The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin by Robert J. Begiebing Page A

blasted by a husband besotted by his ambitions.
    Mr. C. then said that I was to be provided for and to have no complaint or concern. Aside from those funds he would need to prosecute his journey, I was to be, during his temporary absence, administratrix of his estate and all income subsequent to his departure, which means, he reminded me, were notinsubstantial considering our combined assets from my first husband’s settlement, Mr. C.’s property and currencies, and whatever modest increase in our fortunes we, and especially I, had managed so well since our arrival here. All this, he added, he had authorized at the cost of considerable effort and expense to himself, due to the lengthy process required to supervene the conventions of Massachusetts in such matters.
    He advised the hiring of another servant girl, in addition to Cook, and, he added, he had hired a man, at a very reasonable rate, to see to the heaviest work and the partial maintenance of our lands and animals. The said man to spend at least half a day, three days each week, in our employ, one Goodman Higgins whom I know by reputation as a capable man of divers abilities and adventures. This news somewhat assuaged my immediate apprehensions, but I am no less troubled by the prospect of being left alone for an indefinite period without preparation and dependent for much on a man I know but on acquaintance. And how can I be certain my husband will return? Might he not meet with some accident? Or, given his melancholic ways, might he simply fail to return?
    I was unable to speak at first. Mr. C. continued in the same vein: that he had given much forethought to the necessity of his travel, that he was comforted by my acuteness in the management of all our affairs, that I was indeed better suited to them than he. I found my tongue enough to express my confusion and my belief that I must indeed be nothing to him if I am so little worthy of his confidence in such extensive plans before this hour of his revelations. Should I not be consulted and prepared? Was I more than a dumb stone to receive the wormwood of abandonment for these tropical adventures, these learned fervors and vauntings? Is my usefulness and success in housewifery and trade a sign that I need no helpmeet, that my reward is to be left a lone pilgrim and stranger upon the earth?
    But my protestations he would not heed. He repeated thegist of his assurances. He added only that he would return within the year, that his work was of the utmost importance, and that he thought not so much of his personal gain as of that Elixir his discoveries might provide for his fellow man. For some time he developed these themes, without listening to me, before returning to his study.
    Thus am I left in the summer of 1646. It is true I am adequately provided for in the material way. I had spoken on the eve of Mr. C.’s departure to Goodman Higgins, and discovered that he had been hired just as my husband described. Higgins further understood that he was to be at my disposal beyond certain standing directives left him for the physical maintenance of our properties. He was satisfied with the steady wage and seemed withal to be content in the details of our arrangement. I had but two days between Mr. C.’s revelations and his departure to make what preparations and adjustments I might.
    But the wickedness of my husband in this sudden flight, against my protests, becomes again clear to me and renews my sorrows. In this latest of trials I can but think that “the wicked flee when no man pursueth.” His loss of all husbandly sensibility is, I now fear, but the prelude to total abandonment.
    I can only believe that there might be some mysterious purpose of the Lord in this my trial if He has not forsaken me. And I am reminded and comforted by the admonition: “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob