Alice in Jamesland: The Story of Alice Howe Gibbens James

15. Last Things

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mW_bi from deep in Sussex, William decided to take passage for (/ March on a newly launched ship, the White Star Line’s C[]Wdj_Y.1 In mid-March Alice agreed that William should go first, she following in a few weeks, so the brothers could have a few days together.2 But at the eleventh hour, responding to Henry’s pleas for help and realizing that William could not go alone, she decided to accompany her husband. It may have been the closing of Henry’s letter (“I dream of the companionship of Alice”) that swayed her.3 Her husband was grateful to have her along.4 At this same time, accompanied by his nephew, Henry visited a London doctor, William Osler, who gave him nearly a clean bill of health: his heart, arteries, lungs, and stomach were in excellent repair.5 Henry denied that his nerves had played any role in his illness, however; he attributed everything wrong to Fletcherizing.6 Harry returned on the ;cfh[ii, arriving in New Brunswick on April Fool’s Day just as his parents sailed from Boston. Uncle Henry would have to cope alone as best he could for ten days. Alice felt relieved when she reached Lamb House. Now both James brothers were under her sight and under as much control as she could exert over them. Keeping her balance as she mediated between them would be bWij
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(+/ less precarious now because they were both physically in her care. The brothers’ decades-long, usually amicable sparring had nearly vanished, as each was genuinely concerned for the other’s health. After a two-day relapse Henry felt well enough to go with Alice to an estate sale.7 She settled into a routine, alternating between Henry and William yet still finding precious moments alone. At .:&& a.m. Minnie Kidd brought up hot water so that Alice could bathe and then dress. By /:&& a.m. she was downstairs at breakfast. After her morning meal she went to Henry’s oak-paneled sitting room and read Swedenborg’s 7d][b_Y
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M_iZec, which she found repetitive but rewarding, recalling her father-in-law’s injunction that Swedenborg was “‘insipid with veracity.’”8 The book drones on about abstractions of love and will, wisdom and understanding, degrees of spiritual and earthly existence, forms of use. She could imagine as she read that her father, Dr. Gibbens, had gone into the world of spirits after his death to review his life and prepare for heaven or hell. Perhaps she could believe he had become an angelic spirit on the way to heaven rather than an infernal spirit headed for hell. Other parts of the book were frightening, filled with the devil’s creatures: crocodiles, scorpions, rats, noxious insects, even “damned dust.”9 In addition, she learned that parents could pass on their evil tendencies to their children. While she could have received nothing but good traits from Eliza Gibbens, might she have inherited some of her father’s weakness? When Henry’s valet, Burgess Noakes, called, Alice went back upstairs to sit with her brother-in-law while he breakfasted in bed. Then all three lunched, William napping and Alice resting afterward. At five o’clock she walked with Henry for an hour or more. William was not strong enough to come on long walks, though he was able to work on his article on Benjamin Paul Blood, an amateur philosopher. Dinner was served at seven; Alice enjoyed the brothers’ long mealtime conversations.10 After dinner she read French plays aloud to William while they sat by an open fire in his bedroom, and finally she slipped into her bed, wearing her mother’s white shawl and bed shoes. During her stay Alice admired the deep yellow and red blooms on Lamb House’s brick walls and the gardens around Rye. Though it was a cold spring, Alice told her mother, “The flowers are succeeding leaf and (,&

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j^_d]i bud in the most beautiful and spiritual way.”11 All around her the world remade itself, even as the two brothers deteriorated. Henry’s boon companion, writer Edith Wharton, generously shipped her motorcar from France so that the three could drive about the countryside . Since William could walk only for short intervals, driving was the only way...