Margie's Venture

Margie's Venture by Mary E. Ropes

Margie's Venture* by Mary E. Ropes follows Margery Grayling, the third of five daughters in a genteel but financially declining family, as she takes independent action to relieve her widowed mother's mounting debts. The novel opens with Harry Mayne, first officer on a merchant steamship, bidding farewell to his young fiancée Fay Grayling before a year-long voyage. Margie, Fay's elder sister by three years, suppresses a deep but unacknowledged attachment to Harry and watches his departure in silent grief. Shortly after, Mrs. Grayling reveals that her investment income has fallen sharply and the family must economise. Each daughter volunteers a sacrifice — Mattie to teach the younger children, Lettie to cook, Fay to help with domestic work — but Margie, unwilling to work at home, quietly scans the newspapers until she finds an advertisement for a companion-attendant to an invalid widow, Mrs. Beach, at Garden Lodge in Surrey. She applies, interviews successfully, and accepts the post over her mother's disapproval that she has taken something little better than a servant's place. At Garden Lodge, Margie encounters a mixed household. Mrs. Beach herself is kind, motherly, and fair. Her son Nicholas is idle, dissipated, and soon begins pursuing Margie with unwanted familiarity. Margie confronts him with cool dignity and reports the intrusion directly to Mrs. Beach, who rearranges Margie's duties so she works entirely in the upper rooms. Mrs. Beach's niece Mabel Raye, a passionate and unscrupulous dark beauty of Creole descent, is informally engaged to Nicholas and conceives an intense, irrational jealousy of Margie. She is contrasted throughout with her bedridden half-sister Clara Raye, a gentle and deeply religious invalid who occupies the east wing of the house. When Margie is first sent to sit with Clara, the two women recognise an immediate spiritual and personal sympathy. Clara identifies Margie as a lady despite her servant's dress, and the friendship becomes the moral and emotional centre of Margie's time at Garden Lodge. Clara's patient faith strengthens Margie's own. Meanwhile, letters from home bring disturbing news. Fay, flattered by the attentions of Howard Logan, a reckless young nephew of Sir Peter Brooks, drifts from her commitment to Harry. Despite Margie's written protest, Fay disregards her and eventually elopes with Logan, marrying him at a register office. Harry writes to Margie from sea, heartbroken but dignified, asking for the truth and expressing that he counts on her steadfast affection. Reading his letter, Margie realises for the first time that her feeling for Harry is not sisterly at all but the love of a woman who has loved only once. Mabel's jealousy reaches its crisis when she steals into Margie's empty workroom at night and hides a valuable diamond ring inside Margie's writing desk, intending to accuse her of theft and have her dismissed. By chance, Margie is crossing the corridor at that moment to fetch eau de Cologne for Clara, and she witnesses Mabel concealing the ring. Rather than confront Mabel directly, Margie wakes Mrs. Beach, explains what she has seen, and proposes that the ring be locked in Mrs. Beach's jewel case and nothing said until Mabel makes her accusation. The plan unfolds precisely as anticipated: Mabel claims the ring is missing, names Margie as suspect, demands a search, and gives herself away during it by opening the desk with practised certainty and exclaiming in shock that the ring is gone. Mrs. Beach exposes the plot publicly, and Mabel, simultaneously rejected by Nicholas, who ends their quasi-engagement bluntly, withdraws to her room and leaves the house the following morning without farewell, joining a theatrical touring company under a stage name. With Nicholas away on the Continent and Mabel gone, the household settles into quiet harmony. Margie continues her duties contentedly, sustained by her friendship with Clara and by correspondence with Harry. After roughly a year in service, Mabel reappears — thin, broken, and repentant — having contracted a bigamous marriage with a fellow actor who deserted her and returned to a wife in America. A subsequent serious illness strips away her pride entirely. She returns to Garden Lodge seeking forgiveness, and both Mrs. Beach and Clara, as well as Margie herself, receive her warmly. Mabel's transformation is presented as genuine religious conversion wrought through suffering. The novel closes with Harry returning from sea. He comes directly to Garden Lodge and Margie meets him on the stairs. Their reunion is immediate and mutual: Harry declares his need for her, Margie accepts his love, and they become engaged. Mrs. Beach and Clara respond with conspicuous generosity, making a swift wedding possible. Mattie Grayling, meanwhile, has secured Sir Peter Brooks as her own husband-elect through her capable management of his household. The novel ends with Margie's marriage as the fulfillment of a quiet, self-sacrificing courage — her "venture" into service vindicated by love, friendship, and faith.

By Mary E. Ropes · First published 1892 · Genre: Romance, Domestic Fiction, Victorian Literature · 7 chapters · 17,746 words

First lines

THEY were a great contrast-these two-as they stood under the trees, in / the deepening twilight of the shady garden.

She-Fay Grayling-very youthful-looking, even for her eighteen years, / with her pretty, fair, flower-like face, her bright if somewhat shallow / blue eyes, her light curly hair, and pouting red lips, which seemed / like the unspent inheritance of childhood itself.

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Margie's Venture is listed on Textopian as a novella by Mary E. Ropes, dated 1892 CE.

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Genres

Tags

children's fiction · juvenile literature · girls' fiction · adventure · family life · friendship · coming of age · moral lessons · domestic fiction · early twentieth-century literature · American literature · youthful protagonist

Contents

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