The House of Martha

The House of Martha by Frank R. Stockton

In the village of Arden, Horace Vanderley, a young man of comfortable means living with his devoted grandmother, returns from a year of European travel eager to recount his adventures, only to find that everyone he meets is too absorbed in local gossip—especially an epic blizzard—to listen. Frustrated, he concludes that true listening has become a lost art and resolves to advertise for a paid "listener." His first hire, an elderly ex-merchant, falls asleep during a dictation session and is dismissed. His second, Chester Walkirk, proves an ideal listener and soon proposes becoming Vanderley's "under-study," standing in for him at business, social, and civic obligations whenever convenient. Encouraged by Walkirk, Vanderley decides to turn his travel accounts into a work and needs a secretary to take dictation. After failed trials with several unsuitable candidates—including a stenographer paired inseparably with her ailing, ever-present husband—Walkirk suggests drawing an amanuensis from the House of Martha, a local sisterhood devoted to charitable work, including hiring out for pay. Vanderley's grandmother negotiates with the Mother Superior, Mother Anastasia, and after some resistance an arrangement is made: a sister will write for him from behind an iron grating installed between his study and her workroom, preserving strict separation. The assigned sister, cloaked in bonnet and shawl, at first refuses to speak or show her face, working purely as a silent "principle" devoted to the House's income. Vanderley grows obsessively curious about her identity. During a session, a wasp invades the room; in her panicked, spirited battle to kill it, she tears off her bonnet, revealing herself as a strikingly beautiful young woman with blue eyes and light brown hair. The incident breaks the ice—she and Vanderley debate whether she must confess the "infraction" to the sisterhood, and Vanderley talks her into treating it as an unavoidable accident not requiring disclosure. Afterward the working relationship warms considerably: the two converse, and Vanderley learns her name, Sylvia (in religion, Sister Hagar). To sustain their sessions and his growing infatuation, he begins weaving a fictional romance (of the Sicilian lovers Tomaso and Lucilla) into his travel narrative. Sylvia balks at transcribing love scenes, citing the House's rules against thinking or writing of romance, and Vanderley, with Walkirk's diplomatic intervention with Mother Anastasia, secures permission to continue. The two grow closer through the shared storytelling, until a strange episode occurs: one day Sylvia is inexplicably cold and distant, and Vanderley, hurt, abruptly kills off his fictional lovers' romance in retaliation—only to learn the next day that his real secretary had been replaced without his knowledge by the disapproving Sister Sarah, who had taken her place to spy on the dictation. Sylvia, greatly amused, reveals the switch and helps him salvage the story. Soon after, Mother Anastasia informs Vanderley that Sister Sarah's objections have forced Sylvia's removal from the secretarial arrangement, ending her visits. Before parting, Sylvia and Vanderley share a hurried, emotional farewell through her window. Overwhelmed, Vanderley confides in Walkirk and, unable to bear the separation, sets off with him on a camping and sailing retreat to escape thoughts of her. On a remote island they unexpectedly encounter a party of sophisticated vacationers who shed their conventional identities and names for invented ones—among them turns out to be Mother Anastasia herself, transformed out of her habit into a strikingly beautiful woman calling herself "the Interpolation." Vanderley confesses his love for Sylvia to her and extracts a promise that she will act in Sylvia's best interest regarding the match, though she withholds firm commitment. A sharp-tongued woman calling herself "the Person" needles Vanderley about his infatuation and offers, half-mockingly, to help him, though he rebuffs her. Mother Anastasia departs the island abruptly, and Vanderley fears she means to whisk Sylvia beyond his reach, but is persuaded by Walkirk not to rush back and appear to be pursuing her. Setting off with Walkirk toward the mainland, their boat is struck and disabled in heavy fog by a floating grocery sloop run by the genial Captain Jabe and his taciturn clerk Abner; the travelers are taken aboard, their damaged boat scuttled to be recovered later, and they accompany the sloop on its rounds of island customers, culminating in a country quilting party at Captain Jabe's home. Restless amid the festivities, Vanderley wanders alone into the woods and, by a secluded stream, is astonished to see a lone swimmer approaching—and recognizes, with a shock, the face of Sylvia.

By Frank R. Stockton · First published 1895 · Genre: Romance, Satire, Comedy · 52 chapters · 109,617 words

First lines

My grandmother sat in her own particular easy-chair by the open window of her back parlor. This was a pleasant place in which to sit in the afternoon, for the sun was then on the other side of the house, and she could look not only over the smooth grass of the side yard and the flower beds, which were under her especial care, but across the corner of the front lawn into the village street. Here, between two handsome maple-trees which stood upon the sidewalk, she could see something of what was going on in the outer world without presenting the appearance of one who is fond of watching her neighbors. It was not much that she saw, for the street was a quiet one; but a very little of that sort of thing satisfied her.

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mystery · drama · family · relationships · secrets · society · conflict · human nature · psychological · narrative · character study · tension

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