Chapter Three

When Mrs. Callen gave Edward the address of their destination, he lit with an unmistakable excitement that Marie watched him quell. He wasn’t supposed to have an opinion about their business.

Marie let Edward help her mother into the cab first. When he took her hand to help her in, Marie held it a moment, and squeezed. She smiled at him.

He blushed all the way to his brown-blonde curls. Fran, their best mare, stamped and shook her bridle. Edward chuckled, said a soothing word and patted her side.

“Thank you Mother, for arranging this,” Marie said once Edward had closed the door and left them alone.

“I do know how you love your causes.”

“And you? Do tell me what cause you love.”

“Why, you, dear,” she replied.

Marie made a face. “One must love something other than family.”

“Why do you so disapprove of familial bonds?”

“It isn’t that I do, Mother, but it isn’t all there is in the world, you know. There’s more than calling hours, shopping, gossip and making decisions on household goods.”

“Is there?” her mother said airily. Marie hoped she was using a little sarcasm. “And did you know about tonight’s meeting?”

Marie had not. She smiled. “I am happy to rest my case proven wrong, Mother. I greatly encourage your love of causes other than myself. I daresay mothers spend too much time on the causality of their daughters to the point of superseding their ability to think for themselves.”

“In terms of marriage, I assume you mean?”

Marie nodded. “Precisely my point.”

“Indeed, well I’ll have to keep that in mind,” she said agreeably. Marie grumbled, knowing it was just another trick of diplomatic mollification.

As they pulled up to the great Cooper building just south of Union Square, Marie felt a flood of excitement. The last time she’d been here it had been the summer prior, between terms when she was home from school, her and cousin Bette arranged elaborate alibis to sneak down to hear a reading of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species which was positively mind-altering.

Edward helped them out onto the cobblestones. His hands were clenched at his side and his gaze kept flickering to the stream of people ascending the stairs and entering between the pillared arches. But he nodded and climbed back up to sit and await them from the driver’s seat.

“Edward, dear,” Mrs. Callen called, waving to him, “leave the carriage and come inside. I’ll pay another driver to keep an eye on it. I daresay you don’t want to miss Mr. Bergh’s speech.”

Edward flushed, his broad shoulders lifting with pride, his eyes sparkling. “Why thank you, ma’am, most kindly. I do admire Mr. Bergh fiercely and hope to be like him someday.”

Marie beamed up at him. He glanced down and his lips twitched a shy smile. It was Marie’s turn to blush and they hurriedly looked at their shoes. Marie couldn’t get Bernice’s words out of her head. He loved her?

The world was entirely and incredibly new.

“With your fine moment in the park, Edward, I daresay you’re on your way.”

Edward stuffed his hands in his pockets, a modest smile making his handsome face impossibly endearing.

Edward opened the door for Mrs. Callen who led Marie up the brownstone steps and into the Romanesque Cooper Institute, whose interior had been shaped from railroad ties and the spirit of a burgeoning class of dreamers. Lincoln had spoken here, and he’d later go on to claim his speech here was pivotal to his presidency. The institute was a school, and Peter Cooper himself had devoted his life to enrichment, and Marie could feel the excitement of a broader mind as if the hewn brownstone itself were alive with possibility.

Edward rushed forward to open the door for them.

The crowd within the lecture hall was loud and enthusiastic, an impressive mix, with a good deal of women. In Bergh it was quite clear they had found a hero. And so had Edward. He stared at the stage, and at Marie, with boyish delight.

Her mother had found an acquaintance Marie did not know near the door and was engrossed in what Marie only assumed was gossip, to her great relief. Marie motioned that she and Edward take a couple of seats in the back corner, not well lit and not surrounded by others.

She sat and gestured for him to sit beside her.

“Shouldn’t I stand in the back here, Miss Callen? I…I oughtn’t sit next to you…”

“Will the man who saved a fine mare’s life today stand while a lady who did nothing sits? Come now, hero of the day, take your seat beside me.”

Edward’s pursed lips twitched into a proud smile as he carefully sat down, allowing for a decorous space between them. Marie glanced at her mother who remained blessedly far off and out of the way, and slid a little closer.

Mr. Bergh, a tall man in a wide moustache, came onto the stage to thunderous applause.

Edward seemed painfully aware of Marie’s proximity, for he was careful about where he put his hands when he wasn’t clapping, staring at the folds of her dress and how they spilled onto his knee, and the blush on his cheeks meant he noticed how much she was staring at him.

“You’re looking at me like you’ve never seen me before,” he finally murmured.

“You opened my eyes to two things today. This wonderful man,” she nodded toward Mr. Bergh, who was taking some time to shake hands with congressional members who had been instrumental in passing his legislation, “and you. You were wonderful with that driver. That, and Bernice told me I’d been stupid not to see how you looked at me.”

“Oh, it’s been that obvious?” Edward looked down. “I’m surprised your father hasn’t fired me on the spot. I’ve tried to be a gentleman.”

“And you have been. Bernice is just a genius for knowing what everyone is thinking.”

“I overheard your father talking about Mr. Phillips.” Edward swallowed hard. “I suppose I ought to congratulate you.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort. The notion is odious. Bernice is helping me figure out how we may sabotage the situation and she has my utmost confidence. I trust you’ll also forget I said anything of the sort.”

Edward smiled as if a great weight had been lifted. His immense pleasure at the news was evidence of his complicity. Marie chuckled and turned to the stage to see that her mother and the woman she knew were there in the front row, chatting with Mr. Bergh. Mr. Bergh’s arm was on Mother’s friend. Was her mother friends with Mrs. Bergh and she didn’t even say so? Sometimes her mother’s quiet, calm privacy was maddening.

“So if a young man like Mr. Phillips isn’t to your liking, Miss Callen…” Edward stared at his knees, “Who is?”

“Someone who defends the helpless. Someone who’s very strong but only when need be. Someone who has a passion for something worthwhile. Does that remind you of anyone you know?”

Edward bit his lip. “Only someone I’d like to be.” He turned to her earnestly. “I’m sorry, Miss Callen, you… We shouldn’t be talking about this. Even jesting about it, or playing pretend. I’m not…on your level. We can’t…”

“Nonsense what I can or cannot do. Or what you can or cannot do. I daresay you’re the first boy I’ve fancied, Edward, and while society might wish to take it from me, don’t you do it too.”

“Well you do speak your mind don’t you, Miss Callen…” Edward murmured, his cheeks brightening to pure scarlet.

“Father regrets he ever had me educated.”

“I sure don’t.”

“Good then.”

They watched Mr. Bergh as he regaled the crowd with some of his most famous and oft repeated tales of dramatic interventions on behalf of animals, and took time to thank everyone that had helped make the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals possible, and that its example would set other legislation in motion.

“I’d like to conclude by saying I recently had the pleasure, the morning that the law was passed and I strode confidently into the world with a copy in my hand, of halting an offender from the deed of abuse mid-whip.” There was applause he silenced. “While my personal vindication in the moment was keen, it was only sweetened by the reports I’ve heard from precincts and patrols that other valiant citizens have been doing just the same throughout this great city, even just this morning, the news of which blesses me more than I can possibly say. Thank you, and bless you.”

The crowd jumped to their feet to see the man of the hour off.

Marie spied a tiny tear in Edward’s eyes. His hero knew he’d done his part.

“I’ll have to thank your mother; I bet she told him about earlier,” Edward murmured.

Marie nodded. She wanted to take his hand, to share in this feeling of victory that he felt so strongly, and that she felt vicariously, but noticed her mother searching for her with a raised eyebrow and so she edged herself into the light and to a more proper distance.

****

Once home again, Marie let her mother go on ahead so she could linger on Edward’s hand and pause in his gaze.

“Wasn’t it thrilling?” Marie exclaimed.

Edward nodded. “Mr. Bergh is always inspiring.”

“Goodnight Edward, again, you were brilliant in the park.”

“Thank you. I can’t bear to see one of these noble creatures treated like a mere object,” Edward said, patting Fran’s muzzle.

“I hope you would say the same of women,” Marie said, gathering up her skirts and stepping onto the flagstone.

Edward blinked. “Well…of course!”

“Good then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Will you?”

“I told you,” she leaned in with a murmur, “there’s a plan.”