Aug 7, 2026 · 2 hr 23 min · 10 segments
"And So They Were Married" by Florence Morse Kingsley is a timeless exploration of love, commitment, and the journey of marriage. This narrative delves into the complexities and joys that accompany…
CHAPTER I. dr north's wife attired in her dressing-gown and slippers noiselessly tilted the shutter of the old-fashioned inside blind and peered cautiously out the moon was shining splendidly in the dark sky and the empty street seemed almost as light as day it had been snowing earlier in the evening mrs north observed absent-mindedly and the clinging drifts weighed the dark evergreens on either side of the gate almost to the ground a dog barked noisily from his kennel in the neighbouring yard and a chorus of answering barks acknowledged the signal some one was coming along the moonlit street there were two figures as mrs north had expected she craned her plump neck anxiously forward as the gate clicked and the light girlish laugh floated up on the frosty air dear she murmured i do hope betty will come right into the house it is too cold to stand outside talking apparently the young persons below did not think so they stood in the bright moonlight in full view of the anxious watcher behind the shutter the man's tall figure bent eagerly toward the girl whose delicate profile mrs north could see distinctly under the coquettish sweep of the broad hat-brim the child ought to have worn her high overshoes she was thinking when she was startled by the vision of the tall broad figure stooping over the short slight one then the key clicked in the lock and the front door opened softly the sound was echoed by the closing gate as the tall figure tramped briskly away over the creaking snow the neighbour's dog barked again perfunctorily this time as if acknowledging the entire respectability of the passer-by all the other dogs in town responded in kind and again there was silence broken only by the sound of a light foot on the carpeted stair mrs north opened her door softly is that you bessie yes mother isn't it very late child it is only half-past eleven did louise go with you no mother she had a sore throat and it was snowing so her aunt wouldn't allow her to go oh mrs north's voice expressed a faint disapproval of course we couldn't help it besides all the other girls were there just with their escorts you and grandma are so old-fashioned i'm sure i don't see why i always have to have some other girl along and louise gleney of all persons i couldn't help being just a little bit glad that she couldn't go did you have a nice time dear the girl turned a radiant face upon her mother oh we had a lovely time she murmured ah i'll tell you about it to-morrow is father home yes he came in early to-night and went right to bed i hope the telephone bell won't ring again before morning the girl laughed softly you might take off the receiver she suggested poor daddy oh no i couldn't do that your father would never forgive me but i told him not to have it on his mind i'll watch out for it and answer it and if it's mrs salter again with one of her imaginary sinking spells i'm going to tell her the doctor won't be in before six in the morning i do hope it isn't wrong to deceive that much but your father isn't made of iron whatever some people may think the girl laughed again a low murmur of joy good-night dear little mother she said caressingly you are always watching and waiting for some one aren't you but you needn't have worried about me she stooped and kissed her mother her eyes shining like stars then hurried away to hide the blush which swept her face and neck dear dear sighed mrs north as she crept back to her couch drawn close to the muffled telephone i suppose i ought to have spoken to her father before this but he is always so busy i hardly have time to say two words to him besides he thinks bessie is only a child and he would have laughed at me the girl was taking off her hat and cloak in her own room how long ago it seemed since she had put them on she smoothed out her white gloves with caressing fingers i shall always keep them she thought she was still conscious of his first kisses and looked in her glass as if half expecting to see some visible token of them i am so happy so happy she murmured to the radiant reflection which smiled back at her from out its shadowy depths she leaned forward and touched the cold smooth surface with her lips in a sudden passion of gratitude for the fair richly tinted skin the large bright eyes with their long curling lashes the masses of brown waving hair and the pliant beauty of the strong young figure in the mirror if i had been freckled and stoop-shouldered and awkward like louise gleney he couldn't have loved me she was thinking she sank to her knees after a while and buried her face in the coverlid of her little bed but she could think only of the look in his eyes when he had said i love you and the thrilling touch of his lips on hers she crept into bed and lay there in a wide-eyed rapture while the village clock struck one and after a long blissful hour two then she fell asleep and did not hear the telephone bell which called her tired father from his bed in the dim cold hour between three and four she was still rosily asleep and dreaming when mrs north came softly into the room in the broad sunlight of the winter morning isn't lizzie awake yet inquired a brisk voice from the hall my my but girls are idle creatures nowadays the owner of the voice followed this dicton with a quiet patter of softly shod feet i didn't like to call her mother apologized mrs north she came in late and grandmother carroll pursed up her small wise mouth i heard her she said and that young man with her i don't know daughter but what we ought to inquire into his prospects and character a little more carefully if he's to be allowed to come here so constant liz is very young and-oh grandma protested a drowsy voice from the pillows i'm twenty twenty yes i know you're twenty my dear quite old enough i should say to be out of bed before nine in the morning it wasn't her fault mother i didn't call her the girl was gazing at the two round matronly figures at the foot of the bed her laughing eyes grown suddenly serious i'll get up at once she said with decision and i'll eat bread and milk for breakfast i shan't mind she's got something on her mind whispered mrs north to her mother as the two pattered softly downstairs i shouldn't wonder responded grandmother carol briskly girls of her age are pretty likely to have and i mistrust but what that young bowser may have been putting notions into her head i hope you'll be firm with her daughter she's much too young for anything of that sort you were married when you were eighteen mother and i was barely twenty you know i was a very different girl at eighteen from what lizzie is mrs carroll said warmly she's been brought up differently in my time healthy girls didn't lie in bed till ten o'clock many and many's the time i've danced till twelve o'clock and been up in the morning at five tending to my work you indulge lizzie too much and if that young bixler his name is brewster mother don't you remember and they say he comes of a fine old boston family well brewster or bixler it will make no difference to lizzie you'll find i've been watching her for more than a month back and i'll tell you daughter when a girl like lizzie offers to eat bread and milk for breakfast you can expect almost anything her mind is on other things i'll never forget the way you ate a boiled egg for breakfast every morning for a week and you couldn't bear eggs about the time the doctor was getting serious i mistrusted there was something to pay and i wasn't mistaken mrs north sighed vaguely then her tired brown eyes lighted up with a smile i had letters from both the boys this morning she said don't you want to read them mother frank had passed all his mid-year examinations and elliot says he's just made the varsity gym team made the what i don't quite understand myself acknowledged mrs north but that's what he said he said he'd have his numerals to show us when he came home easter murmured mrs carroll dubiously i'm sure i hope he won't break his neck in any foolish way did he say anything about his lessons not much he never was such a student as frank but he'll do well mother elizabeth north fresh as a dewy rose and radiant with her new happiness came into the room just as mrs carroll folded the last sheet of the college letters i'll ask lizzie she said lizzie what is a gym team oh grandma protested the girl please don't call me lizzie bessie is bad enough but lizzie i always think of that absurd old mother goose rhyme elizabeth lizzie betsy and bess all went hunting to find a bird's nest and besides you promised me you wouldn't lizzie was a good enough name for your mother said grandma briskly your father courted and married her under that name and he didn't mind her keen old eyes behind their shining glasses dwelt triumphantly on the girl's changing colour you needn't tell me she finished irrelevantly but elizabeth had possessed herself of the letters and was already deep in a laughing perusal of elliot's scrawl oh how splendid she cried he's made the varsity on his ring work too i don't pretend to understand what particular work elliot is referring to observed grandma with studied mildness is it some sort of mathematics elizabeth sprang up and flung both arms about the smiling old lady you dear little hypocritical grandma she said you know perfectly well that it isn't any study at all but just gymnastic work all sorts of stunts swinging on rings and doing back and front levers and shoulder stands and all that sort of thing elliot has such magnificent muscles he can do anything and better than any one else and that's why he's on the varsity you see thank you elizabeth said grandma tranquilly i'd entirely forgotten that young men don't go to college now to study their lessons my memory is certainly getting poor no grandma dear it isn't you remember everything a thousand times better than any one else and what is more you know it but of course elliot studies he has to mr brewster says he thinks elliot is one of the finest boys he knows he thinks he would make a splendid engineer he admires frank too immensely what does the young man think of elizabeth asked mrs carroll with a wise smile he oh grandma i didn't mean to tell just yet but he i there there child better go and find your mother i mistrust she's getting you a hot breakfast she drew the girl into her soft old arms and kissed her twice elizabeth sprang up all in a lovely flame of blushes and ran out of the room chapter one recording by michele eaton Chapter 2 of And So They Were Married by Florence Morse Kingsley.
by michel eaton when samuel herrick brewster b s and civil engineer later the massachusetts school of technology came to innisfield for the purpose of joining the corps of engineers already at work on a new and improved system of water works he had not the slightest intention of falling seriously in love by seriously sam brewster himself might have told you as he told his married sister living in saginaw michigan and anxiously solicitous of the young man's general well-being that he meant that sort and quality of affection which would naturally and inevitably lead a man into matrimony he had always been fond of the society of pretty and amiable women and well used to it too his further ideas with regard to matrimony though delightfully vague in their general character were sufficiently clear-cut and decided in one important particular which he had been careful to expound at length to those impetuous undergraduates of his fraternity who had appeared to need friendly counsel from their elders a man said young brewster conclusively has no business to marry till he can feel solid ground under his feet he should be thoroughly established in his profession and well able to pay the shot when this sapient young gentleman first met elizabeth north at a picnic given by the leading citizens of innisfield to celebrate the completion of the new aqueduct he was disposed to regard her as a very nice intelligent sort of girl with remarkably handsome brown eyes on the occasion of his third meeting with the young lady he found himself rather to his surprise telling her about his successful work in the te and of how he hoped to get somewhere in his profession some day elizabeth in her turn had confided to him her disappointment in not being able to go to wellesley and her ambitious attempt to keep up with marian evans who was in the sophomore year in literature and music She played Chopin's Fantasia Impromptu for him on Mrs North's garrulous old piano, and as her slender fingers twinkled over the yellow keys, he caught himself wondering how much a first-class instrument would cost.
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CHAPTER I. dr north's wife attired in her dressing-gown and slippers noiselessly tilted the shutter of the old-fashioned inside blind and peered cautiously out the moon was shining splendidly in the dark sky and the empty street seemed almost as light as day it had been snowing earlier in the evening mrs north observed absent-mindedly and the clinging drifts weighed the dark evergreens on either side of the gate almost to the ground a dog barked noisily from his kennel in the neighbouring yard and a chorus of answering barks acknowledged the signal some one was coming along the moonlit street there were two figures as mrs north had expected she craned her plump neck anxiously forward as the gate clicked and the light girlish laugh floated up on the frosty air dear she murmured i do hope betty will come right into the house it is too cold to stand outside talking apparently the young persons below did not think so they stood in the bright moonlight in full view of the anxious watcher behind the shutter the man's tall figure bent eagerly toward the girl whose delicate profile mrs north could see distinctly under the coquettish sweep of the broad hat-brim the child ought to have worn her high overshoes she was thinking when she was startled by the vision of the tall broad figure stooping over the short slight one then the key clicked in the lock and the front door opened softly the sound was echoed by the closing gate as the tall figure tramped briskly away over the creaking snow the neighbour's dog barked again perfunctorily this time as if acknowledging the entire respectability of the passer-by all the other dogs in town responded in kind and again there was silence broken only by the sound of a light foot on the carpeted stair mrs north opened her door softly is that you bessie yes mother isn't it very late child it is only half-past eleven did louise go with you no mother she had a sore throat and it was snowing so her aunt wouldn't allow her to go oh mrs north's voice expressed a faint disapproval of course we couldn't help it besides all the other girls were there just with their escorts you and grandma are so old-fashioned i'm sure i don't see why i always have to have some other girl along and louise gleney of all persons i couldn't help being just a little bit glad that she couldn't go did you have a nice time dear the girl turned a radiant face upon her mother oh we had a lovely time she murmured ah i'll tell you about it to-morrow is father home yes he came in early to-night and went right to bed i hope the telephone bell won't ring again before morning the girl laughed softly you might take off the receiver she suggested poor daddy oh no i couldn't do that your father would never forgive me but i told him not to have it on his mind i'll watch out for it and answer it and if it's mrs salter again with one of her imaginary sinking spells i'm going to tell her the doctor won't be in before six in the morning i do hope it isn't wrong to deceive that much but your father isn't made of iron whatever some people may think the girl laughed again a low murmur of joy good-night dear little mother she said caressingly you are always watching and waiting for some one aren't you but you needn't have worried about me she stooped and kissed her mother her eyes shining like stars then hurried away to hide the blush which swept her face and neck dear dear sighed mrs north as she crept back to her couch drawn close to the muffled telephone i suppose i ought to have spoken to her father before this but he is always so busy i hardly have time to say two words to him besides he thinks bessie is only a child and he would have laughed at me the girl was taking off her hat and cloak in her own room how long ago it seemed since she had put them on she smoothed out her white gloves with caressing fingers i shall always keep them she thought she was still conscious of his first kisses and looked in her glass as if half expecting to see some visible token of them i am so happy so happy she murmured to the radiant reflection which smiled back at her from out its shadowy depths she leaned forward and touched the cold smooth surface with her lips in a sudden passion of gratitude for the fair richly tinted skin the large bright eyes with their long curling lashes the masses of brown waving hair and the pliant beauty of the strong young figure in the mirror if i had been freckled and stoop-shouldered and awkward like louise gleney he couldn't have loved me she was thinking she sank to her knees after a while and buried her face in the coverlid of her little bed but she could think only of the look in his eyes when he had said i love you and the thrilling touch of his lips on hers she crept into bed and lay there in a wide-eyed rapture while the village clock struck one and after a long blissful hour two then she fell asleep and did not hear the telephone bell which called her tired father from his bed in the dim cold hour between three and four she was still rosily asleep and dreaming when mrs north came softly into the room in the broad sunlight of the winter morning isn't lizzie awake yet inquired a brisk voice from the hall my my but girls are idle creatures nowadays the owner of the voice followed this dicton with a quiet patter of softly shod feet i didn't like to call her mother apologized mrs north she came in late and grandmother carroll pursed up her small wise mouth i heard her she said and that young man with her i don't know daughter but what we ought to inquire into his prospects and character a little more carefully if he's to be allowed to come here so constant liz is very young and-oh grandma protested a drowsy voice from the pillows i'm twenty twenty yes i know you're twenty my dear quite old enough i should say to be out of bed before nine in the morning it wasn't her fault mother i didn't call her the girl was gazing at the two round matronly figures at the foot of the bed her laughing eyes grown suddenly serious i'll get up at once she said with decision and i'll eat bread and milk for breakfast i shan't mind she's got something on her mind whispered mrs north to her mother as the two pattered softly downstairs i shouldn't wonder responded grandmother carol briskly girls of her age are pretty likely to have and i mistrust but what that young bowser may have been putting notions into her head i hope you'll be firm with her daughter she's much too young for anything of that sort you were married when you were eighteen mother and i was barely twenty you know i was a very different girl at eighteen from what lizzie is mrs carroll said warmly she's been brought up differently in my time healthy girls didn't lie in bed till ten o'clock many and many's the time i've danced till twelve o'clock and been up in the morning at five tending to my work you indulge lizzie too much and if that young bixler his name is brewster mother don't you remember and they say he comes of a fine old boston family well brewster or bixler it will make no difference to lizzie you'll find i've been watching her for more than a month back and i'll tell you daughter when a girl like lizzie offers to eat bread and milk for breakfast you can expect almost anything her mind is on other things i'll never forget the way you ate a boiled egg for breakfast every morning for a week and you couldn't bear eggs about the time the doctor was getting serious i mistrusted there was something to pay and i wasn't mistaken mrs north sighed vaguely then her tired brown eyes lighted up with a smile i had letters from both the boys this morning she said don't you want to read them mother frank had passed all his mid-year examinations and elliot says he's just made the varsity gym team made the what i don't quite understand myself acknowledged mrs north but that's what he said he said he'd have his numerals to show us when he came home easter murmured mrs carroll dubiously i'm sure i hope he won't break his neck in any foolish way did he say anything about his lessons not much he never was such a student as frank but he'll do well mother elizabeth north fresh as a dewy rose and radiant with her new happiness came into the room just as mrs carroll folded the last sheet of the college letters i'll ask lizzie she said lizzie what is a gym team oh grandma protested the girl please don't call me lizzie bessie is bad enough but lizzie i always think of that absurd old mother goose rhyme elizabeth lizzie betsy and bess all went hunting to find a bird's nest and besides you promised me you wouldn't lizzie was a good enough name for your mother said grandma briskly your father courted and married her under that name and he didn't mind her keen old eyes behind their shining glasses dwelt triumphantly on the girl's changing colour you needn't tell me she finished irrelevantly but elizabeth had possessed herself of the letters and was already deep in a laughing perusal of elliot's scrawl oh how splendid she cried he's made the varsity on his ring work too i don't pretend to understand what particular work elliot is referring to observed grandma with studied mildness is it some sort of mathematics elizabeth sprang up and flung both arms about the smiling old lady you dear little hypocritical grandma she said you know perfectly well that it isn't any study at all but just gymnastic work all sorts of stunts swinging on rings and doing back and front levers and shoulder stands and all that sort of thing elliot has such magnificent muscles he can do anything and better than any one else and that's why he's on the varsity you see thank you elizabeth said grandma tranquilly i'd entirely forgotten that young men don't go to college now to study their lessons my memory is certainly getting poor no grandma dear it isn't you remember everything a thousand times better than any one else and what is more you know it but of course elliot studies he has to mr brewster says he thinks elliot is one of the finest boys he knows he thinks he would make a splendid engineer he admires frank too immensely what does the young man think of elizabeth asked mrs carroll with a wise smile he oh grandma i didn't mean to tell just yet but he i there there child better go and find your mother i mistrust she's getting you a hot breakfast she drew the girl into her soft old arms and kissed her twice elizabeth sprang up all in a lovely flame of blushes and ran out of the room chapter one recording by michele eaton Chapter 2 of And So They Were Married by Florence Morse Kingsley.
by michel eaton when samuel herrick brewster b s and civil engineer later the massachusetts school of technology came to innisfield for the purpose of joining the corps of engineers already at work on a new and improved system of water works he had not the slightest intention of falling seriously in love by seriously sam brewster himself might have told you as he told his married sister living in saginaw michigan and anxiously solicitous of the young man's general well-being that he meant that sort and quality of affection which would naturally and inevitably lead a man into matrimony he had always been fond of the society of pretty and amiable women and well used to it too his further ideas with regard to matrimony though delightfully vague in their general character were sufficiently clear-cut and decided in one important particular which he had been careful to expound at length to those impetuous undergraduates of his fraternity who had appeared to need friendly counsel from their elders a man said young brewster conclusively has no business to marry till he can feel solid ground under his feet he should be thoroughly established in his profession and well able to pay the shot when this sapient young gentleman first met elizabeth north at a picnic given by the leading citizens of innisfield to celebrate the completion of the new aqueduct he was disposed to regard her as a very nice intelligent sort of girl with remarkably handsome brown eyes on the occasion of his third meeting with the young lady he found himself rather to his surprise telling her about his successful work in the te and of how he hoped to get somewhere in his profession some day elizabeth in her turn had confided to him her disappointment in not being able to go to wellesley and her ambitious attempt to keep up with marian evans who was in the sophomore year in literature and music She played Chopin's Fantasia Impromptu for him on Mrs North's garrulous old piano, and as her slender fingers twinkled over the yellow keys, he caught himself wondering how much a first-class instrument would cost.
