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 08:02 GMT) (&( W\ehce\ki[ Washington ZY, editing the Forestry Service’s journal, needed virtually no guidance. A serious and darkly handsome young man, he took care of financial matters in his parents’ absence and was learning to manage the family’s Syracuse rental properties, all without complaint. She relied on his advice and support. Billy was not there to greet his parents when they arrived...