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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13141-0.txt b/13141-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca07f94 --- /dev/null +++ b/13141-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9050 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13141 *** + +Editorial note: We now know that "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" was + written by Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941). Born Mary + Annette Beauchamp in Australia, she grew up in England + and married a German, Count Henning August von + Arnim-Schlagenthin. After the couple moved to his country + estate she began writing children's books. Many of her + early books were published "By the Author of 'Elizabeth + and Her German Garden'," and later she published as + simply "Elizabeth." + + + + + +THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN" + +1905 + + + + + + + + "Oft habe ich die Welt durchwandert, und habe immer + gesehen, wie das Grosse am Kleinlichen scheitert, und das + Edle von dem ätzenden Gift des Alltäglichen zerfressen wird." + FRITZING, "Erlebtes und Erlittenes." + + + + + + +I + + +Her Grand Ducal Highness the Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz was +up to the age of twenty-one a most promising young lady. She was not +only poetic in appearance beyond the habit of princesses but she was +also of graceful and appropriate behaviour. She did what she was told; +or, more valuable, she did what was expected of her without being +told. Her father, in his youth and middle age a fiery man, now an +irritable old gentleman who liked good food and insisted on strictest +etiquette, was proud of her on those occasions when she happened to +cross his mind. Her mother, by birth an English princess of an +originality uncomfortable and unexpected in a royal lady that +continued to the end of her life to crop up at disconcerting moments, +died when Priscilla was sixteen. Her sisters, one older and one +younger than herself, were both far less pleasing to look upon than +she was, and much more difficult to manage; yet each married a +suitable prince and each became a credit to her House, while as for +Priscilla,--well, as for Priscilla, I propose to describe her dreadful +conduct. + +But first her appearance. She was well above the average height of +woman; a desirable thing in a princess, who, before everything, must +impress the public with her dignity. She had a long pointed chin, and +a sweet mouth with full lips that looked most kind. Her nose was not +quite straight, one side of it being the least bit different from the +other,--a slight crookedness that gave her face a charm absolutely +beyond the reach of those whose features are what is known as +chiselled. Her skin was of that fairness that freckles readily in hot +summers or on winter days when the sun shines brightly on the snow, a +delicate soft skin that is seen sometimes with golden eyelashes and +eyebrows, and hair that is more red than gold. Priscilla had these +eyelashes and eyebrows and this hair, and she had besides beautiful +grey-blue eyes--calm pools of thought, the court poet called them, +when her having a birthday compelled him to official raptures; and +because everybody felt sure they were not really anything of the kind +the poet's utterance was received with acclamations. Indeed, a +princess who should possess such pools would be most undesirable--in +Lothen-Kunitz nothing short of a calamity; for had they not had one +already? It was what had been the matter with the deceased Grand +Duchess; she would think, and no one could stop her, and her life in +consequence was a burden to herself and to everybody else at her +court. Priscilla, however, was very silent. She had never expressed an +opinion, and the inference was that she had no opinion to express. She +had not criticized, she had not argued, she had been tractable, +obedient, meek. Yet her sisters, who had often criticized and argued, +and who had rarely been obedient and never meek, became as I have said +the wives of appropriate princes, while Priscilla,--well, he who runs +may read what it was that Priscilla became. + +But first as to where she lived. The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz lies +in the south of Europe; that smiling region of fruitful plains, +forest-clothed hills, and broad rivers. It is one of the first places +Spring stops at on her way up from Italy; and Autumn, coming down from +the north sunburnt, fruit-laden, and blest, goes slowly when she +reaches it, lingering there with her serenity and ripeness, her calm +skies and her windless days long after the Saxons and Prussians have +lit their stoves and got out their furs. There figs can be eaten off +the trees in one's garden, and vineyards glow on the hillsides. There +the people are Catholics, and the Protestant pastor casts no shadow of +a black gown across life. There as you walk along the white roads, you +pass the image of the dead Christ by the wayside; mute reminder to +those who would otherwise forget of the beauty of pitifulness and +love. And there, so near is Kunitz to the soul of things, you may any +morning get into the train after breakfast and in the afternoon find +yourself drinking coffee in the cool colonnades of the Piazza San +Marco at Venice. + +Kunitz is the capital of the duchy, and the palace is built on a hill. +It is one of those piled-up buildings of many windows and turrets and +battlements on which the tourist gazes from below as at the +realization of a childhood's dream. A branch of the river Loth winds +round the base of the hill, separating the ducal family from the +red-roofed town along its other bank. Kunitz stretches right round the +hill, lying clasped about its castle like a necklet of ancient stones. +At the foot of the castle walls the ducal orchards and kitchen gardens +begin, continuing down to the water's edge and clothing the base of +the hill in a garment of blossom and fruit. No fairer sight is to be +seen than the glimpse of these grey walls and turrets rising out of a +cloud of blossom to be had by him who shall stand in the market place +of Kunitz and look eastward up the narrow street on a May morning; and +if he who gazes is a dreamer he could easily imagine that where the +setting of life is so lovely its days must of necessity be each like a +jewel, of perfect brightness and beauty. + +The Princess Priscilla, however, knew better. To her unfortunately the +life within the walls seemed of a quite blatant vulgarity; pervaded by +lacqueys, by officials of every kind and degree, by too much food, too +many clothes, by waste, by a feverish frittering away of time, by a +hideous want of privacy, by a dreariness unutterable. To her it was a +perpetual behaving according to the ideas officials had formed as to +the conduct to be expected of princesses, a perpetual pretending not +to see that the service offered was sheerest lip-service, a perpetual +shutting of the eyes to hypocrisy and grasping selfishness. Conceive, +you tourist full of illusions standing free down there in the market +place, the frightfulness of never being alone a moment from the time +you get out of bed to the time you get into it again. Conceive the +deadly patience needed to stand passive and be talked to, amused, +taken care of, all day long for years. Conceive the intolerableness, +if you are at all sensitive, of being watched by eyes so sharp and +prying, so eager to note the least change of expression and to use the +conclusions drawn for personal ends that nothing, absolutely nothing, +escapes them. Priscilla's sisters took all these things as a matter of +course, did not care in the least how keenly they were watched and +talked over, never wanted to be alone, liked being fussed over by +their ladies-in-waiting. They, happy girls, had thick skins. But +Priscilla was a dreamer of dreams, a poet who never wrote poems, but +whose soul though inarticulate was none the less saturated with the +desires and loves from which poems are born. She, like her sisters, +had actually known no other states; but then she dreamed of them +continuously, she desired them continuously, she read of them +continuously; and though there was only one person who knew she did +these things I suppose one person is enough in the way of +encouragement if your mind is bent on rebellion. This old person, +cause of all the mischief that followed, for without his help +I do not see what Priscilla could have done, was the ducal +librarian--_Hofbibliothekar_, head, and practically master of the +wonderful collection of books and manuscripts whose mere catalogue +made learned mouths in distant parts of Europe water and learned lungs +sigh in hopeless envy. He too had officials under him, but they were +unlike the others: meek youths, studious and short-sighted, whose +business as far as Priscilla could see was to bow themselves out +silently whenever she and her lady-in-waiting came in. The librarian's +name was Fritzing; plain Herr Fritzing originally, but gradually by +various stages at last arrived at the dignity and sonorousness of Herr +Geheimarchivrath Fritzing. The Grand Duke indeed had proposed to +ennoble him after he had successfully taught Priscilla English +grammar, but Fritzing, whose spirit dwelt among the Greeks, could not +be brought to see any desirability in such a step. Priscilla called +him Fritzi when her lady-in-waiting dozed; dearest Fritzi sometimes +even, in the heat of protest or persuasion. But afterwards, leaving +the room as solemnly as she had come in, followed by her wide-awake +attendant, she would nod a formally gracious "Good afternoon, Herr +Geheimrath," for all the world as though she had been talking that way +the whole time. The Countess (her lady-in-waiting was the Countess +Irmgard von Disthal, an ample slow lady, the unmarried daughter of a +noble house, about fifty at this time, and luckily--or unluckily--for +Priscilla, a great lover of much food and its resultant deep slumbers) +would bow in her turn in as stately a manner as her bulk permitted, +and with a frigidity so pronounced that in any one less skilled in +shades of deportment it would have resembled with a singular +completeness a sniff of scorn. Her frigidity was perfectly justified. +Was she not a _hochgeboren_, a member of an ancient house, of luminous +pedigree as far back as one could possibly see? And was he not the son +of an obscure Westphalian farmer, a person who in his youth had sat +barefoot watching pigs? It is true he had learning, and culture, and a +big head with plenty of brains in it, and the Countess Disthal had a +small head, hardly any brains, no soul to speak of, and no education. +This, I say, is true; but it is also neither here nor there. The +Countess was the Countess, and Fritzing was a nobody, and the +condescension she showed him was far more grand ducal than anything in +that way that Priscilla could or ever did produce. + +Fritzing, unusually gifted, and enterprising from the first--which +explains the gulf between pig-watching and _Hofbibliothekar_--had +spent ten years in Paris and twenty in England in various capacities, +but always climbing higher in the world of intellect, and had come +during this climbing to speak English quite as well as most +Englishmen, if in a statelier, Johnsonian manner. At fifty he began +his career in Kunitz, and being a lover of children took over the +English education of the three princesses; and now that they had long +since learned all they cared to know, and in Priscilla's case all of +grammar at least that he had to teach, he invented a talent for +drawing in Priscilla, who could not draw a straight line, much less a +curved one, so that she should still be able to come to the library as +often as she chose on the pretext of taking a drawing-lesson. The +Grand Duke's idea about his daughters was that they should know a +little of everything and nothing too well; and if Priscilla had said +she wanted to study Shakespeare with the librarian he would have +angrily forbidden it. Had she not had ten years for studying +Shakespeare? To go on longer than that would mean that she was eager, +and the Grand Duke loathed an eager woman. + +But he had nothing to say against a little drawing; and it was during +the drawing-lessons of the summer Priscilla was twenty-one that the +Countess Disthal slept so peacefully. The summer was hot, and the vast +room cool and quiet. The time was three o'clock--immediately, that is, +after luncheon. Through the narrow open windows sweet airs and scents +came in from the bright world outside. Sometimes a bee would wander up +from the fruit-gardens below, and lazily drone round shady corners. +Sometimes a flock of pigeons rose swiftly in front of the windows, +with a flash of shining wings. Every quarter of an hour the cathedral +clock down in the town sent up its slow chime. Voices of people +boating on the river floated up too, softened to melodiousness. Down +at the foot of the hill the red roofs of the town glistened in the +sun. Beyond them lay the sweltering cornfields. Beyond them forests +and villages. Beyond them a blue line of hills. Beyond them, said +Priscilla to herself, freedom. She sat in her white dress at a table +in one of the deep windows, her head on its long slender neck, where +the little rings of red-gold hair curled so prettily, bent over the +drawing-board, her voice murmuring ceaselessly, for time was short and +she had a great many things to say. At her side sat Fritzing, +listening and answering. Far away in the coolest, shadiest corner of +the room slumbered the Countess. She was lulled by the murmured talk +as sweetly as by the drone of the bee. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness receives many criticisms and much advice on +the subject of drawing from the Herr Geheimrath?" she said one day, +after a lesson during which she had been drowsily aware of much talk. + +"The Herr Geheimrath is most conscientious," said Priscilla in the +stately, it-has-nothing-to-do-with-you sort of tone she found most +effectual with the Countess; but she added a request under her breath +that the _lieber Gott_ might forgive her, for she knew she had told a +fib. + +Indeed, the last thing that Fritzing was at this convulsed period of +his life was what his master would have called conscientious. Was he +not encouraging the strangest, wickedest, wildest ideas in the +Princess? Strange and wicked and wild that is from the grand ducal +point of view, for to Priscilla they seemed all sweetness and light. +Fritzing had a perfect horror of the Grand Duke. He was everything +that Fritzing, lean man of learning, most detested. The pleasantest +fashion of describing the Grand Duke will be simply to say that he was +in all things, both of mind and body, the exact opposite of Fritzing. +Fritzing was a man who spent his time ignoring his body and digging +away at his mind. You know the bony aspect of such men. Hardly ever is +there much flesh on them; and though they are often ugly enough, their +spirit blazes at you out of wonderful eyes. I call him old Fritzing, +for he was sixty. To me he seemed old; to Priscilla at twenty he +seemed coeval with pyramids and kindred hoarinesses; while to all +those persons who were sixty-one he did not seem old at all. Only two +things could have kept this restless soul chained to the service of +the Grand Duke, and those two things were the unique library and +Priscilla. For the rest, his life at Kunitz revolted him. He loathed +the etiquette and the fuss and the intrigues of the castle. He loathed +each separate lady-in-waiting, and every one of the male officials. He +loathed the vulgar abundance and inordinate length and frequency of +the meals, when down in the town he knew there were people a-hungered. +He loathed the lacqueys with a quite peculiar loathing, scowling at +them from under angry eyebrows as he passed from his apartment to the +library; yet such is the power of an independent and scornful spirit +that though they had heard all about Westphalia and the pig-days never +once had they, who made insolence their study, dared be rude to him. + +Priscilla wanted to run away. This, I believe, is considered an awful +thing to do even if you are only a housemaid or somebody's wife. If it +were not considered awful, placed by the world high up on its list of +Utter Unforgivablenesses, there is, I suppose, not a woman who would +not at some time or other have run. She might come back, but she would +surely have gone. So bad is it held to be that even a housemaid who +runs is unfailingly pursued by maledictions more or less definite +according to the education of those she has run from; and a wife who +runs is pursued by social ruin, it being taken for granted that she +did not run alone. I know at least two wives who did run alone. Far +from wanting yet another burden added to them by adding to their lives +yet another man, they were anxiously endeavouring to get as far as +might be from the man they had got already. The world, foul hag with +the downcast eyes and lascivious lips, could not believe it possible, +and was quick to draw its dark mantle of disgrace over their shrinking +heads. One of them, unable to bear this, asked her husband's pardon. +She was a weak spirit, and now lives prostrate days, crushed beneath +the unchanging horror of a husband's free forgiveness. The other took +a cottage and laughed at the world. Was she not happy at last, and +happy in the right way? I go to see her sometimes, and we eat the +cabbages she has grown herself. Strange how the disillusioned find +their peace in cabbages. + +Priscilla, then, wanted to run away. What is awful in a housemaid and +in anybody's wife became in her case stupendous. The spirit that could +resolve it, decide to do it without being dragged to it by such things +as love or passion, calmly looking the risks and losses in the face, +and daring everything to free itself, was, it must be conceded, at +least worthy of respect. Fritzing thought it worthy of adoration; the +divinest spirit that had ever burned within a woman. He did not +say so. On the contrary, he was frightened, and tried angrily, +passionately, to dissuade. Yet he knew that if she wavered he would +never forgive her; she would drop at once from her high estate into +those depths in his opinion where the dull average of both sexes +sprawled for ever in indiscriminate heaps. Priscilla never dreamed of +wavering. She, most poetic of princesses, made apparently of ivory and +amber, outwardly so cool and serene and gentle, was inwardly on fire. +The fire, I should add, burnt with a very white flame. Nothing in +the shape of a young man had ever had the stoking of it. It was +that whitest of flames that leaps highest at the thought of +abstractions--freedom, beauty of life, simplicity, and the rest. This, +I would remark, is a most rare light to find burning in a woman's +breast. What she was, however, Fritzing had made her. True the +material had been extraordinarily good, and for ten years he had +done as he liked with it. Beginning with the simpler poems of +Wordsworth--he detested them, but they were better than soiling her +soul with Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans--those lessons in English +literature, meant by the authorities to be as innocuous to her as to +her sisters, had opened her eyes in a way nothing else could have done +to the width of the world and the littleness of Kunitz. With that good +teacher, as eager to lead as she to follow, she wandered down the +splendid walks of culture, met there the best people of all ages, +communed with mighty souls, heard how they talked, saw how they lived, +and none, not one, lived and talked as they lived and talked at +Kunitz. + +Imagine a girl influenced for ten years, ten of her softest most +wax-like years, by a Fritzing, taught to love freedom, to see the +beauty of plain things, of quietness, of the things appertaining to +the spirit, taught to see how ignoble it is, how intensely, hopelessly +vulgar to spend on one's own bodily comforts more than is exactly +necessary, taught to see a vision of happiness possible only to those +who look to their minds for their joys and not to their bodies, +imagine how such a girl, hearing these things every afternoon almost +of her life, would be likely to regard the palace mornings and +evenings, the ceremonies and publicity, all those hours spent as +though she were a celebrated picture, forced everlastingly to stand in +an attitude considered appropriate and smile while she was being +looked at. + +"No one," she said one day to Fritzing, "who hasn't himself been a +princess can have the least idea of what it is like." + +"Ma'am, it would be more correct to say herself in place of himself." + +"Well, they can't," said Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, to begin a sentence with the singular and continue it with the +plural is an infraction of all known rules." + +"But the sentiments, Fritzi--what do you think of the sentiments?" + +"Alas, ma'am, they too are an infraction of rules." + +"What is not in this place, I should like to know?" sighed Priscilla, +her chin on her hand, her eyes on that distant line of hills beyond +which, she told herself, lay freedom. + +She had long ago left off saying it only to herself. I think she must +have been about eighteen when she took to saying it aloud to Fritzing. +At first, before he realized to what extent she was sick for freedom, +he had painted in glowing colours the delights that lay on the other +side of the hills, or for that matter on this side of them if you were +alone and not a princess. Especially had he dwelt on the glories of +life in England, glories attainable indeed only by the obscure such as +he himself had been, and for ever impossible to those whom Fate +obliges to travel in state carriages and special trains. Then he had +come to scent danger and had grown wary; trying to put her off with +generalities, such as the inability of human beings to fly from their +own selves, and irrelevancies such as the amount of poverty and +wretchedness to be observed in the east of London; refusing to discuss +France, which she was always getting to as the first step towards +England, except in as far as it was a rebellious country that didn't +like kings; pointing out with no little temper that she had already +seen England; and finishing by inquiring very snappily when her Grand +Ducal Highness intended to go on with her drawing. + +Now what Priscilla had seen of England had been the insides of +Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; of all insides surely the most +august. To and from these she had been conveyed in closed carriages +and royal trains, and there was so close a family likeness between +them and Kunitz that to her extreme discomfort she had felt herself +completely at home. Even the presence of the Countess Disthal had not +been wanting. She therefore regarded this as not seeing England at +all, and said so. Fritzing remarked tartly that it was a way of seeing +it most English people would envy her; and she was so unable to +believe him that she said Nonsense. + +But lately her desires had taken definite shape so rapidly that he had +come to dread the very word hill and turn cold at the name of England. +He was being torn in different directions; for he was, you see, still +trying to do what other people had decided was his duty, and till a +man gives up doing that he will certainly be torn. How great would be +the temptation to pause here and consider the mangled state of such a +man, the wounds and weakness he will suffer from, and how his soul +will have to limp through life, if it were not that I must get on with +Priscilla. + +One day, after many weeks of edging nearer to it, of going all round +it yet never quite touching it, she took a deep breath and told him +she had determined to run away. She added an order that he was to help +her. With her most grand ducal air she merely informed, ordered, and +forbade. What she forbade, of course, was the betrayal of her plans. +"You may choose," she said, "between the Grand Duke and myself. If you +tell him, I have done with you for ever." + +Of course he chose Priscilla. + +His agonies now were very great. Those last lacerations of conscience +were terrific. Then, after nights spent striding, a sudden calm fell +upon him. At length he could feel what he had always seen, that there +could not be two duties for a man, that no man can serve two masters, +that a man's one clear duty is to be in the possession of his soul and +live the life it approves: in other and shorter words, instead of +leading Priscilla, Priscilla was now leading him. + +She did more than lead him; she drove him. The soul he had so +carefully tended and helped to grow was now grown stronger than his +own; for there was added to its natural strength the tremendous daring +of absolute inexperience. What can be more inexperienced than a +carefully guarded young princess? Priscilla's ignorance of the outside +world was pathetic. He groaned over her plans--for it was she who +planned and he who listened--and yet he loved them. She was a divine +woman, he said to himself; the sweetest and noblest, he was certain, +that the world would ever see. + +Her plans were these: + +First, that having had twenty-one years of life at the top of the +social ladder she was now going to get down and spend the next +twenty-one at the bottom of it. (Here she gave her reasons, and I will +not stop to describe Fritzing's writhings as his own past teachings +grinned at him through every word she said.) + +Secondly, that the only way to get to the bottom being to run away +from Kunitz, she was going to run. + +Thirdly, that the best and nicest place for living at the bottom would +be England. (Here she explained her conviction that beautiful things +grow quite naturally round the bottom of ladders that cannot easily +reach the top; flowers of self-sacrifice and love, of temperance, +charity, godliness--delicate things, with roots that find their +nourishment in common soil. You could not, said Priscilla, expect soil +at the top of ladders, could you? And as she felt that she too had +roots full of potentialities, she must take them down to where their +natural sustenance lay waiting.) + +Fourthly, they were to live somewhere in the country in England, in +the humblest way. + +Fifthly, she was to be his daughter. + +"Daughter?" cried Fritzing, bounding in his chair. "Your Grand Ducal +Highness forgets I have friends in England, every one of whom is aware +that I never had a wife." + +"Niece, then," said Priscilla. + +He gazed at her in silence, trying to imagine her his niece. He had +two sisters, and they had stopped exactly at the point they were at +when they helped him, barefoot, to watch Westphalian pigs. I do not +mean that they had not ultimately left the little farm, gone into +stockings, and married. It is their minds I am thinking of, and these +had never budged. They were like their father, a doomed dullard; while +Fritzing's mother, whom he resembled, had been a rather extraordinary +woman in a rough and barbarous way. He found himself wholly unable to +imagine either of his sisters the mother of this exquisite young lady. + +These, then, baldly, were Priscilla's plans. The carrying of them out +was left, she informed him, altogether to Fritzing. After having spent +several anxious days, she told him, considering whether she ought to +dye her hair black in order to escape recognition, or stay her own +colour but disguise herself as a man and buy a golden beard, she had +decided that these were questions Fritzing would settle better than +she could. "I'd dye my hair at once," she said, "but what about my +wretched eyelashes? Can one dye eyelashes?" + +Fritzing thought not, and anyhow was decidedly of opinion that her +eyelashes should not be tampered with; I think I have said that they +were very lovely. He also entirely discouraged the idea of dressing as +a man. "Your Grand Ducal Highness would only look like an extremely +conspicuous boy," he assured her. + +"I could wear a beard," said Priscilla. + +But Fritzing was absolutely opposed to the beard. + +As for the money part, she never thought of it. Money was a thing she +never did think about. It also, then, was to be Fritzing's business. +Possibly things might have gone on much longer as they were, with a +great deal of planning and talking, and no doing, if an exceedingly +desirable prince had not signified his intention of marrying +Priscilla. This had been done before by quite a number of princes. +They had, that is, not signified, but implored. On their knees would +they have implored if their knees could have helped them. They were +however all poor, and Priscilla and her sisters were rich; and how +foolish, said the Grand Duke, to marry poor men unless you are poor +yourself. The Grand Duke, therefore, took these young men aside and +crushed them, while Priscilla, indifferent, went on with her drawing. +But now came this one who was so eminently desirable that he had no +need to do more than merely signify. There had been much trouble and a +great deal of delay in finding him a wife, for he had insisted on +having a princess who should be both pretty and not his cousin. Europe +did not seem to contain such a thing. Everybody was his cousin, except +two or three young women whom he was rude enough to call ugly. The +Kunitz princesses had been considered in their turn and set aside, for +they too were cousins; and it seemed as if one of the most splendid +thrones in Europe would either have to go queen-less or be sat upon by +somebody plain, when fate brought the Prince to a great public +ceremony in Kunitz, and he saw Priscilla and fell so violently in love +with her that if she had been fifty times his cousin he would still +have married her. + +That same evening he signified his intention to the delighted Grand +Duke, who immediately fell to an irrelevant praising of God. + +"Bosh," said the Prince, in the nearest equivalent his mother-tongue +provided. + +This was very bad. Not, I mean, that the Prince should have said Bosh, +for he was so great that there was not a Grand Duke in Europe to whom +he might not have said it if he wanted to; but that Priscilla should +have been in imminent danger of marriage. Among Fritzing's many +preachings there had been one, often repeated in the strongest +possible language, that of all existing contemptibilities the very +most contemptible was for a woman to marry any one she did not love; +and the peroration, also extremely forcible, had been an announcement +that the prince did not exist who was fit to tie her shoestrings. This +Priscilla took to be an exaggeration, for she had no very great notion +of her shoestrings; but she did agree with the rest. The subject +however was an indifferent one, her father never yet having asked her +to marry anybody; and so long as he did not do so she need not, she +thought, waste time thinking about it. Now the peril was upon her, +suddenly, most unexpectedly, very menacingly. She knew there was no +hope from the moment she saw her father's face quite distorted by +delight. He took her hand and kissed it. To him she was already a +queen. As usual she gave him the impression of behaving exactly as he +could have wished. She certainly said very little, for she had long +ago learned the art of being silent; but her very silences were +somehow exquisite, and the Grand Duke thought her perfect. She gave +him to understand almost without words that it was a great surprise, +an immense honour, a huge compliment, but so sudden that she would be +grateful to both himself and the Prince if nothing more need be said +about it for a week or two--nothing, at least, till formal +negotiations had been opened. "I saw him yesterday for the first +time," she pleaded, "so naturally I am rather overwhelmed." + +Privately she had thought, his eyes, which he had never taken off her, +kind and pleasant; and if she had known of his having said Bosh who +knows but that he might have had a chance? As it was, the moment she +was alone she sent flying for Fritzing. "What," she said, "do you say +to my marrying this man?" + +"If you do, ma'am," said Fritzing, and his face seemed one blaze of +white conviction, "you will undoubtedly be eternally lost." + + + + +II + + +They fled on bicycles in the dusk. The goddess Good Luck, who seems to +have a predilection for sinners, helped them in a hundred ways. +Without her they would certainly not have got far, for both were very +ignorant of the art of running away. Once flight was decided on +Fritzing planned elaborately and feverishly, got things thought out +and arranged as well as he, poor harassed man, possibly could. But +what in this law-bound world can sinners do without the help of Luck? +She, amused and smiling dame, walked into the castle and smote the +Countess Disthal with influenza, crushing her down helpless into her +bed, and holding her there for days by the throat. While one hand was +doing this, with the other she gaily swept the Grand Duke into East +Prussia, a terrific distance, whither, all unaware of how he was being +trifled with, he thought he was being swept by an irresistible desire +to go, before the business of Priscilla's public betrothal should +begin, and shoot the roebucks of a friend. + +The Countess was thrust into her bed at noon of a Monday in October. +At three the Grand Duke started for East Prussia, incognito in a +motor--you know the difficulty news has in reaching persons in +motors. At four one of Priscilla's maids, an obscure damsel who had +been at the mercy of the others and was chosen because she hated them, +tripped out of the castle with shining eyes and pockets heavy with +bribes, and caused herself to be whisked away by the afternoon express +to Cologne. At six, just as the castle guard was being relieved, two +persons led their bicycles through the archway and down across the +bridge. It was dark, and nobody recognized them. Fritzing was got up +sportingly, almost waggishly--heaven knows his soul was not feeling +waggish--as differently as possible from his usual sober clothes. +Somehow he reminded Priscilla of a circus, and she found it extremely +hard not to laugh. On his head he had a cap with ear-pieces that hid +his grey hair; round his neck a gaudy handkerchief muffled well about +his face; immense goggles cloaked the familiar overhanging eyebrows +and deep-set eyes, goggles curiously at variance with the dapper +briskness of his gaitered legs. The Princess was in ordinary blue +serge, short and rather shabby, it having been subjected for hours +daily during the past week to rough treatment by the maid now +travelling to Cologne. As for her face and hair, they were completely +hidden in the swathings of a motor-veil. + +The sentinels stared rather as these two figures pushed their bicycles +through the gates, and undoubtedly did for some time afterwards wonder +who they could have been. The same thing happened down below on the +bridge; but once over that and in the town all they had to do was to +ride straight ahead. They were going to bicycle fifteen miles to Rühl, +a small town with a railway station on the main line between Kunitz +and Cologne. Express trains do not stop at Rühl, but there was a slow +train at eight which would get them to Gerstein, the capital of the +next duchy, by midnight. Here they would change into the Cologne +express; here they would join the bribed maid; here luggage had been +sent by Fritzing,--a neat bag for himself, and a neat box for his +niece. The neat box was filled with neat garments suggested to him by +the young lady in the shop in Gerstein where he had been two days +before to buy them. She told him of many other articles which, she +said, no lady's wardrobe could be considered complete without; and the +distracted man, fearing the whole shop would presently be put into +trunks and sent to the station to meet them, had ended by flinging +down two notes for a hundred marks each and bidding her keep strictly +within that limit. The young lady became very scornful. She told him +that she had never heard of any one being clothed from head to foot +inside and out, even to brushes, soap, and an umbrella, for two +hundred marks. Fritzing, in dread of conspicuous masses of luggage, +yet staggered by the girl's conviction, pulled out a third hundred +mark note, but added words in his extremity of so strong and final a +nature, that she, quailing, did keep within this limit, and the box +was packed. Thus Priscilla's outfit cost almost exactly fifteen +pounds. It will readily be imagined that it was neat. + +Painfully the two fugitives rode through the cobbled streets of +Kunitz. Priscilla was very shaky on a bicycle, and so was Fritzing. +Some years before this, when it had been the fashion, she had bicycled +every day in the grand ducal park on the other side of the town. Then, +tired of it, she had given it up; and now for the last week or two, +ever since Fritzing had told her that if they fled it would have to be +on bicycles, she had pretended a renewed passion for it, riding every +day round and round a circle of which the chilled and astonished +Countess Disthal, whose duty it was to stand and watch, had been the +disgusted central point. But the cobbles of Kunitz are very different +from those smooth places in the park. All who bicycle round Kunitz +know them as trying to the most skilful. Naturally, then, the +fugitives advanced very slowly, Fritzing's heart in his mouth each +time they passed a brightly-lit shop or a person who looked at them. +Conceive how nearly this poor heart must have jumped right out of his +mouth, leaving him dead, when a policeman who had been watching them +strode suddenly into the middle of the street, put up his hand, and +said, "Halt." + +Fritzing, unstrung man, received a shock so awful that he obeyed by +falling off. Priscilla, wholly unused to being told to halt and +absorbed by the difficulties of the way, did not grasp that the order +was meant for her and rode painfully on. Seeing this, the policeman +very gallantly removed her from her bicycle by putting his arms round +her and lifting her off. He set her quite gently on her feet, and was +altogether a charming policeman, as unlike those grim and ghastly eyes +of the law that glare up and down the streets of, say, Berlin, as it +is possible to imagine. + +But Priscilla was perfectly molten with rage, insulted as she had +never been in her life. "How dare you--how dare you," she stammered, +suffocating; and forgetting everything but an overwhelming desire to +box the giant's ears she had actually raised her hand to do it, which +would of course have been the ruin of her plan and the end of my tale, +when Fritzing, recovering his presence of mind, cried out in tones of +unmistakable agony, "Niece, be calm." + +She calmed at once to a calm of frozen horror. + +"Now, sir," said Fritzing, assuming an air of brisk bravery and +guiltlessness, "what can we do for you?" + +"Light your lamps," said the policeman, laconically. + +They did; or rather Fritzing did, while Priscilla stood passive. + +"I too have a niece," said the policeman, watching Fritzing at work; +"but I light no lamps for her. One should not wait on one's niece. +One's niece should wait on one." + +Fritzing did not answer. He finished lighting the lamps, and then +held Priscilla's bicycle and started her. + +"I never did that for my niece," said the policeman. + +"Confound your niece, sir," was on the tip of Fritzing's tongue; but +he gulped it down, and remarking instead as pleasantly as he could +that being an uncle did not necessarily prevent your being a +gentleman, picked up his bicycle and followed Priscilla. + +The policeman shook his head as they disappeared round the corner. +"One does not light lamps for one's niece," he repeated to himself. +"It's against nature. Consequently, though the peppery Fräulein may +well be somebody's niece she is not his." + +"Oh," murmured Priscilla, after they had ridden some way without +speaking, "I'm deteriorating already. For the first time in my life +I've wanted to box people's ears." + +"The provocation was great, ma'am," said Fritzing, himself shattered +by the spectacle of his Princess being lifted about by a policeman. + +"Do you think--" Priscilla hesitated, and looked at him. Her bicycle +immediately hesitated too, and swerving across the road taught her it +would have nothing looked at except its handles. "Do you think," she +went on, after she had got herself straight again, "that the way I'm +going to live now will make me want to do it often?" + +"Heaven forbid, ma'am. You are now going to live a most noble +life--the only fitting life for the thoughtful and the earnest. It +will be, once you are settled, far more sheltered from contact with +that which stirs ignoble impulses than anything your Grand Ducal +Highness has hitherto known." + +"If you mean policemen by things that stir ignoble impulses," said +Priscilla, "I was sheltered enough from them before. Why, I never +spoke to one. Much less"--she shuddered--"much less ever touched one." + +"Ma'am, you do not repent?" + +"Heavens, no," said Priscilla, pressing onward. + +Outside Rühl, about a hundred yards before its houses begin, there is +a pond by the wayside. Into this, after waiting a moment peering up +and down the dark road to see whether anybody was looking, Fritzing +hurled the bicycles. He knew the pond was deep, for he had studied it +the day he bought Priscilla's outfit; and the two bicycles one after +the other were hurled remorsely into the middle of it, disappearing +each in its turn with a tremendous splash and gurgle. Then they walked +on quickly towards the railway station, infinitely relieved to be on +their own feet again, and between them, all unsuspected, walked the +radiant One with the smiling eyes, she who was half-minded to see this +game through, giving the players just so many frights as would keep +her amused, the fickle, laughing goddess Good Luck. + +They caught the train neatly at Rühl. They only had to wait about the +station for ten minutes before it came in. Hardly any one was there, +and nobody took the least notice of them. Fritzing, after a careful +look round to see if it contained people he knew, put the Princess +into a second-class carriage labelled _Frauen_, and then respectfully +withdrew to another part of the train. He had decided that +second-class was safest. People in that country nearly always travel +second-class, especially women,--at all times in such matters more +economical than men; and a woman by herself in a first-class carriage +would have been an object of surmise and curiosity at every station. +Therefore Priscilla was put into the carriage labelled _Frauen_, and +found herself for the first time in her life alone with what she had +hitherto only heard alluded to vaguely as the public. + +She sat down in a corner with an odd feeling of surprise at being +included in the category _Frauen_, and giving a swift timid glance +through her veil at the public confronting her was relieved to find it +consisted only of a comfortable mother and her child. + +I know not why the adjective comfortable should so invariably be +descriptive of mothers in Germany. In England and France though you +may be a mother, you yet, I believe, may be so without being +comfortable. In Germany, somehow, you can't. Perhaps it is the +climate; perhaps it is the food; perhaps it is simply want of soul, or +that your soul does not burn with a fire sufficiently consuming. +Anyhow it is so. This mother had all the good-nature that goes with +amplitude. Being engaged in feeding her child with _belegte +Brödchen_--that immensely satisfying form of sandwich--she at once +offered Priscilla one. + +"No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking into her corner. + +"Do take one, Fräulein," said the mother, persuasively. + +"No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking. + +"On a journey it passes the time. Even if one is not hungry, thank God +one can always eat. Do take one." + +"No thank you," said Priscilla. + +"Why does she wear that black thing over her face?" inquired the +child. "Is she a witch?" + +"Silence, silence, little worthless one," cried the mother, +delightedly stroking his face with half a _Brödchen_. "You see he is +clever, Fräulein. He resembles his dear father as one egg does +another." + +"Does he?" said Priscilla, immediately conceiving a prejudice against +the father. + +"Why don't she take that black thing off?" said the child. + +"Hush, hush, small impudence. The Fräulein will take it off in a +minute. The Fräulein has only just got in." + +"Mutti, is she a witch? Mutti, Mutti, is she a witch, Mutti?" + +The child, his eyes fixed anxiously on Priscilla's swathed head, began +to whimper. + +"That child should be in bed," said Priscilla, with a severity born +of her anxiety lest, to calm him, humanity should force her to put up +her veil. "Persons who are as intelligent as that should never be in +trains at night. Their brains cannot bear it. Would he not be happier +if he lay down and went to sleep?" + +"Yes, yes; that is what I have been telling him ever since we left +Kunitz"--Priscilla shivered--"but he will not go. Dost thou hear what +the Fräulein says, Hans-Joachim?" + +"Why don't she take that black thing off?" whimpered the child. + +But how could the poor Princess, however anxious to be kind, take off +her veil and show her well-known face to this probable inhabitant of +Kunitz? + +"Do take it off, Fräulein," begged the mother, seeing she made no +preparations to do so. "When he gets ideas into his head there is +never peace till he has what he wants. He does remind me so much of +his father." + +"Did you ever," said Priscilla, temporizing, "try him with a +little--just a little slap? Only a little one," she added hastily, for +the mother looked at her oddly, "only as a sort of counter-irritant. +And it needn't be really hard, you know--" + +"_Ach_, she's a witch--Mutti, she's a witch!" shrieked the child, +flinging his face, butter and all, at these portentous words, into his +mother's lap. + +"There, there, poor tiny one," soothed the mother, with an indignant +side-glance at Priscilla. "Poor tiny man, no one shall slap thee. The +Fräulein does not allude to thee, little son. The Fräulein is thinking +of bad children such as the sons of Schultz and thy cousin Meyer. +Fräulein, if you do not remove your veil I fear he will have +convulsions." + +"Oh," said the unhappy Priscilla, getting as far into her corner as +she could, "I'm so sorry--but I--but I really can't." + +"She's a witch, Mutti!" roared the child, "I tell it to thee +again--therefore is she so black, and must not show her face!" + +"Hush, hush, shut thy little eyes," soothed the mother, putting her +hand over them. To Priscilla she said, with an obvious dawning of +distrust, "But Fräulein, what reason can you have for hiding +yourself?" + +"Hiding myself?" echoed Priscilla, now very unhappy indeed, "I'm not +hiding myself. I've got--I've got--I'm afraid I've got a--an affection +of the skin. That's why I wear a veil." + +"_Ach_, poor Fräulein," said the mother, brightening at once into +lively interest. "Hans-Joachim, sleep," she added sharply to her son, +who tried to raise his head to interrupt with fresh doubts a +conversation grown thrilling. "That is indeed a misfortune. It is a +rash?" + +"Oh, it's dreadful," said Priscilla, faintly. + +"_Ach_, poor Fräulein. When one is married, rashes no longer matter. +One's husband has to love one in spite of rashes. But for a Fräulein +every spot is of importance. There is a young lady of my acquaintance +whose life-happiness was shipwrecked only by spots. She came out in +them at the wrong moment." + +"Did she?" murmured Priscilla. + +"You are going to a doctor?" + +"Yes--that is, no--I've been." + +"Ah, you have been to Kunitz to Dr. Kraus?" + +"Y--es. I've been there." + +"What does he say?" + +"That I must always wear a veil." + +"Because it looks so bad?" + +"I suppose so." + +There was a silence. Priscilla lay back in her corner exhausted, and +shut her eyes. The mother stared fixedly at her, one hand mechanically +stroking Hans-Joachim, the other holding him down. + +"When I was a girl," said the mother, so suddenly that Priscilla +started, "I had a good deal of trouble with my skin. Therefore my +experience on the subject is great. Show me your face, Fräulein--I +might be able to tell you what to do to cure it." + +"Oh, on no account--on no account whatever," cried Priscilla, sitting +up very straight and speaking with extraordinary emphasis. "I couldn't +think of it--I really positively couldn't." + +"But my dear Fräulein, why mind a woman seeing it?" + +"But what do you want to see it for?" + +"I wish to help you." + +"I don't want to be helped. I'll show it to nobody--to nobody at all. +It's much too--too dreadful." + +"Well, well, do not be agitated. Girls, I know, are vain. If any one +can help you it will be Dr. Kraus. He is an excellent physician, is he +not?" + +"Yes," said Priscilla, dropping back into her corner. + +"The Grand Duke is a great admirer of his. He is going to ennoble +him." + +"Really?" + +"They say--no doubt it is gossip, but still, you know, he is a very +handsome man--that the Countess von Disthal will marry him." + +"Gracious!" cried Priscilla, startled, "what, whether he wants to or +not?" + +"No doubt he will want to. It would be a brilliant match for him." + +"But she's at least a hundred. Why, she looks like his mother. And he +is a person of no birth at all." + +"Birth? He is of course not noble yet, but his family is excellent. +And since it is not possible to have as many ailments as she has and +still be alive, some at least must be feigned. Why, then, should she +feign if it is not in order to see the doctor? They were saying in +Kunitz that she sent for him this very day." + +"Yes, she did. But she's really ill this time. I'm afraid the poor +thing caught cold watching--dear me, only see how sweetly your little +boy sleeps. You should make Levallier paint him in that position." + +"Ah, he looks truly lovely, does he not. Exactly thus does his dear +father look when asleep. Sometimes I cannot sleep myself for joy over +the splendid picture. What is the matter with the Countess Disthal? +Did Dr. Kraus tell you?" + +"No, no. I--I heard something--a rumour." + +"Ah, something feigned again, no doubt. Well, it will be a great match +for him. You know she is lady-in-waiting to the Princess Priscilla, +the one who is so popular and has such red hair? The Countess has an +easy life. The other two Princesses have given their ladies a world of +trouble, but Priscilla--oh, she is a model. Kunitz is indeed proud of +her. They say in all things she is exactly what a Princess should be, +and may be trusted never to say or do anything not entirely fitting +her station. You have seen her? She often drives through the town, and +then the people all run and look as pleased as if it were a holiday. +We in Gerstein are quite jealous. Our duchy has no such princess to +show. Do you think she is so beautiful? I have often seen her, and I +do not think she is. People exaggerate everything so about a princess. +My husband does not admire her at all. He says it is not what he calls +classic. Her hair, for instance--but that one might get over. And +people who are really beautiful always have dark eyelashes. Then her +nose--my husband often laughs, and says her nose--" + +"Oh," said Priscilla, faintly, "I've got a dreadful headache. I think +I'll try to sleep a little if you would not mind not talking." + +"Yes, that hot thing round your face must be very trying. Now if you +were not so vain--what does a rash matter when only women are present? +Well, well, I will not tease you. Do you know many of the Kunitzers? +Do you know the Levisohns well?" + +"Oh," sighed Priscilla, laying her distracted head against the +cushions and shutting her eyes, "who are they?" + +"Who are they? Who are the Levisohns? But dearest Fräulein if you know +Kunitz you must know the Levisohns. Why, the Levisohns _are_ Kunitz. +They are more important far than the Grand Duke. They lend to it, and +they lead it. You must know their magnificent shop at the corner of +the Heiligengeiststrasse? Perhaps," she added, with a glance at the +Princess's shabby serge gown, "you have not met them socially, but you +must know the magnificent shop. We visit." + +"Do you?" said Priscilla wearily, as the mother paused. + +"And you know her story, of course?" + +"Oh, oh," sighed Priscilla, turning her head from side to side on the +cushions, vainly seeking peace. + +"It is hardly a story for the ears of Fräuleins." + +"Please don't tell it, then." + +"No, I will not. It is not for Fräuleins. But one still sees she must +have been a handsome woman. And he, Levisohn, was clever enough to see +his way to Court favour. The Grand Duke--" + +"I don't think I care to hear about the Levisohns," said Priscilla, +sitting up suddenly and speaking with great distinctness. "Gossip is a +thing I detest. None shall be talked in my presence." + +"Hoity-toity," said the astonished mother; and it will easily be +believed that no one had ever said hoity-toity to Priscilla before. + +She turned scarlet under her veil. For a moment she sat with flashing +eyes, and the hand lying in her lap twitched convulsively. Is it +possible she was thinking of giving the comfortable mother that +admonition which the policeman had so narrowly escaped? I know not +what would have happened if the merry goddess, seeing things rushing +to this dreadful climax, had not stopped the train in the nick of time +at a wayside station and caused a breathless lady, pushing parcels +before her, to clamber in. The mother's surprised stare was of +necessity diverted to the new-comer. A parcel thrust into Priscilla's +hands brought her back of necessity to her senses. + +"_Danke, Danke_," cried the breathless lady, though no help had been +offered; and hoisting herself in she wished both her fellow-passengers +a boisterous good evening. The lady, evidently an able person, +arranged her parcels swiftly and neatly in the racks, pulled up the +windows, slammed the ventilators, stripped off her cloak, flung back +her veil, and sitting down with a sigh of vast depth and length stared +steadily for five minutes without wavering at the other two. At the +end of that time she and the mother began, as with a common impulse, +to talk. And at the end of five minutes more they had told each other +where they were going, where they had been, what their husbands +were, the number, age, and girth of their children, and all the +adjectives that might most conveniently be used to describe their +servants. The adjectives, very lurid ones, took some time. +Priscilla shut her eyes while they were going on, thankful to be +left quiet, feeling unstrung to the last degree; and she gradually +dropped into an uneasy doze whose chief feature was the distressful +repetition, like hammer-strokes on her brain, of the words, "You're +deteriorating--deteriorating--deteriorating." + +"_Lieber Gott_," she whispered at last, folding her hands in her lap, +"don't let me deteriorate too much. Please keep me from wanting to box +people's ears. _Lieber Gott_, it's so barbarous of me. I never used to +want to. Please stop me wanting to now." + +And after that she dropped off quite, into a placid little slumber. + + + + +III + + +They crossed from Calais in the turbine. Their quickest route would +have been Cologne-Ostend-Dover, and every moment being infinitely +valuable Fritzing wanted to go that way, but Priscilla was determined +to try whether turbines are really as steady as she had heard they +were. The turbine was so steady that no one could have told it was +doing anything but being quiescent on solid earth; but that was +because, as Fritzing explained, there was a dead calm, and in dead +calms--briefly, he explained the conduct of boats in dead calms with +much patience, and Priscilla remarked when he had done that they might +then, after all, have crossed by Ostend. + +"We might, ma'am, and we would be in London now if we had," said +Fritzing. + +They had, indeed, lost several hours and some money coming by Calais, +and Fritzing had lost his temper as well. + +Fritzing, you remember, was sixty, and had not closed his eyes all +night. He had not, so far as that goes, closed his eyes for nights +without number; and what his soul had gone through during those nights +was more than any soul no longer in its first youth should be called +upon to bear. In the train between Cologne and Calais he had even, +writhing in his seat, cursed every single one of his long-cherished +ideals, called them fools, shaken his fist at them; a dreadful state +of mind to get to. He did not reveal anything of this to his dear +Princess, and talking to her on the turbine wore the clear brow of the +philosopher; but he did feel that he was a much-tried man, and he +behaved to the maid Annalise exactly in the way much-tried men do +behave when they have found some one they think defenceless. +Unfortunately Annalise was only apparently defenceless. Fritzing would +have known it if he had been more used to running away. He did, in his +calmer moments, dimly opine it. The plain fact was that Annalise held +both him and Priscilla in the hollow of her hand. + +At this point she had not realized it. She still was awestruck by her +promotion, and looked so small and black and uncertain among her new +surroundings on the turbine that if not clever of him it was at least +natural that he should address her in a manner familiar to those who +have had to do with men when they are being tried. He behaved, that +is, to Annalise, as he had behaved to his ideals in the night; he +shook his fist at her, and called her fool. It was because she had +broken the Princess's umbrella. This was the new umbrella bought by +him with so much trouble in Gerstein two days before, and therefore +presumably of a sufficient toughness to stand any reasonable treatment +for a time. There was a mist and a drizzle at Calais, and Priscilla, +refusing to go under shelter, had sent Fritzing to fetch her umbrella, +and when he demanded it of Annalise, she offered it him in two pieces. +This alone was enough to upset a wise man, because wise men are easily +upset; but Annalise declared besides that the umbrella had broken +itself. It probably had. What may not one expect of anything so cheap? +Fritzing, however, was maddened by this explanation, and wasted quite +a long time pointing out to her in passionate language that it was an +inanimate object, and that inanimate objects have no initiative and +never therefore break themselves. To which Annalise, with a stoutness +ominous as a revelation of character, replied by repeating her +declaration that the umbrella had certainly broken itself. Then it was +that he shook his fist at her and called her fool. So greatly was he +moved that, after walking away and thinking it over, he went to her a +second time and shook his fist at her and called her knave. + +I will not linger over this of the umbrella; it teems with lessons. + +While it was going on the Princess was being very happy. She was +sitting unnoticed in a deck-chair and feeling she was really off at +last into the Ideal. Some of us know the fascination of that feeling, +and all of us know the fascination of new things; and to be unnoticed +was for her of a most thrilling newness. Nobody looked at her. People +walked up and down the deck in front of her as though she were not +there. One hurried passenger actually tripped over her feet, and +passed on with the briefest apology. Everywhere she saw indifferent +faces, indifferent, oblivious faces. It was simply glorious. And she +had had no trials since leaving Gerstein. There Fritzing had removed +her beyond the range of the mother's eyes, grown at last extremely +cold and piercing; Annalise, all meek anxiety to please, had put her +to bed in the sleeping-car of the Brussels express; and in the morning +her joy had been childish at having a little tray with bad coffee on +it thrust in by a busy attendant, who slammed it down on the table and +hurried out without so much as glancing at her. How delicious that +was. The Princess laughed with delight and drank the coffee, grits and +all. Oh, the blessed freedom of being insignificant. It was as good, +she thought, as getting rid of your body altogether and going about an +invisible spirit. She sat on the deck of the apparently motionless +turbine and thought gleefully of past journeys, now for ever done +with; of the grand ducal train, of herself drooping inside it as +wearily as the inevitable bouquets drooping on the tables, of the +crowds of starers on every platform, of the bowing officials wherever +your eye chanced to turn. The Countess Disthal, of course, had been +always at her elbow, and when she had to go to the window and do the +gracious her anxiety lest she should bestow one smile too few had only +been surpassed by the Countess's anxiety lest she should bestow one +smile too many. Well, that was done with now; as much done with as a +nightmare, grisly staleness, is done with when you wake to a fair +spring morning and the smell of dew. And she had no fears. She was +sure, knowing him as she did, that when the Grand Duke found out she +had run away he would make no attempt to fetch her back, but would +simply draw a line through his remembrance of her, rub her out of his +mind, (his heart, she knew, would need no rubbing, because she had +never been in it,) and after the first fury was over, fury solely on +account of the scandal, he would be as he had been before, while +she--oh wonderful new life!--she would be born again to all the +charities. + +Now how can I, weak vessel whose only ballast is a cargo of +interrogations past which life swirls with a thunder of derisively +contradictory replies, pretend to say whether Priscilla ought to have +had conscience-qualms or not? Am I not deafened by the roar of +answers, all seemingly so right yet all so different, that the +simplest question brings? And would not the answering roar to anything +so complicated as a question about conscience-qualms deafen me for +ever? I shall leave the Princess, then, to run away from her home and +her parent if she chooses, and make no effort to whitewash any part of +her conduct that may seem black. I shall chronicle, and not comment. I +shall try to, that is, for comments are very dear to me. Indeed I see +I cannot move on even now till I have pointed out that though +Priscilla was getting as far as she could from the Grand Duke she was +also getting as near as she could to the possession of her soul; and +there are many persons who believe this to be a thing so precious that +it is absolutely the one thing worth living for. + +The crossing to Dover, then, was accomplished quite peacefully by +Priscilla. Not so, however, by Fritzing. He, tormented man, chief +target for the goddess's darts, spent his time holding on to the rail +along the turbine's side in order to steady himself; and as there was +a dead calm that day the reader will at once perceive that the tempest +must have been inside Fritzing himself. It was; and it had been raised +to hurricane pitch by some snatches of the talk of two Englishmen he +had heard as they paced up and down past where he was standing. + +The first time they passed, one was saying to the other, "I never +heard of anything so infamous." + +This ought not to have made Fritzing, a person of stainless life and +noble principles, start, but it did. He started; and he listened +anxiously for more. + +"Yes," said the other, who had a newspaper under his arm, "they +deserve about as bad as they'll--" + +He was out of ear-shot; but Fritzing mechanically finished the +sentence himself. Who had been infamous? And what were they going to +get? It was at this point that he laid hold of the handrail to steady +himself till the two men should pass again. + +"You can tell, of course, what steps our Government will take," was +the next snatch. + +"I shall be curious to see the attitude of the foreign papers," was +the next. + +"Anything more wanton I never heard of," was the next. + +"Of all the harmless, innocent creatures--" was the next. + +And the last snatch of all--for though they went on walking Fritzing +heard no more after it--was the brief and singular expression +"Devils." + +Devils? _What_ were they talking about? Devils? Was that, then, how +the public stigmatized blameless persons in search of peace? Devils? +What, himself and--no, never Priscilla. She was clearly the harmless +innocent creature, and he must be the other thing. But why plural? He +could only suppose that he and Annalise together formed a sulphurous +plural. He clung very hard to the rail. Who could have dreamed it +would get so quickly into the papers? Who could have dreamed the news +of it would call forth such blazing words? They would be confronted at +Dover by horrified authorities. His Princess was going to be put in a +most impossible position. What had he done? Heavens and earth, what +had he done? + +He clung to the rail, staring miserably over the side into the oily +water. Some of the passengers lingered to watch him, at first because +they thought he was going to be seasick with so little provocation +that it amounted to genius, and afterwards because they were sure he +must want to commit suicide. When they found that time passed and he +did neither, he became unpopular, and they went away and left him +altogether and contemptuously alone. + +"Fritzi, are you worried about anything?" asked Priscilla, coming to +where he still stood staring, although they had got to Dover. + +Worried! When all Europe was going to be about their ears? When he was +in the eyes of the world a criminal--an aider, abettor, lurer-away of +youth and impulsiveness? He loved the Princess so much that he cared +nothing for his own risks, but what about hers? In an agony of haste +he rushed to his ideals and principles for justification and comfort, +tumbling them over, searching feverishly among them. They had forsaken +him. They were so much lifeless rubbish. Nowhere in his mind could he +find a rag of either comfort or justification with which to stop up +his ears against the words of the two Englishmen and his eyes against +the dreadful sight he felt sure awaited them on the quay at Dover--the +sight of incensed authorities ready to pounce on him and drag him away +for ever from his Princess. + +Priscilla gazed at him in astonishment. He was taking no notice of +her, and was looking fearfully up and down the row of faces that were +watching the turbine's arrival. + +"Fritzi, if you are worried it must be because you've not slept," +said Priscilla, laying her hand with a stroking little movement on his +sleeve; for what but overwrought nerves could make him look so odd? It +was after all Fritzing who had behaved with the braveness of a lion +the night before in that matter of the policeman; and it was he who +had asked in stern tones of rebuke, when her courage seemed aflicker, +whether she repented. "You do not repent?" she asked, imitating that +sternness. + +"Ma'am--" he began in a low and dreadful voice, his eyes ceaselessly +ranging up and down the figures on the quay. + +"Sh--sh--Niece," interrupted Priscilla, smiling. + +He turned and looked at her as a man may look for the last time at the +thing in life that has been most dear to him, and said nothing. + + + + +IV + + +But nobody was waiting for them at Dover. Fritzing's agonies might all +have been spared. They passed quite unnoticed through the crowd of +idlers to the train, and putting Priscilla and her maid into it he +rushed at the nearest newspaper-boy, pouncing on him, tearing a +handful of his papers from him, and was devouring their contents +before the astonished boy had well finished his request that he should +hold hard. The boy, who had been brought up in the simple faith that +one should pay one's pennies first and read next, said a few things +under his breath about Germans--crude short things not worth +repeating--and jerking his thumb towards the intent Fritzing, winked +at a detective who was standing near. The detective did not need the +wink. His bland, abstracted eyes were already on Fritzing, and he was +making rapid mental notes of the goggles, the muffler, the cap pulled +down over the ears. Truly it is a great art, that of running away, and +needs incessant practice. + +And after all there was not a word about the Princess in the papers. +They were full, as the Englishmen on the turbine had been full, of +something the Russians, who at that time were always doing something, +had just done--something that had struck England from end to end into +a blaze of indignation and that has nothing to do with my story. +Fritzing dropped the papers on the platform, and had so little public +spirit that he groaned aloud with relief. + +"Shilling and a penny 'alfpenny, please, sir," said the newspaper-boy +glibly. "_Westminster Gazette_, sir, _Daily Mail_, _Sporting and +Dramatic_, one _Lady_, and two _Standards_." From which it will be +seen that Fritzing had seized his handful very much at random. + +He paid the boy without heeding his earnest suggestions that he should +try _Tit-Bits_, the _Saturday Review_, and _Mother_, to complete, said +the boy, in substance if not in words, his bird's-eye view over the +field of representative English journalism, and went back to the +Princess with a lighter heart than he had had for months. The +detective, apparently one of Nature's gentlemen, picked up the +scattered papers, and following Fritzing offered them him in the +politest way imaginable just as Priscilla was saying she wanted to see +what tea-baskets were like. + +"Sir," said the detective, taking off his hat, "I believe these are +yours." + +"Sir," said Fritzing, taking off his cap in his turn and bowing with +all the ceremony of foreigners, "I am much obliged to you." + +"Pray don't mention it, sir," said the detective, on whose brain the +three were in that instant photographed--the veiled Priscilla, the +maid sitting on the edge of the seat as though hardly daring to sit +at all, and Fritzing's fine head and mop of grey hair. + +Priscilla, as she caught his departing eye, bowed and smiled +graciously. He withdrew to a little distance, and fell into a +reverie: where had he seen just that mechanically gracious bow and +smile? They were very familiar to him. + +As the train slowly left the station he saw the lady in the veil once +more. She was alone with her maid, and was looking out of the window +at nothing in particular, and the station-master, who was watching the +train go, chanced to meet her glance. Again there was the same smile +and bow, quite mechanical, quite absent-minded, distinctly gracious. +The station-master stared in astonishment after the receding carriage. +The detective roused himself from his reverie sufficiently to step +forward and neatly swing himself into the guard's van: there being +nothing to do in Dover he thought he would go to London. + +I believe I have forgotten, in the heat of narration, to say that the +fugitives were bound for Somersetshire. Fritzing had been a great +walker in the days when he lived in England, and among other places +had walked about Somersetshire. It is a pleasant county; fruitful, +leafy, and mild. Down in the valleys myrtles and rhododendrons have +been known to flower all through the winter. Devonshire junkets and +Devonshire cider are made there with the same skill precisely as in +Devonshire; and the parts of it that lie round Exmoor are esteemed by +those who hunt. + +Fritzing quite well remembered certain villages buried among the +hills, miles from the nearest railway, and he also remembered the +farmhouses round about these villages where he had lodged. To one of +these he had caused a friend in London to write engaging rooms for +himself and his niece, and there he proposed to stay till they should +have found the cottage the Princess had set her heart on. + +This cottage, as far as he could gather from the descriptions she +gave him from time to time, was going to be rather difficult to +find. He feared also that it would be a very insect-ridden place, +and that their calm pursuits would often be interrupted by things +like earwigs. It was to be ancient, and much thatched and latticed +and rose-overgrown. It was, too, to be very small; the smallest of +labourers' cottages. Yet though so small and so ancient it was to +have several bathrooms--one for each of them, so he understood; +"For," said the Princess, "if Annalise hasn't a bathroom how can +she have a bath? And if she hasn't had a bath how can I let her +touch me?" + +"Perhaps," said Fritzing, bold in his ignorance of Annalise's real +nature, "she could wash at the pump. People do, I believe, in the +country. I remember there were always pumps." + +"But do pumps make you clean enough?" inquired the Princess, +doubtfully. + +"We can try her with one. I fancy, ma'am, it will be less difficult +to find a cottage that has only two bathrooms than one that has three. +And I know there are invariably pumps." + +Searching his memory he could recollect no bathrooms at all, but he +did not say so, and silently hoped the best. + +To the Somerset village of Symford and to the farm about a mile +outside it known as Baker's, no longer, however, belonging to Baker, +but rented by a Mr. Pearce, they journeyed down from Dover without a +break. Nothing alarming happened on the way. They were at Victoria by +five, and the Princess sat joyfully making the acquaintance of a +four-wheeler's inside for twenty minutes during which Fritzing and +Annalise got the luggage through the customs. Fritzing's goggles and +other accessories of flight inspired so much interest in the customs +that they could hardly bear to let him go and it seemed as if they +would never tire of feeling about in the harmless depths of +Priscilla's neat box. They had however ultimately to part from him, +for never was luggage more innocent; and rattling past Buckingham +Palace on the way to Paddington Priscilla blew it a cheerful kiss, +symbolic of a happiness too great to bear ill-will. Later on Windsor +Castle would have got one too, if it had not been so dark that she +could not see it. The detective, who felt himself oddly drawn towards +the trio, went down into Somersetshire by the same train as they did, +but parted from them at Ullerton, the station you get out at when you +go to Symford. He did not consider it necessary to go further; and +taking a bedroom at Ullerton in the same little hotel from which +Fritzing had ordered the conveyance that was to drive them their last +seven miles he went to bed, it being close on midnight, with Mr. +Pearce's address neatly written in his notebook. + +This, at present, is the last of the detective. I will leave him +sleeping with a smile on his face, and follow the dog-cart as it drove +along that beautiful road between wooded hills that joins Ullerton to +Symford, on its way to Baker's Farm. + +At the risk of exhausting Priscilla Fritzing had urged pushing on +without a stop, and Priscilla made no objection. This is how it came +about that the ostler attached to the Ullerton Arms found himself +driving to Symford in the middle of the night. He could not recollect +ever having done such a thing before, and the memory of it would be +quite unlikely to do anything but remain fixed in his mind till his +dying day. Fritzing was a curiously conspicuous fugitive. + +It was a clear and beautiful night, and the stars twinkled brightly +over the black tree-tops. Down in the narrow gorge through which the +road runs they could not feel the keen wind that was blowing up on +Exmoor. The waters of the Sym, whose windings they followed, gurgled +over their stones almost as quietly as in summer. There was a fresh +wet smell, consoling and delicious after the train, the smell of +country puddles and country mud and dank dead leaves that had been +rained upon all day. Fritzing sat with the Princess on the back seat +of the dog-cart, and busied himself keeping the rug well round her, +the while his soul was full of thankfulness that their journey should +after all have been so easy. He was weary in body, but very jubilant +in mind. The Princess was so weary in body that she had no mind at +all, and dozed and nodded and threatened to fall out, and would have +fallen out a dozen times but for Fritzing's watchfulness. As for +Annalise, who can guess what thoughts were hers while she was being +jogged along to Baker's? That they were dark I have not a doubt. No +one had told her this was to be a journey into the Ideal; no one had +told her anything but that she was promoted to travelling with the +Princess and that she would be well paid so long as she held her +tongue. She had never travelled before, yet there were some +circumstances of the journey that could not fail to strike the most +inexperienced. This midnight jogging in the dog-cart, for instance. It +was the second night spent out of bed, and all day long she had +expected every moment would end the journey, and the end, she had +naturally supposed, would be a palace. There would be a palace, and +warmth, and light, and food, and welcome, and honour, and appreciative +lacqueys with beautiful white silk calves--alas, Annalise's ideal, her +one ideal, was to be for ever where there were beautiful white silk +calves. The road between Ullerton and Symford conveyed to her mind no +assurance whatever of the near neighbourhood of such things; and as +for the dog-cart--"_Himmel_," said Annalise to herself, whenever she +thought of the dog-cart. + +Their journey ended at two in the morning. Almost exactly at that hour +they stopped at the garden gate of Baker's Farm, and a woman came out +with a lantern and helped them down and lighted them up the path to +the porch. The Princess, who could hardly make her eyes open +themselves, leaned on Fritzing's arm in a sort of confused dream, got +somehow up a little staircase that seemed extraordinarily steep and +curly, and was sound asleep in a knobbly bed before Annalise realized +she had done with her. Priscilla had forgotten all about the Ideal, +all about her eager aspirations. Sleep, dear Mother with the cool +hand, had smoothed them all away, the whole rubbish of those daylight +toys, and for the next twelve hours sat tenderly by her pillow, her +finger on her lips. + + + + +V + + +No better place than Symford can be imagined for those in search of a +spot, picturesque and with creepers, where they may spend quiet years +guiding their feet along the way of peace. It is one of the prettiest +of English villages. It does and has and is everything the ideal +village ought to. It nestles, for instance, in the folds of hills; it +is very small, and far away from other places; its cottages are old +and thatched; its little inn is the inn of a story-book, with a quaint +signboard and an apparently genial landlord; its church stands +beautifully on rising ground among ancient trees, besides being hoary; +its vicarage is so charming that to see it makes you long to marry a +vicar; its vicar is venerable, with an eye so mild that to catch it is +to receive a blessing; pleasant little children with happy morning +faces pick butter-cups and go a-nutting at the proper seasons and +curtsey to you as you pass; old women with clean caps and suitable +faces read their Bibles behind latticed windows; hearths are scrubbed +and snowy; appropriate kettles simmer on hobs; climbing roses and trim +gardens are abundant; and it has a lady bountiful of so untiring a +kindness that each of its female inhabitants gets a new flannel +petticoat every Christmas and nothing is asked of her in return but +that she shall, during the ensuing year, be warm and happy and good. +The same thing was asked, I believe, of the male inhabitants, who get +comforters, and also that they should drink seltzer-water whenever +their lower natures urged them to drink rum; but comforters are so +much smaller than petticoats that the men of Symford's sense of +justice rebelled, and since the only time they ever felt really warm +and happy and good was when they were drinking rum they decided that +on the whole it would be more in accordance with their benefactress's +wishes to go on doing it. + +Lady Shuttleworth, the lady from whom these comforters and petticoats +proceeded, was a just woman who required no more of others than she +required of herself, and who was busy and kind, and, I am sure happy +and good, on cold water. But then she did not like rum; and I suppose +there are few things quite so easy as not to drink rum if you don't +like it. She lived at Symford Hall, two miles away in another fold of +the hills, and managed the estate of her son who was a minor--at this +time on the very verge of ceasing to be one--with great precision and +skill. All the old cottages in Symford were his, and so were the farms +dotted about the hills. Any one, therefore, seeking a cottage would +have to address himself to the Shuttleworth agent, Mr. Dawson, who too +lived in a house so picturesque that merely to see it made you long +either to poison or to marry Mr. Dawson--preferably, I think, to +poison him. + +These facts, stripped of the redundances with which I have +garnished them, were told Fritzing on the day after his arrival +at Baker's Farm by Mrs. Pearce the younger, old Mr. Pearce's +daughter-in-law, a dreary woman with a rent in her apron, who +brought in the bacon for Fritzing's solitary breakfast and the chop +for his solitary luncheon. She also brought in a junket so liquid +that the innocent Fritzing told her politely that he always drank +his milk out of a glass when he did drink milk, but that, as he +never did drink milk, she need not trouble to bring him any. + +"Sir," said Mrs. Pearce in her slow sad voice, after a glance at his +face in search of sarcasm, "'tisn't milk. 'Tis a junket that hasn't +junked." + +"Indeed?" said Fritzing, bland because ignorant. + +Mrs. Pearce fidgeted a little, wrestling perhaps with her conscience, +before she added defiantly, "It wouldn't." + +"Indeed?" said Fritzing once more; and he looked at the junket through +his spectacles with that air of extreme and intelligent interest with +which persons who wish to please look at other people's babies. + +He was desirous of being on good terms with Symford, and had been very +pleasant all the morning to Mrs. Pearce. That mood in which, shaken +himself to his foundations by anxiety, he had shaken his fist to +Annalise, was gone as completely as yesterday's wet mist. The golden +sunshine of October lay beautifully among the gentle hills and seemed +to lie as well in Fritzing's heart. He had gone through so much for so +many weeks that merely to be free from worries for the moment filled +him with thankfulness. So may he feel who has lived through days of +bodily torture in that first hour when his pain has gone: beaten, +crushed, and cowed by suffering, he melts with gratitude because he is +being left alone, he gasps with a relief so utter that it is almost +abject praise of the Cruelty that has for a little loosened its hold. +In this abjectly thankful mood was Fritzing when he found his worst +agonies were done. What was to come after he really for the moment did +not care. It was sufficient to exist untormented and to let his soul +stretch itself in the privacy and peace of Baker's. He and his +Princess had made a great and noble effort towards the realization of +dreams that he felt were lofty, and the gods so far had been with +them. All that first morning in Symford he had an oddly restful, +unburdened feeling, as of having been born again and born aged +twenty-five; and those persons who used to be twenty-five themselves +will perhaps agree that this must have been rather nice. He did not +stir from the parlour lest the Princess should come down and want him, +and he spent the waiting hours getting information from Mrs. Pearce +and informing her mind in his turn with just that amount of knowledge +about himself and his niece that he wished Symford to possess. With +impressive earnestness he told her his name was Neumann, repeating it +three times, almost as if in defiance of contradiction; that his niece +was his deceased brother's child; that her Christian name--here he was +swept away by inspiration--was Maria-Theresa; that he had saved enough +as a teacher of German in London to retire into the country; and that +he was looking for a cottage in which to spend his few remaining +years. + +It all sounded very innocent. Mrs. Pearce listened with her head on +one side and with something of the air of a sparrow who doesn't feel +well. She complimented him sadly on the fluency of his English, and +told him with a sigh that in no cottage would he ever again find the +comforts with which Baker's was now surrounding him. + +Fritzing was surprised to hear her say so, for his impressions had +all been the other way. As far as he, inexperienced man, could +tell, Baker's was a singularly draughty and unscrubbed place. He +smelt that its fires smoked, he heard that its windows rattled, he +knew that its mattresses had lumps in them, and he saw that its +food was inextricably mixed up with objects of a black and gritty +nature. But her calm face and sorrowful assurance shook the +evidence of his senses, and gazing at her in silence over his +spectacles a feeling crept dimly across his brain that if the +future held many dealings with women like Mrs. Pearce he was going +to be very helpless. + +Priscilla appeared while he was gazing. She was dressed for going out +and came in buttoning her gloves, and I suppose it was a long time +since Baker's had seen anything quite so radiant in the way of nieces +within its dusty walls. She had on the clothes she had travelled in, +for a search among the garments bought by Fritzing had resulted in +nothing but a sitting on the side of the bed and laughing tears, so it +was clearly not the clothes that made her seem all of a sparkle with +lovely youth and blitheness. Kunitz would not have recognized its +ivory Princess in this bright being. She was the statue come to life, +the cool perfection kissed by expectation into a bewitching living +woman. I doubt whether Fritzing had ever noticed her beauty while at +Kunitz. He had seen her every day from childhood on, and it is +probable that his attention being always riveted on her soul he had +never really known when her body left off being lanky and freckled. He +saw it now, however; he would have been blind if he had not; and it +set him vibrating with the throb of a new responsibility. Mrs. Pearce +saw it too, and stared astonished at this oddly inappropriate niece. +She stared still more when Fritzing, jumping up from his chair, bent +over the hand Priscilla held out and kissed it with a devotion and +respect wholly absent from the manner of Mrs. Pearce's own uncles. +She, therefore, withdrew into her kitchen, and being a person of +little culture crudely expressed her wonder by thinking "Lor." To +which, after an interval of vague meanderings among saucepans, she +added the elucidation, "Foreigners." + +Half an hour later Lady Shuttleworth's agent, Mr. Dawson, was +disturbed at his tea by the announcement that a gentleman wished to +speak to him. Mr. Dawson was a bluff person, and something of a +tyrant, for he reigned supreme in Symford after Lady Shuttleworth, and +to reign supreme over anybody, even over a handful of cottagers, does +bring out what a man may have in him of tyrant. Another circumstance +that brings this out is the possession of a meek wife; and Mr. +Dawson's wife was really so very meek that I fear when the Day of +Reckoning comes much of this tyranny will be forgiven him and laid to +her account. Mr. Dawson, in fact, represented an unending series of +pitfalls set along his wife's path by Fate, into every one of which +she fell; and since we are not supposed, on pain of punishment, to do +anything but keep very upright on our feet as we trudge along the +dusty road of life, no doubt all those amiable stumblings will be +imputed to her in the end for sin. "This man was handed over to you +quite nice and kind," one can imagine Justice saying in an awful +voice; "his intentions to start with were beyond reproach. Do you not +remember, on the eve of your wedding, how he swore with tears he would +be good to you? Look, now, what you have made of him. You have +prevented his being good to you by your own excessive goodness to +him. You have spent your time nourishing his bad qualities. Though he +still swears, he never does it with tears. Do you not know the +enormous, the almost insurmountable difficulty there is in not +bullying meekness, in not responding to the cringer with a kick? Weak +and unteachable woman, away with you." + +Certainly it is a great responsibility taking a man into one's life. +It is also an astonishment to me that I write thus in detail of Mrs. +Dawson, for she has nothing whatever to do with the story. + +"Who is it?" asked Mr. Dawson; immediately adding, "Say I'm engaged." + +"He gave no name, sir. He says he wishes to see you on business." + +"Business! I don't do business at tea time. Send him away." + +But Fritzing, for he it was, would not be sent away. Priscilla had +seen the cottage of her dreams, seen it almost at once on entering the +village, fallen instantly and very violently in love with it +regardless of what its inside might be, and had sent him to buy it. +She was waiting while he bought it in the adjoining churchyard sitting +on a tombstone, and he could neither let her sit there indefinitely +nor dare, so great was her eagerness to have the thing, go back +without at least a hope of it. Therefore he would not be sent away. +"Your master's in," he retorted, when the maid suggested he should +depart, "and I must see him. Tell him my business is pressing." + +"Will you give me your card, sir?" said the maid, wavering before +this determination. + +Fritzing, of course, had no card, so he wrote his new name in pencil +on a leaf of his notebook, adding his temporary address. + +"Tell Mr. Dawson," he said, tearing it out and giving it to her, "that +if he is so much engaged as to be unable to see me I shall go direct +to Lady Shuttleworth. My business will not wait." + +"Show him in, then," growled Mr. Dawson on receiving this message; for +he feared Lady Shuttleworth every bit as much as Mrs. Dawson feared +him. + +Fritzing was accordingly shown into the room used as an office, and +was allowed to cool himself there while Mr. Dawson finished his tea. +The thought of his Princess waiting on a tombstone that must be +growing colder every moment, for the sun was setting, made him at last +so impatient that he rang the bell. + +"Tell your master," he said when the maid appeared, "that I am now +going to Lady Shuttleworth." And he seized his hat and was making +indignantly for the door when Mr. Dawson appeared. + +Mr. Dawson was wiping his mouth. "You seem to be in a great hurry," he +said; and glancing at the slip of paper in his hand added, "Mr. +Newman." + +"Sir," said Fritzing, bowing with a freezing dignity, "I am." + +"Well, so am I. Sit down. What can I do for you? Time's money, you +know, and I'm a busy man. You're German, ain't you?" + +"I am, sir. My name is Neumann. I am here--" + +"Oh, Noyman, is it? I thought it was Newman." And he glanced again at +the paper. + +"Sir," said Fritzing, with a wave of his hand, "I am here to buy a +cottage, and the sooner we come to terms the better. I will not waste +valuable moments considering niceties of pronunciation." + +Mr. Dawson stared. Then he said, "Buy a cottage?" + +"Buy a cottage, sir. I understand that practically the whole of +Symford is the property of the Shuttleworth family, and that you are +that family's accredited agent. I therefore address myself in the +first instance to you. Now, sir, if you are unable, either through +disinclination or disability, to do business with me, kindly state the +fact at once, and I will straightway proceed to Lady Shuttleworth +herself. I have no time to lose." + +"I'm blessed if I have either, Mr."--he glanced again at the +paper--"Newman." + +"Neumann, sir," corrected Fritzing irritably. + +"All right--Noyman. But why don't you write it then? You've written +Newman as plain as a doorpost." + +"Sir, I am not here to exercise you in the proper pronunciation of +foreign tongues. These matters, of an immense elementariness I must +add, should be and generally are acquired by all persons of any +education in their childhood at school." + +Mr. Dawson stared. "You're a long-winded chap," he said, "but I'm +blessed if I know what you're driving at. Suppose you tell me what +you've come for, Mr."--he referred as if from habit to the +paper--"Newman." + +"_Neu_mann, sir," said Fritzing very loud, for he was greatly +irritated by Mr. Dawson's manner and appearance. + +"_Noy_mann, then," said Mr. Dawson, equally loudly; indeed it was +almost a shout. And he became possessed at the same instant of what +was known to Fritzing as a red head, which is the graphic German way +of describing the glow that accompanies wrath. "Look here," he said, +"if you don't say what you've got to say and have done with it you'd +better go. I'm not the chap for the fine-worded game, and I'm hanged +if I'll be preached to in my own house. I'll be hanged if I will, do +you hear?" And he brought his fist down on the table in a fashion very +familiar to Mrs. Dawson and the Symford cottagers. + +"Sir, your manners--" said Fritzing, rising and taking up his hat. + +"Never mind my manners, Mr. Newman." + +"_Neu_mann, sir!" roared Fritzing. + +"Confound you, sir," was Mr. Dawson's irrelevant reply. + +"Sir, confound _you_," said Fritzing, clapping on his hat. "And let me +tell you that I am going at once to Lady Shuttleworth and shall +recommend to her most serious consideration the extreme desirability +of removing you, sir." + +"Removing me! Where the deuce to?" + +"Sir, I care not whither so long as it is hence," cried Fritzing, +passionately striding to the door. + +Mr. Dawson lay back in his chair and gasped. The man was plainly mad; +but still Lady Shuttleworth might--you never know with women--"Look +here--hie, you! Mr. Newman!" he called, for Fritzing had torn open the +door and was through it. + +"_Neu_mann, sir," Fritzing hurled back at him over his shoulder. + +"Lady Shuttleworth won't see you, Mr. Noyman. She won't on principle." + +Fritzing wavered. + +"Everything goes through my hands. You'll only have your walk for +nothing. Come back and tell me what it is you want." + +"Sir, I will only negotiate with you," said Fritzing down the +passage--and Mrs. Dawson hearing him from the drawing-room folded her +hands in fear and wonder--"if you will undertake at least to imitate +the manners of a gentleman." + +"Come, come, you musn't misunderstand me," said Mr. Dawson getting up +and going to the door. "I'm a plain man, you know--" + +"Then, sir, all I can say is that I object to plain men." + +"I say, who are you? One would think you were a duke or somebody, +you're so peppery. Dressed up"--Mr. Dawson glanced at the suit of +pedagogic black into which Fritzing had once more relapsed--"dressed +up as a street preacher." + +"I am not dressed up as anything, sir," said Fritzing coming in rather +hurriedly. "I am a retired teacher of the German tongue, and have come +down from London in search of a cottage in which to spend my remaining +years. That cottage I have now found here in your village, and I have +come to inquire its price. I wish to buy it as quickly as possible." + +"That's all very well, Mr.--oh all right, all right, I won't say it. +But why on earth don't you write it properly, then? It's this paper's +set me wrong. I was going to say we've got no cottages here for sale. +And look here, if that's all you are, a retired teacher, I'll trouble +you not to get schoolmastering me again." + +"I really think, sir," said Fritzing stretching his hand towards his +hat, "that it is better I should try to obtain an interview with Lady +Shuttleworth, for I fear you are constitutionally incapable of +carrying on a business conversation with the requisite decent +self-command." + +"Pooh--you'll get nothing out of her. She'll send you back to me. Why, +you'd drive her mad in five minutes with that tongue of yours. If you +want anything I'm your man. Only let's get at what you do want, +without all these confounded dictionary words. Which cottage is it?" + +"It is the small cottage," said Fritzing mastering his anger, +"adjoining the churchyard. It stands by itself, and is separated from +the road by an extremely miniature garden. It is entirely covered by +creeping plants which I believe to be roses." + +"That's a couple." + +"So much the better." + +"And they're let. One to the shoemaker, and the other to old mother +Shaw." + +"Accommodation could no doubt be found for the present tenants in some +other house, and I am prepared to indemnify them handsomely. Might I +inquire the number of rooms the cottages contain?" + +"Two apiece, and a kitchen and attic. Coal-hole and pig-stye in the +back yard. Also a pump. But they're not for sale, so what's the use--" + +"Sir, do they also contain bathrooms?" + +"Bathrooms?" Mr. Dawson stared with so excessively stupid a stare that +Fritzing, who heaver could stand stupidity, got angry again. + +"I said bathrooms, sir," he said, raising his voice, "and I believe +with perfect distinctness." + +"Oh, I heard you right enough. I was only wondering if you were trying +to be funny." + +"Is this a business conversation or is it not?" cried Fritzing, in his +turn bringing his fist down on the table. + +"Look here, what do you suppose people who live in such places want?" + +"I imagine cleanliness and decency as much as anybody else." + +"Well, I've never been asked for one with a bathroom in my life." + +"You are being asked now," said Fritzing, glaring at him, "but you +wilfully refuse to reply. From your manner, however, I conclude that +they contain none. If so, no doubt I could quickly have some built." + +"Some? Why, how many do you want?" + +"I have a niece, sir, and she must have her own." + +Mr. Dawson again stared with what seemed to Fritzing so deplorably +foolish a stare. "I never heard of such a thing," he said. + +"What did you never hear of, sir?" + +"I never heard of one niece and one uncle in a labourer's cottage +wanting a bathroom apiece." + +"Apparently you have never heard of very many things," retorted +Fritzing angrily. "My niece desires to have her own bathroom, and it +is no one's business but hers." + +"She must be a queer sort of girl." + +"Sir," cried Fritzing, "leave my niece out of the conversation." + +"Oh all right--all right. I'm sure I don't want to talk about your +niece. But as for the cottages, it's no good wanting those or any +others, for you won't get 'em." + +"And pray why not, if I offer a good price?" + +"Lady Shuttleworth won't sell. Why should she? She'd only have to +build more to replace them. Her people must live somewhere. And she'll +never turn out old Shaw and the shoemaker to make room for a couple of +strangers." + +Fritzing was silent, for his heart was sinking. "Suppose, sir," he +said after a pause, during which his eyes had been fixed thoughtfully +on the carpet and Mr. Dawson had been staring at him and whistling +softly but very offensively, "suppose I informed Lady Shuttleworth of +my willingness to build two new cottages--excellent new cottages--for +the tenants of these old ones, and pay her a good price as well for +these, do you think she would listen to me?" + +"I say, the schoolmastering business must be a rattling good one. I'm +blessed if I know what you want to live in 'em for if money's so +little object with you. They're shabby and uncomfortable, and an old +chap like you--I mean, a man of your age, who's made his little pile, +and wants luxuries like plenty of bathrooms--ought to buy something +tight and snug. Good roof and electric light. Place for horse and +trap. And settle down and be a gentleman." + +"My niece," said Fritzing, brushing aside these suggestions with an +angrily contemptuous wave of his hand, "has taken a fancy--I may say +an exceedingly violent fancy--to these two cottages. What is all this +talk of traps and horses? My niece wishes for these cottages. I shall +do my utmost to secure them for her." + +"Well, all I can say is she must be a--" + +"Silence, sir!" cried Fritzing. + +Mr. Dawson got up and opened the door very wide. + +"Look here," he said, "there's no use going on talking. I've stood +more from you than I've stood from any one for years. Take my advice +and get back home and keep quiet for a bit. I've got no cottages, and +Lady Shuttleworth would shut the door in your face when you got to the +bathroom part. Where are you staying? At the Cock and Hens? +Oh--ah--yes--at Baker's. Well, ask Mrs. Pearce to take great care of +you. Tell her I said so. And good afternoon to you, Mr. Noyman. You +see I've got the name right now--just as we're going to part." + +"Before I go," said Fritzing, glaring down at Mr. Dawson, "let me +tell you that I have seldom met an individual who unites in his +manner so singularly offensive a combination of facetiousness and +hectoring as yourself. I shall certainly describe your conduct to +Lady Shuttleworth, and not, I hope, in unconvincing language. Sir, +good afternoon." + +"By-bye," said Mr. Dawson, grinning and waving a pleasant hand. +Several bathrooms indeed! He need have no fears of Lady Shuttleworth. +"Good luck to you with Lady S.!" he called after him cheerily. Then he +went to his wife and bade her see to it that the servant never let +Fritzing in again, explaining that he was not only a foreigner but a +lunatic, and that the mixture was so bad that it hardly bore thinking +of. + + + + +VI + + +While Fritzing was losing his temper in this manner at the agent's, +Priscilla sat up in the churchyard in the sun. The Symford churchyard, +its church, and the pair of coveted cottages, are on a little eminence +rising like an island out of the valley. Sitting under the trees of +this island Priscilla amused herself taking in the quiet scene at her +feet and letting her thoughts wander down happy paths. The valley was +already in shadow, but the tops of the hills on the west side of it +were golden in the late afternoon sunshine. From the cottage chimneys +smoke went up straight and blue into the soft sky, rooks came and +settled over her head in the branches of the elms, and every now and +then a yellow leaf would fall slowly at her feet. Priscilla's heart +was filled with peace. She was going to be so good, she was going to +lead such a clean and beautiful life, so quiet, so helpful to the +poor, so hidden, so cleared of all confusions. Never again would she +need to pose; never again be forced into conflict with her soul. She +had chosen the better part; she had given up everything and followed +after wisdom; and her life would be her justification. Who but knows +the inward peace that descends upon him who makes good resolutions +and abides with him till he suddenly discovers they have all been +broken? And what does the breaking of them matter, since it is their +making that is so wholesome, so bracing to the soul, bringing with it +moments of such extreme blessedness that he misses much who gives it +up for fear he will not keep them? Such blessed moments of lifting up +of the heart were Priscilla's as she sat in the churchyard waiting, +invisibly surrounded by the most beautiful resolutions it is possible +to imagine. The Rev. Edward Morrison, the vicar of whom I have spoken +as venerable, coming slowly up the path leaning on his son's arm with +the intention of going into the church in search of a mislaid +sermon-book, saw Priscilla's thoughtful back under the elm-tree and +perceived at once that it was a back unknown to him. He knew all the +Symford backs, and tourists hardly ever coming there, and never at +that time of the year, it could not, he thought, be the back of a +tourist. Nor could it belong to any one staying with the +Shuttleworths, for he had been there that very afternoon and had found +Lady Shuttleworth rejoicing over the brief period of solitude she and +her son were enjoying before the stream of guests for the coming of +age festivities began. + +"Robin, what girl is that?" asked the vicar of his son. + +"I'm sure I don't know," said Robin. + +"She'll catch cold," said the vicar. + +"I dare say," said Robin. + +When they came out of the church ten minutes later Priscilla had not +moved. + +"She'll certainly catch cold," said the vicar, concerned. + +"I should think it very likely," said Robin, locking the door. + +"She's sitting on a stone." + +"Yes, on old Dawson's slab." + +"Unwise," said the vicar. + +"Profane," said Robin. + +The vicar took his boy's arm again--the boy, head and shoulders taller +than his father, was down from Cambridge for the vacation then drawing +to its close--and moved, I fear, by the same impulse of pure curiosity +they walked together down the path that would take them right in front +of the young woman on the slab. + +Priscilla was lost in the bright dreams she was weaving, and looked up +with the radiance of them still in her eyes at the two figures between +her and the sunset. + +"My dear young lady," said the vicar kindly, "are you not afraid of +catching cold? The evenings are so damp now, and you have chosen a +very cold seat." + +"I don't feel cold," said Priscilla, smiling at this vision of +benevolence. + +"But I do think you ought not to linger here," said the vicar. + +"I am waiting for my uncle. He's gone to buy a cottage, and ought to +be back, really, by now." + +"Buy a cottage?" repeated the vicar. "My dear young lady, you say +that in the same voice you might use to tell me your uncle had gone to +buy a bun." + +"What is a bun?" asked Priscilla. + +"A bun?" repeated the vicar bewildered, for nobody had ever asked him +that before. + +"Oh I know--" said Priscilla quickly, faintly flushing, "it's a thing +you eat. Is there a special voice for buns?" + +"There is for a thing so--well, so momentous as the buying of a +cottage." + +"Is it momentous? It seems to me so nice and natural." + +She looked up at the vicar and his son, calmly scrutinizing first one +and then the other, and they stood looking down at her; and each time +her eyes rested on Robin they found his staring at her with the +frankest expression of surprise and admiration. + +"Pardon me," said the vicar, "if I seem inquisitive, but is it one of +the Symford cottages your uncle wishes to buy? I did not know any were +for sale." + +"It's that one by the gate," said Priscilla, slightly turning her head +in its direction. + +"Is it for sale? Dear me, I never knew Lady Shuttleworth sell a +cottage yet." + +"I don't know yet if she wants to," said Priscilla; "but Fr--, my +uncle, will give any price. And I must have it. I shall--I shall be +ill if I don't." + +The vicar gazed at her upturned face in perplexity. "Dear me," he +said, after a slight pause. + +"We must live somewhere," remarked Priscilla. + +"Of course you must," said Robin, suddenly and so heartily that she +examined his eager face in more detail. + +"Quite so, quite so," said the vicar. "Are you staying here at +present?" + +"Never at the Cock and Hens?" broke in Robin. + +"We're at Baker's Farm." + +"Ah yes--poor Mrs. Pearce will be glad of lodgers. Poor soul, poor +soul." + +"She's a very dirty soul," said Robin; and Priscilla's eyes flashed +over him with a sudden sparkle. + +"Is she the soul with the holes in its apron?" she asked. + +"I expect there are some there. There generally are," said Robin. + +They both laughed; but the vicar gently shook his head. "Ah well, poor +thing," he said, "she has an uphill life of it. They don't seem +able--they don't seem to understand the art of making both ends meet." + +"It's a great art," said Robin. + +"Perhaps they could be helped," said Priscilla, already arranging in +her mind to go and do it. + +"They do not belong to the class one can help. And Lady Shuttleworth, +I am afraid, disapproves of shiftless people too much to do anything +in the way of reducing the rent." + +"Lady Shuttleworth can't stand people who don't look happy and don't +mend their apron," said Robin. + +"But it's her own apron," objected Priscilla. + +"Exactly," said Robin. + +"Well, well, I hope they'll make you comfortable," said the vicar; and +having nothing more that he could well say without having to confess +to himself that he was inquisitive, he began to draw Robin away. "We +shall see you and your uncle on Sunday in church, I hope," he said +benevolently, and took off his hat and showed his snow-white hair. + +Priscilla hesitated. She was, it is true, a Protestant, it having been +arranged on her mother's marriage with the Catholic Grand Duke that +every alternate princess born to them was to belong to the Protestant +faith, and Priscilla being the alternate princess it came about that +of the Grand Duke's three children she alone was not a Catholic. +Therefore she could go to church in Symford as often as she chose; but +it was Fritzing's going that made her hesitate, for Fritzing was what +the vicar would have called a godless man, and never went to church. + +"You are a member of the Church of England?" inquired the vicar, +seeing her hesitate. + +"Why, pater, she's not English," burst out Robin. + +"Not English?" echoed the vicar. + +"Is my English so bad?" asked Priscilla, smiling. + +"It's frightfully good," said Robin; "but the 'r's,' you know--" + +"Ah, yes. No, I'm not English. I'm German." + +"Indeed?" said the vicar, with all the interest that attaches to any +unusual phenomenon, and a German in Symford was of all phenomena the +most unusual. "My dear young lady, how remarkable. I don't remember +ever having met a German before in these parts. Your English is really +surprising. I should never have noticed--my boy's ears are quicker +than my old ones. Will you think me unpardonably curious if I ask what +made you pitch on Symford as a place to live in?" + +"My uncle passed through it years ago and thought it so pretty that he +determined to spend his old age here." + +"And you, I suppose, are going to take care of him." + +"Yes," said Priscilla, "for we only"--she looked from one to the other +and thought herself extremely clever--"we only have each other in the +whole wide world." + +"Ah, poor child--you are an orphan." + +"I didn't say so," said Priscilla quickly, turning red; she who had +always been too proud to lie, how was she going to lie now to this +aged saint with the snow-white hair? + +"Ah well, well," said the vicar, vaguely soothing. "We shall see you +on Sunday perhaps. There is no reason that I know of why a member of +the German Church should not assist at the services of the Church of +England." And he took off his hat again, and tried to draw Robin away. + +But Robin lingered, and Priscilla saw so much bright curiosity in his +eyes that she felt she was giving an impression of mysteriousness; and +this being the last thing she wanted to do she thought she had better +explain a little--always a dangerous course to take--and she said, "My +uncle taught languages for years, and is old now and tired, and we +both long for the country and to be quiet. He taught me +English--that's why it's as good as it is. His name"--She was carried +away by the desire to blow out that questioning light in Robin's +eyes--"his name is Schultz." + +The vicar bowed slightly, and Robin asked with an air of great +politeness but still with that light in his eyes if he were to address +her, then, as Miss Schultz. + +"I'm afraid so," said Priscilla, regretfully. It really sounded gross. +Miss Schultz? She might just as well have chosen something romantic +while she was about it, for Fritzing in the hurry of many cares had +settled nothing yet with her about a name. + +Robin stared at her very hard, her answer seemed to him so odd. He +stared still more when she looked up with the air of one who has a +happy thought and informed him that her Christian name was Ethel. + +"Ethel?" echoed Robin. + +"It's a very pretty name, I think," said Priscilla, looking pleased. + +"Our housemaid's called Ethel, and so is the little girl that wheels +the gardener's baby's perambulator," was Robin's impetuous comment. + +"That doesn't make it less pretty," said Priscilla, frowning. + +"Surely," interrupted the vicar mildly, "Ethel is not a German name?" + +"I was christened after my mother," said Priscilla gently; and this +was strictly true, for the deceased Grand Duchess had also been +Priscilla. Then a feeling came over her that she was getting into +those depths where persons with secrets begin to flounder as a +preliminary to letting them out, and seized with panic she got up off +the slab. + +"You are half English, then," said Robin triumphantly, his bright eyes +snapping. He looked very bold and masterful staring straight at her, +his head thrown back, his handsome face twinkling with interest. But a +person of Priscilla's training could not possibly be discomposed by +the stare of any Robin, however masterful; had it not been up to now +her chief function in life to endure being stared at with graceful +indifference? "I did not say so," she said, glancing briefly at him; +and including both father and son in a small smile composed +indescribably of graciousness and chill she added, "It really is damp +here--I don't think I'll wait for my uncle," and slightly bowing +walked away without more ado. + +She walked very slowly, her skirts gathered loosely in one hand, every +line of her body speaking of the most absolute self-possession and +unapproachableness. Never had the two men seen any one quite so calm. +They watched her in silence as she went up the path and out at the +gate; then Robin looked down at his father and drew his hand more +firmly through his arm and said with a slight laugh, "Come on, pater, +let's go home. We're dismissed." + +"By a most charming young lady," said the vicar, smiling. + +"By a very cool one," said Robin, shrugging his shoulders, for he did +not like being dismissed. + +"Yes--oddly self-possessed for her age," agreed the vicar. + +"I wonder if all German teacher's nieces are like that," said Robin +with another laugh. + +"Few can be so blest by nature, I imagine." + +"Oh, I don't mean faces. She is certainly prettier by a good bit than +most girls." + +"She is quite unusually lovely, young man. Don't quibble." + +"Miss Schultz--Ethel Schultz," murmured Robin; adding under his +breath, "Good Lord." + +"She can't help her name. These things are thrust upon one." + +"It's a beastly common name. Macgrigor, who was a year in Dresden, +told me everybody in Germany is called Schultz." + +"Except those who are not." + +"Now, pater, you're being clever again," said Robin, smiling down at +his father. + +"Here comes some one in a hurry," said the vicar, his attention +arrested by the rapidly approaching figure of a man; and, looking up, +Robin beheld Fritzing striding through the churchyard, his hat well +down over his eyes as if clapped on with unusual vigour, both hands +thrust deep in his pockets, the umbrella, without which he never, even +on the fairest of days, went out, pressed close to his side under his +arm, and his long legs taking short and profane cuts over graves and +tombstones with the indifference to decency of one immersed in +unpleasant thought. It was not the custom in Symford to leap in this +manner over its tombs; and Fritzing arriving at a point a few yards +from the vicar, and being about to continue his headlong career across +the remaining graves to the tree under which he had left Priscilla, +the vicar raised his voice and exhorted him to keep to the path. + +"Quaint-looking person," remarked Robin. "Another stranger. I say, it +can't be--no, it can't possibly be the uncle?" For he saw he was a +foreigner, yet on the other hand never was there an uncle and a niece +who had less of family likeness. + +Fritzing was the last man wilfully to break local rules or wound +susceptibilities; and pulled out of his unpleasant abstraction by the +vicar's voice he immediately desisted from continuing his short cut, +and coming onto the path removed his hat and apologized with the +politeness that was always his so long as nobody was annoying him. + +"My name is Neumann, sir," he said, introducing himself after the +German fashion, "and I sincerely beg your pardon. I was looking for a +lady, and"--he gave his spectacles a little adjusting shove as though +they were in fault, and gazing across to the elm where he had left +Priscilla sitting added with sudden anxiety--"I fear I do not see +her." + +"Do you mean Miss Schultz?" asked the vicar, looking puzzled. + +"No, sir, I do not mean Miss Schultz," said Fritzing, peering about +him at all the other trees in evident surprise and distress. + +"A lady left about five minutes ago," said Robin. + +"A tall young lady in a blue costume?" + +"Yes. Miss Schultz." + +Fritzing looked at him with some sternness. "Sir, what have I to do +with Miss Schultz?" he inquired. + +"Oh come now," said the cheerful Robin, "aren't you looking for her?" + +"I am in search of my niece, sir." + +"Yes. Miss Schultz." + +"No sir," said Fritzing, controlling himself with an effort, "not +Miss Schultz. I neither know Miss Schultz nor do I care a--" + +"Sir, sir," interposed the vicar, hastily. + +"I do not care a _pfenning_ for any Miss Schultz." + +The vicar looked much puzzled. "There was a young lady," he said, +"waiting under that tree over there for her uncle who had gone, she +said, to see Lady Shuttleworth's agent about the cottage by the gate. +She said her uncle's name was Schultz." + +"She said she was Miss Ethel Schultz," said Robin. + +"She said she was staying at Baker's Farm," said the vicar. + +Fritzing stared for a moment from one to the other, then clutching his +hat mechanically half an inch into the air turned on his heel without +another word and went with great haste out of the churchyard and down +the hill and away up the road to the farm. + +"Quaint, isn't he," said Robin as they slowly followed this flying +figure to the gate. + +"I don't understand it," said the vicar. + +"It does seem a bit mixed." + +"Did he not say his name was Neumann?" + +"He did. And he looked as if he'd fight any one who said it wasn't." + +"It is hardly credible that there should be two sets of German uncles +and nieces in Symford at one and the same time," mused the vicar. +"Even one pair is a most unusual occurrence." + +"If there are," said Robin very earnestly, "pray let us cultivate the +Schultz set and not the other." + +"I don't understand it," repeated the vicar, helplessly. + + + + +VII + + +Symford, innocent village, went to bed very early; but early as it +went long before it had got there on this evening it contained no +family that had not heard of the arrivals at Baker's Farm. From the +vicarage the news had filtered that a pretty young lady called Schultz +was staying there with her uncle; from the agent's house the news that +a lunatic called Neumann was staying there with his niece; and about +supper-time, while it was still wondering at this sudden influx of +related Germans, came the postmistress and said that the boy from +Baker's who fetched the letters knew nothing whatever of any one +called Schultz. He had, said the postmistress, grown quite angry and +forgotten the greater and by far the better part of his manners when +she asked him how he could stand there and say such things after all +the years he had attended Sunday-school and if he were not afraid the +earth would open and swallow him up, and he had stuck to it with an +obstinacy that had at length convinced her that only one uncle and +niece were at Baker's, and their name was Neumann. He added that there +was another young lady there whose name he couldn't catch, but who sat +on the edge of her bed all day crying and refusing sustenance. +Appeased by the postmistress's apologies for her first unbelief he +ended by being anxious to give all the information in his power, and +came back quite a long way to tell her that he had forgotten to say +that his mother had said that the niece's Christian name was +Maria-Theresa. + +"But what, then," said the vicar's wife to the vicar when this news +had filtered through the vicarage walls to the very sofa where she +sat, "has become of the niece called Ethel?" + +"I don't know," said the vicar, helplessly. + +"Perhaps she is the one who cried all day." + +"My dear, we met her in the churchyard." + +"Perhaps they are forgers," suggested the vicar's wife. + +"My dear?" + +"Or anarchists." + +"Kate?" + +The vicar's wife said no more, but silently made up her mind to go the +very next day and call at Baker's. It would be terrible if a bad +influence got into Symford, her parish that she had kept in such good +order for so long. Besides, she had an official position as the wife +of the vicar and could and ought to call on everybody. Her call would +not bind her, any more than the call of a district visitor would, to +invite the called-upon to her house. Perhaps they were quite decent, +and she could ask the girl up to the Tuesday evenings in the +parish-room; hardly to the vicarage, because of her daughter Netta. On +the other hand, if they looked like what she imagined anarchists or +forgers look like, she would merely leave leaflets and be out when +they returned her call. + +Robin, all unaware of his mother's thoughts, was longing to ask her to +go to Baker's and take him with her as a first step towards the +acquaintance after which his soul thirsted, but he refrained for +various discreet reasons based on an intimate knowledge of his +mother's character; and he spent the evening perfecting a plan that +should introduce him into the interior of Baker's without her help. +The plan was of a barbarous simplicity: he was going to choose an +umbrella from the collection that years had brought together in the +stand in the hall, and go boldly and ask the man Neumann if he had +dropped it in the churchyard. The man Neumann would repudiate the +umbrella, perhaps with secret indignation, but he would be forced to +pretend he was grateful, and who knew what luck might not do for him +after that? + +While Robin was plotting, and his mother was plotting, that the next +day would certainly see them inside Baker's, a third person was trying +to do exactly the same thing at Symford Hall; and this third person +was no other than Augustus, the hope of all the Shuttleworths. +Augustus--he was known to his friends briefly as Tussie--had been +riding homewards late that afternoon, very slowly, for he was an +anxious young man who spent much of his time dodging things like being +overheated, when he saw a female figure walking towards him along the +lonely road. He was up on the heath above Symford, a solitary place of +heather, and gorse bushes, and winding roads that lead with many +hesitations and delays to different parts of Exmoor, and he himself +with his back to that wild region and the sunset was going, as every +sensible person would be going at that time of the evening, in the +direction of the village and home. But where could the girl be going? +For he now saw it was a girl, and in a minute or two more that it was +a beautiful girl. With the golden glow of the sky the sun had just +left on her face Priscilla came towards him out of the gathering dusk +of approaching evening, and Tussie, who had a poetic soul, gazed at +the vision openmouthed. Seeing him, she quickened her steps, and he +took off his cap eagerly when she asked him to tell her where Symford +was. "I've lost it," she said, looking up at him. + +"I'm going through it myself," he answered. "Will you let me show you +the way?" + +"Thank you," said Priscilla; and he got off his horse and she turned +and walked beside him with the same unruffled indifference with which +she would have walked beside the Countess Disthal or in front of an +attending lacquey. Nor did she speak, for she was busy thinking of +Fritzing and hoping he was not being too anxious about her, and Tussie +(God defend his innocence) thought she was shy. So sure was he as the +minutes past that her silence was an embarrassed one that he put an +end to it by remarking on the beauty of the evening, and Priscilla who +had entirely forgotten Miss Schultz gave him the iciest look as a +reminder that it was not his place to speak first. It was lost on +Tussie as a reminder, for naturally it did not remind him of anything, +and he put it down at first to the girl's being ill at ease alone up +there with a strange man, and perhaps to her feeling she had better +keep him at arm's length. A glance at her profile however dispelled +this illusion once and for ever, for never was profile of a profounder +calm. She was walking now with her face in shadow, and the glow behind +her played strange and glorious tricks with her hair. He looked at +her, and looked, and not by the quiver of an eyelash did she show she +was aware of anybody's presence. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, +and she was deep in thought tinged with remorsefulness that she should +have come up here instead of going straight home to the farm, and by +losing her way and staying out so long have given Fritzing's careful +heart an unnecessary pang of anxiety. He had had so many, and all +because of her. But then it had been the very first time in her life +that she had ever walked alone, and if words cannot describe the joy +and triumph of it how was it likely that she should have been able to +resist the temptation to stray aside up a lovely little lane that +lured her on and on from one bend to another till it left her at last +high up, breathless and dazzled, on the edge of the heath, with +Exmoor rolling far away in purple waves to the sunset and all the +splendour of the evening sky in her face? She had gone on, fascinated +by the beauty of the place, and when she wanted to turn back found she +had lost herself. Then appeared Sir Augustus to set her right, and +with a brief thought of him as a useful person on a nice horse she +fell into sober meditations as to the probable amount of torture her +poor Fritzi was going through, and Augustus ceased to exist for her as +completely as a sign-post ceases to exist for him who has taken its +advice and passed on. + +He looked at her, and looked, and looked again. He had never seen any +one quite so beautiful, and certainly never any one with such an air +of extreme detachment. He was twenty-one and much inclined to poetry, +and he thought as she walked beside him so tall and straight and +aloof, with the nimbus of flaming hair and the noble little head and +slightly stern brow that she looked like nothing less than a young +saint of God. + +Tussie was not bold like Robin. He was a gentle youth who loved quiet +things, quiet places, placid people, kind dogs, books, canaries even, +if they did not sing too loud. He was sensitive about himself, being +small and weakly, and took, as I have said, great care of what he had +of health, such care indeed that some of his robust friends called him +Fussie. He hated the idea of coming of age and of having a great deal +of money and a great many active duties and responsibilities. His +dream was to be left in peace to write his verses; to get away into +some sweet impossible wilderness, and sit there singing with as much +of the spirit of Omar Kayyam as could reasonably be expected to +descend on a youth who only drank water. He was not bold, I say; and +after that one quelling glance from the young saint's eyes did not +dare speak again for a long while. But they were getting near Symford; +they were halfway down the hill; he could not let her slip away +perhaps suddenly from his side into the shadows without at least +trying to find out where she was staying. He looked at her soft kind +mouth and opened his own to speak. He looked at her stern level brows +and shut it again. At last, keeping his eyes on her mouth he blurted +out, growing red, "I know every soul in Symford, and every soul for +miles round, but I don't know--" He stopped. He was going to say +"you," but he stopped. + +Priscilla's thoughts were so far away that she turned her head and +gazed vaguely at him for a moment while she collected them again. Then +she frowned at him. I do not know why Robin should have had at least +several smiles and poor Tussie only frowns, unless it was that during +this walk the young person Ethel Schultz had completely faded from +Priscilla's mind and the Royal Highness was well to the fore. She +certainly frowned at Tussie and asked herself what could possess the +man to keep on speaking to her. Keep on speaking! Poor Tussie. Aloud +she said freezingly, "Did you say something?" + +"Yes," said Tussie, his eyes on her mouth--surely a mouth only made +for kindness and gentle words. "I was wondering whether you were +staying at the vicarage." + +"No," said Priscilla, "we're staying at Baker's Farm." And at the +mention of that decayed lodging the friendly Schultz expression crept +back, smiling into her eyes. + +Tussie stopped short. "Baker's Farm?" he said. "Why, then this is the +way; down here, to the right. It's only a few yards from here." + +"Were you going that way too?" + +"I live on the other side of Symford." + +"Then good-bye and thank you." + +"Please let me go with you as far as the high-road--it's almost dark." + +"Oh no--I can't lose myself again if it's only a few yards." + +She nodded, and was turning down the lane. + +"Are you--are you comfortable there?" he asked hurriedly, blushing. +"The Pearces are tenants of ours. I hope they make you comfortable?" + +"Oh, we're only going to be there a few days. My uncle is buying a +cottage, and we shall leave almost directly." + +The girl Ethel nodded and smiled and went away quickly into the dusk; +and Tussie rode home thoughtfully, planning elaborate plans for a +descent the next day upon Baker's Farm that should have the necessary +air of inevitableness. + +Fritzing was raging up and down the road in front of the gate when +Priscilla emerged, five minutes later, from the shadows of the lane. +She ran up to him and put her arm through his, and looked up at him +with a face of great penitence. "Dear Fritzi," she said, "I'm so +sorry. I've been making you anxious, haven't I? Forgive me--it was the +first taste of liberty, and it got into my feet and set them off +exploring, and then I lost myself. Have you been worrying?" + +He was immensely agitated, and administered something very like a +scolding, and he urged the extreme desirability of taking Annalise +with her in future wherever she went--("Oh nonsense, Fritzi," +interjected Priscilla, drawing away her arm)--and he declared in a +voice that trembled that it was a most intolerable thought for him +that two strange men should have dared address her in the churchyard, +that he would never forgive himself for having left her there +alone--("Oh, Fritzi, how silly," interjected Priscilla)--and he begged +her almost with tears to tell him exactly what she had said to them, +for her Grand Ducal Highness must see that it was of the first +importance they should both say the same things to people. + +Priscilla declared she had said nothing at all but what was quite +diplomatic, in fact quite clever; indeed, she had been surprised at +the way ideas had seemed to flow. + +"So please," she finished, "don't look at me with such lamentable +eyes." + +"Ma'am, did you not tell them our name is Schultz?" + +"But so it is." + +"It is not, ma'am. Our name is Neumann." + +Priscilla stared astonished. "Neumann?" she said. "Nonsense, Fritzi. +Why should it be Neumann? We're Schultz. I told these people we were. +It's all settled." + +"Settled, ma'am? I told the woman here as well as the estate agent +that you are my brother's child and that we are Neumann." + +Priscilla was aghast. Then she said severely, "It was your duty to ask +me first. What right have you to christen me?" + +"I intended to discuss it during our walk to the village this +afternoon. I admit I forgot it. On the other hand I could not suppose +your Grand Ducal Highness, left for a moment unprotected, would inform +two strange gentlemen that our name was Schultz." + +"You should certainly have asked me first," repeated Priscilla with +knitted brows. "Why should I have to be Neumann?" + +"I might inquire with equal reason why I should have to be Schultz," +retorted Fritzing. + +"But why Neumann?" persisted Priscilla, greatly upset. + +"Ma'am, why not?" said Fritzing, still more upset. Then he added, +"Your Grand Ducal Highness might have known that at the agent's I +would be obliged to give some name." + +"I didn't think any more than you did," said Priscilla stopping in +front of the gate as a sign he was to open it for her. He did, and +they walked through the garden and into the house in silence. Then she +went into the parlour and dropped into a horsehair armchair, and +leaning her head against its prickliness she sighed a doleful sigh. + +"Shall I send Annalise to you, ma'am?" asked Fritzing, standing in the +doorway. + +"What can we do?" asked Priscilla, her eyes fixed on the tips of her +shoes in earnest thought. "Come in, Fritzi, and shut the door," she +added. "You don't behave a bit like an uncle." Then an idea struck +her, and looking up at him with sudden gaiety she said, "Can't we have +a hyphen?" + +"A hyphen?" + +"Yes, and be Neumann-Schultz?" + +"Certainly we can," said Fritzing, his face clearing; how muddled he +must be getting not to have thought of it himself! "I will cause cards +to be printed at once, and we will be Neumann-Schultz. Ma'am, your +woman's wit--" + +"Fritzi, you're deteriorating--you never flattered me at Kunitz. Let +us have tea. I invite you to tea with me. If you'll order it, I'll +pour it out for you and practice being a niece." + +So the evening was spent in harmony; a harmony clouded at intervals, +it is true, first by Priscilla's disappointment about the cottage, +then by a certain restiveness she showed before the more blatant +inefficiencies of the Baker housekeeping, then by a marked and ever +recurring incapacity to adapt herself to her new environment, and +lastly and very heavily when Fritzing in the course of conversation +let drop the fact that he had said she was Maria-Theresa. This was a +very black cloud and hung about for a long while; but it too passed +away ultimately in a compromise reached after much discussion that +Ethel should be prefixed to Maria-Theresa; and before Priscilla went +to bed it had been arranged that Fritzing should go next morning +directly after a very early breakfast to Lady Shuttleworth and not +leave that lady's side and house till he had secured the cottage, and +the Princess for her part faithfully promised to remain within the +Baker boundaries during his absence. + + + + +VIII + + +Lady Shuttleworth then, busiest and most unsuspecting of women, was +whisking through her breakfast and her correspondence next morning +with her customary celerity and method, when a servant appeared and +offered her one of those leaves from Fritzing's note-book which we +know did duty as his cards. + +Tussie was sitting at the other end of the table very limp and sad +after a night of tiresome tossing that was neither wholly sleep nor +wholly wakefulness, and sheltered by various dishes with spirit-lamps +burning beneath them worked gloomily at a sonnet inspired by the girl +he had met the day before while his mother thought he was eating his +patent food. The girl, it seemed, could not inspire much, for beyond +the fourth line his muse refused to go; and he was beginning to be +unable to stop himself from an angry railing at the restrictions the +sonnet form forces upon poets who love to be vague, which would +immediately have concentrated his mother's attention on himself and +resulted in his having to read her what he had written--for she +sturdily kept up the fiction of a lively interest in his poetic +tricklings--when the servant came in with Fritzing's leaf. + +"A gentleman wishes to see you on business, my lady," said the +servant. + +"Mr. Neumann-Schultz?" read out Lady Shuttleworth in an inquiring +voice. "Never heard of him. Where's he from?" + +"Baker's Farm, my lady." + +At that magic name Tussie's head went up with a jerk. + +"Tell him to go to Mr. Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth. + +The servant disappeared. + +"Why do you send him away, mother?" asked Tussie. + +"Why, you know things must go through Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth +pouncing on her letters again. "I'd be plagued to death if they +didn't." + +"But apparently this is the stranger within our gates. Isn't he +German?" + +"His name is. Dawson will be quite kind to him." + +"Dawson's rather a brute I fancy, when you're not looking." + +"Dearest, I always am looking." + +"He must be one of Pearce's lodgers." + +"Poor man, I'm sorry for him if he is. Of all the shiftless women--" + +"The gentleman says, my lady," said the servant reappearing with +rather an awestruck face, "that he wishes to speak to you most +particular." + +"James, did I not tell you to send him to Mr. Dawson?" + +"I delivered the message, my lady. But the gentleman says he's seen +Mr. Dawson, and that he"--the footman coughed slightly--"he don't want +to see any more of him, my lady." + +Lady Shuttleworth put on her glasses and stared at the servant. "Upon +my word he seems to be very cool," she said; and the servant, his gaze +fixed on a respectful point just above his mistress's head, reflected +on the extreme inapplicability of the adjective to anything so warm as +the gentleman at the door. + +"Shall I see him for you, mother?" volunteered Tussie briskly. + +"You?" said his mother surprised. + +"I'm rather a dab at German, you know. Perhaps he can't talk much +English"--the footman started--"evidently he wasn't able to say much +to Dawson. Probably he wants you to protect him from the onslaughts of +old Pearce's cockroaches. Anyhow as he's a foreigner I think it would +be kinder to see him." + +Lady Shuttleworth was astonished. Was Tussie going to turn over a new +leaf after all, now that he was coming of age, and interest himself in +more profitable things than verse-making? + +"Dearest," she said, quite touched, "he shall be seen if you think it +kinder. I'll see him--you haven't done breakfast yet. Show him into +the library, James." And she gathered up her letters and went out--she +never kept people waiting--and as she passed Tussie she laid her hand +tenderly for a moment on his shoulder. "If I find I can't understand +him I'll send for you," she said. + +Tussie folded up his sonnet and put it in his pocket. Then he ate a +few spoonfuls of the stuff warranted to give him pure blood, huge +muscles, and a vast intelligence; then he opened a newspaper and +stared vacantly at its contents; then he went to the fire and warmed +his feet; then he strolled round the table aimlessly for a little; and +then, when half an hour had passed and his mother had not returned, he +could bear it no longer and marched straight into the library. + +"I think the cigarettes must be here," said Tussie, going over to the +mantelpiece and throwing a look of eager interest at Fritzing. + +Fritzing rose and bowed ceremoniously. Lady Shuttleworth was sitting +in a straight-backed chair, her elbows on its arms, the tips of her +ten fingers nicely fitted together. She looked very angry, and yet +there was a sparkle of something like amusement in her eyes. Having +bowed to Tussie Fritzing sat down again with the elaboration of one +who means to stay a long while. During his walk from the farm he had +made up his mind to be of a most winning amiability and patience, +blended with a determination that nothing should shake. At the door, +it is true, he had been stirred to petulance by the foolish face and +utterances of the footman James, but during the whole of the time he +had been alone with Lady Shuttleworth he had behaved, he considered, +with the utmost restraint and tact. + +Tussie offered him a cigarette. + +"My dear Tussie," said his mother quickly, "we will not keep Mr. +Neumann-Schultz. I'm sure his time must be quite as valuable as mine +is." + +"Oh madam," said Fritzing with a vast politeness, settling himself yet +more firmly in his chair, "nothing of mine can possibly be of the same +value as anything of yours." + +Lady Shuttleworth stared--she had stared a good deal during the last +halfhour--then began to laugh, and got up. "If you see its value so +clearly," she said, "I'm sure you won't care to take up any more of +it." + +"Nay, madam," said Fritzing, forced to get up too, "I am here, as I +explained, in your own interests--or rather in those of your son, who +I hear is shortly to attain his majority. This young gentleman is, I +take it, your son?" + +Tussie assented. + +"And therefore the owner of the cottages?" + +"What cottages?" asked Tussie, eagerly. He was manifestly so violently +interested in Mr. Neumann-Schultz that his mother could only gaze at +him in wonder. He actually seemed to hang on that odd person's lips. + +"My dear Tussie, Mr. Neumann-Schultz has been trying to persuade me to +sell him the pair of cottages up by the church, and I have been trying +to persuade him to believe me when I tell him I won't." + +"But why won't you, mother?" asked Tussie. + +Lady Shuttleworth stared at him in astonishment. "Why won't I? Do I +ever sell cottages?" + +"Your esteemed parent's reasons for refusing," said Fritzing, "reasons +which she has given me with a brevity altogether unusual in one of her +sex and which I cannot sufficiently commend, do more credit, as was to +be expected in a lady, to her heart than to her head. I have offered +to build two new houses for the disturbed inhabitants of these. I have +offered to give her any price--any price at all, within the limits of +reason. Your interests, young gentleman, are what will suffer if this +business is not concluded between us." + +"Do you want them for yourself?" asked Tussie. + +"Yes, sir, for myself and for my niece." + +"Mother, why do you refuse to do a little business?" + +"Tussie, are we so poor?" + +"As far as I'm concerned," said Tussie airily to Fritzing, "you may +have the things and welcome." + +"Tussie?" + +"But they are not worth more than about fifty pounds apiece, and I +advise you not to give more for them than they're worth. Aren't they +very small, though? Isn't there any other place here you'd rather +have?" + +"Tussie?" + +"Do you mind telling me why you want them?" + +"Young man, to live in them." + +"And where are the people to live who are in them now?" asked Lady +Shuttleworth, greatly incensed. + +"Madam, I promised you to build." + +"Oh nonsense. I won't have new red-brick horrors about the place. +There's that nice good old Mrs. Shaw in one, so clean and tidy always, +and the shoemaker, a very good man except for his enormous family, in +the other. I will not turn them out." + +"Put 'em in the empty lodge at the north gate," suggested Tussie. +"They'd be delighted." + +Lady Shuttleworth turned angrily on Fritzing--she was indeed greatly +irritated by Tussie's unaccountable behaviour. "Why don't you build +for yourself?" she asked. + +"My niece has set her heart on these cottages in such a manner that I +actually fear the consequences to her health if she does not get +them." + +"Now, mother, you really can't make Mr. Neumann-Schultz's niece ill." + +"Dearest boy, have you suddenly lost your senses?" + +"Not unless it's losing them to be ready to do a kindness." + +"Well said, well said, young man," said Fritzing approvingly. + +"Tussie, have I ever shirked doing a kindness?" asked Lady +Shuttleworth, touched on her tenderest point. + +"Never. And that's why I can't let you begin now," said Tussie, +smiling at her. + +"Well said, well said, young man," approved Fritzing. "The woman up to +a certain age should lead the youth, and he should in all things +follow her counsels with respect and obedience. But she for her part +should know at what moment to lay down her authority, and begin, with +a fitting modesty, to follow him whom she has hitherto led." + +"Is that what your niece does?" asked Lady Shuttleworth quickly. + +"Madam?" + +"Is she following you into these cottages, or are you following her?" + +"You must pardon me, madam, if I decline to discuss my niece." + +"Do have a cigarette," said Tussie, delighted. + +"I never smoke, young man." + +"Something to drink, then?" + +"I never drink, young man." + +"If I decide to let you have these cottages--_if_ I do," said Lady +Shuttleworth, divided between astonishment at everything about +Fritzing and blankest amazement at her son's behaviour, "you will +understand that I only do it because my son seems to wish it." + +"Madam, provided I get the cottages I will understand anything you +like." + +"First that. Then I'd want some information about yourself. I +couldn't let a stranger come and live in the very middle of my son's +estate unless I knew all about him." + +"Why, mother--" began Tussie. + +"Is not the willingness to give you your own price sufficient?" +inquired Fritzing anxiously. + +"Not in the least sufficient," snapped Lady Shuttleworth. + +"What do you wish to know, madam?" said Fritzing stiffly. + +"I assure you a great deal." + +"Come, mother," said Tussie, to whom this was painful, for was not the +man, apart from his strange clothes and speeches, of a distinctly +refined and intellectual appearance? And even if he wasn't, was he not +still the uncle of that divine niece?--"these are things for Dawson to +arrange." + +Fritzing started at the hated name, and began to frown dreadfully. His +frown was always very impressive because of his bushy eyebrows and +deep-set eyes. "Dawson, as you call him," he said, "and he certainly +has no claim to any prefix of politeness, is not a person with whom I +will consent to arrange anything. Dawson is the most offensive +creature who ever walked this earth clad in the outer semblance of one +of God's creatures." + +This was too much for Lady Shuttleworth. "Really--" she said, +stretching out her hand to the bell. + +"Didn't I tell you so, mother?" cried Tussie triumphantly; and that +Tussie, her own dear boy, should in all things second this madman +completely overwhelmed her. "I knew he was a brute behind your back. +Let's sack him." + +"James, show this gentleman out." + +"Pardon me, madam, we have not yet arranged--" + +"Oh," interrupted Tussie, "the business part can be arranged between +you and me without bothering my mother. I'll come part of the way with +you and we'll talk it over. You're absolutely right about Dawson. He's +an outrageous mixture of bully and brute." And he hurried into the +hall to fetch his cap, humming _O dear unknown One with the stern +sweet face_, which was the first line of his sonnet in praise of +Priscilla, to a cheerful little tune of his own. + +"Tussie, it's so damp," cried his anxious mother after him--"you're +not really going out in this nasty Scotch mist? Stay in, and I'll +leave you to settle anything you like." + +"Oh, it's a jolly morning for a walk," called back Tussie gaily, +searching about for his cap--"_And eyes all beautiful with strenuous +thought_--Come on, sir." + +But Fritzing would not skimp any part of his farewell ceremonies. + +"Permit me, madam," he said, deeply bowing, "to thank you for your +extremely kind reception." + +"Kind?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, unable to stop herself from +smiling. + +"Yes, madam, kind, and before all things patient." + +"Yes, I do think I've been rather patient," agreed Lady Shuttleworth, +smiling again. + +"And let me," proceeded Fritzing, "join to my thanks my +congratulations on your possession of so unusually amiable and +promising a son." + +"Come on, sir--you'll make me vain," said Tussie, in the +doorway--"'_Hair like a web divine wherein is caught_,'"--he hummed, +getting more and more shrill and happy. + +Lady Shuttleworth put out her hand impulsively. Fritzing took it, bent +over it, and kissed it with much respect. + +"A most unusually promising young man," he repeated; "and, madam, I +can tell you it is not my habit to say a thing I do not mean." + +"'_The last reflection of God's daily grace_'"--chirped Tussie, +looking on much amused. + +"No, that I'm quite certain you don't," said Lady Shuttleworth with +conviction. + +"Don't say too many nice things about me," advised Tussie. "My mother +will swallow positively anything." + +But nevertheless he was delighted; for here were his mother and the +uncle--the valuable and highly to be cherished uncle--looking as +pleased as possible with each other, and apparently in the fairest way +to becoming fast friends. + + + + +IX + + +The cheerful goddess who had brought Fritzing and his Princess safely +over from Kunitz was certainly standing by them well. She it was who +had driven Priscilla up on to the heath and into the acquaintance of +Augustus Shuttleworth, without whom a cottage in Symford would have +been for ever unattainable. She it was who had sent the Morrisons, +father and son, to drive Priscilla from the churchyard before Fritzing +had joined her, without which driving she would never have met +Augustus. She it was who had used the trifling circumstance of a +mislaid sermon-book to take the vicar and Robin into the church at an +unaccustomed time, without which sermon-book they would never have met +Priscilla in the churchyard and driven her out of it. Thus are all our +doings ruled by Chance; and it is a pleasant pastime for an idle hour +to trace back big events to their original and sometimes absurd +beginnings. For myself I know that the larger lines of my life were +laid down once for all by--but what has this to do with Priscilla? +Thus, I say, are all our doings ruled by Chance, who loves to use +small means for the working of great wonders. And as for the gay +goddess's ugly sister, the lady of the shifty eye and lowering brow +called variously Misfortune and Ill Luck, she uses the same tools +exactly in her hammering out of lives, meanly taking little follies +and little weaknesses, so little and so amiable at first as hardly to +be distinguished from little virtues, and with them building up a +mighty mass that shall at last come down and crush our souls. Of the +crushing of souls, however, my story does not yet treat, and I will +not linger round subjects so awful. We who are nestling for the moment +like Priscilla beneath the warm wing of Good Fortune can dare to make +what the children call a face at her grey sister as she limps scowling +past. Shall we not too one day in our turn feel her claws? Let us when +we do at least not wince; and he who feeling them can still make a +face and laugh, shall be as the prince of the fairy tales, +transforming the sour hag by his courage into a bright reward, +striking his very griefs into a shining shower of blessing. + +From this brief excursion into the realm of barren musings, whither I +love above all things to wander and whence I have continually to fetch +myself back again by force, I will return to the story. + +At Tussie's suggestion when the business part of their talk was +over--and it took exactly five minutes for Tussie to sell and Fritzing +to buy the cottages, five minutes of the frothiest business talk ever +talked, so profound was the ignorance of both parties as to what most +people demand of cottages--Fritzing drove to Minehead in the +postmistress's son's two-wheeled cart in order to purchase suitable +furniture and bring back persons who would paper and paint. Minehead +lies about twenty miles to the north of Symford, so Fritzing could not +be back before evening. By the time he was back, promised Tussie, the +shoemaker and Mrs. Shaw should be cleared out and put into a place so +much better according to their views that they would probably make it +vocal with their praises. + +Fritzing quite loved Tussie. Here was a young man full of the noblest +spirit of helpfulness, and who had besides the invaluable gift of +seeing no difficulties anywhere. Even Fritzing, airy optimist, saw +more than Tussie, and whenever he expressed a doubt it was at once +brushed aside by the cheerfullest "Oh, that'll be all right." He was +the most practical, businesslike, unaffected, energetic young man, +thought Fritzing, that he had even seen. Tussie was surprised himself +at his own briskness, and putting the wonderful girl on the heath as +much as possible out of his thoughts, told himself that it was the +patent food beginning at last to keep its promises. + +He took Fritzing to the post-office and ordered the trap for him, +cautioned the postmistress's son, who was going to drive, against +going too fast down the many hills, for the bare idea of the priceless +uncle being brought back in bits or in any state but absolutely whole +and happy turned him cold, told Fritzing which shops to go to and +where to lunch, begged him to be careful what he ate, since hotel +luncheons were good for neither body nor soul, ordered rugs and a +mackintosh covering to be put in, and behaved generally with the +forethought of a mother. "I'd go with you myself," he said,--and the +postmistress, listening with both her ears, recognized that the +Baker's Farm lodgers were no longer persons to be criticised--"but I +can be of more use to you here. I must see Dawson about clearing out +the cottages. Of course it is very important you shouldn't stay a +moment longer than can be helped in uncomfortable lodgings." + +Here was a young man! Sensible, practical, overflowing with kindness. +Fritzing had not met any one he esteemed so much for years. They went +down the village street together, for Tussie was bound for Mr. Dawson +who was to be set to work at once, and Fritzing for the farm whither +the trap was to follow him as soon as ready, and all Symford, +curtseying to Tussie, recognized, as the postmistress had recognized, +that Fritzing was now raised far above their questionings, seated +firmly on the Shuttleworth rock. + +They parted at Mr. Dawson's gate, Mrs. Dawson mildly watching their +warmth over a wire blind. "When we are settled, young man," said +Fritzing, after eloquent words of thanks and appreciation, "you must +come in the evenings, and together we will roam across the splendid +fields of English literature." + +"Oh _thanks_" exclaimed Tussie, flushing with pleasure. He longed to +ask if the divine niece would roam too, but even if she did not, to +roam at all would be a delight, and he would besides be doing it under +the very roof that sheltered that bright and beautiful head. "Oh +_thanks_," cried Tussie, then, flushing. + +His extreme joy surprised Fritzing. "Are you so great a friend of +literature?" he inquired. + +"I believe," said Tussie, "that without it I'd have drowned myself +long ago. And as for the poets--" + +He stopped. No one knew what poetry had been to him in his sickly +existence--the one supreme interest, the one thing he really cared to +live for. + +Fritzing now loved him with all his heart. "_Ach Gott, ja_," he +ejaculated, clapping him on the shoulder, "the poets--_ja, +ja_--'Blessings be with them and eternal praise,' what? Young man," he +added enthusiastically, "I could wish that you had been my son. I +could indeed." And as he said it Robin Morrison coming down the street +and seeing the two together and the expression on Tussie's face +instantly knew that Tussie had met the niece. + +"Hullo, Tuss," he called across, hurrying past, for it would rather +upset his umbrella plan to be stopped and have to talk to the man +Neumann thus prematurely. But Tussie neither saw nor heard him, and +"By Jove, hasn't he just seen the niece though," said Robin to +himself, his eyes dancing as he strode nimbly along on long and +bird-like legs. The conviction seized him that when he and his +umbrella should descend upon Baker's that afternoon Tussie would +either be there already or would come in immediately afterwards. "Who +would have thought old Fuss would be so enterprising?" he wondered, +thinking of the extreme cordiality of Fritzing's face. "He's given +them those cottages, I'll swear." + +So Fritzing went to Minehead. I will not follow his painful footsteps +as they ranged about that dreary place, nor will I dwell upon his +purchases, which resolved themselves at last, after an infinite and +soul-killing amount of walking and bewilderment, into a sofa, a +revolving bookstand, and two beds. He forgot a bed for Annalise +because he forgot Annalise; and he didn't buy things like sheets +because he forgot that beds want them. On the other hand he spent +quite two hours in a delightful second-hand bookshop on his way to the +place where you buy crockery, and then forgot the crockery. He did, +reminded and directed by Mr. Vickerton, the postmistress's son, get to +a paperhanger's and order him and his men to come out in shoals to +Symford the next morning at daybreak, making the paperhanger vow, who +had never seen them, that the cottages should be done by nightfall. +Then, happening to come to the seashore, he stood for a moment +refreshing his nostrils with saltness, for he was desperately worn +out, and what he did after that heaven knows. Anyhow young Vickerton +found him hours afterwards walking up and down the shingle in the +dark, waving his arms about and crying-- + + "O, qui me gelidis convallibus Haemi + Sistat et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!" + +"Talking German out loud to himself," said young Vickerton to his +mother that night; and it is possible that he had been doing it all +the time. + +And while he was doing these things Priscilla was having calls paid +her. Nothing could exceed her astonishment when about four o'clock, as +she was sitting deep in thought and bored on the arm of a horsehair +chair, Mrs. Pearce opened the door and without the least warning let +in Mrs. Morrison. Priscilla had promised Fritzing for that one day to +stay quietly at the farm, and for the last two hours, finding the farm +of an intolerable dulness, she had been engaged in reflections of an +extremely complex nature on subjects such as Duty, Will, and +Personality. Her morning in the Baker fields and by the banks of that +part of the Sym that meanders through them had tuned her mind to +meditation. The food at one o'clock and the manner of its bringing in +by Annalise--Priscilla had relieved Mrs. Pearce of that office--tuned +it still more. The blended slipperiness and prickliness of all the +things she tried to sit on helped surprisingly; and if I knew how far +it is allowable to write of linen I could explain much of her state of +mind by a description of the garments in which she was clothed that +day. They were new garments taken straight from the Gerstein box. +They were not even linen,--how could they be for Fritzing's three +hundred marks? And their newness had not yet been exposed to the +softening influence of any wash-tub. Straight did they come, in all +their crackling stiffness, out of the shop and on to the Princess. +Annalise had been supposed to wash them or cause them to be washed the +day before, but Annalise had been far too busy crying to do anything +of the sort; and by four o'clock Priscilla was goaded by them into a +condition of mind so unworthy that she was thinking quite hard about +the Kunitz fine linen and other flesh-pots and actually finding the +recollection sweet. It was a place, Priscilla mused, where her body +had been exquisitely cared for. Those delicate meals, served in +spotlessness, surely they had been rather of the nature of poems? +Those web-like garments, soft as a kiss, how beautiful they had been +to touch and wear. True her soul had starved; yes, it had cruelly +starved. But was it then--she started at her own thought--was it then +being fed at Baker's? + +And into the middle of this question, a tremendous one to be asked on +the very threshold of the new life, walked Mrs. Morrison. + +"How d'y do," said Mrs. Morrison. "The vicar asked me to come and see +you. I hope the Pearces make you comfortable." + +"Well I never," thought Mrs. Pearce, lingering as was her custom on +the door-mat, and shaking her head in sorrow rather than in anger. + +Priscilla sat for a moment staring at her visitor. + +"You are Miss Schultz, are you not?" asked Mrs. Morrison rather +nervously. + +Priscilla said she was,--her name, that is, was Neumann-Schultz--and +got up. She had the vaguest notion as to how Miss Schultz would behave +under these trying circumstances, but imagined she would begin by +getting up. So she got up, and the sofa being a low one and her +movements leisurely, Mrs. Morrison told her husband afterwards there +seemed to be no end to the girl. The girl certainly was long, and when +at last unfolded and quite straightened out she towered over Mrs. +Morrison, who looked up uneasily at the grave young face. Why, Mrs. +Morrison asked herself, didn't the girl smile? It was the duty of a +Miss Schultz called upon by the vicar's wife to smile; so profound a +gravity on such an occasion was surely almost rude. Priscilla offered +her hand and hoped it was all right to do so, but still she did not +smile. "Are you Mrs. Morrison?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Morrison with an immense reserve in her voice. + +Then Priscilla suggested she should sit down. Mrs. Morrison was +already doing it; and Priscilla sank on to her sofa again and wondered +what she had better say next. She wondered so much that she became +lost in mazes of wonder, and there was so long a silence that Mrs. +Pearce outside the door deplored an inconsiderateness that could keep +her there for nothing. + +"I didn't know you had a double name," said Mrs. Morrison, staring at +Priscilla and trying to decide whether this was not a case for the +application of leaflets and instant departure. The girl was really +quite offensively pretty. She herself had been pretty--she thanked +heaven that she still was so--but never, never pretty--she thanked +heaven again--in this glaringly conspicuous fashion. + +"My name is Ethel Maria-Theresa Neumann-Schultz," said Priscilla, very +clearly and slowly; and though she was, as we know, absolutely +impervious to the steadiest staring, she did wonder whether this good +lady could have seen her photograph anywhere in some paper, her stare +was so very round and bright and piercing. + +"What a long name," said Mrs. Morrison. + +"Yes," said Priscilla; and as another silence seemed imminent she +added, "I have two hyphens." + +"Two what?" said Mrs. Morrison, startled; and so full was her head of +doubt and distrust that for one dreadful moment she thought the girl +had said two husbands. "Oh, hyphens. Yes. Germans have them a good +deal, I believe." + +"That sounds as if we were talking about diseases," said Priscilla, a +faint smile dawning far away somewhere in the depths of her eyes. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Morrison, fidgeting. + +Odd that Robin should have said nothing about the girl's face. Anyhow +she should be kept off Netta. Better keep her off the parish-room +Tuesdays as well. What in the world was she doing in Symford? She was +quite the sort of girl to turn the heads of silly boys. And so +unfortunate, just as Augustus Shuttleworth had taken to giving Netta +little volumes of Browning. + +"Is your uncle out?" she asked, some of the sharpness of her thoughts +getting into her voice. + +"He's gone to Minehead, to see about things for my cottage." + +"Your cottage? Have you got Mrs. Shaw's, then?" + +"Yes. She is being moved out to-day." + +"Dear me," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly struck. + +"Is it surprising?" + +"Most. So unlike Lady Shuttleworth." + +"She has been very kind." + +"Do you know her?" + +"No; but my uncle was there this morning." + +"And managed to persuade her?" + +"He is very eloquent," said Priscilla, with a demure downward sweep of +her eyelashes. + +"Just a little more," thought Mrs. Morrison, watching their dusky +golden curve, "and the girl would have had scarlet hair and +white-eyebrows and masses of freckles and been frightful." And she +sighed an impatient sigh, which, if translated into verse, would +undoubtedly have come out-- + + "Oh the little more and how much it is, + And the little less and what worlds away!" + +"And poor old Mrs. Shaw--how does she like being turned out?" + +"I believe she is being put into something that will seem to her a +palace." + +"Dear me, your uncle must really be very eloquent." + +"I assure you that he is," said Priscilla earnestly. + +There was a short pause, during which Mrs. Morrison staring straight +into those unfathomable pools, Priscilla's eyes, was very angry with +them for being so evidently lovely. "You are very young," she said, +"so you will not mind my questions--" + +"Don't the young mind questions?" asked Priscilla, for a moment +supposing it to be a characteristic of the young of England. + +"Not, surely, from experienced and--and married ladies," said Mrs. +Morrison tartly. + +"Please go on then." + +"Oh, I haven't anything particular to go on about," said Mrs. +Morrison, offended. "I assure you curiosity is not one of my faults." + +"No?" said Priscilla, whose attention had begun to wander. + +"Being human I have no doubt many failings, but I'm thankful to say +curiosity isn't one of them." + +"My uncle says that's just the difference between men and women. He +says women might achieve just as much as men if only they were curious +about things. But they're not. A man will ask a thousand questions, +and never rest till he's found out as much as he can about anything he +sees, and a woman is content hardly even to see it." + +"I hope your uncle is a Churchman," was Mrs. Morrison's unexpected +reply. + +Priscilla's mind could not leap like this, and she hesitated a moment +and smiled. ("It's the first time she's looked pleasant," thought Mrs. +Morrison, "and now it's in the wrong place.") + +"He was born, of course, in the Lutheran faith," said Priscilla. + +"Oh, a horrid faith. Excuse me, but it really is. I hope he isn't +going to upset Symford?" + +"Upset Symford?" + +"New people holding wrong tenets coming to such a small place do +sometimes, you know, and you say he is eloquent. And we are such a +simple and God-fearing little community. A few years ago we had a +great bother with a Dissenting family that came here. The cottagers +quite lost their heads." + +"I think I can promise that my uncle will not try to convert anybody," +said Priscilla. + +"Of course you mean pervert. It would be a pity if he did. It wouldn't +last, but it would give us a lot of trouble. We are very good +Churchmen here. The vicar, and my son too when he's at home, set +beautiful examples. My son is going into the Church himself. It has +been his dearest wish from a child. He thinks of nothing else--of +nothing else at all," she repeated, fixing her eyes on Priscilla with +a look of defiance. + +"Really?" said Priscilla, very willing to believe it. + +"I assure you it's wonderful how absorbed he is in his studies for it. +He reads Church history every spare moment, and he's got it so +completely on his mind that I've noticed even when he whistles it's +'The Church's One Foundation.'" + +"What is that?" inquired Priscilla. + +"Mr. Robin Morrison," announced Mrs. Pearce. + +The sitting-room at Baker's was a small, straightforward place, with +no screens, no big furniture, no plants in pots, nothing that could +for a moment conceal the persons already in it from the persons coming +in, and Robin entering jauntily with the umbrella under his arm fell +straight as it were into his mother's angry gaze. "Hullo mater, you +here?" he exclaimed genially, his face broadening with apparent +satisfaction. + +"Yes, Robin, I am here," she said, drawing herself up. + +"How do you do, Miss Schultz. I seem to have got shown into the wrong +room. It's a Mr. Neumann I've come to see; doesn't he live here?" + +Priscilla looked at him from her sofa seat and wondered what she had +done that she should be scourged in this manner by Morrisons. + +"You know my son, I believe?" said Mrs. Morrison in the stiffest +voice; for the girl's face showed neither recognition nor pleasure, +and though she would have been angry if she had looked unduly pleased +she was still angrier that she should look indifferent. + +"Yes. I met him yesterday. Did you want my uncle? His name is Neumann. +Neumann-Schultz. He's out." + +"I only wanted to give him this umbrella," said Robin, with a swift +glance at his mother as he drew it from under his arm. Would she +recognize it? He had chosen one of the most ancient; the one most +appropriate, as he thought, to the general appearance of the man +Neumann. + +"What umbrella is that, Robin?" asked his mother suspiciously. Really, +it was more than odd that Robin, whom she had left immersed in study, +should have got into Baker's Farm so quickly. Could he have been +expected? And had Providence, in its care for the righteous cause of +mothers, brought her here just in time to save him from this girl's +toils? The girl's indifference could not be real; and if it was not, +her good acting only betrayed the depths of her experience and +balefulness. "What umbrella is that?" asked Mrs. Morrison. + +"It's his," said Robin, throwing his head back and looking at his +mother as he laid it with elaborate care on the table. + +"My uncle's?" said Priscilla. "Had he lost it? Oh thank you--he would +have been dreadfully unhappy. Sit down." And she indicated with her +head the chair she would allow him to sit on. + +"The way she tells us to sit down!" thought Mrs. Morrison indignantly. +"As though she were a queen." Aloud she said, "You could have sent +Joyce round with it"--Joyce being that gardener whose baby's +perambulator was wheeled by another Ethel--"and need not have +interrupted your work." + +"So I could," said Robin, as though much struck by the suggestion. +"But it was a pleasure," he added to Priscilla, "to be able to return +it myself. It's a frightful bore losing one's umbrella--especially if +it's an old friend." + +"Uncle Fritzi's looks as if it were a very old friend," said +Priscilla, smiling at it. + +Mrs. Morrison glanced at it too, and then glanced again. When she +glanced a third time and her glance turned into a look that lingered +Robin jumped up and inquired if he should not put it in the passage. +"It's in the way here," he explained; though in whose way it could be +was not apparent, the table being perfectly empty. + +Priscilla made no objection, and he at once removed it beyond the +reach of his mother's eye, propping it up in a dark corner of the +passage and telling Mrs. Pearce, whom he found there that it was Mr. +Neumann's umbrella. + +"No it ain't," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"Yes it is," said Robin. + +"No it ain't. He's took his to Minehead," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"It is, and he has not," said Robin. + +"I see him take it," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"You did not," said Robin. + +This would have been the moment, Mrs. Morrison felt, for her to go and +to carry off Robin with her, but she was held in her seat by the +certainty that Robin would not let himself be carried off; and sooner +than say good-bye and then find he was staying on alone she would sit +there all night. Thus do mothers sacrifice themselves for their +children, thought Mrs. Morrison, for their all too frequently +thankless children. But though she would do it to any extent in order +to guard her boy she need not, she said to herself, be pleasant +besides,--she need not, so to speak, be the primroses on his path of +dalliance. Accordingly she behaved as little like a primrose as +possible, sitting in stony silence while he skirmished in the passage +with Mrs. Pearce, and the instant he came in again asked him where he +had found the umbrella. + +"I found it--not far from the church," said Robin, desiring to be +truthful as long as he could. "But mater, bother the umbrella. It +isn't so very noble to bring a man back his own. Did you get your +cottages?" he asked, turning quickly to Priscilla. + +"Robin, are you sure it is his own?" said his mother. + +"My dear mother, I'm never sure of anything. Nor are you. Nor is Miss +Schultz. Nor is anybody who is really intelligent. But I found the +thing, and Mr. Neumann--" + +"The name to-day is Neumann-Schultz," said Mrs. Morrison, in a voice +heavy with implications. + +"Mr. Neumann-Schultz, then, had been that way just before, and so I +felt somehow it must be his." + +"Your Uncle Cox had one just like it when he stayed with us last +time," remarked Mrs. Morrison. + +"Had he? I say, mater, what an eye you must have for an umbrella. That +must be five years ago." + +"Oh, he left it behind, and I see it in the stand every time I go +through the hall." + +"No! Do you?" said Robin, who was hurled by this statement into the +corner where his wits ended and where he probably would have stayed +ignominiously, for Miss Schultz seemed hardly to be listening and +really almost looked--he couldn't believe it, no girl had ever done it +in his presence yet, but she did undoubtedly almost look--bored, if +Mrs. Pearce had not flung open the door, and holding the torn portions +of her apron bunched together in her hands, nervously announced Lady +Shuttleworth. + +"Oh," thought Priscilla, "what a day I'm having." But she got up and +was gracious, for Fritzing had praised this lady as kind and +sensible; and the moment Lady Shuttleworth set her eyes on her the +mystery of her son's behaviour flashed into clearness. "Tussie's seen +her!" she exclaimed inwardly; instantly adding "Upon my word I can't +blame the boy." + +"My dear," she said, holding Priscilla's hand, "I've come to make +friends with you. See what a wise old woman I am. Frankly, I didn't +want you in those cottages, but now that my son has sold them I lose +no time in making friends. Isn't that true wisdom?" + +"It's true niceness," said Priscilla, smiling down at the little old +lady whose eyes were twinkling all over her. "I don't think you'll +find us in any way a nuisance. All we want is to be quiet." + +Mrs. Morrison sniffed. + +"Do you really?" said Lady Shuttleworth. "Then we shall get on +capitally. It's what I like best myself. And you've come too," she +went on, turning to Mrs. Morrison, "to make friends with your new +parishioner? Why, Robin, and you too?" + +"Oh, I'm only accidental," said Robin quickly. "Only a restorer of +lost property. And I'm just going," he added, beginning to make hasty +adieux; for Lady Shuttleworth invariably produced a conviction in him +that his clothes didn't fit and wanted brushing badly, and no young +man so attentive to his appearance as Robin could be expected to enjoy +that. He fled therefore, feeling that even Miss Schultz's loveliness +would not make up for Lady Shuttleworth's eyes; and in the passage, +from whence Mrs. Pearce had retreated, removing herself as far as +might be from the awful lady to whom her father-in-law owed rent and +who saw every hole, Robin pounced on his Uncle Cox's umbrella, tucked +is once more beneath his arm, and bore it swiftly back to the stand +where it had spent five peaceful years. "Really old women are rather +terrible things," he thought as he dropped it in again. "I wonder what +they're here for." + +"Ah, it's there, I see," remarked his mother that night as she passed +through the hall on her way to dinner. + +"What is?" inquired Robin who was just behind her. + +"Your Uncle Cox's umbrella." + +"Dear mater, why this extreme interest in my Uncle Cox's umbrella?" + +"I'm glad to see it back again, that's all. One gets so used to +things." + +Lady Shuttleworth and his mother--I shudder to think that it is +possible Robin included his mother in the reflection about old women, +but on the other hand one never can tell--had stayed on at the farm +for another twenty minutes after he left. They would have stayed +longer, for Lady Shuttleworth was more interested in Priscilla than +she had ever been in any girl before, and Mrs. Morrison, who saw this +interest and heard the kind speeches, had changed altogether from ice +to amiability, crushing her leaflets in her hand and more than once +expressing hopes that Miss Neumann-Schultz would soon come up to tea +and learn to know and like Netta--I repeat, they would have stayed +much longer, but that an extremely odd thing happened. + +Priscilla had been charming; chatting with what seemed absolute +frankness about her future life in the cottages, answering little +questionings of Lady Shuttleworth's with a discretion and plausibility +that would have warmed Fritzing's anxious heart, dwelling most, for +here the ground was safest, on her uncle, his work, his gifts and +character, and Lady Shuttleworth, completely fascinated, had offered +her help of every sort, help in the arranging of her little home, in +the planting of its garden, even in the building of those bathrooms +about which Tussie had been told by Mr. Dawson. She thought the desire +for many bathrooms entirely praiseworthy, and only a sign of lunacy in +persons of small means. Fritzing had assured Tussie that he had money +enough for the bathrooms; and if his poetic niece liked everybody +about her to be nicely washed was not that a taste to be applauded? +Perhaps Lady Shuttleworth expatiated on plans and probable +building-costs longer than Priscilla was able to be interested; +perhaps she was over-explanatory of practical details; anyhow +Priscilla's attention began to wander, and she gradually became very +tired of her callers. She answered in monosyllables, and her smile +grew vague. Then suddenly, at the first full stop Lady Shuttleworth +reached in a sentence about sanitation--the entire paragraph was never +finished--she got up with her usual deliberate grace, and held out her +hand. + +"It has been very kind of you to come and see me," she said to the +astounded lady, with a little gracious smile. "I hope you will both +come again another time." + +For an instant Lady Shuttleworth thought she was mad. Then to her own +amazement she found her body rising obediently and letting its hand be +taken. + +Mrs. Morrison did the same. Both had their hands slightly pressed, +both were smiled upon, and both went out at once and speechless. +Priscilla stood calmly while they walked to the door, with the little +smile fixed on her face. + +"Is it possible we've been insulted?" burst out Mrs. Morrison when +they got outside. + +"I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth, who looked extremely +thoughtful. + +"Do you think it can possibly be the barbarous German custom?" + +"I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth again. + +And all the way to the vicarage, whither she drove Mrs. Morrison, she +was very silent, and no exclamations and conjectures of that indignant +lady's could get a word out of her. + + + + +X + + +Kunitz meanwhile was keeping strangely quiet. Not a breath, not a +whisper, had reached the newspapers from that afflicted little town of +the dreadful thing that had happened to it. It will be remembered that +the Princess ran away on a Monday, arrived at Baker's in the small +hours of Wednesday morning, and had now spent both Wednesday and +Thursday in Symford. There had, then, been ample time for Europe to +receive in its startled ears the news of her flight; yet Europe, +judging from its silence, knew nothing at all about it. In Minehead on +the Thursday evening Fritzing bought papers, no longer it is true with +the frenzy he had displayed at Dover when every moment seemed packed +with peril, but still with eagerness; and not a paper mentioned +Kunitz. On the Saturday he did find the laconic information in the +London paper he had ordered to be sent him every day that the Grand +Duke of Lothen-Kunitz who was shooting in East Prussia had been joined +there by that Prince--I will not reveal his august name--who had so +badly wanted to marry Priscilla. And on the Sunday--it was of course +the paper published in London on Saturday--he read that the Princess +Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, the second and only unmarried daughter of +the Grand Duke, was confined to her bed by a sharp attack of +influenza. After that there was utter silence. Fritzing showed +Priscilla the paragraph about her influenza, and she was at first very +merry over it. The ease with which a princess can shake off her +fetters the moment she seriously tries to surprised her, and amused +her too, for a little. It surprised Fritzing, but without amusing him, +for he was a man who was never amused. Indeed, I am unable to recall +any single occasion on which I saw him smile. Other emotions shook him +vigorously as we know, but laughter never visited him with its +pleasant ticklings under the ribs; it slunk away abashed before a task +so awful, and left him at his happiest to a mood of mild contentment. +"Your Royal Parent," he remarked to Priscilla, "has chosen that which +is ever the better part of valour, and is hushing the incident up." + +"He never loved me," said Priscilla, wistfully. On thinking it over +she was not quite sure that she liked being allowed to run away so +easily. Did nobody care, then, what became of her? Was she of +positively no value at all? Running away is all very well, but your +pride demands that those runned from shall at least show some sign of +not liking it, make some effort, however humble, to fetch you back. If +they do not, if they remain perfectly quiescent and resigned, not even +sending forth a wail that shall be audible, you are naturally +extremely crushed. "My father," said Priscilla bitterly, "doesn't +care a bit. He'll give out I'm dangerously ill, and then you'll see, +Fritzi--I shall either die, or be sent away for an interminable +yachting cruise with the Countess. And so dust will be thrown in +people's eyes. My father is very good at that, and the Countess is a +perfect genius. You'll see." + +But Fritzing never saw, for there was no more mention at all either of +Kunitz or of influenza. And just then he was so much taken up by his +efforts to get into the cottages as quickly as possible that after a +passing feeling of thankfulness that the Grand Duke should be of such +a convenient indifference to his daughter's fate it dropped from his +mind in the easy fashion in which matters of importance always did +drop from it. What was the use, briefly reflected this philosopher, of +worrying about what they were or were not thinking at Kunitz? There +would be time enough for that when they actually began to do +something. He felt very safe from Kunitz in the folds of the Somerset +hills, and as the days passed calmly by he felt still safer. But +though no dangers seemed to threaten from without there were certain +dangers within that made it most desirable for them to get away from +Baker's and into their own little home without a moment's unnecessary +delay. He could not always be watching his tongue, and he found for +instance that it positively refused to call the Princess Ethel. It had +an almost equal objection to addressing her as niece; and it had a +most fatal habit of slipping out Grand Ducal Highnesses. True, at +first they mostly talked German together, but the tendency to talk +English grew more marked every day; it was in the air they breathed, +and they both could talk it so fatally well. Up at the cottages among +the workmen, or when they were joined by Mr. Dawson, grown zealous to +help, or by either of the young men Robin and Tussie, who seemed +constantly to be passing, the danger too was great. Fritzing was so +conscious of it that he used to break out into perspirations whenever +Priscilla was with him in public, and his very perspirations were +conspicuous. The strain made his manner oddly nervous when speaking to +or of his niece, and he became the subject of much conjecture to the +observant Robin. Robin thought that in spite of her caressing ways +with her uncle the girl must be privately a dreadful tyrant. It seemed +difficult to believe, but Robin prided himself on being ready to +believe anything at a moment's notice, especially if it was the worst, +and he called it having an open mind. The girl was obviously the most +spoilt of girls. No one could help seeing that. Her least wish seemed +to be for the uncle a command that was not even to be talked about. +Yet the uncle was never openly affectionate to her. It almost seemed +as though she must have some secret hold over him, be in possession, +perhaps, of some fact connected with a guilty past. But then this girl +and guilty pasts! Why, from the look in her eyes she could never even +have heard of such things. Robin thought himself fairly experienced +in knowledge of human nature, but he had to admit that he had never +yet met so incomprehensible a pair. He wanted to talk to Tussie +Shuttleworth about them, but Tussie would not talk. To Tussie it +seemed impossible to talk about Priscilla because she was sacred to +him, and she was sacred to him because he adored her so. He adored her +to an extent that amazes me to think of, worshipping her beauty with +all the headlong self-abasement of a very young man who is also a +poet. His soul was as wax within him, softest wax punched all over +with little pictures of Priscilla. No mother is happy while her +child's soul is in this state, and though he was extremely decent, and +hid it and smothered it and choked it with all the energy he +possessed, Lady Shuttleworth knew very well what was going on inside +him and spent her spare time trying to decide whether to laugh or to +cry over her poor Tussie. "When does Robin go back to Cambridge?" she +asked Mrs. Morrison the next time she met her, which was in the front +garden of a sick old woman's cottage. + +Mrs. Morrison was going in with a leaflet; Lady Shuttleworth was going +in with a pound of tea. From this place they could see Priscilla's +cottage, and Robin was nailing up its creepers in the sight of all +Symford. + +"Ah--I know what you mean," said Mrs. Morrison quickly. + +"It is always such a pity to see emotions wasted," said Lady +Shuttleworth slowly, as if weighing each word. + +"Wasted? You do think she's an adventuress, then?" said Mrs. Morrison +eagerly. + +"Sh-sh. My dear, how could I think anything so unkind? But we who are +old"--Mrs. Morrison jerked up her chin--"and can look on calmly, do +see the pity of it when beautiful emotions are lavished and wasted. So +much force, so much time frittered away in dreams. And all so useless, +so barren. Nothing I think is so sad as waste, and nothing is so +wasteful as a one-sided love." + +Mrs. Morrison gave the pink tulle bow she liked to wear in the +afternoons at her throat an agitated pat, and tried to conceal her +misery that Augustus Shuttleworth should also have succumbed to Miss +Neumann-Schultz. That he had done so was very clear from Lady +Shuttleworth's portentous remarks, for it was not in human nature for +a woman to be thus solemn about the wasted emotions of other people's +sons. His doing so might save Robin's future, but it would ruin +Netta's. We all have our little plans for the future--dear rosy things +that we dote on and hug to our bosoms with more tenderness even than +we hug the babies of our bodies, and the very rosiest and best +developed of Mrs. Morrison's darling plans was the marriage of her +daughter Netta with the rich young man Augustus. It was receiving a +rude knock on its hopeful little head at this moment in old Mrs. +Jones's front garden, and naturally the author of its being winced. +Augustus, she feared, must be extremely far gone in love, and it was +not likely that the girl would let such a chance go. It was a +consolation that the marriage would be a scandal,--this person from +nowhere, this niece of a German teacher, carrying off the wealthiest +young man in the county. The ways of so-called Providence were quite +criminally inscrutable, she thought, in stark defiance of what a +vicar's wife should think; but then she was greatly goaded. + +Priscilla herself came out of Mrs. Jones's door at that moment with a +very happy face. She had succeeded in comforting the sick woman to an +extent that surprised her. The sick woman had cheered up so suddenly +and so much that Priscilla, delighted, had at once concluded that work +among the sick poor was her true vocation. And how easy it had been! A +few smiles, a few kind words, a five-pound note put gently into the +withered old hands, and behold the thing was done. Never was sick +woman so much comforted as Mrs. Jones. She who had been disinclined to +speak above a whisper when Priscilla went in was able at the end of +the visit to pour forth conversation in streams, and quite loud +conversation, and even interspersed with chuckles. All Friday +Priscilla had tried to help in the arranging of her cottage, and had +made herself and Fritzing so tired over it that on Saturday she let +him go up alone and decided that she would, for her part, now begin to +do good to the people in the village. It was what she intended to do +in future. It was to be the chief work of her new life. She was going +to live like the poor and among them, smooth away their sorrows and +increase their joys, give them, as it were, a cheery arm along the +rough path of poverty, and in doing it get down herself out of the +clouds to the very soil, to the very beginnings and solid elementary +facts of life. And she would do it at once, and not sit idle at the +farm. It was on such idle days as the day Fritzing went to Minehead +that sillinesses assailed her soul--shrinkings of the flesh from +honest calico, disgust at the cooking, impatience at Annalise's +swollen eyes. Priscilla could have cried that night when she went to +bed, if she had not held tears in scorn, at the sickliness of her +spirit, her spirit that she had thought more than able to keep her +body in subjection, that she had hoped was unalterably firm and brave. +But see the uses of foolishness,--the reaction from it is so great +that it sends us with a bound twice as far again along the right road +as we were while we were wise and picking our way with clean shoes +slowly among the puddles. Who does not know that fresh impulse, so +strong and gracious, towards good that surges up in us after a period +of sitting still in mud? What an experience it is, that vigorous shake +and eager turning of our soiled face once more towards the blessed +light. "I will arise and go to my Father"--of all the experiences of +the spirit surely this is the most glorious; and behold the prudent, +the virtuous, the steadfast--dogged workers in the vineyard in the +heat of the day--are shut out from it for ever. + +Priscilla had not backslided much; but short as her tarrying had been +among the puddles she too sprang forward after it with renewed +strength along the path she had chosen as the best, and having +completed the second of her good works--the first had been performed +just previously, and had been a warm invitation made personally from +door to door to all the Symford mothers to send their children to tea +and games at Baker's Farm the next day, which was Sunday--she came +away very happy from the comforted Mrs. Jones, and met the two +arriving comforters in the front garden. + +Now Priscilla's and Mrs. Jones's last words together had been these: + +"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Priscilla had asked, +leaning over the old lady and patting her arm in farewell. + +"No, deary--you've done enough already, God bless your pretty face," +said Mrs. Jones, squeezing the five-pound note ecstatically in her +hands. + +"But isn't there anything you'd like? Can't I get you anything? See, I +can run about and you are here in bed. Tell me what I can do." + +Mrs. Jones blinked and worked her mouth and blinked again and wheezed +and cleared her throat. "Well, I do know of something would comfort +me," she said at last, amid much embarrassed coughing. + +"Tell me," said Priscilla. + +"I don't like," coughed Mrs. Jones. + +"Tell me," said Priscilla. + +"I'll whisper it, deary." + +Priscilla bent down her head, and the old lady put her twitching mouth +to her ear. + +"Why, of course," said Priscilla smiling, "I'll go and get you some at +once." + +"Now God for ever bless your beautiful face, darlin'!" shrilled Mrs. +Jones, quite beside herself with delight. "The Cock and 'Ens, +deary--that's the place. And the quart bottles are the best; one gets +more comfort out of them, and they're the cheapest in the end." + +And Priscilla issuing forth on this errand met the arriving visitors +in the garden. + +"How do you do," she said in a happy voice, smiling gaily at both of +them. She had seen neither since she had dismissed them, but naturally +she had never given that strange proceeding a thought. + +"Oh--how do you do," said Lady Shuttleworth, surprised to see her +there, and with a slight and very unusual confusion of manner. + +Mrs. Morrison said nothing but stood stiffly in the background, +answering Priscilla's smile with a stern, reluctant nod. + +"I've been talking to poor old Mrs. Jones. Your son"--she looked at +Mrs. Morrison--"told me how ill she was." + +"Did he?" said Mrs. Morrison, hardly raising her eyes a moment from +the ground. This girl was her double enemy: bound, whatever she did, +to make either a fool of her son or of her daughter. + +"So I went in and tried to cheer her up. And I really believe I did." + +"Well that was very kind of you," said Lady Shuttleworth, smiling in +spite of herself, unable to withstand the charm of Priscilla's +personality. How supremely ridiculous of Mrs. Morrison to think that +this girl was an adventuress. Such are the depths of ignorance one can +descend to if one is buried long enough in the country. + +"Now," said Priscilla cheerfully, "she wants rum, and I'm just going +to buy her some." + +"Rum?" cried Lady Shuttleworth in a voice of horror; and Mrs. Morrison +started violently. + +"Is it bad for her?" said Priscilla, surprised. + +"Bad!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"It is," said Mrs. Morrison with her eyes on the ground, "poison for +both body and soul." + +"Dear me," said Priscilla, her face falling. "Why, she said it would +comfort her." + +"It will poison both her body and her soul," repeated Mrs. Morrison +grimly. + +"My dear," said Lady Shuttleworth, "our efforts are all directed +towards training our people to keep from drinking." + +"But she doesn't want to drink," said Priscilla. "She only wants to +taste it now and then. I'm afraid she's dying. Mustn't she die +happy?" + +"It is our duty," said Mrs. Morrison, "to see that our parishioners +die sober." + +"But I've promised," said Priscilla. + +"Did she--did she ask for it herself?" asked Lady Shuttleworth, a +great anxiety in her voice. + +"Yes, and I promised." + +Both the women looked very grave. Mrs. Jones, who was extremely old +and certainly dying--not from any special disease but from mere +inability to go on living--had been up to this a shining example to +Symford of the manner in which Christian old ladies ought to die. As +such she was continually quoted by the vicar's wife, and Lady +Shuttleworth had felt an honest pride in this ordered and seemly +death-bed. The vicar went every day and sat with her and said that he +came away refreshed. Mrs. Morrison read her all those of her leaflets +that described the enthusiasm with which other good persons behave in +a like case. Lady Shuttleworth never drove through the village without +taking her some pleasant gift--tea, or fruit, or eggs, or even little +pots of jam, to be eaten discreetly and in spoonfuls. She also paid a +woman to look in at short intervals during the day and shake up her +pillow. Kindness and attention and even affection could not, it will +be admitted, go further; all three had been heaped on Mrs. Jones with +generous hands; and in return she had expressed no sentiments that +were not appropriate, and never, never had breathed the faintest +suggestion to any of her benefactors that what she really wanted most +was rum. It shocked both the women inexpressibly, and positively +pained Lady Shuttleworth. Mrs. Morrison privately believed Priscilla +had put the idea into the old lady's head, and began to regard her in +something of the light of a fiend. + +"Suppose," said Priscilla, "we look upon it as medicine." + +"But my dear, it is not medicine," said Lady Shuttleworth. + +"It is poison," repeated Mrs. Morrison. + +"How can it be if it does her so much good? I must keep my promise. I +wouldn't disappoint her for the world. If only you'd seen her +delight"--they quivered--"you'd agree that she mustn't be +disappointed, poor old dying thing. Why, it might kill her. But +suppose we treat it as a medicine, and I lock up the bottle and go +round and give her a little myself three or four times a day--wouldn't +that be a good plan? Surely it couldn't hurt?" + +"There is no law to stop you," said Mrs. Morrison; and Lady +Shuttleworth stared at the girl in silent dismay. + +"I can try it at least," said Priscilla; "and if I find it's really +doing her harm I'll leave off. But I promised, and she's expecting it +now every minute. I can't break my promise. Do tell me--is the Cock +and Hens that inn round the corner? She told me it was best there." + +"But you cannot go yourself to the Cock and Hens and buy rum," +exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth, roused to energy; and her voice was full +of so determined a protest that the vicar's wife, who thought it +didn't matter at all where such a young woman went, received a fresh +shock. + +"Why not?" inquired Priscilla. + +"My dear, sooner than you should do that I'll--I'll go and buy it +myself," cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"Gracious heavens," thought Mrs. Morrison, perfectly staggered by this +speech. Had Lady Shuttleworth suddenly lost her reason? Or was she +already accepting the girl as her son's wife? Priscilla looked at her +a moment with grave eyes. "Is it because I'm a girl that I mustn't?" +she asked. + +"Yes. For one thing. But--" Lady Shuttleworth shut her mouth. + +"But what?" asked Priscilla. + +"Oh, nothing." + +"If it's not the custom of the country for a girl to go I'll send Mr. +Morrison," said Priscilla. + +"Send Mr. Morrison?" gasped the vicar's wife. + +"What, the vicar?" exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth. + +"No, no," said Priscilla smiling, "young Mr. Morrison. I see him over +there tying up my creepers. He's so kind. He'll go. I'll ask him." + +And nodding good-bye she hurried out of the garden and over to her +cottage, almost running in her desire not to keep Mrs. Jones any +longer in suspense. + +The two women, rooted to the ground, watched her as if fascinated, saw +her speak to Robin on his ladder, saw how he started and dropped his +nails, saw how nimbly he clambered down, and how after the shortest +parley the infatuated youth rushed away at once in the direction of +the Cock and Hens. The only thing they did not see from where they +stood was the twinkle in his eye. + +"I don't think," murmured Lady Shuttleworth, "I don't think, my dear, +that I quite care to go in to Mrs. Jones to-day. I--I think I'll go +home." + +"So shall I," said Mrs. Morrison, biting her lips to keep them steady. +"I shall go and speak to the vicar." + + + + +XI + + +What she meant by speaking to the vicar was a vigorous stirring of him +up to wrath; but you cannot stir up vicars if they are truly good. The +vicar was a pious and patient old man, practiced in forgiveness, in +overlooking, in waiting, in trying again. Always slow to anger, as the +years drew him more and more apart into the shadows of old age and he +watched from their clear coolness with an ever larger comprehension +the younger generations striving together in the heat, he grew at last +unable to be angered at all. The scriptural injunction not to let the +sun go down upon your wrath had no uses for him, for he possessed no +wrath for the sun to go down upon. He had that lovable nature that +sees the best in everything first, and then prefers to look no +further. He took for granted that people were at bottom good and +noble, and the assumption went a long way towards making them so. +Robin, for instance, was probably saved by his father's unclouded +faith in him. Mrs. Morrison, a woman who had much trouble with +herself, having come into the world with the wings of the angel in her +well glued down and prevented from spreading by a multitude of little +defects, had been helped without her knowing it by his example out of +many a pit of peevishness and passion. Who shall measure the influence +of one kind and blameless life? His wife, in her gustier moments, +thought it sheer weakness, this persistent turning away from evil, +this refusal to investigate and dissect, to take sides, to wrestle. +The evil was there, and it was making an ostrich or a vegetable of +one's self to go on being calm in the face of it. With the blindness +of wives, who are prevented from seeing clearly by the very closeness +of the object--the same remark exactly applies to husbands--she did +not see that the vicar was the candle shining in a naughty world, that +he was the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. And just as leaven +leavens by its mere presence in the lump, by merely passively being +there, and will go on doing it so long as there is a lump to leaven, +so had the vicar, more than his hardworking wife, more than the +untiring Lady Shuttleworth, more than any district visitor, parish +nurse, or other holy person, influenced Symford by simply living in it +in a way that would have surprised him had he known. There is a great +virtue in sweeping out one's own house and trimming its lamps before +starting on the house and lamps of a neighbour; and since new dust +settles every day, and lamps, I believe, need constant trimming, I +know not when the truly tidy soul will have attained so perfect a +spotlessness as to justify its issuing forth to attack the private +dust of other people. And if it ever did, lo, it would find the +necessity no longer there. Its bright untiringness would +unconsciously have done its work, and every dimmer soul within sight +of that cheerful shining been strengthened and inspired to go and do +likewise. + +But Mrs. Morrison, who saw things differently, was constantly trying +to stir up storms in the calm waters of the vicar's mind; and after +the episode in Mrs. Jones's front garden she made a very determined +effort to get him to rebuke Priscilla. Her own indignation was poured +out passionately. The vicar was surprised at her heat, he who was so +beautifully cool himself, and though he shook his head over Mrs. +Jones's rum he also smiled as he shook it. Nor was he more reasonable +about Robin. On the contrary, he declared that he would think mightily +little of a young man who did not immediately fall head over ears in +love with such a pretty girl. + +"You don't mind our boy's heart being broken, then?" questioned his +wife bitterly; of her plans for Netta she had never cared to speak. + +"My dear, if it is to be broken there is no young lady I would sooner +entrust with the job." + +"You don't mind his marrying an adventuress, then?" + +"My dear, I know of no adventuress." + +"You rather like our old people to be tempted to drink, to have it +thrust upon them on their very dying beds?" + +"Kate, are you not bitter?" + +"Psha," said his wife, drumming her foot. + +"Psha, Kate?" inquired the vicar mildly; and it is not always that +the saintly produce a soothing effect on their wives. + +It really seemed as if the girl were to have her own way in Symford, +unchecked even by Lady Shuttleworth, whose attitude was entirely +incomprehensible. She was to be allowed to corrupt the little hamlet +that had always been so good, to lead it astray, to lure it down paths +of forbidden indulgence, to turn it topsy turvy to an extent not even +reached by the Dissenting family that had given so much trouble a few +years before. It was on the Sunday morning as the church bells were +ringing, that Mrs. Morrison, prayer-book in hand, looked in at Mrs. +Jones's on her way to service and discovered the five-pound note. + +The old lady was propped up in bed with her open Bible on her lap and +her spectacles lying in it, and as usual presented to her visitor the +perfect realization of her ideal as to the looks and manners most +appropriate to ailing Christians. There was nowhere a trace of rum, +and the only glass in the room was innocently filled with the china +roses that flowered so profusely in the garden at Baker's Farm. But +Mrs. Morrison could not for all that dissemble the disappointment and +sternness of her heart, and the old lady glanced up at her as she came +in with a kind of quavering fearfulness, like that of a little child +who is afraid it may be going to be whipped, or of a conscientious dog +who has lapsed unaccountably from rectitude. + +"I have come to read the gospel for the day to you," said Mrs. +Morrison, sitting down firmly beside her. + +"Thank you mum," said Mrs. Jones with meekness. + +"My prayer-book has such small print--give me your Bible." + +A look of great anxiety came into Mrs. Jones's eyes, but the Bible was +drawn from between her trembling old hands, and Mrs. Morrison began to +turn its pages. She had not turned many before she came to the +five-pound note. "What is this?" she asked, in extreme surprise. + +Mrs. Jones gave a little gasp, and twisted her fingers about. + +"A five-pound note?" exclaimed Mrs. Morrison, holding it up. "How did +it come here?" + +"It's mine, mum," quavered Mrs. Jones. + +"Yours? Do you mean to say you have money hidden away and yet allow +Lady Shuttleworth to pay everything for you?" + +"It's the first I ever 'ad, mum," faintly murmured the old lady, her +eyes following every movement of Mrs. Morrison's hands with a look of +almost animal anxiety. + +"Where did it come from?" + +"The young lady give it me yesterday, mum." + +"The young lady?" Mrs. Morrison's voice grew very loud. "Do you mean +the person staying at the Pearces'?" + +Mrs. Jones gulped, and feebly nodded. + +"Most improper. Most wrong. Most dangerous. You cannot tell how she +came by it, and I must say I'm surprised at you, Mrs. Jones. It +probably is not a real one. It is unlikely a chit like that should be +able to give so large a sum away--" And Mrs. Morrison held up the note +to the light and turned it round and round, scrutinizing it from every +point of view, upside down, back to front, sideways, with one eye +shut; but it refused to look like anything but a good five-pound note, +and she could only repeat grimly "Most dangerous." + +The old lady watched her, a terrible anxiety in her eyes. Her worst +fears were fulfilled when the vicar's wife folded it up and said +decidedly, "For the present I shall take care of it for you. You +cannot lie here with so much money loose about the place. Why, if it +got round the village you might have some one in who'd murder you. +People have been murdered before now for less than this. I shall speak +to the vicar about it." And she put it in her purse, shut it with a +snap, and took up the Bible again. + +Mrs. Jones made a little sound between a gasp and a sob. Her head +rolled back on the pillow, and two tears dropped helplessly down the +furrows of her face. In that moment she felt the whole crushing misery +of being weak, and sick, and old,--so old that you have outlived your +claims to everything but the despotic care of charitable ladies, so +old that you are a mere hurdy-gurdy, expected each time any one in +search of edification chooses to turn your handle to quaver out tunes +of immortality. It is a bad thing to be very old. Of all the bad +things life forces upon us as we pass along it is the last and +worst--the bitterness at the bottom of the cup, the dregs of what for +many was after all always only medicine. Mrs. Jones had just enough of +the strength of fear left to keep quite still while the vicar's wife +read the Gospel in a voice that anger made harsh; but when she had +gone, after a parting admonition and a dreadful assurance that she +would come again soon, the tears rolled unchecked and piteous, and it +was a mercy that Priscilla also took it into her head to look in on +her way to church, for if she had not I don't know who would have +dried them for this poor baby of eighty-five. And I regret to say that +Priscilla's ideas of doing good were in such a state of crudeness that +she had no sooner mastered the facts brokenly sobbed out than she ran +to the cupboard and gave Mrs. Jones a tablespoonful of rum for the +strengthening of her body and then took out her purse and gave her +another five-pound note for the comforting of her soul. And then she +wiped her eyes, and patted her, and begged her not to mind. Such +conduct was, I suppose, what is called indiscriminate charity and +therefore blameworthy, but its effect was great. Priscilla went to +church with the reflection of the old lady's wonder and joy shining in +her own face. "Hide it," had been her last words at the door, her +finger on her lips, her head nodding expressively in the direction of +the vicarage; and by this advice she ranged herself once and for all +on the opposite side to Mrs. Morrison and the followers of obedience +and order. Mrs. Jones would certainly have taken her for an angel +working miracles with five-pound notes and an inexhaustible pocket if +it had not been for the rum; even in her rapture she did feel that a +genuine angel would be incapable of any really harmonious combination +with rum. But so far had she fallen from the kind of thinking that the +vicar's wife thought proper in a person so near her end that she +boldly told herself she preferred Priscilla. + +Now this was the day of Priscilla's children's party, and though all +Symford had been talking of it for twenty-four hours the news of it +had not yet reached Mrs. Morrison's ears. The reason was that Symford +talked in whispers, only too sure that the authorities would consider +it wrong for it to send its children a-merrymaking on a Sunday, and +desperately afraid lest the forbidden cup should be snatched from its +longing lips. But the news did get to Mrs. Morrison's ears, and it got +to them in the porch of the church as she was passing in to prayer. +She had it from an overgrown girl who was waiting outside for her +father, and who was really much too big for children's parties but had +got an invitation by looking wistful at the right moment. + +"Emma," said Mrs. Morrison in passing, "you have not returned the +book I lent you. Bring it up this afternoon." + +"Please mum, I'll bring it to-morrow, mum," said the girl, curtseying +and turning red. + +"No, Emma, you will do as I direct. One can never be too particular +about returning books. You have kept it an unconscionable time. You +will bring it to the vicarage at four o'clock." + +"Please mum, I--I can't at four o'clock." + +"And pray, Emma, what is to prevent you?" + +"I--I'm going to Baker's, mum." + +"Going to Baker's? Why are you going to Baker's, Emma?" + +So it all came out. + +The bells were just stopping, and Mrs. Morrison, who played the organ, +was forced to hurry in without having told Emma her whole opinion of +those who gave and those who attended Sunday parties, but the prelude +she played that day expressed the tumult of her mind very well, and +struck Tussie Shuttleworth, who had sensitive ears, quite cold. He was +the only person in the church acutely sensitive to sound, and it was +very afflicting to him, this plunging among the pedals, this angry +shrieking of stops no man ever yet had heard together. The very blower +seemed frightened, and blew in gasps; and the startled Tussie, +comparing the sounds to the clamourings of a fiend in pain, could not +possibly guess they were merely the musical expression of the state of +a just woman's soul. + +Mrs. Morrison's anger was perfectly proper. It had been the +conscientious endeavour of twenty-five solid years of her life to make +of Symford a model parish, and working under Lady Shuttleworth, whose +power was great since all the cottages were her son's and were lived +in by his own labourers, it had been kept in a state of order so +nearly perfect as to raise it to the position of an example to the +adjoining parishes. The church was full, the Sunday-school well +attended, the Sabbath was kept holy, the women were one and all sober +and thrifty, the men were fairly satisfactory except on Saturday +nights, there was no want, little sickness, and very seldom downright +sin. The expression downright sin is Mrs. Morrison's own,--heaven +forbid that I should have anything to do with such an expression--and +I suppose she meant by it thieving, murder, and other grossnesses that +would bring the sinner, as she often told her awe-struck Dorcas class, +to infallible gallows, and the sinner's parents' grey hairs to +sorrowful graves. "Please mum, will the parents go too?" asked a girl +one day who had listened breathlessly, an inquiring-minded girl who +liked to get to the root of things. + +"Go where, Bessie?" + +"With the grey hairs, mum." + +Mrs. Morrison paused a moment and fixed a searching gaze on Bessie's +face. Then she said with much dignity, "The parents, Bessie, will +naturally follow the hairs." And to a girl bred in the near +neighbourhood of Exmoor it sounded very sporting. + +Into this innocent, frugal, well-managed hamlet Priscilla dropped +suddenly from nowhere, trailing with her thunder-clouds of impulsive +and childish ideas about doing good, and holding in her hands the +dangerous weapon of wealth. It is hard to stand by and see one's +life-work broken up before one's eyes by an irresponsible stranger, a +foreigner, a girl, a young girl, a pretty girl; especially hard if one +was born with an unbending character, tough and determined, ambitious +and vain. These are not reproaches being piled up on the vicar's wife; +who shall dare reproach another? And how could she help being born so? +We would all if we could be born good and amiable and beautiful, and +remain so perpetually during our lives; and she too was one of God's +children, and inside her soul, behind the crust of failings that +hindered it during these years from coming out, sat her bright angel, +waiting. Meanwhile she was not a person to watch the destruction of +her hopes without making violent efforts to stop it; and immediately +she had played the vicar into the vestry after service that Sunday she +left the congregation organless and hurried away into the churchyard. +There she stood and waited for the villagers to question them about +this unheard of thing; and it was bad to see how they melted away in +other directions,--out at unused gates, making detours over the grass, +visiting the long-neglected graves of relatives, anywhere rather than +along the ordinary way, which was the path where the vicar's wife +stood. At last came Mrs. Vickerton the postmistress. She was deep in +conversation with the innkeeper's wife, and did not see the figure on +the path in time to melt away herself. If she had she certainly would +have melted, for though she had no children but her grown-up son she +felt very guilty; for it was her son who had been sent the afternoon +before to Minehead by Priscilla with a list as long as his arm of the +cakes and things to be ordered for the party. "Oh Mrs. Morrison, I +didn't see you," she exclaimed, starting and smiling and turning red. +She was a genteel woman who called no one mum. + +The innkeeper's wife slipped deftly away among graves. + +"Is it true that the children are going to Baker's Farm this +afternoon?" asked Mrs. Morrison, turning and walking grimly by Mrs. +Vickerton. + +"I did hear something about it, Mrs. Morrison," said Mrs. Vickerton, +hiding her agitation behind a series of smiles with sudden endings. + +"All?" + +"I did hear they pretty well all thought of it," said Mrs. Vickerton, +coughing. "Beautiful weather, isn't it, Mrs. Morrison." + +"They are to have tea there?" + +Mrs. Vickerton gazed pleasantly at the clouds and the tree-tops. "I +should think there might be tea, Mrs. Morrison," she said; and the +vision of that mighty list of cakes rising before her eyes made her +put up her hand and cough again. + +"Have the parents lost their senses?" + +"I couldn't say--I really couldn't say, Mrs. Morrison." + +"Have they forgotten the commandments?" + +"Oh I 'ope not, Mrs. Morrison." + +"And the vicar's teaching? And the good habits of years?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Morrison." + +"I never heard of anything more disgraceful. Disgraceful to the giver +and to those who accept. Wicked, scandalous, and unscriptural." + +"We all 'oped you'd see no harm in it, Mrs. Morrison. It's a fine day, +and they'll just have tea, and perhaps--sing a little, and they don't +get treats often this time of year." + +"Why, it's disgraceful--disgraceful anywhere to have a treat on a +Sunday; but in a parish like this it is scandalous. When Lady +Shuttleworth hears of it I quite expect she'll give everybody notice +to quit." + +"Notice to quit? Oh I hope not, Mrs. Morrison. And she do know about +it. She heard it last night. And Sir Augustus himself has promised the +young lady to go and help." + +"Sir Augustus?" + +"And we all think it so kind of him, and so kind of the young lady +too," said Mrs. Vickerton, gathering courage. + +"Sir Augustus?" repeated Mrs. Morrison. Then a horrid presentiment +laid cold fingers on her heart. "Is any one else going to help?" she +asked quickly. + +"Only the young lady's uncle, and--" + +Mrs. Vickerton hesitated, and looked at the vicar's wife with a +slightly puzzled air. + +"And who?" + +"Of course Mr. Robin." + + + + +XII + + +It is the practice of Providence often to ignore the claims of poetic +justice. Properly, the Symford children ought to have been choked by +Priscilla's cakes; and if they had been, the parents who had sent them +merrymaking on a Sunday would have been well punished by the +undeniable awfulness of possessing choked children. But nobody was +choked; and when in the early days of the following week there were in +nearly every cottage pangs being assuaged, they were so naturally the +consequence of the strange things that had been eaten that only Mrs. +Morrison was able to see in them weapons being wielded by Providence +in the cause of eternal right. She, however, saw it so plainly that +each time during the next few days that a worried mother came and +asked advice, she left her work or her meals without a murmur, and +went to the castor-oil cupboard with an alacrity that was almost +cheerful; and seldom, I suppose, have such big doses been supplied and +administered as the ones she prescribed for suffering Symford. + +But on this dark side of the picture I do not care to look; the +party, anyhow, had been a great success, and Priscilla became at +one stroke as popular among the poor of Symford as she had been in +Lothen-Kunitz. Its success it is true was chiefly owing to the +immense variety of things to eat she had provided; for the +conjuror, merry-go-round, and cocoa-nuts to be shied at that she +had told young Vickerton to bring with him from Minehead, had all +been abandoned on Tussie's earnest advice, who instructed her +innocent German mind that these amusements, undoubtedly admirable +in themselves and on week days, were looked upon askance in England +on Sundays. + +"Why?" asked Priscilla, in great surprise. + +"It's not keeping the day holy," said Tussie, blushing. + +"How funny," said Priscilla. + +"Oh, I don't know." + +"Why," said Priscilla, "in Kun--" but she pulled herself up just as +she was about to give him a description of the varied nature of Sunday +afternoons in Kunitz. + +"You must have noticed," said Tussie, "as you have lived so long in +London, that everything's shut on Sundays. There are no theatres and +things--certainly no cocoa-nuts." + +"No, I don't remember any cocoa-nuts," mused Priscilla, her memory +going over those past Sundays she had spent in England. + +Tussie tried to make amends for having obstructed her plans by +exerting himself to the utmost to entertain the children as far as +decorum allowed. He encouraged them to sing, he who felt every +ugliness in sound like a blow; he urged them to recite for prizes of +sixpences, he on whose soul Casabianca and Excelsior had much the +effect of scourges on a tender skin; he led them out into a field +between tea and supper and made them run races, himself setting the +example, he who caught cold so easily that he knew it probably meant a +week in bed. Robin helped too, but his exertions were confined to the +near neighbourhood of Priscilla. His mother had been very angry with +him, and he had been very angry with his mother for being angry, and +he had come away from the vicarage with a bad taste in his mouth and a +great defiance in his heart. It was the first time he had said hard +things to her, and it had been a shocking moment,--a moment sometimes +inevitable in the lives of parents and children of strong character +and opposed desires. He had found himself quite unable in his anger to +clothe his hard sayings in forms of speech that would have hidden +their brutal force, and he had turned his back at last on her +answering bitterness and fled to Baker's, thankful to find when he got +there that Priscilla's beauty and the interest of the mystery that +hung about her wiped out every other remembrance. + +Priscilla was in the big farm kitchen, looking on at the children +having tea. That was all she did at her party, except go round every +now and then saying pleasant little things to each child; but this +going round was done in so accomplished a manner, she seemed so used +to it, was so well provided with an apparently endless supply of +appropriate remarks, was so kind, and yet so--what was the word? +could it be mechanical?--that Robin for the hundredth time found +himself pondering over something odd, half-remembered, elusive about +the girl. Then there was the uncle; manifestly a man who had never +before been required to assist at a school-treat, manifestly on this +occasion an unhappy man, yet look how he worked while she sat idly +watching, look how he laboured round with cakes and bread-and-butter, +clumsily, strenuously, with all the heat and anxiety of one eager to +please and obey. Yes, that was what he did; Robin had hit on it at +last. This extraordinary uncle obeyed his niece; and Robin knew very +well that Germany was the last country in the world to produce men who +did that. Had he not a cousin who had married a German officer? A +whilom gay and sprightly cousin, who spent her time, as she dolefully +wrote, having her mind weeded of its green growth of little opinions +and gravelled and rolled and stamped with the opinions of her male +relations-in-law. "And I'd rather have weeds than gravel," she wrote +at the beginning of this process when she was still restive under the +roller, "for they at least are green." But long ago she had left off +complaining, long ago she too had entered into the rest that remaineth +for him who has given up, who has become what men praise as reasonable +and gods deplore as dull, who is tired of bothering, tired of trying, +tired of everything but sleep. Then there was the girl's maid. This +was the first time Robin had seen her; and while she was helping Mrs. +Pearce pour out cups of chocolate and put a heaped spoonful of whipped +cream on the top of each cup in the fashion familiar to Germans and +altogether lovely in the eyes of the children of Symford, Robin went +to her and offered help. + +Annalise looked at him with heavy eyes, and shook her head. + +"She don't speak no English, sir," explained Mrs. Pearce. "This one's +pure heathen." + +"No English," echoed Annalise drearily, who had at least learned that +much, "no English, no English." + +Robin gathered up his crumbs of German and presented them to her with +a smile. Immediately on hearing her own tongue she flared into life, +and whipping out a little pocket-book and pencil asked him eagerly +where she was. + +"Where you are?" repeated Robin, astonished. + +"_Ja, Ja_. The address. This address. What is it? Where am I?" + +"What, don't you know?" + +"Tell me--quick," begged Annalise. + +"But why--I don't understand. You must know you are in England?" + +"England! Naturally I know it is England. But this--where is it? What +is its address? For letters to reach me? Quick--tell me quick!" + +Robin, however, would not be quick. "Why has no one told you?" he +asked, with an immense curiosity. + +"_Ach_, I have not been told. I know nothing. I am kept in the dark +like--like a prisoner." And Annalise dragged her handkerchief out of +her pocket, and put it to her eyes just in time to stop her ready +tears from falling into the whipped cream and spoiling it. + +"There she goes again," sniffed Mrs. Pearce. "It's cry, cry, from +morning till night, and nothing good enough for her. It's a mercy she +goes out of this to-morrow. I never see such an image." + +"Tell me," implored Annalise, "tell me quick, before my mistress--" + +"I'll write it for you," said Robin, taking the note-book from her. +"You know you go into a cottage next week, so I'll put your new +address." And he wrote it in a large round hand and gave it to her +quickly, for Mrs. Pearce was listening to all this German and watching +him write with a look that made him feel cheap. So cheap did it make +him feel that he resisted for the present his desire to go on +questioning Annalise, and putting his hands in his pockets sauntered +away to the other end of the kitchen where Priscilla sat looking on. +"I'm afraid that really was cheap of me," he thought ruefully, when he +came once more into Priscilla's sweet presence; but he comforted +himself with the reflection that no girl ought to be mysterious, +and if this one chose to be so it was fair to cross her plans +occasionally. Yet he went on feeling cheap; and when Tussie who was +hurrying along with a cup of chocolate in each hand ran into him and +spilt some on his sleeve the sudden rage with which he said "Confound +you, Tussie," had little to do with the hot stuff soaking through to +his skin and a great deal with the conviction that Tussie, despised +from their common childhood for his weakness, smallness and ugliness, +would never have done what he had just done and betrayed what the girl +had chosen to keep secret from her maid. + +"But why secret? Why? Why?" asked Robin, torn with desire to find out +all about Priscilla. + +"I'm going to do this often," said Priscilla, looking up at him with a +pleased smile. "I never saw such easily amused little creatures. Don't +you think it is beautiful, to give poor people a few happy moments +sometimes?" + +"Very beautiful," said Robin, his eyes on her face. + +"It is what I mean to do in future," she said dreamily, her chin on +her hand. + +"It will be expensive," remarked Robin; for there were nearly two +hundred children, and Priscilla had collected the strangest things in +food on the long tables as a result of her method, when inviting, of +asking each mother what her child best liked to eat and then ordering +it with the lavishness of ignorance from Minehead. + +"Oh, we shall live so simply ourselves that there will be enough left +to do all I want. And it will be the most blessed change and +refreshment, living simply. Fritzi hated the fuss and luxury quite as +much as I did." + +"Did he?" said Robin, holding his breath. The girl was evidently off +her guard. He had not heard her call her uncle baldly Fritzi before; +and what fuss and luxury could a German teacher's life have known? + +"He it was who first made me see that the body is more than meat and +the soul than raiment," mused Priscilla. + +"Was he?" + +"He pulled my soul out of the flesh-pots. I'm a sort of Israel come +out of Egypt, but an Egypt that was altogether too comfortable." + +"Too comfortable? Can one be too comfortable?" + +"I was. I couldn't move or see or breathe for comfort. It was like a +feather bed all over me." + +"I wouldn't call that comfort," said Robin, for she paused, and he was +afraid she was not going on. "It sounds much more like torture." + +"So it was at last. And Fritzi helped me to shake it off. If he hadn't +I'd have smothered slowly, and perhaps if I'd never known him I'd have +done it as gracefully as my sisters did. Why, they don't know to this +day that they are dead." + +Robin was silent. He was afraid to speak lest anything he said should +remind her of the part she ought to be playing. He had no doubt now +at all that she was keeping a secret. A hundred questions were burning +on his lips. He hated himself for wanting to ask them, for being so +inquisitive, for taking advantage of the girl's being off her guard, +but what are you to do with your inherited failings? Robin's mother +was inquisitive and it had got into his blood, and I know of no moral +magnesia that will purify these things away. "You said the other day," +he burst out at last, quite unable to stop himself, "that you only had +your uncle in the world. Are your sisters--are they in London?" + +"In London?" Priscilla gazed at him a moment with a vague surprise. +Then fright flashed into her eyes. "Did I not tell you they were dead? +Smothered?" she said, getting up quickly, her face setting into the +frown that had so chilled Tussie on the heath. + +"But I took that as a parable." + +"How can I help how you took it?" + +And she instantly left him and went away round the tables, beginning +those little pleasant observations to the children again that struck +him as so strange. + +Well did he know the sort of thing. He had seen Lady Shuttleworth do +it fifty times to the tenants, to the cottagers, at flower-shows, +bazaars, on all occasions of public hospitality or ceremony; but +practised and old as Lady Shuttleworth was this girl seemed yet more +practised. She was a finished artist in the work, he said to himself +as he leaned against the wall, his handsome face flushed, his eyes +sulky, watching her. It was enough to make any good-looking young +man sulky, the mixture of mystery and aloofness about Miss +Neumann-Schultz. Extraordinary as it seemed, up to this point he had +found it quite impossible to indulge with her in that form of more or +less illustrated dialogue known to Symford youths and maidens as +billing and cooing. Very fain would Robin have billed and have cooed. +It was a practice he excelled in. And yet though he had devoted +himself for three whole days, stood on ladders, nailed up creepers, +bought and carried rum, had a horrible scene with his mother because +of her, he had not got an inch nearer things personal and cosy. Miss +Neumann-Schultz thanked him quite kindly and graciously for his +pains--oh, she was very gracious; gracious in the sort of way Lady +Shuttleworth used to be when he came home for the holidays and she +patted his head and uttered benignities--and having thanked, +apparently forgot him till the next time she wanted anything. + +"Fritzi," said Priscilla, when in the course of her progress down the +room she met that burdened man, "I'm dreadfully afraid I've said some +foolish things." + +Fritzing put the plate of cake he was carrying down on a dresser and +wiped his forehead. "Ma'am," he said looking worried, "I cannot watch +you and administer food to these barbarians simultaneously. If your +tongue is so unruly I would recommend complete silence." + +"I've said something about my sisters." + +"Sisters, ma'am?" said Fritzing anxiously. + +"Does it matter?" + +"Matter? I have carefully instructed the woman Pearce, who has +certainly informed, as I intended she should inform, the entire +village, that you were my brother's only child. Consequently, ma'am, +you have no sisters." + +Priscilla made a gesture of despair. "How fearfully difficult it is +not to be straightforward," she said. + +"Yes, ma'am, it is. Since we started on this adventure the whole race +of rogues has become the object of my sincerest admiration. What wits, +what quickness, what gifts--so varied and so deftly used--what skill +in deception, what resourcefulness in danger, what self-command--" + +"Yes but Fritzi what are we to do?" + +"Do, ma'am? About your royal sisters? Would to heaven I had been born +a rogue!" + +"Yes, but as you were not--ought I to go back and say they're only +half-sisters? Or step-sisters? Or sisters in law? Wouldn't that do?" + +"With whom were you speaking?" + +"Mr. Morrison." + +"Ma'am, let me beg you to be more prudent with that youth than with +any one. Our young friend Cæsar Augustus is I believe harmlessness +itself compared with him. Be on your guard, ma'am. Curb that fatal +feminine appendage, your tongue. I have remarked that he watches us. +But a short time since I saw him eagerly conversing with your Grand +Ducal Highness's maid. For me he has already laid several traps that I +have only just escaped falling into by an extraordinary presence of +mind and a nimbleness in dialectic almost worthy of a born rogue." + +"Oh Fritzi," said the frightened Priscilla, laying her hand on his +sleeve, "do go and tell him I didn't mean what I said." + +Fritzing wiped his brow again. "I fail to understand," he said, +looking at Priscilla with worried eyes, "what there is about us that +can possibly attract any one's attention." + +"Why, there isn't anything," said Priscilla, with conviction. "We've +been most careful and clever. But just now--I don't know why--I began +to think aloud." + +"Think aloud?" exclaimed Fritzing, horrified. "Oh ma'am let me beseech +you never again to do that. Better a thousand times not to think at +all. What was it that your Grand Ducal Highness thought aloud?" + +And Priscilla, shamefaced, told him as well as she could remember. + +"I will endeavour to remedy it," said poor Fritzing, running an +agitated hand through his hair. + +Priscilla sighed, and stood drooping and penitent by the dresser while +he went down the room to where Robin still leaned against the wall. + +"Sir," said Fritzing--he never called Robin young man, as he did +Tussie--"my niece tells me you are unable to distinguish truth from +parable." + +"What?" said Robin staring. + +"You are not, sir, to suppose that when my niece described her sisters +as dead that they are not really so." + +"All right sir," said Robin, his eyes beginning to twinkle. + +"The only portion of the story in which my niece used allegory was +when she described them as having been smothered. These young ladies, +sir, died in the ordinary way, in their beds." + +"Feather beds, sir?" asked Robin briskly. + +"Sir, I have not inquired into the nature of the beds," said Fritzing +with severity. + +"Is it not rather unusual," asked Robin, "for two young ladies in one +family to die at once? Were they unhealthy young ladies?" + +"Sir, they did not die at once, nor were they unhealthy. They were +perfectly healthy until they--until they began to die." + +"Indeed," said Robin, with an interest properly tinged with regret. +"At least, sir," he added politely, after a pause in which he and +Fritzing stared very hard at each other, "I trust I may be permitted +to express my sympathy." + +"Sir, you may." And bowing stiffly Fritzing returned to Priscilla, and +with a sigh of relief informed her that he had made things right +again. + +"Dear Fritzi," said Priscilla looking at him with love and admiration, +"how clever you are." + + + + +XIII + + +It was on the Tuesday, the day Priscilla and Fritzing left Baker's and +moved into Creeper Cottage, that the fickle goddess who had let them +nestle for more than a week beneath her wing got tired of them and +shook them out. Perhaps she was vexed by their clumsiness at +pretending, perhaps she thought she had done more than enough for +them, perhaps she was an epicure in words and did not like a cottage +called Creeper; anyhow she shook them out. And if they had had eyes to +see they would not have walked into their new home with such sighs of +satisfaction and such a comfortable feeling that now at last the era +of systematic serenity and self-realization, beautifully combined with +the daily exercise of charity, had begun; for waiting for them in +Priscilla's parlour, established indeed in her easy-chair by the fire +and warming her miserable toes on the very hob, sat grey Ill Luck +horribly squinting. + +Creeper Cottage, it will be remembered, consisted of two cottages, +each with two rooms, an attic, and a kitchen, and in the back yard the +further accommodation of a coal-hole, a pig-stye, and a pump. Thanks +to Tussie's efforts more furniture had been got from Minehead. Tussie +had gone in himself, after a skilful questioning of Fritzing had made +him realize how little had been ordered, and had, with Fritzing's +permission, put the whole thing into the hands of a Minehead firm. +Thus there was a bed for Annalise and sheets for everybody, and the +place was as decent as it could be made in the time. It was so tiny +that it got done, after a great deal of urging from Tussie, by the +Tuesday at midday, and Tussie himself had superintended the storing of +wood in the coal-hole and the lighting of the fire that was to warm +his divine lady and that Ill Luck found so comforting to her toes. The +Shuttleworth horses had a busy time on the Friday, Saturday, and +Monday, trotting up and down between Symford and Minehead; and the +Shuttleworth servants and tenants, not being more blind than other +people, saw very well that their Augustus had lost his heart to the +lady from nowhere. As for Lady Shuttleworth, she only smiled a rueful +smile and stroked her poor Tussie's hair in silence when, having +murmured something about the horses being tired, he reproved her by +telling her that it was everybody's duty to do what they could for +strangers in difficulties. + +Priscilla's side of Creeper Cottage was the end abutting on the +churchyard, and her parlour had one latticed window looking south down +the village street, and one looking west opening directly on to the +churchyard. The long grass of the churchyard, its dandelions and +daisies, grew right up beneath this window to her wall, and a tall +tombstone half-blocked her view of the elm-trees and the church. Over +this room, with the same romantic and gloomy outlook, was her bedroom. +Behind her parlour was what had been the shoemaker's kitchen, but it +had been turned into a temporary bathroom. True no water was laid on +as yet, but the pump was just outside, and nobody thought there would +be any difficulty about filling the bath every morning by means of the +pump combined with buckets. Over the bathroom was the attic. This was +Annalise's bedroom. Nobody thought there would be any difficulty about +that either; nobody, in fact, thought anything about anything. It was +a simple place, after the manner of attics, with a window in its +sloping ceiling through which stars might be studied with great +comfort as one lay in bed. A frugal mind, an earnest soul, would have +liked the attic, would have found a healthy enjoyment in a place so +plain and fresh, so swept in windy weather by the airs of heaven. A +poet, too, would certainly have flooded any parts of it that seemed +dark with the splendour of his own inner light; a nature-lover, again, +would have quickly discovered the spiders that dwelt in its corners, +and spent profitable hours on all fours observing them. But an +Annalise--what was she to make of such a place? Is it not true that +the less a person has inside him of culture and imagination the more +he wants outside him of the upholstery of life? I think it is true; +and if it is, then the vacancy of Annalise's mind may be measured by +the fact that what she demanded of life in return for the negative +services of not crying and wringing her hands was nothing less filled +with food and sofas and servants than a grand ducal palace. + +But neither Priscilla nor Fritzing knew anything of Annalise's mind, +and if they had they would instantly have forgotten it again, of such +extreme unimportance would it have seemed. Nor would I dwell on it +myself if it were not that its very vacancy and smallness was the +cause of huge upheavals in Creeper Cottage, and the stone that the +builders ignored if they did not actually reject behaved as such +stones sometimes do and came down upon the builders' heads and crushed +them. Annalise, you see, was unable to appreciate peace, yet on the +other hand she was very able to destroy the peace of other people; and +Priscilla meant her cottage to be so peaceful--a temple, a holy place, +within whose quiet walls sacred years were going to be spent in doing +justly, in loving mercy, in walking humbly. True she had not as yet +made a nearer acquaintance with its inconveniences, but anyhow she +held the theory that inconveniences were things to be laughed at +and somehow circumvented, and that they do not enter into the +consideration of persons whose thoughts are absorbed by the burning +desire to live out their ideals. "You can be happy in any place +whatever," she remarked to Tussie on the Monday, when he was +expressing fears as to her future comfort; "absolutely any place will +do--a tub, a dingle, the top of a pillar--any place at all, if only +your soul is on fire." + +"Of course you can," cried Tussie, ready to kiss her feet. + +"And look how comfortable my cottage seems," said Priscilla, "directly +one compares it with things like tubs." + +"Yes, yes," agreed Tussie, "I do see that it's enough for free spirits +to live in. I was only wondering whether--whether bodies would find it +enough." + +"Oh bother bodies," said Priscilla airily. + +But Tussie could not bring himself to bother bodies if they included +her own; on the contrary, the infatuated young man thought it would be +difficult sufficiently to cherish a thing so supremely precious and +sweet. And each time he went home after having been in the frugal +baldness of Creeper Cottage he hated the superfluities of his own +house more and more, he accused himself louder and louder of being +mean-spirited, effeminate, soft, vulgar, he loathed himself for living +embedded in such luxury while she, the dear and lovely one, was ready +cheerfully to pack her beauty into a tub if needs be, or let it be +weather-beaten on a pillar for thirty years if by so doing she could +save her soul alive. Tussie at this time became unable to see a sleek +servant dart to help him take off his coat without saying something +sharp to him, could not sit through a meal without making bitter +comparisons between what they were eating and what the poor were +probably eating, could not walk up his spacious staircase and along +his lofty corridors without scowling; they, indeed, roused his +contemptuous wrath in quite a special degree, the reason being that +Priscilla's stairs, the stairs up and down which her little feet would +have to clamber daily, were like a ladder, and she possessed no +passages at all. But what of that? Priscilla could not see that it +mattered, when Tussie drew her attention to it. + +Both Fritzing's and her front door opened straight into their +sitting-rooms; both their staircases walked straight from the kitchens +up into the rooms above. They had meant to have a door knocked in the +dividing wall downstairs, but had been so anxious to get away from +Baker's that there was no time. In order therefore to get to Fritzing +Priscilla would have either to go out into the street and in again at +his front door, or go out at her back door and in again at his. Any +meals, too, she might choose to have served alone would have to be +carried round to her from the kitchen in Fritzing's half, either +through the backyard or through the street. + +Tussie thought of this each time he sat at his own meals, surrounded +by deft menials, lapped as he told himself in luxury,--oh, thought +Tussie writhing, it was base. His much-tried mother had to listen to +many a cross and cryptic remark flung across the table from the dear +boy who had always been so gentle; and more than that, he put his +foot down once and for all and refused with a flatness that silenced +her to eat any more patent foods. "Absurd," cried Tussie. "No wonder +I'm such an idiot. Who could be anything else with his stomach full of +starch? Why, I believe the stuff has filled my veins with milk instead +of good honest blood." + +"Dearest, I'll have it thrown out of the nearest window," said Lady +Shuttleworth, smiling bravely in her poor Tussie's small cross face. +"But what shall I give you instead? You know you won't eat meat." + +"Give me lentils," cried Tussie. "They're cheap." + +"Cheap?" + +"Mother, I do think it offensive to spend much on what goes into or +onto one's body. Why not have fewer things, and give the rest to the +poor?" + +"But I do give the rest to the poor; I'm always doing it. And there's +quite enough for us and for the poor too." + +"Give them more, then. Why," fumed Tussie, "can't we live decently? +Hasn't it struck you that we're very vulgar?" + +"No, dearest, I can't say that it has." + +"Well, we are. Everything we have that is beyond bare necessaries +makes us vulgar. And surely, mother, you do see that that's not a nice +thing to be." + +"It's a horrid thing to be," said his mother, arranging his tie with +an immense and lingering tenderness. + +"It's a difficult thing not to be," said Tussie, "if one is rich. +Hasn't it struck you that this ridiculous big house, and the masses of +things in it, and the whole place and all the money will inevitably +end by crushing us both out of heaven?" + +"No, I can't say it has. I expect you've been thinking of things like +the eyes of needles and camels having to go through them," said his +mother, still patting and stroking his tie. + +"Well, that's terrifically true," mused Tussie, reflecting ruefully on +the size and weight of the money-bags that were dragging him down into +darkness. Then he added suddenly, "Will you have a small bed--a little +iron one--put in my bedroom?" + +"A small bed? But there's a bed there already, dear." + +"That big thing's only fit for a sick woman. I won't wallow in it any +longer." + +"But dearest, all your forefathers wallowed, as you call it, in it. +Doesn't it seem rather--a pity not to carry on traditions?" + +"Well mother be kind and dear, and let me depart in peace from them. A +camp bed,--that's what I'd like. Shall I order it, or will you? And +did I tell you I've given Bryce the sack?" + +"Bryce? Why, what has he done?" + +"Oh he hasn't done anything that I know of, except make a sort of doll +or baby of me. Why should I be put into my clothes and taken out of +them again as though I hadn't been weaned yet?" + +Now all this was very bad, but the greatest blow for Lady Shuttleworth +fell when Tussie declared that he would not come of age. The cheerful +face with which his mother had managed to listen to his other +defiances went very blank at that; do what she would she could not +prevent its falling. "Not come of age?" she repeated stupidly. "But my +darling, you can't help yourself--you must come of age." + +"Oh I know I can't help being twenty-one and coming into all +this"--and he waved contemptuous arms--"but I won't do it blatantly." + +"I--I don't understand," faltered Lady Shuttleworth. + +"There mustn't be any fuss, mother." + +"Do you mean no one is to come?" + +"No one at all, except the tenants and people. Of course they are to +have their fun--I'll see that they have a jolly good time. But I won't +have our own set and the relations." + +"Tussie, they've all accepted." + +"Send round circulars." + +"Tussie, you are putting me in a most painful position." + +"Dear mother, I'm very sorry for that. I wish I'd thought like this +sooner. But really the idea is so revolting to me--it's so sickening +to think of all these people coming to pretend to rejoice over a worm +like myself." + +"Tussle, you are not a worm." + +"And then the expense and waste of entertaining them--the dreariness, +the boredom--oh, I wish I only possessed a tub--one single tub--or had +the pluck to live like Lavengro in a dingle." + +"It's quite impossible to stop it now," interrupted Lady Shuttleworth +in the greatest distress; of Lavengro she had never heard. + +"Yes you can, mother. Write and put it off." + +"Write? What could I write? To-day is Tuesday, and they all arrive on +Friday. What excuse can I make at the last moment? And how can a +birthday be put off? My dearest boy, I simply can't." And Lady +Shuttleworth, the sensible, the cheery, the resourceful, the +perennially brave, wrung her hands and began quite helplessly to cry. + +This unusual and pitiful sight at once conquered Tussie. For a moment +he stood aghast; then his arms were round his mother, and he promised +everything she wanted. What he said to her besides and what she sobbed +back to him I shall not tell. They never spoke of it again; but for +years they both looked back to it, that precious moment of clinging +together with bursting hearts, her old cheek against his young one, +her tears on his face, as to one of the most acutely sweet, acutely, +painfully, tender experiences of their joint lives. + +It will be conceded that Priscilla had achieved a good deal in the one +week that had passed since she laid aside her high estate and stepped +down among ordinary people for the purpose of being and doing good. +She had brought violent discord into a hitherto peaceful vicarage, +thwarted the hopes of a mother, been the cause of a bitter quarrel +between her and her son, brought out by her mysteriousness a prying +tendency in the son that might have gone on sleeping for ever, +entirely upset the amiable Tussie's life by rending him asunder with a +love as strong as it was necessarily hopeless, made his mother anxious +and unhappy, and, what was perhaps the greatest achievement of all, +actually succeeded in making that mother cry. For of course Priscilla +was the ultimate cause of these unusual tears, as Lady Shuttleworth +very well knew. Lady Shuttleworth was the deceased Sir Augustus's +second wife, had married him when she was over forty and well out of +the crying stage, which in the busy does not last beyond childhood, +had lost him soon after Tussie's birth, had cried copiously and most +properly at his funeral, and had not cried since. It was then +undoubtedly a great achievement on the part of the young lady from +nowhere, this wringing of tears out of eyes that had been dry for one +and twenty years. But the list of what Priscilla had done does not end +with this havoc among mothers. Had she not interrupted the decent +course of Mrs. Jones's dying, and snatched her back to a hankering +after the unfit? Had she not taught the entire village to break the +Sabbath? Had she not made all its children either sick or cross under +the pretence of giving them a treat? On the Monday she did something +else that was equally well-meaning, and yet, as I shall presently +relate, of disastrous consequences: she went round the village from +cottage to cottage making friends with the children's mothers and +leaving behind her, wherever she went, little presents of money. She +had found money so extraordinarily efficacious in the comforting of +Mrs. Jones that before she started she told Fritzing to fill her purse +well, and in each cottage it was made somehow so clear how badly +different things were wanted that the purse was empty before she was +half round the village and she had to go back for a fresh supply. She +was extremely happy that afternoon, and so were the visited mothers. +They, indeed, talked of nothing else for the rest of the day, +discussed it over their garden hedges, looked in on each other to +compare notes, hurried to meet their husbands on their return from +work to tell them about it, and were made at one stroke into something +very like a colony of eager beggars. And in spite of Priscilla's +injunction to Mrs. Jones to hide her five-pound note all Symford knew +of that as well, and also of the five-pound note Mrs. Morrison had +taken away. Nothing was talked of in Symford but Priscilla. She had in +one week created quite a number of disturbances of a nature fruitful +for evil in that orderly village; and when on the Tuesday she and +Fritzing moved into Creeper Cottage they were objects of the intensest +interest to the entire country side, and the report of their riches, +their recklessness, and their eccentric choice of a dwelling had +rolled over the intervening hills as far as Minehead, where it was the +subject of many interesting comments in the local papers. + +They got into their cottage about tea time; and the first thing +Priscilla did was to exclaim at the pleasant sight of the wood fire +and sit down in the easy-chair to warm herself. We know who was +sitting in it already; and thus she was received by Bad Luck at once +into her very lap, and clutched about securely by that unpleasant +lady's cold and skinny arms. She looked up at Fritzing with a shiver +to remark wonderingly that the room, in spite of its big fire and its +smallness, was like ice, but her lips fell apart in a frozen stare and +she gazed blankly past him at the wall behind his head. "Look," she +whispered, pointing with a horrified forefinger. And Fritzing, turning +quickly, was just in time to snatch a row of cheap coloured portraits +from the wall and fling them face downwards under the table before +Tussie came in to ask if he could do anything. + +The portraits were those of all the reigning princes of Germany and +had been put up as a delicate compliment by the representative of the +Minehead furnishers, while Priscilla and Fritzing were taking leave of +Baker's Farm; and the print Priscilla's eye had lighted on was the +portrait of her august parent, smiling at her. He was splendid in +state robes and orders, and there was a charger, and an obviously +expensive looped-up curtain, and much smoke as of nations furiously +raging together in the background, and outside this magnificence +meandered the unmeaning rosebuds of Priscilla's cheap wallpaper. His +smile seemed very terrible under the circumstances. Fritzing felt +this, and seized him and flung him with a desperate energy under the +table, where he went on smiling, as Priscilla remembered with a guilty +shudder, at nothing but oilcloth. "I don't believe I'll sleep if I +know he--he's got nothing he'd like better than oilcloth to look at," +she whispered with an awestruck face to Fritzing as Tussie came in. + +"I will cause them all to be returned," Fritzing assured her. + +"What, have those people sent wrong things?" asked Tussie anxiously, +who felt that the entire responsibility of this _ménage_ was on his +shoulders. + +"Oh, only some cheap prints," said Priscilla hastily. "I think they're +called oleographs or something." + +"What impertinence," said Tussie hotly. + +"I expect it was kindly meant, but I--I like my cottage quite plain." + +"I'll have them sent back, sir," Tussie said to Fritzing, who was +rubbing his hands nervously through his hair; for the sight of his +grand ducal master's face smiling at him on whom he would surely never +wish to smile again, and doing it, too, from the walls of Creeper +Cottage, had given him a shock. + +"You are ever helpful, young man," he said, bowing abstractedly and +going away to put down his hat and umbrella; and Priscilla, with a +cold feeling that she had had a bad omen, rang the handbell Tussie's +thoughtfulness had placed on her table and ordered Annalise to bring +tea. + +Now Annalise had been standing on the threshold of her attic staring +at it in an amazement too deep for words when the bell fetched her +down. She appeared, however, before her mistress with a composed face, +received the order with her customary respectfulness, and sought out +Fritzing to inquire of him where the servants were to be found. "Her +Grand Ducal Highness desires tea," announced Annalise, appearing in +Fritzing's sitting-room, where he was standing absorbed in the bill +from the furnishers that he had found lying on his table. + +"Then take it in," said Fritzing impatiently, without looking up. + +"To whom shall I give the order?" inquired Annalise. + +"To whom shall you give the order?" repeated Fritzing, pausing +in his study to stare at her, the bill in one hand and his +pocket-handkerchief, with which he was mopping his forehead, in +the other. + +"Where," asked Annalise, "shall I find the cook?" + +"Where shall you find the cook?" repeated Fritzing, staring still +harder. "This house is so gigantic is it not," he said with an +enormous sarcasm, "that no doubt the cook has lost himself. Have you +perhaps omitted to investigate the coal-hole?" + +"Herr Geheimrath, where shall I find the cook?" asked Annalise tossing +her head. + +"Fräulein, is there a mirror in your bedroom?" + +"The smallest I ever saw. Only one-half of my face can I see reflected +in it at a time." + +"Fräulein, the half of that face you see reflected in it is the half +of the face of the cook." + +"I do not understand," said Annalise. + +"Yet it is as clear as shining after rain. You, _mein liebes Kind_, +are the cook." + +It was now Annalise's turn to stare, and she stood for a moment doing +it, her face changing from white to red while Fritzing turned his back +and taking out a pencil made little sums on the margin of the bill. +"Herr Geheimrath, I am not a cook," she said at last, swallowing her +indignation. + +"What, still there?" he exclaimed, looking up sharply. "Unworthy one, +get thee quickly to the kitchen. Is it seemly to keep the Princess +waiting?" + +"I am not a cook," said Annalise defiantly. "I was not engaged as a +cook, I never was a cook, and I will not be a cook." + +Fritzing flung down the bill and came and glared close into +Annalise's face. "Not a cook?" he cried. "You, a German girl, the +daughter of poor parents, you are not ashamed to say it? You do not +hide your head for shame? No--a being so useful, so necessary, so +worthy of respect as a cook you are not and never will be. I'll tell +you what you are,--I've told you once already, and I repeat it--you +are a knave, my Fräulein, a knave, I say. And in those parts of your +miserable nature where you are not a knave--for I willingly concede +that no man or woman is bad all through--in those parts, I say, where +your knavishness is intermittent, you are an absolute, unmitigated +fool." + +"I will not bear this," cried Annalise. + +"Will not! Cannot! Shall not! Inept Negation, get thee to thy kitchen +and seek wisdom among the pots." + +"I am no one's slave," cried Annalise, "I am no one's prisoner." + +"Hark at her! Who said you were? Have I not told you the only two +things you are?" + +"But I am treated as a prisoner, I am treated as a slave," sobbed +Annalise. + +"Unmannerly one, how dare you linger talking follies when your royal +mistress is waiting for her tea? Run--run! Or must I show you how?" + +"Her Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, not budging, "told me also +to prepare the bath for her this evening." + +"Well, what of that?" cried Fritzing, snatching up the bill again and +adding up furiously. "Prepare it, then." + +"I see no water-taps." + +"Woman, there are none." + +"How can I prepare a bath without water-taps?" + +"O thou Inefficiency! Ineptitude garbed as woman! Must I then teach +thee the elements of thy business? Hast thou not observed the pump? Go +to it, and draw water. Cause the water to flow into buckets. Carry +these buckets--need I go on? Will not Nature herself teach thee what +to do with buckets?" + +Annalise flushed scarlet. "I will not go to the pump," she said. + +"What, you will not carry out her Grand Ducal Highness's orders?" + +"I will not go to the pump." + +"You refuse to prepare the bath?" + +"I will not go to the pump." + +"You refuse to prepare the tea?" + +"I will not be a cook." + +"You are rankly rebellious?" + +"I will not sleep in the attic." + +"What!" + +"I will not eat the food." + +"What!" + +"I will not do the work." + +"What!" + +"I will go." + +"Go?" + +"_Go_," repeated Annalise, stamping her foot. "I demand my wages, the +increased wages that were promised me, and I will go." + +"And where, Impudence past believing, will you go, in a country whose +tongue you most luckily do not understand?" + +Annalise looked up into Fritzing's furious eyes with the challenge +of him who flings down his trump card. "Go?" she cried, with a +defiance that was blood-curdling in one so small and hitherto so +silent, "I will first go to that young gentleman who speaks my +language and I will tell him all, and then, with his assistance, I +will go straight--but _straight_, do you hear?"--and she stamped +her foot again--"to Lothen-Kunitz." + + + + +XIV + + +Early in this story I pointed out what to the intelligent must have +been from the beginning apparent, that Annalise held Priscilla and +Fritzing in the hollow of her hand. In the first excitement of the +start she had not noticed it, but during those woeful days of +disillusionment at Baker's she saw it with an ever-growing clearness; +and since Sunday, since the day she found a smiling young gentleman +ready to talk German to her and answer questions, she was perfectly +aware that she had only to close her hand and her victims would +squeeze into any shape she liked. She proposed to do this closing at +the first moment of sheer intolerableness, and that moment seemed well +reached when she entered Creeper Cottage and realized what the attic, +the kitchen, and the pump really meant. + +It is always a shock to find one's self in the company of a worm that +turns, always a shock and an amazement; a spectacle one never, +somehow, gets used to. But how dreadful does it become when one is in +the power of the worm, and the worm is resentful, and ready to squeeze +to any extent. Fritzing reflected bitterly that Annalise might quite +well have been left at home. Quite well? A thousand times better. +What had she done but whine during her passive period? And now that +she was active, a volcano in full activity hurling forth hot streams +of treachery on two most harmless heads, she, the insignificant, the +base-born, the empty-brained, was actually going to be able to ruin +the plans of the noblest woman on earth. + +Thus thought Fritzing, mopping his forehead. Annalise had rushed away +to her attic after flinging her defiance at him, her spirit ready to +dare anything but her body too small, she felt, to risk staying within +reach of a man who looked more like somebody who meant to shake her +than any one she had ever seen. Fritzing mopped his forehead, and +mopped and mopped again. He stood where she had left him, his eyes +fixed on the ground, his distress so extreme that he was quite near +crying. What was he to do? What was he to say to his Princess? How was +he to stop the girl's going back to Kunitz? How was he to stop her +going even so far as young Morrison? That she should tell young +Morrison who Priscilla was would indeed be a terrible thing. It would +end their being able to live in Symford. It would end their being able +to live in England. The Grand Duke would be after them, and there +would have to be another flight to another country, another start +there, another search for a home, another set of explanations, +pretences, fears, lies,--things of which he was so weary. But there +was something else, something worse than any of these things, that +made Fritzing mop his forehead with so extreme a desperation: Annalise +had demanded the money due to her, and Fritzing had no money. + +I am afraid Fritzing was never meant for a conspirator. Nature never +meant him to be a plotter, an arranger of unpleasant surprises for +parents. She never meant him to run away. She meant him, probably, +to spend his days communing with the past in a lofty room with +distempered walls and busts round them. That he should be forced to +act, to decide, to be artful, to wrangle with maids, to make ends +meet, to squeeze his long frame and explosive disposition into a +Creeper Cottage where only an ill-fitting door separated him from the +noise and fumes of the kitchen, was surely a cruel trick of Fate, and +not less cruel because he had brought it on himself. That he should +have thought he could run away as well as any man is merely a proof of +his singleness of soul. A man who does that successfully is always, +among a great many other things, a man who takes plenty of money with +him and knows exactly where to put his hand on more when it is wanted. +Fritzing had thought it better to get away quickly with little money +than to wait and get away with more. He had seized all he could of his +own that was not invested, and Priscilla had drawn her loose cash from +the Kunitz bank; but what he took hidden in his gaiters after paying +for Priscilla's outfit and bribing Annalise was not more than three +hundred pounds; and what is three hundred pounds to a person who buys +and furnishes cottages and scatters five-pound notes among the poor? +The cottages were paid for. He had insisted on doing that at once, +chiefly in order to close his dealings with Mr. Dawson; but Mr. Dawson +had not let them go for less than a hundred and fifty for the two, in +spite of Tussie's having said a hundred was enough. When Fritzing told +Mr. Dawson what Tussie had said Mr. Dawson soon proved that Tussie +could not possibly have meant it; and Fritzing, knowing how rich +Priscilla really was and what vast savings he had himself lying over +in Germany in comfortable securities, paid him without arguing and +hastened from the hated presence. Then the journey for the three from +Kunitz had been expensive; the stay at Baker's Farm had been, strange +to say, expensive; Mrs. Jones's comforting had been expensive; the +village mothers had twice emptied Priscilla's purse of ten pounds; and +the treat to the Symford children had not been cheap. After paying for +this--the Minehead confectioner turned out to be a man of little faith +in unknown foreigners, and insisted on being paid at once--Fritzing +had about forty pounds left. This, he had thought, would do for food +and lights and things for a long while,--certainly till he had hit on +a plan by which he would be able to get hold of the Princess's money +and his own without betraying where they were; and here on his table, +the second unpleasant surprise that greeted him on entering his new +home (the first had been his late master's dreadful smile) was the +bill for the furnishing of it. To a man possessed of only forty pounds +any bill will seem tremendous. This one was for nearly two hundred; +and at the end of the long list of items, the biggest of which was +that bathroom without water that had sent Annalise out on strike, was +the information that a remittance would oblige. A remittance! Poor +Fritzing. He crushed the paper in his hand and made caustic mental +comments on the indecency of these people, clamouring for their money +almost before the last workman was out of the place, certainly before +the smell of paint was out of it, and clamouring, too, in the face of +the Shuttleworth countenance and support. He had not been a week yet +in Symford, and had been so busy, so rushed, that he had put off +thinking out a plan for getting his money over from Germany until he +should be settled. Never had he imagined people would demand payment +in this manner. Never, either, had he imagined the Princess would want +so much money for the poor; and never, of course, had he imagined that +there would be a children's treat within three days of their arrival. +Least of all had he dreamed that Annalise would so soon need more +bribing; for that was clearly the only thing to do. He saw it was the +only thing, after he had stood for some time thinking and wiping the +cold sweat from his forehead. She must be bribed, silenced, given in +to. He must part with as much as he possibly could of that last forty +pounds; as much, also, as he possibly could of his pride, and submit +to have the hussy's foot on his neck. Some day, some day, thought +Fritzing grinding his teeth, he would be even with her; and when that +day came he promised himself that it should certainly begin with a +sound shaking. "Truly," he reflected, "the foolish things of the world +confound the wise, and the weak things of the world confound the +things that are mighty." And he went out, and standing in the back +yard beneath Annalise's window softly called to her. "Fräulein," +called Fritzing, softly as a dove wooing its mate. + +"Aha," thought Annalise, sitting on her bed, quick to mark the change; +but she did not move. + +"Fräulein," called Fritzing again; and it was hardly a call so much as +a melodious murmur. + +Annalise did not move, but she grinned. + +"Fräulein, come down one moment," cooed Fritzing, whose head was quite +near the attic window so low was Creeper Cottage. "I wish to speak to +you. I wish to give you something." + +Annalise did not move, but she stuffed her handkerchief into her +mouth; for the first time since she left Calais she was enjoying +herself. + +"If," went on Fritzing after an anxious pause, "I was sharp with you +just now--and I fear I may have been hasty--you should not take it +amiss from one who, like Brutus, is sick of many griefs. Come down, +Fräulein, and let me make amends." + +The Princess's bell rang. At once habit impelled Annalise to that +which Fritzing's pleadings would never have effected; she scrambled +down the ladder, and leaving him still under her window presented +herself before her mistress with her usual face of meek respect. + +"I said tea," said Priscilla very distinctly, looking at her with +slightly lifted eyebrows. + +Annalise curtseyed and disappeared. + +"How fearfully polite German maids are," remarked Tussie. + +"In what way?" asked Priscilla. + +"Those curtseys. They're magnificent." + +"Don't English maids curtsey?" + +"None that I've ever seen. Perhaps they do to royalties." + +"Oh?" said Priscilla with a little jump. She was still so much +unnerved by the unexpected meeting with her father on the wall of +Creeper Cottage that she could not prevent the little jump. + +"What would German maids do, I wonder, in dealing with royalties," +said Tussie, "if they curtsey so beautifully to ordinary mistresses? +They'd have to go down on their knees to a princess, wouldn't they?" + +"How should I know?" said Priscilla, irritably, alarmed to feel she +was turning red; and with great determination she began to talk +literature. + +Fritzing was lying in wait for Annalise, and caught her as she came +into the bathroom. + +"Fräulein," said the miserable man trying to screw his face into +persuasiveness, "you cannot let the Princess go without tea." + +"Yes I can," said Annalise. + +He thrust his hands into his pockets to keep them off her shoulders. + +"Make it this once, Fräulein, and I will hire a woman of the village +to make it in future. And see, you must not leave the Princess's +service, a service of such great honour to yourself, because I chanced +to be perhaps a little--hasty. I will give you two hundred marks to +console you for the slight though undoubted difference in the mode of +living, and I will, as I said, hire a woman to come each day and cook. +Will it not be well so?" + +"No," said Annalise. + +"No?" + +Annalise put her hands on her hips, and swaying lightly from side to +side began to sing softly. Fritzing gazed at this fresh development in +her manners in silent astonishment. "_Jedermann macht mir die Cour, +c'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_," sang Annalise, her head one side, her +eyes on the ceiling. + +"_Liebes Kind_, are your promises of no value? Did you not promise to +keep your mouth shut, and not betray the Princess's confidence? Did +she not seek you out from all the others for the honour of keeping her +secrets? And you will, after one week, divulge them to a stranger? You +will leave her service? You will return to Kunitz? Is it well so?" + +"_C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_," sang Annalise, swaying. + +"Is it well so, Fräulein?" repeated Fritzing, strangling a furious +desire to slap her. + +"Did you speak?" inquired Annalise, pausing in her song. + +"I am speaking all the time. I asked if it were well to betray the +secrets of your royal mistress." + +"I have been starved," said Annalise. + +"You have had the same fare as ourselves." + +"I have been called names." + +"Have I not expressed--regret?" + +"I have been treated as dirt." + +"Well, well, I have apologized." + +"If you had behaved to me as a maid of a royal lady should be behaved +to, I would have faithfully done my part and kept silence. Now give me +my money and I will go." + +"I will give you your money--certainly, _liebes Kind_. It is what I am +most desirous of doing. But only on condition that you stay. If you +go, you go without it. If you stay, I will do as I said about the cook +and will--" Fritzing paused--"I will endeavour to refrain from calling +you anything hasty." + +"Two hundred marks," said Annalise gazing at the ceiling, "is +nothing." + +"Nothing?" cried Fritzing. "You know very well that it is, for you, a +great sum." + +"It is nothing. I require a thousand." + +"A thousand? What, fifty English sovereigns? Nay, then, but there is +no reasoning with you," cried Fritzing in tones of real despair. + +She caught the conviction in them and hesitated. "Eight hundred, +then," she said. + +"Impossible. And besides it would be a sin. I will give you twenty." + +"Twenty? Twenty marks?" Annalise stared at him a moment then resumed +her swaying and her song--"_Jedermann macht mir die Cour_"--sang +Annalise with redoubled conviction. + +"No, no, not marks--twenty pounds," said Fritzing, interrupting what +was to him a most maddening music. "Four hundred marks. As much as +many a German girl can only earn by labouring two years you will +receive for doing nothing but hold your tongue." + +Annalise closed her lips tightly and shook her head. "My tongue cannot +be held for that," she said, beginning to sway again and hum. + +Adjectives foamed on Fritzing's own, but he kept them back. +"_Mädchen_," he said with the gentleness of a pastor in a confirmation +class, "do you not remember that the love of money is the root of all +evil? I do not recognize you. Since when have you become thus greedy +for it?" + +"Give me eight hundred and I will stop." + +"I will give you six hundred," said Fritzing, fighting for each of his +last precious pounds. + +"Eight." + +"Six." + +"I said eight," said Annalise, stopping and looking at him with lifted +eye-brows and exactly imitating the distinctness with which the +Princess had just said "I said tea." + +"Six is an enormous sum. Why, what would you do with it?" + +"That is my affair. Perhaps buy food," she said with a malicious +side-glance. + +"I tell you there shall be a cook." + +"A cook," said Annalise counting on her fingers,--"and a good cook, +observe--not a cook like the Frau Pearce--a cook, then, no more rude +names, and eight hundred marks. Then I stop. I suffer. I am silent." + +"It cannot be done. I cannot give you eight." + +"_C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_.... The Princess waits for her tea. I +will prepare it for her this once. I am good, you see, at heart. But I +must have eight hundred marks. _Cest l'amo-o-o-o-o-our_." + +"I will give you seven," said Fritzing, doing rapid sums in his head. +Seven hundred was something under thirty-five pounds. He would still +have five pounds left for housekeeping. How long that would last he +admitted to himself that probably only heaven knew, but he hoped that +with economy it might be made to carry them over a fortnight; and +surely by the end of a fortnight he would have hit on a way of getting +fresh supplies from Germany? "I will give you seven hundred. That is +the utter-most. I can give no more till I have written home for money. +I have only a little more than that here altogether. See, I treat you +like a reasonable being--I set the truth plainly before you. More +than seven hundred I could not give if I would." + +"Good," said Annalise, breaking off her music suddenly. "I will take +that now and guarantee to be silent for fourteen days. At the end of +that time the Herr Geheimrath will have plenty more money and will, if +he still desires my services and my silence, give me the three hundred +still due to me on the thousand I demand. If the Herr Geheimrath +prefers not to, then I depart to my native country. While the +fortnight lasts I will suffer all there is to suffer in silence. Is +the Herr Geheimrath agreed?" + +"Shameless one!" mentally shrieked Fritzing, "Wait and see what will +happen to thee when my turn comes!" But aloud he only agreed. "It is +well, Fräulein," he said. "Take in the Princess's tea, and then come +to my sitting-room and I will give you the money. The fire burns in +the kitchen. Utensils, I believe, are ready to hand. It should not +prove a task too difficult." + +"Perhaps the Herr Geheimrath will show me where the tea and milk is? +And also the sugar, and the bread and butter if any?" suggested +Annalise in a small meek voice as she tripped before him into the +kitchen. + +What could he do but follow? Her foot was well on his neck; and it +occurred to him as he rummaged miserably among canisters that if the +creature should take it into her head to marry him he might +conceivably have to let her do it. As it was it was he and not +Annalise who took the kettle out to the pump to fill it, and her face +while he was doing it would have rejoiced her parents or other persons +to whom she was presumably dear, it was wide with so enormous a +satisfaction. Thus terrible is it to be in the power of an Annalise. + + + + +XV + + +The first evening in Creeper Cottage was unpleasant. There was a +blazing wood fire, the curtains were drawn, the lamp shone rosily +through its red shade, and when Priscilla stood up her hair dusted the +oak beams of the ceiling, it was so low. The background, you see, was +perfectly satisfactory; exactly what a cottage background should be on +an autumn night when outside a wet mist is hanging like a grey curtain +across the window panes; and Tussie arriving at nine o'clock to help +consecrate the new life with Shakespeare felt, as he opened the door +and walked out of the darkness into the rosy, cosy little room, that +he need not after all worry himself with doubts as to the divine +girl's being comfortable. Never did place appear more comfortable. It +did not occur to him that a lamp with a red shade and the blaze of a +wood fire will make any place appear comfortable so long as they go on +shining, and he looked up at Priscilla--I am afraid he had to look up +at her when they were both standing--with the broadest smile of +genuine pleasure. "It _does_ look jolly," he said heartily. + +His pleasure was doomed to an immediate wiping out. Priscilla smiled, +but with a reservation behind her smile that his sensitive spirit felt +at once. She was alone, and there was no sign whatever either of her +uncle or of preparations for the reading of Shakespeare. + +"Is anything not quite right?" Tussie asked, his face falling at once +to an anxious pucker. + +Priscilla looked at him and smiled again, but this time the smile was +real, in her eyes as well as on her lips, dancing in them together +with the flickering firelight. "It's rather funny," she said. "It has +never happened to me before. What do you think? I'm hungry." + +"Hungry?" + +"Hungry." + +Tussie stared, arrested in the unwinding of his comforter. + +"Really hungry. _Dreadfully_ hungry. So hungry that I hate +Shakespeare." + +"But--" + +"I know. You're going to say why not eat? It does seem simple. But +you've no idea how difficult it really is. I'm afraid my uncle and I +have rather heaps to learn. We forgot to get a cook." + +"A cook? But I thought--I understood that curtseying maid of yours was +going to do all that?" + +"So did I. So did he. But she won't." + +Priscilla flushed, for since Tussie left after tea she had had +grievous surprises, of a kind that made her first indignant and then +inclined to wince. Fritzing had not been able to hide from her that +Annalise had rebelled and refused to cook, and Priscilla had not been +able to follow her immediate impulse and dismiss her. It was at this +point, when she realized this, that the wincing began. She felt +perfectly sick at the thought, flashed upon her for the first time, +that she was in the power of a servant. + +"Do you mean to say," said Tussie in a voice hollow with +consternation, "that you've had no dinner?" + +"Dinner? In a cottage? Why of course there was no dinner. There never +will be any dinner--at night, at least. But the tragic thing is there +was no supper. We didn't think of it till we began to get hungry. +Annalise began first. She got hungry at six o'clock, and said +something to Fritz--my uncle about it, but he wasn't hungry himself +then and so he snubbed her. Now he is hungry himself, and he's gone +out to see if he can't find a cook. It's very stupid. There's nothing +in the house. Annalise ate the bread and things she found. She's +upstairs now, crying." And Priscilla's lips twitched as she looked at +Tussie's concerned face, and she began to laugh. + +He seized his hat. "I'll go and get you something," he said, dashing +at the door. + +"I can't think what, at this time of the night. The only shop shuts at +seven." + +"I'll make them open it." + +"They go to bed at nine." + +"I'll get them out of bed if I have to shie stones at their windows +all night." + +"Don't go without your coat--you'll catch a most frightful cold." + +He put his arm through the door to take it, and vanished in the fog. +He did not put on the coat in his agitation, but kept it over his arm. +His comforter stayed in Priscilla's parlour, on the chair where he had +flung it. He was in evening dress, and his throat was sore already +with the cold that was coming on and that he had caught, as he +expected, running races on the Sunday at Priscilla's children's party. + +Priscilla went back to her seat by the fire, and thought very hard +about things like bread. It would of course be impossible that she +should have reached this state of famine only because one meal had +been missed; but she had eaten nothing all day,--disliked the Baker's +Farm breakfast too much even to look at it, forgotten the Baker's Farm +dinner because she was just moving into her cottage, and at tea had +been too greatly upset by the unexpected appearance of her father on +the wall to care to eat the bread and butter Annalise brought in. Now +she was in that state when you tremble and feel cold. She had told +Annalise, about half-past seven, to bring her the bread left from tea, +but Annalise had eaten it. At half-past eight she had told Annalise to +bring her the sugar, for she had read somewhere that if you eat enough +sugar it takes away the desire even of the hungriest for other food, +but Annalise, who had eaten the sugar as well, said that the Herr +Geheimrath must have eaten it. It certainly was not there, and neither +was the Herr Geheimrath to defend himself; since half-past seven he +had been out looking for a cook, his mind pervaded by the idea that if +only he could get a cook food would follow in her wake as naturally as +flowers follow after rain. Priscilla fretting in her chair that he +should stay away so long saw very clearly that no cook could help +them. What is the use of a cook in a house where there is nothing to +cook? If only Fritzing would come back quickly with a great many +loaves of bread! The door was opened a little way and somebody's +knuckles knocked. She thought it was Tussie, quick and clever as ever, +and in a voice full of welcome told him to come in; upon which in +stepped Robin Morrison very briskly, delighted by the warmth of the +invitation. "Why now this _is_ nice," said Robin, all smiles. + +Priscilla did not move and did not offer to shake hands, so he stood +on the hearthrug and spread out his own to the blaze, looking down at +her with bright, audacious eyes. He thought he had not yet seen her so +beautiful. There was an extraordinary depth and mystery in her look, +he thought, as it rested for a moment on his face, and she had never +yet dropped her eyelashes as she now did when her eyes met his. We +know she was very hungry, and there was no strength in her at all. +Not only did her eyelashes drop, but her head as well, and her hands +hung helplessly, like drooping white flowers, one over each arm of the +chair. + +"I came in to ask Mr. Neumann-Schultz if there's anything I can do for +you," said Robin. + +"Did you? He lives next door." + +"I know. I knocked there first, but he didn't answer so I thought he +must be here." + +Priscilla said nothing. At any other time she would have snubbed Robin +and got rid of him. Now she merely sat and drooped. + +"Has he gone out?" + +"Yes." + +Her voice was very low, hardly more than a whisper. Those who know the +faintness of hunger at this stage will also know the pathos that +steals into the voice of the sufferer when he is unwillingly made to +speak; it becomes plaintive, melodious with yearning, the yearning for +food. But if you do not know this, if you have yourself just come from +dinner, if you are half in love and want the other person to be quite +in love, if you are full of faith in your own fascinations, you are +apt to fall into Robin's error and mistake the nature of the yearning. +Tussie in Robin's place would have doubted the evidence of his senses, +but then Tussie was very modest. Robin doubted nothing. He saw, he +heard, and he thrilled; and underneath his thrilling, which was real +enough to make him flush to the roots of his hair, far down underneath +it was the swift contemptuous comment, "They're all alike." + +Priscilla shut her eyes. She was listening for the first sound of +Tussie's or Fritzing's footfall, the glad sound heralding the approach +of something to eat, and wishing Robin would go away. He was kind at +times and obliging, but on the whole a nuisance. It was a great pity +there were so many people in the world who were nuisances and did not +know it. Somebody ought to tell them,--their mothers, or other useful +persons of that sort. She vaguely decided that the next time she met +Robin and was strengthened properly by food she would say a few things +to him from which recovery would take a long while. + +"Are you--not well?" Robin asked, after a silence during which his +eyes never left her and hers were shut; and even to himself his voice +sounded deeper, more intense than usual. + +"Oh yes," murmured Priscilla with a little sigh. + +"Are you--happy?" + +Happy? Can anybody who is supperless, dinnerless, breakfastless, be +happy, Priscilla wondered? But the question struck her as funny, and +the vibrating tones in which it was asked struck her as rather funny +too, and she opened her eyes for a moment to look up at Robin with a +smile of amusement--a smile that she could not guess was turned by the +hunger within her into something wistful and tremulous. "Yes," said +Priscilla in that strange pathetic voice, "I--think so." And after a +brief glance at him down went her weary eyelids again. + +The next thing that happened was that Robin, who was trembling, +kissed her hand. This she let him do with perfect placidity. Every +German woman is used to having her hand kissed. It is kissed on +meeting, it is kissed on parting, it is kissed at a great many odd +times in between; she holds it up mechanically when she comes +across a male acquaintance; she is never surprised at the ceremony; +the only thing that surprises her is if it is left out. Priscilla +then simply thought Robin was going. "What a mercy," she said to +herself, glancing at him a moment through her eyelashes. But Robin +was not used to hand-kissing and saw things in a very different +light. He felt she made no attempt to draw her hand away, he heard +her murmuring something inarticulate--it was merely Good-bye--he +was hurled along to his doom; and stooping over her the unfortunate +young man kissed her hair. + +Priscilla opened her eyes suddenly and very wide. I don't know what +folly he would have perpetrated next, or what sillinesses were on the +tip of his tongue, or what meaning he still chose to read in her look, +but an instant afterwards he was brought down for ever from the giddy +heights of his illusions: Priscilla boxed his ears. + +I am sorry to have to record it. It is always sweeter if a woman does +not box ears. The action is shrewish, benighted, mediæval, nay, +barbarous; and this box was a very hard one indeed, extraordinarily +hard for so little a hand and so fasting a girl. But we know she had +twice already been on the verge of doing it; and the pent-up vigour of +what the policeman had not got and what the mother in the train had +not got was added I imagine to what Robin got. Anyhow it was +efficacious. There was an exclamation--I think of surprise, for surely +a young man would not have minded the pain?--and he put his hand up +quickly to his face. Priscilla got up just as quickly out of her chair +and rang the handbell furiously, her eyes on his, her face ablaze. +Annalise must have thrown herself down the ladder, for they hardly +seemed to have been standing there an instant face to face, their eyes +on a level, he scarlet, she white, both deadly silent, before the maid +was in the room. + +"This person has insulted me," said Priscilla, turning to her and +pointing at Robin. "He never comes here again. Don't let me find you +forgetting that," she added, frowning at the girl; for she remembered +they had been seen talking eagerly together at the children's treat. + +"I never"--began Robin. + +"Will you go?" + +Annalise opened the door for him. He went out, and she shut it behind +him. Then she walked sedately across the room again, looking sideways +at the Princess, who took no notice of her but stood motionless by the +table gazing straight before her, her lips compressed, her face set +in a kind of frozen white rage, and having got into the bathroom +Annalise began to run. She ran out at the back door, in again at +Fritzing's back door, out at his front door into the street, and +caught up Robin as he was turning down the lane to the vicarage. "What +have you done?" she asked him breathlessly, in German. + +"Done?" Robin threw back his head and laughed quite loud. + +"Sh--sh," said Annalise, glancing back fearfully over her shoulder. + +"Done?" said Robin, subduing his bitter mirth. "What do you suppose +I've done? I've done what any man would have in my place--encouraged, +almost asked to do it. I kissed your young lady, _liebes Fräulein_, +and she pretended not to like it. Now isn't that what a sensible girl +like you would call absurd?" + +But Annalise started back from the hand he held out to her in genuine +horror. "What?" she cried, "What?" + +"What? What?" mocked Robin. "Well then, what? Are you all such prudes +in Germany? Even you pretending, you little hypocrite?" + +"Oh," cried Annalise hysterically, pushing him away with both her +hands, "what have you done? _Elender Junge_, what have you done?" + +"I think you must all be mad," said Robin angrily. "You can't persuade +me that nobody ever kisses anybody over in Germany." + +"Oh yes they do--oh yes they do," cried Annalise, wringing her hands, +"but neither there nor anywhere else--in England, anywhere in the +world--do the sons of pastors--the sons of pastors--" She seemed to +struggle for breath, and twisted and untwisted her apron round her +hands in a storm of agitation while Robin, utterly astonished, stared +at her--"Neither there nor anywhere else do they--the sons of +pastors--kiss--kiss royal princesses." + +It was now Robin's turn to say "What?" + + + + +XVI + + +He went up to Cambridge the next morning. Term had not begun, but he +went; a Robin with all the briskness gone out of him, and if still +with something of the bird left only of a bird that is moulting. His +father was mildly surprised, but applauded the apparent desire for +solitary study. His mother was violently surprised, and tried hard +to get at his true reasons. She saw with the piercing eye of a +relation--that eye from which hardly anything can ever be hidden--that +something had happened and that the something was sobering and +unpleasant. She could not imagine what it was, for she did not know he +had been to Creeper Cottage the night before and all the afternoon and +at dinner he had talked and behaved as usual. Now he did not talk at +all, and his behaviour was limited to a hasty packing of portmanteaus. +Determined to question him she called him into the study just before +he started, and shut the door. + +"I must go mater," he said, pulling out his watch; he had carefully +avoided her since breakfast though she had laid many traps for him. + +"Robin, I want to tell you that I think you splendid." + +"Splendid? What on earth for? You were telling me a very different +sort of thing a day or two ago." + +"I am sorry now for what I said on Sunday." + +"I don't think a mother ought ever to say she's sorry," said Robin +gloomily. + +"Not if she is?" + +"She oughtn't to say so." + +"Well dear let us be friends. Don't go away angry with me. I do +appreciate you so much for going. You are my own dear boy." And she +put her hands on his shoulders. + +He took out his watch again. "I say, I must be off." + +"Don't suppose a mother doesn't see and understand." + +"Oh I don't suppose anything. Good-bye mater." + +"I think it so splendid of you to go, to turn your back on temptation, +to unwind yourself from that wretched girl's coils." + +"Coils?" + +"My Robin"--she stroked his cheek, the same cheek, as it happened, +Priscilla had smitten--"my Robin must not throw himself away. I am +ambitious where you are concerned, my darling. It would have broken my +heart for you to have married a nobody--perhaps a worse than nobody." + +Robin, who was staring at her with an indescribable expression on his +face, took her hands off his shoulders. "Look here mater," he +said--and he was seized by a desire to laugh terrifically--"there is +nothing in the world quite so amusing as the way people will talk +wisely of things they don't in the faintest degree understand. They +seem to feel wise in proportion to their ignorance. I expect you think +that's a funny speech for me to make. I can tell you I don't think it +half as funny as yours was. Good-bye. I shall miss my train you know +if you keep me, and then I'd be exposed again to those--what was the +word? ah, yes--coils. Coils!" He burst into loud laughter. "Good-bye +mater." + +She was staring at him blankly. He hastily brushed her forehead with +his moustache and hurried to the door, his face full of strange mirth. +"I say," he said, putting in his head again, "there's just one thing +I'd like to say." + +She made an eager step towards him. "Do say it my darling--say all +that is in your heart." + +"Oh it's not much--it's only God help poor Tuss." And that was the +last of him. She heard him chuckling all down the passage; but long +before his fly had reached Ullerton he had left off doing that and was +moulting again. + +It rained that day in Somersetshire, a steady, hopeless rain that +soaked many a leaf off the trees before its time and made the year +look suddenly quite old. From the windows of Creeper Cottage you could +see the water running in rivulets down the hill into the deserted +village, and wreaths of mist hanging about the downs beyond. The +dripping tombstone that blocked Priscilla's window grew danker and +blacker as the day went by. The fires in the cottage burnt badly, for +the wood had somehow got wet. The oilcloth and the wall-papers looked +very dismal in the grey daylight. Rain came in underneath the two +front doors and made puddles that nobody wiped away. + +Priscilla had got up very late, after a night spent staring into the +darkness, and then had sent for Fritzing and told him what Robin had +done. The unhappy man's horror will be easily imagined. She was in bed +the night before when he came in, quite cured of her hunger and only +wanting to be alone with her wrath. Fritzing had found no one in the +parlour but Tussie clasping an immense biscuit-tin in his arms, with a +face so tragic that Fritzing thought something terrible must have +happened. Tussie had returned joyfully, laden with biscuits and +sardines, to find the girl standing straight and speechless by the +table, her face rigid, her eyes ablaze. She had not so much as glanced +at the biscuits; she had not said a single word; her look rested on +him a moment as though she did not see him and then she went into the +next room and upstairs to bed. He knew she went upstairs to bed for in +Creeper Cottage you could hear everything. + +Fritzing coming in a few minutes later without the cook he had hoped +to find, was glad enough of Tussie's sardines and biscuits--they were +ginger biscuits--and while he ate them, abstractedly and together, +Tussie looked on and wondered in spite of his wretchedness what the +combination could possibly taste like. Then, after a late breakfast +on the Wednesday morning, Priscilla sent for Fritzing and told him +what Robin had done. The burdened man, so full already of anxieties +and worries, was shattered by the blow. "I have always held duelling +in extreme contempt," he said when at last he could speak, "but now I +shall certainly fight." + +"Fight? You? Fritzi, I've only told you because I--I feel so +unprotected here and you must keep him off if he ever tries to come +again. But you shall not fight. What, first he is to insult me and +then hurt or kill my Fritzi? Besides, nobody ever fights duels in +England." + +"That remains to be seen. I shall now go to his house and insult him +steadily for half an hour. At the expiration of that time he will +probably be himself anxious to fight. We might go to France--" + +"Oh Fritzi don't be so dreadful. Don't go to him--leave him +alone--nobody must ever know--" + +"I shall now go and insult him," repeated Fritzing with an +inflexibility that silenced her. + +And she saw him a minute later pass her window under his umbrella, +splashing indifferently through all the puddles, battle and +destruction in his face. + +Robin, however, was at Ullerton by the time Fritzing got to the +vicarage. He waved the servant aside when she told him he had gone, +and insisted on penetrating into the presence of the young man's +father. He waved Mrs. Morrison aside too when she tried to substitute +herself for the vicar, and did at last by his stony persistency get +into the good man's presence. Not until the vicar himself told him +that Robin had gone would Fritzing believe it. "The villain has fled," +he told Priscilla, coming back drenched in body but unquenchable in +spirit. "Your chastisement, ma'am, was very effectual." + +"If he's gone, then don't let us think about him any more." + +"Nay, ma'am, I now set out for Cambridge. If I may not meet him fairly +in duel and have my chance of honourably removing him from a world +that has had enough of him, I would fain in my turn box his ears." + +But Priscilla caught him by both arms. "Why, Fritzi," she cried, "he +might remove you and not you him--and from a world that hasn't had +nearly enough of you. Fritzi, you cannot leave me. I won't let you go. +I wish I had never told you. Don't let us talk of it ever again. It is +hateful to me. I--I can't bear it." And she looked into his face with +something very like tears in her eyes. + +Of course Fritzing stayed. How could he go away even for one hour, +even in search of a cook, when such dreadful things happened? He was +bowed down by the burden of his responsibilities. He went into his +sitting-room and spent the morning striding up and down it between the +street door and the door into the kitchen,--a stride and a half one +way, and a stride and a half back back again,--doing what all +evildoers have to do sooner or later, cudgelling his brains for a way +out of life's complications: and every now and then the terribleness +of what had happened to his Princess, his guarded Princess, his +unapproachable one, came over him with a fresh wave of horror and he +groaned aloud. + +In the kitchen sat the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid, a most accomplished +young person, listening to the groans and wondering what next. Tussie +had sent her, with fearful threats of what sort of character she would +get if she refused to go. She had at once given notice, but had been +forced all the same to go, being driven over in a dog-cart in the +early morning rain by a groom who made laboured pleasantries at her +expense. She could cook very well, almost as well as that great +personage the Shuttleworth cook, but she could only cook if there were +things to be cooked; and what she found at Creeper Cottage was the +rest of the ginger biscuits and sardines. Well, I will not linger over +that. Priscilla did get breakfast somehow, the girl, after trying +vainly to strike sparks of helpfulness out of Annalise, going to the +store and ordering what was necessary. Then she washed up, while +Annalise tripped in and out for the express purpose, so it seemed, of +turning up her nose; then she sat and waited and wondered what next. +For a long time she supposed somebody would send for her to come and +talk about luncheon; but nobody did. She heard the ceaseless +stridings in the next room, and every now and then the groans. The +rain on the kitchen window did not patter more ceaselessly than the +footsteps strode up and down, and the groans got very much on to the +girl's nerves. At last she decided that no person who was groaning +like that would ever want to order luncheon, and she had better go to +the young lady. She went out accordingly and knocked at Priscilla's +door. Priscilla was in her chair by the fire, lost in troublous +thought. She looked vaguely at the kitchenmaid for a moment, and then +asked her to go away. "I'm busy," explained Priscilla, whose hands +were folded in her lap. + +"Please miss, what do you wish for luncheon?" + +"Who are you?" + +"I'm the--assistant cook at the 'All, miss. Lady Shuttleworth's +assistant cook. Sir Augustus desired me to cook for you to-day." + +"Then please do it." + +"Yes miss. What do you wish for luncheon?" + +"Nothing." + +"Yes miss. And the gentleman--don't he want nothing neither?" + +"He'll probably tell you when he does." + +"Yes miss. It's as well to know a little beforehand, ain't it, miss. +There's nothing in the--a-hem--'ouse, and I suppose I'd have to buy +something." + +"Please do." + +"Yes miss. Perhaps if you'd tell me what the gentleman likes I could +go out and get it." + +"But I don't know what he likes. And wouldn't you get wet? Send +somebody." + +"Yes miss. Who?" + +Priscilla gazed at her a moment. "Ah yes--" she said, "I forgot. I'm +afraid there isn't anybody. I think you had better ask my uncle what +he wants, and then if you would--I'm very sorry you should have such +bad weather--but if you don't mind, would you go and buy the things?" + +"Yes miss." + +The girl went away, and Priscilla began for the first time to consider +the probability of her having in the near future to think of and order +three meals every day of her life; and not only three meals, but she +dimly perceived there would be a multitude of other dreary things to +think of and order,--their linen, for instance, must be washed, and +how did one set about that? And would not Fritzing's buttons presently +come off and have to be sewn on again? His socks, when they went into +holes, could be thrown out of the window and new ones bought, but even +Priscilla saw that you could not throw a whole coat out of a window +because its buttons had come off. There would, then, have to be some +mending done for Fritzing, and Annalise would certainly not be the one +to do it. Was the simple life a sordid life as well? Did it only look +simple from outside and far away? And was it, close, mere drudging? A +fear came over her that her soul, her precious soul, for whose sake +she had dared everything, instead of being able to spread its wings in +the light of a glorious clear life was going to be choked out of +existence by weeds just as completely as at Kunitz. + +The Shuttleworth kitchenmaid meanwhile, who was not hindered at every +turn by a regard for her soul, made her way to Fritzing as she had +been told and inquired of him what she should cook for his dinner. No +man likes to be interrupted in his groanings; and Fritzing, who was +not hungry and was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger in +his room asking him intimate questions, a person of whose presence in +the cottage he had been unaware, flew at her. "Woman, what have I to +do with you?" he cried, stopping in his walk and confronting her with +surprising fierceness. "Is it seemly to burst in on a man like this? +Have you no decency? No respect for another's privacy? Begone, I +command you--begone! Begone!" And he made the same movements with his +hands that persons do when they shoo away fowls or other animals in +flocks. + +This was too much for the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid. The obligations, +she considered, were all on the side of Creeper Cottage, and she +retreated in amazement and anger to the kitchen, put on her hat and +mackintosh, and at once departed, regardless of the rain and the +consequences, through two miles of dripping lanes to Symford Hall. +What would have happened to her there if she had been discovered by +Tussie I do not know, but I imagine it would have been something bad. +She was saved, however, by his being in bed, clutched by the throat by +a violent cold; and there he lay helpless, burning and shivering and +throbbing, the pains of his body increased a hundredfold by the +distraction of his mind about Priscilla. Why, Tussie asked himself +over and over again, had she looked so strange the night before? Why +had she gone starving to bed? What was she doing to-day? Was the +kitchenmaid taking proper care of her? Was she keeping warm and dry +this shocking weather? Had she slept comfortably the first night in +her little home? Poor Tussie. It is a grievous thing to love any one +too much; a grievous, wasteful, paralyzing thing; a tumbling of the +universe out of focus, a bringing of the whole world down to the mean +level of one desire, a shutting out of wider, more beautiful feelings, +a wrapping of one's self in a thick garment of selfishness, outside +which all the dear, tender, modest, everyday affections and +friendships, the wholesome, ordinary loves, the precious loves of use +and wont, are left to shiver and grow cold. Tussie's mother sat +outside growing very cold indeed. Her heart was stricken within her. +She, most orderly of women, did not in the least mind, so occupied was +she with deeper cares, that her household was in rebellion, her cook +who had been with her practically all her life leaving because she had +been commanded by Tussie, before he had to fall back on the +kitchenmaid, to proceed forthwith to Creeper Cottage and stay there +indefinitely; her kitchenmaid, also a valued functionary, leaving; +Bryce, Tussie's servant who took such care of him and was so clever in +sickness, gone suddenly in his indignation at having to go at +all,--all these things no longer mattered. Nor did it matter that the +coming of age festivities were thrown into hopeless confusion by +Tussie's illness, that the guests must all be telegraphed to and put +off, that the whole village would be aghast at such a disappointment, +that all her plans and preparations had been wasted. As the first day +and night of illness dragged slowly past she grew to be nothing but +one great ache of yearning over her sick boy, a most soul-rending +yearning to do what she knew was for ever impossible, to put her arms +so close round him, so close, so carefully, so tenderly, that nothing, +no evil, no pain, could get through that clasp of love to hurt him any +more. + +"Why don't you take better care of your only son?" said the doctor +grimly after he had seen Tussie that evening, who by that time was in +a very pitiable condition. + +Lady Shuttleworth stared at him, wide-eyed and speechless. + +"It's absurd, you know, to let him get into this state. I've often +warned you. He can't be allowed to play ducks and drakes with himself +like other young men. He's got no strength to fall back upon. I +consider you are directly responsible for this illness. Why do you +let him go out at night this time of year? Why do you let him +over-exert himself? I suppose," said the doctor, who had brought +Tussie into the world and was as brutal as he was clever, besides +being at that moment extremely angry, "I suppose you want to lose him, +eh?" + +How could she explain to him what she knew to be true, that the one +person responsible for Tussie's illness was Priscilla? She therefore +only stared, wide-eyed and speechless; and indeed her heart was very +nearly broken. + + + + +XVII + + +About three o'clock that afternoon Priscilla saw quite clearly what +she had dimly perceived in the morning, that if there was to be +domestic peace in Creeper Cottage she must bestir herself. She did not +like bestirring herself; at least, not in such directions. She would +go out and help the poor, talk to them, cheer them, nurse their babies +even and stir their porridge, but she had not up to this point +realized her own needs, and how urgent they could be and how +importunate. It was hunger that cleared her vision. The first time she +was hungry she had been amused. Now when it happened again she was +both surprised and indignant. "Can one's wretched body _never_ keep +quiet?" she thought impatiently, when the first twinges dragged her +relentlessly out of her dejected dreaming by the fire. She remembered +the cold tremblings of the night before, and felt that that state +would certainly be reached again quite soon if she did not stop it at +once. She rang for Annalise. "Tell the cook I will have some luncheon +after all," she said. + +"The cook is gone," said Annalise, whose eyes were more aggressively +swollen than they had yet been. + +"Gone where?" + +"Gone away. Gone for ever." + +"But why?" asked Priscilla, really dismayed. + +"The Herr Geheimrath insulted her. I heard him doing it. No woman of +decency can permit such a tone. She at once left. There has been no +dinner to-day. There will be, I greatly fear, n--o--o--supp--pper." +And Annalise gave a loud sob and covered her face with her apron. + +Then Priscilla saw that if life was to roll along at all it was her +shoulder that would have to be put to the wheel. Fritzing's shoulder +was evidently not a popular one among the lower classes. The vision of +her own doing anything with wheels was sufficiently amazing, but she +did not stop to gaze upon it. "Annalise," she said, getting up quickly +and giving herself a little shake, "fetch me my hat and coat. I'm +going out." + +Annalise let her apron drop far enough to enable her to point to the +deluge going on out of doors. "Not in this weather?" she faltered, +images of garments soaked in mud and needing much drying and brushing +troubling her. + +"Get me the things," said Priscilla. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness will be wet through." + +"Get me the things. And don't cry quite so much. Crying really is the +most shocking waste of time." + +Annalise withdrew, and Priscilla went round to Fritzing. It was the +first time she had been round to him. He was sitting at his table, his +head in his hands, staring at the furnisher's bill, and he started to +see her coming in unexpectedly through the kitchen, and shut the bill +hastily in a drawer. + +"Fritzi, have you had anything to eat to-day?" + +"Certainly. I had an excellent breakfast." + +"Nothing since?" + +"I have not yet felt the need." + +"You know the cook Lady Shuttleworth sent has gone again?" + +"What, that woman who burst in upon me was Lady Shuttleworth's cook?" + +"Yes. And you frightened her so she ran home." + +"Ma'am, she overstepped the limits of my patience." + +"Dear Fritzi, I often wonder where exactly the limits of your patience +are. With me they have withdrawn into infinite space--I've never been +able to reach them. But every one else seems to have a knack--well, +somebody must cook. You tell me Annalise won't. Perhaps she really +can't. Anyhow I cannot mention it to her, because it would be too +horrible to have her flatly refusing to do something I told her to do +and yet not be able to send her away. But somebody must cook, and I'm +going out to get the somebody. Hush"--she put up her hand as he opened +his mouth to speak--"I know it's raining. I know I'll get wet. Don't +let us waste time protesting. I'm going." + +Fritzing was conscience-stricken. "Ma'am," he said, "you must forgive +me for unwittingly bringing this bother upon you. Had I had time for +reflection I would not have been so sharp. But the woman burst upon +me. I knew not who she was. Sooner than offend her I would have cut +out my tongue, could I have foreseen you would yourself go in search +in the rain of a substitute. Permit me to seek another." + +"No, no--you have no luck with cooks," said Priscilla smiling. "I'm +going. Why I feel more cheerful already--just getting out of that +chair makes me feel better." + +"Were you not cheerful before?" inquired Fritzing anxiously. + +"Not very," admitted Priscilla. "But then neither were you. Don't +suppose I didn't see you with your head in your hands when I came in. +Cheerful people never seize their heads in that way. Now Fritzi I know +what's worrying you--it's that absurd affair last night. I've left off +thinking about it. I'm going to be very happy again, and so must you +be. We won't let one mad young man turn all our beautiful life sour, +will we?" + +He bent down and kissed her hand. "Permit me to accompany you at +least," he begged. "I cannot endure--" + +But she shook her head; and as she presently walked through the rain +holding Fritzing's umbrella,--none had been bought to replace hers, +broken on the journey--getting muddier and more draggled every +minute, she felt that now indeed she had got down to elementary +conditions, climbed right down out of the clouds to the place where +life lies unvarnished and uncomfortable, where Necessity spends her +time forcing you to do all the things you don't like, where the whole +world seems hungry and muddy and wet. It was an extraordinary +experience for her, this slopping through the mud with soaking shoes, +no prospect of a meal, and a heart that insisted on sinking in spite +of her attempts to persuade herself that the situation was amusing. It +did not amuse her. It might have amused somebody else,--the Grand +Duke, for instance, if he could have watched her now (from, say, a +Gothic window, himself dry and fed and taken care of), being punished +so naturally and inevitably by the weapons Providence never allows to +rust, those weapons that save parents and guardians so much personal +exertion if only they will let things take their course, those sharp, +swift consequences that attend the actions of the impetuous. I might, +indeed, if this were a sermon and there were a congregation unable to +get away, expatiate on the habit these weapons have of smiting with +equal fury the just and the unjust; how you only need to be a little +foolish, quite a little foolish, under conditions that seem to force +it upon you, and down they come, sure and relentless, and you are +smitten with a thoroughness that leaves you lame for years; how +motives are nothing, circumstances are nothing; how the motives may +have been aflame with goodness, the circumstances such that any other +course was impossible; how all these things don't matter in the +least,--you are and shall be smitten. But this is not a sermon. I have +no congregation. And why should I preach to a reader who meanwhile has +skipped? + +It comforted Priscilla to find that almost the whole village wanted to +come and cook for her, or as the women put it "do" for her. Their +cooking powers were strictly limited, and they proposed to make up for +this by doing for her very completely in other ways; they would scrub, +sweep, clean windows, wash,--anything and everything they would do. +Would they also sew buttons on her uncle's clothes? Priscilla asked +anxiously. And they were ready to sew buttons all over Fritzing if +buttons would make him happy. This eagerness was very gratifying, but +it was embarrassing as well. The extremely aged and the extremely +young were the only ones that refrained from offering their services. +Some of the girls were excluded as too weedy; some of the mothers +because their babies were too new; some of the wives because their +husbands were too exacting; but when Priscilla counted up the names +she had written down she found there were twenty-five. For a moment +she was staggered. Then she rose to the occasion and got out of the +difficulty with what she thought great skill, arranging, as it was +impossible to disappoint twenty-four of these, that they should take +it in turn, each coming for one day until all had had a day and then +beginning again with the first one. It seemed a brilliant plan. Life +at Creeper Cottage promised to be very varied. She gathered them +together in the village shop to talk it over. She asked them if they +thought ten shillings a day and food would be enough. She asked it +hesitatingly, afraid lest she were making them an impossibly frugal +offer. She was relieved at the cry of assent; but it was followed +after a moment by murmurs from the married women, when they had had +time to reflect, that it was unfair to pay the raw young ones at the +same rate as themselves. Priscilla however turned a deaf ear to their +murmurings. "The girls may not," she said, raising her hand to impose +silence, "be able to get through as much as you do in a day, but +they'll be just as tired when evening comes. Certainly I shall give +them the same wages." She made them draw lots as to who should begin, +and took the winner home with her then and there; she too, though the +day was far spent, was to have her ten shillings. "What, have you +forgotten your New Testaments?" Priscilla cried, when more murmurs +greeted this announcement. "Don't you remember the people who came at +the eleventh hour to labour in the vineyard and got just the same as +the others? Why should I try to improve on parables?" And there was +something about Priscilla, an air, an authority, that twisted the +women of Symford into any shape of agreement she chose. The +twenty-four went their several ways. The twenty-fifth ran home to put +on a clean apron, and got back to the shop in time to carry the eggs +and butter and bread Priscilla had bought. "I forgot to bring any +money," said Priscilla when the postmistress--it was she who kept the +village shop--told her how much it came to. "Does it matter?" + +"Oh don't mention it, Miss Neumann-Schultz," was the pleasant answer +of that genteel and trustful lady; and she suggested that Priscilla +should take with her a well-recommended leg of mutton she had that +day for sale as well. Priscilla shuddered at the sight of it and +determined never to eat legs of mutton again. The bacon, too, piled up +on the counter, revolted her. The only things that looked as decent +raw as when they were cooked were eggs; and on eggs she decided she +and Fritzing would in future live. She broke off a piece of the crust +of the bread Mrs. Vickerton was wrapping up and ate it, putting great +pressure on herself to do it carelessly, with a becoming indifference. + +"It's good bread," said Mrs. Vickerton, doing up her parcel. + +"Where in the world do you get it from?" asked Priscilla +enthusiastically. "The man must be a genius." + +"The carrier brings it every day," said Mrs. Vickerton, pleased and +touched by such appreciation. "It's a Minehead baker's." + +"He ought to be given an order, if ever man ought." + +"An order? For you regular, Miss Neumann-Schultz?" + +"No, no,--the sort you pin on your breast," said Priscilla. + +"Ho," smiled Mrs. Vickerton vaguely, who did not follow; she was so +genteel that she could never have enough of aspirates. And Priscilla, +giving the parcel to her breathless new help, hurried back to Creeper +Cottage. + +Now this help, or char-girl--you could not call her a charwoman she +was manifestly still so very young--was that Emma who had been obliged +to tell the vicar's wife about Priscilla's children's treat and who +did not punctually return books. I will not go so far as to say that +not to return books punctually is sinful, though deep down in my soul +I think it is, but anyhow it is a symptom of moral slackness. Emma was +quite good so long as she was left alone. She could walk quite +straight so long as there were no stones in the way and nobody to pull +her aside. If there were stones, she instantly stumbled; if somebody +pulled, she instantly went. She was weak, amiable, well-intentioned. +She had a widowed father who was unpleasant and who sometimes beat her +on Saturday nights, and on Sunday mornings sometimes, if the fumes of +the Cock and Hens still hung about him, threw things at her before she +went to church. A widowed father in Emma's class is an ill being to +live with. The vicar did his best to comfort her. Mrs. Morrison talked +of the commandments and of honouring one's father and mother and of +how the less there was to honour the greater the glory of doing it; +and Emma was so amiable that she actually did manage to honour him six +days out of the seven. At the same time she could not help thinking it +would be nice to go away to a place where he wasn't. They were +extremely poor; almost the poorest family in the village, and the +vision of possessing ten shillings of her very own was a dizzy one. +She had a sweetheart, and she had sent him word by a younger sister of +the good fortune that had befallen her and begged him to come up to +Creeper Cottage that evening and help her carry the precious wages +safely home; and at nine o'clock when her work was done she presented +herself all blushes and smiles before Priscilla and shyly asked her +for them. + +Priscilla was alone in her parlour reading. She referred her, as her +habit was, to Fritzing; but Fritzing had gone out for a little air, +the rain having cleared off, and when the girl told her so Priscilla +bade her come round in the morning and fetch the money. + +Emma's face fell so woefully at this--was not her John at that moment +all expectant round the corner?--that Priscilla smiled and got up to +see if she could find some money herself. In the first drawer she +opened in Fritzing's sitting-room was a pocket-book, and in this +pocket-book Fritzing's last five-pound note. There was nothing else +except the furnisher's bill. She pushed that on one side without +looking at it; what did bills matter? Bills never yet had mattered to +Priscilla. She pushed it on one side and searched for silver, but +found none. "Perhaps you can change this?" she said, holding out the +note. + +"The shop's shut now, miss," said Laura, gazing with round eyes at the +mighty sum. + +"Well then take it, and bring me the change in the morning." + +Emma took it with trembling fingers--she had not in her life touched +so much money--and ran out into the darkness to where her John was +waiting. Symford never saw either of them again. Priscilla never saw +her change. Emma went to perdition. Priscilla went back to her chair +by the fire. She was under the distinct and comfortable impression +that she had been the means of making the girl happy. "How easy it is, +making people happy," thought Priscilla placidly, the sweetest smile +on her charming mouth. + + + + +XVIII + + +Bad luck, it will be seen, dogged the footsteps of Priscilla. Never +indeed for a single hour after she entered Creeper Cottage did the +gloomy lady cease from her attentions. The place was pervaded by her +thick and evil atmosphere. Fritzing could not go out for an airing +without something of far-reaching consequence happening while he was +away. It was of course Bad Luck that made the one girl in Symford who +was easily swayed by passing winds of temptation draw the lot that put +the five-pound note into her hands; if she had come to the cottage +just one day later, or if the rain had gone on just half an hour +longer and kept Fritzing indoors, she would, I have no doubt whatever, +be still in Symford practising every feeble virtue either on her +father or on her John, by this time probably her very own John. As it +was she was a thief, a lost soul, a banished face for ever from the +ways of grace. + +Thus are we all the sport of circumstance. Thus was all Symford the +sport of Priscilla. Fritzing knew nothing of his loss. He had not told +Priscilla a word of his money difficulties, his idea being to keep +every cloud from her life as long and as completely as possible. +Besides, how idle to talk of these things to some one who could in no +way help him with counsel or suggestions. He had put the money in his +drawer, and the thought that it was still unchanged and safe comforted +him a little in the watches of the sleepless nights. + +Nothing particular happened on the Thursday morning, except that the +second of the twenty-five kept on breaking things, and Priscilla who +was helping Fritzing arrange the books he had ordered from London +remarked at the fifth terrific smash, a smash so terrific as to cause +Creeper Cottage to tremble all over, that more crockery had better be +bought. + +"Yes," said Fritzing, glancing swiftly at her with almost a guilty +glance. + +He felt very keenly his want of resourcefulness in this matter of +getting the money over from Germany, but he clung to the hope that a +few more wakeful nights would clear his brain and show him the way; +and meanwhile there was always the five-pound note in the drawer. + +"And Fritzi, I shall have to get some clothes soon," Priscilla went +on, dusting the books as he handed them to her. + +"Clothes, ma'am?" repeated Fritzing, straightening himself to stare at +her. + +"Those things you bought for me in Gerstein--they're delicious, +they're curiosities, but they're not clothes. I mean always to keep +them. I'll have them put in a glass case, and they shall always be +near me when we're happy again." + +"Happy again, ma'am?" + +"Settled again, I mean," quickly amended Priscilla. + +She dusted in silence for a little, and began to put the books she had +dusted in the shelves. "I'd better write to Paris," she said +presently. + +Fritzing jumped. "Paris, ma'am?" + +"They've got my measurements. This dress can't stand much more. It's +the one I've worn all the time. The soaking it got yesterday was very +bad for it. You don't see such things, but if you did you'd probably +get a tremendous shock." + +"Ma'am, if you write to Paris you must give your own name, which of +course is impossible. They will send nothing to an unknown customer in +England called Neumann-Schultz." + +"Oh but we'd send the money with the order. That's quite easy, isn't +it?" + +"Perfectly easy," said Fritzing in an oddly exasperated voice; at once +adding, still more snappily, "Might I request your Grand Ducal +Highness to have the goodness not to put my Æschylus--a most valuable +edition--head downwards on the shelf? It is a manner of treating books +often to be observed in housemaids and similar ignorants. But you, +ma'am, have been trained by me I trust in other and more reverent ways +of handling what is left to us of the mighty spirits of the past." + +"I'm sorry," said Priscilla, hastily turning the Æschylus right side +up again; and by launching forth into a long and extremely bitter +dissertation on the various ways persons of no intellectual +conscience have of ill-treating books, he got rid of some of his +agitation and fixed her attention for the time on questions less +fraught with complications than clothes from Paris. + +About half-past two they were still sitting over the eggs and bread +and butter that Priscilla ordered three times a day and that Fritzing +ate with unquestioning obedience, when the Shuttleworth victoria +stopped in front of the cottage and Lady Shuttleworth got out. +Fritzing, polite man, hastened to meet her, pushing aside the footman +and offering his arm. She looked at him vaguely, and asked if his +niece were at home. + +"Certainly," said Fritzing, leading her into Priscilla's parlour. +"Shall I inquire if she will receive you?" + +"Do," said Lady Shuttleworth, taking no apparent notice of the odd +wording of this question. "Tussie isn't well," she said the moment +Priscilla appeared, fixing her eyes on her face but looking as though +she hardly saw her, as though she saw past her, through her, to +something beyond, while she said a lesson learned by rote. + +"Isn't he? Oh I'm sorry," said Priscilla. + +"He caught cold last Sunday at your treat. He oughtn't to have run +those races with the boys. He can't--stand--much." + +Priscilla looked at her questioningly. The old lady's face was quite +set and calm, but there had been a queer catch in her voice at the +last words. + +"Why does he do such things, then?" asked Priscilla, feeling vaguely +distressed. + +"Ah yes, my dear--why? That is a question for you to answer, is it +not?" + +"For me?" + +"On Tuesday night," continued Lady Shuttleworth, "he was ill when he +left home to come here. He would come. It was a terrible night for a +delicate boy to go out. And he didn't stay here, I understand. He went +out to buy something after closing time, and stood a long while trying +to wake the people up." + +"Yes," said Priscilla, feeling guilty, "I--that was my fault. He went +for me." + +"Yes my dear. Since then he has been ill. I've come to ask you if +you'll drive back with me and see if--if you cannot persuade him that +you are happy. He seems to be much--troubled." + +"Troubled?" + +"He seems to be afraid you are not happy. You know," she added with a +little quavering smile, "Tussie is very kind. He is very unselfish. He +takes everybody's burdens on his shoulders. He seems to be quite +haunted by the idea that your life here is unendurably uncomfortable, +and it worries him dreadfully that he can't get to you to set things +straight. I think if he were to see you, and you were very cheerful, +and--and smiled, my dear, it might help to get him over this." + +"Get him over this?" echoed Priscilla. "Is he so ill?" + +Lady Shuttleworth looked at her and said nothing. + +"Of course I'll come," said Priscilla, hastily ringing the bell. + +"But you must not look unhappy," said Lady Shuttleworth, laying her +hand on the girl's arm, "that would make matters ten times worse. You +must promise to be as gay as possible." + +"Yes, yes--I'll be gay," promised Priscilla, while her heart became as +lead within her at the thought that she was the cause of poor Tussie's +sufferings. But was she really, she asked herself during the drive? +What had she done but accept help eagerly offered? Surely it was very +innocent to do that? It was what she had been doing all her life, and +people had been delighted when she let them be kind to her, and +certainly had not got ill immediately afterwards. Were you never to +let anybody do anything for you lest while they were doing it they +should get wet feet and things, and then their colds would be upon +your head? She was very sorry Tussie should be ill, dreadfully sorry. +He was so kind and good that it was impossible not to like him. She +did like him. She liked him quite as well as most young men and much +better than many. "I'm afraid you are very unhappy," she said suddenly +to Lady Shuttleworth, struck by the look on her face as she leaned +back, silent, in her corner. + +"I do feel rather at my wits' end," said Lady Shuttleworth. "For +instance, I'm wondering whether what I'm doing now isn't a great +mistake." + +"What you are doing now?" + +"Taking you to see Tussie." + +"Oh but I promise to be cheerful. I'll tell him how comfortable we +are. He'll see I look well taken care of." + +"But for all that I'm afraid he may--he may--" + +"Why, we're going to be tremendously taken care of. Even he will see +that. Only think--I've engaged twenty-five cooks." + +"Twenty-five cooks?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, staring in spite of her +sorrows. "But isn't my kitchenmaid--?" + +"Oh she left us almost at once. She couldn't stand my uncle. He is +rather difficult to stand at first. You have to know him quite a long +while before you can begin to like him. And I don't think kitchenmaids +ever would begin." + +"But my dear, twenty-five cooks?" + +And Priscilla explained how and why she had come by them; and though +Lady Shuttleworth, remembering the order till now prevailing in the +village and the lowness of the wages, could not help thinking that +here was a girl more potent for mischief than any girl she had ever +met, yet a feeble gleam of amusement did, as she listened, slant +across the inky blackness of her soul. + +Tussie was sitting up in bed with a great many pillows behind him, +finding immense difficulty in breathing, when his mother, her bonnet +off and every trace of having been out removed, came in and said Miss +Neumann-Schultz was downstairs. + +"Downstairs? Here? In this house?" gasped Tussie, his eyes round with +wonder and joy. + +"Yes. She--called. Would you like her to come up and see you?" + +"Oh mother!" + +Lady Shuttleworth hurried out. How could she bear this, she thought, +stumbling a little as though she did not see very well. She went +downstairs with the sound of that Oh mother throbbing in her ears. + +Tussie's temperature, high already, went up by leaps during the few +minutes of waiting. He gave feverish directions to the nurse about a +comfortable chair being put exactly in the right place, about his +pillows being smoothed, his medicine bottles hidden, and was very +anxious that the flannel garment he was made to wear when ill, a +garment his mother called a nightingale--not after the bird but the +lady--and that was the bluest flannel garment ever seen, should be +arranged neatly over his narrow chest. + +The nurse looked disapproving. She did not like her patients to be +happy. Perhaps she was right. It is always better, I believe, to be +cautious and careful, to husband your strength, to be deadly prudent +and deadly dull. As you would poison, so should you avoid doing what +the poet calls living too much in your large hours. The truly prudent +never have large hours; nor should you, if you want to be comfortable. +And you get your reward, I am told, in living longer; in having, that +is, a few more of those years that cluster round the end, during which +you are fed and carried and washed by persons who generally grumble. +Who wants to be a flame, doomed to be blown out by the same gust of +wind that has first fanned it to its very brightest? If you are not a +flame you cannot, of course, be blown out. Gusts no longer shake you. +Tempests pass you by untouched. And if besides you have the additional +advantage of being extremely smug, extremely thick-skinned, you shall +go on living till ninety, and not during the whole of that time be +stirred by so much as a single draught. + +Priscilla came up determined to be so cheerful that she began to smile +almost before she got to the door. "I've come to tell you how +splendidly we're getting on at the cottage," she said taking Tussie's +lean hot hand, the shell of her smile remaining but the heart and +substance gone out of it, he looked so pitiful and strange. + +"Really? Really?" choked Tussie, putting the other lean hot hand over +hers and burning all the coolness out of it. + +The nurse looked still more disapproving. She had not heard Sir +Augustus had a _fiancée_, and even if he had this was no time for +philandering. She too had noticed the voice in which he had said Oh +mother, and she saw by his eyes that his temperature had gone up. Who +was this shabby young lady? She felt sure that no one so shabby could +be his _fiancée_, and she could only conclude that Lady Shuttleworth +must be mad. + +"Nurse, I'm going to stay here a little," said Lady Shuttleworth. +"I'll call you when I want you." + +"I think, madam, Sir Augustus ought not--" began the nurse. + +"No, no, he shall not. Go and have forty winks, nurse." + +And the nurse had to go; people generally did when Lady Shuttleworth +sent them. + +"Sit down--no don't--stay a moment like this," said Tussie, his breath +coming in little jerks,--"unless you are tired? Did you walk?" + +"I'm afraid you are very ill," said Priscilla, leaving her hand in his +and looking down at him with a face that all her efforts could not +induce to smile. + +"Oh I'll be all right soon. How good of you to come. You've not been +hungry since?" + +"No, no," said Priscilla, stroking his hands with her free hand and +giving them soothing pats as one would to a sick child. + +"Really not? I've thought of that ever since. I've never got your face +that night out of my head. What had happened? While I was away--what +had happened?" + +"Nothing--nothing had happened," said Priscilla hastily. "I was tired. +I had a mood. I get them, you know. I get angry easily. Then I like +to be alone till I'm sorry." + +"But what had made you angry? Had I--?" + +"No, never. You have never been anything but good and kind. You've +been our protecting spirit since we came here." + +Tussie laughed shrilly, and immediately was seized by a coughing fit. +Lady Shuttleworth stood at the foot of the bed watching him with a +face from which happiness seemed to have fled for ever. Priscilla grew +more and more wretched, caught, obliged to stand there, distractedly +stroking his hands in her utter inability to think of anything else to +do. + +"A nice protecting spirit," gasped Tussie derisively, when he could +speak. "Look at me here, tied down to this bed for heaven knows how +long, and not able to do a thing for you." + +"But there's nothing now to do. We're quite comfortable. We are +really. Do, do believe it." + +"Are you only comfortable, or are you happy as well?" + +"Oh, we're _very_ happy," said Priscilla with all the emphasis she +could get into her voice; and again she tried, quite unsuccessfully, +to wrench her mouth into a smile. + +"Then, if you're happy, why do you look so miserable?" + +He was gazing up into her face with eyes whose piercing brightness +would have frightened the nurse. There was no shyness now about +Tussie. There never is about persons whose temperature is 102. + +"Miserable?" repeated Priscilla. She tried to smile; looked helplessly +at Lady Shuttleworth; looked down again at Tussie; and stammering +"Because you are so ill and it's all my fault," to her horror, to her +boundless indignation at herself, two tears, big and not to be hidden, +rolled down her face and dropped on to Tussie's and her clasped hands. + +Tussie struggled to sit up straight. "Look, mother, look--" he cried, +gasping, "my beautiful one--my dear and lovely one--my darling--she's +crying--I've made her cry--now never tell me I'm not a brute +again--see, see what I've done!" + +"Oh"--murmured Priscilla, in great distress and amazement. Was the +poor dear delirious? And she tried to get her hands away. + +But Tussie would not let them go. He held them in a clutch that seemed +like hot iron in both his, and dragging himself nearer to them covered +them with wild kisses. + +Lady Shuttleworth was appalled. "Tussie," she said in a very even +voice, "you must let Miss Neumann-Schultz go now. You must be quiet +again now. Let her go, dear. Perhaps she'll--come again." + +"Oh mother, leave me alone," cried Tussie, lying right across his +pillows, his face on Priscilla's hands. "What do you know of these +things? This is my darling--this is my wife--dream of my spirit--star +of my soul--" + +"Never in this world!" cried Lady Shuttleworth, coming round to the +head of the bed as quickly as her shaking limbs would take her. + +"Yes, yes, come here if you like, mother--come close--listen while I +tell her how I love her. I don't care who hears. Why should I? If I +weren't ill I'd care. I'd be tongue-tied--I'd have gone on being +tongue-tied for ever. Oh I bless being ill, I bless being ill--I can +say anything, anything--" + +"Tussie, don't say it," entreated his mother. "The less you say now +the more grateful you'll be later on. Let her go." + +"Listen to her!" cried Tussie, interrupting his kissing of her hands +to look up at Priscilla and smile with a sort of pitying wonder, "Let +you go? Does one let one's life go? One's hope of salvation go? One's +little precious minute of perfect happiness go? When I'm well again I +shall be just as dull and stupid as ever, just such a shy fool, not +able to speak--" + +"But it's a gracious state"--stammered poor Priscilla. + +"Loving you? Loving you?" + +"No, no--not being able to speak. It's always best--" + +"It isn't. It's best to be true to one's self, to show honestly what +one feels, as I am now--as I am now--" And he fell to kissing her +hands again. + +"Tussie, this isn't being honest," said Lady Shuttleworth sternly, +"it's being feverish." + +"Listen to her! Was ever a man interrupted like this in the act of +asking a girl to marry him?" + +"Tussie!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"Ethel, will you marry me? Because I love you so? It's an absurd +reason--the most magnificently absurd reason, but I know there's no +other why you should--" + +Priscilla was shaken and stricken as she had never yet been; shaken +with pity, stricken with remorse. She looked down at him in dismay +while he kissed her hands with desperate, overwhelming love. What was +she to do? Lady Shuttleworth tried to draw her away. What was she to +do? If Tussie was overwhelmed with love, she was overwhelmed with +pity. + +"Ethel--Ethel--" gasped Tussie, kissing her hands, looking up at her, +kissing them again. + +Pity overcame her, engulfed her. She bent her head down to his and +laid her cheek an instant on the absurd flannel nightingale, tenderly, +apologetically. + +"Ethel--Ethel," choked Tussie, "will you marry me?" + +"Dear Tussie," she whispered in a shaky whisper, "I promise to answer +you when you are well. Not yet. Not now. Get quite well, and then if +you still want an answer I promise to give you one. Now let me go." + +"Ethel," implored Tussie, looking at her with a wild entreaty in his +eyes, "will you kiss me? Just once--to help me to live--" + +And in her desire to comfort him she stooped down again and did kiss +him, soberly, almost gingerly, on the forehead. + +He let her hands slide away from between his and lay back on his +pillows in a state for the moment of absolute beatitude. He shut his +eyes, and did not move while she crept softly out of the room. + +"What have you done?" asked Lady Shuttleworth trembling, when they +were safely in the passage and the door shut behind them. + +"I can't think--I can't think," groaned Priscilla, wringing her hands. +And, leaning against the balusters, then and there in that most +public situation she began very bitterly to cry. + + + + +XIX + + +Priscilla went home dazed. All her suitors hitherto had approached her +ceremoniously, timidly, through the Grand Duke; and we know they had +not approached very near. But here was one, timid enough in health, +who was positively reckless under circumstances that made most people +meek. He had proposed to her arrayed in a blue flannel nightingale, +and Priscilla felt that headlong self-effacement could go no further. +"He must have a great soul," she said to herself over and over again +during the drive home, "a great, _great_ soul." And it seemed of +little use wiping her tears away, so many fresh ones immediately took +their place. + +She ached over Tussie and Tussie's mother. What had she done? She felt +she had done wrong; yet how, except by just existing? and she did feel +she couldn't help doing that. Certainly she had made two kind hearts +extremely miserable,--one was miserable now, and the other didn't yet +know how miserable it was going to be. She ought to have known, she +ought to have thought, she ought to have foreseen. She of all persons +in the world ought to have been careful with young men who believed +her to be of their own class. Contrition and woe took possession of +Priscilla's soul. She knew it was true that she could not help +existing, but she knew besides, far back in a remote and seldom +investigated corner of her mind, a corner on which she did not care to +turn the light of careful criticism, that she ought not to be existing +in Symford. It was because she was there, out of her proper sphere, in +a place she had no business to be in at all, that these strange and +heart-wringing scenes with young men occurred. And Fritzing would +notice her red eyes and ask what had happened; and here within two +days was a second story to be told of a young man unintentionally +hurried to his doom. Would Fritzing be angry? She never knew +beforehand. Would he, only remembering she was grand ducal, regard it +as an insult and want to fight Tussie? The vision of poor Tussie, +weak, fevered, embedded in pillows, swathed in flannel, receiving +bloodthirsty messages of defiance from Fritzing upset her into more +tears. Fritzing, she felt at that moment, was a trial. He burdened her +with his gigantic efforts to keep her from burdens. He burdened her +with his inflated notions of how burdenless she ought to be. He was +admirable, unselfish, devoted; but she felt it was possible to be too +admirable, too unselfish, too devoted. In a word Priscilla's mind +was in a state of upheaval, and the only ray of light she saw +anywhere--and never was ray more watery--was that Tussie, for the +moment at least, was content. The attitude of his mother, on the +other hand, was distressing and disturbing. There had been no more My +dears and other kind ways. She had watched her crying on the stairs in +stony silence, had gone down with her to the door in stony silence, +and just at the last had said in an unmistakably stony voice, "All +this is very cruel." + +Priscilla was overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. The world was +too much with her, she felt, a very great deal too much. She sent the +Shuttleworth carriage away at the entrance to the village and went in +to sit with Mrs. Jones a little, so that her eyes might lose their +redness before she faced Fritzing; and Mrs. Jones was so glad to see +her, so full of praises of her unselfish goodness in coming in, that +once again Priscilla was forced to be ashamed of herself and of +everything she did. + +"I'm not unselfish, and I'm not good," she said, smoothing the old +lady's coverlet. + +Mrs. Jones chuckled faintly. "Pretty dear," was her only comment. + +"I don't think I'm pretty and I know I'm not a dear," said Priscilla, +quite vexed. + +"Ain't you then, deary," murmured Mrs. Jones soothingly. + +Priscilla saw it was no use arguing, and taking up the Bible that +always lay on the table by the bed began to read aloud. She read and +read till both were quieted,--Mrs. Jones into an evidently sweet +sleep, she herself into peace. Then she left off and sat for some time +watching the old lady, the open Bible in-her lap, her soul filled +with calm words and consolations, wondering what it could be like +being so near death. Must it not be beautiful, thought Priscilla, to +slip away so quietly in that sunny room, with no sound to break the +peace but the ticking of the clock that marked off the last minutes, +and outside the occasional footstep of a passer-by still hurrying on +life's business? Wonderful to have done with everything, to have it +all behind one, settled, lived through, endured. The troublous joys +as well as the pains, all finished; the griefs and the stinging +happinesses, all alike lived down; and now evening, and sleep. In the +few days Priscilla had known her the old lady had drawn visibly nearer +death. Lying there on the pillow, so little and light that she hardly +pressed it down at all, she looked very near it indeed. And how kind +Death was, rubbing away the traces of what must have been a sordid +existence, set about years back with the usual coarse pleasures and +selfish hopes,--how kind Death was, letting all there was of spirit +shine out so sweetly at the end. There was an enlarged photograph of +Mrs. Jones and her husband over the fireplace, a photograph taken for +their silver wedding; she must have been about forty-five; how kind +Death was, thought Priscilla, looking from the picture to the figure +on the bed. She sighed a little, and got up. Life lay before her, an +endless ladder up each of whose steep rungs she would have to clamber; +in every sort of weather she would have to clamber, getting more +battered, more blistered with every rung.... She looked wistfully at +the figure on the bed, and sighed a little. Then she crept out, and +softly shut the door. + +She walked home lost in thought. As she was going up the hill to her +cottage Fritzing suddenly emerged from it and indulged in movements so +strange and complicated that they looked like nothing less than a +desperate dancing on the doorstep. Priscilla walked faster, staring in +astonishment. He made strange gestures, his face was pale, his hair +rubbed up into a kind of infuriated mop. + +"Why, what in the world--" began the amazed Priscilla, as soon as she +was near enough. + +"Ma'am, I've been robbed," shouted Fritzing; and all Symford might +have heard if it had happened to be listening. + +"Robbed?" repeated Priscilla. "What of?" + +"Of all my money, ma'am. Of all I had--of all we had--to live on." + +"Nonsense, Fritzi," said Priscilla; but she did turn a little paler. +"Don't let us stand out here," she added; and she got him in and shut +the street door. + +He would have left it open and would have shouted his woes through +it as through a trumpet down the street, oblivious of all things +under heaven but his misfortune. He tore open the drawer of the +writing-table. "In this drawer--in the pocket-book you see in this +drawer--in this now empty pocket-book, did I leave it. It was there +yesterday. It was there last night. Now it is gone. Miscreants from +without have visited us. Or perhaps, viler still, miscreants from +within. A miscreant, I do believe, capable of anything--Annalise--" + +"Fritzi, I took a five-pound note out of that last night, if that's +what you miss." + +"You, ma'am?" + +"To pay the girl who worked here her wages. You weren't here. I +couldn't find anything smaller." + +"_Gott sei Dank! Gott sei Dank_!" cried Fritzing, going back to German +in his joy. "Oh ma'am, if you had told me earlier you would have +spared me great anguish. Have you the change?" + +"Didn't she bring it?" + +"Bring it, ma'am?" + +"I gave it to her last night to change. She was to bring it round this +morning. Didn't she?" + +Fritzing stared aghast. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. In a +moment he was back again. "She has not been here," he said, in a voice +packed once more with torment. + +"Perhaps she has forgotten." + +"Ma'am, how came you--" + +"Now you're going to scold me." + +"No, no--but how is it possible that you should have trusted--" + +"Fritzi, you _are_ going to scold me, and I'm so tired. What else has +been taken? You said all your money--" + +He snatched up his hat. "Nothing else, ma'am, nothing else. I will go +and seek the girl." And he clapped it down over his eyes as he always +did in moments of great mental stress. + +"What a fuss," thought Priscilla wearily. Aloud she said, "The girl +here to-day will tell you where she lives. Of course she has +forgotten, or not been able to change it yet." And she left him, and +went out to get into her own half of the house. + +Yes, Fritzi really was a trial. Why such a fuss and such big words +about five pounds? If it were lost and the girl afraid to come and say +so, it didn't matter much; anyhow nothing like so much as having one's +peace upset. How foolish to be so agitated and talk of having been +robbed of everything. Fritzing's mind, she feared, that large, +enlightened mind on whose breadth and serenity she had gazed +admiringly ever since she could remember gazing at all, was shrinking +to dimensions that would presently exactly match the dimensions of +Creeper Cottage. She went upstairs disheartened and tired, and +dropping down full length on her sofa desired Annalise to wash her +face. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness has been weeping," said Annalise, whisking +the sponge in and out of corners with a skill surprising in one who +had only practised the process during the last ten days. + +Priscilla opened her eyes to stare at her in frankest surprise, for +never yet had Annalise dared make a remark unrequested. Annalise, by +beginning to wash them, forced her to shut them again. + +Priscilla then opened her mouth to tell her what she thought of her. +Immediately Annalise's swift sponge stopped it up. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, washing Priscilla's mouth +with a thoroughness and an amount of water suggestive of its not +having been washed for months, "told me only yesterday that weeping +was a terrible--_schreckliche_--waste of time. Therefore, since your +Grand Ducal Highness knows that and yet herself weeps, it is easy to +see that there exists a reason for weeping which makes weeping +inevitable." + +"Will you--" began Priscilla, only to be stopped instantly by the +ready sponge. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness is unhappy. 'Tis not to be wondered at. +Trust a faithful servant, one whose life-blood is at your Grand Ducal +Highness's disposal, and tell her if it is not then true that the Herr +Geheimrath has decoyed you from your home and your Grossherzoglicher +Herr Papa?" + +"Will you--" + +Again the pouncing sponge. + +"My heart bleeds--indeed it bleeds--to think of the Herr Papa's +sufferings, his fears, his anxieties. It is a picture on which I +cannot calmly look. Day and night--for at night I lie sleepless on my +bed--I am inquiring of myself what it can be, the spell that the Herr +Geheimrath has cast over your Grand Ducal--" + +"Will you--" + +Again the pouncing sponge; but this time Priscilla caught the girl's +hand, and holding it at arm's length sat up. "Are you mad?" she asked, +looking at Annalise as though she saw her for the first time. + +Annalise dropped the sponge and clasped her hands. "Not mad," she +said, "only very, very devoted." + +"No. Mad. Give me a towel." + +Priscilla was so angry that she did not dare say more. If she had said +a part even of what she wanted to say all would have been over between +herself and Annalise; so she dried her face in silence, declining to +allow it to be touched. "You can go," she said, glancing at the door, +her face pale with suppressed wrath but also, it must be confessed, +very clean; and when she was alone she dropped once again on to the +sofa and buried her head in the cushion. How dared Annalise? How dared +she? How dared she? Priscilla asked herself over and over again, +wincing, furious. Why had she not thought of this, known that she +would be in the power of any servant they chose to bring? Surely there +was no limit, positively none, to what the girl might do or say? How +was she going to bear her about her, endure the sight and sound of +that veiled impertinence? She buried her head very deep in the +cushion, vainly striving to blot out the world and Annalise in its +feathers, but even there there was no peace, for suddenly a great +noise of doors going and legs striding penetrated through its +stuffiness and she heard Fritzing's voice very loud and near--all +sounds in Creeper Cottage were loud and near--ordering Annalise to ask +her Grand Ducal Highness to descend. + +"I won't," thought Priscilla, burying her head deeper. "That poor Emma +has lost the note and he's going to fuss. I won't descend." + +Then came Annalise's tap at her door. Priscilla did not answer. +Annalise tapped again. Priscilla did not answer, but turning her head +face upwards composed herself to an appearance of sleep. + +Annalise tapped a third time. "The Herr Geheimrath wishes to speak to +your Grand Ducal Highness," she called through the door; and after a +pause opened it and peeped in. "Her Grand Ducal Highness sleeps," she +informed Fritzing down the stairs, her nose at the angle in the air it +always took when she spoke to him. + +"Then wake her! Wake her!" cried Fritzing. + +"Is it possible something has happened?" thought Annalise joyfully, +her eyes gleaming as she willingly flew back to Priscilla's +door,--anything, anything, she thought, sooner than the life she was +leading. + +Priscilla heard Fritzing's order and sat up at once, surprised at such +an unprecedented indifference to her comfort. Her heart began to beat +faster; a swift fear that Kunitz was at her heels seized her; she +jumped up and ran out. + +Fritzing was standing at the foot of the stairs. + +"Come down, ma'am," he said; "I must speak to you at once." + +"What's the matter?" asked Priscilla, getting down the steep little +stairs as quickly as was possible without tumbling. + +"Hateful English tongue," thought Annalise, to whom the habit the +Princess and Fritzing had got into of talking English together was a +constant annoyance and disappointment. + +Fritzing preceded Priscilla into her parlour, and when she was in he +shut the door behind her. Then he leaned his hands on the table to +steady himself and confronted her with a twitching face. Priscilla +looked at him appalled. Was the Grand Duke round the corner? +Lingering, perhaps, among the very tombs just outside her window? +"What is it?" she asked faintly. + +"Ma'am, the five pounds has disappeared for ever." + +"Really Fritzi, you are too absurd about that wretched five pounds," +cried Priscilla, blazing into anger. + +"But it was all we had." + +"All we--?" + +"Ma'am, it was positively our last penny." + +"I--don't understand." + +He made her understand. With paper and pencil, with the bills and his +own calculations, he made her understand. His hands shook, but he +went through with it item by item, through everything they had spent +from the moment they left Kunitz. They were in such a corner, so +tightly jammed, that all efforts to hide it and pretend there was no +corner seemed to him folly. He now saw that such efforts always had +been folly, and that he ought to have seen to it that her mind on this +important point was from the first perfectly clear; then nothing would +have happened. "You have had the misfortune, ma'am, to choose a fool +for your protector in this adventure," he said bitterly, pushing the +papers from him as though he loathed the sight of them. + +Priscilla sat dumfoundered. She was looking quite straight for the +first time at certain pitiless aspects of life. For the first time she +was face to face with the sternness, the hardness, the relentlessness +of everything that has to do with money so soon as one has not got +any. It seemed almost incredible to her that she who had given so +lavishly to anybody and everybody, who had been so glad to give, who +had thought of money when she thought of it at all as a thing to be +passed on, as a thing that soiled one unless it was passed on, but +that, passed on, became strangely glorified and powerful for good--it +seemed incredible that she should be in need of it herself, and unable +to think of a single person who would give her some. And what a little +she needed: just to tide them over the next week or two till they had +got theirs from home; yet even that little, the merest nothing +compared to what she had flung about in the village, was as +unattainable as though it had been a fortune. "Can we--can we not +borrow?" she said at last. + +"Yes ma'am, we can and we must. I will proceed this evening to Symford +Hall and borrow of Augustus." + +"No," said Priscilla; so suddenly and so energetically that Fritzing +started. + +"No, ma'am?" he repeated, astonished. "Why, he is the very person. In +fact he is our only hope. He must and shall help us." + +"No," repeated Priscilla, still more energetically. + +"Pray ma'am," said Fritzing, shrugging his shoulders, "are these +women's whims--I never comprehended them rightly and doubt if I ever +shall--are they to be allowed to lead us even in dangerous crises? To +lead us to certain shipwreck, ma'am? The alternatives in this case are +three. Permit me to point them out. Either we return to Kunitz--" + +"Oh," shivered Priscilla, shrinking as from a blow. + +"Or, after a brief period of starvation and other violent discomfort, +we are cast into gaol for debt--" + +"Oh?" shivered Priscilla, in tones of terrified inquiry. + +"Or, I borrow of Augustus." + +"No," said Priscilla, just as energetically as before. + +"Augustus is wealthy. Augustus is willing. Ma'am, I would stake my +soul that he is willing." + +"You shall not borrow of him," said Priscilla. "He--he's too ill." + +"Well then, ma'am," said Fritzing with a gesture of extreme +exasperation, "since you cannot be allowed to be cast into gaol there +remains but Kunitz. Like the dogs of the Scriptures we will return--" + +"Why not borrow of the vicar?" interrupted Priscilla. "Surely he would +be glad to help any one in difficulties?" + +"Of the vicar? What, of the father of the young man who insulted your +Grand Ducal Highness and whom I propose to kill in duel my first +leisure moment? Ma'am, there are depths of infamy to which even a +desperate man will not descend." + +Priscilla dug holes in the tablecloth with the point of the pencil. "I +can't conceive," she said, "why you gave Annalise all that money. So +_much_." + +"Why, ma'am, she refused, unless I did, to prepare your Grand Ducal +Highness's tea." + +"Oh Fritzi!" Priscilla looked up at him, shaking her head and smiling +through all her troubles. Was ever so much love and so much folly +united in one wise old man? Was ever, for that matter, so expensive a +tea? + +"I admit I permitted the immediate, the passing, moment to blot out +the future from my clearer vision on that occasion." + +"On that occasion? Oh Fritzi. What about all the other occasions? +When you gave me all I asked for--for the poor people, for my party. +You must have suffered tortures of anxiety. And all by yourself. Oh +Fritzi. It was dear of you--perfectly, wonderfully, dear. But you +ought to have been different with me from the beginning--treated me +exactly as you would have treated a real niece--" + +"Ma'am," cried Fritzing, jumping up, "this is waste of time. Our case +is very urgent. Money must be obtained. You must allow me to judge in +this matter, however ill I have acquitted myself up to now. I shall +start at once for Symford Hall and obtain a loan of Augustus." + +Priscilla pushed back her chair and got up too. "My dear Fritzi, +please leave that unfortunate young man out of the question," she +said, flushing. "How can you worry a person who is ill in bed with +such things?" + +"His mother is not ill in bed and will do quite as well. I am +certainly going." + +"You are not going. I won't have you ask his mother. I--forbid you to +do anything of the sort. Oh Fritzi," she added in despair, for he had +picked up the hat and stick he had flung down on coming in and was +evidently not going to take the least notice of her commands--"oh +Fritzi, you can't ask Tussie for money. It would kill him to know we +were in difficulties." + +"Kill him, ma'am? Why should it kill him?" shouted Fritzing, +exasperated by such a picture of softness. + +"It wouldn't only kill him--it would be simply too dreadful besides," +said Priscilla, greatly distressed. "Why, he asked me this +afternoon--wasn't going to tell you, but you force me to--he asked me +this very afternoon to marry him, and the dreadful part is that I'm +afraid he thinks--he hopes--that I'm going to." + + + + +XX + + +The only inhabitant of Creeper Cottage who slept that night was +Annalise. Priscilla spent it walking up and down her bedroom, and +Fritzing on the other side of the wall spent it walking up and down +his. They could hear each other doing it; it was a melancholy sound. +Once Priscilla was seized with laughter--a not very genial mirth, but +still laughter--and had to fling herself on her bed and bury her face +in the pillows lest Fritzing should hear so blood-curdling a noise. It +was when their steps had fallen steadily together for several turns +and the church clock, just as she was noticing this, had struck three. +Not for this, to tramp up and down their rooms all night, not for this +had they left Kunitz. The thought of all they had dreamed life in +Creeper Cottage was going to be, of all they had never doubted it was +going to be, of peaceful nights passed in wholesome slumber, of days +laden with fruitful works, of evenings with the poets, came into her +head and made this tormented marching suddenly seem intensely droll. +She laughed into her pillow till the tears rolled down her face, and +the pains she had to take to keep all sounds from reaching Fritzing +only made her laugh more. + +It was a windy night, and the wind sighed round the cottage and +rattled the casements and rose every now and then to a howl very +dreary to hear. While Priscilla was laughing a great gust shook the +house, and involuntarily she raised her head to listen. It died away, +and her head dropped back on to her arms again, but the laughter was +gone. She lay solemn enough, listening to Fritzing's creakings, and +thought of the past day and of the days to come till her soul grew +cold. Surely she was a sort of poisonous weed, fatal to every one +about her? Fritzing, Tussie, the poor girl Emma--oh, it could not be +true about Emma. She had lost the money, and was trying to gather +courage to come and say so; or she had simply not been able to change +it yet. Fritzing had jumped to the conclusion, because nothing had +been heard of her all day at home, that she had run away with it. +Priscilla twisted herself about uneasily. It was not the loss of the +five pounds that made her twist, bad though that loss was in their +utter poverty; it was the thought that if Emma had really run away +she, by her careless folly, had driven the girl to ruin. And then +Tussie. How dreadful that was. At three in the morning, with the +wailing wind rising and falling and the room black with the inky +blackness of a moonless October night, the Tussie complication seemed +to be gigantic, of a quite appalling size, threatening to choke her, +to crush all the spring and youth out of her. If Tussie got well she +was going to break his heart; if Tussie died it would be her fault. +No one but herself was responsible for his illness, her own selfish, +hateful self. Yes, she was a poisonous weed; a baleful, fatal thing, +not fit for great undertakings, not fit for a noble life, too foolish +to depart successfully from the lines laid down for her by other +people; wickedly careless; shamefully shortsighted; spoiling, ruining, +everything she touched. Priscilla writhed. Nobody likes being forced +to recognize that they are poisonous weeds. Even to be a plain weed is +grievous to one's vanity, but to be a weed and poisonous as well is a +very desperate thing to be. She passed a dreadful night. It was the +worst she could remember. + +And the evening too--how bad it had been; though contrary to her +expectations Fritzing showed no desire to fight Tussie. He was not so +unreasonable as she had supposed; and besides, he was too completely +beaten down by the ever-increasing weight and number of his +responsibilities to do anything in regard to that unfortunate youth +but be sorry for him. More than once that evening he looked at +Priscilla in silent wonder at the amount of trouble one young woman +could give. How necessary, he thought, and how wise was that plan at +which he used in his ignorance to rail, of setting an elderly female +like the Disthal to control the actions and dog the footsteps of the +Priscillas of this world. He hated the Disthal and all women like her, +women with mountainous bodies and minimal brains--bodies self-indulged +into shapelessness, brains neglected into disappearance; but the +nobler and simpler and the more generous the girl the more did she +need some such mixture of fleshliness and cunning constantly with her. +It seemed absurd, and it seemed all wrong; yet surely it was so. He +pondered over it long in dejected musings, the fighting tendency gone +out of him completely for the time, so dark was his spirit with the +shadows of the future. + +They had borrowed the wages--it was a dreadful moment--for that day's +cook from Annalise. For their food they decided to run up a bill at +the store; but every day each fresh cook would have to be paid, and +every day her wages would have to be lent by Annalise. Annalise lent +superbly; with an air as of giving freely, with joy. All she required +was the Princess's signature to a memorandum drawn up by herself by +which she was promised the money back, doubled, within three months. +Priscilla read this, flushed to her hair, signed, and ordered her out +of the room. Annalise, who was beginning to enjoy herself, went +upstairs singing. In the parlour Priscilla broke the pen she had +signed with into quite small pieces and flung them on to the fire,--a +useless demonstration, but then she was a quick-tempered young lady. +In the attic Annalise sat down and wrote a letter breathing lofty +sentiments to the Countess Disthal in Kunitz, telling her she could no +longer keep silence in the face of a royal parent's anxieties and she +was willing to reveal the address of the Princess Priscilla and so +staunch the bleeding of a noble heart if the Grand Duke would forward +her or forward to her parents on her behalf the sum of twenty thousand +marks. Gladly would she render this service, which was at the same +time her duty, for nothing, if she had not the future to consider and +an infirm father. Meanwhile she gave the Symford post-office as an +address, assuring the Countess that it was at least fifty miles from +the Princess's present hiding-place, the address of which would only +be sent on the conditions named. Then, immensely proud of her +cleverness, she trotted down to the post-office, bought stamps, and +put the letter herself in the box. + +That evening she sang in the kitchen, she sang in the bath-room, she +sang in the attic and on the stairs to the attic. What she sang, +persistently, over and over again, and loudest outside Fritzing's +door, was a German song about how beautiful it is at evening when the +bells ring one to rest, and the refrain at the end of each verse was +ding-dong twice repeated. Priscilla rang her own bell, unable to +endure it, but Annalise did not consider this to be one of those that +are beautiful and did not answer it till it had been rung three times. + +"Do not sing," said Priscilla, when she appeared. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness objects?" + +Priscilla turned red. "I'll give no reasons," she said icily. "Do not +sing." + +"Yet it is a sign of a light heart. Your Grand Ducal Highness did not +like to see me weep--she should the more like to hear me rejoice." + +"You can go." + +"My heart to-night is light, because I am the means of being of use +to your Grand Ducal Highness, of showing my devotion, of being of +service." + +"Do me the service of being quiet." + +Annalise curtseyed and withdrew, and spent the rest of the evening +bursting into spasmodic and immediately interrupted song,--breaking +off after a few bars with a cough of remembrance and apology. When +this happened Fritzing and Priscilla looked at each other with grave +and meditative eyes; they knew how completely they were in her power. + +Fritzing wrote that night to the friend in London who had engaged the +rooms for him at Baker's Farm, and asked him to lend him fifty pounds +for a week,--preferably three hundred (this would cover the +furnisher's bill), but if he could lend neither five would do. The +friend, a teacher of German, could as easily have lent the three +hundred as the five, so poor was he, so fit an object for a loan +himself; but long before his letter explaining this in words eloquent +of regret (for he was a loyal friend) reached Fritzing, many things +had happened to that bewildered man to whom so many things had +happened already, and caused him to forget both his friend and his +request. + +This, then, was how the afternoon and evening of Thursday were +passed; and on Friday morning, quite unstrung by their sleepless +night, Priscilla and Fritzing were proposing to go up together on +to the moor, there to seek width and freshness, be blown upon by +moist winds, and forget for a little the crushing narrowness and +perplexities of Creeper Cottage, when Mrs. Morrison walked in. She +opened the door first and then, when half of her was inside, knocked +with her knuckles, which were the only things to knock with on +Priscilla's simple door. + +Priscilla was standing by the fire dressed to go out, waiting for +Fritzing, and she stared at this apparition in great and unconcealed +surprise. What business, said Priscilla's look more plainly than any +words, what business had people to walk into other people's cottages +in such a manner? She stood quite still, and scrutinized Mrs. Morrison +with the questioning expression she used to find so effective in +Kunitz days when confronted by a person inclined to forget which, +exactly, was his proper place. But Mrs. Morrison knew nothing of +Kunitz, and the look lost half its potency without its impressive +background. Besides, the lady was not one to notice things so slight +as looks; to keep her in her proper place you would have needed +sledge-hammers. She came in without thinking it necessary to wait to +be asked to, nodded something that might perhaps have represented a +greeting and of which Priscilla took no notice, and her face was the +face of somebody who is angry. + +"How wearing for the vicar," thought Priscilla, "to have a wife who +is angry at ten o'clock in the morning." + +"I've come in the interests--" began Mrs. Morrison, whose voice was +quite as angry as her face. + +"I'm just going out," said Priscilla. + +"--Of religion and morality." + +"Are they distinct?" asked Priscilla, drawing on her gloves. + +"You can imagine that nothing would make me pay you a visit but the +strongest sense of the duty I owe to my position in the parish." + +"Why should I imagine it?" + +"Of course I expect impertinence." + +"I'm afraid you've come here to be rude." + +"I shall not be daunted by anything you may say from doing my duty." + +"Will you please do it, then, and get it over?" + +"The duties of a clergyman's wife are often very disagreeable." + +"Probably you've got hold of a perfectly wrong idea of what yours +really are." + +"It is a new experience for me to be told so by a girl of your age." + +"I am not telling you. I only suggest." + +"I was prepared for rudeness." + +"Then why did you come?" + +"How long are you going to stay in this parish?" + +"You don't expect me to answer that?" + +"You've not been in it a fortnight, and you have done more harm than +most people in a lifetime." + +"I'm afraid you exaggerate." + +"You have taught it to drink." + +"I gave a dying old woman what she most longed for." + +"You've taught it to break the Sabbath." + +"I made a great many little children very happy." + +"You have ruined the habits of thrift we have been at such pains to +teach and encourage for twenty-five years." + +"I helped the poor when they asked me to." + +"And now what I want to know is, what has become of the Hancock girl?" + +"Pray who, exactly, is the Hancock girl?" + +"That unfortunate creature who worked here for you on Wednesday." + +Priscilla's face changed. "Emma?" she asked. + +"Emma. At this hour the day before yesterday she was as good a girl as +any in the village. She was good, and dutiful, and honest. Now what is +she and where is she?" + +"Has she--isn't she in her home?" + +"She never went home." + +"Then she did lose the money?" + +"Lose it? She has stolen it. Do you not see you have deliberately made +a thief out of an honest girl?" + +Priscilla gazed in dismay at the avenging vicar's wife. It was true +then, and she had the fatal gift of spoiling all she touched. + +"And worse than that--you have brought a good girl to ruin. He'll +never marry her now." + +"He?" + +"Do you not know the person she was engaged to has gone with her?" + +"I don't know anything." + +"They walked from here to Ullerton and went to London. Her father came +round to us yesterday after your uncle had been to him making +inquiries, and it is all as clear as day. Till your uncle told him, he +did not know about the money, and had been too--not well enough that +day to notice Emma's not having come home. Your uncle's visit sobered +him. We telegraphed to the police. They've been traced to London. +That's all. Except," and she glared at Priscilla with all the wrath of +a prophet whose denunciations have been justified, "except that one +more life is ruined." + +"I'm very sorry--very, very sorry," said Priscilla, so earnestly, so +abjectly even, that her eyes filled with tears. "I see now how +thoughtless it was of me." + +"Thoughtless!" + +"It was inexcusably thoughtless." + +"Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison again. + +"If you like, it was criminally thoughtless." + +"Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison a third time. + +"But it wasn't more than thoughtless. I'd give anything to be able to +set it right. I am most truly grieved. But isn't it a little hard to +make me responsible?" + +Mrs. Morrison stared at her as one who eyes some strange new monster. +"How amazingly selfish you are," she said at last, in tones almost of +awe. + +"Selfish?" faltered Priscilla, who began to wonder what she was not. + +"In the face of such total ruin, such utter shipwreck, to be thinking +of what is hard on you. You! Why, here you are with a safe skin, free +from the bitter anxieties and temptations poor people have to fight +with, with so much time unoccupied that you fill it up with mischief, +with more money than you know what to do with"--Priscilla pressed her +hands together--"sheltered, free from every care"--Priscilla opened +her lips but shut them again--"and there is that miserable Emma, +hopeless, branded, for ever an outcast because of you,--only because +of you, and you think of yourself and talk of its being hard." + +Priscilla looked at Mrs. Morrison, opened her mouth to say something, +shut it, opened it again, and remarked very lamely that the heart +alone knows its own bitterness. + +"Psha," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly incensed at having the Scriptures, +her own speciality, quoted at her. "I'd like to know what bitterness +yours has known, unless it's the bitterness of a bad conscience. Now +I've come here to-day"--she raised her voice to a note of warning--"to +give you a chance. To make you think, by pointing out the path you +are treading. You are young, and it is my duty to let no young person +go downhill without one warning word. You have brought much evil on +our village--why you, a stranger, should be bent on making us all +unhappy I can't imagine. You hypocritically try to pretend that what +plain people call evil is really good. But your last action, forcing +Emma Hancock to be a thief and worse, even you cannot possibly defend. +You have much on your conscience--far, far more than I should care to +have on mine. How wicked to give all that money to Mrs. Jones. Don't +you see you are tempting people who know she is defenceless to steal +it from her? Perhaps even murder her? I saved her from that--you did +not reckon with me, you see. Take my advice--leave Symford, and go +back to where you came from"--Priscilla started--"and get something to +do that will keep you fully occupied. If you don't, you'll be laying +up a wretched, perhaps a degraded future for yourself. Don't +suppose,"--her voice grew very loud--"don't suppose we are fools here +and are not all of us aware of the way you have tried to lure young +men on"--Priscilla started again--"in the hope, of course, of getting +one of them to marry you. But your intentions have been frustrated +luckily, in the one case by Providence flinging your victim on a bed +of sickness and in the other by your having altogether mistaken the +sort of young fellow you were dealing with." + +Mrs. Morrison paused for breath. This last part of her speech had been +made with an ever accumulating rage. Priscilla stood looking at her, +her eyebrows drawn down very level over her eyes. + +"My son is much too steady and conscientious, besides being too much +accustomed to first-rate society, to stoop to anything so vulgar--" + +"As myself?" inquired Priscilla. + +"As a love-affair with the first stray girl he picks up." + +"Do you mean me?" + +"He saw through your intentions, laughed at them, and calmly returned +to his studies at Cambridge." + +"I boxed his ears." + +"What?" + +"I boxed his ears." + +"You?" + +"I boxed his ears. That's why he went. He didn't go calmly. It wasn't +his studies." + +"How dare you box--oh, this is too horrible--and you stand there and +tell me so to my face?" + +"I'm afraid I must. The tone of your remarks positively demands it. +Your son's conduct positively demanded that I should box his ears. So +I did." + +"Of all the shameless--" + +"I'm afraid you're becoming like him--altogether impossible." + +"You first lure him on, and then--oh, it is shameful!" + +"Have you finished what you came for?" + +"You are the most brazen--" + +"Hush. Do be careful. Suppose my uncle were to hear you? If you've +finished won't you go?" + +"Go? I shall not go till I have said my say. I shall send the vicar to +you about Robin--such conduct is so--so infamous that I can't--I +can't--I can't--" + +"I'm sorry if it has distressed you." + +"Distressed me? You are the most--" + +"Really I think we've done, haven't we?" said Priscilla hurriedly, +dreadfully afraid lest Fritzing should come in and hear her being +called names. + +"To think that you dared--to think that my--my noble boy--" + +"He wasn't very noble. Mothers don't ever really know their sons, I +think." + +"Shameless girl!" cried Mrs. Morrison, so loud, so completely beside +herself, that Priscilla hastily rang her bell, certain that Fritzing +must hear and would plunge in to her rescue; and of all things she had +learned to dread Fritzing's plunging to her rescue. "Open the door for +this lady," she said to Annalise, who appeared with a marvellous +promptitude; and as Mrs. Morrison still stood her ground and refused +to see either Annalise or the door Priscilla ended the interview by +walking out herself, with great dignity, into the bathroom. + + + + +XXI + + +And now I have come to a part of my story that I would much rather not +write. Always my inclination if left alone is to sit in the sun and +sing of things like crocuses, of nothing less fresh and clean than +crocuses. The engaging sprightliness of crocuses; their dear little +smell, not to be smelled except by the privileged few; their luminous +transparency--I am thinking of the white and the purple; their kind +way of not keeping hearts sick for Spring waiting longer than they can +just bear; how pleasant to sit with a friend in the sun, a friend who +like myself likes to babble of green fields, and talk together about +all things flowery. But Priscilla's story has taken such a hold on me, +it seemed when first I heard it to be so full of lessons, that I feel +bound to set it down from beginning to end for the use and warning of +all persons, princesses and others, who think that by searching, by +going far afield, they will find happiness, and do not see that it is +lying all the while at their feet. They do not see it because it is so +close. It is so close that there is a danger of its being trodden on +or kicked away. And it is shy, and waits to be picked up. Priscilla, +we know, went very far afield in search of hers, and having +undertaken to tell of what befell her I must not now, only because I +would rather, suppress any portion of the story. Besides, it is a +portion vital to the catastrophe. + +In Minehead, then, there lived at this time a murderer. He had not +been found out yet and he was not a murderer by profession, for he was +a bricklayer; but in his heart he was, and that is just as bad. He had +had a varied career into the details of which I do not propose to go, +had come three or four years before to live in the West of England +because it was so far from all the other places he had lived in, had +got work in Minehead, settled there respectably, married, and was a +friend of that carrier who brought the bread and other parcels every +day to the Symford store. At this time he was in money difficulties +and his wife, of whom he was fond, was in an expensive state of +health. The accounts of Priscilla's generosity and wealth had reached +Minehead as I said some time ago, and had got even into the local +papers. The carrier was the chief transmitter of news, for he saw Mrs. +Vickerton every day and she was a woman who loved to talk; but those +of the Shuttleworth servants who were often in Minehead on divers +errands ratified and added to all he said, and embellished the tale +besides with what was to them the most interesting part, the +unmistakable signs their Augustus showed of intending to marry the +young woman. This did not interest the murderer. Sir Augustus and the +lady he meant to marry were outside his sphere altogether; too well +protected, too powerful. What he liked to hear about was the money +Priscilla had scattered among the cottagers, how much each woman had +got, whether it had been spent or not, whether she had a husband, or +grown-up children; and best of all he liked to hear about the money +Mrs. Jones had got. All the village, and therefore Mrs. Vickerton and +the carrier, knew of it, knew even the exact spot beneath the bolster +where it was kept, knew it was kept there for safety from the +depredations of the vicar's wife, knew the vicar's wife had taken away +Priscilla's first present. The carrier knew too of Mrs. Jones's age, +her weakness, her nearness to death. He remarked that such a sum +wasn't of much use to an old woman certain to die in a few days, and +that it might just as well not be hers at all for all the spending it +got. The murderer, whose reputation in Minehead was so immaculate that +not a single fly had ever dared blow on it, said kindly that no doubt +just to have it in her possession was cheering and that one should not +grudge the old their little bits of comfort; and he walked over to +Symford that night, and getting there about one o'clock murdered Mrs. +Jones. I will not enter into details. I believe it was quite simple. +He was back by six next morning with the five pounds in his pocket, +and his wife that day had meat for dinner. + +That is all I shall say about the murderer, except that he was never +found out; and nothing shall induce me to dwell upon the murder. But +what about the effect it had on Priscilla? Well, it absolutely crushed +her. + +The day before, after Mrs. Morrison's visit, she had been wretched +enough, spending most of it walking very fast, as driven spirits do, +with Fritzing for miles across the bleak and blowy moor, by turns +contrite and rebellious, one moment ready to admit she was a miserable +sinner, the next indignantly repudiating Mrs. Morrison's and her own +conscience's accusations, her soul much beaten and bent by winds of +misgiving but still on its feet, still defiant, still sheltering +itself when it could behind plain common sense which whispered at +intervals that all that had happened was only bad luck. They walked +miles that day; often in silence, sometimes in gusty talk--talk gusty +with the swift changes of Priscilla's mood scudding across the leaden +background of Fritzing's steadier despair--and they got back tired, +hungry, their clothes splashed with mud, their minds no nearer light +than when they started. She had, I say, been wretched enough; but what +was this wretchedness to that which followed? In her ignorance she +thought it the worst day she had ever had, the most tormented; and +when she went to bed she sought comfort in its very badness by telling +herself that it was over and could never come again. It could not. But +Time is prolific of surprises; and on Saturday morning Symford woke +with a shudder to the murder of Mrs. Jones. + +Now such a thing as this had not happened in that part of +Somersetshire within the memory of living man, and though Symford +shuddered it was also proud and pleased. The mixed feeling of horror, +pleasure, and pride was a thrilling one. It felt itself at once raised +to a position of lurid conspicuousness in the county, its name would +be in every mouth, the papers, perhaps even the London papers, would +talk about it. At all times, in spite of the care and guidance it had +had from the clergy and gentry, the account of a murder gave Symford +more pure pleasure than any other form of entertainment; and now here +was one, not at second-hand, not to be viewed through the cooling +medium of print and pictures, but in its midst, before its eyes, at +its very doors. Mrs. Jones went up strangely in its estimation. The +general feeling was that it was an honour to have known her. Nobody +worked that day. The school was deserted. Dinners were not cooked. +Babies shrieked uncomforted. All Symford was gathered in groups +outside Mrs. Jones's cottage, and as the day wore on and the news +spread, visitors from the neighbouring villages, from Minehead and +from Ullerton, arrived with sandwiches and swelled them. + +Priscilla saw these groups from her windows. The fatal cottage was at +the foot of the hill in full view both of her bedroom and her parlour. +Only by sitting in the bathroom would she be able to get away from it. +When the news was brought her, breathlessly, pallidly, by Annalise in +the early morning with her hot water, she refused to believe it. +Annalise knew no English and must have got hold of a horrible wrong +tale. The old lady was dead no doubt, had died quietly in her sleep as +had been expected, but what folly was all this about a murder? Yet she +sat up in bed and felt rather cold as she looked at Annalise, for +Annalise was very pallid. And then at last she had to believe it. +Annalise had had it told her from beginning to end, with the help of +signs, by the charwoman. She had learned more English in those few +crimson minutes than in the whole of the time she had been in England. +The charwoman had begun her demonstration by slowly drawing her finger +across her throat from one ear to the other, and Annalise repeated the +action for Priscilla's clearer comprehension. How Priscilla got up +that day and dressed she never knew. Once at least during the process +she stumbled back on to the bed and lay with her face on her arms, +shaken by a most desperate weeping. That fatal charity; those fatal +five-pound notes. Annalise, panic-stricken lest she who possessed so +many should be the next victim, poured out the tale of the missing +money, of the plain motive for the murder, with a convincingness, a +naked truth, that stabbed Priscilla to the heart with each clinching +word. + +"They say the old woman must have cried out--must have been awakened, +or the man would have taken the money without--" + +"Oh don't--oh leave me--" moaned Priscilla. + +She did not go downstairs that day. Every time Annalise tried to come +in she sent her away. When she was talked to of food, she felt sick. +Once she began to pace about the room, but the sight of those eager +black knots of people down the street, of policemen and other +important and official-looking persons going in and out of the +cottage, drove her back to her bed and its sheltering, world-deadening +pillow. Indeed the waters of life had gone over her head and swallowed +her up in hopeless blackness. She acknowledged herself wrong. She gave +in utterly. Every word Mrs. Morrison--a dreadful woman, yet dreadful +as she was still a thousand times better than herself--every word she +had said, every one of those bitter words at which she had been so +indignant the morning before, was true, was justified. That day +Priscilla tore the last shreds of self-satisfaction from her soul and +sat staring at it with horrified eyes as at a thing wholly repulsive, +dangerous, blighting. What was to become of her, and of poor Fritzing, +dragged down by her to an equal misery? About one o'clock she heard +Mrs. Morrison's voice below, in altercation apparently with him. At +this time she was crying again; bitter, burning tears; those scorching +tears that follow in the wake of destroyed illusions, that drop, hot +and withering, on to the fragments of what was once the guiding glory +of an ideal. She was brought so low, was so humbled, so uncertain of +herself, that she felt it would bring her peace if she might go down +to Mrs. Morrison and acknowledge all her vileness; tell her how wrong +she had been, ask her forgiveness for her rudeness, beg her for pity, +for help, for counsel. She needed some kind older woman,--oh she +needed some kind older woman to hold out cool hands of wisdom and show +her the way. But then she would have to make a complete confession of +everything she had done, and how would Mrs. Morrison or any other +decent woman look upon her flight from her father's home? Would they +not turn away shuddering from what she now saw was a hideous +selfishness and ingratitude? The altercation going on below rose +rapidly in heat. Just at the end it grew so heated that even through +the pillow Priscilla could hear its flaming conclusion. + +"Man, I tell you your niece is to all intents and purposes a +murderess, a double murderess," cried Mrs. Morrison. "Not only has she +the woman's murder to answer for, but the ruined soul of the murderer +as well." + +Upon which there was a loud shout of "Hence! Hence!" and a great +slamming of the street door. + +For some time after this Priscilla heard fevered walking about in her +parlour and sounds as of many and muffled imprecations; then, when +they had grown a little more intermittent, careful footsteps came up +her stairs, footsteps so careful, so determined not to disturb, that +the stairs cracked and wheezed more than they had ever yet been known +to do. Arrived at the top they paused outside her door, and Priscilla, +checking her sobs, could hear how Fritzing stood there wrestling with +his body's determination to breathe too loud. He stood there listening +for what seemed to her an eternity. She almost screamed at last as the +minutes passed and she knew he was still there, motionless, listening. +After a long while he went away again with the same anxious care to +make no noise, and she, with a movement of utter abandonment to woe, +turned over and cried herself sick. + +Till evening she lay there alone, and then the steps came up again, +accompanied this time by the tinkle of china and spoons. Priscilla was +sitting at the window looking on to the churchyard, staring into the +dark with its swaying branches and few faint stars, and when she heard +him outside the door listening again in anxious silence she got up and +opened it. + +Fritzing held a plate of food in one hand and a glass of milk in the +other. The expression on his face was absurdly like that of a mother +yearning over a sick child. "_Mein liebes Kind_--_mein liebes Kind_," +he stammered when she came out, so woebegone, so crushed, so utterly +unlike any Priscilla of any one of her moods that he had ever seen +before. Her eyes were red, her eyelids heavy with tears, her face was +pinched and narrower, the corners of her mouth had a most piteous +droop, her very hair, pushed back off her forehead, seemed sad, and +hung in spiritless masses about her neck and ears. "_Mein liebes +Kind_," stammered poor Fritzing; and his hand shook so that he upset +some of the milk. + +Priscilla leaned against the door-post. She was feeling sick and +giddy. "How dreadful this is," she murmured, looking at him with +weary, woeful eyes. + +"No, no--all will be well," said Fritzing, striving to be brisk. +"Drink some milk, ma'am." + +"Oh, I have been wicked." + +"Wicked?" + +Fritzing hastily put the plate and glass down on the floor, and +catching up the hand hanging limply by her side passionately kissed +it. "You are the noblest woman on earth," he said. + +"Oh," said Priscilla, turning away her head and shutting her eyes for +very weariness of such futile phrases. + +"Ma'am, you are. I would swear it. But you are also a child, and so +you are ready at the first reverse to suppose you have done with +happiness for ever. Who knows," said Fritzing with a great show of +bright belief in his own prophecy, the while his heart was a stone, +"who knows but what you are now on the very threshold of it?" + +"Oh," murmured Priscilla, too beaten to do anything but droop her +head. + +"It is insisting on the commonplace to remind you, ma'am, that the +darkest hour comes before dawn. Yet it is a well-known natural +phenomenon." + +Priscilla leaned her head against the door-post. She stood there +motionless, her hands hanging by her side, her eyes shut, her mouth +slightly open, the very picture of one who has given up. + +"Drink some milk, ma'am. At least endeavour to." + +She took no heed of him. + +"For God's sake, ma'am, do not approach these slight misadventures in +so tragic a spirit. You have done nothing wrong whatever. I know you +accuse yourself. It is madness to do so. I, who have so often scolded +you, who have never spared the lash of my tongue when in past years I +saw fair reason to apply it, I tell you now with the same reliable +candour that your actions in this village and the motives that +prompted them have been in each single case of a stainless nobility." + +She took no heed of him. + +He stooped down and picked up the glass. "Drink some milk, ma'am. A +few mouthfuls, perhaps even one, will help to clear the muddied vision +of your mind. I cannot understand," he went on, half despairing, half +exasperated, "what reasons you can possibly have for refusing to drink +some milk. It is a feat most easily accomplished." + +She did not move. + +"Do you perchance imagine that a starved and badly treated body can +ever harbour that most precious gift of the gods, a clear, sane mind?" + +She did not move. + +He looked at her in silence for a moment, then put down the glass. +"This is all my fault," he said slowly. "The whole responsibility for +this unhappiness is on my shoulders, and I frankly confess it is a +burden so grievous that I know not how to bear it." + +He paused, but she took no notice. + +"Ma'am, I have loved you." + +She took no notice. + +"And the property of love, I have observed, is often to mangle and +kill the soul of its object." + +She might have been asleep. + +"Ma'am, I have brought you to a sorry pass. I was old, and you were +young. I experienced, you ignorant. I deliberate, you impulsive. I a +man, you a woman. Instead of restraining you, guiding you, shielding +you from yourself, I was most vile, and fired you with desires for +freedom that under the peculiar circumstances were wicked, set a ball +rolling that I might have foreseen could never afterwards be stopped, +put thoughts into your head that never without me would have entered +it, embarked you on an enterprise in which the happiness of your whole +life was doomed to shipwreck." + +She stirred a little, and sighed a faint protest. + +"This is very terrible to me--of a crushing, killing weight. Let it +not also have to be said that I mangled your very soul, dimmed your +reason, impaired the sweet sanity, the nice adjustment of what I know +was once a fair and balanced mind." + +She raised her head slowly and looked at him. "What?" she said. "Do +you think--do you think I'm going mad?" + +"I think it very likely, ma'am," said Fritzing with conviction. + +A startled expression crept into her eyes. + +"So much morbid introspection," he went on, "followed by hours of +weeping and fasting, if indulged in long enough will certainly have +that result. A person who fasts a sufficient length of time invariably +parts piecemeal with valuable portions of his wits." + +She stretched out her hand. + +He mistook the action and bent down and kissed it. + +"No," said Priscilla, "I want the milk." + +He snatched it up and gave it to her, watching her drink with all the +relief, the thankfulness of a mother whose child's sickness takes a +turn for the better. When she had finished she gave him back the +glass. "Fritzi," she said, looking at him with eyes wide open now and +dark with anxious questioning, "we won't reproach ourselves then if we +can help it--" + +"Certainly not, ma'am--a most futile thing to do." + +"I'll try to believe what you say about me, if you promise to believe +what I say about you." + +"Ma'am, I'll believe anything if only you will be reasonable." + +"You've been everything to me--that's what I want to say. Always, ever +since I can remember." + +"And you, ma'am? What have you not been to me?" + +"And there's nothing, nothing you can blame yourself for." + +"Ma'am--" + +"You've been too good, too unselfish, and I've dragged you down." + +"Ma'am--" + +"Well, we won't begin again. But tell me one thing--and tell me the +truth--oh Fritzi tell me the truth as you value your soul--do you +anywhere see the least light on our future? Do you anywhere see even a +bit, a smallest bit of hope?" + +He took her hand again and kissed it; then lifted his head and looked +at her very solemnly. "No, ma'am," he said with the decision of an +unshakable conviction, "upon my immortal soul I do not see a shred." + + + + +XXII + + +Let the reader now picture Priscilla coming downstairs the next +morning, a golden Sunday morning full of Sabbath calm, and a Priscilla +leaden-eyed and leaden-souled, her shabby garments worn out to a +symbol of her worn out zeals, her face the face of one who has +forgotten peace, her eyes the eyes of one at strife with the future, +of one for ever asking "What next?" and shrinking with a shuddering +"Oh please not that," from the bald reply. + +Out of doors Nature wore her mildest, most beneficent aspect. She very +evidently cared nothing for the squalid tragedies of human fate. Her +hills were bathed in gentle light. Her sunshine lay warm along the +cottage fronts. In the gardens her hopeful bees, cheated into thoughts +of summer, droned round the pale mauves and purples of what was left +of starworts. The grass in the churchyard sparkled with the fairy film +of gossamers. Sparrows chirped. Robins whistled. And humanity gave the +last touch to the picture by ringing the church bells melodiously to +prayer. + +Without doubt it was a day of blessing, supposing any one could be +found willing to be blest. Let the reader, then, imagine this outward +serenity, this divine calmness, this fair and light-flooded world, +and within the musty walls of Creeper Cottage Priscilla coming down to +breakfast, despair in her eyes and heart. + +They breakfasted late; so late that it was done to the accompaniment, +strangely purified and beautified by the intervening church walls and +graveyard, of Mrs. Morrison's organ playing and the chanting of the +village choir. Their door stood wide open, for the street was empty. +Everybody was in church. The service was, as Mrs. Morrison afterwards +remarked, unusually well attended. The voluntaries she played that day +were Dead Marches, and the vicar preached a conscience-shattering +sermon upon the text "Lord, who is it?" + +He thought that Mrs. Jones's murderer must be one of his parishioners. +It was a painful thought, but it had to be faced. He had lived so long +shut out from gossip, so deaf to the ever-clicking tongue of rumour, +that he had forgotten how far even small scraps can travel, and that +the news of Mrs. Jones's bolster being a hiding-place for her money +should have spread beyond the village never occurred to him. He was +moved on this occasion as much as a man who has long ago given up +being moved can be, for he had had a really dreadful two days with +Mrs. Morrison, dating from the moment she came in with the news of the +boxing of their only son's ears. He had, as the reader will have +gathered, nothing of it having been recorded, refused to visit and +reprimand Priscilla for this. He had found excuses for her. He had +sided with her against his son. He had been as wholly, maddeningly +obstinate as the extremely good sometimes are. Then came Mrs. Jones's +murder. He was greatly shaken, but still refused to call upon +Priscilla in connection with it, and pooh-poohed the notion of her +being responsible for the crime as definitely as an aged saint of +habitually grave speech can be expected to pooh-pooh at all. He said +she was not responsible. He said, when his wife with all the emphasis +apparently inseparable from the conversation of those who feel +strongly, told him that he owed it to himself, to his parish, to his +country, to go and accuse her, that he owed no man anything but to +love one another. There was nothing to be done with the vicar. Still +these scenes had not left him scathless, and it was a vicar moved to +the utmost limits of his capacity in that direction who went into the +pulpit that day repeating the question "Who is it?" so insistently, so +appealingly, with such searching glances along the rows of faces in +the pews, that the congregation, shuffling and uncomfortable, looked +furtively at each other with an ever growing suspicion and dislike. +The vicar as he went on waxing warmer, more insistent, observed at +least a dozen persons with guilt on every feature. It darted out like +a toad from the hiding-place of some private ooze at the bottom of +each soul into one face after the other; and there was a certain youth +who grew so visibly in guilt, who had so many beads of an obviously +guilty perspiration on his forehead, and eyes so guiltily starting +from their sockets, that only by a violent effort of self-control +could the vicar stop himself from pointing at him and shouting out +then and there "Thou art the man!" + +Meanwhile the real murderer had hired a waggonette and was taking his +wife for a pleasant country drive. + +It was to pacify Fritzing that Priscilla came down to breakfast. Left +to herself she would by preference never have breakfasted again. She +even drank more milk to please him; but though it might please him, no +amount of milk could wash out the utter blackness of her spirit. He, +seeing her droop behind the jug, seeing her gazing drearily at nothing +in particular, jumped up and took a book from the shelves and without +more ado began to read aloud. "It is better, ma'am," he explained +briefly, glancing at her over his spectacles, "than that you should +give yourself over to gloom." + +Priscilla turned vague eyes on to him. "How can I help gloom?" she +asked. + +"Yes, yes, that may be. But nobody should be gloomy at breakfast. The +entire day is very apt, in consequence, to be curdled." + +"It will be curdled anyhow," said Priscilla, her head sinking on to +her chest. + +"Ma'am, listen to this." + +And with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, from which he took +occasional hurried bites, and the other raised in appropriate varying +gesticulation, Fritzing read portions of the Persae of Æschylus to +her, first in Greek for the joy of his own ear and then translating it +into English for the edification of hers. He, at least, was off after +the first line, sailing golden seas remote and glorious, places where +words were lovely and deeds heroic, places most beautiful and brave, +most admirably, most restfully unlike Creeper Cottage. He rolled out +the sentences, turning them on his tongue, savouring them, reluctant +to let them go. She sat looking at him, wondering how he could +possibly even for an instant forget the actual and the present. + +"'Xerxes went forth, Xerxes perished, Xerxes mismanaged all things in +the depths of the sea--'" declaimed Fritzing. + +"He must have been like us," murmured Priscilla. + +"'O for Darius the scatheless, the protector! No woman ever mourned +for deed of his--'" + +"What a nice man," sighed Priscilla. "'O for Darius!'" + +"Ma'am, if you interrupt how can I read? And it is a most beautiful +passage." + +"But we do want a Darius badly," moaned Priscilla. + +"'The ships went forth, the grey-faced ships, like to each other as +bird is to bird, the ships and all they carried perished, the ships +perished by the hand of the Greeks. The king, 'tis said, escapes, but +hardly, by the plains of Thrace and the toilsome ways, and behind him +he leaves his first-fruits--sailors unburied on the shores of Salamis. +Then grieve, sting yourselves to grief, make heaven echo, howl like +dogs for the horror, for they are battered together by the terrible +waters, they are shredded to pieces by the voiceless children of the +Pure. The house has no master--'" + +"Fritzi, I wish you'd leave off," implored Priscilla. "It's quite as +gloomy as anything I was thinking." + +"But ma'am the difference is that it is also beautiful, whereas the +gloom at present enveloping us is mere squalor. 'The voiceless +children of the Pure--' how is that, ma'am, for beauty?" + +"I don't even know what it means," sighed Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, it is an extremely beautiful manner of alluding to fish." + +"I don't care," said Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, is it possible that the blight of passing and outward +circumstance has penetrated to and settled upon what should always be +of a sublime inaccessibility, your soul?" + +"I don't care about the fish," repeated Priscilla listlessly. Then +with a sudden movement she pushed back her chair and jumped up. "Oh," +she cried, beating her hands together, "don't talk to me of fish when +I can't see an inch--oh not a single inch into the future!" + +Fritzing looked at her, his finger on the page. Half of him was still +at the bottom of classic seas with the battered and shredded sailors. +How much rather would he have stayed there, have gone on reading +Æschylus a little, have taken her with him for a brief space of +serenity into that moist refuge from the harassed present, have +forgotten at least for one morning the necessity, the dreariness of +being forced to face things, to talk over, to decide. Besides, what +could he decide? The unhappy man had no idea. Nor had Priscilla. To +stay in Symford seemed impossible, but to leave it seemed still more +so. And sooner than go back disgraced to Kunitz and fling herself at +paternal feet which would in all probability immediately spurn her, +Priscilla felt she would die. But how could she stay in Symford, +surrounded by angry neighbours, next door to Tussie, with Robin coming +back for vacations, with Mrs. Morrison hating her, with Lady +Shuttleworth hating her, with Emma's father hating her, with the blood +of Mrs. Jones on her head? Could one live peacefully in such an +accursed place? Yet how could they go away? Even if they were able to +compose their nerves sufficiently to make new plans they could not go +because they were in debt. + +"Fritzi," cried Priscilla with more passion than she had ever put into +speech before, "life's too much for me--I tell you life's too much for +me!" And with a gesture of her arms as though she would sweep it all +back, keep it from surging over her, from choking her, she ran out +into the street to get into her own room and be alone, pulling the +door to behind her for fear he should follow and want to explain and +comfort, leaving him with his Æschylus in which, happening to glance +sighing, he, enviable man, at once became again absorbed, and running +blindly, headlong, as he runs who is surrounded and accompanied by a +swarm of deadly insects which he vainly tries to out-distance, she ran +straight into somebody coming from the opposite direction, ran full +tilt, was almost knocked off her feet, and looking up with the +impatient anguish of him who is asked to endure his last straw her +lips fell apart in an utter and boundless amazement; for the person +she had run against was that Prince--the last of the series, +distinguished from the rest by his having quenched the Grand Duke's +irrelevant effervescence by the simple expedient of saying Bosh--who +had so earnestly desired to marry her. + + + + +XXIII + + +"Hullo," said the Prince, who spoke admirable English. + +Priscilla could only stare. + +His instinct was to repeat the exclamation which he felt represented +his feelings very exactly, for her appearance--clothes, expression, +everything--astonished him, but he doubted whether it would well bear +repeating. "Is this where you are staying?" he inquired instead. + +"Yes," said Priscilla. + +"May I come in?" + +"Yes," said Priscilla. + +He followed her into her parlour. He looked at her critically as she +walked slowly before him, from head to foot he looked at her +critically; at every inch of the shabby serge gown, at the little head +with its badly arranged hair, at the little heel that caught in an +unmended bit of braid, at the little shoe with its bow of frayed +ribbon, and he smiled broadly behind his moustache. But when she +turned round he was perfectly solemn. + +"I suppose," said the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets and +gazing about the room with an appearance of cheerful interest, "this +is what one calls a snug little place." + +Priscilla stood silent. She felt as though she had been shaken +abruptly out of sleep. Her face even now after the soul-rending time +she had been having, in spite of the shadows beneath the eyes, the +droop at the corners of the mouth, in spite, too, it must be said of +the flagrantly cottage fashion in which Annalise had done her hair, +seemed to the Prince so extremely beautiful, so absolutely the face of +his dearest, best desires, so limpid, apart from all grace of +colouring and happy circumstance of feature, with the light of a sweet +and noble nature, so manifestly the outward expression of an +indwelling lovely soul, that his eyes, after one glance round the +room, fixed themselves upon it and never were able to leave it again. + +For a minute or two she stood silent, trying to collect her thoughts, +trying to shake off the feeling that she was being called back to life +out of a dream. It had not been a dream, she kept telling herself--bad +though it was it had not been a dream but the reality; and this man +dropped suddenly in to the middle of it from another world, he was the +dream, part of the dream she had rebelled against and run away from a +fortnight before. + +Then she looked at him, and she knew she was putting off her soul with +nonsense. Never was anybody less like a dream than the Prince; never +was anybody more squarely, more certainly real. And he was of her own +kind, of her own world. He and she were equals. They could talk +together plainly, baldly, a talk ungarnished and unretarded by +deferences on the one side and on the other a kindness apt to become +excessive in its anxiety not to appear to condescend. The feeling that +once more after what seemed an eternity she was with an equal was of a +singular refreshment. During those few moments in which they stood +silent, facing each other, in spite of her efforts to keep it out, in +spite of really conscientious efforts, a great calm came in and spread +over her spirit. Yet she had no reason to feel calm she thought, +struggling. Was there not rather cause for an infinity of shame? What +had he come for? He of all people. The scandalously jilted, the +affronted, the run away from. Was it because she had been looking so +long at Fritzing that this man seemed so nicely groomed? Or at Tussie, +that he seemed so well put together? Or at Robin, that he seemed so +modest? Was it because people's eyes--Mrs. Morrison's, Lady +Shuttleworth's--had been so angry lately whenever they rested on her +that his seemed so very kind? No; she did remember thinking them that, +even being struck by them, when she saw him first in Kunitz. A dull +red crept into her face when she remembered that day and what +followed. "It isn't very snug," she said at last, trying to hide by a +careful coldness of speech all the strange things she was feeling. +"When it rains there are puddles by the door. The door, you see, opens +into the street." + +"I see," said the Prince. + +There was a silence. + +"I don't suppose you really do," said Priscilla, full of strange +feelings. + +"My dear cousin?" + +"I don't know if you've come to laugh at me?" + +"Do I look as if I had?" + +"I dare say you think--because you've not been through it +yourself--that it--it's rather ridiculous." + +"My dear cousin," protested the Prince. + +Her lips quivered. She had gone through much, and she had lived for +two days only on milk. + +"Do you wipe the puddles up, or does old Fritzing?" + +"You see you _have_ come to laugh." + +"I hope you'll believe that I've not. Must I be gloomy?" + +"How do you know Fritzing's here?" + +"Why everybody knows that." + +"Everybody?" There was an astonished pause. "How do you know we're +here--here, in Creeper Cottage?" + +"Creeper Cottage is it? I didn't know it had a name. Do you have so +many earwigs?" + +"How did you know we were in Symford?" + +"Why everybody knows that." + +Priscilla was silent. Again she felt she was being awakened from a +dream. + +"I've met quite a lot of interesting people since I saw you last," he +said. "At least, they interested me because they all knew you." + +"Knew me?" + +"Knew you and that old scound--the excellent Fritzing. There's an +extremely pleasant policeman, for instance, in Kunitz--" + +"Oh," said Priscilla, starting and turning red. She could not think of +that policeman without crisping her fingers. + +"He and I are intimate friends. And there's a most intelligent +person--really a most helpful, obliging person--who came with you from +Dover to Ullerton." + +"With us?" + +"I found the conversation, too, of the ostler at the Ullerton Arms of +immense interest." + +"But what--" + +"And last night I slept at Baker's Farm, and spent a very pleasant +evening with Mrs. Pearce." + +"But why--" + +"She's an instructive woman. Her weakest point, I should say, is her +junkets." + +"I wonder why you bother to talk like this--to be sarcastic." + +"About the junkets? Didn't you think they were bad?" + +"Do you suppose it's worth while to--to kick somebody who's down? And +so low down? So completely got to the bottom?" + +"Kick? On my soul I assure you that the very last thing I want to do +is to kick you." + +"Then why do you do it?" + +"I don't do it. Do you know what I've come for?" + +"Is my father round the corner?" + +"Nobody's round the corner. I've muzzled your father. I've come quite +by myself. And do you know why?" + +"No," said Priscilla, shortly, defiantly; adding before he could +speak, "I can't imagine." And adding to that, again before he could +speak, "Unless it's for the fun of hunting down a defenceless quarry." + +"I say, that's rather picturesque," said the Prince with every +appearance of being struck. + +Priscilla blushed. In spite of herself every word they said to each +other made her feel more natural, farther away from self-torment and +sordid fears, nearer to that healthy state of mind, swamped out of her +lately, when petulance comes more easily than meekness. The mere +presence of the Prince seemed to set things right, to raise her again +in her own esteem. There was undoubtedly something wholesome about the +man, something everyday and reassuring, something dependable and sane. +The first smile for I don't know how long came and cheered the corners +of her mouth. "I'm afraid I've grown magniloquent since--since--" + +"Since you ran away?" + +She nodded. "Fritzing, you know, is most persistently picturesque. I +think it's catching. But he's wonderful," she added quickly,--"most +wonderful in patience and goodness." + +"Oh everybody knows he's wonderful. Where is the great man?" + +"In the next room. Do you want him?" + +"Good Lord, no. You've not told me what you suppose I've come for." + +"I did. I told you I couldn't imagine." + +"It's for a most saintly, really nice reason. Guess." + +"I can't guess." + +"Oh but try." + +Priscilla to her extreme disgust felt herself turning very red. "I +suppose to spy out the nakedness of the land," she said severely. + +"Now you're picturesque again. You must have been reading a tremendous +lot lately. Of course you would, with that learned old fossil about. +No my dear, I've come simply to see if you are happy." + +She looked at him, and her flush slowly died away. + +"Simply to convince myself that you are happy." + +Her eyes filling with tears she thought it more expedient to fix them +on the table-cloth. She did fix them on it, and the golden fringe of +eyelashes that he very rightly thought so beautiful lay in long dusky +curves on her serious face. "It's extraordinarily nice of you if--if +it's true," she said. + +"But it is true. And if you are, if you tell me you are and I'm able +to believe it, I bow myself out, dear cousin, and shall devote any +energies I have left after doing that to going on muzzling your +father. He shall not, I promise you, in any way disturb you. Haven't +I kept him well in hand up to this?" + +She raised her eyes to his. "Was it you keeping him so quiet?" + +"It was, my dear. He was very restive. You've no notion of all the +things he wanted to do. It wanted a pretty strong hand, and a light +one too, I can tell you. But I was determined you should have your +head. That woman Disthal--" + +Priscilla started. + +"You don't like her?" inquired the Prince sympathetically. + +"No." + +"I was afraid you couldn't. But I didn't know how to manage that part. +She's in London." + +Priscilla started again. "I thought--I thought she was in bed," she +said. + +"She was, but she got out again. Your--departure cured her." + +"Didn't you tell me nobody was round the corner?" + +"Well, you don't call London round the corner? I wouldn't let her come +any nearer to you. She's waiting there quite quietly." + +"What is she waiting for?" asked Priscilla quickly. + +"Come now, she's your lady in waiting you know. It seems natural +enough she should wait, don't it?" + +"No," said Priscilla, knitting her eyebrows. + +"Don't frown. She had to come too. She's brought some of your women +and a whole lot"--he glanced at the blue serge suit and put his hand +up to his moustache--"a whole lot of clothes." + +"Clothes?" A wave of colour flooded her face. She could not help it at +the moment any more than a starving man can help looking eager when +food is set before him. "Oh," she said, "I hope they're the ones I was +expecting from Paris?" + +"I should think it very likely. There seem to be a great many. I never +saw so many boxes for one little cousin." + +Priscilla made a sudden movement with her hands. "You can't think," +she said, "how tired I am of this dress." + +"Yes I can," the Prince assured her. + +"I've worn it every day." + +"You must have." + +"Every single day since the day I--I--" + +"The day you ran away from me." + +She blushed. "I didn't run away from you. At least, not exactly. You +were only the last straw." + +"A nice thing for a man to be." + +"I ran because--because--oh, it's a long story, and I'm afraid a very +foolish one." + +A gleam came into the Prince's eyes. He took a step nearer her, but +immediately thinking better of it took it back again. "Perhaps," he +said pleasantly, "only the beginning was foolish, and you'll settle +down after a bit and get quite fond of Creeper Cottage." + +She looked at him startled. + +"You see my dear it was rather tremendous what you did. You must have +been most fearfully sick of things at Kunitz. I can well understand +it. You couldn't be expected to like me all at once. And if I had to +have that Disthal woman at my heels wherever I went I'd shoot myself. +What you've done is much braver really than shooting one's self. But +the question is do you like it as much as you thought you would?" + +Priscilla gave him a swift look, and said nothing. + +"If you don't, there's the Disthal waiting for you with all those +charming frocks, and all you've got to do is to put them on and go +home." + +"But I can't go home. How can I? I am disgraced. My father would never +let me in." + +"Oh I'd arrange all that. I don't think you'd find him angry if you +followed my advice very carefully. On the other hand, if you like +this and want to stay on there's nothing more to be said. I'll say +good-bye, and promise you shall be left in peace. You shall be left to +be happy entirely in your own way." + +Priscilla was silent. + +"You don't--look happy," he said, scrutinizing her face. + +She was silent. + +"You've got very thin. How did you manage that in such a little +while?" + +"We've muddled things rather," she said with an ashamed sort of smile. +"On the days when I was hungry there wasn't anything to eat, and then +when there were things I wasn't hungry." + +The Prince looked puzzled. "Didn't that old scamp--I mean didn't the +excellent Fritzing bring enough money?" + +"He thought he did, but it wasn't enough." + +"Is it all gone?" + +"We're in debt." + +Again he put his hand up to his moustache. "Well I'll see to all that, +of course," he said gravely. "And when that has been set right you're +sure you'll like staying on here?" + +She summoned all her courage, and looked at him for an instant +straight in the face. "No," she said. + +"No?" + +"No." + +There was another silence. He was standing on the hearthrug, she on +the other side of the table; but the room was so small that by putting +out his hand he could have touched her. A queer expression was in his +eyes as he looked at her, an expression entirely at variance with his +calm and good-natured talk, the exceedingly anxious expression of a +man who knows his whole happiness is quivering in the balance. She did +not see it, for she preferred to look at the table-cloth. + +"Dreadful things have happened here," she said in a low voice. + +"What sort?" + +"Horrid sorts. Appalling sorts." + +"Tell me." + +"I couldn't bear to." + +"But I think I know." + +She looked at him astonished. + +"Mrs. Pearce--" + +"She told you?" + +"What she knew she told me. Perhaps there's something she doesn't +know." + +Priscilla remembered Robin, and blushed. + +"Yes, she told me about that," said the Prince nodding. + +"About what?" asked Priscilla, startled. + +"About the squire intending to marry you." + +"Oh," said Priscilla. + +"It seems hard on him, don't it? Has it struck you that such things +are likely to occur pretty often to Miss Maria-Theresa Ethel +Neumann-Schultz?" + +"I'm afraid you really have come only to laugh," said Priscilla, her +lips quivering. + +"I swear it's only to see if you are happy." + +"Well, see then." And throwing back her head with a great defiance she +looked at him while her eyes filled with tears; and though they +presently brimmed over, and began to drop down pitifully one by one, +she would not flinch but went on looking. + +"I see," said the Prince quietly. "And I'm convinced. Of course, then, +I shall suggest your leaving this." + +"I want to." + +"And putting yourself in the care of the Disthal." + +Priscilla winced. + +"Only her temporary care. Quite temporary. And letting her take you +back to Kunitz." + +Priscilla winced again. + +"Only temporarily," said the Prince. + +"But my father would never--" + +"Yes my dear, he will. He'll be delighted to see you. He'll rejoice." + +"Rejoice?" + +"I assure you he will. You've only got to do what I tell you." + +"Shall you--come too?" + +"If you'll let me." + +"But then--but then--" + +"Then what, my dear?" + +She looked at him, and her face changed slowly from white to red and +red to white again. Fritzing's words crossed her mind--"If you marry +him you will be undoubtedly eternally lost," and her very soul cried +out that they were folly. Why should she be eternally lost? What +cobwebs were these, cobwebs of an old brain preoccupied with shadows, +dusty things to be swept away at the first touch of Nature's vigorous +broom? Indeed she thought it far more likely that she would be +eternally found. But she was ashamed of herself, ashamed of all she +had done, ashamed of the disgraceful way she had treated this man, +terribly disillusioned, terribly out of conceit with herself, and she +stood there changing colour, hanging her head, humbled, penitent, +every shred of the dignity she had been trained to gone, simply +somebody who has been very silly and is very sorry. + +The Prince put out his hand. + +She pretended not to see it. + +The Prince came round the table. "You know," he said, "our engagement +hasn't been broken off yet?" + +Her instinct was to edge away, but she would not stoop to edging. "Was +it ever made?" she asked, not able to induce her voice to rise above a +whisper. + +"Practically." + +There was another silence. + +"Why, then--" began Priscilla, for the silence had come to be more +throbbing, more intolerably expressive than any speech. + +"Yes?" encouraged the Prince, coming very close. + +She turned her head slowly. "Why, then--" said Priscilla again, her +face breaking into a smile, half touched, half mischievous, wholly +adorable. + +"I think so too," said the Prince; and he shut her mouth with a kiss. + + * * * * * + +"And now," said the Prince some time afterwards, "let us go to that +old sinner Fritzing." + +Priscilla hung back, reluctant to deal this final blow to the heart +that had endured so many. "He'll be terribly shocked," she said. + +But the Prince declared it had to be done; and hand in hand they went +out into the street, and opening Fritzing's door stood before him. + +He was still absorbed in his Æschylus, had been sitting absorbed in +the deeds of the dead and departed, of the long dead Xerxes, the long +dead Darius, the very fish, voiceless but voracious, long since as +dead as the most shredded of the sailors,--he had been sitting +absorbed in these various corpses all the while that in the next room, +on the other side of a few inches of plaster and paper, so close you +would have thought his heart must have burned within him, so close you +would have thought he must be scorched, the living present had been +pulsing and glowing, beating against the bright bars of the future, +stirring up into alertness a whole row of little red-headed souls till +then asleep, souls with golden eyelashes, souls eager to come and be +princes and princesses of--I had almost revealed the mighty nation's +name. A shadow fell across his book, and looking up he saw the two +standing before him hand in hand. + +Priscilla caught her breath: what white anguish was going to flash +into his face when he grasped the situation? Judge then of her +amazement, her hesitation whether to be pleased or vexed, to laugh or +cry, when, grasping it, he leaped to his feet and in tones of a most +limitless, a most unutterable relief, shouted three times running +"_Gott sei Dank_!" + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +So that was the end of Priscilla's fortnight,--according to the way +you look at it glorious or inglorious. I shall not say which I think +it was; whether it is better to marry a prince, become in course of +time a queen, be at the head of a great nation, be surfeited with +honour, wealth, power and magnificence till the day when Death with +calm, indifferent fingers strips everything away and leaves you at +last to the meek simplicity of a shroud; or whether toilsome paths, +stern resistances, buffetings bravely taken, battles fought inch by +inch, an ideal desperately clung to even though in clinging you are +slain, is not rather the part to be chosen of him whose soul would sit +attired with stars. Anyhow the goddess laughed, the goddess who had +left Priscilla in the lurch, when she heard the end of the adventure; +and her unpleasant sister, having nothing more to do in Creeper +Cottage, gathered up her rags and grinned too as she left it. At least +her claws had lacerated much over-tender flesh during her stay; and +though the Prince had interrupted the operation and forced her for the +moment to inactivity, she was not dissatisfied with what had been +accomplished. + +Priscilla, it will readily be imagined, made no farewell calls. She +disappeared from Symford as suddenly as she had appeared; and Mrs. +Morrison, coming into Creeper Cottage on Monday afternoon to unload +her conscience yet more, found only a pleasant gentleman, a stranger +of mellifluous manners, writing out cheques. She had ten minutes talk +with him, and went home very sad and wise. Indeed from that day, her +spirit being the spirit of the true snob, the hectorer of the humble, +the devout groveller in the courtyards of the great, she was a +much-changed woman. Even her hair felt it, and settled down unchecked +to greyness. She no longer cared to put on a pink tulle bow in the +afternoons, which may or may not be a sign of grace. She ceased to +suppose that she was pretty. When the accounts of Priscilla's wedding +filled all the papers she became so ill that she had to go to bed and +be nursed. Sometimes to the vicar's mild surprise she hesitated before +expressing an opinion. Once at least she of her own accord said +she had been wrong. And although she never told any one of the +conversation with the gentleman writing cheques, when Robin came home +for Christmas and looked at her he knew at once what she knew. + +As for Lady Shuttleworth, she got a letter from Priscilla; quite a +long one, enclosing a little one for Tussie to be given him if and +when his mother thought expedient. Lady Shuttleworth was not surprised +by what she read. She had suspected it from the moment Priscilla rose +up the day she called on her at Baker's Farm and dismissed her. Till +her marriage with the late Sir Augustus she had been lady-in-waiting +to one of the English princesses, and she could not be mistaken on +such points. She knew the sort of thing too well. But she never +forgave Priscilla. How could she? Was the day of Tussie's coming of +age, that dreadful day when he was nearest death, a day a mother could +ever forget? It had all been most wanton, most cruel. We know she was +full of the milk of human kindness: on the subject of Priscilla it was +unmixed gall. + +As for Tussie,--well, you cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs, +and Tussie on this occasion was the eggs. It is a painful part to +play. He found it exquisitely painful, and vainly sought comfort in +the consolation that it had been Priscilla's omelette. The consolation +proved empty, and for a long while he suffered every sort of torment +known to the sensitive. But he got over it. People do. They will get +over anything if you give them time, and he being young had plenty of +it. He lived it down as one lives down every sorrow and every joy; and +when in the fulness of time, after a series of years in which he went +about listlessly in a soft felt hat and an unsatisfactory collar, he +married, it was to Priscilla's capital that he went for his honeymoon. +She, hearing he was there, sent for them both and was kind. + +As for Annalise, she never got her twenty thousand marks. On the +contrary, the vindictive Grand Duke caused her to be prosecuted for +blackmailing, and she would undoubtedly have languished in prison if +Priscilla had not interfered and sent her back to her parents. Like +Mrs. Morrison, she is chastened. She does not turn up her nose so +much. She does not sing. Indeed her songs ceased from the moment she +caught sight through a crack in the kitchen door of the Prince's broad +shoulders filling up Fritzing's sitting-room. From that moment +Annalise swooned from one depth of respect and awe to the other. She +became breathlessly willing, meek to vanishing point. But Priscilla +could not forget all she had made her suffer; and the Prince, who had +thought of everything, suddenly producing her head woman from some +recess in Baker's Farm, where she too had spent the night, Annalise +was superseded, her further bitter fate being to be left behind +at Creeper Cottage in the charge of the gentleman with the +cheque-book--who as it chanced was a faddist in food and would allow +nothing more comforting than dried fruits and nuts to darken the +doors--till he should have leisure to pack her up and send her home. + +As for Emma, she was hunted out by that detective who travelled down +into Somersetshire with the fugitives and who had already been so +useful to the Prince; and Priscilla, desperately anxious to make +amends wherever she could, took her into her own household, watching +over her herself, seeing to it that no word of what she had done was +ever blown about among the crowd of idle tongues, and she ended, I +believe, by marrying a lacquey,--one of those splendid persons with +white silk calves who were so precious in the sight of Annalise. +Indeed I am not sure that it was not the very lacquey Annalise had +loved most and had intended to marry herself. In this story at least, +the claims of poetic justice shall be strictly attended to; and +Annalise had sniffed outrageously at Emma. + +As for the Countess Disthal, she married the doctor and was sorry ever +afterwards; but her sorrow was as nothing compared with his. + +As for Fritzing, he is _Hofbibliothekar_ of the Prince's father's +court library; a court more brilliant than and a library vastly +inferior to the one he had fled from at Kunitz. He keeps much in his +rooms, and communes almost exclusively with the dead. He finds the +dead alone truly satisfactory. Priscilla loves him still and will +always love him, but she is very busy and has little time to think. +She does not let him give her children lessons; instead he plays with +them, and grows old and patient apace. + +And now having finished my story, there is nothing left for me to +do but stand aside and watch Priscilla and her husband walking +hand-in-hand farther and farther away from me up a path which I +suppose is the path of glory, into something apparently golden and +rosy, something very glowing and full of promise, that turns out on +closer scrutiny to be their future. It certainly seems radiant enough +to the superficial observer. Even I, who have looked into her soul +and known its hungers, am a little dazzled. Let it not however be +imagined that a person who has been truthful so long as myself is +going to lapse into easy lies at the last, and pretend that she was +uninterruptedly satisfied and happy for the rest of her days. She was +not; but then who is? + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13141 *** diff --git a/13141-h/13141-h.htm b/13141-h/13141-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3a1ba3 --- /dev/null +++ b/13141-h/13141-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10971 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight, by Elizabeth von Arnim</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- +body { font-size: 100%; } + p { text-indent: 1.5em; + margin-left: 15%; + margin-right: 15%; + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.short {width: 20%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + p.toc { text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; font-size: 90%; } + p.note { text-indent: 1em; margin-left: 28%; + margin-right: 27%; margin-bottom: 0em; font-size: 90%; } + p.ar {margin-top: 0em; text-align: right; margin-right: 28%; + font-size: 90%; } + p.block { text-indent: -.5em; margin-left: 30%; } + p.block2 { text-indent: 5em; margin-left: 30%; } + + pre {font-size: 9pt; + margin-left: 15%; } + CENTER { padding: 1em; } + table { text-align:justify } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13141 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight, by +Elizabeth von Arnim</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center> +<table border=0 bgcolor="ccccff" cellpadding=10 width="70%"> + <tr> + <td> + <center> + Editorial Note + </center> + We now know that "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" was + written by Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941). Born Mary + Annette Beauchamp in Australia, she grew up in England + and married a German, Count Henning August von + Arnim-Schlagenthin. After the couple moved to his country + estate she began writing children's books. Many of her + early books were published "By the Author of 'Elizabeth + and Her German Garden'," and later she published as + simply "Elizabeth." + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE</h2> +<h1> PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S </h1> +<h1> FORTNIGHT </h1> + +<br> + +<h3>BY THE AUTHOR OF</h3> +<h3>"ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN"</h3> +<br> +<p class="note"> + "Oft habe ich die Welt durchwandert, und habe immer + gesehen, wie das Grosse am Kleinlichen scheitert, und das + Edle von dem ätzenden Gift des Alltäglichen zerfressen wird." +</p> +<p class="ar"> F<small>RITZING</small>, "Erlebtes und Erlittenes." +</p> +<br> +<h5>1905</h5> + +<hr> + +<p class="toc">C<small>HAPTERS</small><br> <a href="#2H_4_0001"> +I +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0002"> +II +</a>, +<a href="#2H_4_0003"> +III +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0004"> +IV +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0005"> +V +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0006"> +VI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0007"> +VII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0008"> +VIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0009"> +IX +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0010"> +X +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0011"> +XI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0012"> +XII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0013"> +XIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0014"> +XIV +</a>,<br> + <a href="#2H_4_0015"> +XV +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0016"> +XVI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0017"> +XVII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0018"> +XVIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0019"> +XIX +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0020"> +XX +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0021"> +XXI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0022"> +XXII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0023"> +XXIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_CONC"> +<small>CONCLUSION</small> +</a> +<hr> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT +</h2> +<br> +<h2> + I +</h2> +<p> + Her Grand Ducal Highness the Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz was + up to the age of twenty-one a most promising young lady. She was not + only poetic in appearance beyond the habit of princesses but she was + also of graceful and appropriate behaviour. She did what she was told; + or, more valuable, she did what was expected of her without being + told. Her father, in his youth and middle age a fiery man, now an + irritable old gentleman who liked good food and insisted on strictest + etiquette, was proud of her on those occasions when she happened to + cross his mind. Her mother, by birth an English princess of an + originality uncomfortable and unexpected in a royal lady that + continued to the end of her life to crop up at disconcerting moments, + died when Priscilla was sixteen. Her sisters, one older and one + younger than herself, were both far less pleasing to look upon than + she was, and much more difficult to manage; yet each married a + suitable prince and each became a credit to her House, while as for + Priscilla,—well, as for Priscilla, I propose to describe her dreadful + conduct. +</p> +<p> + But first her appearance. She was well above the average height of + woman; a desirable thing in a princess, who, before everything, must + impress the public with her dignity. She had a long pointed chin, and + a sweet mouth with full lips that looked most kind. Her nose was not + quite straight, one side of it being the least bit different from the + other,—a slight crookedness that gave her face a charm absolutely + beyond the reach of those whose features are what is known as + chiselled. Her skin was of that fairness that freckles readily in hot + summers or on winter days when the sun shines brightly on the snow, a + delicate soft skin that is seen sometimes with golden eyelashes and + eyebrows, and hair that is more red than gold. Priscilla had these + eyelashes and eyebrows and this hair, and she had besides beautiful + grey-blue eyes—calm pools of thought, the court poet called them, + when her having a birthday compelled him to official raptures; and + because everybody felt sure they were not really anything of the kind + the poet's utterance was received with acclamations. Indeed, a + princess who should possess such pools would be most undesirable—in + Lothen-Kunitz nothing short of a calamity; for had they not had one + already? It was what had been the matter with the deceased Grand + Duchess; she would think, and no one could stop her, and her life in + consequence was a burden to herself and to everybody else at her + court. Priscilla, however, was very silent. She had never expressed an + opinion, and the inference was that she had no opinion to express. She + had not criticized, she had not argued, she had been tractable, + obedient, meek. Yet her sisters, who had often criticized and argued, + and who had rarely been obedient and never meek, became as I have said + the wives of appropriate princes, while Priscilla,—well, he who runs + may read what it was that Priscilla became. +</p> +<p> + But first as to where she lived. The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz lies + in the south of Europe; that smiling region of fruitful plains, + forest-clothed hills, and broad rivers. It is one of the first places + Spring stops at on her way up from Italy; and Autumn, coming down from + the north sunburnt, fruit-laden, and blest, goes slowly when she + reaches it, lingering there with her serenity and ripeness, her calm + skies and her windless days long after the Saxons and Prussians have + lit their stoves and got out their furs. There figs can be eaten off + the trees in one's garden, and vineyards glow on the hillsides. There + the people are Catholics, and the Protestant pastor casts no shadow of + a black gown across life. There as you walk along the white roads, you + pass the image of the dead Christ by the wayside; mute reminder to + those who would otherwise forget of the beauty of pitifulness and + love. And there, so near is Kunitz to the soul of things, you may any + morning get into the train after breakfast and in the afternoon find + yourself drinking coffee in the cool colonnades of the Piazza San + Marco at Venice. +</p> +<p> + Kunitz is the capital of the duchy, and the palace is built on a hill. + It is one of those piled-up buildings of many windows and turrets and + battlements on which the tourist gazes from below as at the + realization of a childhood's dream. A branch of the river Loth winds + round the base of the hill, separating the ducal family from the + red-roofed town along its other bank. Kunitz stretches right round the + hill, lying clasped about its castle like a necklet of ancient stones. + At the foot of the castle walls the ducal orchards and kitchen gardens + begin, continuing down to the water's edge and clothing the base of + the hill in a garment of blossom and fruit. No fairer sight is to be + seen than the glimpse of these grey walls and turrets rising out of a + cloud of blossom to be had by him who shall stand in the market place + of Kunitz and look eastward up the narrow street on a May morning; and + if he who gazes is a dreamer he could easily imagine that where the + setting of life is so lovely its days must of necessity be each like a + jewel, of perfect brightness and beauty. +</p> +<p> + The Princess Priscilla, however, knew better. To her unfortunately the + life within the walls seemed of a quite blatant vulgarity; pervaded by + lacqueys, by officials of every kind and degree, by too much food, too + many clothes, by waste, by a feverish frittering away of time, by a + hideous want of privacy, by a dreariness unutterable. To her it was a + perpetual behaving according to the ideas officials had formed as to + the conduct to be expected of princesses, a perpetual pretending not + to see that the service offered was sheerest lip-service, a perpetual + shutting of the eyes to hypocrisy and grasping selfishness. Conceive, + you tourist full of illusions standing free down there in the market + place, the frightfulness of never being alone a moment from the time + you get out of bed to the time you get into it again. Conceive the + deadly patience needed to stand passive and be talked to, amused, + taken care of, all day long for years. Conceive the intolerableness, + if you are at all sensitive, of being watched by eyes so sharp and + prying, so eager to note the least change of expression and to use the + conclusions drawn for personal ends that nothing, absolutely nothing, + escapes them. Priscilla's sisters took all these things as a matter of + course, did not care in the least how keenly they were watched and + talked over, never wanted to be alone, liked being fussed over by + their ladies-in-waiting. They, happy girls, had thick skins. But + Priscilla was a dreamer of dreams, a poet who never wrote poems, but + whose soul though inarticulate was none the less saturated with the + desires and loves from which poems are born. She, like her sisters, + had actually known no other states; but then she dreamed of them + continuously, she desired them continuously, she read of them + continuously; and though there was only one person who knew she did + these things I suppose one person is enough in the way of + encouragement if your mind is bent on rebellion. This old person, + cause of all the mischief that followed, for without his help + I do not see what Priscilla could have done, was the ducal + librarian—<i>Hofbibliothekar</i>, head, and practically master of the + wonderful collection of books and manuscripts whose mere catalogue + made learned mouths in distant parts of Europe water and learned lungs + sigh in hopeless envy. He too had officials under him, but they were + unlike the others: meek youths, studious and short-sighted, whose + business as far as Priscilla could see was to bow themselves out + silently whenever she and her lady-in-waiting came in. The librarian's + name was Fritzing; plain Herr Fritzing originally, but gradually by + various stages at last arrived at the dignity and sonorousness of Herr + Geheimarchivrath Fritzing. The Grand Duke indeed had proposed to + ennoble him after he had successfully taught Priscilla English + grammar, but Fritzing, whose spirit dwelt among the Greeks, could not + be brought to see any desirability in such a step. Priscilla called + him Fritzi when her lady-in-waiting dozed; dearest Fritzi sometimes + even, in the heat of protest or persuasion. But afterwards, leaving + the room as solemnly as she had come in, followed by her wide-awake + attendant, she would nod a formally gracious "Good afternoon, Herr + Geheimrath," for all the world as though she had been talking that way + the whole time. The Countess (her lady-in-waiting was the Countess + Irmgard von Disthal, an ample slow lady, the unmarried daughter of a + noble house, about fifty at this time, and luckily—or unluckily—for + Priscilla, a great lover of much food and its resultant deep slumbers) + would bow in her turn in as stately a manner as her bulk permitted, + and with a frigidity so pronounced that in any one less skilled in + shades of deportment it would have resembled with a singular + completeness a sniff of scorn. Her frigidity was perfectly justified. + Was she not a <i>hochgeboren</i>, a member of an ancient house, of luminous + pedigree as far back as one could possibly see? And was he not the son + of an obscure Westphalian farmer, a person who in his youth had sat + barefoot watching pigs? It is true he had learning, and culture, and a + big head with plenty of brains in it, and the Countess Disthal had a + small head, hardly any brains, no soul to speak of, and no education. + This, I say, is true; but it is also neither here nor there. The + Countess was the Countess, and Fritzing was a nobody, and the + condescension she showed him was far more grand ducal than anything in + that way that Priscilla could or ever did produce. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, unusually gifted, and enterprising from the first—which + explains the gulf between pig-watching and <i>Hofbibliothekar</i>—had + spent ten years in Paris and twenty in England in various capacities, + but always climbing higher in the world of intellect, and had come + during this climbing to speak English quite as well as most + Englishmen, if in a statelier, Johnsonian manner. At fifty he began + his career in Kunitz, and being a lover of children took over the + English education of the three princesses; and now that they had long + since learned all they cared to know, and in Priscilla's case all of + grammar at least that he had to teach, he invented a talent for + drawing in Priscilla, who could not draw a straight line, much less a + curved one, so that she should still be able to come to the library as + often as she chose on the pretext of taking a drawing-lesson. The + Grand Duke's idea about his daughters was that they should know a + little of everything and nothing too well; and if Priscilla had said + she wanted to study Shakespeare with the librarian he would have + angrily forbidden it. Had she not had ten years for studying + Shakespeare? To go on longer than that would mean that she was eager, + and the Grand Duke loathed an eager woman. +</p> +<p> + But he had nothing to say against a little drawing; and it was during + the drawing-lessons of the summer Priscilla was twenty-one that the + Countess Disthal slept so peacefully. The summer was hot, and the vast + room cool and quiet. The time was three o'clock—immediately, that is, + after luncheon. Through the narrow open windows sweet airs and scents + came in from the bright world outside. Sometimes a bee would wander up + from the fruit-gardens below, and lazily drone round shady corners. + Sometimes a flock of pigeons rose swiftly in front of the windows, + with a flash of shining wings. Every quarter of an hour the cathedral + clock down in the town sent up its slow chime. Voices of people + boating on the river floated up too, softened to melodiousness. Down + at the foot of the hill the red roofs of the town glistened in the + sun. Beyond them lay the sweltering cornfields. Beyond them forests + and villages. Beyond them a blue line of hills. Beyond them, said + Priscilla to herself, freedom. She sat in her white dress at a table + in one of the deep windows, her head on its long slender neck, where + the little rings of red-gold hair curled so prettily, bent over the + drawing-board, her voice murmuring ceaselessly, for time was short and + she had a great many things to say. At her side sat Fritzing, + listening and answering. Far away in the coolest, shadiest corner of + the room slumbered the Countess. She was lulled by the murmured talk + as sweetly as by the drone of the bee. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness receives many criticisms and much advice on + the subject of drawing from the Herr Geheimrath?" she said one day, + after a lesson during which she had been drowsily aware of much talk. +</p> +<p> + "The Herr Geheimrath is most conscientious," said Priscilla in the + stately, it-has-nothing-to-do-with-you sort of tone she found most + effectual with the Countess; but she added a request under her breath + that the <i>lieber Gott</i> might forgive her, for she knew she had told a + fib. +</p> +<p> + Indeed, the last thing that Fritzing was at this convulsed period of + his life was what his master would have called conscientious. Was he + not encouraging the strangest, wickedest, wildest ideas in the + Princess? Strange and wicked and wild that is from the grand ducal + point of view, for to Priscilla they seemed all sweetness and light. + Fritzing had a perfect horror of the Grand Duke. He was everything + that Fritzing, lean man of learning, most detested. The pleasantest + fashion of describing the Grand Duke will be simply to say that he was + in all things, both of mind and body, the exact opposite of Fritzing. + Fritzing was a man who spent his time ignoring his body and digging + away at his mind. You know the bony aspect of such men. Hardly ever is + there much flesh on them; and though they are often ugly enough, their + spirit blazes at you out of wonderful eyes. I call him old Fritzing, + for he was sixty. To me he seemed old; to Priscilla at twenty he + seemed coeval with pyramids and kindred hoarinesses; while to all + those persons who were sixty-one he did not seem old at all. Only two + things could have kept this restless soul chained to the service of + the Grand Duke, and those two things were the unique library and + Priscilla. For the rest, his life at Kunitz revolted him. He loathed + the etiquette and the fuss and the intrigues of the castle. He loathed + each separate lady-in-waiting, and every one of the male officials. He + loathed the vulgar abundance and inordinate length and frequency of + the meals, when down in the town he knew there were people a-hungered. + He loathed the lacqueys with a quite peculiar loathing, scowling at + them from under angry eyebrows as he passed from his apartment to the + library; yet such is the power of an independent and scornful spirit + that though they had heard all about Westphalia and the pig-days never + once had they, who made insolence their study, dared be rude to him. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla wanted to run away. This, I believe, is considered an awful + thing to do even if you are only a housemaid or somebody's wife. If it + were not considered awful, placed by the world high up on its list of + Utter Unforgivablenesses, there is, I suppose, not a woman who would + not at some time or other have run. She might come back, but she would + surely have gone. So bad is it held to be that even a housemaid who + runs is unfailingly pursued by maledictions more or less definite + according to the education of those she has run from; and a wife who + runs is pursued by social ruin, it being taken for granted that she + did not run alone. I know at least two wives who did run alone. Far + from wanting yet another burden added to them by adding to their lives + yet another man, they were anxiously endeavouring to get as far as + might be from the man they had got already. The world, foul hag with + the downcast eyes and lascivious lips, could not believe it possible, + and was quick to draw its dark mantle of disgrace over their shrinking + heads. One of them, unable to bear this, asked her husband's pardon. + She was a weak spirit, and now lives prostrate days, crushed beneath + the unchanging horror of a husband's free forgiveness. The other took + a cottage and laughed at the world. Was she not happy at last, and + happy in the right way? I go to see her sometimes, and we eat the + cabbages she has grown herself. Strange how the disillusioned find + their peace in cabbages. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla, then, wanted to run away. What is awful in a housemaid and + in anybody's wife became in her case stupendous. The spirit that could + resolve it, decide to do it without being dragged to it by such things + as love or passion, calmly looking the risks and losses in the face, + and daring everything to free itself, was, it must be conceded, at + least worthy of respect. Fritzing thought it worthy of adoration; the + divinest spirit that had ever burned within a woman. He did not + say so. On the contrary, he was frightened, and tried angrily, + passionately, to dissuade. Yet he knew that if she wavered he would + never forgive her; she would drop at once from her high estate into + those depths in his opinion where the dull average of both sexes + sprawled for ever in indiscriminate heaps. Priscilla never dreamed of + wavering. She, most poetic of princesses, made apparently of ivory and + amber, outwardly so cool and serene and gentle, was inwardly on fire. + The fire, I should add, burnt with a very white flame. Nothing in + the shape of a young man had ever had the stoking of it. It was + that whitest of flames that leaps highest at the thought of + abstractions—freedom, beauty of life, simplicity, and the rest. This, + I would remark, is a most rare light to find burning in a woman's + breast. What she was, however, Fritzing had made her. True the + material had been extraordinarily good, and for ten years he had + done as he liked with it. Beginning with the simpler poems of + Wordsworth—he detested them, but they were better than soiling her + soul with Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans—those lessons in English + literature, meant by the authorities to be as innocuous to her as to + her sisters, had opened her eyes in a way nothing else could have done + to the width of the world and the littleness of Kunitz. With that good + teacher, as eager to lead as she to follow, she wandered down the + splendid walks of culture, met there the best people of all ages, + communed with mighty souls, heard how they talked, saw how they lived, + and none, not one, lived and talked as they lived and talked at + Kunitz. +</p> +<p> + Imagine a girl influenced for ten years, ten of her softest most + wax-like years, by a Fritzing, taught to love freedom, to see the + beauty of plain things, of quietness, of the things appertaining to + the spirit, taught to see how ignoble it is, how intensely, hopelessly + vulgar to spend on one's own bodily comforts more than is exactly + necessary, taught to see a vision of happiness possible only to those + who look to their minds for their joys and not to their bodies, + imagine how such a girl, hearing these things every afternoon almost + of her life, would be likely to regard the palace mornings and + evenings, the ceremonies and publicity, all those hours spent as + though she were a celebrated picture, forced everlastingly to stand in + an attitude considered appropriate and smile while she was being + looked at. +</p> +<p> + "No one," she said one day to Fritzing, "who hasn't himself been a + princess can have the least idea of what it is like." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, it would be more correct to say herself in place of himself." +</p> +<p> + "Well, they can't," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, to begin a sentence with the singular and continue it with the + plural is an infraction of all known rules." +</p> +<p> + "But the sentiments, Fritzi—what do you think of the sentiments?" +</p> +<p> + "Alas, ma'am, they too are an infraction of rules." +</p> +<p> + "What is not in this place, I should like to know?" sighed Priscilla, + her chin on her hand, her eyes on that distant line of hills beyond + which, she told herself, lay freedom. +</p> +<p> + She had long ago left off saying it only to herself. I think she must + have been about eighteen when she took to saying it aloud to Fritzing. + At first, before he realized to what extent she was sick for freedom, + he had painted in glowing colours the delights that lay on the other + side of the hills, or for that matter on this side of them if you were + alone and not a princess. Especially had he dwelt on the glories of + life in England, glories attainable indeed only by the obscure such as + he himself had been, and for ever impossible to those whom Fate + obliges to travel in state carriages and special trains. Then he had + come to scent danger and had grown wary; trying to put her off with + generalities, such as the inability of human beings to fly from their + own selves, and irrelevancies such as the amount of poverty and + wretchedness to be observed in the east of London; refusing to discuss + France, which she was always getting to as the first step towards + England, except in as far as it was a rebellious country that didn't + like kings; pointing out with no little temper that she had already + seen England; and finishing by inquiring very snappily when her Grand + Ducal Highness intended to go on with her drawing. +</p> +<p> + Now what Priscilla had seen of England had been the insides of + Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; of all insides surely the most + august. To and from these she had been conveyed in closed carriages + and royal trains, and there was so close a family likeness between + them and Kunitz that to her extreme discomfort she had felt herself + completely at home. Even the presence of the Countess Disthal had not + been wanting. She therefore regarded this as not seeing England at + all, and said so. Fritzing remarked tartly that it was a way of seeing + it most English people would envy her; and she was so unable to + believe him that she said Nonsense. +</p> +<p> + But lately her desires had taken definite shape so rapidly that he had + come to dread the very word hill and turn cold at the name of England. + He was being torn in different directions; for he was, you see, still + trying to do what other people had decided was his duty, and till a + man gives up doing that he will certainly be torn. How great would be + the temptation to pause here and consider the mangled state of such a + man, the wounds and weakness he will suffer from, and how his soul + will have to limp through life, if it were not that I must get on with + Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + One day, after many weeks of edging nearer to it, of going all round + it yet never quite touching it, she took a deep breath and told him + she had determined to run away. She added an order that he was to help + her. With her most grand ducal air she merely informed, ordered, and + forbade. What she forbade, of course, was the betrayal of her plans. + "You may choose," she said, "between the Grand Duke and myself. If you + tell him, I have done with you for ever." +</p> +<p> + Of course he chose Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + His agonies now were very great. Those last lacerations of conscience + were terrific. Then, after nights spent striding, a sudden calm fell + upon him. At length he could feel what he had always seen, that there + could not be two duties for a man, that no man can serve two masters, + that a man's one clear duty is to be in the possession of his soul and + live the life it approves: in other and shorter words, instead of + leading Priscilla, Priscilla was now leading him. +</p> +<p> + She did more than lead him; she drove him. The soul he had so + carefully tended and helped to grow was now grown stronger than his + own; for there was added to its natural strength the tremendous daring + of absolute inexperience. What can be more inexperienced than a + carefully guarded young princess? Priscilla's ignorance of the outside + world was pathetic. He groaned over her plans—for it was she who + planned and he who listened—and yet he loved them. She was a divine + woman, he said to himself; the sweetest and noblest, he was certain, + that the world would ever see. +</p> +<p> + Her plans were these: +</p> +<p> + First, that having had twenty-one years of life at the top of the + social ladder she was now going to get down and spend the next + twenty-one at the bottom of it. (Here she gave her reasons, and I will + not stop to describe Fritzing's writhings as his own past teachings + grinned at him through every word she said.) +</p> +<p> + Secondly, that the only way to get to the bottom being to run away + from Kunitz, she was going to run. +</p> +<p> + Thirdly, that the best and nicest place for living at the bottom would + be England. (Here she explained her conviction that beautiful things + grow quite naturally round the bottom of ladders that cannot easily + reach the top; flowers of self-sacrifice and love, of temperance, + charity, godliness—delicate things, with roots that find their + nourishment in common soil. You could not, said Priscilla, expect soil + at the top of ladders, could you? And as she felt that she too had + roots full of potentialities, she must take them down to where their + natural sustenance lay waiting.) +</p> +<p> + Fourthly, they were to live somewhere in the country in England, in + the humblest way. +</p> +<p> + Fifthly, she was to be his daughter. +</p> +<p> + "Daughter?" cried Fritzing, bounding in his chair. "Your Grand Ducal + Highness forgets I have friends in England, every one of whom is aware + that I never had a wife." +</p> +<p> + "Niece, then," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + He gazed at her in silence, trying to imagine her his niece. He had + two sisters, and they had stopped exactly at the point they were at + when they helped him, barefoot, to watch Westphalian pigs. I do not + mean that they had not ultimately left the little farm, gone into + stockings, and married. It is their minds I am thinking of, and these + had never budged. They were like their father, a doomed dullard; while + Fritzing's mother, whom he resembled, had been a rather extraordinary + woman in a rough and barbarous way. He found himself wholly unable to + imagine either of his sisters the mother of this exquisite young lady. +</p> +<p> + These, then, baldly, were Priscilla's plans. The carrying of them out + was left, she informed him, altogether to Fritzing. After having spent + several anxious days, she told him, considering whether she ought to + dye her hair black in order to escape recognition, or stay her own + colour but disguise herself as a man and buy a golden beard, she had + decided that these were questions Fritzing would settle better than + she could. "I'd dye my hair at once," she said, "but what about my + wretched eyelashes? Can one dye eyelashes?" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing thought not, and anyhow was decidedly of opinion that her + eyelashes should not be tampered with; I think I have said that they + were very lovely. He also entirely discouraged the idea of dressing as + a man. "Your Grand Ducal Highness would only look like an extremely + conspicuous boy," he assured her. +</p> +<p> + "I could wear a beard," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing was absolutely opposed to the beard. +</p> +<p> + As for the money part, she never thought of it. Money was a thing she + never did think about. It also, then, was to be Fritzing's business. + Possibly things might have gone on much longer as they were, with a + great deal of planning and talking, and no doing, if an exceedingly + desirable prince had not signified his intention of marrying + Priscilla. This had been done before by quite a number of princes. + They had, that is, not signified, but implored. On their knees would + they have implored if their knees could have helped them. They were + however all poor, and Priscilla and her sisters were rich; and how + foolish, said the Grand Duke, to marry poor men unless you are poor + yourself. The Grand Duke, therefore, took these young men aside and + crushed them, while Priscilla, indifferent, went on with her drawing. + But now came this one who was so eminently desirable that he had no + need to do more than merely signify. There had been much trouble and a + great deal of delay in finding him a wife, for he had insisted on + having a princess who should be both pretty and not his cousin. Europe + did not seem to contain such a thing. Everybody was his cousin, except + two or three young women whom he was rude enough to call ugly. The + Kunitz princesses had been considered in their turn and set aside, for + they too were cousins; and it seemed as if one of the most splendid + thrones in Europe would either have to go queen-less or be sat upon by + somebody plain, when fate brought the Prince to a great public + ceremony in Kunitz, and he saw Priscilla and fell so violently in love + with her that if she had been fifty times his cousin he would still + have married her. +</p> +<p> + That same evening he signified his intention to the delighted Grand + Duke, who immediately fell to an irrelevant praising of God. +</p> +<p> + "Bosh," said the Prince, in the nearest equivalent his mother-tongue + provided. +</p> +<p> + This was very bad. Not, I mean, that the Prince should have said Bosh, + for he was so great that there was not a Grand Duke in Europe to whom + he might not have said it if he wanted to; but that Priscilla should + have been in imminent danger of marriage. Among Fritzing's many + preachings there had been one, often repeated in the strongest + possible language, that of all existing contemptibilities the very + most contemptible was for a woman to marry any one she did not love; + and the peroration, also extremely forcible, had been an announcement + that the prince did not exist who was fit to tie her shoestrings. This + Priscilla took to be an exaggeration, for she had no very great notion + of her shoestrings; but she did agree with the rest. The subject + however was an indifferent one, her father never yet having asked her + to marry anybody; and so long as he did not do so she need not, she + thought, waste time thinking about it. Now the peril was upon her, + suddenly, most unexpectedly, very menacingly. She knew there was no + hope from the moment she saw her father's face quite distorted by + delight. He took her hand and kissed it. To him she was already a + queen. As usual she gave him the impression of behaving exactly as he + could have wished. She certainly said very little, for she had long + ago learned the art of being silent; but her very silences were + somehow exquisite, and the Grand Duke thought her perfect. She gave + him to understand almost without words that it was a great surprise, + an immense honour, a huge compliment, but so sudden that she would be + grateful to both himself and the Prince if nothing more need be said + about it for a week or two—nothing, at least, till formal + negotiations had been opened. "I saw him yesterday for the first + time," she pleaded, "so naturally I am rather overwhelmed." +</p> +<p> + Privately she had thought, his eyes, which he had never taken off her, + kind and pleasant; and if she had known of his having said Bosh who + knows but that he might have had a chance? As it was, the moment she + was alone she sent flying for Fritzing. "What," she said, "do you say + to my marrying this man?" +</p> +<p> + "If you do, ma'am," said Fritzing, and his face seemed one blaze of + white conviction, "you will undoubtedly be eternally lost." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + II +</h2> +<p> + They fled on bicycles in the dusk. The goddess Good Luck, who seems to + have a predilection for sinners, helped them in a hundred ways. + Without her they would certainly not have got far, for both were very + ignorant of the art of running away. Once flight was decided on + Fritzing planned elaborately and feverishly, got things thought out + and arranged as well as he, poor harassed man, possibly could. But + what in this law-bound world can sinners do without the help of Luck? + She, amused and smiling dame, walked into the castle and smote the + Countess Disthal with influenza, crushing her down helpless into her + bed, and holding her there for days by the throat. While one hand was + doing this, with the other she gaily swept the Grand Duke into East + Prussia, a terrific distance, whither, all unaware of how he was being + trifled with, he thought he was being swept by an irresistible desire + to go, before the business of Priscilla's public betrothal should + begin, and shoot the roebucks of a friend. +</p> +<p> + The Countess was thrust into her bed at noon of a Monday in October. + At three the Grand Duke started for East Prussia, incognito in a + motor—you know the difficulty news has in reaching persons in + motors. At four one of Priscilla's maids, an obscure damsel who had + been at the mercy of the others and was chosen because she hated them, + tripped out of the castle with shining eyes and pockets heavy with + bribes, and caused herself to be whisked away by the afternoon express + to Cologne. At six, just as the castle guard was being relieved, two + persons led their bicycles through the archway and down across the + bridge. It was dark, and nobody recognized them. Fritzing was got up + sportingly, almost waggishly—heaven knows his soul was not feeling + waggish—as differently as possible from his usual sober clothes. + Somehow he reminded Priscilla of a circus, and she found it extremely + hard not to laugh. On his head he had a cap with ear-pieces that hid + his grey hair; round his neck a gaudy handkerchief muffled well about + his face; immense goggles cloaked the familiar overhanging eyebrows + and deep-set eyes, goggles curiously at variance with the dapper + briskness of his gaitered legs. The Princess was in ordinary blue + serge, short and rather shabby, it having been subjected for hours + daily during the past week to rough treatment by the maid now + travelling to Cologne. As for her face and hair, they were completely + hidden in the swathings of a motor-veil. +</p> +<p> + The sentinels stared rather as these two figures pushed their bicycles + through the gates, and undoubtedly did for some time afterwards wonder + who they could have been. The same thing happened down below on the + bridge; but once over that and in the town all they had to do was to + ride straight ahead. They were going to bicycle fifteen miles to Rühl, + a small town with a railway station on the main line between Kunitz + and Cologne. Express trains do not stop at Rühl, but there was a slow + train at eight which would get them to Gerstein, the capital of the + next duchy, by midnight. Here they would change into the Cologne + express; here they would join the bribed maid; here luggage had been + sent by Fritzing,—a neat bag for himself, and a neat box for his + niece. The neat box was filled with neat garments suggested to him by + the young lady in the shop in Gerstein where he had been two days + before to buy them. She told him of many other articles which, she + said, no lady's wardrobe could be considered complete without; and the + distracted man, fearing the whole shop would presently be put into + trunks and sent to the station to meet them, had ended by flinging + down two notes for a hundred marks each and bidding her keep strictly + within that limit. The young lady became very scornful. She told him + that she had never heard of any one being clothed from head to foot + inside and out, even to brushes, soap, and an umbrella, for two + hundred marks. Fritzing, in dread of conspicuous masses of luggage, + yet staggered by the girl's conviction, pulled out a third hundred + mark note, but added words in his extremity of so strong and final a + nature, that she, quailing, did keep within this limit, and the box + was packed. Thus Priscilla's outfit cost almost exactly fifteen + pounds. It will readily be imagined that it was neat. +</p> +<p> + Painfully the two fugitives rode through the cobbled streets of + Kunitz. Priscilla was very shaky on a bicycle, and so was Fritzing. + Some years before this, when it had been the fashion, she had bicycled + every day in the grand ducal park on the other side of the town. Then, + tired of it, she had given it up; and now for the last week or two, + ever since Fritzing had told her that if they fled it would have to be + on bicycles, she had pretended a renewed passion for it, riding every + day round and round a circle of which the chilled and astonished + Countess Disthal, whose duty it was to stand and watch, had been the + disgusted central point. But the cobbles of Kunitz are very different + from those smooth places in the park. All who bicycle round Kunitz + know them as trying to the most skilful. Naturally, then, the + fugitives advanced very slowly, Fritzing's heart in his mouth each + time they passed a brightly-lit shop or a person who looked at them. + Conceive how nearly this poor heart must have jumped right out of his + mouth, leaving him dead, when a policeman who had been watching them + strode suddenly into the middle of the street, put up his hand, and + said, "Halt." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, unstrung man, received a shock so awful that he obeyed by + falling off. Priscilla, wholly unused to being told to halt and + absorbed by the difficulties of the way, did not grasp that the order + was meant for her and rode painfully on. Seeing this, the policeman + very gallantly removed her from her bicycle by putting his arms round + her and lifting her off. He set her quite gently on her feet, and was + altogether a charming policeman, as unlike those grim and ghastly eyes + of the law that glare up and down the streets of, say, Berlin, as it + is possible to imagine. +</p> +<p> + But Priscilla was perfectly molten with rage, insulted as she had + never been in her life. "How dare you—how dare you," she stammered, + suffocating; and forgetting everything but an overwhelming desire to + box the giant's ears she had actually raised her hand to do it, which + would of course have been the ruin of her plan and the end of my tale, + when Fritzing, recovering his presence of mind, cried out in tones of + unmistakable agony, "Niece, be calm." +</p> +<p> + She calmed at once to a calm of frozen horror. +</p> +<p> + "Now, sir," said Fritzing, assuming an air of brisk bravery and + guiltlessness, "what can we do for you?" +</p> +<p> + "Light your lamps," said the policeman, laconically. +</p> +<p> + They did; or rather Fritzing did, while Priscilla stood passive. +</p> +<p> + "I too have a niece," said the policeman, watching Fritzing at work; + "but I light no lamps for her. One should not wait on one's niece. + One's niece should wait on one." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing did not answer. He finished lighting the lamps, and then + held Priscilla's bicycle and started her. +</p> +<p> + "I never did that for my niece," said the policeman. +</p> +<p> + "Confound your niece, sir," was on the tip of Fritzing's tongue; but + he gulped it down, and remarking instead as pleasantly as he could + that being an uncle did not necessarily prevent your being a + gentleman, picked up his bicycle and followed Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + The policeman shook his head as they disappeared round the corner. + "One does not light lamps for one's niece," he repeated to himself. + "It's against nature. Consequently, though the peppery Fräulein may + well be somebody's niece she is not his." +</p> +<p> + "Oh," murmured Priscilla, after they had ridden some way without + speaking, "I'm deteriorating already. For the first time in my life + I've wanted to box people's ears." +</p> +<p> + "The provocation was great, ma'am," said Fritzing, himself shattered + by the spectacle of his Princess being lifted about by a policeman. +</p> +<p> + "Do you think—" Priscilla hesitated, and looked at him. Her bicycle + immediately hesitated too, and swerving across the road taught her it + would have nothing looked at except its handles. "Do you think," she + went on, after she had got herself straight again, "that the way I'm + going to live now will make me want to do it often?" +</p> +<p> + "Heaven forbid, ma'am. You are now going to live a most noble + life—the only fitting life for the thoughtful and the earnest. It + will be, once you are settled, far more sheltered from contact with + that which stirs ignoble impulses than anything your Grand Ducal + Highness has hitherto known." +</p> +<p> + "If you mean policemen by things that stir ignoble impulses," said + Priscilla, "I was sheltered enough from them before. Why, I never + spoke to one. Much less"—she shuddered—"much less ever touched one." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, you do not repent?" +</p> +<p> + "Heavens, no," said Priscilla, pressing onward. +</p> +<p> + Outside Rühl, about a hundred yards before its houses begin, there is + a pond by the wayside. Into this, after waiting a moment peering up + and down the dark road to see whether anybody was looking, Fritzing + hurled the bicycles. He knew the pond was deep, for he had studied it + the day he bought Priscilla's outfit; and the two bicycles one after + the other were hurled remorsely into the middle of it, disappearing + each in its turn with a tremendous splash and gurgle. Then they walked + on quickly towards the railway station, infinitely relieved to be on + their own feet again, and between them, all unsuspected, walked the + radiant One with the smiling eyes, she who was half-minded to see this + game through, giving the players just so many frights as would keep + her amused, the fickle, laughing goddess Good Luck. +</p> +<p> + They caught the train neatly at Rühl. They only had to wait about the + station for ten minutes before it came in. Hardly any one was there, + and nobody took the least notice of them. Fritzing, after a careful + look round to see if it contained people he knew, put the Princess + into a second-class carriage labelled <i>Frauen</i>, and then respectfully + withdrew to another part of the train. He had decided that + second-class was safest. People in that country nearly always travel + second-class, especially women,—at all times in such matters more + economical than men; and a woman by herself in a first-class carriage + would have been an object of surmise and curiosity at every station. + Therefore Priscilla was put into the carriage labelled <i>Frauen</i>, and + found herself for the first time in her life alone with what she had + hitherto only heard alluded to vaguely as the public. +</p> +<p> + She sat down in a corner with an odd feeling of surprise at being + included in the category <i>Frauen</i>, and giving a swift timid glance + through her veil at the public confronting her was relieved to find it + consisted only of a comfortable mother and her child. +</p> +<p> + I know not why the adjective comfortable should so invariably be + descriptive of mothers in Germany. In England and France though you + may be a mother, you yet, I believe, may be so without being + comfortable. In Germany, somehow, you can't. Perhaps it is the + climate; perhaps it is the food; perhaps it is simply want of soul, or + that your soul does not burn with a fire sufficiently consuming. + Anyhow it is so. This mother had all the good-nature that goes with + amplitude. Being engaged in feeding her child with <i>belegte + Brödchen</i>—that immensely satisfying form of sandwich—she at once + offered Priscilla one. +</p> +<p> + "No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking into her corner. +</p> +<p> + "Do take one, Fräulein," said the mother, persuasively. +</p> +<p> + "No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking. +</p> +<p> + "On a journey it passes the time. Even if one is not hungry, thank God + one can always eat. Do take one." +</p> +<p> + "No thank you," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Why does she wear that black thing over her face?" inquired the + child. "Is she a witch?" +</p> +<p> + "Silence, silence, little worthless one," cried the mother, + delightedly stroking his face with half a <i>Brödchen</i>. "You see he is + clever, Fräulein. He resembles his dear father as one egg does + another." +</p> +<p> + "Does he?" said Priscilla, immediately conceiving a prejudice against + the father. +</p> +<p> + "Why don't she take that black thing off?" said the child. +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush, small impudence. The Fräulein will take it off in a + minute. The Fräulein has only just got in." +</p> +<p> + "Mutti, is she a witch? Mutti, Mutti, is she a witch, Mutti?" +</p> +<p> + The child, his eyes fixed anxiously on Priscilla's swathed head, began + to whimper. +</p> +<p> + "That child should be in bed," said Priscilla, with a severity born + of her anxiety lest, to calm him, humanity should force her to put up + her veil. "Persons who are as intelligent as that should never be in + trains at night. Their brains cannot bear it. Would he not be happier + if he lay down and went to sleep?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes; that is what I have been telling him ever since we left + Kunitz"—Priscilla shivered—"but he will not go. Dost thou hear what + the Fräulein says, Hans-Joachim?" +</p> +<p> + "Why don't she take that black thing off?" whimpered the child. +</p> +<p> + But how could the poor Princess, however anxious to be kind, take off + her veil and show her well-known face to this probable inhabitant of + Kunitz? +</p> +<p> + "Do take it off, Fräulein," begged the mother, seeing she made no + preparations to do so. "When he gets ideas into his head there is + never peace till he has what he wants. He does remind me so much of + his father." +</p> +<p> + "Did you ever," said Priscilla, temporizing, "try him with a + little—just a little slap? Only a little one," she added hastily, for + the mother looked at her oddly, "only as a sort of counter-irritant. + And it needn't be really hard, you know—" +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, she's a witch—Mutti, she's a witch!" shrieked the child, + flinging his face, butter and all, at these portentous words, into his + mother's lap. +</p> +<p> + "There, there, poor tiny one," soothed the mother, with an indignant + side-glance at Priscilla. "Poor tiny man, no one shall slap thee. The + Fräulein does not allude to thee, little son. The Fräulein is thinking + of bad children such as the sons of Schultz and thy cousin Meyer. + Fräulein, if you do not remove your veil I fear he will have + convulsions." +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said the unhappy Priscilla, getting as far into her corner as + she could, "I'm so sorry—but I—but I really can't." +</p> +<p> + "She's a witch, Mutti!" roared the child, "I tell it to thee + again—therefore is she so black, and must not show her face!" +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush, shut thy little eyes," soothed the mother, putting her + hand over them. To Priscilla she said, with an obvious dawning of + distrust, "But Fräulein, what reason can you have for hiding + yourself?" +</p> +<p> + "Hiding myself?" echoed Priscilla, now very unhappy indeed, "I'm not + hiding myself. I've got—I've got—I'm afraid I've got a—an affection + of the skin. That's why I wear a veil." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, poor Fräulein," said the mother, brightening at once into + lively interest. "Hans-Joachim, sleep," she added sharply to her son, + who tried to raise his head to interrupt with fresh doubts a + conversation grown thrilling. "That is indeed a misfortune. It is a + rash?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, it's dreadful," said Priscilla, faintly. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, poor Fräulein. When one is married, rashes no longer matter. + One's husband has to love one in spite of rashes. But for a Fräulein + every spot is of importance. There is a young lady of my acquaintance + whose life-happiness was shipwrecked only by spots. She came out in + them at the wrong moment." +</p> +<p> + "Did she?" murmured Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "You are going to a doctor?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes—that is, no—I've been." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, you have been to Kunitz to Dr. Kraus?" +</p> +<p> + "Y—es. I've been there." +</p> +<p> + "What does he say?" +</p> +<p> + "That I must always wear a veil." +</p> +<p> + "Because it looks so bad?" +</p> +<p> + "I suppose so." +</p> +<p> + There was a silence. Priscilla lay back in her corner exhausted, and + shut her eyes. The mother stared fixedly at her, one hand mechanically + stroking Hans-Joachim, the other holding him down. +</p> +<p> + "When I was a girl," said the mother, so suddenly that Priscilla + started, "I had a good deal of trouble with my skin. Therefore my + experience on the subject is great. Show me your face, Fräulein—I + might be able to tell you what to do to cure it." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, on no account—on no account whatever," cried Priscilla, sitting + up very straight and speaking with extraordinary emphasis. "I couldn't + think of it—I really positively couldn't." +</p> +<p> + "But my dear Fräulein, why mind a woman seeing it?" +</p> +<p> + "But what do you want to see it for?" +</p> +<p> + "I wish to help you." +</p> +<p> + "I don't want to be helped. I'll show it to nobody—to nobody at all. + It's much too—too dreadful." +</p> +<p> + "Well, well, do not be agitated. Girls, I know, are vain. If any one + can help you it will be Dr. Kraus. He is an excellent physician, is he + not?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla, dropping back into her corner. +</p> +<p> + "The Grand Duke is a great admirer of his. He is going to ennoble + him." +</p> +<p> + "Really?" +</p> +<p> + "They say—no doubt it is gossip, but still, you know, he is a very + handsome man—that the Countess von Disthal will marry him." +</p> +<p> + "Gracious!" cried Priscilla, startled, "what, whether he wants to or + not?" +</p> +<p> + "No doubt he will want to. It would be a brilliant match for him." +</p> +<p> + "But she's at least a hundred. Why, she looks like his mother. And he + is a person of no birth at all." +</p> +<p> + "Birth? He is of course not noble yet, but his family is excellent. + And since it is not possible to have as many ailments as she has and + still be alive, some at least must be feigned. Why, then, should she + feign if it is not in order to see the doctor? They were saying in + Kunitz that she sent for him this very day." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, she did. But she's really ill this time. I'm afraid the poor + thing caught cold watching—dear me, only see how sweetly your little + boy sleeps. You should make Levallier paint him in that position." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, he looks truly lovely, does he not. Exactly thus does his dear + father look when asleep. Sometimes I cannot sleep myself for joy over + the splendid picture. What is the matter with the Countess Disthal? + Did Dr. Kraus tell you?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no. I—I heard something—a rumour." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, something feigned again, no doubt. Well, it will be a great match + for him. You know she is lady-in-waiting to the Princess Priscilla, + the one who is so popular and has such red hair? The Countess has an + easy life. The other two Princesses have given their ladies a world of + trouble, but Priscilla—oh, she is a model. Kunitz is indeed proud of + her. They say in all things she is exactly what a Princess should be, + and may be trusted never to say or do anything not entirely fitting + her station. You have seen her? She often drives through the town, and + then the people all run and look as pleased as if it were a holiday. + We in Gerstein are quite jealous. Our duchy has no such princess to + show. Do you think she is so beautiful? I have often seen her, and I + do not think she is. People exaggerate everything so about a princess. + My husband does not admire her at all. He says it is not what he calls + classic. Her hair, for instance—but that one might get over. And + people who are really beautiful always have dark eyelashes. Then her + nose—my husband often laughs, and says her nose—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla, faintly, "I've got a dreadful headache. I think + I'll try to sleep a little if you would not mind not talking." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, that hot thing round your face must be very trying. Now if you + were not so vain—what does a rash matter when only women are present? + Well, well, I will not tease you. Do you know many of the Kunitzers? + Do you know the Levisohns well?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," sighed Priscilla, laying her distracted head against the + cushions and shutting her eyes, "who are they?" +</p> +<p> + "Who are they? Who are the Levisohns? But dearest Fräulein if you know + Kunitz you must know the Levisohns. Why, the Levisohns <i>are</i> Kunitz. + They are more important far than the Grand Duke. They lend to it, and + they lead it. You must know their magnificent shop at the corner of + the Heiligengeiststrasse? Perhaps," she added, with a glance at the + Princess's shabby serge gown, "you have not met them socially, but you + must know the magnificent shop. We visit." +</p> +<p> + "Do you?" said Priscilla wearily, as the mother paused. +</p> +<p> + "And you know her story, of course?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, oh," sighed Priscilla, turning her head from side to side on the + cushions, vainly seeking peace. +</p> +<p> + "It is hardly a story for the ears of Fräuleins." +</p> +<p> + "Please don't tell it, then." +</p> +<p> + "No, I will not. It is not for Fräuleins. But one still sees she must + have been a handsome woman. And he, Levisohn, was clever enough to see + his way to Court favour. The Grand Duke—" +</p> +<p> + "I don't think I care to hear about the Levisohns," said Priscilla, + sitting up suddenly and speaking with great distinctness. "Gossip is a + thing I detest. None shall be talked in my presence." +</p> +<p> + "Hoity-toity," said the astonished mother; and it will easily be + believed that no one had ever said hoity-toity to Priscilla before. +</p> +<p> + She turned scarlet under her veil. For a moment she sat with flashing + eyes, and the hand lying in her lap twitched convulsively. Is it + possible she was thinking of giving the comfortable mother that + admonition which the policeman had so narrowly escaped? I know not + what would have happened if the merry goddess, seeing things rushing + to this dreadful climax, had not stopped the train in the nick of time + at a wayside station and caused a breathless lady, pushing parcels + before her, to clamber in. The mother's surprised stare was of + necessity diverted to the new-comer. A parcel thrust into Priscilla's + hands brought her back of necessity to her senses. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Danke, Danke</i>," cried the breathless lady, though no help had been + offered; and hoisting herself in she wished both her fellow-passengers + a boisterous good evening. The lady, evidently an able person, + arranged her parcels swiftly and neatly in the racks, pulled up the + windows, slammed the ventilators, stripped off her cloak, flung back + her veil, and sitting down with a sigh of vast depth and length stared + steadily for five minutes without wavering at the other two. At the + end of that time she and the mother began, as with a common impulse, + to talk. And at the end of five minutes more they had told each other + where they were going, where they had been, what their husbands + were, the number, age, and girth of their children, and all the + adjectives that might most conveniently be used to describe their + servants. The adjectives, very lurid ones, took some time. + Priscilla shut her eyes while they were going on, thankful to be + left quiet, feeling unstrung to the last degree; and she gradually + dropped into an uneasy doze whose chief feature was the distressful + repetition, like hammer-strokes on her brain, of the words, "You're + deteriorating—deteriorating—deteriorating." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Lieber Gott</i>," she whispered at last, folding her hands in her lap, + "don't let me deteriorate too much. Please keep me from wanting to box + people's ears. <i>Lieber Gott</i>, it's so barbarous of me. I never used to + want to. Please stop me wanting to now." +</p> +<p> + And after that she dropped off quite, into a placid little slumber. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + III +</h2> +<p> + They crossed from Calais in the turbine. Their quickest route would + have been Cologne-Ostend-Dover, and every moment being infinitely + valuable Fritzing wanted to go that way, but Priscilla was determined + to try whether turbines are really as steady as she had heard they + were. The turbine was so steady that no one could have told it was + doing anything but being quiescent on solid earth; but that was + because, as Fritzing explained, there was a dead calm, and in dead + calms—briefly, he explained the conduct of boats in dead calms with + much patience, and Priscilla remarked when he had done that they might + then, after all, have crossed by Ostend. +</p> +<p> + "We might, ma'am, and we would be in London now if we had," said + Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + They had, indeed, lost several hours and some money coming by Calais, + and Fritzing had lost his temper as well. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, you remember, was sixty, and had not closed his eyes all + night. He had not, so far as that goes, closed his eyes for nights + without number; and what his soul had gone through during those nights + was more than any soul no longer in its first youth should be called + upon to bear. In the train between Cologne and Calais he had even, + writhing in his seat, cursed every single one of his long-cherished + ideals, called them fools, shaken his fist at them; a dreadful state + of mind to get to. He did not reveal anything of this to his dear + Princess, and talking to her on the turbine wore the clear brow of the + philosopher; but he did feel that he was a much-tried man, and he + behaved to the maid Annalise exactly in the way much-tried men do + behave when they have found some one they think defenceless. + Unfortunately Annalise was only apparently defenceless. Fritzing would + have known it if he had been more used to running away. He did, in his + calmer moments, dimly opine it. The plain fact was that Annalise held + both him and Priscilla in the hollow of her hand. +</p> +<p> + At this point she had not realized it. She still was awestruck by her + promotion, and looked so small and black and uncertain among her new + surroundings on the turbine that if not clever of him it was at least + natural that he should address her in a manner familiar to those who + have had to do with men when they are being tried. He behaved, that + is, to Annalise, as he had behaved to his ideals in the night; he + shook his fist at her, and called her fool. It was because she had + broken the Princess's umbrella. This was the new umbrella bought by + him with so much trouble in Gerstein two days before, and therefore + presumably of a sufficient toughness to stand any reasonable treatment + for a time. There was a mist and a drizzle at Calais, and Priscilla, + refusing to go under shelter, had sent Fritzing to fetch her umbrella, + and when he demanded it of Annalise, she offered it him in two pieces. + This alone was enough to upset a wise man, because wise men are easily + upset; but Annalise declared besides that the umbrella had broken + itself. It probably had. What may not one expect of anything so cheap? + Fritzing, however, was maddened by this explanation, and wasted quite + a long time pointing out to her in passionate language that it was an + inanimate object, and that inanimate objects have no initiative and + never therefore break themselves. To which Annalise, with a stoutness + ominous as a revelation of character, replied by repeating her + declaration that the umbrella had certainly broken itself. Then it was + that he shook his fist at her and called her fool. So greatly was he + moved that, after walking away and thinking it over, he went to her a + second time and shook his fist at her and called her knave. +</p> +<p> + I will not linger over this of the umbrella; it teems with lessons. +</p> +<p> + While it was going on the Princess was being very happy. She was + sitting unnoticed in a deck-chair and feeling she was really off at + last into the Ideal. Some of us know the fascination of that feeling, + and all of us know the fascination of new things; and to be unnoticed + was for her of a most thrilling newness. Nobody looked at her. People + walked up and down the deck in front of her as though she were not + there. One hurried passenger actually tripped over her feet, and + passed on with the briefest apology. Everywhere she saw indifferent + faces, indifferent, oblivious faces. It was simply glorious. And she + had had no trials since leaving Gerstein. There Fritzing had removed + her beyond the range of the mother's eyes, grown at last extremely + cold and piercing; Annalise, all meek anxiety to please, had put her + to bed in the sleeping-car of the Brussels express; and in the morning + her joy had been childish at having a little tray with bad coffee on + it thrust in by a busy attendant, who slammed it down on the table and + hurried out without so much as glancing at her. How delicious that + was. The Princess laughed with delight and drank the coffee, grits and + all. Oh, the blessed freedom of being insignificant. It was as good, + she thought, as getting rid of your body altogether and going about an + invisible spirit. She sat on the deck of the apparently motionless + turbine and thought gleefully of past journeys, now for ever done + with; of the grand ducal train, of herself drooping inside it as + wearily as the inevitable bouquets drooping on the tables, of the + crowds of starers on every platform, of the bowing officials wherever + your eye chanced to turn. The Countess Disthal, of course, had been + always at her elbow, and when she had to go to the window and do the + gracious her anxiety lest she should bestow one smile too few had only + been surpassed by the Countess's anxiety lest she should bestow one + smile too many. Well, that was done with now; as much done with as a + nightmare, grisly staleness, is done with when you wake to a fair + spring morning and the smell of dew. And she had no fears. She was + sure, knowing him as she did, that when the Grand Duke found out she + had run away he would make no attempt to fetch her back, but would + simply draw a line through his remembrance of her, rub her out of his + mind, (his heart, she knew, would need no rubbing, because she had + never been in it,) and after the first fury was over, fury solely on + account of the scandal, he would be as he had been before, while + she—oh wonderful new life!—she would be born again to all the + charities. +</p> +<p> + Now how can I, weak vessel whose only ballast is a cargo of + interrogations past which life swirls with a thunder of derisively + contradictory replies, pretend to say whether Priscilla ought to have + had conscience-qualms or not? Am I not deafened by the roar of + answers, all seemingly so right yet all so different, that the + simplest question brings? And would not the answering roar to anything + so complicated as a question about conscience-qualms deafen me for + ever? I shall leave the Princess, then, to run away from her home and + her parent if she chooses, and make no effort to whitewash any part of + her conduct that may seem black. I shall chronicle, and not comment. I + shall try to, that is, for comments are very dear to me. Indeed I see + I cannot move on even now till I have pointed out that though + Priscilla was getting as far as she could from the Grand Duke she was + also getting as near as she could to the possession of her soul; and + there are many persons who believe this to be a thing so precious that + it is absolutely the one thing worth living for. +</p> +<p> + The crossing to Dover, then, was accomplished quite peacefully by + Priscilla. Not so, however, by Fritzing. He, tormented man, chief + target for the goddess's darts, spent his time holding on to the rail + along the turbine's side in order to steady himself; and as there was + a dead calm that day the reader will at once perceive that the tempest + must have been inside Fritzing himself. It was; and it had been raised + to hurricane pitch by some snatches of the talk of two Englishmen he + had heard as they paced up and down past where he was standing. +</p> +<p> + The first time they passed, one was saying to the other, "I never + heard of anything so infamous." +</p> +<p> + This ought not to have made Fritzing, a person of stainless life and + noble principles, start, but it did. He started; and he listened + anxiously for more. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said the other, who had a newspaper under his arm, "they + deserve about as bad as they'll—" +</p> +<p> + He was out of ear-shot; but Fritzing mechanically finished the + sentence himself. Who had been infamous? And what were they going to + get? It was at this point that he laid hold of the handrail to steady + himself till the two men should pass again. +</p> +<p> + "You can tell, of course, what steps our Government will take," was + the next snatch. +</p> +<p> + "I shall be curious to see the attitude of the foreign papers," was + the next. +</p> +<p> + "Anything more wanton I never heard of," was the next. +</p> +<p> + "Of all the harmless, innocent creatures—" was the next. +</p> +<p> + And the last snatch of all—for though they went on walking Fritzing + heard no more after it—was the brief and singular expression + "Devils." +</p> +<p> + Devils? <i>What</i> were they talking about? Devils? Was that, then, how + the public stigmatized blameless persons in search of peace? Devils? + What, himself and—no, never Priscilla. She was clearly the harmless + innocent creature, and he must be the other thing. But why plural? He + could only suppose that he and Annalise together formed a sulphurous + plural. He clung very hard to the rail. Who could have dreamed it + would get so quickly into the papers? Who could have dreamed the news + of it would call forth such blazing words? They would be confronted at + Dover by horrified authorities. His Princess was going to be put in a + most impossible position. What had he done? Heavens and earth, what + had he done? +</p> +<p> + He clung to the rail, staring miserably over the side into the oily + water. Some of the passengers lingered to watch him, at first because + they thought he was going to be seasick with so little provocation + that it amounted to genius, and afterwards because they were sure he + must want to commit suicide. When they found that time passed and he + did neither, he became unpopular, and they went away and left him + altogether and contemptuously alone. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, are you worried about anything?" asked Priscilla, coming to + where he still stood staring, although they had got to Dover. +</p> +<p> + Worried! When all Europe was going to be about their ears? When he was + in the eyes of the world a criminal—an aider, abettor, lurer-away of + youth and impulsiveness? He loved the Princess so much that he cared + nothing for his own risks, but what about hers? In an agony of haste + he rushed to his ideals and principles for justification and comfort, + tumbling them over, searching feverishly among them. They had forsaken + him. They were so much lifeless rubbish. Nowhere in his mind could he + find a rag of either comfort or justification with which to stop up + his ears against the words of the two Englishmen and his eyes against + the dreadful sight he felt sure awaited them on the quay at Dover—the + sight of incensed authorities ready to pounce on him and drag him away + for ever from his Princess. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gazed at him in astonishment. He was taking no notice of + her, and was looking fearfully up and down the row of faces that were + watching the turbine's arrival. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, if you are worried it must be because you've not slept," + said Priscilla, laying her hand with a stroking little movement on his + sleeve; for what but overwrought nerves could make him look so odd? It + was after all Fritzing who had behaved with the braveness of a lion + the night before in that matter of the policeman; and it was he who + had asked in stern tones of rebuke, when her courage seemed aflicker, + whether she repented. "You do not repent?" she asked, imitating that + sternness. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am—" he began in a low and dreadful voice, his eyes ceaselessly + ranging up and down the figures on the quay. +</p> +<p> + "Sh—sh—Niece," interrupted Priscilla, smiling. +</p> +<p> + He turned and looked at her as a man may look for the last time at the + thing in life that has been most dear to him, and said nothing. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IV +</h2> +<p> + But nobody was waiting for them at Dover. Fritzing's agonies might all + have been spared. They passed quite unnoticed through the crowd of + idlers to the train, and putting Priscilla and her maid into it he + rushed at the nearest newspaper-boy, pouncing on him, tearing a + handful of his papers from him, and was devouring their contents + before the astonished boy had well finished his request that he should + hold hard. The boy, who had been brought up in the simple faith that + one should pay one's pennies first and read next, said a few things + under his breath about Germans—crude short things not worth + repeating—and jerking his thumb towards the intent Fritzing, winked + at a detective who was standing near. The detective did not need the + wink. His bland, abstracted eyes were already on Fritzing, and he was + making rapid mental notes of the goggles, the muffler, the cap pulled + down over the ears. Truly it is a great art, that of running away, and + needs incessant practice. +</p> +<p> + And after all there was not a word about the Princess in the papers. + They were full, as the Englishmen on the turbine had been full, of + something the Russians, who at that time were always doing something, + had just done—something that had struck England from end to end into + a blaze of indignation and that has nothing to do with my story. + Fritzing dropped the papers on the platform, and had so little public + spirit that he groaned aloud with relief. +</p> +<p> + "Shilling and a penny 'alfpenny, please, sir," said the newspaper-boy + glibly. "<i>Westminster Gazette</i>, sir, <i>Daily Mail</i>, <i>Sporting and + Dramatic</i>, one <i>Lady</i>, and two <i>Standards</i>." From which it will be + seen that Fritzing had seized his handful very much at random. +</p> +<p> + He paid the boy without heeding his earnest suggestions that he should + try <i>Tit-Bits</i>, the <i>Saturday Review</i>, and <i>Mother</i>, to complete, said + the boy, in substance if not in words, his bird's-eye view over the + field of representative English journalism, and went back to the + Princess with a lighter heart than he had had for months. The + detective, apparently one of Nature's gentlemen, picked up the + scattered papers, and following Fritzing offered them him in the + politest way imaginable just as Priscilla was saying she wanted to see + what tea-baskets were like. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said the detective, taking off his hat, "I believe these are + yours." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing, taking off his cap in his turn and bowing with + all the ceremony of foreigners, "I am much obliged to you." +</p> +<p> + "Pray don't mention it, sir," said the detective, on whose brain the + three were in that instant photographed—the veiled Priscilla, the + maid sitting on the edge of the seat as though hardly daring to sit + at all, and Fritzing's fine head and mop of grey hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla, as she caught his departing eye, bowed and smiled + graciously. He withdrew to a little distance, and fell into a + reverie: where had he seen just that mechanically gracious bow and + smile? They were very familiar to him. +</p> +<p> + As the train slowly left the station he saw the lady in the veil once + more. She was alone with her maid, and was looking out of the window + at nothing in particular, and the station-master, who was watching the + train go, chanced to meet her glance. Again there was the same smile + and bow, quite mechanical, quite absent-minded, distinctly gracious. + The station-master stared in astonishment after the receding carriage. + The detective roused himself from his reverie sufficiently to step + forward and neatly swing himself into the guard's van: there being + nothing to do in Dover he thought he would go to London. +</p> +<p> + I believe I have forgotten, in the heat of narration, to say that the + fugitives were bound for Somersetshire. Fritzing had been a great + walker in the days when he lived in England, and among other places + had walked about Somersetshire. It is a pleasant county; fruitful, + leafy, and mild. Down in the valleys myrtles and rhododendrons have + been known to flower all through the winter. Devonshire junkets and + Devonshire cider are made there with the same skill precisely as in + Devonshire; and the parts of it that lie round Exmoor are esteemed by + those who hunt. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing quite well remembered certain villages buried among the + hills, miles from the nearest railway, and he also remembered the + farmhouses round about these villages where he had lodged. To one of + these he had caused a friend in London to write engaging rooms for + himself and his niece, and there he proposed to stay till they should + have found the cottage the Princess had set her heart on. +</p> +<p> + This cottage, as far as he could gather from the descriptions she + gave him from time to time, was going to be rather difficult to + find. He feared also that it would be a very insect-ridden place, + and that their calm pursuits would often be interrupted by things + like earwigs. It was to be ancient, and much thatched and latticed + and rose-overgrown. It was, too, to be very small; the smallest of + labourers' cottages. Yet though so small and so ancient it was to + have several bathrooms—one for each of them, so he understood; + "For," said the Princess, "if Annalise hasn't a bathroom how can + she have a bath? And if she hasn't had a bath how can I let her + touch me?" +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps," said Fritzing, bold in his ignorance of Annalise's real + nature, "she could wash at the pump. People do, I believe, in the + country. I remember there were always pumps." +</p> +<p> + "But do pumps make you clean enough?" inquired the Princess, + doubtfully. +</p> +<p> + "We can try her with one. I fancy, ma'am, it will be less difficult + to find a cottage that has only two bathrooms than one that has three. + And I know there are invariably pumps." +</p> +<p> + Searching his memory he could recollect no bathrooms at all, but he + did not say so, and silently hoped the best. +</p> +<p> + To the Somerset village of Symford and to the farm about a mile + outside it known as Baker's, no longer, however, belonging to Baker, + but rented by a Mr. Pearce, they journeyed down from Dover without a + break. Nothing alarming happened on the way. They were at Victoria by + five, and the Princess sat joyfully making the acquaintance of a + four-wheeler's inside for twenty minutes during which Fritzing and + Annalise got the luggage through the customs. Fritzing's goggles and + other accessories of flight inspired so much interest in the customs + that they could hardly bear to let him go and it seemed as if they + would never tire of feeling about in the harmless depths of + Priscilla's neat box. They had however ultimately to part from him, + for never was luggage more innocent; and rattling past Buckingham + Palace on the way to Paddington Priscilla blew it a cheerful kiss, + symbolic of a happiness too great to bear ill-will. Later on Windsor + Castle would have got one too, if it had not been so dark that she + could not see it. The detective, who felt himself oddly drawn towards + the trio, went down into Somersetshire by the same train as they did, + but parted from them at Ullerton, the station you get out at when you + go to Symford. He did not consider it necessary to go further; and + taking a bedroom at Ullerton in the same little hotel from which + Fritzing had ordered the conveyance that was to drive them their last + seven miles he went to bed, it being close on midnight, with Mr. + Pearce's address neatly written in his notebook. +</p> +<p> + This, at present, is the last of the detective. I will leave him + sleeping with a smile on his face, and follow the dog-cart as it drove + along that beautiful road between wooded hills that joins Ullerton to + Symford, on its way to Baker's Farm. +</p> +<p> + At the risk of exhausting Priscilla Fritzing had urged pushing on + without a stop, and Priscilla made no objection. This is how it came + about that the ostler attached to the Ullerton Arms found himself + driving to Symford in the middle of the night. He could not recollect + ever having done such a thing before, and the memory of it would be + quite unlikely to do anything but remain fixed in his mind till his + dying day. Fritzing was a curiously conspicuous fugitive. +</p> +<p> + It was a clear and beautiful night, and the stars twinkled brightly + over the black tree-tops. Down in the narrow gorge through which the + road runs they could not feel the keen wind that was blowing up on + Exmoor. The waters of the Sym, whose windings they followed, gurgled + over their stones almost as quietly as in summer. There was a fresh + wet smell, consoling and delicious after the train, the smell of + country puddles and country mud and dank dead leaves that had been + rained upon all day. Fritzing sat with the Princess on the back seat + of the dog-cart, and busied himself keeping the rug well round her, + the while his soul was full of thankfulness that their journey should + after all have been so easy. He was weary in body, but very jubilant + in mind. The Princess was so weary in body that she had no mind at + all, and dozed and nodded and threatened to fall out, and would have + fallen out a dozen times but for Fritzing's watchfulness. As for + Annalise, who can guess what thoughts were hers while she was being + jogged along to Baker's? That they were dark I have not a doubt. No + one had told her this was to be a journey into the Ideal; no one had + told her anything but that she was promoted to travelling with the + Princess and that she would be well paid so long as she held her + tongue. She had never travelled before, yet there were some + circumstances of the journey that could not fail to strike the most + inexperienced. This midnight jogging in the dog-cart, for instance. It + was the second night spent out of bed, and all day long she had + expected every moment would end the journey, and the end, she had + naturally supposed, would be a palace. There would be a palace, and + warmth, and light, and food, and welcome, and honour, and appreciative + lacqueys with beautiful white silk calves—alas, Annalise's ideal, her + one ideal, was to be for ever where there were beautiful white silk + calves. The road between Ullerton and Symford conveyed to her mind no + assurance whatever of the near neighbourhood of such things; and as + for the dog-cart—"<i>Himmel</i>," said Annalise to herself, whenever she + thought of the dog-cart. +</p> +<p> + Their journey ended at two in the morning. Almost exactly at that hour + they stopped at the garden gate of Baker's Farm, and a woman came out + with a lantern and helped them down and lighted them up the path to + the porch. The Princess, who could hardly make her eyes open + themselves, leaned on Fritzing's arm in a sort of confused dream, got + somehow up a little staircase that seemed extraordinarily steep and + curly, and was sound asleep in a knobbly bed before Annalise realized + she had done with her. Priscilla had forgotten all about the Ideal, + all about her eager aspirations. Sleep, dear Mother with the cool + hand, had smoothed them all away, the whole rubbish of those daylight + toys, and for the next twelve hours sat tenderly by her pillow, her + finger on her lips. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + V +</h2> +<p> + No better place than Symford can be imagined for those in search of a + spot, picturesque and with creepers, where they may spend quiet years + guiding their feet along the way of peace. It is one of the prettiest + of English villages. It does and has and is everything the ideal + village ought to. It nestles, for instance, in the folds of hills; it + is very small, and far away from other places; its cottages are old + and thatched; its little inn is the inn of a story-book, with a quaint + signboard and an apparently genial landlord; its church stands + beautifully on rising ground among ancient trees, besides being hoary; + its vicarage is so charming that to see it makes you long to marry a + vicar; its vicar is venerable, with an eye so mild that to catch it is + to receive a blessing; pleasant little children with happy morning + faces pick butter-cups and go a-nutting at the proper seasons and + curtsey to you as you pass; old women with clean caps and suitable + faces read their Bibles behind latticed windows; hearths are scrubbed + and snowy; appropriate kettles simmer on hobs; climbing roses and trim + gardens are abundant; and it has a lady bountiful of so untiring a + kindness that each of its female inhabitants gets a new flannel + petticoat every Christmas and nothing is asked of her in return but + that she shall, during the ensuing year, be warm and happy and good. + The same thing was asked, I believe, of the male inhabitants, who get + comforters, and also that they should drink seltzer-water whenever + their lower natures urged them to drink rum; but comforters are so + much smaller than petticoats that the men of Symford's sense of + justice rebelled, and since the only time they ever felt really warm + and happy and good was when they were drinking rum they decided that + on the whole it would be more in accordance with their benefactress's + wishes to go on doing it. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth, the lady from whom these comforters and petticoats + proceeded, was a just woman who required no more of others than she + required of herself, and who was busy and kind, and, I am sure happy + and good, on cold water. But then she did not like rum; and I suppose + there are few things quite so easy as not to drink rum if you don't + like it. She lived at Symford Hall, two miles away in another fold of + the hills, and managed the estate of her son who was a minor—at this + time on the very verge of ceasing to be one—with great precision and + skill. All the old cottages in Symford were his, and so were the farms + dotted about the hills. Any one, therefore, seeking a cottage would + have to address himself to the Shuttleworth agent, Mr. Dawson, who too + lived in a house so picturesque that merely to see it made you long + either to poison or to marry Mr. Dawson—preferably, I think, to + poison him. +</p> +<p> + These facts, stripped of the redundances with which I have + garnished them, were told Fritzing on the day after his arrival + at Baker's Farm by Mrs. Pearce the younger, old Mr. Pearce's + daughter-in-law, a dreary woman with a rent in her apron, who + brought in the bacon for Fritzing's solitary breakfast and the chop + for his solitary luncheon. She also brought in a junket so liquid + that the innocent Fritzing told her politely that he always drank + his milk out of a glass when he did drink milk, but that, as he + never did drink milk, she need not trouble to bring him any. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Mrs. Pearce in her slow sad voice, after a glance at his + face in search of sarcasm, "'tisn't milk. 'Tis a junket that hasn't + junked." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed?" said Fritzing, bland because ignorant. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Pearce fidgeted a little, wrestling perhaps with her conscience, + before she added defiantly, "It wouldn't." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed?" said Fritzing once more; and he looked at the junket through + his spectacles with that air of extreme and intelligent interest with + which persons who wish to please look at other people's babies. +</p> +<p> + He was desirous of being on good terms with Symford, and had been very + pleasant all the morning to Mrs. Pearce. That mood in which, shaken + himself to his foundations by anxiety, he had shaken his fist to + Annalise, was gone as completely as yesterday's wet mist. The golden + sunshine of October lay beautifully among the gentle hills and seemed + to lie as well in Fritzing's heart. He had gone through so much for so + many weeks that merely to be free from worries for the moment filled + him with thankfulness. So may he feel who has lived through days of + bodily torture in that first hour when his pain has gone: beaten, + crushed, and cowed by suffering, he melts with gratitude because he is + being left alone, he gasps with a relief so utter that it is almost + abject praise of the Cruelty that has for a little loosened its hold. + In this abjectly thankful mood was Fritzing when he found his worst + agonies were done. What was to come after he really for the moment did + not care. It was sufficient to exist untormented and to let his soul + stretch itself in the privacy and peace of Baker's. He and his + Princess had made a great and noble effort towards the realization of + dreams that he felt were lofty, and the gods so far had been with + them. All that first morning in Symford he had an oddly restful, + unburdened feeling, as of having been born again and born aged + twenty-five; and those persons who used to be twenty-five themselves + will perhaps agree that this must have been rather nice. He did not + stir from the parlour lest the Princess should come down and want him, + and he spent the waiting hours getting information from Mrs. Pearce + and informing her mind in his turn with just that amount of knowledge + about himself and his niece that he wished Symford to possess. With + impressive earnestness he told her his name was Neumann, repeating it + three times, almost as if in defiance of contradiction; that his niece + was his deceased brother's child; that her Christian name—here he was + swept away by inspiration—was Maria-Theresa; that he had saved enough + as a teacher of German in London to retire into the country; and that + he was looking for a cottage in which to spend his few remaining + years. +</p> +<p> + It all sounded very innocent. Mrs. Pearce listened with her head on + one side and with something of the air of a sparrow who doesn't feel + well. She complimented him sadly on the fluency of his English, and + told him with a sigh that in no cottage would he ever again find the + comforts with which Baker's was now surrounding him. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was surprised to hear her say so, for his impressions had + all been the other way. As far as he, inexperienced man, could + tell, Baker's was a singularly draughty and unscrubbed place. He + smelt that its fires smoked, he heard that its windows rattled, he + knew that its mattresses had lumps in them, and he saw that its + food was inextricably mixed up with objects of a black and gritty + nature. But her calm face and sorrowful assurance shook the + evidence of his senses, and gazing at her in silence over his + spectacles a feeling crept dimly across his brain that if the + future held many dealings with women like Mrs. Pearce he was going + to be very helpless. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla appeared while he was gazing. She was dressed for going out + and came in buttoning her gloves, and I suppose it was a long time + since Baker's had seen anything quite so radiant in the way of nieces + within its dusty walls. She had on the clothes she had travelled in, + for a search among the garments bought by Fritzing had resulted in + nothing but a sitting on the side of the bed and laughing tears, so it + was clearly not the clothes that made her seem all of a sparkle with + lovely youth and blitheness. Kunitz would not have recognized its + ivory Princess in this bright being. She was the statue come to life, + the cool perfection kissed by expectation into a bewitching living + woman. I doubt whether Fritzing had ever noticed her beauty while at + Kunitz. He had seen her every day from childhood on, and it is + probable that his attention being always riveted on her soul he had + never really known when her body left off being lanky and freckled. He + saw it now, however; he would have been blind if he had not; and it + set him vibrating with the throb of a new responsibility. Mrs. Pearce + saw it too, and stared astonished at this oddly inappropriate niece. + She stared still more when Fritzing, jumping up from his chair, bent + over the hand Priscilla held out and kissed it with a devotion and + respect wholly absent from the manner of Mrs. Pearce's own uncles. + She, therefore, withdrew into her kitchen, and being a person of + little culture crudely expressed her wonder by thinking "Lor." To + which, after an interval of vague meanderings among saucepans, she + added the elucidation, "Foreigners." +</p> +<p> + Half an hour later Lady Shuttleworth's agent, Mr. Dawson, was + disturbed at his tea by the announcement that a gentleman wished to + speak to him. Mr. Dawson was a bluff person, and something of a + tyrant, for he reigned supreme in Symford after Lady Shuttleworth, and + to reign supreme over anybody, even over a handful of cottagers, does + bring out what a man may have in him of tyrant. Another circumstance + that brings this out is the possession of a meek wife; and Mr. + Dawson's wife was really so very meek that I fear when the Day of + Reckoning comes much of this tyranny will be forgiven him and laid to + her account. Mr. Dawson, in fact, represented an unending series of + pitfalls set along his wife's path by Fate, into every one of which + she fell; and since we are not supposed, on pain of punishment, to do + anything but keep very upright on our feet as we trudge along the + dusty road of life, no doubt all those amiable stumblings will be + imputed to her in the end for sin. "This man was handed over to you + quite nice and kind," one can imagine Justice saying in an awful + voice; "his intentions to start with were beyond reproach. Do you not + remember, on the eve of your wedding, how he swore with tears he would + be good to you? Look, now, what you have made of him. You have + prevented his being good to you by your own excessive goodness to + him. You have spent your time nourishing his bad qualities. Though he + still swears, he never does it with tears. Do you not know the + enormous, the almost insurmountable difficulty there is in not + bullying meekness, in not responding to the cringer with a kick? Weak + and unteachable woman, away with you." +</p> +<p> + Certainly it is a great responsibility taking a man into one's life. + It is also an astonishment to me that I write thus in detail of Mrs. + Dawson, for she has nothing whatever to do with the story. +</p> +<p> + "Who is it?" asked Mr. Dawson; immediately adding, "Say I'm engaged." +</p> +<p> + "He gave no name, sir. He says he wishes to see you on business." +</p> +<p> + "Business! I don't do business at tea time. Send him away." +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing, for he it was, would not be sent away. Priscilla had + seen the cottage of her dreams, seen it almost at once on entering the + village, fallen instantly and very violently in love with it + regardless of what its inside might be, and had sent him to buy it. + She was waiting while he bought it in the adjoining churchyard sitting + on a tombstone, and he could neither let her sit there indefinitely + nor dare, so great was her eagerness to have the thing, go back + without at least a hope of it. Therefore he would not be sent away. + "Your master's in," he retorted, when the maid suggested he should + depart, "and I must see him. Tell him my business is pressing." +</p> +<p> + "Will you give me your card, sir?" said the maid, wavering before + this determination. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, of course, had no card, so he wrote his new name in pencil + on a leaf of his notebook, adding his temporary address. +</p> +<p> + "Tell Mr. Dawson," he said, tearing it out and giving it to her, "that + if he is so much engaged as to be unable to see me I shall go direct + to Lady Shuttleworth. My business will not wait." +</p> +<p> + "Show him in, then," growled Mr. Dawson on receiving this message; for + he feared Lady Shuttleworth every bit as much as Mrs. Dawson feared + him. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was accordingly shown into the room used as an office, and + was allowed to cool himself there while Mr. Dawson finished his tea. + The thought of his Princess waiting on a tombstone that must be + growing colder every moment, for the sun was setting, made him at last + so impatient that he rang the bell. +</p> +<p> + "Tell your master," he said when the maid appeared, "that I am now + going to Lady Shuttleworth." And he seized his hat and was making + indignantly for the door when Mr. Dawson appeared. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson was wiping his mouth. "You seem to be in a great hurry," he + said; and glancing at the slip of paper in his hand added, "Mr. + Newman." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing, bowing with a freezing dignity, "I am." +</p> +<p> + "Well, so am I. Sit down. What can I do for you? Time's money, you + know, and I'm a busy man. You're German, ain't you?" +</p> +<p> + "I am, sir. My name is Neumann. I am here—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, Noyman, is it? I thought it was Newman." And he glanced again at + the paper. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing, with a wave of his hand, "I am here to buy a + cottage, and the sooner we come to terms the better. I will not waste + valuable moments considering niceties of pronunciation." +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson stared. Then he said, "Buy a cottage?" +</p> +<p> + "Buy a cottage, sir. I understand that practically the whole of + Symford is the property of the Shuttleworth family, and that you are + that family's accredited agent. I therefore address myself in the + first instance to you. Now, sir, if you are unable, either through + disinclination or disability, to do business with me, kindly state the + fact at once, and I will straightway proceed to Lady Shuttleworth + herself. I have no time to lose." +</p> +<p> + "I'm blessed if I have either, Mr."—he glanced again at the + paper—"Newman." +</p> +<p> + "Neumann, sir," corrected Fritzing irritably. +</p> +<p> + "All right—Noyman. But why don't you write it then? You've written + Newman as plain as a doorpost." +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I am not here to exercise you in the proper pronunciation of + foreign tongues. These matters, of an immense elementariness I must + add, should be and generally are acquired by all persons of any + education in their childhood at school." +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson stared. "You're a long-winded chap," he said, "but I'm + blessed if I know what you're driving at. Suppose you tell me what + you've come for, Mr."—he referred as if from habit to the + paper—"Newman." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Neu</i>mann, sir," said Fritzing very loud, for he was greatly + irritated by Mr. Dawson's manner and appearance. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Noy</i>mann, then," said Mr. Dawson, equally loudly; indeed it was + almost a shout. And he became possessed at the same instant of what + was known to Fritzing as a red head, which is the graphic German way + of describing the glow that accompanies wrath. "Look here," he said, + "if you don't say what you've got to say and have done with it you'd + better go. I'm not the chap for the fine-worded game, and I'm hanged + if I'll be preached to in my own house. I'll be hanged if I will, do + you hear?" And he brought his fist down on the table in a fashion very + familiar to Mrs. Dawson and the Symford cottagers. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, your manners—" said Fritzing, rising and taking up his hat. +</p> +<p> + "Never mind my manners, Mr. Newman." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Neu</i>mann, sir!" roared Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "Confound you, sir," was Mr. Dawson's irrelevant reply. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, confound <i>you</i>," said Fritzing, clapping on his hat. "And let me + tell you that I am going at once to Lady Shuttleworth and shall + recommend to her most serious consideration the extreme desirability + of removing you, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Removing me! Where the deuce to?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I care not whither so long as it is hence," cried Fritzing, + passionately striding to the door. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson lay back in his chair and gasped. The man was plainly mad; + but still Lady Shuttleworth might—you never know with women—"Look + here—hie, you! Mr. Newman!" he called, for Fritzing had torn open the + door and was through it. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Neu</i>mann, sir," Fritzing hurled back at him over his shoulder. +</p> +<p> + "Lady Shuttleworth won't see you, Mr. Noyman. She won't on principle." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing wavered. +</p> +<p> + "Everything goes through my hands. You'll only have your walk for + nothing. Come back and tell me what it is you want." +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I will only negotiate with you," said Fritzing down the + passage—and Mrs. Dawson hearing him from the drawing-room folded her + hands in fear and wonder—"if you will undertake at least to imitate + the manners of a gentleman." +</p> +<p> + "Come, come, you musn't misunderstand me," said Mr. Dawson getting up + and going to the door. "I'm a plain man, you know—" +</p> +<p> + "Then, sir, all I can say is that I object to plain men." +</p> +<p> + "I say, who are you? One would think you were a duke or somebody, + you're so peppery. Dressed up"—Mr. Dawson glanced at the suit of + pedagogic black into which Fritzing had once more relapsed—"dressed + up as a street preacher." +</p> +<p> + "I am not dressed up as anything, sir," said Fritzing coming in rather + hurriedly. "I am a retired teacher of the German tongue, and have come + down from London in search of a cottage in which to spend my remaining + years. That cottage I have now found here in your village, and I have + come to inquire its price. I wish to buy it as quickly as possible." +</p> +<p> + "That's all very well, Mr.—oh all right, all right, I won't say it. + But why on earth don't you write it properly, then? It's this paper's + set me wrong. I was going to say we've got no cottages here for sale. + And look here, if that's all you are, a retired teacher, I'll trouble + you not to get schoolmastering me again." +</p> +<p> + "I really think, sir," said Fritzing stretching his hand towards his + hat, "that it is better I should try to obtain an interview with Lady + Shuttleworth, for I fear you are constitutionally incapable of + carrying on a business conversation with the requisite decent + self-command." +</p> +<p> + "Pooh—you'll get nothing out of her. She'll send you back to me. Why, + you'd drive her mad in five minutes with that tongue of yours. If you + want anything I'm your man. Only let's get at what you do want, + without all these confounded dictionary words. Which cottage is it?" +</p> +<p> + "It is the small cottage," said Fritzing mastering his anger, + "adjoining the churchyard. It stands by itself, and is separated from + the road by an extremely miniature garden. It is entirely covered by + creeping plants which I believe to be roses." +</p> +<p> + "That's a couple." +</p> +<p> + "So much the better." +</p> +<p> + "And they're let. One to the shoemaker, and the other to old mother + Shaw." +</p> +<p> + "Accommodation could no doubt be found for the present tenants in some + other house, and I am prepared to indemnify them handsomely. Might I + inquire the number of rooms the cottages contain?" +</p> +<p> + "Two apiece, and a kitchen and attic. Coal-hole and pig-stye in the + back yard. Also a pump. But they're not for sale, so what's the use—" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, do they also contain bathrooms?" +</p> +<p> + "Bathrooms?" Mr. Dawson stared with so excessively stupid a stare that + Fritzing, who heaver could stand stupidity, got angry again. +</p> +<p> + "I said bathrooms, sir," he said, raising his voice, "and I believe + with perfect distinctness." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I heard you right enough. I was only wondering if you were trying + to be funny." +</p> +<p> + "Is this a business conversation or is it not?" cried Fritzing, in his + turn bringing his fist down on the table. +</p> +<p> + "Look here, what do you suppose people who live in such places want?" +</p> +<p> + "I imagine cleanliness and decency as much as anybody else." +</p> +<p> + "Well, I've never been asked for one with a bathroom in my life." +</p> +<p> + "You are being asked now," said Fritzing, glaring at him, "but you + wilfully refuse to reply. From your manner, however, I conclude that + they contain none. If so, no doubt I could quickly have some built." +</p> +<p> + "Some? Why, how many do you want?" +</p> +<p> + "I have a niece, sir, and she must have her own." +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson again stared with what seemed to Fritzing so deplorably + foolish a stare. "I never heard of such a thing," he said. +</p> +<p> + "What did you never hear of, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "I never heard of one niece and one uncle in a labourer's cottage + wanting a bathroom apiece." +</p> +<p> + "Apparently you have never heard of very many things," retorted + Fritzing angrily. "My niece desires to have her own bathroom, and it + is no one's business but hers." +</p> +<p> + "She must be a queer sort of girl." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," cried Fritzing, "leave my niece out of the conversation." +</p> +<p> + "Oh all right—all right. I'm sure I don't want to talk about your + niece. But as for the cottages, it's no good wanting those or any + others, for you won't get 'em." +</p> +<p> + "And pray why not, if I offer a good price?" +</p> +<p> + "Lady Shuttleworth won't sell. Why should she? She'd only have to + build more to replace them. Her people must live somewhere. And she'll + never turn out old Shaw and the shoemaker to make room for a couple of + strangers." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was silent, for his heart was sinking. "Suppose, sir," he + said after a pause, during which his eyes had been fixed thoughtfully + on the carpet and Mr. Dawson had been staring at him and whistling + softly but very offensively, "suppose I informed Lady Shuttleworth of + my willingness to build two new cottages—excellent new cottages—for + the tenants of these old ones, and pay her a good price as well for + these, do you think she would listen to me?" +</p> +<p> + "I say, the schoolmastering business must be a rattling good one. I'm + blessed if I know what you want to live in 'em for if money's so + little object with you. They're shabby and uncomfortable, and an old + chap like you—I mean, a man of your age, who's made his little pile, + and wants luxuries like plenty of bathrooms—ought to buy something + tight and snug. Good roof and electric light. Place for horse and + trap. And settle down and be a gentleman." +</p> +<p> + "My niece," said Fritzing, brushing aside these suggestions with an + angrily contemptuous wave of his hand, "has taken a fancy—I may say + an exceedingly violent fancy—to these two cottages. What is all this + talk of traps and horses? My niece wishes for these cottages. I shall + do my utmost to secure them for her." +</p> +<p> + "Well, all I can say is she must be a—" +</p> +<p> + "Silence, sir!" cried Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson got up and opened the door very wide. +</p> +<p> + "Look here," he said, "there's no use going on talking. I've stood + more from you than I've stood from any one for years. Take my advice + and get back home and keep quiet for a bit. I've got no cottages, and + Lady Shuttleworth would shut the door in your face when you got to the + bathroom part. Where are you staying? At the Cock and Hens? + Oh—ah—yes—at Baker's. Well, ask Mrs. Pearce to take great care of + you. Tell her I said so. And good afternoon to you, Mr. Noyman. You + see I've got the name right now—just as we're going to part." +</p> +<p> + "Before I go," said Fritzing, glaring down at Mr. Dawson, "let me + tell you that I have seldom met an individual who unites in his + manner so singularly offensive a combination of facetiousness and + hectoring as yourself. I shall certainly describe your conduct to + Lady Shuttleworth, and not, I hope, in unconvincing language. Sir, + good afternoon." +</p> +<p> + "By-bye," said Mr. Dawson, grinning and waving a pleasant hand. + Several bathrooms indeed! He need have no fears of Lady Shuttleworth. + "Good luck to you with Lady S.!" he called after him cheerily. Then he + went to his wife and bade her see to it that the servant never let + Fritzing in again, explaining that he was not only a foreigner but a + lunatic, and that the mixture was so bad that it hardly bore thinking + of. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VI +</h2> +<p> + While Fritzing was losing his temper in this manner at the agent's, + Priscilla sat up in the churchyard in the sun. The Symford churchyard, + its church, and the pair of coveted cottages, are on a little eminence + rising like an island out of the valley. Sitting under the trees of + this island Priscilla amused herself taking in the quiet scene at her + feet and letting her thoughts wander down happy paths. The valley was + already in shadow, but the tops of the hills on the west side of it + were golden in the late afternoon sunshine. From the cottage chimneys + smoke went up straight and blue into the soft sky, rooks came and + settled over her head in the branches of the elms, and every now and + then a yellow leaf would fall slowly at her feet. Priscilla's heart + was filled with peace. She was going to be so good, she was going to + lead such a clean and beautiful life, so quiet, so helpful to the + poor, so hidden, so cleared of all confusions. Never again would she + need to pose; never again be forced into conflict with her soul. She + had chosen the better part; she had given up everything and followed + after wisdom; and her life would be her justification. Who but knows + the inward peace that descends upon him who makes good resolutions + and abides with him till he suddenly discovers they have all been + broken? And what does the breaking of them matter, since it is their + making that is so wholesome, so bracing to the soul, bringing with it + moments of such extreme blessedness that he misses much who gives it + up for fear he will not keep them? Such blessed moments of lifting up + of the heart were Priscilla's as she sat in the churchyard waiting, + invisibly surrounded by the most beautiful resolutions it is possible + to imagine. The Rev. Edward Morrison, the vicar of whom I have spoken + as venerable, coming slowly up the path leaning on his son's arm with + the intention of going into the church in search of a mislaid + sermon-book, saw Priscilla's thoughtful back under the elm-tree and + perceived at once that it was a back unknown to him. He knew all the + Symford backs, and tourists hardly ever coming there, and never at + that time of the year, it could not, he thought, be the back of a + tourist. Nor could it belong to any one staying with the + Shuttleworths, for he had been there that very afternoon and had found + Lady Shuttleworth rejoicing over the brief period of solitude she and + her son were enjoying before the stream of guests for the coming of + age festivities began. +</p> +<p> + "Robin, what girl is that?" asked the vicar of his son. +</p> +<p> + "I'm sure I don't know," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "She'll catch cold," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "I dare say," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + When they came out of the church ten minutes later Priscilla had not + moved. +</p> +<p> + "She'll certainly catch cold," said the vicar, concerned. +</p> +<p> + "I should think it very likely," said Robin, locking the door. +</p> +<p> + "She's sitting on a stone." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, on old Dawson's slab." +</p> +<p> + "Unwise," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "Profane," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + The vicar took his boy's arm again—the boy, head and shoulders taller + than his father, was down from Cambridge for the vacation then drawing + to its close—and moved, I fear, by the same impulse of pure curiosity + they walked together down the path that would take them right in front + of the young woman on the slab. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was lost in the bright dreams she was weaving, and looked up + with the radiance of them still in her eyes at the two figures between + her and the sunset. +</p> +<p> + "My dear young lady," said the vicar kindly, "are you not afraid of + catching cold? The evenings are so damp now, and you have chosen a + very cold seat." +</p> +<p> + "I don't feel cold," said Priscilla, smiling at this vision of + benevolence. +</p> +<p> + "But I do think you ought not to linger here," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "I am waiting for my uncle. He's gone to buy a cottage, and ought to + be back, really, by now." +</p> +<p> + "Buy a cottage?" repeated the vicar. "My dear young lady, you say + that in the same voice you might use to tell me your uncle had gone to + buy a bun." +</p> +<p> + "What is a bun?" asked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "A bun?" repeated the vicar bewildered, for nobody had ever asked him + that before. +</p> +<p> + "Oh I know—" said Priscilla quickly, faintly flushing, "it's a thing + you eat. Is there a special voice for buns?" +</p> +<p> + "There is for a thing so—well, so momentous as the buying of a + cottage." +</p> +<p> + "Is it momentous? It seems to me so nice and natural." +</p> +<p> + She looked up at the vicar and his son, calmly scrutinizing first one + and then the other, and they stood looking down at her; and each time + her eyes rested on Robin they found his staring at her with the + frankest expression of surprise and admiration. +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me," said the vicar, "if I seem inquisitive, but is it one of + the Symford cottages your uncle wishes to buy? I did not know any were + for sale." +</p> +<p> + "It's that one by the gate," said Priscilla, slightly turning her head + in its direction. +</p> +<p> + "Is it for sale? Dear me, I never knew Lady Shuttleworth sell a + cottage yet." +</p> +<p> + "I don't know yet if she wants to," said Priscilla; "but Fr—, my + uncle, will give any price. And I must have it. I shall—I shall be + ill if I don't." +</p> +<p> + The vicar gazed at her upturned face in perplexity. "Dear me," he + said, after a slight pause. +</p> +<p> + "We must live somewhere," remarked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Of course you must," said Robin, suddenly and so heartily that she + examined his eager face in more detail. +</p> +<p> + "Quite so, quite so," said the vicar. "Are you staying here at + present?" +</p> +<p> + "Never at the Cock and Hens?" broke in Robin. +</p> +<p> + "We're at Baker's Farm." +</p> +<p> + "Ah yes—poor Mrs. Pearce will be glad of lodgers. Poor soul, poor + soul." +</p> +<p> + "She's a very dirty soul," said Robin; and Priscilla's eyes flashed + over him with a sudden sparkle. +</p> +<p> + "Is she the soul with the holes in its apron?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "I expect there are some there. There generally are," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + They both laughed; but the vicar gently shook his head. "Ah well, poor + thing," he said, "she has an uphill life of it. They don't seem + able—they don't seem to understand the art of making both ends meet." +</p> +<p> + "It's a great art," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps they could be helped," said Priscilla, already arranging in + her mind to go and do it. +</p> +<p> + "They do not belong to the class one can help. And Lady Shuttleworth, + I am afraid, disapproves of shiftless people too much to do anything + in the way of reducing the rent." +</p> +<p> + "Lady Shuttleworth can't stand people who don't look happy and don't + mend their apron," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "But it's her own apron," objected Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Exactly," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Well, well, I hope they'll make you comfortable," said the vicar; and + having nothing more that he could well say without having to confess + to himself that he was inquisitive, he began to draw Robin away. "We + shall see you and your uncle on Sunday in church, I hope," he said + benevolently, and took off his hat and showed his snow-white hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla hesitated. She was, it is true, a Protestant, it having been + arranged on her mother's marriage with the Catholic Grand Duke that + every alternate princess born to them was to belong to the Protestant + faith, and Priscilla being the alternate princess it came about that + of the Grand Duke's three children she alone was not a Catholic. + Therefore she could go to church in Symford as often as she chose; but + it was Fritzing's going that made her hesitate, for Fritzing was what + the vicar would have called a godless man, and never went to church. +</p> +<p> + "You are a member of the Church of England?" inquired the vicar, + seeing her hesitate. +</p> +<p> + "Why, pater, she's not English," burst out Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Not English?" echoed the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "Is my English so bad?" asked Priscilla, smiling. +</p> +<p> + "It's frightfully good," said Robin; "but the 'r's,' you know—" +</p> +<p> + "Ah, yes. No, I'm not English. I'm German." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed?" said the vicar, with all the interest that attaches to any + unusual phenomenon, and a German in Symford was of all phenomena the + most unusual. "My dear young lady, how remarkable. I don't remember + ever having met a German before in these parts. Your English is really + surprising. I should never have noticed—my boy's ears are quicker + than my old ones. Will you think me unpardonably curious if I ask what + made you pitch on Symford as a place to live in?" +</p> +<p> + "My uncle passed through it years ago and thought it so pretty that he + determined to spend his old age here." +</p> +<p> + "And you, I suppose, are going to take care of him." +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla, "for we only"—she looked from one to the other + and thought herself extremely clever—"we only have each other in the + whole wide world." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, poor child—you are an orphan." +</p> +<p> + "I didn't say so," said Priscilla quickly, turning red; she who had + always been too proud to lie, how was she going to lie now to this + aged saint with the snow-white hair? +</p> +<p> + "Ah well, well," said the vicar, vaguely soothing. "We shall see you + on Sunday perhaps. There is no reason that I know of why a member of + the German Church should not assist at the services of the Church of + England." And he took off his hat again, and tried to draw Robin away. +</p> +<p> + But Robin lingered, and Priscilla saw so much bright curiosity in his + eyes that she felt she was giving an impression of mysteriousness; and + this being the last thing she wanted to do she thought she had better + explain a little—always a dangerous course to take—and she said, "My + uncle taught languages for years, and is old now and tired, and we + both long for the country and to be quiet. He taught me + English—that's why it's as good as it is. His name"—She was carried + away by the desire to blow out that questioning light in Robin's + eyes—"his name is Schultz." +</p> +<p> + The vicar bowed slightly, and Robin asked with an air of great + politeness but still with that light in his eyes if he were to address + her, then, as Miss Schultz. +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid so," said Priscilla, regretfully. It really sounded gross. + Miss Schultz? She might just as well have chosen something romantic + while she was about it, for Fritzing in the hurry of many cares had + settled nothing yet with her about a name. +</p> +<p> + Robin stared at her very hard, her answer seemed to him so odd. He + stared still more when she looked up with the air of one who has a + happy thought and informed him that her Christian name was Ethel. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel?" echoed Robin. +</p> +<p> + "It's a very pretty name, I think," said Priscilla, looking pleased. +</p> +<p> + "Our housemaid's called Ethel, and so is the little girl that wheels + the gardener's baby's perambulator," was Robin's impetuous comment. +</p> +<p> + "That doesn't make it less pretty," said Priscilla, frowning. +</p> +<p> + "Surely," interrupted the vicar mildly, "Ethel is not a German name?" +</p> +<p> + "I was christened after my mother," said Priscilla gently; and this + was strictly true, for the deceased Grand Duchess had also been + Priscilla. Then a feeling came over her that she was getting into + those depths where persons with secrets begin to flounder as a + preliminary to letting them out, and seized with panic she got up off + the slab. +</p> +<p> + "You are half English, then," said Robin triumphantly, his bright eyes + snapping. He looked very bold and masterful staring straight at her, + his head thrown back, his handsome face twinkling with interest. But a + person of Priscilla's training could not possibly be discomposed by + the stare of any Robin, however masterful; had it not been up to now + her chief function in life to endure being stared at with graceful + indifference? "I did not say so," she said, glancing briefly at him; + and including both father and son in a small smile composed + indescribably of graciousness and chill she added, "It really is damp + here—I don't think I'll wait for my uncle," and slightly bowing + walked away without more ado. +</p> +<p> + She walked very slowly, her skirts gathered loosely in one hand, every + line of her body speaking of the most absolute self-possession and + unapproachableness. Never had the two men seen any one quite so calm. + They watched her in silence as she went up the path and out at the + gate; then Robin looked down at his father and drew his hand more + firmly through his arm and said with a slight laugh, "Come on, pater, + let's go home. We're dismissed." +</p> +<p> + "By a most charming young lady," said the vicar, smiling. +</p> +<p> + "By a very cool one," said Robin, shrugging his shoulders, for he did + not like being dismissed. +</p> +<p> + "Yes—oddly self-possessed for her age," agreed the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "I wonder if all German teacher's nieces are like that," said Robin + with another laugh. +</p> +<p> + "Few can be so blest by nature, I imagine." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I don't mean faces. She is certainly prettier by a good bit than + most girls." +</p> +<p> + "She is quite unusually lovely, young man. Don't quibble." +</p> +<p> + "Miss Schultz—Ethel Schultz," murmured Robin; adding under his + breath, "Good Lord." +</p> +<p> + "She can't help her name. These things are thrust upon one." +</p> +<p> + "It's a beastly common name. Macgrigor, who was a year in Dresden, + told me everybody in Germany is called Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "Except those who are not." +</p> +<p> + "Now, pater, you're being clever again," said Robin, smiling down at + his father. +</p> +<p> + "Here comes some one in a hurry," said the vicar, his attention + arrested by the rapidly approaching figure of a man; and, looking up, + Robin beheld Fritzing striding through the churchyard, his hat well + down over his eyes as if clapped on with unusual vigour, both hands + thrust deep in his pockets, the umbrella, without which he never, even + on the fairest of days, went out, pressed close to his side under his + arm, and his long legs taking short and profane cuts over graves and + tombstones with the indifference to decency of one immersed in + unpleasant thought. It was not the custom in Symford to leap in this + manner over its tombs; and Fritzing arriving at a point a few yards + from the vicar, and being about to continue his headlong career across + the remaining graves to the tree under which he had left Priscilla, + the vicar raised his voice and exhorted him to keep to the path. +</p> +<p> + "Quaint-looking person," remarked Robin. "Another stranger. I say, it + can't be—no, it can't possibly be the uncle?" For he saw he was a + foreigner, yet on the other hand never was there an uncle and a niece + who had less of family likeness. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was the last man wilfully to break local rules or wound + susceptibilities; and pulled out of his unpleasant abstraction by the + vicar's voice he immediately desisted from continuing his short cut, + and coming onto the path removed his hat and apologized with the + politeness that was always his so long as nobody was annoying him. +</p> +<p> + "My name is Neumann, sir," he said, introducing himself after the + German fashion, "and I sincerely beg your pardon. I was looking for a + lady, and"—he gave his spectacles a little adjusting shove as though + they were in fault, and gazing across to the elm where he had left + Priscilla sitting added with sudden anxiety—"I fear I do not see + her." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean Miss Schultz?" asked the vicar, looking puzzled. +</p> +<p> + "No, sir, I do not mean Miss Schultz," said Fritzing, peering about + him at all the other trees in evident surprise and distress. +</p> +<p> + "A lady left about five minutes ago," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "A tall young lady in a blue costume?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes. Miss Schultz." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing looked at him with some sternness. "Sir, what have I to do + with Miss Schultz?" he inquired. +</p> +<p> + "Oh come now," said the cheerful Robin, "aren't you looking for her?" +</p> +<p> + "I am in search of my niece, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Yes. Miss Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "No sir," said Fritzing, controlling himself with an effort, "not + Miss Schultz. I neither know Miss Schultz nor do I care a—" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, sir," interposed the vicar, hastily. +</p> +<p> + "I do not care a <i>pfenning</i> for any Miss Schultz." +</p> +<p> + The vicar looked much puzzled. "There was a young lady," he said, + "waiting under that tree over there for her uncle who had gone, she + said, to see Lady Shuttleworth's agent about the cottage by the gate. + She said her uncle's name was Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "She said she was Miss Ethel Schultz," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "She said she was staying at Baker's Farm," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing stared for a moment from one to the other, then clutching his + hat mechanically half an inch into the air turned on his heel without + another word and went with great haste out of the churchyard and down + the hill and away up the road to the farm. +</p> +<p> + "Quaint, isn't he," said Robin as they slowly followed this flying + figure to the gate. +</p> +<p> + "I don't understand it," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "It does seem a bit mixed." +</p> +<p> + "Did he not say his name was Neumann?" +</p> +<p> + "He did. And he looked as if he'd fight any one who said it wasn't." +</p> +<p> + "It is hardly credible that there should be two sets of German uncles + and nieces in Symford at one and the same time," mused the vicar. + "Even one pair is a most unusual occurrence." +</p> +<p> + "If there are," said Robin very earnestly, "pray let us cultivate the + Schultz set and not the other." +</p> +<p> + "I don't understand it," repeated the vicar, helplessly. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VII +</h2> +<p> + Symford, innocent village, went to bed very early; but early as it + went long before it had got there on this evening it contained no + family that had not heard of the arrivals at Baker's Farm. From the + vicarage the news had filtered that a pretty young lady called Schultz + was staying there with her uncle; from the agent's house the news that + a lunatic called Neumann was staying there with his niece; and about + supper-time, while it was still wondering at this sudden influx of + related Germans, came the postmistress and said that the boy from + Baker's who fetched the letters knew nothing whatever of any one + called Schultz. He had, said the postmistress, grown quite angry and + forgotten the greater and by far the better part of his manners when + she asked him how he could stand there and say such things after all + the years he had attended Sunday-school and if he were not afraid the + earth would open and swallow him up, and he had stuck to it with an + obstinacy that had at length convinced her that only one uncle and + niece were at Baker's, and their name was Neumann. He added that there + was another young lady there whose name he couldn't catch, but who sat + on the edge of her bed all day crying and refusing sustenance. + Appeased by the postmistress's apologies for her first unbelief he + ended by being anxious to give all the information in his power, and + came back quite a long way to tell her that he had forgotten to say + that his mother had said that the niece's Christian name was + Maria-Theresa. +</p> +<p> + "But what, then," said the vicar's wife to the vicar when this news + had filtered through the vicarage walls to the very sofa where she + sat, "has become of the niece called Ethel?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know," said the vicar, helplessly. +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps she is the one who cried all day." +</p> +<p> + "My dear, we met her in the churchyard." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps they are forgers," suggested the vicar's wife. +</p> +<p> + "My dear?" +</p> +<p> + "Or anarchists." +</p> +<p> + "Kate?" +</p> +<p> + The vicar's wife said no more, but silently made up her mind to go the + very next day and call at Baker's. It would be terrible if a bad + influence got into Symford, her parish that she had kept in such good + order for so long. Besides, she had an official position as the wife + of the vicar and could and ought to call on everybody. Her call would + not bind her, any more than the call of a district visitor would, to + invite the called-upon to her house. Perhaps they were quite decent, + and she could ask the girl up to the Tuesday evenings in the + parish-room; hardly to the vicarage, because of her daughter Netta. On + the other hand, if they looked like what she imagined anarchists or + forgers look like, she would merely leave leaflets and be out when + they returned her call. +</p> +<p> + Robin, all unaware of his mother's thoughts, was longing to ask her to + go to Baker's and take him with her as a first step towards the + acquaintance after which his soul thirsted, but he refrained for + various discreet reasons based on an intimate knowledge of his + mother's character; and he spent the evening perfecting a plan that + should introduce him into the interior of Baker's without her help. + The plan was of a barbarous simplicity: he was going to choose an + umbrella from the collection that years had brought together in the + stand in the hall, and go boldly and ask the man Neumann if he had + dropped it in the churchyard. The man Neumann would repudiate the + umbrella, perhaps with secret indignation, but he would be forced to + pretend he was grateful, and who knew what luck might not do for him + after that? +</p> +<p> + While Robin was plotting, and his mother was plotting, that the next + day would certainly see them inside Baker's, a third person was trying + to do exactly the same thing at Symford Hall; and this third person + was no other than Augustus, the hope of all the Shuttleworths. + Augustus—he was known to his friends briefly as Tussie—had been + riding homewards late that afternoon, very slowly, for he was an + anxious young man who spent much of his time dodging things like being + overheated, when he saw a female figure walking towards him along the + lonely road. He was up on the heath above Symford, a solitary place of + heather, and gorse bushes, and winding roads that lead with many + hesitations and delays to different parts of Exmoor, and he himself + with his back to that wild region and the sunset was going, as every + sensible person would be going at that time of the evening, in the + direction of the village and home. But where could the girl be going? + For he now saw it was a girl, and in a minute or two more that it was + a beautiful girl. With the golden glow of the sky the sun had just + left on her face Priscilla came towards him out of the gathering dusk + of approaching evening, and Tussie, who had a poetic soul, gazed at + the vision openmouthed. Seeing him, she quickened her steps, and he + took off his cap eagerly when she asked him to tell her where Symford + was. "I've lost it," she said, looking up at him. +</p> +<p> + "I'm going through it myself," he answered. "Will you let me show you + the way?" +</p> +<p> + "Thank you," said Priscilla; and he got off his horse and she turned + and walked beside him with the same unruffled indifference with which + she would have walked beside the Countess Disthal or in front of an + attending lacquey. Nor did she speak, for she was busy thinking of + Fritzing and hoping he was not being too anxious about her, and Tussie + (God defend his innocence) thought she was shy. So sure was he as the + minutes past that her silence was an embarrassed one that he put an + end to it by remarking on the beauty of the evening, and Priscilla who + had entirely forgotten Miss Schultz gave him the iciest look as a + reminder that it was not his place to speak first. It was lost on + Tussie as a reminder, for naturally it did not remind him of anything, + and he put it down at first to the girl's being ill at ease alone up + there with a strange man, and perhaps to her feeling she had better + keep him at arm's length. A glance at her profile however dispelled + this illusion once and for ever, for never was profile of a profounder + calm. She was walking now with her face in shadow, and the glow behind + her played strange and glorious tricks with her hair. He looked at + her, and looked, and not by the quiver of an eyelash did she show she + was aware of anybody's presence. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, + and she was deep in thought tinged with remorsefulness that she should + have come up here instead of going straight home to the farm, and by + losing her way and staying out so long have given Fritzing's careful + heart an unnecessary pang of anxiety. He had had so many, and all + because of her. But then it had been the very first time in her life + that she had ever walked alone, and if words cannot describe the joy + and triumph of it how was it likely that she should have been able to + resist the temptation to stray aside up a lovely little lane that + lured her on and on from one bend to another till it left her at last + high up, breathless and dazzled, on the edge of the heath, with + Exmoor rolling far away in purple waves to the sunset and all the + splendour of the evening sky in her face? She had gone on, fascinated + by the beauty of the place, and when she wanted to turn back found she + had lost herself. Then appeared Sir Augustus to set her right, and + with a brief thought of him as a useful person on a nice horse she + fell into sober meditations as to the probable amount of torture her + poor Fritzi was going through, and Augustus ceased to exist for her as + completely as a sign-post ceases to exist for him who has taken its + advice and passed on. +</p> +<p> + He looked at her, and looked, and looked again. He had never seen any + one quite so beautiful, and certainly never any one with such an air + of extreme detachment. He was twenty-one and much inclined to poetry, + and he thought as she walked beside him so tall and straight and + aloof, with the nimbus of flaming hair and the noble little head and + slightly stern brow that she looked like nothing less than a young + saint of God. +</p> +<p> + Tussie was not bold like Robin. He was a gentle youth who loved quiet + things, quiet places, placid people, kind dogs, books, canaries even, + if they did not sing too loud. He was sensitive about himself, being + small and weakly, and took, as I have said, great care of what he had + of health, such care indeed that some of his robust friends called him + Fussie. He hated the idea of coming of age and of having a great deal + of money and a great many active duties and responsibilities. His + dream was to be left in peace to write his verses; to get away into + some sweet impossible wilderness, and sit there singing with as much + of the spirit of Omar Kayyam as could reasonably be expected to + descend on a youth who only drank water. He was not bold, I say; and + after that one quelling glance from the young saint's eyes did not + dare speak again for a long while. But they were getting near Symford; + they were halfway down the hill; he could not let her slip away + perhaps suddenly from his side into the shadows without at least + trying to find out where she was staying. He looked at her soft kind + mouth and opened his own to speak. He looked at her stern level brows + and shut it again. At last, keeping his eyes on her mouth he blurted + out, growing red, "I know every soul in Symford, and every soul for + miles round, but I don't know—" He stopped. He was going to say + "you," but he stopped. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's thoughts were so far away that she turned her head and + gazed vaguely at him for a moment while she collected them again. Then + she frowned at him. I do not know why Robin should have had at least + several smiles and poor Tussie only frowns, unless it was that during + this walk the young person Ethel Schultz had completely faded from + Priscilla's mind and the Royal Highness was well to the fore. She + certainly frowned at Tussie and asked herself what could possess the + man to keep on speaking to her. Keep on speaking! Poor Tussie. Aloud + she said freezingly, "Did you say something?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Tussie, his eyes on her mouth—surely a mouth only made + for kindness and gentle words. "I was wondering whether you were + staying at the vicarage." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, "we're staying at Baker's Farm." And at the + mention of that decayed lodging the friendly Schultz expression crept + back, smiling into her eyes. +</p> +<p> + Tussie stopped short. "Baker's Farm?" he said. "Why, then this is the + way; down here, to the right. It's only a few yards from here." +</p> +<p> + "Were you going that way too?" +</p> +<p> + "I live on the other side of Symford." +</p> +<p> + "Then good-bye and thank you." +</p> +<p> + "Please let me go with you as far as the high-road—it's almost dark." +</p> +<p> + "Oh no—I can't lose myself again if it's only a few yards." +</p> +<p> + She nodded, and was turning down the lane. +</p> +<p> + "Are you—are you comfortable there?" he asked hurriedly, blushing. + "The Pearces are tenants of ours. I hope they make you comfortable?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, we're only going to be there a few days. My uncle is buying a + cottage, and we shall leave almost directly." +</p> +<p> + The girl Ethel nodded and smiled and went away quickly into the dusk; + and Tussie rode home thoughtfully, planning elaborate plans for a + descent the next day upon Baker's Farm that should have the necessary + air of inevitableness. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was raging up and down the road in front of the gate when + Priscilla emerged, five minutes later, from the shadows of the lane. + She ran up to him and put her arm through his, and looked up at him + with a face of great penitence. "Dear Fritzi," she said, "I'm so + sorry. I've been making you anxious, haven't I? Forgive me—it was the + first taste of liberty, and it got into my feet and set them off + exploring, and then I lost myself. Have you been worrying?" +</p> +<p> + He was immensely agitated, and administered something very like a + scolding, and he urged the extreme desirability of taking Annalise + with her in future wherever she went—("Oh nonsense, Fritzi," + interjected Priscilla, drawing away her arm)—and he declared in a + voice that trembled that it was a most intolerable thought for him + that two strange men should have dared address her in the churchyard, + that he would never forgive himself for having left her there + alone—("Oh, Fritzi, how silly," interjected Priscilla)—and he begged + her almost with tears to tell him exactly what she had said to them, + for her Grand Ducal Highness must see that it was of the first + importance they should both say the same things to people. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla declared she had said nothing at all but what was quite + diplomatic, in fact quite clever; indeed, she had been surprised at + the way ideas had seemed to flow. +</p> +<p> + "So please," she finished, "don't look at me with such lamentable + eyes." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, did you not tell them our name is Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "But so it is." +</p> +<p> + "It is not, ma'am. Our name is Neumann." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla stared astonished. "Neumann?" she said. "Nonsense, Fritzi. + Why should it be Neumann? We're Schultz. I told these people we were. + It's all settled." +</p> +<p> + "Settled, ma'am? I told the woman here as well as the estate agent + that you are my brother's child and that we are Neumann." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was aghast. Then she said severely, "It was your duty to ask + me first. What right have you to christen me?" +</p> +<p> + "I intended to discuss it during our walk to the village this + afternoon. I admit I forgot it. On the other hand I could not suppose + your Grand Ducal Highness, left for a moment unprotected, would inform + two strange gentlemen that our name was Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "You should certainly have asked me first," repeated Priscilla with + knitted brows. "Why should I have to be Neumann?" +</p> +<p> + "I might inquire with equal reason why I should have to be Schultz," + retorted Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "But why Neumann?" persisted Priscilla, greatly upset. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, why not?" said Fritzing, still more upset. Then he added, + "Your Grand Ducal Highness might have known that at the agent's I + would be obliged to give some name." +</p> +<p> + "I didn't think any more than you did," said Priscilla stopping in + front of the gate as a sign he was to open it for her. He did, and + they walked through the garden and into the house in silence. Then she + went into the parlour and dropped into a horsehair armchair, and + leaning her head against its prickliness she sighed a doleful sigh. +</p> +<p> + "Shall I send Annalise to you, ma'am?" asked Fritzing, standing in the + doorway. +</p> +<p> + "What can we do?" asked Priscilla, her eyes fixed on the tips of her + shoes in earnest thought. "Come in, Fritzi, and shut the door," she + added. "You don't behave a bit like an uncle." Then an idea struck + her, and looking up at him with sudden gaiety she said, "Can't we have + a hyphen?" +</p> +<p> + "A hyphen?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, and be Neumann-Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly we can," said Fritzing, his face clearing; how muddled he + must be getting not to have thought of it himself! "I will cause cards + to be printed at once, and we will be Neumann-Schultz. Ma'am, your + woman's wit—" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, you're deteriorating—you never flattered me at Kunitz. Let + us have tea. I invite you to tea with me. If you'll order it, I'll + pour it out for you and practice being a niece." +</p> +<p> + So the evening was spent in harmony; a harmony clouded at intervals, + it is true, first by Priscilla's disappointment about the cottage, + then by a certain restiveness she showed before the more blatant + inefficiencies of the Baker housekeeping, then by a marked and ever + recurring incapacity to adapt herself to her new environment, and + lastly and very heavily when Fritzing in the course of conversation + let drop the fact that he had said she was Maria-Theresa. This was a + very black cloud and hung about for a long while; but it too passed + away ultimately in a compromise reached after much discussion that + Ethel should be prefixed to Maria-Theresa; and before Priscilla went + to bed it had been arranged that Fritzing should go next morning + directly after a very early breakfast to Lady Shuttleworth and not + leave that lady's side and house till he had secured the cottage, and + the Princess for her part faithfully promised to remain within the + Baker boundaries during his absence. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VIII +</h2> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth then, busiest and most unsuspecting of women, was + whisking through her breakfast and her correspondence next morning + with her customary celerity and method, when a servant appeared and + offered her one of those leaves from Fritzing's note-book which we + know did duty as his cards. +</p> +<p> + Tussie was sitting at the other end of the table very limp and sad + after a night of tiresome tossing that was neither wholly sleep nor + wholly wakefulness, and sheltered by various dishes with spirit-lamps + burning beneath them worked gloomily at a sonnet inspired by the girl + he had met the day before while his mother thought he was eating his + patent food. The girl, it seemed, could not inspire much, for beyond + the fourth line his muse refused to go; and he was beginning to be + unable to stop himself from an angry railing at the restrictions the + sonnet form forces upon poets who love to be vague, which would + immediately have concentrated his mother's attention on himself and + resulted in his having to read her what he had written—for she + sturdily kept up the fiction of a lively interest in his poetic + tricklings—when the servant came in with Fritzing's leaf. +</p> +<p> + "A gentleman wishes to see you on business, my lady," said the + servant. +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Neumann-Schultz?" read out Lady Shuttleworth in an inquiring + voice. "Never heard of him. Where's he from?" +</p> +<p> + "Baker's Farm, my lady." +</p> +<p> + At that magic name Tussie's head went up with a jerk. +</p> +<p> + "Tell him to go to Mr. Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + The servant disappeared. +</p> +<p> + "Why do you send him away, mother?" asked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "Why, you know things must go through Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth + pouncing on her letters again. "I'd be plagued to death if they + didn't." +</p> +<p> + "But apparently this is the stranger within our gates. Isn't he + German?" +</p> +<p> + "His name is. Dawson will be quite kind to him." +</p> +<p> + "Dawson's rather a brute I fancy, when you're not looking." +</p> +<p> + "Dearest, I always am looking." +</p> +<p> + "He must be one of Pearce's lodgers." +</p> +<p> + "Poor man, I'm sorry for him if he is. Of all the shiftless women—" +</p> +<p> + "The gentleman says, my lady," said the servant reappearing with + rather an awestruck face, "that he wishes to speak to you most + particular." +</p> +<p> + "James, did I not tell you to send him to Mr. Dawson?" +</p> +<p> + "I delivered the message, my lady. But the gentleman says he's seen + Mr. Dawson, and that he"—the footman coughed slightly—"he don't want + to see any more of him, my lady." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth put on her glasses and stared at the servant. "Upon + my word he seems to be very cool," she said; and the servant, his gaze + fixed on a respectful point just above his mistress's head, reflected + on the extreme inapplicability of the adjective to anything so warm as + the gentleman at the door. +</p> +<p> + "Shall I see him for you, mother?" volunteered Tussie briskly. +</p> +<p> + "You?" said his mother surprised. +</p> +<p> + "I'm rather a dab at German, you know. Perhaps he can't talk much + English"—the footman started—"evidently he wasn't able to say much + to Dawson. Probably he wants you to protect him from the onslaughts of + old Pearce's cockroaches. Anyhow as he's a foreigner I think it would + be kinder to see him." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth was astonished. Was Tussie going to turn over a new + leaf after all, now that he was coming of age, and interest himself in + more profitable things than verse-making? +</p> +<p> + "Dearest," she said, quite touched, "he shall be seen if you think it + kinder. I'll see him—you haven't done breakfast yet. Show him into + the library, James." And she gathered up her letters and went out—she + never kept people waiting—and as she passed Tussie she laid her hand + tenderly for a moment on his shoulder. "If I find I can't understand + him I'll send for you," she said. +</p> +<p> + Tussie folded up his sonnet and put it in his pocket. Then he ate a + few spoonfuls of the stuff warranted to give him pure blood, huge + muscles, and a vast intelligence; then he opened a newspaper and + stared vacantly at its contents; then he went to the fire and warmed + his feet; then he strolled round the table aimlessly for a little; and + then, when half an hour had passed and his mother had not returned, he + could bear it no longer and marched straight into the library. +</p> +<p> + "I think the cigarettes must be here," said Tussie, going over to the + mantelpiece and throwing a look of eager interest at Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing rose and bowed ceremoniously. Lady Shuttleworth was sitting + in a straight-backed chair, her elbows on its arms, the tips of her + ten fingers nicely fitted together. She looked very angry, and yet + there was a sparkle of something like amusement in her eyes. Having + bowed to Tussie Fritzing sat down again with the elaboration of one + who means to stay a long while. During his walk from the farm he had + made up his mind to be of a most winning amiability and patience, + blended with a determination that nothing should shake. At the door, + it is true, he had been stirred to petulance by the foolish face and + utterances of the footman James, but during the whole of the time he + had been alone with Lady Shuttleworth he had behaved, he considered, + with the utmost restraint and tact. +</p> +<p> + Tussie offered him a cigarette. +</p> +<p> + "My dear Tussie," said his mother quickly, "we will not keep Mr. + Neumann-Schultz. I'm sure his time must be quite as valuable as mine + is." +</p> +<p> + "Oh madam," said Fritzing with a vast politeness, settling himself yet + more firmly in his chair, "nothing of mine can possibly be of the same + value as anything of yours." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth stared—she had stared a good deal during the last + halfhour—then began to laugh, and got up. "If you see its value so + clearly," she said, "I'm sure you won't care to take up any more of + it." +</p> +<p> + "Nay, madam," said Fritzing, forced to get up too, "I am here, as I + explained, in your own interests—or rather in those of your son, who + I hear is shortly to attain his majority. This young gentleman is, I + take it, your son?" +</p> +<p> + Tussie assented. +</p> +<p> + "And therefore the owner of the cottages?" +</p> +<p> + "What cottages?" asked Tussie, eagerly. He was manifestly so violently + interested in Mr. Neumann-Schultz that his mother could only gaze at + him in wonder. He actually seemed to hang on that odd person's lips. +</p> +<p> + "My dear Tussie, Mr. Neumann-Schultz has been trying to persuade me to + sell him the pair of cottages up by the church, and I have been trying + to persuade him to believe me when I tell him I won't." +</p> +<p> + "But why won't you, mother?" asked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth stared at him in astonishment. "Why won't I? Do I + ever sell cottages?" +</p> +<p> + "Your esteemed parent's reasons for refusing," said Fritzing, "reasons + which she has given me with a brevity altogether unusual in one of her + sex and which I cannot sufficiently commend, do more credit, as was to + be expected in a lady, to her heart than to her head. I have offered + to build two new houses for the disturbed inhabitants of these. I have + offered to give her any price—any price at all, within the limits of + reason. Your interests, young gentleman, are what will suffer if this + business is not concluded between us." +</p> +<p> + "Do you want them for yourself?" asked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, sir, for myself and for my niece." +</p> +<p> + "Mother, why do you refuse to do a little business?" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, are we so poor?" +</p> +<p> + "As far as I'm concerned," said Tussie airily to Fritzing, "you may + have the things and welcome." +</p> +<p> + "Tussie?" +</p> +<p> + "But they are not worth more than about fifty pounds apiece, and I + advise you not to give more for them than they're worth. Aren't they + very small, though? Isn't there any other place here you'd rather + have?" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie?" +</p> +<p> + "Do you mind telling me why you want them?" +</p> +<p> + "Young man, to live in them." +</p> +<p> + "And where are the people to live who are in them now?" asked Lady + Shuttleworth, greatly incensed. +</p> +<p> + "Madam, I promised you to build." +</p> +<p> + "Oh nonsense. I won't have new red-brick horrors about the place. + There's that nice good old Mrs. Shaw in one, so clean and tidy always, + and the shoemaker, a very good man except for his enormous family, in + the other. I will not turn them out." +</p> +<p> + "Put 'em in the empty lodge at the north gate," suggested Tussie. + "They'd be delighted." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth turned angrily on Fritzing—she was indeed greatly + irritated by Tussie's unaccountable behaviour. "Why don't you build + for yourself?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "My niece has set her heart on these cottages in such a manner that I + actually fear the consequences to her health if she does not get + them." +</p> +<p> + "Now, mother, you really can't make Mr. Neumann-Schultz's niece ill." +</p> +<p> + "Dearest boy, have you suddenly lost your senses?" +</p> +<p> + "Not unless it's losing them to be ready to do a kindness." +</p> +<p> + "Well said, well said, young man," said Fritzing approvingly. +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, have I ever shirked doing a kindness?" asked Lady + Shuttleworth, touched on her tenderest point. +</p> +<p> + "Never. And that's why I can't let you begin now," said Tussie, + smiling at her. +</p> +<p> + "Well said, well said, young man," approved Fritzing. "The woman up to + a certain age should lead the youth, and he should in all things + follow her counsels with respect and obedience. But she for her part + should know at what moment to lay down her authority, and begin, with + a fitting modesty, to follow him whom she has hitherto led." +</p> +<p> + "Is that what your niece does?" asked Lady Shuttleworth quickly. +</p> +<p> + "Madam?" +</p> +<p> + "Is she following you into these cottages, or are you following her?" +</p> +<p> + "You must pardon me, madam, if I decline to discuss my niece." +</p> +<p> + "Do have a cigarette," said Tussie, delighted. +</p> +<p> + "I never smoke, young man." +</p> +<p> + "Something to drink, then?" +</p> +<p> + "I never drink, young man." +</p> +<p> + "If I decide to let you have these cottages—<i>if</i> I do," said Lady + Shuttleworth, divided between astonishment at everything about + Fritzing and blankest amazement at her son's behaviour, "you will + understand that I only do it because my son seems to wish it." +</p> +<p> + "Madam, provided I get the cottages I will understand anything you + like." +</p> +<p> + "First that. Then I'd want some information about yourself. I + couldn't let a stranger come and live in the very middle of my son's + estate unless I knew all about him." +</p> +<p> + "Why, mother—" began Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "Is not the willingness to give you your own price sufficient?" + inquired Fritzing anxiously. +</p> +<p> + "Not in the least sufficient," snapped Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "What do you wish to know, madam?" said Fritzing stiffly. +</p> +<p> + "I assure you a great deal." +</p> +<p> + "Come, mother," said Tussie, to whom this was painful, for was not the + man, apart from his strange clothes and speeches, of a distinctly + refined and intellectual appearance? And even if he wasn't, was he not + still the uncle of that divine niece?—"these are things for Dawson to + arrange." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing started at the hated name, and began to frown dreadfully. His + frown was always very impressive because of his bushy eyebrows and + deep-set eyes. "Dawson, as you call him," he said, "and he certainly + has no claim to any prefix of politeness, is not a person with whom I + will consent to arrange anything. Dawson is the most offensive + creature who ever walked this earth clad in the outer semblance of one + of God's creatures." +</p> +<p> + This was too much for Lady Shuttleworth. "Really—" she said, + stretching out her hand to the bell. +</p> +<p> + "Didn't I tell you so, mother?" cried Tussie triumphantly; and that + Tussie, her own dear boy, should in all things second this madman + completely overwhelmed her. "I knew he was a brute behind your back. + Let's sack him." +</p> +<p> + "James, show this gentleman out." +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, madam, we have not yet arranged—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," interrupted Tussie, "the business part can be arranged between + you and me without bothering my mother. I'll come part of the way with + you and we'll talk it over. You're absolutely right about Dawson. He's + an outrageous mixture of bully and brute." And he hurried into the + hall to fetch his cap, humming <i>O dear unknown One with the stern + sweet face</i>, which was the first line of his sonnet in praise of + Priscilla, to a cheerful little tune of his own. +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, it's so damp," cried his anxious mother after him—"you're + not really going out in this nasty Scotch mist? Stay in, and I'll + leave you to settle anything you like." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, it's a jolly morning for a walk," called back Tussie gaily, + searching about for his cap—"<i>And eyes all beautiful with strenuous + thought</i>—Come on, sir." +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing would not skimp any part of his farewell ceremonies. +</p> +<p> + "Permit me, madam," he said, deeply bowing, "to thank you for your + extremely kind reception." +</p> +<p> + "Kind?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, unable to stop herself from + smiling. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, madam, kind, and before all things patient." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, I do think I've been rather patient," agreed Lady Shuttleworth, + smiling again. +</p> +<p> + "And let me," proceeded Fritzing, "join to my thanks my + congratulations on your possession of so unusually amiable and + promising a son." +</p> +<p> + "Come on, sir—you'll make me vain," said Tussie, in the + doorway—"'<i>Hair like a web divine wherein is caught</i>,'"—he hummed, + getting more and more shrill and happy. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth put out her hand impulsively. Fritzing took it, bent + over it, and kissed it with much respect. +</p> +<p> + "A most unusually promising young man," he repeated; "and, madam, I + can tell you it is not my habit to say a thing I do not mean." +</p> +<p> + "'<i>The last reflection of God's daily grace</i>'"—chirped Tussie, + looking on much amused. +</p> +<p> + "No, that I'm quite certain you don't," said Lady Shuttleworth with + conviction. +</p> +<p> + "Don't say too many nice things about me," advised Tussie. "My mother + will swallow positively anything." +</p> +<p> + But nevertheless he was delighted; for here were his mother and the + uncle—the valuable and highly to be cherished uncle—looking as + pleased as possible with each other, and apparently in the fairest way + to becoming fast friends. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IX +</h2> +<p> + The cheerful goddess who had brought Fritzing and his Princess safely + over from Kunitz was certainly standing by them well. She it was who + had driven Priscilla up on to the heath and into the acquaintance of + Augustus Shuttleworth, without whom a cottage in Symford would have + been for ever unattainable. She it was who had sent the Morrisons, + father and son, to drive Priscilla from the churchyard before Fritzing + had joined her, without which driving she would never have met + Augustus. She it was who had used the trifling circumstance of a + mislaid sermon-book to take the vicar and Robin into the church at an + unaccustomed time, without which sermon-book they would never have met + Priscilla in the churchyard and driven her out of it. Thus are all our + doings ruled by Chance; and it is a pleasant pastime for an idle hour + to trace back big events to their original and sometimes absurd + beginnings. For myself I know that the larger lines of my life were + laid down once for all by—but what has this to do with Priscilla? + Thus, I say, are all our doings ruled by Chance, who loves to use + small means for the working of great wonders. And as for the gay + goddess's ugly sister, the lady of the shifty eye and lowering brow + called variously Misfortune and Ill Luck, she uses the same tools + exactly in her hammering out of lives, meanly taking little follies + and little weaknesses, so little and so amiable at first as hardly to + be distinguished from little virtues, and with them building up a + mighty mass that shall at last come down and crush our souls. Of the + crushing of souls, however, my story does not yet treat, and I will + not linger round subjects so awful. We who are nestling for the moment + like Priscilla beneath the warm wing of Good Fortune can dare to make + what the children call a face at her grey sister as she limps scowling + past. Shall we not too one day in our turn feel her claws? Let us when + we do at least not wince; and he who feeling them can still make a + face and laugh, shall be as the prince of the fairy tales, + transforming the sour hag by his courage into a bright reward, + striking his very griefs into a shining shower of blessing. +</p> +<p> + From this brief excursion into the realm of barren musings, whither I + love above all things to wander and whence I have continually to fetch + myself back again by force, I will return to the story. +</p> +<p> + At Tussie's suggestion when the business part of their talk was + over—and it took exactly five minutes for Tussie to sell and Fritzing + to buy the cottages, five minutes of the frothiest business talk ever + talked, so profound was the ignorance of both parties as to what most + people demand of cottages—Fritzing drove to Minehead in the + postmistress's son's two-wheeled cart in order to purchase suitable + furniture and bring back persons who would paper and paint. Minehead + lies about twenty miles to the north of Symford, so Fritzing could not + be back before evening. By the time he was back, promised Tussie, the + shoemaker and Mrs. Shaw should be cleared out and put into a place so + much better according to their views that they would probably make it + vocal with their praises. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing quite loved Tussie. Here was a young man full of the noblest + spirit of helpfulness, and who had besides the invaluable gift of + seeing no difficulties anywhere. Even Fritzing, airy optimist, saw + more than Tussie, and whenever he expressed a doubt it was at once + brushed aside by the cheerfullest "Oh, that'll be all right." He was + the most practical, businesslike, unaffected, energetic young man, + thought Fritzing, that he had even seen. Tussie was surprised himself + at his own briskness, and putting the wonderful girl on the heath as + much as possible out of his thoughts, told himself that it was the + patent food beginning at last to keep its promises. +</p> +<p> + He took Fritzing to the post-office and ordered the trap for him, + cautioned the postmistress's son, who was going to drive, against + going too fast down the many hills, for the bare idea of the priceless + uncle being brought back in bits or in any state but absolutely whole + and happy turned him cold, told Fritzing which shops to go to and + where to lunch, begged him to be careful what he ate, since hotel + luncheons were good for neither body nor soul, ordered rugs and a + mackintosh covering to be put in, and behaved generally with the + forethought of a mother. "I'd go with you myself," he said,—and the + postmistress, listening with both her ears, recognized that the + Baker's Farm lodgers were no longer persons to be criticised—"but I + can be of more use to you here. I must see Dawson about clearing out + the cottages. Of course it is very important you shouldn't stay a + moment longer than can be helped in uncomfortable lodgings." +</p> +<p> + Here was a young man! Sensible, practical, overflowing with kindness. + Fritzing had not met any one he esteemed so much for years. They went + down the village street together, for Tussie was bound for Mr. Dawson + who was to be set to work at once, and Fritzing for the farm whither + the trap was to follow him as soon as ready, and all Symford, + curtseying to Tussie, recognized, as the postmistress had recognized, + that Fritzing was now raised far above their questionings, seated + firmly on the Shuttleworth rock. +</p> +<p> + They parted at Mr. Dawson's gate, Mrs. Dawson mildly watching their + warmth over a wire blind. "When we are settled, young man," said + Fritzing, after eloquent words of thanks and appreciation, "you must + come in the evenings, and together we will roam across the splendid + fields of English literature." +</p> +<p> + "Oh <i>thanks</i>" exclaimed Tussie, flushing with pleasure. He longed to + ask if the divine niece would roam too, but even if she did not, to + roam at all would be a delight, and he would besides be doing it under + the very roof that sheltered that bright and beautiful head. "Oh + <i>thanks</i>," cried Tussie, then, flushing. +</p> +<p> + His extreme joy surprised Fritzing. "Are you so great a friend of + literature?" he inquired. +</p> +<p> + "I believe," said Tussie, "that without it I'd have drowned myself + long ago. And as for the poets—" +</p> +<p> + He stopped. No one knew what poetry had been to him in his sickly + existence—the one supreme interest, the one thing he really cared to + live for. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing now loved him with all his heart. "<i>Ach Gott, ja</i>," he + ejaculated, clapping him on the shoulder, "the poets—<i>ja, + ja</i>—'Blessings be with them and eternal praise,' what? Young man," he + added enthusiastically, "I could wish that you had been my son. I + could indeed." And as he said it Robin Morrison coming down the street + and seeing the two together and the expression on Tussie's face + instantly knew that Tussie had met the niece. +</p> +<p> + "Hullo, Tuss," he called across, hurrying past, for it would rather + upset his umbrella plan to be stopped and have to talk to the man + Neumann thus prematurely. But Tussie neither saw nor heard him, and + "By Jove, hasn't he just seen the niece though," said Robin to + himself, his eyes dancing as he strode nimbly along on long and + bird-like legs. The conviction seized him that when he and his + umbrella should descend upon Baker's that afternoon Tussie would + either be there already or would come in immediately afterwards. "Who + would have thought old Fuss would be so enterprising?" he wondered, + thinking of the extreme cordiality of Fritzing's face. "He's given + them those cottages, I'll swear." +</p> +<p> + So Fritzing went to Minehead. I will not follow his painful footsteps + as they ranged about that dreary place, nor will I dwell upon his + purchases, which resolved themselves at last, after an infinite and + soul-killing amount of walking and bewilderment, into a sofa, a + revolving bookstand, and two beds. He forgot a bed for Annalise + because he forgot Annalise; and he didn't buy things like sheets + because he forgot that beds want them. On the other hand he spent + quite two hours in a delightful second-hand bookshop on his way to the + place where you buy crockery, and then forgot the crockery. He did, + reminded and directed by Mr. Vickerton, the postmistress's son, get to + a paperhanger's and order him and his men to come out in shoals to + Symford the next morning at daybreak, making the paperhanger vow, who + had never seen them, that the cottages should be done by nightfall. + Then, happening to come to the seashore, he stood for a moment + refreshing his nostrils with saltness, for he was desperately worn + out, and what he did after that heaven knows. Anyhow young Vickerton + found him hours afterwards walking up and down the shingle in the + dark, waving his arms about and crying— +</p> +<p class="block2"> + "O, qui me gelidis convallibus Haemi<br> + Sistat et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!" +</p> +<p> + "Talking German out loud to himself," said young Vickerton to his + mother that night; and it is possible that he had been doing it all + the time. +</p> +<p> + And while he was doing these things Priscilla was having calls paid + her. Nothing could exceed her astonishment when about four o'clock, as + she was sitting deep in thought and bored on the arm of a horsehair + chair, Mrs. Pearce opened the door and without the least warning let + in Mrs. Morrison. Priscilla had promised Fritzing for that one day to + stay quietly at the farm, and for the last two hours, finding the farm + of an intolerable dulness, she had been engaged in reflections of an + extremely complex nature on subjects such as Duty, Will, and + Personality. Her morning in the Baker fields and by the banks of that + part of the Sym that meanders through them had tuned her mind to + meditation. The food at one o'clock and the manner of its bringing in + by Annalise—Priscilla had relieved Mrs. Pearce of that office—tuned + it still more. The blended slipperiness and prickliness of all the + things she tried to sit on helped surprisingly; and if I knew how far + it is allowable to write of linen I could explain much of her state of + mind by a description of the garments in which she was clothed that + day. They were new garments taken straight from the Gerstein box. + They were not even linen,—how could they be for Fritzing's three + hundred marks? And their newness had not yet been exposed to the + softening influence of any wash-tub. Straight did they come, in all + their crackling stiffness, out of the shop and on to the Princess. + Annalise had been supposed to wash them or cause them to be washed the + day before, but Annalise had been far too busy crying to do anything + of the sort; and by four o'clock Priscilla was goaded by them into a + condition of mind so unworthy that she was thinking quite hard about + the Kunitz fine linen and other flesh-pots and actually finding the + recollection sweet. It was a place, Priscilla mused, where her body + had been exquisitely cared for. Those delicate meals, served in + spotlessness, surely they had been rather of the nature of poems? + Those web-like garments, soft as a kiss, how beautiful they had been + to touch and wear. True her soul had starved; yes, it had cruelly + starved. But was it then—she started at her own thought—was it then + being fed at Baker's? +</p> +<p> + And into the middle of this question, a tremendous one to be asked on + the very threshold of the new life, walked Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "How d'y do," said Mrs. Morrison. "The vicar asked me to come and see + you. I hope the Pearces make you comfortable." +</p> +<p> + "Well I never," thought Mrs. Pearce, lingering as was her custom on + the door-mat, and shaking her head in sorrow rather than in anger. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla sat for a moment staring at her visitor. +</p> +<p> + "You are Miss Schultz, are you not?" asked Mrs. Morrison rather + nervously. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla said she was,—her name, that is, was Neumann-Schultz—and + got up. She had the vaguest notion as to how Miss Schultz would behave + under these trying circumstances, but imagined she would begin by + getting up. So she got up, and the sofa being a low one and her + movements leisurely, Mrs. Morrison told her husband afterwards there + seemed to be no end to the girl. The girl certainly was long, and when + at last unfolded and quite straightened out she towered over Mrs. + Morrison, who looked up uneasily at the grave young face. Why, Mrs. + Morrison asked herself, didn't the girl smile? It was the duty of a + Miss Schultz called upon by the vicar's wife to smile; so profound a + gravity on such an occasion was surely almost rude. Priscilla offered + her hand and hoped it was all right to do so, but still she did not + smile. "Are you Mrs. Morrison?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Mrs. Morrison with an immense reserve in her voice. +</p> +<p> + Then Priscilla suggested she should sit down. Mrs. Morrison was + already doing it; and Priscilla sank on to her sofa again and wondered + what she had better say next. She wondered so much that she became + lost in mazes of wonder, and there was so long a silence that Mrs. + Pearce outside the door deplored an inconsiderateness that could keep + her there for nothing. +</p> +<p> + "I didn't know you had a double name," said Mrs. Morrison, staring at + Priscilla and trying to decide whether this was not a case for the + application of leaflets and instant departure. The girl was really + quite offensively pretty. She herself had been pretty—she thanked + heaven that she still was so—but never, never pretty—she thanked + heaven again—in this glaringly conspicuous fashion. +</p> +<p> + "My name is Ethel Maria-Theresa Neumann-Schultz," said Priscilla, very + clearly and slowly; and though she was, as we know, absolutely + impervious to the steadiest staring, she did wonder whether this good + lady could have seen her photograph anywhere in some paper, her stare + was so very round and bright and piercing. +</p> +<p> + "What a long name," said Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla; and as another silence seemed imminent she + added, "I have two hyphens." +</p> +<p> + "Two what?" said Mrs. Morrison, startled; and so full was her head of + doubt and distrust that for one dreadful moment she thought the girl + had said two husbands. "Oh, hyphens. Yes. Germans have them a good + deal, I believe." +</p> +<p> + "That sounds as if we were talking about diseases," said Priscilla, a + faint smile dawning far away somewhere in the depths of her eyes. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Mrs. Morrison, fidgeting. +</p> +<p> + Odd that Robin should have said nothing about the girl's face. Anyhow + she should be kept off Netta. Better keep her off the parish-room + Tuesdays as well. What in the world was she doing in Symford? She was + quite the sort of girl to turn the heads of silly boys. And so + unfortunate, just as Augustus Shuttleworth had taken to giving Netta + little volumes of Browning. +</p> +<p> + "Is your uncle out?" she asked, some of the sharpness of her thoughts + getting into her voice. +</p> +<p> + "He's gone to Minehead, to see about things for my cottage." +</p> +<p> + "Your cottage? Have you got Mrs. Shaw's, then?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes. She is being moved out to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Dear me," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly struck. +</p> +<p> + "Is it surprising?" +</p> +<p> + "Most. So unlike Lady Shuttleworth." +</p> +<p> + "She has been very kind." +</p> +<p> + "Do you know her?" +</p> +<p> + "No; but my uncle was there this morning." +</p> +<p> + "And managed to persuade her?" +</p> +<p> + "He is very eloquent," said Priscilla, with a demure downward sweep of + her eyelashes. +</p> +<p> + "Just a little more," thought Mrs. Morrison, watching their dusky + golden curve, "and the girl would have had scarlet hair and + white-eyebrows and masses of freckles and been frightful." And she + sighed an impatient sigh, which, if translated into verse, would + undoubtedly have come out— +</p> +<p class="block"> + "Oh the little more and how much it is,<br> + And the little less and what worlds away!" +</p> +<p> + "And poor old Mrs. Shaw—how does she like being turned out?" +</p> +<p> + "I believe she is being put into something that will seem to her a + palace." +</p> +<p> + "Dear me, your uncle must really be very eloquent." +</p> +<p> + "I assure you that he is," said Priscilla earnestly. +</p> +<p> + There was a short pause, during which Mrs. Morrison staring straight + into those unfathomable pools, Priscilla's eyes, was very angry with + them for being so evidently lovely. "You are very young," she said, + "so you will not mind my questions—" +</p> +<p> + "Don't the young mind questions?" asked Priscilla, for a moment + supposing it to be a characteristic of the young of England. +</p> +<p> + "Not, surely, from experienced and—and married ladies," said Mrs. + Morrison tartly. +</p> +<p> + "Please go on then." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I haven't anything particular to go on about," said Mrs. + Morrison, offended. "I assure you curiosity is not one of my faults." +</p> +<p> + "No?" said Priscilla, whose attention had begun to wander. +</p> +<p> + "Being human I have no doubt many failings, but I'm thankful to say + curiosity isn't one of them." +</p> +<p> + "My uncle says that's just the difference between men and women. He + says women might achieve just as much as men if only they were curious + about things. But they're not. A man will ask a thousand questions, + and never rest till he's found out as much as he can about anything he + sees, and a woman is content hardly even to see it." +</p> +<p> + "I hope your uncle is a Churchman," was Mrs. Morrison's unexpected + reply. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's mind could not leap like this, and she hesitated a moment + and smiled. ("It's the first time she's looked pleasant," thought Mrs. + Morrison, "and now it's in the wrong place.") +</p> +<p> + "He was born, of course, in the Lutheran faith," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, a horrid faith. Excuse me, but it really is. I hope he isn't + going to upset Symford?" +</p> +<p> + "Upset Symford?" +</p> +<p> + "New people holding wrong tenets coming to such a small place do + sometimes, you know, and you say he is eloquent. And we are such a + simple and God-fearing little community. A few years ago we had a + great bother with a Dissenting family that came here. The cottagers + quite lost their heads." +</p> +<p> + "I think I can promise that my uncle will not try to convert anybody," + said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Of course you mean pervert. It would be a pity if he did. It wouldn't + last, but it would give us a lot of trouble. We are very good + Churchmen here. The vicar, and my son too when he's at home, set + beautiful examples. My son is going into the Church himself. It has + been his dearest wish from a child. He thinks of nothing else—of + nothing else at all," she repeated, fixing her eyes on Priscilla with + a look of defiance. +</p> +<p> + "Really?" said Priscilla, very willing to believe it. +</p> +<p> + "I assure you it's wonderful how absorbed he is in his studies for it. + He reads Church history every spare moment, and he's got it so + completely on his mind that I've noticed even when he whistles it's + 'The Church's One Foundation.'" +</p> +<p> + "What is that?" inquired Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Robin Morrison," announced Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + The sitting-room at Baker's was a small, straightforward place, with + no screens, no big furniture, no plants in pots, nothing that could + for a moment conceal the persons already in it from the persons coming + in, and Robin entering jauntily with the umbrella under his arm fell + straight as it were into his mother's angry gaze. "Hullo mater, you + here?" he exclaimed genially, his face broadening with apparent + satisfaction. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, Robin, I am here," she said, drawing herself up. +</p> +<p> + "How do you do, Miss Schultz. I seem to have got shown into the wrong + room. It's a Mr. Neumann I've come to see; doesn't he live here?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at him from her sofa seat and wondered what she had + done that she should be scourged in this manner by Morrisons. +</p> +<p> + "You know my son, I believe?" said Mrs. Morrison in the stiffest + voice; for the girl's face showed neither recognition nor pleasure, + and though she would have been angry if she had looked unduly pleased + she was still angrier that she should look indifferent. +</p> +<p> + "Yes. I met him yesterday. Did you want my uncle? His name is Neumann. + Neumann-Schultz. He's out." +</p> +<p> + "I only wanted to give him this umbrella," said Robin, with a swift + glance at his mother as he drew it from under his arm. Would she + recognize it? He had chosen one of the most ancient; the one most + appropriate, as he thought, to the general appearance of the man + Neumann. +</p> +<p> + "What umbrella is that, Robin?" asked his mother suspiciously. Really, + it was more than odd that Robin, whom she had left immersed in study, + should have got into Baker's Farm so quickly. Could he have been + expected? And had Providence, in its care for the righteous cause of + mothers, brought her here just in time to save him from this girl's + toils? The girl's indifference could not be real; and if it was not, + her good acting only betrayed the depths of her experience and + balefulness. "What umbrella is that?" asked Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "It's his," said Robin, throwing his head back and looking at his + mother as he laid it with elaborate care on the table. +</p> +<p> + "My uncle's?" said Priscilla. "Had he lost it? Oh thank you—he would + have been dreadfully unhappy. Sit down." And she indicated with her + head the chair she would allow him to sit on. +</p> +<p> + "The way she tells us to sit down!" thought Mrs. Morrison indignantly. + "As though she were a queen." Aloud she said, "You could have sent + Joyce round with it"—Joyce being that gardener whose baby's + perambulator was wheeled by another Ethel—"and need not have + interrupted your work." +</p> +<p> + "So I could," said Robin, as though much struck by the suggestion. + "But it was a pleasure," he added to Priscilla, "to be able to return + it myself. It's a frightful bore losing one's umbrella—especially if + it's an old friend." +</p> +<p> + "Uncle Fritzi's looks as if it were a very old friend," said + Priscilla, smiling at it. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison glanced at it too, and then glanced again. When she + glanced a third time and her glance turned into a look that lingered + Robin jumped up and inquired if he should not put it in the passage. + "It's in the way here," he explained; though in whose way it could be + was not apparent, the table being perfectly empty. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla made no objection, and he at once removed it beyond the + reach of his mother's eye, propping it up in a dark corner of the + passage and telling Mrs. Pearce, whom he found there that it was Mr. + Neumann's umbrella. +</p> +<p> + "No it ain't," said Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + "Yes it is," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "No it ain't. He's took his to Minehead," said Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + "It is, and he has not," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "I see him take it," said Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + "You did not," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + This would have been the moment, Mrs. Morrison felt, for her to go and + to carry off Robin with her, but she was held in her seat by the + certainty that Robin would not let himself be carried off; and sooner + than say good-bye and then find he was staying on alone she would sit + there all night. Thus do mothers sacrifice themselves for their + children, thought Mrs. Morrison, for their all too frequently + thankless children. But though she would do it to any extent in order + to guard her boy she need not, she said to herself, be pleasant + besides,—she need not, so to speak, be the primroses on his path of + dalliance. Accordingly she behaved as little like a primrose as + possible, sitting in stony silence while he skirmished in the passage + with Mrs. Pearce, and the instant he came in again asked him where he + had found the umbrella. +</p> +<p> + "I found it—not far from the church," said Robin, desiring to be + truthful as long as he could. "But mater, bother the umbrella. It + isn't so very noble to bring a man back his own. Did you get your + cottages?" he asked, turning quickly to Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Robin, are you sure it is his own?" said his mother. +</p> +<p> + "My dear mother, I'm never sure of anything. Nor are you. Nor is Miss + Schultz. Nor is anybody who is really intelligent. But I found the + thing, and Mr. Neumann—" +</p> +<p> + "The name to-day is Neumann-Schultz," said Mrs. Morrison, in a voice + heavy with implications. +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Neumann-Schultz, then, had been that way just before, and so I + felt somehow it must be his." +</p> +<p> + "Your Uncle Cox had one just like it when he stayed with us last + time," remarked Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "Had he? I say, mater, what an eye you must have for an umbrella. That + must be five years ago." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, he left it behind, and I see it in the stand every time I go + through the hall." +</p> +<p> + "No! Do you?" said Robin, who was hurled by this statement into the + corner where his wits ended and where he probably would have stayed + ignominiously, for Miss Schultz seemed hardly to be listening and + really almost looked—he couldn't believe it, no girl had ever done it + in his presence yet, but she did undoubtedly almost look—bored, if + Mrs. Pearce had not flung open the door, and holding the torn portions + of her apron bunched together in her hands, nervously announced Lady + Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "Oh," thought Priscilla, "what a day I'm having." But she got up and + was gracious, for Fritzing had praised this lady as kind and + sensible; and the moment Lady Shuttleworth set her eyes on her the + mystery of her son's behaviour flashed into clearness. "Tussie's seen + her!" she exclaimed inwardly; instantly adding "Upon my word I can't + blame the boy." +</p> +<p> + "My dear," she said, holding Priscilla's hand, "I've come to make + friends with you. See what a wise old woman I am. Frankly, I didn't + want you in those cottages, but now that my son has sold them I lose + no time in making friends. Isn't that true wisdom?" +</p> +<p> + "It's true niceness," said Priscilla, smiling down at the little old + lady whose eyes were twinkling all over her. "I don't think you'll + find us in any way a nuisance. All we want is to be quiet." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison sniffed. +</p> +<p> + "Do you really?" said Lady Shuttleworth. "Then we shall get on + capitally. It's what I like best myself. And you've come too," she + went on, turning to Mrs. Morrison, "to make friends with your new + parishioner? Why, Robin, and you too?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I'm only accidental," said Robin quickly. "Only a restorer of + lost property. And I'm just going," he added, beginning to make hasty + adieux; for Lady Shuttleworth invariably produced a conviction in him + that his clothes didn't fit and wanted brushing badly, and no young + man so attentive to his appearance as Robin could be expected to enjoy + that. He fled therefore, feeling that even Miss Schultz's loveliness + would not make up for Lady Shuttleworth's eyes; and in the passage, + from whence Mrs. Pearce had retreated, removing herself as far as + might be from the awful lady to whom her father-in-law owed rent and + who saw every hole, Robin pounced on his Uncle Cox's umbrella, tucked + is once more beneath his arm, and bore it swiftly back to the stand + where it had spent five peaceful years. "Really old women are rather + terrible things," he thought as he dropped it in again. "I wonder what + they're here for." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, it's there, I see," remarked his mother that night as she passed + through the hall on her way to dinner. +</p> +<p> + "What is?" inquired Robin who was just behind her. +</p> +<p> + "Your Uncle Cox's umbrella." +</p> +<p> + "Dear mater, why this extreme interest in my Uncle Cox's umbrella?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm glad to see it back again, that's all. One gets so used to + things." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth and his mother—I shudder to think that it is + possible Robin included his mother in the reflection about old women, + but on the other hand one never can tell—had stayed on at the farm + for another twenty minutes after he left. They would have stayed + longer, for Lady Shuttleworth was more interested in Priscilla than + she had ever been in any girl before, and Mrs. Morrison, who saw this + interest and heard the kind speeches, had changed altogether from ice + to amiability, crushing her leaflets in her hand and more than once + expressing hopes that Miss Neumann-Schultz would soon come up to tea + and learn to know and like Netta—I repeat, they would have stayed + much longer, but that an extremely odd thing happened. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla had been charming; chatting with what seemed absolute + frankness about her future life in the cottages, answering little + questionings of Lady Shuttleworth's with a discretion and plausibility + that would have warmed Fritzing's anxious heart, dwelling most, for + here the ground was safest, on her uncle, his work, his gifts and + character, and Lady Shuttleworth, completely fascinated, had offered + her help of every sort, help in the arranging of her little home, in + the planting of its garden, even in the building of those bathrooms + about which Tussie had been told by Mr. Dawson. She thought the desire + for many bathrooms entirely praiseworthy, and only a sign of lunacy in + persons of small means. Fritzing had assured Tussie that he had money + enough for the bathrooms; and if his poetic niece liked everybody + about her to be nicely washed was not that a taste to be applauded? + Perhaps Lady Shuttleworth expatiated on plans and probable + building-costs longer than Priscilla was able to be interested; + perhaps she was over-explanatory of practical details; anyhow + Priscilla's attention began to wander, and she gradually became very + tired of her callers. She answered in monosyllables, and her smile + grew vague. Then suddenly, at the first full stop Lady Shuttleworth + reached in a sentence about sanitation—the entire paragraph was never + finished—she got up with her usual deliberate grace, and held out her + hand. +</p> +<p> + "It has been very kind of you to come and see me," she said to the + astounded lady, with a little gracious smile. "I hope you will both + come again another time." +</p> +<p> + For an instant Lady Shuttleworth thought she was mad. Then to her own + amazement she found her body rising obediently and letting its hand be + taken. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison did the same. Both had their hands slightly pressed, + both were smiled upon, and both went out at once and speechless. + Priscilla stood calmly while they walked to the door, with the little + smile fixed on her face. +</p> +<p> + "Is it possible we've been insulted?" burst out Mrs. Morrison when + they got outside. +</p> +<p> + "I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth, who looked extremely + thoughtful. +</p> +<p> + "Do you think it can possibly be the barbarous German custom?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth again. +</p> +<p> + And all the way to the vicarage, whither she drove Mrs. Morrison, she + was very silent, and no exclamations and conjectures of that indignant + lady's could get a word out of her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + X +</h2> +<p> + Kunitz meanwhile was keeping strangely quiet. Not a breath, not a + whisper, had reached the newspapers from that afflicted little town of + the dreadful thing that had happened to it. It will be remembered that + the Princess ran away on a Monday, arrived at Baker's in the small + hours of Wednesday morning, and had now spent both Wednesday and + Thursday in Symford. There had, then, been ample time for Europe to + receive in its startled ears the news of her flight; yet Europe, + judging from its silence, knew nothing at all about it. In Minehead on + the Thursday evening Fritzing bought papers, no longer it is true with + the frenzy he had displayed at Dover when every moment seemed packed + with peril, but still with eagerness; and not a paper mentioned + Kunitz. On the Saturday he did find the laconic information in the + London paper he had ordered to be sent him every day that the Grand + Duke of Lothen-Kunitz who was shooting in East Prussia had been joined + there by that Prince—I will not reveal his august name—who had so + badly wanted to marry Priscilla. And on the Sunday—it was of course + the paper published in London on Saturday—he read that the Princess + Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, the second and only unmarried daughter of + the Grand Duke, was confined to her bed by a sharp attack of + influenza. After that there was utter silence. Fritzing showed + Priscilla the paragraph about her influenza, and she was at first very + merry over it. The ease with which a princess can shake off her + fetters the moment she seriously tries to surprised her, and amused + her too, for a little. It surprised Fritzing, but without amusing him, + for he was a man who was never amused. Indeed, I am unable to recall + any single occasion on which I saw him smile. Other emotions shook him + vigorously as we know, but laughter never visited him with its + pleasant ticklings under the ribs; it slunk away abashed before a task + so awful, and left him at his happiest to a mood of mild contentment. + "Your Royal Parent," he remarked to Priscilla, "has chosen that which + is ever the better part of valour, and is hushing the incident up." +</p> +<p> + "He never loved me," said Priscilla, wistfully. On thinking it over + she was not quite sure that she liked being allowed to run away so + easily. Did nobody care, then, what became of her? Was she of + positively no value at all? Running away is all very well, but your + pride demands that those runned from shall at least show some sign of + not liking it, make some effort, however humble, to fetch you back. If + they do not, if they remain perfectly quiescent and resigned, not even + sending forth a wail that shall be audible, you are naturally + extremely crushed. "My father," said Priscilla bitterly, "doesn't + care a bit. He'll give out I'm dangerously ill, and then you'll see, + Fritzi—I shall either die, or be sent away for an interminable + yachting cruise with the Countess. And so dust will be thrown in + people's eyes. My father is very good at that, and the Countess is a + perfect genius. You'll see." +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing never saw, for there was no more mention at all either of + Kunitz or of influenza. And just then he was so much taken up by his + efforts to get into the cottages as quickly as possible that after a + passing feeling of thankfulness that the Grand Duke should be of such + a convenient indifference to his daughter's fate it dropped from his + mind in the easy fashion in which matters of importance always did + drop from it. What was the use, briefly reflected this philosopher, of + worrying about what they were or were not thinking at Kunitz? There + would be time enough for that when they actually began to do + something. He felt very safe from Kunitz in the folds of the Somerset + hills, and as the days passed calmly by he felt still safer. But + though no dangers seemed to threaten from without there were certain + dangers within that made it most desirable for them to get away from + Baker's and into their own little home without a moment's unnecessary + delay. He could not always be watching his tongue, and he found for + instance that it positively refused to call the Princess Ethel. It had + an almost equal objection to addressing her as niece; and it had a + most fatal habit of slipping out Grand Ducal Highnesses. True, at + first they mostly talked German together, but the tendency to talk + English grew more marked every day; it was in the air they breathed, + and they both could talk it so fatally well. Up at the cottages among + the workmen, or when they were joined by Mr. Dawson, grown zealous to + help, or by either of the young men Robin and Tussie, who seemed + constantly to be passing, the danger too was great. Fritzing was so + conscious of it that he used to break out into perspirations whenever + Priscilla was with him in public, and his very perspirations were + conspicuous. The strain made his manner oddly nervous when speaking to + or of his niece, and he became the subject of much conjecture to the + observant Robin. Robin thought that in spite of her caressing ways + with her uncle the girl must be privately a dreadful tyrant. It seemed + difficult to believe, but Robin prided himself on being ready to + believe anything at a moment's notice, especially if it was the worst, + and he called it having an open mind. The girl was obviously the most + spoilt of girls. No one could help seeing that. Her least wish seemed + to be for the uncle a command that was not even to be talked about. + Yet the uncle was never openly affectionate to her. It almost seemed + as though she must have some secret hold over him, be in possession, + perhaps, of some fact connected with a guilty past. But then this girl + and guilty pasts! Why, from the look in her eyes she could never even + have heard of such things. Robin thought himself fairly experienced + in knowledge of human nature, but he had to admit that he had never + yet met so incomprehensible a pair. He wanted to talk to Tussie + Shuttleworth about them, but Tussie would not talk. To Tussie it + seemed impossible to talk about Priscilla because she was sacred to + him, and she was sacred to him because he adored her so. He adored her + to an extent that amazes me to think of, worshipping her beauty with + all the headlong self-abasement of a very young man who is also a + poet. His soul was as wax within him, softest wax punched all over + with little pictures of Priscilla. No mother is happy while her + child's soul is in this state, and though he was extremely decent, and + hid it and smothered it and choked it with all the energy he + possessed, Lady Shuttleworth knew very well what was going on inside + him and spent her spare time trying to decide whether to laugh or to + cry over her poor Tussie. "When does Robin go back to Cambridge?" she + asked Mrs. Morrison the next time she met her, which was in the front + garden of a sick old woman's cottage. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison was going in with a leaflet; Lady Shuttleworth was going + in with a pound of tea. From this place they could see Priscilla's + cottage, and Robin was nailing up its creepers in the sight of all + Symford. +</p> +<p> + "Ah—I know what you mean," said Mrs. Morrison quickly. +</p> +<p> + "It is always such a pity to see emotions wasted," said Lady + Shuttleworth slowly, as if weighing each word. +</p> +<p> + "Wasted? You do think she's an adventuress, then?" said Mrs. Morrison + eagerly. +</p> +<p> + "Sh-sh. My dear, how could I think anything so unkind? But we who are + old"—Mrs. Morrison jerked up her chin—"and can look on calmly, do + see the pity of it when beautiful emotions are lavished and wasted. So + much force, so much time frittered away in dreams. And all so useless, + so barren. Nothing I think is so sad as waste, and nothing is so + wasteful as a one-sided love." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison gave the pink tulle bow she liked to wear in the + afternoons at her throat an agitated pat, and tried to conceal her + misery that Augustus Shuttleworth should also have succumbed to Miss + Neumann-Schultz. That he had done so was very clear from Lady + Shuttleworth's portentous remarks, for it was not in human nature for + a woman to be thus solemn about the wasted emotions of other people's + sons. His doing so might save Robin's future, but it would ruin + Netta's. We all have our little plans for the future—dear rosy things + that we dote on and hug to our bosoms with more tenderness even than + we hug the babies of our bodies, and the very rosiest and best + developed of Mrs. Morrison's darling plans was the marriage of her + daughter Netta with the rich young man Augustus. It was receiving a + rude knock on its hopeful little head at this moment in old Mrs. + Jones's front garden, and naturally the author of its being winced. + Augustus, she feared, must be extremely far gone in love, and it was + not likely that the girl would let such a chance go. It was a + consolation that the marriage would be a scandal,—this person from + nowhere, this niece of a German teacher, carrying off the wealthiest + young man in the county. The ways of so-called Providence were quite + criminally inscrutable, she thought, in stark defiance of what a + vicar's wife should think; but then she was greatly goaded. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla herself came out of Mrs. Jones's door at that moment with a + very happy face. She had succeeded in comforting the sick woman to an + extent that surprised her. The sick woman had cheered up so suddenly + and so much that Priscilla, delighted, had at once concluded that work + among the sick poor was her true vocation. And how easy it had been! A + few smiles, a few kind words, a five-pound note put gently into the + withered old hands, and behold the thing was done. Never was sick + woman so much comforted as Mrs. Jones. She who had been disinclined to + speak above a whisper when Priscilla went in was able at the end of + the visit to pour forth conversation in streams, and quite loud + conversation, and even interspersed with chuckles. All Friday + Priscilla had tried to help in the arranging of her cottage, and had + made herself and Fritzing so tired over it that on Saturday she let + him go up alone and decided that she would, for her part, now begin to + do good to the people in the village. It was what she intended to do + in future. It was to be the chief work of her new life. She was going + to live like the poor and among them, smooth away their sorrows and + increase their joys, give them, as it were, a cheery arm along the + rough path of poverty, and in doing it get down herself out of the + clouds to the very soil, to the very beginnings and solid elementary + facts of life. And she would do it at once, and not sit idle at the + farm. It was on such idle days as the day Fritzing went to Minehead + that sillinesses assailed her soul—shrinkings of the flesh from + honest calico, disgust at the cooking, impatience at Annalise's + swollen eyes. Priscilla could have cried that night when she went to + bed, if she had not held tears in scorn, at the sickliness of her + spirit, her spirit that she had thought more than able to keep her + body in subjection, that she had hoped was unalterably firm and brave. + But see the uses of foolishness,—the reaction from it is so great + that it sends us with a bound twice as far again along the right road + as we were while we were wise and picking our way with clean shoes + slowly among the puddles. Who does not know that fresh impulse, so + strong and gracious, towards good that surges up in us after a period + of sitting still in mud? What an experience it is, that vigorous shake + and eager turning of our soiled face once more towards the blessed + light. "I will arise and go to my Father"—of all the experiences of + the spirit surely this is the most glorious; and behold the prudent, + the virtuous, the steadfast—dogged workers in the vineyard in the + heat of the day—are shut out from it for ever. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla had not backslided much; but short as her tarrying had been + among the puddles she too sprang forward after it with renewed + strength along the path she had chosen as the best, and having + completed the second of her good works—the first had been performed + just previously, and had been a warm invitation made personally from + door to door to all the Symford mothers to send their children to tea + and games at Baker's Farm the next day, which was Sunday—she came + away very happy from the comforted Mrs. Jones, and met the two + arriving comforters in the front garden. +</p> +<p> + Now Priscilla's and Mrs. Jones's last words together had been these: +</p> +<p> + "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Priscilla had asked, + leaning over the old lady and patting her arm in farewell. +</p> +<p> + "No, deary—you've done enough already, God bless your pretty face," + said Mrs. Jones, squeezing the five-pound note ecstatically in her + hands. +</p> +<p> + "But isn't there anything you'd like? Can't I get you anything? See, I + can run about and you are here in bed. Tell me what I can do." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones blinked and worked her mouth and blinked again and wheezed + and cleared her throat. "Well, I do know of something would comfort + me," she said at last, amid much embarrassed coughing. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "I don't like," coughed Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "I'll whisper it, deary." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla bent down her head, and the old lady put her twitching mouth + to her ear. +</p> +<p> + "Why, of course," said Priscilla smiling, "I'll go and get you some at + once." +</p> +<p> + "Now God for ever bless your beautiful face, darlin'!" shrilled Mrs. + Jones, quite beside herself with delight. "The Cock and 'Ens, + deary—that's the place. And the quart bottles are the best; one gets + more comfort out of them, and they're the cheapest in the end." +</p> +<p> + And Priscilla issuing forth on this errand met the arriving visitors + in the garden. +</p> +<p> + "How do you do," she said in a happy voice, smiling gaily at both of + them. She had seen neither since she had dismissed them, but naturally + she had never given that strange proceeding a thought. +</p> +<p> + "Oh—how do you do," said Lady Shuttleworth, surprised to see her + there, and with a slight and very unusual confusion of manner. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison said nothing but stood stiffly in the background, + answering Priscilla's smile with a stern, reluctant nod. +</p> +<p> + "I've been talking to poor old Mrs. Jones. Your son"—she looked at + Mrs. Morrison—"told me how ill she was." +</p> +<p> + "Did he?" said Mrs. Morrison, hardly raising her eyes a moment from + the ground. This girl was her double enemy: bound, whatever she did, + to make either a fool of her son or of her daughter. +</p> +<p> + "So I went in and tried to cheer her up. And I really believe I did." +</p> +<p> + "Well that was very kind of you," said Lady Shuttleworth, smiling in + spite of herself, unable to withstand the charm of Priscilla's + personality. How supremely ridiculous of Mrs. Morrison to think that + this girl was an adventuress. Such are the depths of ignorance one can + descend to if one is buried long enough in the country. +</p> +<p> + "Now," said Priscilla cheerfully, "she wants rum, and I'm just going + to buy her some." +</p> +<p> + "Rum?" cried Lady Shuttleworth in a voice of horror; and Mrs. Morrison + started violently. +</p> +<p> + "Is it bad for her?" said Priscilla, surprised. +</p> +<p> + "Bad!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "It is," said Mrs. Morrison with her eyes on the ground, "poison for + both body and soul." +</p> +<p> + "Dear me," said Priscilla, her face falling. "Why, she said it would + comfort her." +</p> +<p> + "It will poison both her body and her soul," repeated Mrs. Morrison + grimly. +</p> +<p> + "My dear," said Lady Shuttleworth, "our efforts are all directed + towards training our people to keep from drinking." +</p> +<p> + "But she doesn't want to drink," said Priscilla. "She only wants to + taste it now and then. I'm afraid she's dying. Mustn't she die + happy?" +</p> +<p> + "It is our duty," said Mrs. Morrison, "to see that our parishioners + die sober." +</p> +<p> + "But I've promised," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Did she—did she ask for it herself?" asked Lady Shuttleworth, a + great anxiety in her voice. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, and I promised." +</p> +<p> + Both the women looked very grave. Mrs. Jones, who was extremely old + and certainly dying—not from any special disease but from mere + inability to go on living—had been up to this a shining example to + Symford of the manner in which Christian old ladies ought to die. As + such she was continually quoted by the vicar's wife, and Lady + Shuttleworth had felt an honest pride in this ordered and seemly + death-bed. The vicar went every day and sat with her and said that he + came away refreshed. Mrs. Morrison read her all those of her leaflets + that described the enthusiasm with which other good persons behave in + a like case. Lady Shuttleworth never drove through the village without + taking her some pleasant gift—tea, or fruit, or eggs, or even little + pots of jam, to be eaten discreetly and in spoonfuls. She also paid a + woman to look in at short intervals during the day and shake up her + pillow. Kindness and attention and even affection could not, it will + be admitted, go further; all three had been heaped on Mrs. Jones with + generous hands; and in return she had expressed no sentiments that + were not appropriate, and never, never had breathed the faintest + suggestion to any of her benefactors that what she really wanted most + was rum. It shocked both the women inexpressibly, and positively + pained Lady Shuttleworth. Mrs. Morrison privately believed Priscilla + had put the idea into the old lady's head, and began to regard her in + something of the light of a fiend. +</p> +<p> + "Suppose," said Priscilla, "we look upon it as medicine." +</p> +<p> + "But my dear, it is not medicine," said Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "It is poison," repeated Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "How can it be if it does her so much good? I must keep my promise. I + wouldn't disappoint her for the world. If only you'd seen her + delight"—they quivered—"you'd agree that she mustn't be + disappointed, poor old dying thing. Why, it might kill her. But + suppose we treat it as a medicine, and I lock up the bottle and go + round and give her a little myself three or four times a day—wouldn't + that be a good plan? Surely it couldn't hurt?" +</p> +<p> + "There is no law to stop you," said Mrs. Morrison; and Lady + Shuttleworth stared at the girl in silent dismay. +</p> +<p> + "I can try it at least," said Priscilla; "and if I find it's really + doing her harm I'll leave off. But I promised, and she's expecting it + now every minute. I can't break my promise. Do tell me—is the Cock + and Hens that inn round the corner? She told me it was best there." +</p> +<p> + "But you cannot go yourself to the Cock and Hens and buy rum," + exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth, roused to energy; and her voice was full + of so determined a protest that the vicar's wife, who thought it + didn't matter at all where such a young woman went, received a fresh + shock. +</p> +<p> + "Why not?" inquired Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "My dear, sooner than you should do that I'll—I'll go and buy it + myself," cried Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "Gracious heavens," thought Mrs. Morrison, perfectly staggered by this + speech. Had Lady Shuttleworth suddenly lost her reason? Or was she + already accepting the girl as her son's wife? Priscilla looked at her + a moment with grave eyes. "Is it because I'm a girl that I mustn't?" + she asked. +</p> +<p> + "Yes. For one thing. But—" Lady Shuttleworth shut her mouth. +</p> +<p> + "But what?" asked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, nothing." +</p> +<p> + "If it's not the custom of the country for a girl to go I'll send Mr. + Morrison," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Send Mr. Morrison?" gasped the vicar's wife. +</p> +<p> + "What, the vicar?" exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Priscilla smiling, "young Mr. Morrison. I see him over + there tying up my creepers. He's so kind. He'll go. I'll ask him." +</p> +<p> + And nodding good-bye she hurried out of the garden and over to her + cottage, almost running in her desire not to keep Mrs. Jones any + longer in suspense. +</p> +<p> + The two women, rooted to the ground, watched her as if fascinated, saw + her speak to Robin on his ladder, saw how he started and dropped his + nails, saw how nimbly he clambered down, and how after the shortest + parley the infatuated youth rushed away at once in the direction of + the Cock and Hens. The only thing they did not see from where they + stood was the twinkle in his eye. +</p> +<p> + "I don't think," murmured Lady Shuttleworth, "I don't think, my dear, + that I quite care to go in to Mrs. Jones to-day. I—I think I'll go + home." +</p> +<p> + "So shall I," said Mrs. Morrison, biting her lips to keep them steady. + "I shall go and speak to the vicar." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XI +</h2> +<p> + What she meant by speaking to the vicar was a vigorous stirring of him + up to wrath; but you cannot stir up vicars if they are truly good. The + vicar was a pious and patient old man, practiced in forgiveness, in + overlooking, in waiting, in trying again. Always slow to anger, as the + years drew him more and more apart into the shadows of old age and he + watched from their clear coolness with an ever larger comprehension + the younger generations striving together in the heat, he grew at last + unable to be angered at all. The scriptural injunction not to let the + sun go down upon your wrath had no uses for him, for he possessed no + wrath for the sun to go down upon. He had that lovable nature that + sees the best in everything first, and then prefers to look no + further. He took for granted that people were at bottom good and + noble, and the assumption went a long way towards making them so. + Robin, for instance, was probably saved by his father's unclouded + faith in him. Mrs. Morrison, a woman who had much trouble with + herself, having come into the world with the wings of the angel in her + well glued down and prevented from spreading by a multitude of little + defects, had been helped without her knowing it by his example out of + many a pit of peevishness and passion. Who shall measure the influence + of one kind and blameless life? His wife, in her gustier moments, + thought it sheer weakness, this persistent turning away from evil, + this refusal to investigate and dissect, to take sides, to wrestle. + The evil was there, and it was making an ostrich or a vegetable of + one's self to go on being calm in the face of it. With the blindness + of wives, who are prevented from seeing clearly by the very closeness + of the object—the same remark exactly applies to husbands—she did + not see that the vicar was the candle shining in a naughty world, that + he was the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. And just as leaven + leavens by its mere presence in the lump, by merely passively being + there, and will go on doing it so long as there is a lump to leaven, + so had the vicar, more than his hardworking wife, more than the + untiring Lady Shuttleworth, more than any district visitor, parish + nurse, or other holy person, influenced Symford by simply living in it + in a way that would have surprised him had he known. There is a great + virtue in sweeping out one's own house and trimming its lamps before + starting on the house and lamps of a neighbour; and since new dust + settles every day, and lamps, I believe, need constant trimming, I + know not when the truly tidy soul will have attained so perfect a + spotlessness as to justify its issuing forth to attack the private + dust of other people. And if it ever did, lo, it would find the + necessity no longer there. Its bright untiringness would + unconsciously have done its work, and every dimmer soul within sight + of that cheerful shining been strengthened and inspired to go and do + likewise. +</p> +<p> + But Mrs. Morrison, who saw things differently, was constantly trying + to stir up storms in the calm waters of the vicar's mind; and after + the episode in Mrs. Jones's front garden she made a very determined + effort to get him to rebuke Priscilla. Her own indignation was poured + out passionately. The vicar was surprised at her heat, he who was so + beautifully cool himself, and though he shook his head over Mrs. + Jones's rum he also smiled as he shook it. Nor was he more reasonable + about Robin. On the contrary, he declared that he would think mightily + little of a young man who did not immediately fall head over ears in + love with such a pretty girl. +</p> +<p> + "You don't mind our boy's heart being broken, then?" questioned his + wife bitterly; of her plans for Netta she had never cared to speak. +</p> +<p> + "My dear, if it is to be broken there is no young lady I would sooner + entrust with the job." +</p> +<p> + "You don't mind his marrying an adventuress, then?" +</p> +<p> + "My dear, I know of no adventuress." +</p> +<p> + "You rather like our old people to be tempted to drink, to have it + thrust upon them on their very dying beds?" +</p> +<p> + "Kate, are you not bitter?" +</p> +<p> + "Psha," said his wife, drumming her foot. +</p> +<p> + "Psha, Kate?" inquired the vicar mildly; and it is not always that + the saintly produce a soothing effect on their wives. +</p> +<p> + It really seemed as if the girl were to have her own way in Symford, + unchecked even by Lady Shuttleworth, whose attitude was entirely + incomprehensible. She was to be allowed to corrupt the little hamlet + that had always been so good, to lead it astray, to lure it down paths + of forbidden indulgence, to turn it topsy turvy to an extent not even + reached by the Dissenting family that had given so much trouble a few + years before. It was on the Sunday morning as the church bells were + ringing, that Mrs. Morrison, prayer-book in hand, looked in at Mrs. + Jones's on her way to service and discovered the five-pound note. +</p> +<p> + The old lady was propped up in bed with her open Bible on her lap and + her spectacles lying in it, and as usual presented to her visitor the + perfect realization of her ideal as to the looks and manners most + appropriate to ailing Christians. There was nowhere a trace of rum, + and the only glass in the room was innocently filled with the china + roses that flowered so profusely in the garden at Baker's Farm. But + Mrs. Morrison could not for all that dissemble the disappointment and + sternness of her heart, and the old lady glanced up at her as she came + in with a kind of quavering fearfulness, like that of a little child + who is afraid it may be going to be whipped, or of a conscientious dog + who has lapsed unaccountably from rectitude. +</p> +<p> + "I have come to read the gospel for the day to you," said Mrs. + Morrison, sitting down firmly beside her. +</p> +<p> + "Thank you mum," said Mrs. Jones with meekness. +</p> +<p> + "My prayer-book has such small print—give me your Bible." +</p> +<p> + A look of great anxiety came into Mrs. Jones's eyes, but the Bible was + drawn from between her trembling old hands, and Mrs. Morrison began to + turn its pages. She had not turned many before she came to the + five-pound note. "What is this?" she asked, in extreme surprise. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones gave a little gasp, and twisted her fingers about. +</p> +<p> + "A five-pound note?" exclaimed Mrs. Morrison, holding it up. "How did + it come here?" +</p> +<p> + "It's mine, mum," quavered Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> + "Yours? Do you mean to say you have money hidden away and yet allow + Lady Shuttleworth to pay everything for you?" +</p> +<p> + "It's the first I ever 'ad, mum," faintly murmured the old lady, her + eyes following every movement of Mrs. Morrison's hands with a look of + almost animal anxiety. +</p> +<p> + "Where did it come from?" +</p> +<p> + "The young lady give it me yesterday, mum." +</p> +<p> + "The young lady?" Mrs. Morrison's voice grew very loud. "Do you mean + the person staying at the Pearces'?" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones gulped, and feebly nodded. +</p> +<p> + "Most improper. Most wrong. Most dangerous. You cannot tell how she + came by it, and I must say I'm surprised at you, Mrs. Jones. It + probably is not a real one. It is unlikely a chit like that should be + able to give so large a sum away—" And Mrs. Morrison held up the note + to the light and turned it round and round, scrutinizing it from every + point of view, upside down, back to front, sideways, with one eye + shut; but it refused to look like anything but a good five-pound note, + and she could only repeat grimly "Most dangerous." +</p> +<p> + The old lady watched her, a terrible anxiety in her eyes. Her worst + fears were fulfilled when the vicar's wife folded it up and said + decidedly, "For the present I shall take care of it for you. You + cannot lie here with so much money loose about the place. Why, if it + got round the village you might have some one in who'd murder you. + People have been murdered before now for less than this. I shall speak + to the vicar about it." And she put it in her purse, shut it with a + snap, and took up the Bible again. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones made a little sound between a gasp and a sob. Her head + rolled back on the pillow, and two tears dropped helplessly down the + furrows of her face. In that moment she felt the whole crushing misery + of being weak, and sick, and old,—so old that you have outlived your + claims to everything but the despotic care of charitable ladies, so + old that you are a mere hurdy-gurdy, expected each time any one in + search of edification chooses to turn your handle to quaver out tunes + of immortality. It is a bad thing to be very old. Of all the bad + things life forces upon us as we pass along it is the last and + worst—the bitterness at the bottom of the cup, the dregs of what for + many was after all always only medicine. Mrs. Jones had just enough of + the strength of fear left to keep quite still while the vicar's wife + read the Gospel in a voice that anger made harsh; but when she had + gone, after a parting admonition and a dreadful assurance that she + would come again soon, the tears rolled unchecked and piteous, and it + was a mercy that Priscilla also took it into her head to look in on + her way to church, for if she had not I don't know who would have + dried them for this poor baby of eighty-five. And I regret to say that + Priscilla's ideas of doing good were in such a state of crudeness that + she had no sooner mastered the facts brokenly sobbed out than she ran + to the cupboard and gave Mrs. Jones a tablespoonful of rum for the + strengthening of her body and then took out her purse and gave her + another five-pound note for the comforting of her soul. And then she + wiped her eyes, and patted her, and begged her not to mind. Such + conduct was, I suppose, what is called indiscriminate charity and + therefore blameworthy, but its effect was great. Priscilla went to + church with the reflection of the old lady's wonder and joy shining in + her own face. "Hide it," had been her last words at the door, her + finger on her lips, her head nodding expressively in the direction of + the vicarage; and by this advice she ranged herself once and for all + on the opposite side to Mrs. Morrison and the followers of obedience + and order. Mrs. Jones would certainly have taken her for an angel + working miracles with five-pound notes and an inexhaustible pocket if + it had not been for the rum; even in her rapture she did feel that a + genuine angel would be incapable of any really harmonious combination + with rum. But so far had she fallen from the kind of thinking that the + vicar's wife thought proper in a person so near her end that she + boldly told herself she preferred Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + Now this was the day of Priscilla's children's party, and though all + Symford had been talking of it for twenty-four hours the news of it + had not yet reached Mrs. Morrison's ears. The reason was that Symford + talked in whispers, only too sure that the authorities would consider + it wrong for it to send its children a-merrymaking on a Sunday, and + desperately afraid lest the forbidden cup should be snatched from its + longing lips. But the news did get to Mrs. Morrison's ears, and it got + to them in the porch of the church as she was passing in to prayer. + She had it from an overgrown girl who was waiting outside for her + father, and who was really much too big for children's parties but had + got an invitation by looking wistful at the right moment. +</p> +<p> + "Emma," said Mrs. Morrison in passing, "you have not returned the + book I lent you. Bring it up this afternoon." +</p> +<p> + "Please mum, I'll bring it to-morrow, mum," said the girl, curtseying + and turning red. +</p> +<p> + "No, Emma, you will do as I direct. One can never be too particular + about returning books. You have kept it an unconscionable time. You + will bring it to the vicarage at four o'clock." +</p> +<p> + "Please mum, I—I can't at four o'clock." +</p> +<p> + "And pray, Emma, what is to prevent you?" +</p> +<p> + "I—I'm going to Baker's, mum." +</p> +<p> + "Going to Baker's? Why are you going to Baker's, Emma?" +</p> +<p> + So it all came out. +</p> +<p> + The bells were just stopping, and Mrs. Morrison, who played the organ, + was forced to hurry in without having told Emma her whole opinion of + those who gave and those who attended Sunday parties, but the prelude + she played that day expressed the tumult of her mind very well, and + struck Tussie Shuttleworth, who had sensitive ears, quite cold. He was + the only person in the church acutely sensitive to sound, and it was + very afflicting to him, this plunging among the pedals, this angry + shrieking of stops no man ever yet had heard together. The very blower + seemed frightened, and blew in gasps; and the startled Tussie, + comparing the sounds to the clamourings of a fiend in pain, could not + possibly guess they were merely the musical expression of the state of + a just woman's soul. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison's anger was perfectly proper. It had been the + conscientious endeavour of twenty-five solid years of her life to make + of Symford a model parish, and working under Lady Shuttleworth, whose + power was great since all the cottages were her son's and were lived + in by his own labourers, it had been kept in a state of order so + nearly perfect as to raise it to the position of an example to the + adjoining parishes. The church was full, the Sunday-school well + attended, the Sabbath was kept holy, the women were one and all sober + and thrifty, the men were fairly satisfactory except on Saturday + nights, there was no want, little sickness, and very seldom downright + sin. The expression downright sin is Mrs. Morrison's own,—heaven + forbid that I should have anything to do with such an expression—and + I suppose she meant by it thieving, murder, and other grossnesses that + would bring the sinner, as she often told her awe-struck Dorcas class, + to infallible gallows, and the sinner's parents' grey hairs to + sorrowful graves. "Please mum, will the parents go too?" asked a girl + one day who had listened breathlessly, an inquiring-minded girl who + liked to get to the root of things. +</p> +<p> + "Go where, Bessie?" +</p> +<p> + "With the grey hairs, mum." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison paused a moment and fixed a searching gaze on Bessie's + face. Then she said with much dignity, "The parents, Bessie, will + naturally follow the hairs." And to a girl bred in the near + neighbourhood of Exmoor it sounded very sporting. +</p> +<p> + Into this innocent, frugal, well-managed hamlet Priscilla dropped + suddenly from nowhere, trailing with her thunder-clouds of impulsive + and childish ideas about doing good, and holding in her hands the + dangerous weapon of wealth. It is hard to stand by and see one's + life-work broken up before one's eyes by an irresponsible stranger, a + foreigner, a girl, a young girl, a pretty girl; especially hard if one + was born with an unbending character, tough and determined, ambitious + and vain. These are not reproaches being piled up on the vicar's wife; + who shall dare reproach another? And how could she help being born so? + We would all if we could be born good and amiable and beautiful, and + remain so perpetually during our lives; and she too was one of God's + children, and inside her soul, behind the crust of failings that + hindered it during these years from coming out, sat her bright angel, + waiting. Meanwhile she was not a person to watch the destruction of + her hopes without making violent efforts to stop it; and immediately + she had played the vicar into the vestry after service that Sunday she + left the congregation organless and hurried away into the churchyard. + There she stood and waited for the villagers to question them about + this unheard of thing; and it was bad to see how they melted away in + other directions,—out at unused gates, making detours over the grass, + visiting the long-neglected graves of relatives, anywhere rather than + along the ordinary way, which was the path where the vicar's wife + stood. At last came Mrs. Vickerton the postmistress. She was deep in + conversation with the innkeeper's wife, and did not see the figure on + the path in time to melt away herself. If she had she certainly would + have melted, for though she had no children but her grown-up son she + felt very guilty; for it was her son who had been sent the afternoon + before to Minehead by Priscilla with a list as long as his arm of the + cakes and things to be ordered for the party. "Oh Mrs. Morrison, I + didn't see you," she exclaimed, starting and smiling and turning red. + She was a genteel woman who called no one mum. +</p> +<p> + The innkeeper's wife slipped deftly away among graves. +</p> +<p> + "Is it true that the children are going to Baker's Farm this + afternoon?" asked Mrs. Morrison, turning and walking grimly by Mrs. + Vickerton. +</p> +<p> + "I did hear something about it, Mrs. Morrison," said Mrs. Vickerton, + hiding her agitation behind a series of smiles with sudden endings. +</p> +<p> + "All?" +</p> +<p> + "I did hear they pretty well all thought of it," said Mrs. Vickerton, + coughing. "Beautiful weather, isn't it, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "They are to have tea there?" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Vickerton gazed pleasantly at the clouds and the tree-tops. "I + should think there might be tea, Mrs. Morrison," she said; and the + vision of that mighty list of cakes rising before her eyes made her + put up her hand and cough again. +</p> +<p> + "Have the parents lost their senses?" +</p> +<p> + "I couldn't say—I really couldn't say, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "Have they forgotten the commandments?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh I 'ope not, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "And the vicar's teaching? And the good habits of years?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "I never heard of anything more disgraceful. Disgraceful to the giver + and to those who accept. Wicked, scandalous, and unscriptural." +</p> +<p> + "We all 'oped you'd see no harm in it, Mrs. Morrison. It's a fine day, + and they'll just have tea, and perhaps—sing a little, and they don't + get treats often this time of year." +</p> +<p> + "Why, it's disgraceful—disgraceful anywhere to have a treat on a + Sunday; but in a parish like this it is scandalous. When Lady + Shuttleworth hears of it I quite expect she'll give everybody notice + to quit." +</p> +<p> + "Notice to quit? Oh I hope not, Mrs. Morrison. And she do know about + it. She heard it last night. And Sir Augustus himself has promised the + young lady to go and help." +</p> +<p> + "Sir Augustus?" +</p> +<p> + "And we all think it so kind of him, and so kind of the young lady + too," said Mrs. Vickerton, gathering courage. +</p> +<p> + "Sir Augustus?" repeated Mrs. Morrison. Then a horrid presentiment + laid cold fingers on her heart. "Is any one else going to help?" she + asked quickly. +</p> +<p> + "Only the young lady's uncle, and—" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Vickerton hesitated, and looked at the vicar's wife with a + slightly puzzled air. +</p> +<p> + "And who?" +</p> +<p> + "Of course Mr. Robin." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XII +</h2> +<p> + It is the practice of Providence often to ignore the claims of poetic + justice. Properly, the Symford children ought to have been choked by + Priscilla's cakes; and if they had been, the parents who had sent them + merrymaking on a Sunday would have been well punished by the + undeniable awfulness of possessing choked children. But nobody was + choked; and when in the early days of the following week there were in + nearly every cottage pangs being assuaged, they were so naturally the + consequence of the strange things that had been eaten that only Mrs. + Morrison was able to see in them weapons being wielded by Providence + in the cause of eternal right. She, however, saw it so plainly that + each time during the next few days that a worried mother came and + asked advice, she left her work or her meals without a murmur, and + went to the castor-oil cupboard with an alacrity that was almost + cheerful; and seldom, I suppose, have such big doses been supplied and + administered as the ones she prescribed for suffering Symford. +</p> +<p> + But on this dark side of the picture I do not care to look; the + party, anyhow, had been a great success, and Priscilla became at + one stroke as popular among the poor of Symford as she had been in + Lothen-Kunitz. Its success it is true was chiefly owing to the + immense variety of things to eat she had provided; for the + conjuror, merry-go-round, and cocoa-nuts to be shied at that she + had told young Vickerton to bring with him from Minehead, had all + been abandoned on Tussie's earnest advice, who instructed her + innocent German mind that these amusements, undoubtedly admirable + in themselves and on week days, were looked upon askance in England + on Sundays. +</p> +<p> + "Why?" asked Priscilla, in great surprise. +</p> +<p> + "It's not keeping the day holy," said Tussie, blushing. +</p> +<p> + "How funny," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I don't know." +</p> +<p> + "Why," said Priscilla, "in Kun—" but she pulled herself up just as + she was about to give him a description of the varied nature of Sunday + afternoons in Kunitz. +</p> +<p> + "You must have noticed," said Tussie, "as you have lived so long in + London, that everything's shut on Sundays. There are no theatres and + things—certainly no cocoa-nuts." +</p> +<p> + "No, I don't remember any cocoa-nuts," mused Priscilla, her memory + going over those past Sundays she had spent in England. +</p> +<p> + Tussie tried to make amends for having obstructed her plans by + exerting himself to the utmost to entertain the children as far as + decorum allowed. He encouraged them to sing, he who felt every + ugliness in sound like a blow; he urged them to recite for prizes of + sixpences, he on whose soul Casabianca and Excelsior had much the + effect of scourges on a tender skin; he led them out into a field + between tea and supper and made them run races, himself setting the + example, he who caught cold so easily that he knew it probably meant a + week in bed. Robin helped too, but his exertions were confined to the + near neighbourhood of Priscilla. His mother had been very angry with + him, and he had been very angry with his mother for being angry, and + he had come away from the vicarage with a bad taste in his mouth and a + great defiance in his heart. It was the first time he had said hard + things to her, and it had been a shocking moment,—a moment sometimes + inevitable in the lives of parents and children of strong character + and opposed desires. He had found himself quite unable in his anger to + clothe his hard sayings in forms of speech that would have hidden + their brutal force, and he had turned his back at last on her + answering bitterness and fled to Baker's, thankful to find when he got + there that Priscilla's beauty and the interest of the mystery that + hung about her wiped out every other remembrance. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was in the big farm kitchen, looking on at the children + having tea. That was all she did at her party, except go round every + now and then saying pleasant little things to each child; but this + going round was done in so accomplished a manner, she seemed so used + to it, was so well provided with an apparently endless supply of + appropriate remarks, was so kind, and yet so—what was the word? + could it be mechanical?—that Robin for the hundredth time found + himself pondering over something odd, half-remembered, elusive about + the girl. Then there was the uncle; manifestly a man who had never + before been required to assist at a school-treat, manifestly on this + occasion an unhappy man, yet look how he worked while she sat idly + watching, look how he laboured round with cakes and bread-and-butter, + clumsily, strenuously, with all the heat and anxiety of one eager to + please and obey. Yes, that was what he did; Robin had hit on it at + last. This extraordinary uncle obeyed his niece; and Robin knew very + well that Germany was the last country in the world to produce men who + did that. Had he not a cousin who had married a German officer? A + whilom gay and sprightly cousin, who spent her time, as she dolefully + wrote, having her mind weeded of its green growth of little opinions + and gravelled and rolled and stamped with the opinions of her male + relations-in-law. "And I'd rather have weeds than gravel," she wrote + at the beginning of this process when she was still restive under the + roller, "for they at least are green." But long ago she had left off + complaining, long ago she too had entered into the rest that remaineth + for him who has given up, who has become what men praise as reasonable + and gods deplore as dull, who is tired of bothering, tired of trying, + tired of everything but sleep. Then there was the girl's maid. This + was the first time Robin had seen her; and while she was helping Mrs. + Pearce pour out cups of chocolate and put a heaped spoonful of whipped + cream on the top of each cup in the fashion familiar to Germans and + altogether lovely in the eyes of the children of Symford, Robin went + to her and offered help. +</p> +<p> + Annalise looked at him with heavy eyes, and shook her head. +</p> +<p> + "She don't speak no English, sir," explained Mrs. Pearce. "This one's + pure heathen." +</p> +<p> + "No English," echoed Annalise drearily, who had at least learned that + much, "no English, no English." +</p> +<p> + Robin gathered up his crumbs of German and presented them to her with + a smile. Immediately on hearing her own tongue she flared into life, + and whipping out a little pocket-book and pencil asked him eagerly + where she was. +</p> +<p> + "Where you are?" repeated Robin, astonished. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ja, Ja</i>. The address. This address. What is it? Where am I?" +</p> +<p> + "What, don't you know?" +</p> +<p> + "Tell me—quick," begged Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "But why—I don't understand. You must know you are in England?" +</p> +<p> + "England! Naturally I know it is England. But this—where is it? What + is its address? For letters to reach me? Quick—tell me quick!" +</p> +<p> + Robin, however, would not be quick. "Why has no one told you?" he + asked, with an immense curiosity. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, I have not been told. I know nothing. I am kept in the dark + like—like a prisoner." And Annalise dragged her handkerchief out of + her pocket, and put it to her eyes just in time to stop her ready + tears from falling into the whipped cream and spoiling it. +</p> +<p> + "There she goes again," sniffed Mrs. Pearce. "It's cry, cry, from + morning till night, and nothing good enough for her. It's a mercy she + goes out of this to-morrow. I never see such an image." +</p> +<p> + "Tell me," implored Annalise, "tell me quick, before my mistress—" +</p> +<p> + "I'll write it for you," said Robin, taking the note-book from her. + "You know you go into a cottage next week, so I'll put your new + address." And he wrote it in a large round hand and gave it to her + quickly, for Mrs. Pearce was listening to all this German and watching + him write with a look that made him feel cheap. So cheap did it make + him feel that he resisted for the present his desire to go on + questioning Annalise, and putting his hands in his pockets sauntered + away to the other end of the kitchen where Priscilla sat looking on. + "I'm afraid that really was cheap of me," he thought ruefully, when he + came once more into Priscilla's sweet presence; but he comforted + himself with the reflection that no girl ought to be mysterious, + and if this one chose to be so it was fair to cross her plans + occasionally. Yet he went on feeling cheap; and when Tussie who was + hurrying along with a cup of chocolate in each hand ran into him and + spilt some on his sleeve the sudden rage with which he said "Confound + you, Tussie," had little to do with the hot stuff soaking through to + his skin and a great deal with the conviction that Tussie, despised + from their common childhood for his weakness, smallness and ugliness, + would never have done what he had just done and betrayed what the girl + had chosen to keep secret from her maid. +</p> +<p> + "But why secret? Why? Why?" asked Robin, torn with desire to find out + all about Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "I'm going to do this often," said Priscilla, looking up at him with a + pleased smile. "I never saw such easily amused little creatures. Don't + you think it is beautiful, to give poor people a few happy moments + sometimes?" +</p> +<p> + "Very beautiful," said Robin, his eyes on her face. +</p> +<p> + "It is what I mean to do in future," she said dreamily, her chin on + her hand. +</p> +<p> + "It will be expensive," remarked Robin; for there were nearly two + hundred children, and Priscilla had collected the strangest things in + food on the long tables as a result of her method, when inviting, of + asking each mother what her child best liked to eat and then ordering + it with the lavishness of ignorance from Minehead. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, we shall live so simply ourselves that there will be enough left + to do all I want. And it will be the most blessed change and + refreshment, living simply. Fritzi hated the fuss and luxury quite as + much as I did." +</p> +<p> + "Did he?" said Robin, holding his breath. The girl was evidently off + her guard. He had not heard her call her uncle baldly Fritzi before; + and what fuss and luxury could a German teacher's life have known? +</p> +<p> + "He it was who first made me see that the body is more than meat and + the soul than raiment," mused Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Was he?" +</p> +<p> + "He pulled my soul out of the flesh-pots. I'm a sort of Israel come + out of Egypt, but an Egypt that was altogether too comfortable." +</p> +<p> + "Too comfortable? Can one be too comfortable?" +</p> +<p> + "I was. I couldn't move or see or breathe for comfort. It was like a + feather bed all over me." +</p> +<p> + "I wouldn't call that comfort," said Robin, for she paused, and he was + afraid she was not going on. "It sounds much more like torture." +</p> +<p> + "So it was at last. And Fritzi helped me to shake it off. If he hadn't + I'd have smothered slowly, and perhaps if I'd never known him I'd have + done it as gracefully as my sisters did. Why, they don't know to this + day that they are dead." +</p> +<p> + Robin was silent. He was afraid to speak lest anything he said should + remind her of the part she ought to be playing. He had no doubt now + at all that she was keeping a secret. A hundred questions were burning + on his lips. He hated himself for wanting to ask them, for being so + inquisitive, for taking advantage of the girl's being off her guard, + but what are you to do with your inherited failings? Robin's mother + was inquisitive and it had got into his blood, and I know of no moral + magnesia that will purify these things away. "You said the other day," + he burst out at last, quite unable to stop himself, "that you only had + your uncle in the world. Are your sisters—are they in London?" +</p> +<p> + "In London?" Priscilla gazed at him a moment with a vague surprise. + Then fright flashed into her eyes. "Did I not tell you they were dead? + Smothered?" she said, getting up quickly, her face setting into the + frown that had so chilled Tussie on the heath. +</p> +<p> + "But I took that as a parable." +</p> +<p> + "How can I help how you took it?" +</p> +<p> + And she instantly left him and went away round the tables, beginning + those little pleasant observations to the children again that struck + him as so strange. +</p> +<p> + Well did he know the sort of thing. He had seen Lady Shuttleworth do + it fifty times to the tenants, to the cottagers, at flower-shows, + bazaars, on all occasions of public hospitality or ceremony; but + practised and old as Lady Shuttleworth was this girl seemed yet more + practised. She was a finished artist in the work, he said to himself + as he leaned against the wall, his handsome face flushed, his eyes + sulky, watching her. It was enough to make any good-looking young + man sulky, the mixture of mystery and aloofness about Miss + Neumann-Schultz. Extraordinary as it seemed, up to this point he had + found it quite impossible to indulge with her in that form of more or + less illustrated dialogue known to Symford youths and maidens as + billing and cooing. Very fain would Robin have billed and have cooed. + It was a practice he excelled in. And yet though he had devoted + himself for three whole days, stood on ladders, nailed up creepers, + bought and carried rum, had a horrible scene with his mother because + of her, he had not got an inch nearer things personal and cosy. Miss + Neumann-Schultz thanked him quite kindly and graciously for his + pains—oh, she was very gracious; gracious in the sort of way Lady + Shuttleworth used to be when he came home for the holidays and she + patted his head and uttered benignities—and having thanked, + apparently forgot him till the next time she wanted anything. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi," said Priscilla, when in the course of her progress down the + room she met that burdened man, "I'm dreadfully afraid I've said some + foolish things." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing put the plate of cake he was carrying down on a dresser and + wiped his forehead. "Ma'am," he said looking worried, "I cannot watch + you and administer food to these barbarians simultaneously. If your + tongue is so unruly I would recommend complete silence." +</p> +<p> + "I've said something about my sisters." +</p> +<p> + "Sisters, ma'am?" said Fritzing anxiously. +</p> +<p> + "Does it matter?" +</p> +<p> + "Matter? I have carefully instructed the woman Pearce, who has + certainly informed, as I intended she should inform, the entire + village, that you were my brother's only child. Consequently, ma'am, + you have no sisters." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla made a gesture of despair. "How fearfully difficult it is + not to be straightforward," she said. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, ma'am, it is. Since we started on this adventure the whole race + of rogues has become the object of my sincerest admiration. What wits, + what quickness, what gifts—so varied and so deftly used—what skill + in deception, what resourcefulness in danger, what self-command—" +</p> +<p> + "Yes but Fritzi what are we to do?" +</p> +<p> + "Do, ma'am? About your royal sisters? Would to heaven I had been born + a rogue!" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, but as you were not—ought I to go back and say they're only + half-sisters? Or step-sisters? Or sisters in law? Wouldn't that do?" +</p> +<p> + "With whom were you speaking?" +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, let me beg you to be more prudent with that youth than with + any one. Our young friend Cæsar Augustus is I believe harmlessness + itself compared with him. Be on your guard, ma'am. Curb that fatal + feminine appendage, your tongue. I have remarked that he watches us. + But a short time since I saw him eagerly conversing with your Grand + Ducal Highness's maid. For me he has already laid several traps that I + have only just escaped falling into by an extraordinary presence of + mind and a nimbleness in dialectic almost worthy of a born rogue." +</p> +<p> + "Oh Fritzi," said the frightened Priscilla, laying her hand on his + sleeve, "do go and tell him I didn't mean what I said." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing wiped his brow again. "I fail to understand," he said, + looking at Priscilla with worried eyes, "what there is about us that + can possibly attract any one's attention." +</p> +<p> + "Why, there isn't anything," said Priscilla, with conviction. "We've + been most careful and clever. But just now—I don't know why—I began + to think aloud." +</p> +<p> + "Think aloud?" exclaimed Fritzing, horrified. "Oh ma'am let me beseech + you never again to do that. Better a thousand times not to think at + all. What was it that your Grand Ducal Highness thought aloud?" +</p> +<p> + And Priscilla, shamefaced, told him as well as she could remember. +</p> +<p> + "I will endeavour to remedy it," said poor Fritzing, running an + agitated hand through his hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla sighed, and stood drooping and penitent by the dresser while + he went down the room to where Robin still leaned against the wall. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing—he never called Robin young man, as he did + Tussie—"my niece tells me you are unable to distinguish truth from + parable." +</p> +<p> + "What?" said Robin staring. +</p> +<p> + "You are not, sir, to suppose that when my niece described her sisters + as dead that they are not really so." +</p> +<p> + "All right sir," said Robin, his eyes beginning to twinkle. +</p> +<p> + "The only portion of the story in which my niece used allegory was + when she described them as having been smothered. These young ladies, + sir, died in the ordinary way, in their beds." +</p> +<p> + "Feather beds, sir?" asked Robin briskly. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I have not inquired into the nature of the beds," said Fritzing + with severity. +</p> +<p> + "Is it not rather unusual," asked Robin, "for two young ladies in one + family to die at once? Were they unhealthy young ladies?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, they did not die at once, nor were they unhealthy. They were + perfectly healthy until they—until they began to die." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed," said Robin, with an interest properly tinged with regret. + "At least, sir," he added politely, after a pause in which he and + Fritzing stared very hard at each other, "I trust I may be permitted + to express my sympathy." +</p> +<p> + "Sir, you may." And bowing stiffly Fritzing returned to Priscilla, and + with a sigh of relief informed her that he had made things right + again. +</p> +<p> + "Dear Fritzi," said Priscilla looking at him with love and admiration, + "how clever you are." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIII +</h2> +<p> + It was on the Tuesday, the day Priscilla and Fritzing left Baker's and + moved into Creeper Cottage, that the fickle goddess who had let them + nestle for more than a week beneath her wing got tired of them and + shook them out. Perhaps she was vexed by their clumsiness at + pretending, perhaps she thought she had done more than enough for + them, perhaps she was an epicure in words and did not like a cottage + called Creeper; anyhow she shook them out. And if they had had eyes to + see they would not have walked into their new home with such sighs of + satisfaction and such a comfortable feeling that now at last the era + of systematic serenity and self-realization, beautifully combined with + the daily exercise of charity, had begun; for waiting for them in + Priscilla's parlour, established indeed in her easy-chair by the fire + and warming her miserable toes on the very hob, sat grey Ill Luck + horribly squinting. +</p> +<p> + Creeper Cottage, it will be remembered, consisted of two cottages, + each with two rooms, an attic, and a kitchen, and in the back yard the + further accommodation of a coal-hole, a pig-stye, and a pump. Thanks + to Tussie's efforts more furniture had been got from Minehead. Tussie + had gone in himself, after a skilful questioning of Fritzing had made + him realize how little had been ordered, and had, with Fritzing's + permission, put the whole thing into the hands of a Minehead firm. + Thus there was a bed for Annalise and sheets for everybody, and the + place was as decent as it could be made in the time. It was so tiny + that it got done, after a great deal of urging from Tussie, by the + Tuesday at midday, and Tussie himself had superintended the storing of + wood in the coal-hole and the lighting of the fire that was to warm + his divine lady and that Ill Luck found so comforting to her toes. The + Shuttleworth horses had a busy time on the Friday, Saturday, and + Monday, trotting up and down between Symford and Minehead; and the + Shuttleworth servants and tenants, not being more blind than other + people, saw very well that their Augustus had lost his heart to the + lady from nowhere. As for Lady Shuttleworth, she only smiled a rueful + smile and stroked her poor Tussie's hair in silence when, having + murmured something about the horses being tired, he reproved her by + telling her that it was everybody's duty to do what they could for + strangers in difficulties. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's side of Creeper Cottage was the end abutting on the + churchyard, and her parlour had one latticed window looking south down + the village street, and one looking west opening directly on to the + churchyard. The long grass of the churchyard, its dandelions and + daisies, grew right up beneath this window to her wall, and a tall + tombstone half-blocked her view of the elm-trees and the church. Over + this room, with the same romantic and gloomy outlook, was her bedroom. + Behind her parlour was what had been the shoemaker's kitchen, but it + had been turned into a temporary bathroom. True no water was laid on + as yet, but the pump was just outside, and nobody thought there would + be any difficulty about filling the bath every morning by means of the + pump combined with buckets. Over the bathroom was the attic. This was + Annalise's bedroom. Nobody thought there would be any difficulty about + that either; nobody, in fact, thought anything about anything. It was + a simple place, after the manner of attics, with a window in its + sloping ceiling through which stars might be studied with great + comfort as one lay in bed. A frugal mind, an earnest soul, would have + liked the attic, would have found a healthy enjoyment in a place so + plain and fresh, so swept in windy weather by the airs of heaven. A + poet, too, would certainly have flooded any parts of it that seemed + dark with the splendour of his own inner light; a nature-lover, again, + would have quickly discovered the spiders that dwelt in its corners, + and spent profitable hours on all fours observing them. But an + Annalise—what was she to make of such a place? Is it not true that + the less a person has inside him of culture and imagination the more + he wants outside him of the upholstery of life? I think it is true; + and if it is, then the vacancy of Annalise's mind may be measured by + the fact that what she demanded of life in return for the negative + services of not crying and wringing her hands was nothing less filled + with food and sofas and servants than a grand ducal palace. +</p> +<p> + But neither Priscilla nor Fritzing knew anything of Annalise's mind, + and if they had they would instantly have forgotten it again, of such + extreme unimportance would it have seemed. Nor would I dwell on it + myself if it were not that its very vacancy and smallness was the + cause of huge upheavals in Creeper Cottage, and the stone that the + builders ignored if they did not actually reject behaved as such + stones sometimes do and came down upon the builders' heads and crushed + them. Annalise, you see, was unable to appreciate peace, yet on the + other hand she was very able to destroy the peace of other people; and + Priscilla meant her cottage to be so peaceful—a temple, a holy place, + within whose quiet walls sacred years were going to be spent in doing + justly, in loving mercy, in walking humbly. True she had not as yet + made a nearer acquaintance with its inconveniences, but anyhow she + held the theory that inconveniences were things to be laughed at + and somehow circumvented, and that they do not enter into the + consideration of persons whose thoughts are absorbed by the burning + desire to live out their ideals. "You can be happy in any place + whatever," she remarked to Tussie on the Monday, when he was + expressing fears as to her future comfort; "absolutely any place will + do—a tub, a dingle, the top of a pillar—any place at all, if only + your soul is on fire." +</p> +<p> + "Of course you can," cried Tussie, ready to kiss her feet. +</p> +<p> + "And look how comfortable my cottage seems," said Priscilla, "directly + one compares it with things like tubs." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes," agreed Tussie, "I do see that it's enough for free spirits + to live in. I was only wondering whether—whether bodies would find it + enough." +</p> +<p> + "Oh bother bodies," said Priscilla airily. +</p> +<p> + But Tussie could not bring himself to bother bodies if they included + her own; on the contrary, the infatuated young man thought it would be + difficult sufficiently to cherish a thing so supremely precious and + sweet. And each time he went home after having been in the frugal + baldness of Creeper Cottage he hated the superfluities of his own + house more and more, he accused himself louder and louder of being + mean-spirited, effeminate, soft, vulgar, he loathed himself for living + embedded in such luxury while she, the dear and lovely one, was ready + cheerfully to pack her beauty into a tub if needs be, or let it be + weather-beaten on a pillar for thirty years if by so doing she could + save her soul alive. Tussie at this time became unable to see a sleek + servant dart to help him take off his coat without saying something + sharp to him, could not sit through a meal without making bitter + comparisons between what they were eating and what the poor were + probably eating, could not walk up his spacious staircase and along + his lofty corridors without scowling; they, indeed, roused his + contemptuous wrath in quite a special degree, the reason being that + Priscilla's stairs, the stairs up and down which her little feet would + have to clamber daily, were like a ladder, and she possessed no + passages at all. But what of that? Priscilla could not see that it + mattered, when Tussie drew her attention to it. +</p> +<p> + Both Fritzing's and her front door opened straight into their + sitting-rooms; both their staircases walked straight from the kitchens + up into the rooms above. They had meant to have a door knocked in the + dividing wall downstairs, but had been so anxious to get away from + Baker's that there was no time. In order therefore to get to Fritzing + Priscilla would have either to go out into the street and in again at + his front door, or go out at her back door and in again at his. Any + meals, too, she might choose to have served alone would have to be + carried round to her from the kitchen in Fritzing's half, either + through the backyard or through the street. +</p> +<p> + Tussie thought of this each time he sat at his own meals, surrounded + by deft menials, lapped as he told himself in luxury,—oh, thought + Tussie writhing, it was base. His much-tried mother had to listen to + many a cross and cryptic remark flung across the table from the dear + boy who had always been so gentle; and more than that, he put his + foot down once and for all and refused with a flatness that silenced + her to eat any more patent foods. "Absurd," cried Tussie. "No wonder + I'm such an idiot. Who could be anything else with his stomach full of + starch? Why, I believe the stuff has filled my veins with milk instead + of good honest blood." +</p> +<p> + "Dearest, I'll have it thrown out of the nearest window," said Lady + Shuttleworth, smiling bravely in her poor Tussie's small cross face. + "But what shall I give you instead? You know you won't eat meat." +</p> +<p> + "Give me lentils," cried Tussie. "They're cheap." +</p> +<p> + "Cheap?" +</p> +<p> + "Mother, I do think it offensive to spend much on what goes into or + onto one's body. Why not have fewer things, and give the rest to the + poor?" +</p> +<p> + "But I do give the rest to the poor; I'm always doing it. And there's + quite enough for us and for the poor too." +</p> +<p> + "Give them more, then. Why," fumed Tussie, "can't we live decently? + Hasn't it struck you that we're very vulgar?" +</p> +<p> + "No, dearest, I can't say that it has." +</p> +<p> + "Well, we are. Everything we have that is beyond bare necessaries + makes us vulgar. And surely, mother, you do see that that's not a nice + thing to be." +</p> +<p> + "It's a horrid thing to be," said his mother, arranging his tie with + an immense and lingering tenderness. +</p> +<p> + "It's a difficult thing not to be," said Tussie, "if one is rich. + Hasn't it struck you that this ridiculous big house, and the masses of + things in it, and the whole place and all the money will inevitably + end by crushing us both out of heaven?" +</p> +<p> + "No, I can't say it has. I expect you've been thinking of things like + the eyes of needles and camels having to go through them," said his + mother, still patting and stroking his tie. +</p> +<p> + "Well, that's terrifically true," mused Tussie, reflecting ruefully on + the size and weight of the money-bags that were dragging him down into + darkness. Then he added suddenly, "Will you have a small bed—a little + iron one—put in my bedroom?" +</p> +<p> + "A small bed? But there's a bed there already, dear." +</p> +<p> + "That big thing's only fit for a sick woman. I won't wallow in it any + longer." +</p> +<p> + "But dearest, all your forefathers wallowed, as you call it, in it. + Doesn't it seem rather—a pity not to carry on traditions?" +</p> +<p> + "Well mother be kind and dear, and let me depart in peace from them. A + camp bed,—that's what I'd like. Shall I order it, or will you? And + did I tell you I've given Bryce the sack?" +</p> +<p> + "Bryce? Why, what has he done?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh he hasn't done anything that I know of, except make a sort of doll + or baby of me. Why should I be put into my clothes and taken out of + them again as though I hadn't been weaned yet?" +</p> +<p> + Now all this was very bad, but the greatest blow for Lady Shuttleworth + fell when Tussie declared that he would not come of age. The cheerful + face with which his mother had managed to listen to his other + defiances went very blank at that; do what she would she could not + prevent its falling. "Not come of age?" she repeated stupidly. "But my + darling, you can't help yourself—you must come of age." +</p> +<p> + "Oh I know I can't help being twenty-one and coming into all + this"—and he waved contemptuous arms—"but I won't do it blatantly." +</p> +<p> + "I—I don't understand," faltered Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "There mustn't be any fuss, mother." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean no one is to come?" +</p> +<p> + "No one at all, except the tenants and people. Of course they are to + have their fun—I'll see that they have a jolly good time. But I won't + have our own set and the relations." +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, they've all accepted." +</p> +<p> + "Send round circulars." +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, you are putting me in a most painful position." +</p> +<p> + "Dear mother, I'm very sorry for that. I wish I'd thought like this + sooner. But really the idea is so revolting to me—it's so sickening + to think of all these people coming to pretend to rejoice over a worm + like myself." +</p> +<p> + "Tussle, you are not a worm." +</p> +<p> + "And then the expense and waste of entertaining them—the dreariness, + the boredom—oh, I wish I only possessed a tub—one single tub—or had + the pluck to live like Lavengro in a dingle." +</p> +<p> + "It's quite impossible to stop it now," interrupted Lady Shuttleworth + in the greatest distress; of Lavengro she had never heard. +</p> +<p> + "Yes you can, mother. Write and put it off." +</p> +<p> + "Write? What could I write? To-day is Tuesday, and they all arrive on + Friday. What excuse can I make at the last moment? And how can a + birthday be put off? My dearest boy, I simply can't." And Lady + Shuttleworth, the sensible, the cheery, the resourceful, the + perennially brave, wrung her hands and began quite helplessly to cry. +</p> +<p> + This unusual and pitiful sight at once conquered Tussie. For a moment + he stood aghast; then his arms were round his mother, and he promised + everything she wanted. What he said to her besides and what she sobbed + back to him I shall not tell. They never spoke of it again; but for + years they both looked back to it, that precious moment of clinging + together with bursting hearts, her old cheek against his young one, + her tears on his face, as to one of the most acutely sweet, acutely, + painfully, tender experiences of their joint lives. +</p> +<p> + It will be conceded that Priscilla had achieved a good deal in the one + week that had passed since she laid aside her high estate and stepped + down among ordinary people for the purpose of being and doing good. + She had brought violent discord into a hitherto peaceful vicarage, + thwarted the hopes of a mother, been the cause of a bitter quarrel + between her and her son, brought out by her mysteriousness a prying + tendency in the son that might have gone on sleeping for ever, + entirely upset the amiable Tussie's life by rending him asunder with a + love as strong as it was necessarily hopeless, made his mother anxious + and unhappy, and, what was perhaps the greatest achievement of all, + actually succeeded in making that mother cry. For of course Priscilla + was the ultimate cause of these unusual tears, as Lady Shuttleworth + very well knew. Lady Shuttleworth was the deceased Sir Augustus's + second wife, had married him when she was over forty and well out of + the crying stage, which in the busy does not last beyond childhood, + had lost him soon after Tussie's birth, had cried copiously and most + properly at his funeral, and had not cried since. It was then + undoubtedly a great achievement on the part of the young lady from + nowhere, this wringing of tears out of eyes that had been dry for one + and twenty years. But the list of what Priscilla had done does not end + with this havoc among mothers. Had she not interrupted the decent + course of Mrs. Jones's dying, and snatched her back to a hankering + after the unfit? Had she not taught the entire village to break the + Sabbath? Had she not made all its children either sick or cross under + the pretence of giving them a treat? On the Monday she did something + else that was equally well-meaning, and yet, as I shall presently + relate, of disastrous consequences: she went round the village from + cottage to cottage making friends with the children's mothers and + leaving behind her, wherever she went, little presents of money. She + had found money so extraordinarily efficacious in the comforting of + Mrs. Jones that before she started she told Fritzing to fill her purse + well, and in each cottage it was made somehow so clear how badly + different things were wanted that the purse was empty before she was + half round the village and she had to go back for a fresh supply. She + was extremely happy that afternoon, and so were the visited mothers. + They, indeed, talked of nothing else for the rest of the day, + discussed it over their garden hedges, looked in on each other to + compare notes, hurried to meet their husbands on their return from + work to tell them about it, and were made at one stroke into something + very like a colony of eager beggars. And in spite of Priscilla's + injunction to Mrs. Jones to hide her five-pound note all Symford knew + of that as well, and also of the five-pound note Mrs. Morrison had + taken away. Nothing was talked of in Symford but Priscilla. She had in + one week created quite a number of disturbances of a nature fruitful + for evil in that orderly village; and when on the Tuesday she and + Fritzing moved into Creeper Cottage they were objects of the intensest + interest to the entire country side, and the report of their riches, + their recklessness, and their eccentric choice of a dwelling had + rolled over the intervening hills as far as Minehead, where it was the + subject of many interesting comments in the local papers. +</p> +<p> + They got into their cottage about tea time; and the first thing + Priscilla did was to exclaim at the pleasant sight of the wood fire + and sit down in the easy-chair to warm herself. We know who was + sitting in it already; and thus she was received by Bad Luck at once + into her very lap, and clutched about securely by that unpleasant + lady's cold and skinny arms. She looked up at Fritzing with a shiver + to remark wonderingly that the room, in spite of its big fire and its + smallness, was like ice, but her lips fell apart in a frozen stare and + she gazed blankly past him at the wall behind his head. "Look," she + whispered, pointing with a horrified forefinger. And Fritzing, turning + quickly, was just in time to snatch a row of cheap coloured portraits + from the wall and fling them face downwards under the table before + Tussie came in to ask if he could do anything. +</p> +<p> + The portraits were those of all the reigning princes of Germany and + had been put up as a delicate compliment by the representative of the + Minehead furnishers, while Priscilla and Fritzing were taking leave of + Baker's Farm; and the print Priscilla's eye had lighted on was the + portrait of her august parent, smiling at her. He was splendid in + state robes and orders, and there was a charger, and an obviously + expensive looped-up curtain, and much smoke as of nations furiously + raging together in the background, and outside this magnificence + meandered the unmeaning rosebuds of Priscilla's cheap wallpaper. His + smile seemed very terrible under the circumstances. Fritzing felt + this, and seized him and flung him with a desperate energy under the + table, where he went on smiling, as Priscilla remembered with a guilty + shudder, at nothing but oilcloth. "I don't believe I'll sleep if I + know he—he's got nothing he'd like better than oilcloth to look at," + she whispered with an awestruck face to Fritzing as Tussie came in. +</p> +<p> + "I will cause them all to be returned," Fritzing assured her. +</p> +<p> + "What, have those people sent wrong things?" asked Tussie anxiously, + who felt that the entire responsibility of this <i>ménage</i> was on his + shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, only some cheap prints," said Priscilla hastily. "I think they're + called oleographs or something." +</p> +<p> + "What impertinence," said Tussie hotly. +</p> +<p> + "I expect it was kindly meant, but I—I like my cottage quite plain." +</p> +<p> + "I'll have them sent back, sir," Tussie said to Fritzing, who was + rubbing his hands nervously through his hair; for the sight of his + grand ducal master's face smiling at him on whom he would surely never + wish to smile again, and doing it, too, from the walls of Creeper + Cottage, had given him a shock. +</p> +<p> + "You are ever helpful, young man," he said, bowing abstractedly and + going away to put down his hat and umbrella; and Priscilla, with a + cold feeling that she had had a bad omen, rang the handbell Tussie's + thoughtfulness had placed on her table and ordered Annalise to bring + tea. +</p> +<p> + Now Annalise had been standing on the threshold of her attic staring + at it in an amazement too deep for words when the bell fetched her + down. She appeared, however, before her mistress with a composed face, + received the order with her customary respectfulness, and sought out + Fritzing to inquire of him where the servants were to be found. "Her + Grand Ducal Highness desires tea," announced Annalise, appearing in + Fritzing's sitting-room, where he was standing absorbed in the bill + from the furnishers that he had found lying on his table. +</p> +<p> + "Then take it in," said Fritzing impatiently, without looking up. +</p> +<p> + "To whom shall I give the order?" inquired Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "To whom shall you give the order?" repeated Fritzing, pausing + in his study to stare at her, the bill in one hand and his + pocket-handkerchief, with which he was mopping his forehead, in + the other. +</p> +<p> + "Where," asked Annalise, "shall I find the cook?" +</p> +<p> + "Where shall you find the cook?" repeated Fritzing, staring still + harder. "This house is so gigantic is it not," he said with an + enormous sarcasm, "that no doubt the cook has lost himself. Have you + perhaps omitted to investigate the coal-hole?" +</p> +<p> + "Herr Geheimrath, where shall I find the cook?" asked Annalise tossing + her head. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein, is there a mirror in your bedroom?" +</p> +<p> + "The smallest I ever saw. Only one-half of my face can I see reflected + in it at a time." +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein, the half of that face you see reflected in it is the half + of the face of the cook." +</p> +<p> + "I do not understand," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "Yet it is as clear as shining after rain. You, <i>mein liebes Kind</i>, + are the cook." +</p> +<p> + It was now Annalise's turn to stare, and she stood for a moment doing + it, her face changing from white to red while Fritzing turned his back + and taking out a pencil made little sums on the margin of the bill. + "Herr Geheimrath, I am not a cook," she said at last, swallowing her + indignation. +</p> +<p> + "What, still there?" he exclaimed, looking up sharply. "Unworthy one, + get thee quickly to the kitchen. Is it seemly to keep the Princess + waiting?" +</p> +<p> + "I am not a cook," said Annalise defiantly. "I was not engaged as a + cook, I never was a cook, and I will not be a cook." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing flung down the bill and came and glared close into + Annalise's face. "Not a cook?" he cried. "You, a German girl, the + daughter of poor parents, you are not ashamed to say it? You do not + hide your head for shame? No—a being so useful, so necessary, so + worthy of respect as a cook you are not and never will be. I'll tell + you what you are,—I've told you once already, and I repeat it—you + are a knave, my Fräulein, a knave, I say. And in those parts of your + miserable nature where you are not a knave—for I willingly concede + that no man or woman is bad all through—in those parts, I say, where + your knavishness is intermittent, you are an absolute, unmitigated + fool." +</p> +<p> + "I will not bear this," cried Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "Will not! Cannot! Shall not! Inept Negation, get thee to thy kitchen + and seek wisdom among the pots." +</p> +<p> + "I am no one's slave," cried Annalise, "I am no one's prisoner." +</p> +<p> + "Hark at her! Who said you were? Have I not told you the only two + things you are?" +</p> +<p> + "But I am treated as a prisoner, I am treated as a slave," sobbed + Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "Unmannerly one, how dare you linger talking follies when your royal + mistress is waiting for her tea? Run—run! Or must I show you how?" +</p> +<p> + "Her Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, not budging, "told me also + to prepare the bath for her this evening." +</p> +<p> + "Well, what of that?" cried Fritzing, snatching up the bill again and + adding up furiously. "Prepare it, then." +</p> +<p> + "I see no water-taps." +</p> +<p> + "Woman, there are none." +</p> +<p> + "How can I prepare a bath without water-taps?" +</p> +<p> + "O thou Inefficiency! Ineptitude garbed as woman! Must I then teach + thee the elements of thy business? Hast thou not observed the pump? Go + to it, and draw water. Cause the water to flow into buckets. Carry + these buckets—need I go on? Will not Nature herself teach thee what + to do with buckets?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise flushed scarlet. "I will not go to the pump," she said. +</p> +<p> + "What, you will not carry out her Grand Ducal Highness's orders?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not go to the pump." +</p> +<p> + "You refuse to prepare the bath?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not go to the pump." +</p> +<p> + "You refuse to prepare the tea?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not be a cook." +</p> +<p> + "You are rankly rebellious?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not sleep in the attic." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + "I will not eat the food." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + "I will not do the work." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + "I will go." +</p> +<p> + "Go?" +</p> +<p> + "<i>Go</i>," repeated Annalise, stamping her foot. "I demand my wages, the + increased wages that were promised me, and I will go." +</p> +<p> + "And where, Impudence past believing, will you go, in a country whose + tongue you most luckily do not understand?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise looked up into Fritzing's furious eyes with the challenge + of him who flings down his trump card. "Go?" she cried, with a + defiance that was blood-curdling in one so small and hitherto so + silent, "I will first go to that young gentleman who speaks my + language and I will tell him all, and then, with his assistance, I + will go straight—but <i>straight</i>, do you hear?"—and she stamped + her foot again—"to Lothen-Kunitz." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIV +</h2> +<p> + Early in this story I pointed out what to the intelligent must have + been from the beginning apparent, that Annalise held Priscilla and + Fritzing in the hollow of her hand. In the first excitement of the + start she had not noticed it, but during those woeful days of + disillusionment at Baker's she saw it with an ever-growing clearness; + and since Sunday, since the day she found a smiling young gentleman + ready to talk German to her and answer questions, she was perfectly + aware that she had only to close her hand and her victims would + squeeze into any shape she liked. She proposed to do this closing at + the first moment of sheer intolerableness, and that moment seemed well + reached when she entered Creeper Cottage and realized what the attic, + the kitchen, and the pump really meant. +</p> +<p> + It is always a shock to find one's self in the company of a worm that + turns, always a shock and an amazement; a spectacle one never, + somehow, gets used to. But how dreadful does it become when one is in + the power of the worm, and the worm is resentful, and ready to squeeze + to any extent. Fritzing reflected bitterly that Annalise might quite + well have been left at home. Quite well? A thousand times better. + What had she done but whine during her passive period? And now that + she was active, a volcano in full activity hurling forth hot streams + of treachery on two most harmless heads, she, the insignificant, the + base-born, the empty-brained, was actually going to be able to ruin + the plans of the noblest woman on earth. +</p> +<p> + Thus thought Fritzing, mopping his forehead. Annalise had rushed away + to her attic after flinging her defiance at him, her spirit ready to + dare anything but her body too small, she felt, to risk staying within + reach of a man who looked more like somebody who meant to shake her + than any one she had ever seen. Fritzing mopped his forehead, and + mopped and mopped again. He stood where she had left him, his eyes + fixed on the ground, his distress so extreme that he was quite near + crying. What was he to do? What was he to say to his Princess? How was + he to stop the girl's going back to Kunitz? How was he to stop her + going even so far as young Morrison? That she should tell young + Morrison who Priscilla was would indeed be a terrible thing. It would + end their being able to live in Symford. It would end their being able + to live in England. The Grand Duke would be after them, and there + would have to be another flight to another country, another start + there, another search for a home, another set of explanations, + pretences, fears, lies,—things of which he was so weary. But there + was something else, something worse than any of these things, that + made Fritzing mop his forehead with so extreme a desperation: Annalise + had demanded the money due to her, and Fritzing had no money. +</p> +<p> + I am afraid Fritzing was never meant for a conspirator. Nature never + meant him to be a plotter, an arranger of unpleasant surprises for + parents. She never meant him to run away. She meant him, probably, + to spend his days communing with the past in a lofty room with + distempered walls and busts round them. That he should be forced to + act, to decide, to be artful, to wrangle with maids, to make ends + meet, to squeeze his long frame and explosive disposition into a + Creeper Cottage where only an ill-fitting door separated him from the + noise and fumes of the kitchen, was surely a cruel trick of Fate, and + not less cruel because he had brought it on himself. That he should + have thought he could run away as well as any man is merely a proof of + his singleness of soul. A man who does that successfully is always, + among a great many other things, a man who takes plenty of money with + him and knows exactly where to put his hand on more when it is wanted. + Fritzing had thought it better to get away quickly with little money + than to wait and get away with more. He had seized all he could of his + own that was not invested, and Priscilla had drawn her loose cash from + the Kunitz bank; but what he took hidden in his gaiters after paying + for Priscilla's outfit and bribing Annalise was not more than three + hundred pounds; and what is three hundred pounds to a person who buys + and furnishes cottages and scatters five-pound notes among the poor? + The cottages were paid for. He had insisted on doing that at once, + chiefly in order to close his dealings with Mr. Dawson; but Mr. Dawson + had not let them go for less than a hundred and fifty for the two, in + spite of Tussie's having said a hundred was enough. When Fritzing told + Mr. Dawson what Tussie had said Mr. Dawson soon proved that Tussie + could not possibly have meant it; and Fritzing, knowing how rich + Priscilla really was and what vast savings he had himself lying over + in Germany in comfortable securities, paid him without arguing and + hastened from the hated presence. Then the journey for the three from + Kunitz had been expensive; the stay at Baker's Farm had been, strange + to say, expensive; Mrs. Jones's comforting had been expensive; the + village mothers had twice emptied Priscilla's purse of ten pounds; and + the treat to the Symford children had not been cheap. After paying for + this—the Minehead confectioner turned out to be a man of little faith + in unknown foreigners, and insisted on being paid at once—Fritzing + had about forty pounds left. This, he had thought, would do for food + and lights and things for a long while,—certainly till he had hit on + a plan by which he would be able to get hold of the Princess's money + and his own without betraying where they were; and here on his table, + the second unpleasant surprise that greeted him on entering his new + home (the first had been his late master's dreadful smile) was the + bill for the furnishing of it. To a man possessed of only forty pounds + any bill will seem tremendous. This one was for nearly two hundred; + and at the end of the long list of items, the biggest of which was + that bathroom without water that had sent Annalise out on strike, was + the information that a remittance would oblige. A remittance! Poor + Fritzing. He crushed the paper in his hand and made caustic mental + comments on the indecency of these people, clamouring for their money + almost before the last workman was out of the place, certainly before + the smell of paint was out of it, and clamouring, too, in the face of + the Shuttleworth countenance and support. He had not been a week yet + in Symford, and had been so busy, so rushed, that he had put off + thinking out a plan for getting his money over from Germany until he + should be settled. Never had he imagined people would demand payment + in this manner. Never, either, had he imagined the Princess would want + so much money for the poor; and never, of course, had he imagined that + there would be a children's treat within three days of their arrival. + Least of all had he dreamed that Annalise would so soon need more + bribing; for that was clearly the only thing to do. He saw it was the + only thing, after he had stood for some time thinking and wiping the + cold sweat from his forehead. She must be bribed, silenced, given in + to. He must part with as much as he possibly could of that last forty + pounds; as much, also, as he possibly could of his pride, and submit + to have the hussy's foot on his neck. Some day, some day, thought + Fritzing grinding his teeth, he would be even with her; and when that + day came he promised himself that it should certainly begin with a + sound shaking. "Truly," he reflected, "the foolish things of the world + confound the wise, and the weak things of the world confound the + things that are mighty." And he went out, and standing in the back + yard beneath Annalise's window softly called to her. "Fräulein," + called Fritzing, softly as a dove wooing its mate. +</p> +<p> + "Aha," thought Annalise, sitting on her bed, quick to mark the change; + but she did not move. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein," called Fritzing again; and it was hardly a call so much as + a melodious murmur. +</p> +<p> + Annalise did not move, but she grinned. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein, come down one moment," cooed Fritzing, whose head was quite + near the attic window so low was Creeper Cottage. "I wish to speak to + you. I wish to give you something." +</p> +<p> + Annalise did not move, but she stuffed her handkerchief into her + mouth; for the first time since she left Calais she was enjoying + herself. +</p> +<p> + "If," went on Fritzing after an anxious pause, "I was sharp with you + just now—and I fear I may have been hasty—you should not take it + amiss from one who, like Brutus, is sick of many griefs. Come down, + Fräulein, and let me make amends." +</p> +<p> + The Princess's bell rang. At once habit impelled Annalise to that + which Fritzing's pleadings would never have effected; she scrambled + down the ladder, and leaving him still under her window presented + herself before her mistress with her usual face of meek respect. +</p> +<p> + "I said tea," said Priscilla very distinctly, looking at her with + slightly lifted eyebrows. +</p> +<p> + Annalise curtseyed and disappeared. +</p> +<p> + "How fearfully polite German maids are," remarked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "In what way?" asked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Those curtseys. They're magnificent." +</p> +<p> + "Don't English maids curtsey?" +</p> +<p> + "None that I've ever seen. Perhaps they do to royalties." +</p> +<p> + "Oh?" said Priscilla with a little jump. She was still so much + unnerved by the unexpected meeting with her father on the wall of + Creeper Cottage that she could not prevent the little jump. +</p> +<p> + "What would German maids do, I wonder, in dealing with royalties," + said Tussie, "if they curtsey so beautifully to ordinary mistresses? + They'd have to go down on their knees to a princess, wouldn't they?" +</p> +<p> + "How should I know?" said Priscilla, irritably, alarmed to feel she + was turning red; and with great determination she began to talk + literature. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was lying in wait for Annalise, and caught her as she came + into the bathroom. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein," said the miserable man trying to screw his face into + persuasiveness, "you cannot let the Princess go without tea." +</p> +<p> + "Yes I can," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + He thrust his hands into his pockets to keep them off her shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "Make it this once, Fräulein, and I will hire a woman of the village + to make it in future. And see, you must not leave the Princess's + service, a service of such great honour to yourself, because I chanced + to be perhaps a little—hasty. I will give you two hundred marks to + console you for the slight though undoubted difference in the mode of + living, and I will, as I said, hire a woman to come each day and cook. + Will it not be well so?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "No?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise put her hands on her hips, and swaying lightly from side to + side began to sing softly. Fritzing gazed at this fresh development in + her manners in silent astonishment. "<i>Jedermann macht mir die Cour, + c'est l'amour, c'est l'amour</i>," sang Annalise, her head one side, her + eyes on the ceiling. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Liebes Kind</i>, are your promises of no value? Did you not promise to + keep your mouth shut, and not betray the Princess's confidence? Did + she not seek you out from all the others for the honour of keeping her + secrets? And you will, after one week, divulge them to a stranger? You + will leave her service? You will return to Kunitz? Is it well so?" +</p> +<p> + "<i>C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour</i>," sang Annalise, swaying. +</p> +<p> + "Is it well so, Fräulein?" repeated Fritzing, strangling a furious + desire to slap her. +</p> +<p> + "Did you speak?" inquired Annalise, pausing in her song. +</p> +<p> + "I am speaking all the time. I asked if it were well to betray the + secrets of your royal mistress." +</p> +<p> + "I have been starved," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "You have had the same fare as ourselves." +</p> +<p> + "I have been called names." +</p> +<p> + "Have I not expressed—regret?" +</p> +<p> + "I have been treated as dirt." +</p> +<p> + "Well, well, I have apologized." +</p> +<p> + "If you had behaved to me as a maid of a royal lady should be behaved + to, I would have faithfully done my part and kept silence. Now give me + my money and I will go." +</p> +<p> + "I will give you your money—certainly, <i>liebes Kind</i>. It is what I am + most desirous of doing. But only on condition that you stay. If you + go, you go without it. If you stay, I will do as I said about the cook + and will—" Fritzing paused—"I will endeavour to refrain from calling + you anything hasty." +</p> +<p> + "Two hundred marks," said Annalise gazing at the ceiling, "is + nothing." +</p> +<p> + "Nothing?" cried Fritzing. "You know very well that it is, for you, a + great sum." +</p> +<p> + "It is nothing. I require a thousand." +</p> +<p> + "A thousand? What, fifty English sovereigns? Nay, then, but there is + no reasoning with you," cried Fritzing in tones of real despair. +</p> +<p> + She caught the conviction in them and hesitated. "Eight hundred, + then," she said. +</p> +<p> + "Impossible. And besides it would be a sin. I will give you twenty." +</p> +<p> + "Twenty? Twenty marks?" Annalise stared at him a moment then resumed + her swaying and her song—"<i>Jedermann macht mir die Cour</i>"—sang + Annalise with redoubled conviction. +</p> +<p> + "No, no, not marks—twenty pounds," said Fritzing, interrupting what + was to him a most maddening music. "Four hundred marks. As much as + many a German girl can only earn by labouring two years you will + receive for doing nothing but hold your tongue." +</p> +<p> + Annalise closed her lips tightly and shook her head. "My tongue cannot + be held for that," she said, beginning to sway again and hum. +</p> +<p> + Adjectives foamed on Fritzing's own, but he kept them back. + "<i>Mädchen</i>," he said with the gentleness of a pastor in a confirmation + class, "do you not remember that the love of money is the root of all + evil? I do not recognize you. Since when have you become thus greedy + for it?" +</p> +<p> + "Give me eight hundred and I will stop." +</p> +<p> + "I will give you six hundred," said Fritzing, fighting for each of his + last precious pounds. +</p> +<p> + "Eight." +</p> +<p> + "Six." +</p> +<p> + "I said eight," said Annalise, stopping and looking at him with lifted + eye-brows and exactly imitating the distinctness with which the + Princess had just said "I said tea." +</p> +<p> + "Six is an enormous sum. Why, what would you do with it?" +</p> +<p> + "That is my affair. Perhaps buy food," she said with a malicious + side-glance. +</p> +<p> + "I tell you there shall be a cook." +</p> +<p> + "A cook," said Annalise counting on her fingers,—"and a good cook, + observe—not a cook like the Frau Pearce—a cook, then, no more rude + names, and eight hundred marks. Then I stop. I suffer. I am silent." +</p> +<p> + "It cannot be done. I cannot give you eight." +</p> +<p> + "<i>C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour</i>.... The Princess waits for her tea. I + will prepare it for her this once. I am good, you see, at heart. But I + must have eight hundred marks. <i>Cest l'amo-o-o-o-o-our</i>." +</p> +<p> + "I will give you seven," said Fritzing, doing rapid sums in his head. + Seven hundred was something under thirty-five pounds. He would still + have five pounds left for housekeeping. How long that would last he + admitted to himself that probably only heaven knew, but he hoped that + with economy it might be made to carry them over a fortnight; and + surely by the end of a fortnight he would have hit on a way of getting + fresh supplies from Germany? "I will give you seven hundred. That is + the utter-most. I can give no more till I have written home for money. + I have only a little more than that here altogether. See, I treat you + like a reasonable being—I set the truth plainly before you. More + than seven hundred I could not give if I would." +</p> +<p> + "Good," said Annalise, breaking off her music suddenly. "I will take + that now and guarantee to be silent for fourteen days. At the end of + that time the Herr Geheimrath will have plenty more money and will, if + he still desires my services and my silence, give me the three hundred + still due to me on the thousand I demand. If the Herr Geheimrath + prefers not to, then I depart to my native country. While the + fortnight lasts I will suffer all there is to suffer in silence. Is + the Herr Geheimrath agreed?" +</p> +<p> + "Shameless one!" mentally shrieked Fritzing, "Wait and see what will + happen to thee when my turn comes!" But aloud he only agreed. "It is + well, Fräulein," he said. "Take in the Princess's tea, and then come + to my sitting-room and I will give you the money. The fire burns in + the kitchen. Utensils, I believe, are ready to hand. It should not + prove a task too difficult." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps the Herr Geheimrath will show me where the tea and milk is? + And also the sugar, and the bread and butter if any?" suggested + Annalise in a small meek voice as she tripped before him into the + kitchen. +</p> +<p> + What could he do but follow? Her foot was well on his neck; and it + occurred to him as he rummaged miserably among canisters that if the + creature should take it into her head to marry him he might + conceivably have to let her do it. As it was it was he and not + Annalise who took the kettle out to the pump to fill it, and her face + while he was doing it would have rejoiced her parents or other persons + to whom she was presumably dear, it was wide with so enormous a + satisfaction. Thus terrible is it to be in the power of an Annalise. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XV +</h2> +<p> + The first evening in Creeper Cottage was unpleasant. There was a + blazing wood fire, the curtains were drawn, the lamp shone rosily + through its red shade, and when Priscilla stood up her hair dusted the + oak beams of the ceiling, it was so low. The background, you see, was + perfectly satisfactory; exactly what a cottage background should be on + an autumn night when outside a wet mist is hanging like a grey curtain + across the window panes; and Tussie arriving at nine o'clock to help + consecrate the new life with Shakespeare felt, as he opened the door + and walked out of the darkness into the rosy, cosy little room, that + he need not after all worry himself with doubts as to the divine + girl's being comfortable. Never did place appear more comfortable. It + did not occur to him that a lamp with a red shade and the blaze of a + wood fire will make any place appear comfortable so long as they go on + shining, and he looked up at Priscilla—I am afraid he had to look up + at her when they were both standing—with the broadest smile of + genuine pleasure. "It <i>does</i> look jolly," he said heartily. +</p> +<p> + His pleasure was doomed to an immediate wiping out. Priscilla smiled, + but with a reservation behind her smile that his sensitive spirit felt + at once. She was alone, and there was no sign whatever either of her + uncle or of preparations for the reading of Shakespeare. +</p> +<p> + "Is anything not quite right?" Tussie asked, his face falling at once + to an anxious pucker. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at him and smiled again, but this time the smile was + real, in her eyes as well as on her lips, dancing in them together + with the flickering firelight. "It's rather funny," she said. "It has + never happened to me before. What do you think? I'm hungry." +</p> +<p> + "Hungry?" +</p> +<p> + "Hungry." +</p> +<p> + Tussie stared, arrested in the unwinding of his comforter. +</p> +<p> + "Really hungry. <i>Dreadfully</i> hungry. So hungry that I hate + Shakespeare." +</p> +<p> + "But—" +</p> +<p> + "I know. You're going to say why not eat? It does seem simple. But + you've no idea how difficult it really is. I'm afraid my uncle and I + have rather heaps to learn. We forgot to get a cook." +</p> +<p> + "A cook? But I thought—I understood that curtseying maid of yours was + going to do all that?" +</p> +<p> + "So did I. So did he. But she won't." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla flushed, for since Tussie left after tea she had had + grievous surprises, of a kind that made her first indignant and then + inclined to wince. Fritzing had not been able to hide from her that + Annalise had rebelled and refused to cook, and Priscilla had not been + able to follow her immediate impulse and dismiss her. It was at this + point, when she realized this, that the wincing began. She felt + perfectly sick at the thought, flashed upon her for the first time, + that she was in the power of a servant. +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean to say," said Tussie in a voice hollow with + consternation, "that you've had no dinner?" +</p> +<p> + "Dinner? In a cottage? Why of course there was no dinner. There never + will be any dinner—at night, at least. But the tragic thing is there + was no supper. We didn't think of it till we began to get hungry. + Annalise began first. She got hungry at six o'clock, and said + something to Fritz—my uncle about it, but he wasn't hungry himself + then and so he snubbed her. Now he is hungry himself, and he's gone + out to see if he can't find a cook. It's very stupid. There's nothing + in the house. Annalise ate the bread and things she found. She's + upstairs now, crying." And Priscilla's lips twitched as she looked at + Tussie's concerned face, and she began to laugh. +</p> +<p> + He seized his hat. "I'll go and get you something," he said, dashing + at the door. +</p> +<p> + "I can't think what, at this time of the night. The only shop shuts at + seven." +</p> +<p> + "I'll make them open it." +</p> +<p> + "They go to bed at nine." +</p> +<p> + "I'll get them out of bed if I have to shie stones at their windows + all night." +</p> +<p> + "Don't go without your coat—you'll catch a most frightful cold." +</p> +<p> + He put his arm through the door to take it, and vanished in the fog. + He did not put on the coat in his agitation, but kept it over his arm. + His comforter stayed in Priscilla's parlour, on the chair where he had + flung it. He was in evening dress, and his throat was sore already + with the cold that was coming on and that he had caught, as he + expected, running races on the Sunday at Priscilla's children's party. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla went back to her seat by the fire, and thought very hard + about things like bread. It would of course be impossible that she + should have reached this state of famine only because one meal had + been missed; but she had eaten nothing all day,—disliked the Baker's + Farm breakfast too much even to look at it, forgotten the Baker's Farm + dinner because she was just moving into her cottage, and at tea had + been too greatly upset by the unexpected appearance of her father on + the wall to care to eat the bread and butter Annalise brought in. Now + she was in that state when you tremble and feel cold. She had told + Annalise, about half-past seven, to bring her the bread left from tea, + but Annalise had eaten it. At half-past eight she had told Annalise to + bring her the sugar, for she had read somewhere that if you eat enough + sugar it takes away the desire even of the hungriest for other food, + but Annalise, who had eaten the sugar as well, said that the Herr + Geheimrath must have eaten it. It certainly was not there, and neither + was the Herr Geheimrath to defend himself; since half-past seven he + had been out looking for a cook, his mind pervaded by the idea that if + only he could get a cook food would follow in her wake as naturally as + flowers follow after rain. Priscilla fretting in her chair that he + should stay away so long saw very clearly that no cook could help + them. What is the use of a cook in a house where there is nothing to + cook? If only Fritzing would come back quickly with a great many + loaves of bread! The door was opened a little way and somebody's + knuckles knocked. She thought it was Tussie, quick and clever as ever, + and in a voice full of welcome told him to come in; upon which in + stepped Robin Morrison very briskly, delighted by the warmth of the + invitation. "Why now this <i>is</i> nice," said Robin, all smiles. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla did not move and did not offer to shake hands, so he stood + on the hearthrug and spread out his own to the blaze, looking down at + her with bright, audacious eyes. He thought he had not yet seen her so + beautiful. There was an extraordinary depth and mystery in her look, + he thought, as it rested for a moment on his face, and she had never + yet dropped her eyelashes as she now did when her eyes met his. We + know she was very hungry, and there was no strength in her at all. + Not only did her eyelashes drop, but her head as well, and her hands + hung helplessly, like drooping white flowers, one over each arm of the + chair. +</p> +<p> + "I came in to ask Mr. Neumann-Schultz if there's anything I can do for + you," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Did you? He lives next door." +</p> +<p> + "I know. I knocked there first, but he didn't answer so I thought he + must be here." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla said nothing. At any other time she would have snubbed Robin + and got rid of him. Now she merely sat and drooped. +</p> +<p> + "Has he gone out?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + Her voice was very low, hardly more than a whisper. Those who know the + faintness of hunger at this stage will also know the pathos that + steals into the voice of the sufferer when he is unwillingly made to + speak; it becomes plaintive, melodious with yearning, the yearning for + food. But if you do not know this, if you have yourself just come from + dinner, if you are half in love and want the other person to be quite + in love, if you are full of faith in your own fascinations, you are + apt to fall into Robin's error and mistake the nature of the yearning. + Tussie in Robin's place would have doubted the evidence of his senses, + but then Tussie was very modest. Robin doubted nothing. He saw, he + heard, and he thrilled; and underneath his thrilling, which was real + enough to make him flush to the roots of his hair, far down underneath + it was the swift contemptuous comment, "They're all alike." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla shut her eyes. She was listening for the first sound of + Tussie's or Fritzing's footfall, the glad sound heralding the approach + of something to eat, and wishing Robin would go away. He was kind at + times and obliging, but on the whole a nuisance. It was a great pity + there were so many people in the world who were nuisances and did not + know it. Somebody ought to tell them,—their mothers, or other useful + persons of that sort. She vaguely decided that the next time she met + Robin and was strengthened properly by food she would say a few things + to him from which recovery would take a long while. +</p> +<p> + "Are you—not well?" Robin asked, after a silence during which his + eyes never left her and hers were shut; and even to himself his voice + sounded deeper, more intense than usual. +</p> +<p> + "Oh yes," murmured Priscilla with a little sigh. +</p> +<p> + "Are you—happy?" +</p> +<p> + Happy? Can anybody who is supperless, dinnerless, breakfastless, be + happy, Priscilla wondered? But the question struck her as funny, and + the vibrating tones in which it was asked struck her as rather funny + too, and she opened her eyes for a moment to look up at Robin with a + smile of amusement—a smile that she could not guess was turned by the + hunger within her into something wistful and tremulous. "Yes," said + Priscilla in that strange pathetic voice, "I—think so." And after a + brief glance at him down went her weary eyelids again. +</p> +<p> + The next thing that happened was that Robin, who was trembling, + kissed her hand. This she let him do with perfect placidity. Every + German woman is used to having her hand kissed. It is kissed on + meeting, it is kissed on parting, it is kissed at a great many odd + times in between; she holds it up mechanically when she comes + across a male acquaintance; she is never surprised at the ceremony; + the only thing that surprises her is if it is left out. Priscilla + then simply thought Robin was going. "What a mercy," she said to + herself, glancing at him a moment through her eyelashes. But Robin + was not used to hand-kissing and saw things in a very different + light. He felt she made no attempt to draw her hand away, he heard + her murmuring something inarticulate—it was merely Good-bye—he + was hurled along to his doom; and stooping over her the unfortunate + young man kissed her hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla opened her eyes suddenly and very wide. I don't know what + folly he would have perpetrated next, or what sillinesses were on the + tip of his tongue, or what meaning he still chose to read in her look, + but an instant afterwards he was brought down for ever from the giddy + heights of his illusions: Priscilla boxed his ears. +</p> +<p> + I am sorry to have to record it. It is always sweeter if a woman does + not box ears. The action is shrewish, benighted, mediæval, nay, + barbarous; and this box was a very hard one indeed, extraordinarily + hard for so little a hand and so fasting a girl. But we know she had + twice already been on the verge of doing it; and the pent-up vigour of + what the policeman had not got and what the mother in the train had + not got was added I imagine to what Robin got. Anyhow it was + efficacious. There was an exclamation—I think of surprise, for surely + a young man would not have minded the pain?—and he put his hand up + quickly to his face. Priscilla got up just as quickly out of her chair + and rang the handbell furiously, her eyes on his, her face ablaze. + Annalise must have thrown herself down the ladder, for they hardly + seemed to have been standing there an instant face to face, their eyes + on a level, he scarlet, she white, both deadly silent, before the maid + was in the room. +</p> +<p> + "This person has insulted me," said Priscilla, turning to her and + pointing at Robin. "He never comes here again. Don't let me find you + forgetting that," she added, frowning at the girl; for she remembered + they had been seen talking eagerly together at the children's treat. +</p> +<p> + "I never"—began Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Will you go?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise opened the door for him. He went out, and she shut it behind + him. Then she walked sedately across the room again, looking sideways + at the Princess, who took no notice of her but stood motionless by the + table gazing straight before her, her lips compressed, her face set + in a kind of frozen white rage, and having got into the bathroom + Annalise began to run. She ran out at the back door, in again at + Fritzing's back door, out at his front door into the street, and + caught up Robin as he was turning down the lane to the vicarage. "What + have you done?" she asked him breathlessly, in German. +</p> +<p> + "Done?" Robin threw back his head and laughed quite loud. +</p> +<p> + "Sh—sh," said Annalise, glancing back fearfully over her shoulder. +</p> +<p> + "Done?" said Robin, subduing his bitter mirth. "What do you suppose + I've done? I've done what any man would have in my place—encouraged, + almost asked to do it. I kissed your young lady, <i>liebes Fräulein</i>, + and she pretended not to like it. Now isn't that what a sensible girl + like you would call absurd?" +</p> +<p> + But Annalise started back from the hand he held out to her in genuine + horror. "What?" she cried, "What?" +</p> +<p> + "What? What?" mocked Robin. "Well then, what? Are you all such prudes + in Germany? Even you pretending, you little hypocrite?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," cried Annalise hysterically, pushing him away with both her + hands, "what have you done? <i>Elender Junge</i>, what have you done?" +</p> +<p> + "I think you must all be mad," said Robin angrily. "You can't persuade + me that nobody ever kisses anybody over in Germany." +</p> +<p> + "Oh yes they do—oh yes they do," cried Annalise, wringing her hands, + "but neither there nor anywhere else—in England, anywhere in the + world—do the sons of pastors—the sons of pastors—" She seemed to + struggle for breath, and twisted and untwisted her apron round her + hands in a storm of agitation while Robin, utterly astonished, stared + at her—"Neither there nor anywhere else do they—the sons of + pastors—kiss—kiss royal princesses." +</p> +<p> + It was now Robin's turn to say "What?" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVI +</h2> +<p> + He went up to Cambridge the next morning. Term had not begun, but he + went; a Robin with all the briskness gone out of him, and if still + with something of the bird left only of a bird that is moulting. His + father was mildly surprised, but applauded the apparent desire for + solitary study. His mother was violently surprised, and tried hard + to get at his true reasons. She saw with the piercing eye of a + relation—that eye from which hardly anything can ever be hidden—that + something had happened and that the something was sobering and + unpleasant. She could not imagine what it was, for she did not know he + had been to Creeper Cottage the night before and all the afternoon and + at dinner he had talked and behaved as usual. Now he did not talk at + all, and his behaviour was limited to a hasty packing of portmanteaus. + Determined to question him she called him into the study just before + he started, and shut the door. +</p> +<p> + "I must go mater," he said, pulling out his watch; he had carefully + avoided her since breakfast though she had laid many traps for him. +</p> +<p> + "Robin, I want to tell you that I think you splendid." +</p> +<p> + "Splendid? What on earth for? You were telling me a very different + sort of thing a day or two ago." +</p> +<p> + "I am sorry now for what I said on Sunday." +</p> +<p> + "I don't think a mother ought ever to say she's sorry," said Robin + gloomily. +</p> +<p> + "Not if she is?" +</p> +<p> + "She oughtn't to say so." +</p> +<p> + "Well dear let us be friends. Don't go away angry with me. I do + appreciate you so much for going. You are my own dear boy." And she + put her hands on his shoulders. +</p> +<p> + He took out his watch again. "I say, I must be off." +</p> +<p> + "Don't suppose a mother doesn't see and understand." +</p> +<p> + "Oh I don't suppose anything. Good-bye mater." +</p> +<p> + "I think it so splendid of you to go, to turn your back on temptation, + to unwind yourself from that wretched girl's coils." +</p> +<p> + "Coils?" +</p> +<p> + "My Robin"—she stroked his cheek, the same cheek, as it happened, + Priscilla had smitten—"my Robin must not throw himself away. I am + ambitious where you are concerned, my darling. It would have broken my + heart for you to have married a nobody—perhaps a worse than nobody." +</p> +<p> + Robin, who was staring at her with an indescribable expression on his + face, took her hands off his shoulders. "Look here mater," he + said—and he was seized by a desire to laugh terrifically—"there is + nothing in the world quite so amusing as the way people will talk + wisely of things they don't in the faintest degree understand. They + seem to feel wise in proportion to their ignorance. I expect you think + that's a funny speech for me to make. I can tell you I don't think it + half as funny as yours was. Good-bye. I shall miss my train you know + if you keep me, and then I'd be exposed again to those—what was the + word? ah, yes—coils. Coils!" He burst into loud laughter. "Good-bye + mater." +</p> +<p> + She was staring at him blankly. He hastily brushed her forehead with + his moustache and hurried to the door, his face full of strange mirth. + "I say," he said, putting in his head again, "there's just one thing + I'd like to say." +</p> +<p> + She made an eager step towards him. "Do say it my darling—say all + that is in your heart." +</p> +<p> + "Oh it's not much—it's only God help poor Tuss." And that was the + last of him. She heard him chuckling all down the passage; but long + before his fly had reached Ullerton he had left off doing that and was + moulting again. +</p> +<p> + It rained that day in Somersetshire, a steady, hopeless rain that + soaked many a leaf off the trees before its time and made the year + look suddenly quite old. From the windows of Creeper Cottage you could + see the water running in rivulets down the hill into the deserted + village, and wreaths of mist hanging about the downs beyond. The + dripping tombstone that blocked Priscilla's window grew danker and + blacker as the day went by. The fires in the cottage burnt badly, for + the wood had somehow got wet. The oilcloth and the wall-papers looked + very dismal in the grey daylight. Rain came in underneath the two + front doors and made puddles that nobody wiped away. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla had got up very late, after a night spent staring into the + darkness, and then had sent for Fritzing and told him what Robin had + done. The unhappy man's horror will be easily imagined. She was in bed + the night before when he came in, quite cured of her hunger and only + wanting to be alone with her wrath. Fritzing had found no one in the + parlour but Tussie clasping an immense biscuit-tin in his arms, with a + face so tragic that Fritzing thought something terrible must have + happened. Tussie had returned joyfully, laden with biscuits and + sardines, to find the girl standing straight and speechless by the + table, her face rigid, her eyes ablaze. She had not so much as glanced + at the biscuits; she had not said a single word; her look rested on + him a moment as though she did not see him and then she went into the + next room and upstairs to bed. He knew she went upstairs to bed for in + Creeper Cottage you could hear everything. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing coming in a few minutes later without the cook he had hoped + to find, was glad enough of Tussie's sardines and biscuits—they were + ginger biscuits—and while he ate them, abstractedly and together, + Tussie looked on and wondered in spite of his wretchedness what the + combination could possibly taste like. Then, after a late breakfast + on the Wednesday morning, Priscilla sent for Fritzing and told him + what Robin had done. The burdened man, so full already of anxieties + and worries, was shattered by the blow. "I have always held duelling + in extreme contempt," he said when at last he could speak, "but now I + shall certainly fight." +</p> +<p> + "Fight? You? Fritzi, I've only told you because I—I feel so + unprotected here and you must keep him off if he ever tries to come + again. But you shall not fight. What, first he is to insult me and + then hurt or kill my Fritzi? Besides, nobody ever fights duels in + England." +</p> +<p> + "That remains to be seen. I shall now go to his house and insult him + steadily for half an hour. At the expiration of that time he will + probably be himself anxious to fight. We might go to France—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh Fritzi don't be so dreadful. Don't go to him—leave him + alone—nobody must ever know—" +</p> +<p> + "I shall now go and insult him," repeated Fritzing with an + inflexibility that silenced her. +</p> +<p> + And she saw him a minute later pass her window under his umbrella, + splashing indifferently through all the puddles, battle and + destruction in his face. +</p> +<p> + Robin, however, was at Ullerton by the time Fritzing got to the + vicarage. He waved the servant aside when she told him he had gone, + and insisted on penetrating into the presence of the young man's + father. He waved Mrs. Morrison aside too when she tried to substitute + herself for the vicar, and did at last by his stony persistency get + into the good man's presence. Not until the vicar himself told him + that Robin had gone would Fritzing believe it. "The villain has fled," + he told Priscilla, coming back drenched in body but unquenchable in + spirit. "Your chastisement, ma'am, was very effectual." +</p> +<p> + "If he's gone, then don't let us think about him any more." +</p> +<p> + "Nay, ma'am, I now set out for Cambridge. If I may not meet him fairly + in duel and have my chance of honourably removing him from a world + that has had enough of him, I would fain in my turn box his ears." +</p> +<p> + But Priscilla caught him by both arms. "Why, Fritzi," she cried, "he + might remove you and not you him—and from a world that hasn't had + nearly enough of you. Fritzi, you cannot leave me. I won't let you go. + I wish I had never told you. Don't let us talk of it ever again. It is + hateful to me. I—I can't bear it." And she looked into his face with + something very like tears in her eyes. +</p> +<p> + Of course Fritzing stayed. How could he go away even for one hour, + even in search of a cook, when such dreadful things happened? He was + bowed down by the burden of his responsibilities. He went into his + sitting-room and spent the morning striding up and down it between the + street door and the door into the kitchen,—a stride and a half one + way, and a stride and a half back back again,—doing what all + evildoers have to do sooner or later, cudgelling his brains for a way + out of life's complications: and every now and then the terribleness + of what had happened to his Princess, his guarded Princess, his + unapproachable one, came over him with a fresh wave of horror and he + groaned aloud. +</p> +<p> + In the kitchen sat the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid, a most accomplished + young person, listening to the groans and wondering what next. Tussie + had sent her, with fearful threats of what sort of character she would + get if she refused to go. She had at once given notice, but had been + forced all the same to go, being driven over in a dog-cart in the + early morning rain by a groom who made laboured pleasantries at her + expense. She could cook very well, almost as well as that great + personage the Shuttleworth cook, but she could only cook if there were + things to be cooked; and what she found at Creeper Cottage was the + rest of the ginger biscuits and sardines. Well, I will not linger over + that. Priscilla did get breakfast somehow, the girl, after trying + vainly to strike sparks of helpfulness out of Annalise, going to the + store and ordering what was necessary. Then she washed up, while + Annalise tripped in and out for the express purpose, so it seemed, of + turning up her nose; then she sat and waited and wondered what next. + For a long time she supposed somebody would send for her to come and + talk about luncheon; but nobody did. She heard the ceaseless + stridings in the next room, and every now and then the groans. The + rain on the kitchen window did not patter more ceaselessly than the + footsteps strode up and down, and the groans got very much on to the + girl's nerves. At last she decided that no person who was groaning + like that would ever want to order luncheon, and she had better go to + the young lady. She went out accordingly and knocked at Priscilla's + door. Priscilla was in her chair by the fire, lost in troublous + thought. She looked vaguely at the kitchenmaid for a moment, and then + asked her to go away. "I'm busy," explained Priscilla, whose hands + were folded in her lap. +</p> +<p> + "Please miss, what do you wish for luncheon?" +</p> +<p> + "Who are you?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm the—assistant cook at the 'All, miss. Lady Shuttleworth's + assistant cook. Sir Augustus desired me to cook for you to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Then please do it." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. What do you wish for luncheon?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. And the gentleman—don't he want nothing neither?" +</p> +<p> + "He'll probably tell you when he does." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. It's as well to know a little beforehand, ain't it, miss. + There's nothing in the—a-hem—'ouse, and I suppose I'd have to buy + something." +</p> +<p> + "Please do." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. Perhaps if you'd tell me what the gentleman likes I could + go out and get it." +</p> +<p> + "But I don't know what he likes. And wouldn't you get wet? Send + somebody." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. Who?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gazed at her a moment. "Ah yes—" she said, "I forgot. I'm + afraid there isn't anybody. I think you had better ask my uncle what + he wants, and then if you would—I'm very sorry you should have such + bad weather—but if you don't mind, would you go and buy the things?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss." +</p> +<p> + The girl went away, and Priscilla began for the first time to consider + the probability of her having in the near future to think of and order + three meals every day of her life; and not only three meals, but she + dimly perceived there would be a multitude of other dreary things to + think of and order,—their linen, for instance, must be washed, and + how did one set about that? And would not Fritzing's buttons presently + come off and have to be sewn on again? His socks, when they went into + holes, could be thrown out of the window and new ones bought, but even + Priscilla saw that you could not throw a whole coat out of a window + because its buttons had come off. There would, then, have to be some + mending done for Fritzing, and Annalise would certainly not be the one + to do it. Was the simple life a sordid life as well? Did it only look + simple from outside and far away? And was it, close, mere drudging? A + fear came over her that her soul, her precious soul, for whose sake + she had dared everything, instead of being able to spread its wings in + the light of a glorious clear life was going to be choked out of + existence by weeds just as completely as at Kunitz. +</p> +<p> + The Shuttleworth kitchenmaid meanwhile, who was not hindered at every + turn by a regard for her soul, made her way to Fritzing as she had + been told and inquired of him what she should cook for his dinner. No + man likes to be interrupted in his groanings; and Fritzing, who was + not hungry and was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger in + his room asking him intimate questions, a person of whose presence in + the cottage he had been unaware, flew at her. "Woman, what have I to + do with you?" he cried, stopping in his walk and confronting her with + surprising fierceness. "Is it seemly to burst in on a man like this? + Have you no decency? No respect for another's privacy? Begone, I + command you—begone! Begone!" And he made the same movements with his + hands that persons do when they shoo away fowls or other animals in + flocks. +</p> +<p> + This was too much for the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid. The obligations, + she considered, were all on the side of Creeper Cottage, and she + retreated in amazement and anger to the kitchen, put on her hat and + mackintosh, and at once departed, regardless of the rain and the + consequences, through two miles of dripping lanes to Symford Hall. + What would have happened to her there if she had been discovered by + Tussie I do not know, but I imagine it would have been something bad. + She was saved, however, by his being in bed, clutched by the throat by + a violent cold; and there he lay helpless, burning and shivering and + throbbing, the pains of his body increased a hundredfold by the + distraction of his mind about Priscilla. Why, Tussie asked himself + over and over again, had she looked so strange the night before? Why + had she gone starving to bed? What was she doing to-day? Was the + kitchenmaid taking proper care of her? Was she keeping warm and dry + this shocking weather? Had she slept comfortably the first night in + her little home? Poor Tussie. It is a grievous thing to love any one + too much; a grievous, wasteful, paralyzing thing; a tumbling of the + universe out of focus, a bringing of the whole world down to the mean + level of one desire, a shutting out of wider, more beautiful feelings, + a wrapping of one's self in a thick garment of selfishness, outside + which all the dear, tender, modest, everyday affections and + friendships, the wholesome, ordinary loves, the precious loves of use + and wont, are left to shiver and grow cold. Tussie's mother sat + outside growing very cold indeed. Her heart was stricken within her. + She, most orderly of women, did not in the least mind, so occupied was + she with deeper cares, that her household was in rebellion, her cook + who had been with her practically all her life leaving because she had + been commanded by Tussie, before he had to fall back on the + kitchenmaid, to proceed forthwith to Creeper Cottage and stay there + indefinitely; her kitchenmaid, also a valued functionary, leaving; + Bryce, Tussie's servant who took such care of him and was so clever in + sickness, gone suddenly in his indignation at having to go at + all,—all these things no longer mattered. Nor did it matter that the + coming of age festivities were thrown into hopeless confusion by + Tussie's illness, that the guests must all be telegraphed to and put + off, that the whole village would be aghast at such a disappointment, + that all her plans and preparations had been wasted. As the first day + and night of illness dragged slowly past she grew to be nothing but + one great ache of yearning over her sick boy, a most soul-rending + yearning to do what she knew was for ever impossible, to put her arms + so close round him, so close, so carefully, so tenderly, that nothing, + no evil, no pain, could get through that clasp of love to hurt him any + more. +</p> +<p> + "Why don't you take better care of your only son?" said the doctor + grimly after he had seen Tussie that evening, who by that time was in + a very pitiable condition. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth stared at him, wide-eyed and speechless. +</p> +<p> + "It's absurd, you know, to let him get into this state. I've often + warned you. He can't be allowed to play ducks and drakes with himself + like other young men. He's got no strength to fall back upon. I + consider you are directly responsible for this illness. Why do you + let him go out at night this time of year? Why do you let him + over-exert himself? I suppose," said the doctor, who had brought + Tussie into the world and was as brutal as he was clever, besides + being at that moment extremely angry, "I suppose you want to lose him, + eh?" +</p> +<p> + How could she explain to him what she knew to be true, that the one + person responsible for Tussie's illness was Priscilla? She therefore + only stared, wide-eyed and speechless; and indeed her heart was very + nearly broken. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVII +</h2> +<p> + About three o'clock that afternoon Priscilla saw quite clearly what + she had dimly perceived in the morning, that if there was to be + domestic peace in Creeper Cottage she must bestir herself. She did not + like bestirring herself; at least, not in such directions. She would + go out and help the poor, talk to them, cheer them, nurse their babies + even and stir their porridge, but she had not up to this point + realized her own needs, and how urgent they could be and how + importunate. It was hunger that cleared her vision. The first time she + was hungry she had been amused. Now when it happened again she was + both surprised and indignant. "Can one's wretched body <i>never</i> keep + quiet?" she thought impatiently, when the first twinges dragged her + relentlessly out of her dejected dreaming by the fire. She remembered + the cold tremblings of the night before, and felt that that state + would certainly be reached again quite soon if she did not stop it at + once. She rang for Annalise. "Tell the cook I will have some luncheon + after all," she said. +</p> +<p> + "The cook is gone," said Annalise, whose eyes were more aggressively + swollen than they had yet been. +</p> +<p> + "Gone where?" +</p> +<p> + "Gone away. Gone for ever." +</p> +<p> + "But why?" asked Priscilla, really dismayed. +</p> +<p> + "The Herr Geheimrath insulted her. I heard him doing it. No woman of + decency can permit such a tone. She at once left. There has been no + dinner to-day. There will be, I greatly fear, n—o—o—supp—pper." + And Annalise gave a loud sob and covered her face with her apron. +</p> +<p> + Then Priscilla saw that if life was to roll along at all it was her + shoulder that would have to be put to the wheel. Fritzing's shoulder + was evidently not a popular one among the lower classes. The vision of + her own doing anything with wheels was sufficiently amazing, but she + did not stop to gaze upon it. "Annalise," she said, getting up quickly + and giving herself a little shake, "fetch me my hat and coat. I'm + going out." +</p> +<p> + Annalise let her apron drop far enough to enable her to point to the + deluge going on out of doors. "Not in this weather?" she faltered, + images of garments soaked in mud and needing much drying and brushing + troubling her. +</p> +<p> + "Get me the things," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness will be wet through." +</p> +<p> + "Get me the things. And don't cry quite so much. Crying really is the + most shocking waste of time." +</p> +<p> + Annalise withdrew, and Priscilla went round to Fritzing. It was the + first time she had been round to him. He was sitting at his table, his + head in his hands, staring at the furnisher's bill, and he started to + see her coming in unexpectedly through the kitchen, and shut the bill + hastily in a drawer. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, have you had anything to eat to-day?" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly. I had an excellent breakfast." +</p> +<p> + "Nothing since?" +</p> +<p> + "I have not yet felt the need." +</p> +<p> + "You know the cook Lady Shuttleworth sent has gone again?" +</p> +<p> + "What, that woman who burst in upon me was Lady Shuttleworth's cook?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes. And you frightened her so she ran home." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, she overstepped the limits of my patience." +</p> +<p> + "Dear Fritzi, I often wonder where exactly the limits of your patience + are. With me they have withdrawn into infinite space—I've never been + able to reach them. But every one else seems to have a knack—well, + somebody must cook. You tell me Annalise won't. Perhaps she really + can't. Anyhow I cannot mention it to her, because it would be too + horrible to have her flatly refusing to do something I told her to do + and yet not be able to send her away. But somebody must cook, and I'm + going out to get the somebody. Hush"—she put up her hand as he opened + his mouth to speak—"I know it's raining. I know I'll get wet. Don't + let us waste time protesting. I'm going." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was conscience-stricken. "Ma'am," he said, "you must forgive + me for unwittingly bringing this bother upon you. Had I had time for + reflection I would not have been so sharp. But the woman burst upon + me. I knew not who she was. Sooner than offend her I would have cut + out my tongue, could I have foreseen you would yourself go in search + in the rain of a substitute. Permit me to seek another." +</p> +<p> + "No, no—you have no luck with cooks," said Priscilla smiling. "I'm + going. Why I feel more cheerful already—just getting out of that + chair makes me feel better." +</p> +<p> + "Were you not cheerful before?" inquired Fritzing anxiously. +</p> +<p> + "Not very," admitted Priscilla. "But then neither were you. Don't + suppose I didn't see you with your head in your hands when I came in. + Cheerful people never seize their heads in that way. Now Fritzi I know + what's worrying you—it's that absurd affair last night. I've left off + thinking about it. I'm going to be very happy again, and so must you + be. We won't let one mad young man turn all our beautiful life sour, + will we?" +</p> +<p> + He bent down and kissed her hand. "Permit me to accompany you at + least," he begged. "I cannot endure—" +</p> +<p> + But she shook her head; and as she presently walked through the rain + holding Fritzing's umbrella,—none had been bought to replace hers, + broken on the journey—getting muddier and more draggled every + minute, she felt that now indeed she had got down to elementary + conditions, climbed right down out of the clouds to the place where + life lies unvarnished and uncomfortable, where Necessity spends her + time forcing you to do all the things you don't like, where the whole + world seems hungry and muddy and wet. It was an extraordinary + experience for her, this slopping through the mud with soaking shoes, + no prospect of a meal, and a heart that insisted on sinking in spite + of her attempts to persuade herself that the situation was amusing. It + did not amuse her. It might have amused somebody else,—the Grand + Duke, for instance, if he could have watched her now (from, say, a + Gothic window, himself dry and fed and taken care of), being punished + so naturally and inevitably by the weapons Providence never allows to + rust, those weapons that save parents and guardians so much personal + exertion if only they will let things take their course, those sharp, + swift consequences that attend the actions of the impetuous. I might, + indeed, if this were a sermon and there were a congregation unable to + get away, expatiate on the habit these weapons have of smiting with + equal fury the just and the unjust; how you only need to be a little + foolish, quite a little foolish, under conditions that seem to force + it upon you, and down they come, sure and relentless, and you are + smitten with a thoroughness that leaves you lame for years; how + motives are nothing, circumstances are nothing; how the motives may + have been aflame with goodness, the circumstances such that any other + course was impossible; how all these things don't matter in the + least,—you are and shall be smitten. But this is not a sermon. I have + no congregation. And why should I preach to a reader who meanwhile has + skipped? +</p> +<p> + It comforted Priscilla to find that almost the whole village wanted to + come and cook for her, or as the women put it "do" for her. Their + cooking powers were strictly limited, and they proposed to make up for + this by doing for her very completely in other ways; they would scrub, + sweep, clean windows, wash,—anything and everything they would do. + Would they also sew buttons on her uncle's clothes? Priscilla asked + anxiously. And they were ready to sew buttons all over Fritzing if + buttons would make him happy. This eagerness was very gratifying, but + it was embarrassing as well. The extremely aged and the extremely + young were the only ones that refrained from offering their services. + Some of the girls were excluded as too weedy; some of the mothers + because their babies were too new; some of the wives because their + husbands were too exacting; but when Priscilla counted up the names + she had written down she found there were twenty-five. For a moment + she was staggered. Then she rose to the occasion and got out of the + difficulty with what she thought great skill, arranging, as it was + impossible to disappoint twenty-four of these, that they should take + it in turn, each coming for one day until all had had a day and then + beginning again with the first one. It seemed a brilliant plan. Life + at Creeper Cottage promised to be very varied. She gathered them + together in the village shop to talk it over. She asked them if they + thought ten shillings a day and food would be enough. She asked it + hesitatingly, afraid lest she were making them an impossibly frugal + offer. She was relieved at the cry of assent; but it was followed + after a moment by murmurs from the married women, when they had had + time to reflect, that it was unfair to pay the raw young ones at the + same rate as themselves. Priscilla however turned a deaf ear to their + murmurings. "The girls may not," she said, raising her hand to impose + silence, "be able to get through as much as you do in a day, but + they'll be just as tired when evening comes. Certainly I shall give + them the same wages." She made them draw lots as to who should begin, + and took the winner home with her then and there; she too, though the + day was far spent, was to have her ten shillings. "What, have you + forgotten your New Testaments?" Priscilla cried, when more murmurs + greeted this announcement. "Don't you remember the people who came at + the eleventh hour to labour in the vineyard and got just the same as + the others? Why should I try to improve on parables?" And there was + something about Priscilla, an air, an authority, that twisted the + women of Symford into any shape of agreement she chose. The + twenty-four went their several ways. The twenty-fifth ran home to put + on a clean apron, and got back to the shop in time to carry the eggs + and butter and bread Priscilla had bought. "I forgot to bring any + money," said Priscilla when the postmistress—it was she who kept the + village shop—told her how much it came to. "Does it matter?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh don't mention it, Miss Neumann-Schultz," was the pleasant answer + of that genteel and trustful lady; and she suggested that Priscilla + should take with her a well-recommended leg of mutton she had that + day for sale as well. Priscilla shuddered at the sight of it and + determined never to eat legs of mutton again. The bacon, too, piled up + on the counter, revolted her. The only things that looked as decent + raw as when they were cooked were eggs; and on eggs she decided she + and Fritzing would in future live. She broke off a piece of the crust + of the bread Mrs. Vickerton was wrapping up and ate it, putting great + pressure on herself to do it carelessly, with a becoming indifference. +</p> +<p> + "It's good bread," said Mrs. Vickerton, doing up her parcel. +</p> +<p> + "Where in the world do you get it from?" asked Priscilla + enthusiastically. "The man must be a genius." +</p> +<p> + "The carrier brings it every day," said Mrs. Vickerton, pleased and + touched by such appreciation. "It's a Minehead baker's." +</p> +<p> + "He ought to be given an order, if ever man ought." +</p> +<p> + "An order? For you regular, Miss Neumann-Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no,—the sort you pin on your breast," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ho," smiled Mrs. Vickerton vaguely, who did not follow; she was so + genteel that she could never have enough of aspirates. And Priscilla, + giving the parcel to her breathless new help, hurried back to Creeper + Cottage. +</p> +<p> + Now this help, or char-girl—you could not call her a charwoman she + was manifestly still so very young—was that Emma who had been obliged + to tell the vicar's wife about Priscilla's children's treat and who + did not punctually return books. I will not go so far as to say that + not to return books punctually is sinful, though deep down in my soul + I think it is, but anyhow it is a symptom of moral slackness. Emma was + quite good so long as she was left alone. She could walk quite + straight so long as there were no stones in the way and nobody to pull + her aside. If there were stones, she instantly stumbled; if somebody + pulled, she instantly went. She was weak, amiable, well-intentioned. + She had a widowed father who was unpleasant and who sometimes beat her + on Saturday nights, and on Sunday mornings sometimes, if the fumes of + the Cock and Hens still hung about him, threw things at her before she + went to church. A widowed father in Emma's class is an ill being to + live with. The vicar did his best to comfort her. Mrs. Morrison talked + of the commandments and of honouring one's father and mother and of + how the less there was to honour the greater the glory of doing it; + and Emma was so amiable that she actually did manage to honour him six + days out of the seven. At the same time she could not help thinking it + would be nice to go away to a place where he wasn't. They were + extremely poor; almost the poorest family in the village, and the + vision of possessing ten shillings of her very own was a dizzy one. + She had a sweetheart, and she had sent him word by a younger sister of + the good fortune that had befallen her and begged him to come up to + Creeper Cottage that evening and help her carry the precious wages + safely home; and at nine o'clock when her work was done she presented + herself all blushes and smiles before Priscilla and shyly asked her + for them. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was alone in her parlour reading. She referred her, as her + habit was, to Fritzing; but Fritzing had gone out for a little air, + the rain having cleared off, and when the girl told her so Priscilla + bade her come round in the morning and fetch the money. +</p> +<p> + Emma's face fell so woefully at this—was not her John at that moment + all expectant round the corner?—that Priscilla smiled and got up to + see if she could find some money herself. In the first drawer she + opened in Fritzing's sitting-room was a pocket-book, and in this + pocket-book Fritzing's last five-pound note. There was nothing else + except the furnisher's bill. She pushed that on one side without + looking at it; what did bills matter? Bills never yet had mattered to + Priscilla. She pushed it on one side and searched for silver, but + found none. "Perhaps you can change this?" she said, holding out the + note. +</p> +<p> + "The shop's shut now, miss," said Laura, gazing with round eyes at the + mighty sum. +</p> +<p> + "Well then take it, and bring me the change in the morning." +</p> +<p> + Emma took it with trembling fingers—she had not in her life touched + so much money—and ran out into the darkness to where her John was + waiting. Symford never saw either of them again. Priscilla never saw + her change. Emma went to perdition. Priscilla went back to her chair + by the fire. She was under the distinct and comfortable impression + that she had been the means of making the girl happy. "How easy it is, + making people happy," thought Priscilla placidly, the sweetest smile + on her charming mouth. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVIII +</h2> +<p> + Bad luck, it will be seen, dogged the footsteps of Priscilla. Never + indeed for a single hour after she entered Creeper Cottage did the + gloomy lady cease from her attentions. The place was pervaded by her + thick and evil atmosphere. Fritzing could not go out for an airing + without something of far-reaching consequence happening while he was + away. It was of course Bad Luck that made the one girl in Symford who + was easily swayed by passing winds of temptation draw the lot that put + the five-pound note into her hands; if she had come to the cottage + just one day later, or if the rain had gone on just half an hour + longer and kept Fritzing indoors, she would, I have no doubt whatever, + be still in Symford practising every feeble virtue either on her + father or on her John, by this time probably her very own John. As it + was she was a thief, a lost soul, a banished face for ever from the + ways of grace. +</p> +<p> + Thus are we all the sport of circumstance. Thus was all Symford the + sport of Priscilla. Fritzing knew nothing of his loss. He had not told + Priscilla a word of his money difficulties, his idea being to keep + every cloud from her life as long and as completely as possible. + Besides, how idle to talk of these things to some one who could in no + way help him with counsel or suggestions. He had put the money in his + drawer, and the thought that it was still unchanged and safe comforted + him a little in the watches of the sleepless nights. +</p> +<p> + Nothing particular happened on the Thursday morning, except that the + second of the twenty-five kept on breaking things, and Priscilla who + was helping Fritzing arrange the books he had ordered from London + remarked at the fifth terrific smash, a smash so terrific as to cause + Creeper Cottage to tremble all over, that more crockery had better be + bought. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Fritzing, glancing swiftly at her with almost a guilty + glance. +</p> +<p> + He felt very keenly his want of resourcefulness in this matter of + getting the money over from Germany, but he clung to the hope that a + few more wakeful nights would clear his brain and show him the way; + and meanwhile there was always the five-pound note in the drawer. +</p> +<p> + "And Fritzi, I shall have to get some clothes soon," Priscilla went + on, dusting the books as he handed them to her. +</p> +<p> + "Clothes, ma'am?" repeated Fritzing, straightening himself to stare at + her. +</p> +<p> + "Those things you bought for me in Gerstein—they're delicious, + they're curiosities, but they're not clothes. I mean always to keep + them. I'll have them put in a glass case, and they shall always be + near me when we're happy again." +</p> +<p> + "Happy again, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "Settled again, I mean," quickly amended Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + She dusted in silence for a little, and began to put the books she had + dusted in the shelves. "I'd better write to Paris," she said + presently. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing jumped. "Paris, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "They've got my measurements. This dress can't stand much more. It's + the one I've worn all the time. The soaking it got yesterday was very + bad for it. You don't see such things, but if you did you'd probably + get a tremendous shock." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, if you write to Paris you must give your own name, which of + course is impossible. They will send nothing to an unknown customer in + England called Neumann-Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "Oh but we'd send the money with the order. That's quite easy, isn't + it?" +</p> +<p> + "Perfectly easy," said Fritzing in an oddly exasperated voice; at once + adding, still more snappily, "Might I request your Grand Ducal + Highness to have the goodness not to put my Æschylus—a most valuable + edition—head downwards on the shelf? It is a manner of treating books + often to be observed in housemaids and similar ignorants. But you, + ma'am, have been trained by me I trust in other and more reverent ways + of handling what is left to us of the mighty spirits of the past." +</p> +<p> + "I'm sorry," said Priscilla, hastily turning the Æschylus right side + up again; and by launching forth into a long and extremely bitter + dissertation on the various ways persons of no intellectual + conscience have of ill-treating books, he got rid of some of his + agitation and fixed her attention for the time on questions less + fraught with complications than clothes from Paris. +</p> +<p> + About half-past two they were still sitting over the eggs and bread + and butter that Priscilla ordered three times a day and that Fritzing + ate with unquestioning obedience, when the Shuttleworth victoria + stopped in front of the cottage and Lady Shuttleworth got out. + Fritzing, polite man, hastened to meet her, pushing aside the footman + and offering his arm. She looked at him vaguely, and asked if his + niece were at home. +</p> +<p> + "Certainly," said Fritzing, leading her into Priscilla's parlour. + "Shall I inquire if she will receive you?" +</p> +<p> + "Do," said Lady Shuttleworth, taking no apparent notice of the odd + wording of this question. "Tussie isn't well," she said the moment + Priscilla appeared, fixing her eyes on her face but looking as though + she hardly saw her, as though she saw past her, through her, to + something beyond, while she said a lesson learned by rote. +</p> +<p> + "Isn't he? Oh I'm sorry," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "He caught cold last Sunday at your treat. He oughtn't to have run + those races with the boys. He can't—stand—much." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at her questioningly. The old lady's face was quite + set and calm, but there had been a queer catch in her voice at the + last words. +</p> +<p> + "Why does he do such things, then?" asked Priscilla, feeling vaguely + distressed. +</p> +<p> + "Ah yes, my dear—why? That is a question for you to answer, is it + not?" +</p> +<p> + "For me?" +</p> +<p> + "On Tuesday night," continued Lady Shuttleworth, "he was ill when he + left home to come here. He would come. It was a terrible night for a + delicate boy to go out. And he didn't stay here, I understand. He went + out to buy something after closing time, and stood a long while trying + to wake the people up." +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla, feeling guilty, "I—that was my fault. He went + for me." +</p> +<p> + "Yes my dear. Since then he has been ill. I've come to ask you if + you'll drive back with me and see if—if you cannot persuade him that + you are happy. He seems to be much—troubled." +</p> +<p> + "Troubled?" +</p> +<p> + "He seems to be afraid you are not happy. You know," she added with a + little quavering smile, "Tussie is very kind. He is very unselfish. He + takes everybody's burdens on his shoulders. He seems to be quite + haunted by the idea that your life here is unendurably uncomfortable, + and it worries him dreadfully that he can't get to you to set things + straight. I think if he were to see you, and you were very cheerful, + and—and smiled, my dear, it might help to get him over this." +</p> +<p> + "Get him over this?" echoed Priscilla. "Is he so ill?" +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth looked at her and said nothing. +</p> +<p> + "Of course I'll come," said Priscilla, hastily ringing the bell. +</p> +<p> + "But you must not look unhappy," said Lady Shuttleworth, laying her + hand on the girl's arm, "that would make matters ten times worse. You + must promise to be as gay as possible." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes—I'll be gay," promised Priscilla, while her heart became as + lead within her at the thought that she was the cause of poor Tussie's + sufferings. But was she really, she asked herself during the drive? + What had she done but accept help eagerly offered? Surely it was very + innocent to do that? It was what she had been doing all her life, and + people had been delighted when she let them be kind to her, and + certainly had not got ill immediately afterwards. Were you never to + let anybody do anything for you lest while they were doing it they + should get wet feet and things, and then their colds would be upon + your head? She was very sorry Tussie should be ill, dreadfully sorry. + He was so kind and good that it was impossible not to like him. She + did like him. She liked him quite as well as most young men and much + better than many. "I'm afraid you are very unhappy," she said suddenly + to Lady Shuttleworth, struck by the look on her face as she leaned + back, silent, in her corner. +</p> +<p> + "I do feel rather at my wits' end," said Lady Shuttleworth. "For + instance, I'm wondering whether what I'm doing now isn't a great + mistake." +</p> +<p> + "What you are doing now?" +</p> +<p> + "Taking you to see Tussie." +</p> +<p> + "Oh but I promise to be cheerful. I'll tell him how comfortable we + are. He'll see I look well taken care of." +</p> +<p> + "But for all that I'm afraid he may—he may—" +</p> +<p> + "Why, we're going to be tremendously taken care of. Even he will see + that. Only think—I've engaged twenty-five cooks." +</p> +<p> + "Twenty-five cooks?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, staring in spite of her + sorrows. "But isn't my kitchenmaid—?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh she left us almost at once. She couldn't stand my uncle. He is + rather difficult to stand at first. You have to know him quite a long + while before you can begin to like him. And I don't think kitchenmaids + ever would begin." +</p> +<p> + "But my dear, twenty-five cooks?" +</p> +<p> + And Priscilla explained how and why she had come by them; and though + Lady Shuttleworth, remembering the order till now prevailing in the + village and the lowness of the wages, could not help thinking that + here was a girl more potent for mischief than any girl she had ever + met, yet a feeble gleam of amusement did, as she listened, slant + across the inky blackness of her soul. +</p> +<p> + Tussie was sitting up in bed with a great many pillows behind him, + finding immense difficulty in breathing, when his mother, her bonnet + off and every trace of having been out removed, came in and said Miss + Neumann-Schultz was downstairs. +</p> +<p> + "Downstairs? Here? In this house?" gasped Tussie, his eyes round with + wonder and joy. +</p> +<p> + "Yes. She—called. Would you like her to come up and see you?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh mother!" +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth hurried out. How could she bear this, she thought, + stumbling a little as though she did not see very well. She went + downstairs with the sound of that Oh mother throbbing in her ears. +</p> +<p> + Tussie's temperature, high already, went up by leaps during the few + minutes of waiting. He gave feverish directions to the nurse about a + comfortable chair being put exactly in the right place, about his + pillows being smoothed, his medicine bottles hidden, and was very + anxious that the flannel garment he was made to wear when ill, a + garment his mother called a nightingale—not after the bird but the + lady—and that was the bluest flannel garment ever seen, should be + arranged neatly over his narrow chest. +</p> +<p> + The nurse looked disapproving. She did not like her patients to be + happy. Perhaps she was right. It is always better, I believe, to be + cautious and careful, to husband your strength, to be deadly prudent + and deadly dull. As you would poison, so should you avoid doing what + the poet calls living too much in your large hours. The truly prudent + never have large hours; nor should you, if you want to be comfortable. + And you get your reward, I am told, in living longer; in having, that + is, a few more of those years that cluster round the end, during which + you are fed and carried and washed by persons who generally grumble. + Who wants to be a flame, doomed to be blown out by the same gust of + wind that has first fanned it to its very brightest? If you are not a + flame you cannot, of course, be blown out. Gusts no longer shake you. + Tempests pass you by untouched. And if besides you have the additional + advantage of being extremely smug, extremely thick-skinned, you shall + go on living till ninety, and not during the whole of that time be + stirred by so much as a single draught. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla came up determined to be so cheerful that she began to smile + almost before she got to the door. "I've come to tell you how + splendidly we're getting on at the cottage," she said taking Tussie's + lean hot hand, the shell of her smile remaining but the heart and + substance gone out of it, he looked so pitiful and strange. +</p> +<p> + "Really? Really?" choked Tussie, putting the other lean hot hand over + hers and burning all the coolness out of it. +</p> +<p> + The nurse looked still more disapproving. She had not heard Sir + Augustus had a <i>fiancée</i>, and even if he had this was no time for + philandering. She too had noticed the voice in which he had said Oh + mother, and she saw by his eyes that his temperature had gone up. Who + was this shabby young lady? She felt sure that no one so shabby could + be his <i>fiancée</i>, and she could only conclude that Lady Shuttleworth + must be mad. +</p> +<p> + "Nurse, I'm going to stay here a little," said Lady Shuttleworth. + "I'll call you when I want you." +</p> +<p> + "I think, madam, Sir Augustus ought not—" began the nurse. +</p> +<p> + "No, no, he shall not. Go and have forty winks, nurse." +</p> +<p> + And the nurse had to go; people generally did when Lady Shuttleworth + sent them. +</p> +<p> + "Sit down—no don't—stay a moment like this," said Tussie, his breath + coming in little jerks,—"unless you are tired? Did you walk?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you are very ill," said Priscilla, leaving her hand in his + and looking down at him with a face that all her efforts could not + induce to smile. +</p> +<p> + "Oh I'll be all right soon. How good of you to come. You've not been + hungry since?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Priscilla, stroking his hands with her free hand and + giving them soothing pats as one would to a sick child. +</p> +<p> + "Really not? I've thought of that ever since. I've never got your face + that night out of my head. What had happened? While I was away—what + had happened?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing—nothing had happened," said Priscilla hastily. "I was tired. + I had a mood. I get them, you know. I get angry easily. Then I like + to be alone till I'm sorry." +</p> +<p> + "But what had made you angry? Had I—?" +</p> +<p> + "No, never. You have never been anything but good and kind. You've + been our protecting spirit since we came here." +</p> +<p> + Tussie laughed shrilly, and immediately was seized by a coughing fit. + Lady Shuttleworth stood at the foot of the bed watching him with a + face from which happiness seemed to have fled for ever. Priscilla grew + more and more wretched, caught, obliged to stand there, distractedly + stroking his hands in her utter inability to think of anything else to + do. +</p> +<p> + "A nice protecting spirit," gasped Tussie derisively, when he could + speak. "Look at me here, tied down to this bed for heaven knows how + long, and not able to do a thing for you." +</p> +<p> + "But there's nothing now to do. We're quite comfortable. We are + really. Do, do believe it." +</p> +<p> + "Are you only comfortable, or are you happy as well?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, we're <i>very</i> happy," said Priscilla with all the emphasis she + could get into her voice; and again she tried, quite unsuccessfully, + to wrench her mouth into a smile. +</p> +<p> + "Then, if you're happy, why do you look so miserable?" +</p> +<p> + He was gazing up into her face with eyes whose piercing brightness + would have frightened the nurse. There was no shyness now about + Tussie. There never is about persons whose temperature is 102. +</p> +<p> + "Miserable?" repeated Priscilla. She tried to smile; looked helplessly + at Lady Shuttleworth; looked down again at Tussie; and stammering + "Because you are so ill and it's all my fault," to her horror, to her + boundless indignation at herself, two tears, big and not to be hidden, + rolled down her face and dropped on to Tussie's and her clasped hands. +</p> +<p> + Tussie struggled to sit up straight. "Look, mother, look—" he cried, + gasping, "my beautiful one—my dear and lovely one—my darling—she's + crying—I've made her cry—now never tell me I'm not a brute + again—see, see what I've done!" +</p> +<p> + "Oh"—murmured Priscilla, in great distress and amazement. Was the + poor dear delirious? And she tried to get her hands away. +</p> +<p> + But Tussie would not let them go. He held them in a clutch that seemed + like hot iron in both his, and dragging himself nearer to them covered + them with wild kisses. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth was appalled. "Tussie," she said in a very even + voice, "you must let Miss Neumann-Schultz go now. You must be quiet + again now. Let her go, dear. Perhaps she'll—come again." +</p> +<p> + "Oh mother, leave me alone," cried Tussie, lying right across his + pillows, his face on Priscilla's hands. "What do you know of these + things? This is my darling—this is my wife—dream of my spirit—star + of my soul—" +</p> +<p> + "Never in this world!" cried Lady Shuttleworth, coming round to the + head of the bed as quickly as her shaking limbs would take her. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes, come here if you like, mother—come close—listen while I + tell her how I love her. I don't care who hears. Why should I? If I + weren't ill I'd care. I'd be tongue-tied—I'd have gone on being + tongue-tied for ever. Oh I bless being ill, I bless being ill—I can + say anything, anything—" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, don't say it," entreated his mother. "The less you say now + the more grateful you'll be later on. Let her go." +</p> +<p> + "Listen to her!" cried Tussie, interrupting his kissing of her hands + to look up at Priscilla and smile with a sort of pitying wonder, "Let + you go? Does one let one's life go? One's hope of salvation go? One's + little precious minute of perfect happiness go? When I'm well again I + shall be just as dull and stupid as ever, just such a shy fool, not + able to speak—" +</p> +<p> + "But it's a gracious state"—stammered poor Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Loving you? Loving you?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no—not being able to speak. It's always best—" +</p> +<p> + "It isn't. It's best to be true to one's self, to show honestly what + one feels, as I am now—as I am now—" And he fell to kissing her + hands again. +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, this isn't being honest," said Lady Shuttleworth sternly, + "it's being feverish." +</p> +<p> + "Listen to her! Was ever a man interrupted like this in the act of + asking a girl to marry him?" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel, will you marry me? Because I love you so? It's an absurd + reason—the most magnificently absurd reason, but I know there's no + other why you should—" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was shaken and stricken as she had never yet been; shaken + with pity, stricken with remorse. She looked down at him in dismay + while he kissed her hands with desperate, overwhelming love. What was + she to do? Lady Shuttleworth tried to draw her away. What was she to + do? If Tussie was overwhelmed with love, she was overwhelmed with + pity. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel—Ethel—" gasped Tussie, kissing her hands, looking up at her, + kissing them again. +</p> +<p> + Pity overcame her, engulfed her. She bent her head down to his and + laid her cheek an instant on the absurd flannel nightingale, tenderly, + apologetically. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel—Ethel," choked Tussie, "will you marry me?" +</p> +<p> + "Dear Tussie," she whispered in a shaky whisper, "I promise to answer + you when you are well. Not yet. Not now. Get quite well, and then if + you still want an answer I promise to give you one. Now let me go." +</p> +<p> + "Ethel," implored Tussie, looking at her with a wild entreaty in his + eyes, "will you kiss me? Just once—to help me to live—" +</p> +<p> + And in her desire to comfort him she stooped down again and did kiss + him, soberly, almost gingerly, on the forehead. +</p> +<p> + He let her hands slide away from between his and lay back on his + pillows in a state for the moment of absolute beatitude. He shut his + eyes, and did not move while she crept softly out of the room. +</p> +<p> + "What have you done?" asked Lady Shuttleworth trembling, when they + were safely in the passage and the door shut behind them. +</p> +<p> + "I can't think—I can't think," groaned Priscilla, wringing her hands. + And, leaning against the balusters, then and there in that most + public situation she began very bitterly to cry. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIX +</h2> +<p> + Priscilla went home dazed. All her suitors hitherto had approached her + ceremoniously, timidly, through the Grand Duke; and we know they had + not approached very near. But here was one, timid enough in health, + who was positively reckless under circumstances that made most people + meek. He had proposed to her arrayed in a blue flannel nightingale, + and Priscilla felt that headlong self-effacement could go no further. + "He must have a great soul," she said to herself over and over again + during the drive home, "a great, <i>great</i> soul." And it seemed of + little use wiping her tears away, so many fresh ones immediately took + their place. +</p> +<p> + She ached over Tussie and Tussie's mother. What had she done? She felt + she had done wrong; yet how, except by just existing? and she did feel + she couldn't help doing that. Certainly she had made two kind hearts + extremely miserable,—one was miserable now, and the other didn't yet + know how miserable it was going to be. She ought to have known, she + ought to have thought, she ought to have foreseen. She of all persons + in the world ought to have been careful with young men who believed + her to be of their own class. Contrition and woe took possession of + Priscilla's soul. She knew it was true that she could not help + existing, but she knew besides, far back in a remote and seldom + investigated corner of her mind, a corner on which she did not care to + turn the light of careful criticism, that she ought not to be existing + in Symford. It was because she was there, out of her proper sphere, in + a place she had no business to be in at all, that these strange and + heart-wringing scenes with young men occurred. And Fritzing would + notice her red eyes and ask what had happened; and here within two + days was a second story to be told of a young man unintentionally + hurried to his doom. Would Fritzing be angry? She never knew + beforehand. Would he, only remembering she was grand ducal, regard it + as an insult and want to fight Tussie? The vision of poor Tussie, + weak, fevered, embedded in pillows, swathed in flannel, receiving + bloodthirsty messages of defiance from Fritzing upset her into more + tears. Fritzing, she felt at that moment, was a trial. He burdened her + with his gigantic efforts to keep her from burdens. He burdened her + with his inflated notions of how burdenless she ought to be. He was + admirable, unselfish, devoted; but she felt it was possible to be too + admirable, too unselfish, too devoted. In a word Priscilla's mind + was in a state of upheaval, and the only ray of light she saw + anywhere—and never was ray more watery—was that Tussie, for the + moment at least, was content. The attitude of his mother, on the + other hand, was distressing and disturbing. There had been no more My + dears and other kind ways. She had watched her crying on the stairs in + stony silence, had gone down with her to the door in stony silence, + and just at the last had said in an unmistakably stony voice, "All + this is very cruel." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. The world was + too much with her, she felt, a very great deal too much. She sent the + Shuttleworth carriage away at the entrance to the village and went in + to sit with Mrs. Jones a little, so that her eyes might lose their + redness before she faced Fritzing; and Mrs. Jones was so glad to see + her, so full of praises of her unselfish goodness in coming in, that + once again Priscilla was forced to be ashamed of herself and of + everything she did. +</p> +<p> + "I'm not unselfish, and I'm not good," she said, smoothing the old + lady's coverlet. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones chuckled faintly. "Pretty dear," was her only comment. +</p> +<p> + "I don't think I'm pretty and I know I'm not a dear," said Priscilla, + quite vexed. +</p> +<p> + "Ain't you then, deary," murmured Mrs. Jones soothingly. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla saw it was no use arguing, and taking up the Bible that + always lay on the table by the bed began to read aloud. She read and + read till both were quieted,—Mrs. Jones into an evidently sweet + sleep, she herself into peace. Then she left off and sat for some time + watching the old lady, the open Bible in-her lap, her soul filled + with calm words and consolations, wondering what it could be like + being so near death. Must it not be beautiful, thought Priscilla, to + slip away so quietly in that sunny room, with no sound to break the + peace but the ticking of the clock that marked off the last minutes, + and outside the occasional footstep of a passer-by still hurrying on + life's business? Wonderful to have done with everything, to have it + all behind one, settled, lived through, endured. The troublous joys + as well as the pains, all finished; the griefs and the stinging + happinesses, all alike lived down; and now evening, and sleep. In the + few days Priscilla had known her the old lady had drawn visibly nearer + death. Lying there on the pillow, so little and light that she hardly + pressed it down at all, she looked very near it indeed. And how kind + Death was, rubbing away the traces of what must have been a sordid + existence, set about years back with the usual coarse pleasures and + selfish hopes,—how kind Death was, letting all there was of spirit + shine out so sweetly at the end. There was an enlarged photograph of + Mrs. Jones and her husband over the fireplace, a photograph taken for + their silver wedding; she must have been about forty-five; how kind + Death was, thought Priscilla, looking from the picture to the figure + on the bed. She sighed a little, and got up. Life lay before her, an + endless ladder up each of whose steep rungs she would have to clamber; + in every sort of weather she would have to clamber, getting more + battered, more blistered with every rung.... She looked wistfully at + the figure on the bed, and sighed a little. Then she crept out, and + softly shut the door. +</p> +<p> + She walked home lost in thought. As she was going up the hill to her + cottage Fritzing suddenly emerged from it and indulged in movements so + strange and complicated that they looked like nothing less than a + desperate dancing on the doorstep. Priscilla walked faster, staring in + astonishment. He made strange gestures, his face was pale, his hair + rubbed up into a kind of infuriated mop. +</p> +<p> + "Why, what in the world—" began the amazed Priscilla, as soon as she + was near enough. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I've been robbed," shouted Fritzing; and all Symford might + have heard if it had happened to be listening. +</p> +<p> + "Robbed?" repeated Priscilla. "What of?" +</p> +<p> + "Of all my money, ma'am. Of all I had—of all we had—to live on." +</p> +<p> + "Nonsense, Fritzi," said Priscilla; but she did turn a little paler. + "Don't let us stand out here," she added; and she got him in and shut + the street door. +</p> +<p> + He would have left it open and would have shouted his woes through + it as through a trumpet down the street, oblivious of all things + under heaven but his misfortune. He tore open the drawer of the + writing-table. "In this drawer—in the pocket-book you see in this + drawer—in this now empty pocket-book, did I leave it. It was there + yesterday. It was there last night. Now it is gone. Miscreants from + without have visited us. Or perhaps, viler still, miscreants from + within. A miscreant, I do believe, capable of anything—Annalise—" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, I took a five-pound note out of that last night, if that's + what you miss." +</p> +<p> + "You, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "To pay the girl who worked here her wages. You weren't here. I + couldn't find anything smaller." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Gott sei Dank! Gott sei Dank</i>!" cried Fritzing, going back to German + in his joy. "Oh ma'am, if you had told me earlier you would have + spared me great anguish. Have you the change?" +</p> +<p> + "Didn't she bring it?" +</p> +<p> + "Bring it, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "I gave it to her last night to change. She was to bring it round this + morning. Didn't she?" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing stared aghast. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. In a + moment he was back again. "She has not been here," he said, in a voice + packed once more with torment. +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps she has forgotten." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, how came you—" +</p> +<p> + "Now you're going to scold me." +</p> +<p> + "No, no—but how is it possible that you should have trusted—" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, you <i>are</i> going to scold me, and I'm so tired. What else has + been taken? You said all your money—" +</p> +<p> + He snatched up his hat. "Nothing else, ma'am, nothing else. I will go + and seek the girl." And he clapped it down over his eyes as he always + did in moments of great mental stress. +</p> +<p> + "What a fuss," thought Priscilla wearily. Aloud she said, "The girl + here to-day will tell you where she lives. Of course she has + forgotten, or not been able to change it yet." And she left him, and + went out to get into her own half of the house. +</p> +<p> + Yes, Fritzi really was a trial. Why such a fuss and such big words + about five pounds? If it were lost and the girl afraid to come and say + so, it didn't matter much; anyhow nothing like so much as having one's + peace upset. How foolish to be so agitated and talk of having been + robbed of everything. Fritzing's mind, she feared, that large, + enlightened mind on whose breadth and serenity she had gazed + admiringly ever since she could remember gazing at all, was shrinking + to dimensions that would presently exactly match the dimensions of + Creeper Cottage. She went upstairs disheartened and tired, and + dropping down full length on her sofa desired Annalise to wash her + face. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness has been weeping," said Annalise, whisking + the sponge in and out of corners with a skill surprising in one who + had only practised the process during the last ten days. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla opened her eyes to stare at her in frankest surprise, for + never yet had Annalise dared make a remark unrequested. Annalise, by + beginning to wash them, forced her to shut them again. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla then opened her mouth to tell her what she thought of her. + Immediately Annalise's swift sponge stopped it up. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, washing Priscilla's mouth + with a thoroughness and an amount of water suggestive of its not + having been washed for months, "told me only yesterday that weeping + was a terrible—<i>schreckliche</i>—waste of time. Therefore, since your + Grand Ducal Highness knows that and yet herself weeps, it is easy to + see that there exists a reason for weeping which makes weeping + inevitable." +</p> +<p> + "Will you—" began Priscilla, only to be stopped instantly by the + ready sponge. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness is unhappy. 'Tis not to be wondered at. + Trust a faithful servant, one whose life-blood is at your Grand Ducal + Highness's disposal, and tell her if it is not then true that the Herr + Geheimrath has decoyed you from your home and your Grossherzoglicher + Herr Papa?" +</p> +<p> + "Will you—" +</p> +<p> + Again the pouncing sponge. +</p> +<p> + "My heart bleeds—indeed it bleeds—to think of the Herr Papa's + sufferings, his fears, his anxieties. It is a picture on which I + cannot calmly look. Day and night—for at night I lie sleepless on my + bed—I am inquiring of myself what it can be, the spell that the Herr + Geheimrath has cast over your Grand Ducal—" +</p> +<p> + "Will you—" +</p> +<p> + Again the pouncing sponge; but this time Priscilla caught the girl's + hand, and holding it at arm's length sat up. "Are you mad?" she asked, + looking at Annalise as though she saw her for the first time. +</p> +<p> + Annalise dropped the sponge and clasped her hands. "Not mad," she + said, "only very, very devoted." +</p> +<p> + "No. Mad. Give me a towel." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was so angry that she did not dare say more. If she had said + a part even of what she wanted to say all would have been over between + herself and Annalise; so she dried her face in silence, declining to + allow it to be touched. "You can go," she said, glancing at the door, + her face pale with suppressed wrath but also, it must be confessed, + very clean; and when she was alone she dropped once again on to the + sofa and buried her head in the cushion. How dared Annalise? How dared + she? How dared she? Priscilla asked herself over and over again, + wincing, furious. Why had she not thought of this, known that she + would be in the power of any servant they chose to bring? Surely there + was no limit, positively none, to what the girl might do or say? How + was she going to bear her about her, endure the sight and sound of + that veiled impertinence? She buried her head very deep in the + cushion, vainly striving to blot out the world and Annalise in its + feathers, but even there there was no peace, for suddenly a great + noise of doors going and legs striding penetrated through its + stuffiness and she heard Fritzing's voice very loud and near—all + sounds in Creeper Cottage were loud and near—ordering Annalise to ask + her Grand Ducal Highness to descend. +</p> +<p> + "I won't," thought Priscilla, burying her head deeper. "That poor Emma + has lost the note and he's going to fuss. I won't descend." +</p> +<p> + Then came Annalise's tap at her door. Priscilla did not answer. + Annalise tapped again. Priscilla did not answer, but turning her head + face upwards composed herself to an appearance of sleep. +</p> +<p> + Annalise tapped a third time. "The Herr Geheimrath wishes to speak to + your Grand Ducal Highness," she called through the door; and after a + pause opened it and peeped in. "Her Grand Ducal Highness sleeps," she + informed Fritzing down the stairs, her nose at the angle in the air it + always took when she spoke to him. +</p> +<p> + "Then wake her! Wake her!" cried Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "Is it possible something has happened?" thought Annalise joyfully, + her eyes gleaming as she willingly flew back to Priscilla's + door,—anything, anything, she thought, sooner than the life she was + leading. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla heard Fritzing's order and sat up at once, surprised at such + an unprecedented indifference to her comfort. Her heart began to beat + faster; a swift fear that Kunitz was at her heels seized her; she + jumped up and ran out. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was standing at the foot of the stairs. +</p> +<p> + "Come down, ma'am," he said; "I must speak to you at once." +</p> +<p> + "What's the matter?" asked Priscilla, getting down the steep little + stairs as quickly as was possible without tumbling. +</p> +<p> + "Hateful English tongue," thought Annalise, to whom the habit the + Princess and Fritzing had got into of talking English together was a + constant annoyance and disappointment. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing preceded Priscilla into her parlour, and when she was in he + shut the door behind her. Then he leaned his hands on the table to + steady himself and confronted her with a twitching face. Priscilla + looked at him appalled. Was the Grand Duke round the corner? + Lingering, perhaps, among the very tombs just outside her window? + "What is it?" she asked faintly. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, the five pounds has disappeared for ever." +</p> +<p> + "Really Fritzi, you are too absurd about that wretched five pounds," + cried Priscilla, blazing into anger. +</p> +<p> + "But it was all we had." +</p> +<p> + "All we—?" +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, it was positively our last penny." +</p> +<p> + "I—don't understand." +</p> +<p> + He made her understand. With paper and pencil, with the bills and his + own calculations, he made her understand. His hands shook, but he + went through with it item by item, through everything they had spent + from the moment they left Kunitz. They were in such a corner, so + tightly jammed, that all efforts to hide it and pretend there was no + corner seemed to him folly. He now saw that such efforts always had + been folly, and that he ought to have seen to it that her mind on this + important point was from the first perfectly clear; then nothing would + have happened. "You have had the misfortune, ma'am, to choose a fool + for your protector in this adventure," he said bitterly, pushing the + papers from him as though he loathed the sight of them. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla sat dumfoundered. She was looking quite straight for the + first time at certain pitiless aspects of life. For the first time she + was face to face with the sternness, the hardness, the relentlessness + of everything that has to do with money so soon as one has not got + any. It seemed almost incredible to her that she who had given so + lavishly to anybody and everybody, who had been so glad to give, who + had thought of money when she thought of it at all as a thing to be + passed on, as a thing that soiled one unless it was passed on, but + that, passed on, became strangely glorified and powerful for good—it + seemed incredible that she should be in need of it herself, and unable + to think of a single person who would give her some. And what a little + she needed: just to tide them over the next week or two till they had + got theirs from home; yet even that little, the merest nothing + compared to what she had flung about in the village, was as + unattainable as though it had been a fortune. "Can we—can we not + borrow?" she said at last. +</p> +<p> + "Yes ma'am, we can and we must. I will proceed this evening to Symford + Hall and borrow of Augustus." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla; so suddenly and so energetically that Fritzing + started. +</p> +<p> + "No, ma'am?" he repeated, astonished. "Why, he is the very person. In + fact he is our only hope. He must and shall help us." +</p> +<p> + "No," repeated Priscilla, still more energetically. +</p> +<p> + "Pray ma'am," said Fritzing, shrugging his shoulders, "are these + women's whims—I never comprehended them rightly and doubt if I ever + shall—are they to be allowed to lead us even in dangerous crises? To + lead us to certain shipwreck, ma'am? The alternatives in this case are + three. Permit me to point them out. Either we return to Kunitz—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," shivered Priscilla, shrinking as from a blow. +</p> +<p> + "Or, after a brief period of starvation and other violent discomfort, + we are cast into gaol for debt—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh?" shivered Priscilla, in tones of terrified inquiry. +</p> +<p> + "Or, I borrow of Augustus." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, just as energetically as before. +</p> +<p> + "Augustus is wealthy. Augustus is willing. Ma'am, I would stake my + soul that he is willing." +</p> +<p> + "You shall not borrow of him," said Priscilla. "He—he's too ill." +</p> +<p> + "Well then, ma'am," said Fritzing with a gesture of extreme + exasperation, "since you cannot be allowed to be cast into gaol there + remains but Kunitz. Like the dogs of the Scriptures we will return—" +</p> +<p> + "Why not borrow of the vicar?" interrupted Priscilla. "Surely he would + be glad to help any one in difficulties?" +</p> +<p> + "Of the vicar? What, of the father of the young man who insulted your + Grand Ducal Highness and whom I propose to kill in duel my first + leisure moment? Ma'am, there are depths of infamy to which even a + desperate man will not descend." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla dug holes in the tablecloth with the point of the pencil. "I + can't conceive," she said, "why you gave Annalise all that money. So + <i>much</i>." +</p> +<p> + "Why, ma'am, she refused, unless I did, to prepare your Grand Ducal + Highness's tea." +</p> +<p> + "Oh Fritzi!" Priscilla looked up at him, shaking her head and smiling + through all her troubles. Was ever so much love and so much folly + united in one wise old man? Was ever, for that matter, so expensive a + tea? +</p> +<p> + "I admit I permitted the immediate, the passing, moment to blot out + the future from my clearer vision on that occasion." +</p> +<p> + "On that occasion? Oh Fritzi. What about all the other occasions? + When you gave me all I asked for—for the poor people, for my party. + You must have suffered tortures of anxiety. And all by yourself. Oh + Fritzi. It was dear of you—perfectly, wonderfully, dear. But you + ought to have been different with me from the beginning—treated me + exactly as you would have treated a real niece—" +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am," cried Fritzing, jumping up, "this is waste of time. Our case + is very urgent. Money must be obtained. You must allow me to judge in + this matter, however ill I have acquitted myself up to now. I shall + start at once for Symford Hall and obtain a loan of Augustus." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla pushed back her chair and got up too. "My dear Fritzi, + please leave that unfortunate young man out of the question," she + said, flushing. "How can you worry a person who is ill in bed with + such things?" +</p> +<p> + "His mother is not ill in bed and will do quite as well. I am + certainly going." +</p> +<p> + "You are not going. I won't have you ask his mother. I—forbid you to + do anything of the sort. Oh Fritzi," she added in despair, for he had + picked up the hat and stick he had flung down on coming in and was + evidently not going to take the least notice of her commands—"oh + Fritzi, you can't ask Tussie for money. It would kill him to know we + were in difficulties." +</p> +<p> + "Kill him, ma'am? Why should it kill him?" shouted Fritzing, + exasperated by such a picture of softness. +</p> +<p> + "It wouldn't only kill him—it would be simply too dreadful besides," + said Priscilla, greatly distressed. "Why, he asked me this + afternoon—wasn't going to tell you, but you force me to—he asked me + this very afternoon to marry him, and the dreadful part is that I'm + afraid he thinks—he hopes—that I'm going to." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XX +</h2> +<p> + The only inhabitant of Creeper Cottage who slept that night was + Annalise. Priscilla spent it walking up and down her bedroom, and + Fritzing on the other side of the wall spent it walking up and down + his. They could hear each other doing it; it was a melancholy sound. + Once Priscilla was seized with laughter—a not very genial mirth, but + still laughter—and had to fling herself on her bed and bury her face + in the pillows lest Fritzing should hear so blood-curdling a noise. It + was when their steps had fallen steadily together for several turns + and the church clock, just as she was noticing this, had struck three. + Not for this, to tramp up and down their rooms all night, not for this + had they left Kunitz. The thought of all they had dreamed life in + Creeper Cottage was going to be, of all they had never doubted it was + going to be, of peaceful nights passed in wholesome slumber, of days + laden with fruitful works, of evenings with the poets, came into her + head and made this tormented marching suddenly seem intensely droll. + She laughed into her pillow till the tears rolled down her face, and + the pains she had to take to keep all sounds from reaching Fritzing + only made her laugh more. +</p> +<p> + It was a windy night, and the wind sighed round the cottage and + rattled the casements and rose every now and then to a howl very + dreary to hear. While Priscilla was laughing a great gust shook the + house, and involuntarily she raised her head to listen. It died away, + and her head dropped back on to her arms again, but the laughter was + gone. She lay solemn enough, listening to Fritzing's creakings, and + thought of the past day and of the days to come till her soul grew + cold. Surely she was a sort of poisonous weed, fatal to every one + about her? Fritzing, Tussie, the poor girl Emma—oh, it could not be + true about Emma. She had lost the money, and was trying to gather + courage to come and say so; or she had simply not been able to change + it yet. Fritzing had jumped to the conclusion, because nothing had + been heard of her all day at home, that she had run away with it. + Priscilla twisted herself about uneasily. It was not the loss of the + five pounds that made her twist, bad though that loss was in their + utter poverty; it was the thought that if Emma had really run away + she, by her careless folly, had driven the girl to ruin. And then + Tussie. How dreadful that was. At three in the morning, with the + wailing wind rising and falling and the room black with the inky + blackness of a moonless October night, the Tussie complication seemed + to be gigantic, of a quite appalling size, threatening to choke her, + to crush all the spring and youth out of her. If Tussie got well she + was going to break his heart; if Tussie died it would be her fault. + No one but herself was responsible for his illness, her own selfish, + hateful self. Yes, she was a poisonous weed; a baleful, fatal thing, + not fit for great undertakings, not fit for a noble life, too foolish + to depart successfully from the lines laid down for her by other + people; wickedly careless; shamefully shortsighted; spoiling, ruining, + everything she touched. Priscilla writhed. Nobody likes being forced + to recognize that they are poisonous weeds. Even to be a plain weed is + grievous to one's vanity, but to be a weed and poisonous as well is a + very desperate thing to be. She passed a dreadful night. It was the + worst she could remember. +</p> +<p> + And the evening too—how bad it had been; though contrary to her + expectations Fritzing showed no desire to fight Tussie. He was not so + unreasonable as she had supposed; and besides, he was too completely + beaten down by the ever-increasing weight and number of his + responsibilities to do anything in regard to that unfortunate youth + but be sorry for him. More than once that evening he looked at + Priscilla in silent wonder at the amount of trouble one young woman + could give. How necessary, he thought, and how wise was that plan at + which he used in his ignorance to rail, of setting an elderly female + like the Disthal to control the actions and dog the footsteps of the + Priscillas of this world. He hated the Disthal and all women like her, + women with mountainous bodies and minimal brains—bodies self-indulged + into shapelessness, brains neglected into disappearance; but the + nobler and simpler and the more generous the girl the more did she + need some such mixture of fleshliness and cunning constantly with her. + It seemed absurd, and it seemed all wrong; yet surely it was so. He + pondered over it long in dejected musings, the fighting tendency gone + out of him completely for the time, so dark was his spirit with the + shadows of the future. +</p> +<p> + They had borrowed the wages—it was a dreadful moment—for that day's + cook from Annalise. For their food they decided to run up a bill at + the store; but every day each fresh cook would have to be paid, and + every day her wages would have to be lent by Annalise. Annalise lent + superbly; with an air as of giving freely, with joy. All she required + was the Princess's signature to a memorandum drawn up by herself by + which she was promised the money back, doubled, within three months. + Priscilla read this, flushed to her hair, signed, and ordered her out + of the room. Annalise, who was beginning to enjoy herself, went + upstairs singing. In the parlour Priscilla broke the pen she had + signed with into quite small pieces and flung them on to the fire,—a + useless demonstration, but then she was a quick-tempered young lady. + In the attic Annalise sat down and wrote a letter breathing lofty + sentiments to the Countess Disthal in Kunitz, telling her she could no + longer keep silence in the face of a royal parent's anxieties and she + was willing to reveal the address of the Princess Priscilla and so + staunch the bleeding of a noble heart if the Grand Duke would forward + her or forward to her parents on her behalf the sum of twenty thousand + marks. Gladly would she render this service, which was at the same + time her duty, for nothing, if she had not the future to consider and + an infirm father. Meanwhile she gave the Symford post-office as an + address, assuring the Countess that it was at least fifty miles from + the Princess's present hiding-place, the address of which would only + be sent on the conditions named. Then, immensely proud of her + cleverness, she trotted down to the post-office, bought stamps, and + put the letter herself in the box. +</p> +<p> + That evening she sang in the kitchen, she sang in the bath-room, she + sang in the attic and on the stairs to the attic. What she sang, + persistently, over and over again, and loudest outside Fritzing's + door, was a German song about how beautiful it is at evening when the + bells ring one to rest, and the refrain at the end of each verse was + ding-dong twice repeated. Priscilla rang her own bell, unable to + endure it, but Annalise did not consider this to be one of those that + are beautiful and did not answer it till it had been rung three times. +</p> +<p> + "Do not sing," said Priscilla, when she appeared. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness objects?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla turned red. "I'll give no reasons," she said icily. "Do not + sing." +</p> +<p> + "Yet it is a sign of a light heart. Your Grand Ducal Highness did not + like to see me weep—she should the more like to hear me rejoice." +</p> +<p> + "You can go." +</p> +<p> + "My heart to-night is light, because I am the means of being of use + to your Grand Ducal Highness, of showing my devotion, of being of + service." +</p> +<p> + "Do me the service of being quiet." +</p> +<p> + Annalise curtseyed and withdrew, and spent the rest of the evening + bursting into spasmodic and immediately interrupted song,—breaking + off after a few bars with a cough of remembrance and apology. When + this happened Fritzing and Priscilla looked at each other with grave + and meditative eyes; they knew how completely they were in her power. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing wrote that night to the friend in London who had engaged the + rooms for him at Baker's Farm, and asked him to lend him fifty pounds + for a week,—preferably three hundred (this would cover the + furnisher's bill), but if he could lend neither five would do. The + friend, a teacher of German, could as easily have lent the three + hundred as the five, so poor was he, so fit an object for a loan + himself; but long before his letter explaining this in words eloquent + of regret (for he was a loyal friend) reached Fritzing, many things + had happened to that bewildered man to whom so many things had + happened already, and caused him to forget both his friend and his + request. +</p> +<p> + This, then, was how the afternoon and evening of Thursday were + passed; and on Friday morning, quite unstrung by their sleepless + night, Priscilla and Fritzing were proposing to go up together on + to the moor, there to seek width and freshness, be blown upon by + moist winds, and forget for a little the crushing narrowness and + perplexities of Creeper Cottage, when Mrs. Morrison walked in. She + opened the door first and then, when half of her was inside, knocked + with her knuckles, which were the only things to knock with on + Priscilla's simple door. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was standing by the fire dressed to go out, waiting for + Fritzing, and she stared at this apparition in great and unconcealed + surprise. What business, said Priscilla's look more plainly than any + words, what business had people to walk into other people's cottages + in such a manner? She stood quite still, and scrutinized Mrs. Morrison + with the questioning expression she used to find so effective in + Kunitz days when confronted by a person inclined to forget which, + exactly, was his proper place. But Mrs. Morrison knew nothing of + Kunitz, and the look lost half its potency without its impressive + background. Besides, the lady was not one to notice things so slight + as looks; to keep her in her proper place you would have needed + sledge-hammers. She came in without thinking it necessary to wait to + be asked to, nodded something that might perhaps have represented a + greeting and of which Priscilla took no notice, and her face was the + face of somebody who is angry. +</p> +<p> + "How wearing for the vicar," thought Priscilla, "to have a wife who + is angry at ten o'clock in the morning." +</p> +<p> + "I've come in the interests—" began Mrs. Morrison, whose voice was + quite as angry as her face. +</p> +<p> + "I'm just going out," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "—Of religion and morality." +</p> +<p> + "Are they distinct?" asked Priscilla, drawing on her gloves. +</p> +<p> + "You can imagine that nothing would make me pay you a visit but the + strongest sense of the duty I owe to my position in the parish." +</p> +<p> + "Why should I imagine it?" +</p> +<p> + "Of course I expect impertinence." +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you've come here to be rude." +</p> +<p> + "I shall not be daunted by anything you may say from doing my duty." +</p> +<p> + "Will you please do it, then, and get it over?" +</p> +<p> + "The duties of a clergyman's wife are often very disagreeable." +</p> +<p> + "Probably you've got hold of a perfectly wrong idea of what yours + really are." +</p> +<p> + "It is a new experience for me to be told so by a girl of your age." +</p> +<p> + "I am not telling you. I only suggest." +</p> +<p> + "I was prepared for rudeness." +</p> +<p> + "Then why did you come?" +</p> +<p> + "How long are you going to stay in this parish?" +</p> +<p> + "You don't expect me to answer that?" +</p> +<p> + "You've not been in it a fortnight, and you have done more harm than + most people in a lifetime." +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you exaggerate." +</p> +<p> + "You have taught it to drink." +</p> +<p> + "I gave a dying old woman what she most longed for." +</p> +<p> + "You've taught it to break the Sabbath." +</p> +<p> + "I made a great many little children very happy." +</p> +<p> + "You have ruined the habits of thrift we have been at such pains to + teach and encourage for twenty-five years." +</p> +<p> + "I helped the poor when they asked me to." +</p> +<p> + "And now what I want to know is, what has become of the Hancock girl?" +</p> +<p> + "Pray who, exactly, is the Hancock girl?" +</p> +<p> + "That unfortunate creature who worked here for you on Wednesday." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's face changed. "Emma?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "Emma. At this hour the day before yesterday she was as good a girl as + any in the village. She was good, and dutiful, and honest. Now what is + she and where is she?" +</p> +<p> + "Has she—isn't she in her home?" +</p> +<p> + "She never went home." +</p> +<p> + "Then she did lose the money?" +</p> +<p> + "Lose it? She has stolen it. Do you not see you have deliberately made + a thief out of an honest girl?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gazed in dismay at the avenging vicar's wife. It was true + then, and she had the fatal gift of spoiling all she touched. +</p> +<p> + "And worse than that—you have brought a good girl to ruin. He'll + never marry her now." +</p> +<p> + "He?" +</p> +<p> + "Do you not know the person she was engaged to has gone with her?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know anything." +</p> +<p> + "They walked from here to Ullerton and went to London. Her father came + round to us yesterday after your uncle had been to him making + inquiries, and it is all as clear as day. Till your uncle told him, he + did not know about the money, and had been too—not well enough that + day to notice Emma's not having come home. Your uncle's visit sobered + him. We telegraphed to the police. They've been traced to London. + That's all. Except," and she glared at Priscilla with all the wrath of + a prophet whose denunciations have been justified, "except that one + more life is ruined." +</p> +<p> + "I'm very sorry—very, very sorry," said Priscilla, so earnestly, so + abjectly even, that her eyes filled with tears. "I see now how + thoughtless it was of me." +</p> +<p> + "Thoughtless!" +</p> +<p> + "It was inexcusably thoughtless." +</p> +<p> + "Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison again. +</p> +<p> + "If you like, it was criminally thoughtless." +</p> +<p> + "Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison a third time. +</p> +<p> + "But it wasn't more than thoughtless. I'd give anything to be able to + set it right. I am most truly grieved. But isn't it a little hard to + make me responsible?" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison stared at her as one who eyes some strange new monster. + "How amazingly selfish you are," she said at last, in tones almost of + awe. +</p> +<p> + "Selfish?" faltered Priscilla, who began to wonder what she was not. +</p> +<p> + "In the face of such total ruin, such utter shipwreck, to be thinking + of what is hard on you. You! Why, here you are with a safe skin, free + from the bitter anxieties and temptations poor people have to fight + with, with so much time unoccupied that you fill it up with mischief, + with more money than you know what to do with"—Priscilla pressed her + hands together—"sheltered, free from every care"—Priscilla opened + her lips but shut them again—"and there is that miserable Emma, + hopeless, branded, for ever an outcast because of you,—only because + of you, and you think of yourself and talk of its being hard." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at Mrs. Morrison, opened her mouth to say something, + shut it, opened it again, and remarked very lamely that the heart + alone knows its own bitterness. +</p> +<p> + "Psha," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly incensed at having the Scriptures, + her own speciality, quoted at her. "I'd like to know what bitterness + yours has known, unless it's the bitterness of a bad conscience. Now + I've come here to-day"—she raised her voice to a note of warning—"to + give you a chance. To make you think, by pointing out the path you + are treading. You are young, and it is my duty to let no young person + go downhill without one warning word. You have brought much evil on + our village—why you, a stranger, should be bent on making us all + unhappy I can't imagine. You hypocritically try to pretend that what + plain people call evil is really good. But your last action, forcing + Emma Hancock to be a thief and worse, even you cannot possibly defend. + You have much on your conscience—far, far more than I should care to + have on mine. How wicked to give all that money to Mrs. Jones. Don't + you see you are tempting people who know she is defenceless to steal + it from her? Perhaps even murder her? I saved her from that—you did + not reckon with me, you see. Take my advice—leave Symford, and go + back to where you came from"—Priscilla started—"and get something to + do that will keep you fully occupied. If you don't, you'll be laying + up a wretched, perhaps a degraded future for yourself. Don't + suppose,"—her voice grew very loud—"don't suppose we are fools here + and are not all of us aware of the way you have tried to lure young + men on"—Priscilla started again—"in the hope, of course, of getting + one of them to marry you. But your intentions have been frustrated + luckily, in the one case by Providence flinging your victim on a bed + of sickness and in the other by your having altogether mistaken the + sort of young fellow you were dealing with." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison paused for breath. This last part of her speech had been + made with an ever accumulating rage. Priscilla stood looking at her, + her eyebrows drawn down very level over her eyes. +</p> +<p> + "My son is much too steady and conscientious, besides being too much + accustomed to first-rate society, to stoop to anything so vulgar—" +</p> +<p> + "As myself?" inquired Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "As a love-affair with the first stray girl he picks up." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean me?" +</p> +<p> + "He saw through your intentions, laughed at them, and calmly returned + to his studies at Cambridge." +</p> +<p> + "I boxed his ears." +</p> +<p> + "What?" +</p> +<p> + "I boxed his ears." +</p> +<p> + "You?" +</p> +<p> + "I boxed his ears. That's why he went. He didn't go calmly. It wasn't + his studies." +</p> +<p> + "How dare you box—oh, this is too horrible—and you stand there and + tell me so to my face?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid I must. The tone of your remarks positively demands it. + Your son's conduct positively demanded that I should box his ears. So + I did." +</p> +<p> + "Of all the shameless—" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you're becoming like him—altogether impossible." +</p> +<p> + "You first lure him on, and then—oh, it is shameful!" +</p> +<p> + "Have you finished what you came for?" +</p> +<p> + "You are the most brazen—" +</p> +<p> + "Hush. Do be careful. Suppose my uncle were to hear you? If you've + finished won't you go?" +</p> +<p> + "Go? I shall not go till I have said my say. I shall send the vicar to + you about Robin—such conduct is so—so infamous that I can't—I + can't—I can't—" +</p> +<p> + "I'm sorry if it has distressed you." +</p> +<p> + "Distressed me? You are the most—" +</p> +<p> + "Really I think we've done, haven't we?" said Priscilla hurriedly, + dreadfully afraid lest Fritzing should come in and hear her being + called names. +</p> +<p> + "To think that you dared—to think that my—my noble boy—" +</p> +<p> + "He wasn't very noble. Mothers don't ever really know their sons, I + think." +</p> +<p> + "Shameless girl!" cried Mrs. Morrison, so loud, so completely beside + herself, that Priscilla hastily rang her bell, certain that Fritzing + must hear and would plunge in to her rescue; and of all things she had + learned to dread Fritzing's plunging to her rescue. "Open the door for + this lady," she said to Annalise, who appeared with a marvellous + promptitude; and as Mrs. Morrison still stood her ground and refused + to see either Annalise or the door Priscilla ended the interview by + walking out herself, with great dignity, into the bathroom. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXI +</h2> +<p> + And now I have come to a part of my story that I would much rather not + write. Always my inclination if left alone is to sit in the sun and + sing of things like crocuses, of nothing less fresh and clean than + crocuses. The engaging sprightliness of crocuses; their dear little + smell, not to be smelled except by the privileged few; their luminous + transparency—I am thinking of the white and the purple; their kind + way of not keeping hearts sick for Spring waiting longer than they can + just bear; how pleasant to sit with a friend in the sun, a friend who + like myself likes to babble of green fields, and talk together about + all things flowery. But Priscilla's story has taken such a hold on me, + it seemed when first I heard it to be so full of lessons, that I feel + bound to set it down from beginning to end for the use and warning of + all persons, princesses and others, who think that by searching, by + going far afield, they will find happiness, and do not see that it is + lying all the while at their feet. They do not see it because it is so + close. It is so close that there is a danger of its being trodden on + or kicked away. And it is shy, and waits to be picked up. Priscilla, + we know, went very far afield in search of hers, and having + undertaken to tell of what befell her I must not now, only because I + would rather, suppress any portion of the story. Besides, it is a + portion vital to the catastrophe. +</p> +<p> + In Minehead, then, there lived at this time a murderer. He had not + been found out yet and he was not a murderer by profession, for he was + a bricklayer; but in his heart he was, and that is just as bad. He had + had a varied career into the details of which I do not propose to go, + had come three or four years before to live in the West of England + because it was so far from all the other places he had lived in, had + got work in Minehead, settled there respectably, married, and was a + friend of that carrier who brought the bread and other parcels every + day to the Symford store. At this time he was in money difficulties + and his wife, of whom he was fond, was in an expensive state of + health. The accounts of Priscilla's generosity and wealth had reached + Minehead as I said some time ago, and had got even into the local + papers. The carrier was the chief transmitter of news, for he saw Mrs. + Vickerton every day and she was a woman who loved to talk; but those + of the Shuttleworth servants who were often in Minehead on divers + errands ratified and added to all he said, and embellished the tale + besides with what was to them the most interesting part, the + unmistakable signs their Augustus showed of intending to marry the + young woman. This did not interest the murderer. Sir Augustus and the + lady he meant to marry were outside his sphere altogether; too well + protected, too powerful. What he liked to hear about was the money + Priscilla had scattered among the cottagers, how much each woman had + got, whether it had been spent or not, whether she had a husband, or + grown-up children; and best of all he liked to hear about the money + Mrs. Jones had got. All the village, and therefore Mrs. Vickerton and + the carrier, knew of it, knew even the exact spot beneath the bolster + where it was kept, knew it was kept there for safety from the + depredations of the vicar's wife, knew the vicar's wife had taken away + Priscilla's first present. The carrier knew too of Mrs. Jones's age, + her weakness, her nearness to death. He remarked that such a sum + wasn't of much use to an old woman certain to die in a few days, and + that it might just as well not be hers at all for all the spending it + got. The murderer, whose reputation in Minehead was so immaculate that + not a single fly had ever dared blow on it, said kindly that no doubt + just to have it in her possession was cheering and that one should not + grudge the old their little bits of comfort; and he walked over to + Symford that night, and getting there about one o'clock murdered Mrs. + Jones. I will not enter into details. I believe it was quite simple. + He was back by six next morning with the five pounds in his pocket, + and his wife that day had meat for dinner. +</p> +<p> + That is all I shall say about the murderer, except that he was never + found out; and nothing shall induce me to dwell upon the murder. But + what about the effect it had on Priscilla? Well, it absolutely crushed + her. +</p> +<p> + The day before, after Mrs. Morrison's visit, she had been wretched + enough, spending most of it walking very fast, as driven spirits do, + with Fritzing for miles across the bleak and blowy moor, by turns + contrite and rebellious, one moment ready to admit she was a miserable + sinner, the next indignantly repudiating Mrs. Morrison's and her own + conscience's accusations, her soul much beaten and bent by winds of + misgiving but still on its feet, still defiant, still sheltering + itself when it could behind plain common sense which whispered at + intervals that all that had happened was only bad luck. They walked + miles that day; often in silence, sometimes in gusty talk—talk gusty + with the swift changes of Priscilla's mood scudding across the leaden + background of Fritzing's steadier despair—and they got back tired, + hungry, their clothes splashed with mud, their minds no nearer light + than when they started. She had, I say, been wretched enough; but what + was this wretchedness to that which followed? In her ignorance she + thought it the worst day she had ever had, the most tormented; and + when she went to bed she sought comfort in its very badness by telling + herself that it was over and could never come again. It could not. But + Time is prolific of surprises; and on Saturday morning Symford woke + with a shudder to the murder of Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> + Now such a thing as this had not happened in that part of + Somersetshire within the memory of living man, and though Symford + shuddered it was also proud and pleased. The mixed feeling of horror, + pleasure, and pride was a thrilling one. It felt itself at once raised + to a position of lurid conspicuousness in the county, its name would + be in every mouth, the papers, perhaps even the London papers, would + talk about it. At all times, in spite of the care and guidance it had + had from the clergy and gentry, the account of a murder gave Symford + more pure pleasure than any other form of entertainment; and now here + was one, not at second-hand, not to be viewed through the cooling + medium of print and pictures, but in its midst, before its eyes, at + its very doors. Mrs. Jones went up strangely in its estimation. The + general feeling was that it was an honour to have known her. Nobody + worked that day. The school was deserted. Dinners were not cooked. + Babies shrieked uncomforted. All Symford was gathered in groups + outside Mrs. Jones's cottage, and as the day wore on and the news + spread, visitors from the neighbouring villages, from Minehead and + from Ullerton, arrived with sandwiches and swelled them. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla saw these groups from her windows. The fatal cottage was at + the foot of the hill in full view both of her bedroom and her parlour. + Only by sitting in the bathroom would she be able to get away from it. + When the news was brought her, breathlessly, pallidly, by Annalise in + the early morning with her hot water, she refused to believe it. + Annalise knew no English and must have got hold of a horrible wrong + tale. The old lady was dead no doubt, had died quietly in her sleep as + had been expected, but what folly was all this about a murder? Yet she + sat up in bed and felt rather cold as she looked at Annalise, for + Annalise was very pallid. And then at last she had to believe it. + Annalise had had it told her from beginning to end, with the help of + signs, by the charwoman. She had learned more English in those few + crimson minutes than in the whole of the time she had been in England. + The charwoman had begun her demonstration by slowly drawing her finger + across her throat from one ear to the other, and Annalise repeated the + action for Priscilla's clearer comprehension. How Priscilla got up + that day and dressed she never knew. Once at least during the process + she stumbled back on to the bed and lay with her face on her arms, + shaken by a most desperate weeping. That fatal charity; those fatal + five-pound notes. Annalise, panic-stricken lest she who possessed so + many should be the next victim, poured out the tale of the missing + money, of the plain motive for the murder, with a convincingness, a + naked truth, that stabbed Priscilla to the heart with each clinching + word. +</p> +<p> + "They say the old woman must have cried out—must have been awakened, + or the man would have taken the money without—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh don't—oh leave me—" moaned Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + She did not go downstairs that day. Every time Annalise tried to come + in she sent her away. When she was talked to of food, she felt sick. + Once she began to pace about the room, but the sight of those eager + black knots of people down the street, of policemen and other + important and official-looking persons going in and out of the + cottage, drove her back to her bed and its sheltering, world-deadening + pillow. Indeed the waters of life had gone over her head and swallowed + her up in hopeless blackness. She acknowledged herself wrong. She gave + in utterly. Every word Mrs. Morrison—a dreadful woman, yet dreadful + as she was still a thousand times better than herself—every word she + had said, every one of those bitter words at which she had been so + indignant the morning before, was true, was justified. That day + Priscilla tore the last shreds of self-satisfaction from her soul and + sat staring at it with horrified eyes as at a thing wholly repulsive, + dangerous, blighting. What was to become of her, and of poor Fritzing, + dragged down by her to an equal misery? About one o'clock she heard + Mrs. Morrison's voice below, in altercation apparently with him. At + this time she was crying again; bitter, burning tears; those scorching + tears that follow in the wake of destroyed illusions, that drop, hot + and withering, on to the fragments of what was once the guiding glory + of an ideal. She was brought so low, was so humbled, so uncertain of + herself, that she felt it would bring her peace if she might go down + to Mrs. Morrison and acknowledge all her vileness; tell her how wrong + she had been, ask her forgiveness for her rudeness, beg her for pity, + for help, for counsel. She needed some kind older woman,—oh she + needed some kind older woman to hold out cool hands of wisdom and show + her the way. But then she would have to make a complete confession of + everything she had done, and how would Mrs. Morrison or any other + decent woman look upon her flight from her father's home? Would they + not turn away shuddering from what she now saw was a hideous + selfishness and ingratitude? The altercation going on below rose + rapidly in heat. Just at the end it grew so heated that even through + the pillow Priscilla could hear its flaming conclusion. +</p> +<p> + "Man, I tell you your niece is to all intents and purposes a + murderess, a double murderess," cried Mrs. Morrison. "Not only has she + the woman's murder to answer for, but the ruined soul of the murderer + as well." +</p> +<p> + Upon which there was a loud shout of "Hence! Hence!" and a great + slamming of the street door. +</p> +<p> + For some time after this Priscilla heard fevered walking about in her + parlour and sounds as of many and muffled imprecations; then, when + they had grown a little more intermittent, careful footsteps came up + her stairs, footsteps so careful, so determined not to disturb, that + the stairs cracked and wheezed more than they had ever yet been known + to do. Arrived at the top they paused outside her door, and Priscilla, + checking her sobs, could hear how Fritzing stood there wrestling with + his body's determination to breathe too loud. He stood there listening + for what seemed to her an eternity. She almost screamed at last as the + minutes passed and she knew he was still there, motionless, listening. + After a long while he went away again with the same anxious care to + make no noise, and she, with a movement of utter abandonment to woe, + turned over and cried herself sick. +</p> +<p> + Till evening she lay there alone, and then the steps came up again, + accompanied this time by the tinkle of china and spoons. Priscilla was + sitting at the window looking on to the churchyard, staring into the + dark with its swaying branches and few faint stars, and when she heard + him outside the door listening again in anxious silence she got up and + opened it. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing held a plate of food in one hand and a glass of milk in the + other. The expression on his face was absurdly like that of a mother + yearning over a sick child. "<i>Mein liebes Kind</i>—<i>mein liebes Kind</i>," + he stammered when she came out, so woebegone, so crushed, so utterly + unlike any Priscilla of any one of her moods that he had ever seen + before. Her eyes were red, her eyelids heavy with tears, her face was + pinched and narrower, the corners of her mouth had a most piteous + droop, her very hair, pushed back off her forehead, seemed sad, and + hung in spiritless masses about her neck and ears. "<i>Mein liebes + Kind</i>," stammered poor Fritzing; and his hand shook so that he upset + some of the milk. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla leaned against the door-post. She was feeling sick and + giddy. "How dreadful this is," she murmured, looking at him with + weary, woeful eyes. +</p> +<p> + "No, no—all will be well," said Fritzing, striving to be brisk. + "Drink some milk, ma'am." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I have been wicked." +</p> +<p> + "Wicked?" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing hastily put the plate and glass down on the floor, and + catching up the hand hanging limply by her side passionately kissed + it. "You are the noblest woman on earth," he said. +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla, turning away her head and shutting her eyes for + very weariness of such futile phrases. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, you are. I would swear it. But you are also a child, and so + you are ready at the first reverse to suppose you have done with + happiness for ever. Who knows," said Fritzing with a great show of + bright belief in his own prophecy, the while his heart was a stone, + "who knows but what you are now on the very threshold of it?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," murmured Priscilla, too beaten to do anything but droop her + head. +</p> +<p> + "It is insisting on the commonplace to remind you, ma'am, that the + darkest hour comes before dawn. Yet it is a well-known natural + phenomenon." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla leaned her head against the door-post. She stood there + motionless, her hands hanging by her side, her eyes shut, her mouth + slightly open, the very picture of one who has given up. +</p> +<p> + "Drink some milk, ma'am. At least endeavour to." +</p> +<p> + She took no heed of him. +</p> +<p> + "For God's sake, ma'am, do not approach these slight misadventures in + so tragic a spirit. You have done nothing wrong whatever. I know you + accuse yourself. It is madness to do so. I, who have so often scolded + you, who have never spared the lash of my tongue when in past years I + saw fair reason to apply it, I tell you now with the same reliable + candour that your actions in this village and the motives that + prompted them have been in each single case of a stainless nobility." +</p> +<p> + She took no heed of him. +</p> +<p> + He stooped down and picked up the glass. "Drink some milk, ma'am. A + few mouthfuls, perhaps even one, will help to clear the muddied vision + of your mind. I cannot understand," he went on, half despairing, half + exasperated, "what reasons you can possibly have for refusing to drink + some milk. It is a feat most easily accomplished." +</p> +<p> + She did not move. +</p> +<p> + "Do you perchance imagine that a starved and badly treated body can + ever harbour that most precious gift of the gods, a clear, sane mind?" +</p> +<p> + She did not move. +</p> +<p> + He looked at her in silence for a moment, then put down the glass. + "This is all my fault," he said slowly. "The whole responsibility for + this unhappiness is on my shoulders, and I frankly confess it is a + burden so grievous that I know not how to bear it." +</p> +<p> + He paused, but she took no notice. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I have loved you." +</p> +<p> + She took no notice. +</p> +<p> + "And the property of love, I have observed, is often to mangle and + kill the soul of its object." +</p> +<p> + She might have been asleep. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I have brought you to a sorry pass. I was old, and you were + young. I experienced, you ignorant. I deliberate, you impulsive. I a + man, you a woman. Instead of restraining you, guiding you, shielding + you from yourself, I was most vile, and fired you with desires for + freedom that under the peculiar circumstances were wicked, set a ball + rolling that I might have foreseen could never afterwards be stopped, + put thoughts into your head that never without me would have entered + it, embarked you on an enterprise in which the happiness of your whole + life was doomed to shipwreck." +</p> +<p> + She stirred a little, and sighed a faint protest. +</p> +<p> + "This is very terrible to me—of a crushing, killing weight. Let it + not also have to be said that I mangled your very soul, dimmed your + reason, impaired the sweet sanity, the nice adjustment of what I know + was once a fair and balanced mind." +</p> +<p> + She raised her head slowly and looked at him. "What?" she said. "Do + you think—do you think I'm going mad?" +</p> +<p> + "I think it very likely, ma'am," said Fritzing with conviction. +</p> +<p> + A startled expression crept into her eyes. +</p> +<p> + "So much morbid introspection," he went on, "followed by hours of + weeping and fasting, if indulged in long enough will certainly have + that result. A person who fasts a sufficient length of time invariably + parts piecemeal with valuable portions of his wits." +</p> +<p> + She stretched out her hand. +</p> +<p> + He mistook the action and bent down and kissed it. +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, "I want the milk." +</p> +<p> + He snatched it up and gave it to her, watching her drink with all the + relief, the thankfulness of a mother whose child's sickness takes a + turn for the better. When she had finished she gave him back the + glass. "Fritzi," she said, looking at him with eyes wide open now and + dark with anxious questioning, "we won't reproach ourselves then if we + can help it—" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly not, ma'am—a most futile thing to do." +</p> +<p> + "I'll try to believe what you say about me, if you promise to believe + what I say about you." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I'll believe anything if only you will be reasonable." +</p> +<p> + "You've been everything to me—that's what I want to say. Always, ever + since I can remember." +</p> +<p> + "And you, ma'am? What have you not been to me?" +</p> +<p> + "And there's nothing, nothing you can blame yourself for." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am—" +</p> +<p> + "You've been too good, too unselfish, and I've dragged you down." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am—" +</p> +<p> + "Well, we won't begin again. But tell me one thing—and tell me the + truth—oh Fritzi tell me the truth as you value your soul—do you + anywhere see the least light on our future? Do you anywhere see even a + bit, a smallest bit of hope?" +</p> +<p> + He took her hand again and kissed it; then lifted his head and looked + at her very solemnly. "No, ma'am," he said with the decision of an + unshakable conviction, "upon my immortal soul I do not see a shred." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXII +</h2> +<p> + Let the reader now picture Priscilla coming downstairs the next + morning, a golden Sunday morning full of Sabbath calm, and a Priscilla + leaden-eyed and leaden-souled, her shabby garments worn out to a + symbol of her worn out zeals, her face the face of one who has + forgotten peace, her eyes the eyes of one at strife with the future, + of one for ever asking "What next?" and shrinking with a shuddering + "Oh please not that," from the bald reply. +</p> +<p> + Out of doors Nature wore her mildest, most beneficent aspect. She very + evidently cared nothing for the squalid tragedies of human fate. Her + hills were bathed in gentle light. Her sunshine lay warm along the + cottage fronts. In the gardens her hopeful bees, cheated into thoughts + of summer, droned round the pale mauves and purples of what was left + of starworts. The grass in the churchyard sparkled with the fairy film + of gossamers. Sparrows chirped. Robins whistled. And humanity gave the + last touch to the picture by ringing the church bells melodiously to + prayer. +</p> +<p> + Without doubt it was a day of blessing, supposing any one could be + found willing to be blest. Let the reader, then, imagine this outward + serenity, this divine calmness, this fair and light-flooded world, + and within the musty walls of Creeper Cottage Priscilla coming down to + breakfast, despair in her eyes and heart. +</p> +<p> + They breakfasted late; so late that it was done to the accompaniment, + strangely purified and beautified by the intervening church walls and + graveyard, of Mrs. Morrison's organ playing and the chanting of the + village choir. Their door stood wide open, for the street was empty. + Everybody was in church. The service was, as Mrs. Morrison afterwards + remarked, unusually well attended. The voluntaries she played that day + were Dead Marches, and the vicar preached a conscience-shattering + sermon upon the text "Lord, who is it?" +</p> +<p> + He thought that Mrs. Jones's murderer must be one of his parishioners. + It was a painful thought, but it had to be faced. He had lived so long + shut out from gossip, so deaf to the ever-clicking tongue of rumour, + that he had forgotten how far even small scraps can travel, and that + the news of Mrs. Jones's bolster being a hiding-place for her money + should have spread beyond the village never occurred to him. He was + moved on this occasion as much as a man who has long ago given up + being moved can be, for he had had a really dreadful two days with + Mrs. Morrison, dating from the moment she came in with the news of the + boxing of their only son's ears. He had, as the reader will have + gathered, nothing of it having been recorded, refused to visit and + reprimand Priscilla for this. He had found excuses for her. He had + sided with her against his son. He had been as wholly, maddeningly + obstinate as the extremely good sometimes are. Then came Mrs. Jones's + murder. He was greatly shaken, but still refused to call upon + Priscilla in connection with it, and pooh-poohed the notion of her + being responsible for the crime as definitely as an aged saint of + habitually grave speech can be expected to pooh-pooh at all. He said + she was not responsible. He said, when his wife with all the emphasis + apparently inseparable from the conversation of those who feel + strongly, told him that he owed it to himself, to his parish, to his + country, to go and accuse her, that he owed no man anything but to + love one another. There was nothing to be done with the vicar. Still + these scenes had not left him scathless, and it was a vicar moved to + the utmost limits of his capacity in that direction who went into the + pulpit that day repeating the question "Who is it?" so insistently, so + appealingly, with such searching glances along the rows of faces in + the pews, that the congregation, shuffling and uncomfortable, looked + furtively at each other with an ever growing suspicion and dislike. + The vicar as he went on waxing warmer, more insistent, observed at + least a dozen persons with guilt on every feature. It darted out like + a toad from the hiding-place of some private ooze at the bottom of + each soul into one face after the other; and there was a certain youth + who grew so visibly in guilt, who had so many beads of an obviously + guilty perspiration on his forehead, and eyes so guiltily starting + from their sockets, that only by a violent effort of self-control + could the vicar stop himself from pointing at him and shouting out + then and there "Thou art the man!" +</p> +<p> + Meanwhile the real murderer had hired a waggonette and was taking his + wife for a pleasant country drive. +</p> +<p> + It was to pacify Fritzing that Priscilla came down to breakfast. Left + to herself she would by preference never have breakfasted again. She + even drank more milk to please him; but though it might please him, no + amount of milk could wash out the utter blackness of her spirit. He, + seeing her droop behind the jug, seeing her gazing drearily at nothing + in particular, jumped up and took a book from the shelves and without + more ado began to read aloud. "It is better, ma'am," he explained + briefly, glancing at her over his spectacles, "than that you should + give yourself over to gloom." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla turned vague eyes on to him. "How can I help gloom?" she + asked. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes, that may be. But nobody should be gloomy at breakfast. The + entire day is very apt, in consequence, to be curdled." +</p> +<p> + "It will be curdled anyhow," said Priscilla, her head sinking on to + her chest. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, listen to this." +</p> +<p> + And with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, from which he took + occasional hurried bites, and the other raised in appropriate varying + gesticulation, Fritzing read portions of the Persae of Æschylus to + her, first in Greek for the joy of his own ear and then translating it + into English for the edification of hers. He, at least, was off after + the first line, sailing golden seas remote and glorious, places where + words were lovely and deeds heroic, places most beautiful and brave, + most admirably, most restfully unlike Creeper Cottage. He rolled out + the sentences, turning them on his tongue, savouring them, reluctant + to let them go. She sat looking at him, wondering how he could + possibly even for an instant forget the actual and the present. +</p> +<p> + "'Xerxes went forth, Xerxes perished, Xerxes mismanaged all things in + the depths of the sea—'" declaimed Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "He must have been like us," murmured Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "'O for Darius the scatheless, the protector! No woman ever mourned + for deed of his—'" +</p> +<p> + "What a nice man," sighed Priscilla. "'O for Darius!'" +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, if you interrupt how can I read? And it is a most beautiful + passage." +</p> +<p> + "But we do want a Darius badly," moaned Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "'The ships went forth, the grey-faced ships, like to each other as + bird is to bird, the ships and all they carried perished, the ships + perished by the hand of the Greeks. The king, 'tis said, escapes, but + hardly, by the plains of Thrace and the toilsome ways, and behind him + he leaves his first-fruits—sailors unburied on the shores of Salamis. + Then grieve, sting yourselves to grief, make heaven echo, howl like + dogs for the horror, for they are battered together by the terrible + waters, they are shredded to pieces by the voiceless children of the + Pure. The house has no master—'" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, I wish you'd leave off," implored Priscilla. "It's quite as + gloomy as anything I was thinking." +</p> +<p> + "But ma'am the difference is that it is also beautiful, whereas the + gloom at present enveloping us is mere squalor. 'The voiceless + children of the Pure—' how is that, ma'am, for beauty?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't even know what it means," sighed Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, it is an extremely beautiful manner of alluding to fish." +</p> +<p> + "I don't care," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, is it possible that the blight of passing and outward + circumstance has penetrated to and settled upon what should always be + of a sublime inaccessibility, your soul?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't care about the fish," repeated Priscilla listlessly. Then + with a sudden movement she pushed back her chair and jumped up. "Oh," + she cried, beating her hands together, "don't talk to me of fish when + I can't see an inch—oh not a single inch into the future!" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing looked at her, his finger on the page. Half of him was still + at the bottom of classic seas with the battered and shredded sailors. + How much rather would he have stayed there, have gone on reading + Æschylus a little, have taken her with him for a brief space of + serenity into that moist refuge from the harassed present, have + forgotten at least for one morning the necessity, the dreariness of + being forced to face things, to talk over, to decide. Besides, what + could he decide? The unhappy man had no idea. Nor had Priscilla. To + stay in Symford seemed impossible, but to leave it seemed still more + so. And sooner than go back disgraced to Kunitz and fling herself at + paternal feet which would in all probability immediately spurn her, + Priscilla felt she would die. But how could she stay in Symford, + surrounded by angry neighbours, next door to Tussie, with Robin coming + back for vacations, with Mrs. Morrison hating her, with Lady + Shuttleworth hating her, with Emma's father hating her, with the blood + of Mrs. Jones on her head? Could one live peacefully in such an + accursed place? Yet how could they go away? Even if they were able to + compose their nerves sufficiently to make new plans they could not go + because they were in debt. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi," cried Priscilla with more passion than she had ever put into + speech before, "life's too much for me—I tell you life's too much for + me!" And with a gesture of her arms as though she would sweep it all + back, keep it from surging over her, from choking her, she ran out + into the street to get into her own room and be alone, pulling the + door to behind her for fear he should follow and want to explain and + comfort, leaving him with his Æschylus in which, happening to glance + sighing, he, enviable man, at once became again absorbed, and running + blindly, headlong, as he runs who is surrounded and accompanied by a + swarm of deadly insects which he vainly tries to out-distance, she ran + straight into somebody coming from the opposite direction, ran full + tilt, was almost knocked off her feet, and looking up with the + impatient anguish of him who is asked to endure his last straw her + lips fell apart in an utter and boundless amazement; for the person + she had run against was that Prince—the last of the series, + distinguished from the rest by his having quenched the Grand Duke's + irrelevant effervescence by the simple expedient of saying Bosh—who + had so earnestly desired to marry her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXIII +</h2> +<p> + "Hullo," said the Prince, who spoke admirable English. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla could only stare. +</p> +<p> + His instinct was to repeat the exclamation which he felt represented + his feelings very exactly, for her appearance—clothes, expression, + everything—astonished him, but he doubted whether it would well bear + repeating. "Is this where you are staying?" he inquired instead. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "May I come in?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + He followed her into her parlour. He looked at her critically as she + walked slowly before him, from head to foot he looked at her + critically; at every inch of the shabby serge gown, at the little head + with its badly arranged hair, at the little heel that caught in an + unmended bit of braid, at the little shoe with its bow of frayed + ribbon, and he smiled broadly behind his moustache. But when she + turned round he was perfectly solemn. +</p> +<p> + "I suppose," said the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets and + gazing about the room with an appearance of cheerful interest, "this + is what one calls a snug little place." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla stood silent. She felt as though she had been shaken + abruptly out of sleep. Her face even now after the soul-rending time + she had been having, in spite of the shadows beneath the eyes, the + droop at the corners of the mouth, in spite, too, it must be said of + the flagrantly cottage fashion in which Annalise had done her hair, + seemed to the Prince so extremely beautiful, so absolutely the face of + his dearest, best desires, so limpid, apart from all grace of + colouring and happy circumstance of feature, with the light of a sweet + and noble nature, so manifestly the outward expression of an + indwelling lovely soul, that his eyes, after one glance round the + room, fixed themselves upon it and never were able to leave it again. +</p> +<p> + For a minute or two she stood silent, trying to collect her thoughts, + trying to shake off the feeling that she was being called back to life + out of a dream. It had not been a dream, she kept telling herself—bad + though it was it had not been a dream but the reality; and this man + dropped suddenly in to the middle of it from another world, he was the + dream, part of the dream she had rebelled against and run away from a + fortnight before. +</p> +<p> + Then she looked at him, and she knew she was putting off her soul with + nonsense. Never was anybody less like a dream than the Prince; never + was anybody more squarely, more certainly real. And he was of her own + kind, of her own world. He and she were equals. They could talk + together plainly, baldly, a talk ungarnished and unretarded by + deferences on the one side and on the other a kindness apt to become + excessive in its anxiety not to appear to condescend. The feeling that + once more after what seemed an eternity she was with an equal was of a + singular refreshment. During those few moments in which they stood + silent, facing each other, in spite of her efforts to keep it out, in + spite of really conscientious efforts, a great calm came in and spread + over her spirit. Yet she had no reason to feel calm she thought, + struggling. Was there not rather cause for an infinity of shame? What + had he come for? He of all people. The scandalously jilted, the + affronted, the run away from. Was it because she had been looking so + long at Fritzing that this man seemed so nicely groomed? Or at Tussie, + that he seemed so well put together? Or at Robin, that he seemed so + modest? Was it because people's eyes—Mrs. Morrison's, Lady + Shuttleworth's—had been so angry lately whenever they rested on her + that his seemed so very kind? No; she did remember thinking them that, + even being struck by them, when she saw him first in Kunitz. A dull + red crept into her face when she remembered that day and what + followed. "It isn't very snug," she said at last, trying to hide by a + careful coldness of speech all the strange things she was feeling. + "When it rains there are puddles by the door. The door, you see, opens + into the street." +</p> +<p> + "I see," said the Prince. +</p> +<p> + There was a silence. +</p> +<p> + "I don't suppose you really do," said Priscilla, full of strange + feelings. +</p> +<p> + "My dear cousin?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know if you've come to laugh at me?" +</p> +<p> + "Do I look as if I had?" +</p> +<p> + "I dare say you think—because you've not been through it + yourself—that it—it's rather ridiculous." +</p> +<p> + "My dear cousin," protested the Prince. +</p> +<p> + Her lips quivered. She had gone through much, and she had lived for + two days only on milk. +</p> +<p> + "Do you wipe the puddles up, or does old Fritzing?" +</p> +<p> + "You see you <i>have</i> come to laugh." +</p> +<p> + "I hope you'll believe that I've not. Must I be gloomy?" +</p> +<p> + "How do you know Fritzing's here?" +</p> +<p> + "Why everybody knows that." +</p> +<p> + "Everybody?" There was an astonished pause. "How do you know we're + here—here, in Creeper Cottage?" +</p> +<p> + "Creeper Cottage is it? I didn't know it had a name. Do you have so + many earwigs?" +</p> +<p> + "How did you know we were in Symford?" +</p> +<p> + "Why everybody knows that." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was silent. Again she felt she was being awakened from a + dream. +</p> +<p> + "I've met quite a lot of interesting people since I saw you last," he + said. "At least, they interested me because they all knew you." +</p> +<p> + "Knew me?" +</p> +<p> + "Knew you and that old scound—the excellent Fritzing. There's an + extremely pleasant policeman, for instance, in Kunitz—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla, starting and turning red. She could not think of + that policeman without crisping her fingers. +</p> +<p> + "He and I are intimate friends. And there's a most intelligent + person—really a most helpful, obliging person—who came with you from + Dover to Ullerton." +</p> +<p> + "With us?" +</p> +<p> + "I found the conversation, too, of the ostler at the Ullerton Arms of + immense interest." +</p> +<p> + "But what—" +</p> +<p> + "And last night I slept at Baker's Farm, and spent a very pleasant + evening with Mrs. Pearce." +</p> +<p> + "But why—" +</p> +<p> + "She's an instructive woman. Her weakest point, I should say, is her + junkets." +</p> +<p> + "I wonder why you bother to talk like this—to be sarcastic." +</p> +<p> + "About the junkets? Didn't you think they were bad?" +</p> +<p> + "Do you suppose it's worth while to—to kick somebody who's down? And + so low down? So completely got to the bottom?" +</p> +<p> + "Kick? On my soul I assure you that the very last thing I want to do + is to kick you." +</p> +<p> + "Then why do you do it?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't do it. Do you know what I've come for?" +</p> +<p> + "Is my father round the corner?" +</p> +<p> + "Nobody's round the corner. I've muzzled your father. I've come quite + by myself. And do you know why?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, shortly, defiantly; adding before he could + speak, "I can't imagine." And adding to that, again before he could + speak, "Unless it's for the fun of hunting down a defenceless quarry." +</p> +<p> + "I say, that's rather picturesque," said the Prince with every + appearance of being struck. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla blushed. In spite of herself every word they said to each + other made her feel more natural, farther away from self-torment and + sordid fears, nearer to that healthy state of mind, swamped out of her + lately, when petulance comes more easily than meekness. The mere + presence of the Prince seemed to set things right, to raise her again + in her own esteem. There was undoubtedly something wholesome about the + man, something everyday and reassuring, something dependable and sane. + The first smile for I don't know how long came and cheered the corners + of her mouth. "I'm afraid I've grown magniloquent since—since—" +</p> +<p> + "Since you ran away?" +</p> +<p> + She nodded. "Fritzing, you know, is most persistently picturesque. I + think it's catching. But he's wonderful," she added quickly,—"most + wonderful in patience and goodness." +</p> +<p> + "Oh everybody knows he's wonderful. Where is the great man?" +</p> +<p> + "In the next room. Do you want him?" +</p> +<p> + "Good Lord, no. You've not told me what you suppose I've come for." +</p> +<p> + "I did. I told you I couldn't imagine." +</p> +<p> + "It's for a most saintly, really nice reason. Guess." +</p> +<p> + "I can't guess." +</p> +<p> + "Oh but try." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla to her extreme disgust felt herself turning very red. "I + suppose to spy out the nakedness of the land," she said severely. +</p> +<p> + "Now you're picturesque again. You must have been reading a tremendous + lot lately. Of course you would, with that learned old fossil about. + No my dear, I've come simply to see if you are happy." +</p> +<p> + She looked at him, and her flush slowly died away. +</p> +<p> + "Simply to convince myself that you are happy." +</p> +<p> + Her eyes filling with tears she thought it more expedient to fix them + on the table-cloth. She did fix them on it, and the golden fringe of + eyelashes that he very rightly thought so beautiful lay in long dusky + curves on her serious face. "It's extraordinarily nice of you if—if + it's true," she said. +</p> +<p> + "But it is true. And if you are, if you tell me you are and I'm able + to believe it, I bow myself out, dear cousin, and shall devote any + energies I have left after doing that to going on muzzling your + father. He shall not, I promise you, in any way disturb you. Haven't + I kept him well in hand up to this?" +</p> +<p> + She raised her eyes to his. "Was it you keeping him so quiet?" +</p> +<p> + "It was, my dear. He was very restive. You've no notion of all the + things he wanted to do. It wanted a pretty strong hand, and a light + one too, I can tell you. But I was determined you should have your + head. That woman Disthal—" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla started. +</p> +<p> + "You don't like her?" inquired the Prince sympathetically. +</p> +<p> + "No." +</p> +<p> + "I was afraid you couldn't. But I didn't know how to manage that part. + She's in London." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla started again. "I thought—I thought she was in bed," she + said. +</p> +<p> + "She was, but she got out again. Your—departure cured her." +</p> +<p> + "Didn't you tell me nobody was round the corner?" +</p> +<p> + "Well, you don't call London round the corner? I wouldn't let her come + any nearer to you. She's waiting there quite quietly." +</p> +<p> + "What is she waiting for?" asked Priscilla quickly. +</p> +<p> + "Come now, she's your lady in waiting you know. It seems natural + enough she should wait, don't it?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, knitting her eyebrows. +</p> +<p> + "Don't frown. She had to come too. She's brought some of your women + and a whole lot"—he glanced at the blue serge suit and put his hand + up to his moustache—"a whole lot of clothes." +</p> +<p> + "Clothes?" A wave of colour flooded her face. She could not help it at + the moment any more than a starving man can help looking eager when + food is set before him. "Oh," she said, "I hope they're the ones I was + expecting from Paris?" +</p> +<p> + "I should think it very likely. There seem to be a great many. I never + saw so many boxes for one little cousin." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla made a sudden movement with her hands. "You can't think," + she said, "how tired I am of this dress." +</p> +<p> + "Yes I can," the Prince assured her. +</p> +<p> + "I've worn it every day." +</p> +<p> + "You must have." +</p> +<p> + "Every single day since the day I—I—" +</p> +<p> + "The day you ran away from me." +</p> +<p> + She blushed. "I didn't run away from you. At least, not exactly. You + were only the last straw." +</p> +<p> + "A nice thing for a man to be." +</p> +<p> + "I ran because—because—oh, it's a long story, and I'm afraid a very + foolish one." +</p> +<p> + A gleam came into the Prince's eyes. He took a step nearer her, but + immediately thinking better of it took it back again. "Perhaps," he + said pleasantly, "only the beginning was foolish, and you'll settle + down after a bit and get quite fond of Creeper Cottage." +</p> +<p> + She looked at him startled. +</p> +<p> + "You see my dear it was rather tremendous what you did. You must have + been most fearfully sick of things at Kunitz. I can well understand + it. You couldn't be expected to like me all at once. And if I had to + have that Disthal woman at my heels wherever I went I'd shoot myself. + What you've done is much braver really than shooting one's self. But + the question is do you like it as much as you thought you would?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gave him a swift look, and said nothing. +</p> +<p> + "If you don't, there's the Disthal waiting for you with all those + charming frocks, and all you've got to do is to put them on and go + home." +</p> +<p> + "But I can't go home. How can I? I am disgraced. My father would never + let me in." +</p> +<p> + "Oh I'd arrange all that. I don't think you'd find him angry if you + followed my advice very carefully. On the other hand, if you like + this and want to stay on there's nothing more to be said. I'll say + good-bye, and promise you shall be left in peace. You shall be left to + be happy entirely in your own way." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was silent. +</p> +<p> + "You don't—look happy," he said, scrutinizing her face. +</p> +<p> + She was silent. +</p> +<p> + "You've got very thin. How did you manage that in such a little + while?" +</p> +<p> + "We've muddled things rather," she said with an ashamed sort of smile. + "On the days when I was hungry there wasn't anything to eat, and then + when there were things I wasn't hungry." +</p> +<p> + The Prince looked puzzled. "Didn't that old scamp—I mean didn't the + excellent Fritzing bring enough money?" +</p> +<p> + "He thought he did, but it wasn't enough." +</p> +<p> + "Is it all gone?" +</p> +<p> + "We're in debt." +</p> +<p> + Again he put his hand up to his moustache. "Well I'll see to all that, + of course," he said gravely. "And when that has been set right you're + sure you'll like staying on here?" +</p> +<p> + She summoned all her courage, and looked at him for an instant + straight in the face. "No," she said. +</p> +<p> + "No?" +</p> +<p> + "No." +</p> +<p> + There was another silence. He was standing on the hearthrug, she on + the other side of the table; but the room was so small that by putting + out his hand he could have touched her. A queer expression was in his + eyes as he looked at her, an expression entirely at variance with his + calm and good-natured talk, the exceedingly anxious expression of a + man who knows his whole happiness is quivering in the balance. She did + not see it, for she preferred to look at the table-cloth. +</p> +<p> + "Dreadful things have happened here," she said in a low voice. +</p> +<p> + "What sort?" +</p> +<p> + "Horrid sorts. Appalling sorts." +</p> +<p> + "Tell me." +</p> +<p> + "I couldn't bear to." +</p> +<p> + "But I think I know." +</p> +<p> + She looked at him astonished. +</p> +<p> + "Mrs. Pearce—" +</p> +<p> + "She told you?" +</p> +<p> + "What she knew she told me. Perhaps there's something she doesn't + know." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla remembered Robin, and blushed. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, she told me about that," said the Prince nodding. +</p> +<p> + "About what?" asked Priscilla, startled. +</p> +<p> + "About the squire intending to marry you." +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "It seems hard on him, don't it? Has it struck you that such things + are likely to occur pretty often to Miss Maria-Theresa Ethel + Neumann-Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you really have come only to laugh," said Priscilla, her + lips quivering. +</p> +<p> + "I swear it's only to see if you are happy." +</p> +<p> + "Well, see then." And throwing back her head with a great defiance she + looked at him while her eyes filled with tears; and though they + presently brimmed over, and began to drop down pitifully one by one, + she would not flinch but went on looking. +</p> +<p> + "I see," said the Prince quietly. "And I'm convinced. Of course, then, + I shall suggest your leaving this." +</p> +<p> + "I want to." +</p> +<p> + "And putting yourself in the care of the Disthal." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla winced. +</p> +<p> + "Only her temporary care. Quite temporary. And letting her take you + back to Kunitz." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla winced again. +</p> +<p> + "Only temporarily," said the Prince. +</p> +<p> + "But my father would never—" +</p> +<p> + "Yes my dear, he will. He'll be delighted to see you. He'll rejoice." +</p> +<p> + "Rejoice?" +</p> +<p> + "I assure you he will. You've only got to do what I tell you." +</p> +<p> + "Shall you—come too?" +</p> +<p> + "If you'll let me." +</p> +<p> + "But then—but then—" +</p> +<p> + "Then what, my dear?" +</p> +<p> + She looked at him, and her face changed slowly from white to red and + red to white again. Fritzing's words crossed her mind—"If you marry + him you will be undoubtedly eternally lost," and her very soul cried + out that they were folly. Why should she be eternally lost? What + cobwebs were these, cobwebs of an old brain preoccupied with shadows, + dusty things to be swept away at the first touch of Nature's vigorous + broom? Indeed she thought it far more likely that she would be + eternally found. But she was ashamed of herself, ashamed of all she + had done, ashamed of the disgraceful way she had treated this man, + terribly disillusioned, terribly out of conceit with herself, and she + stood there changing colour, hanging her head, humbled, penitent, + every shred of the dignity she had been trained to gone, simply + somebody who has been very silly and is very sorry. +</p> +<p> + The Prince put out his hand. +</p> +<p> + She pretended not to see it. +</p> +<p> + The Prince came round the table. "You know," he said, "our engagement + hasn't been broken off yet?" +</p> +<p> + Her instinct was to edge away, but she would not stoop to edging. "Was + it ever made?" she asked, not able to induce her voice to rise above a + whisper. +</p> +<p> + "Practically." +</p> +<p> + There was another silence. +</p> +<p> + "Why, then—" began Priscilla, for the silence had come to be more + throbbing, more intolerably expressive than any speech. +</p> +<p> + "Yes?" encouraged the Prince, coming very close. +</p> +<p> + She turned her head slowly. "Why, then—" said Priscilla again, her + face breaking into a smile, half touched, half mischievous, wholly + adorable. +</p> +<p> + "I think so too," said the Prince; and he shut her mouth with a kiss. +</p> +<hr class="short"> +<p> + "And now," said the Prince some time afterwards, "let us go to that + old sinner Fritzing." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla hung back, reluctant to deal this final blow to the heart + that had endured so many. "He'll be terribly shocked," she said. +</p> +<p> + But the Prince declared it had to be done; and hand in hand they went + out into the street, and opening Fritzing's door stood before him. +</p> +<p> + He was still absorbed in his Æschylus, had been sitting absorbed in + the deeds of the dead and departed, of the long dead Xerxes, the long + dead Darius, the very fish, voiceless but voracious, long since as + dead as the most shredded of the sailors,—he had been sitting + absorbed in these various corpses all the while that in the next room, + on the other side of a few inches of plaster and paper, so close you + would have thought his heart must have burned within him, so close you + would have thought he must be scorched, the living present had been + pulsing and glowing, beating against the bright bars of the future, + stirring up into alertness a whole row of little red-headed souls till + then asleep, souls with golden eyelashes, souls eager to come and be + princes and princesses of—I had almost revealed the mighty nation's + name. A shadow fell across his book, and looking up he saw the two + standing before him hand in hand. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla caught her breath: what white anguish was going to flash + into his face when he grasped the situation? Judge then of her + amazement, her hesitation whether to be pleased or vexed, to laugh or + cry, when, grasping it, he leaped to his feet and in tones of a most + limitless, a most unutterable relief, shouted three times running + "<i>Gott sei Dank</i>!" +</p> +<a name="2H_CONC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CONCLUSION +</h2> +<p> + So that was the end of Priscilla's fortnight,—according to the way + you look at it glorious or inglorious. I shall not say which I think + it was; whether it is better to marry a prince, become in course of + time a queen, be at the head of a great nation, be surfeited with + honour, wealth, power and magnificence till the day when Death with + calm, indifferent fingers strips everything away and leaves you at + last to the meek simplicity of a shroud; or whether toilsome paths, + stern resistances, buffetings bravely taken, battles fought inch by + inch, an ideal desperately clung to even though in clinging you are + slain, is not rather the part to be chosen of him whose soul would sit + attired with stars. Anyhow the goddess laughed, the goddess who had + left Priscilla in the lurch, when she heard the end of the adventure; + and her unpleasant sister, having nothing more to do in Creeper + Cottage, gathered up her rags and grinned too as she left it. At least + her claws had lacerated much over-tender flesh during her stay; and + though the Prince had interrupted the operation and forced her for the + moment to inactivity, she was not dissatisfied with what had been + accomplished. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla, it will readily be imagined, made no farewell calls. She + disappeared from Symford as suddenly as she had appeared; and Mrs. + Morrison, coming into Creeper Cottage on Monday afternoon to unload + her conscience yet more, found only a pleasant gentleman, a stranger + of mellifluous manners, writing out cheques. She had ten minutes talk + with him, and went home very sad and wise. Indeed from that day, her + spirit being the spirit of the true snob, the hectorer of the humble, + the devout groveller in the courtyards of the great, she was a + much-changed woman. Even her hair felt it, and settled down unchecked + to greyness. She no longer cared to put on a pink tulle bow in the + afternoons, which may or may not be a sign of grace. She ceased to + suppose that she was pretty. When the accounts of Priscilla's wedding + filled all the papers she became so ill that she had to go to bed and + be nursed. Sometimes to the vicar's mild surprise she hesitated before + expressing an opinion. Once at least she of her own accord said + she had been wrong. And although she never told any one of the + conversation with the gentleman writing cheques, when Robin came home + for Christmas and looked at her he knew at once what she knew. +</p> +<p> + As for Lady Shuttleworth, she got a letter from Priscilla; quite a + long one, enclosing a little one for Tussie to be given him if and + when his mother thought expedient. Lady Shuttleworth was not surprised + by what she read. She had suspected it from the moment Priscilla rose + up the day she called on her at Baker's Farm and dismissed her. Till + her marriage with the late Sir Augustus she had been lady-in-waiting + to one of the English princesses, and she could not be mistaken on + such points. She knew the sort of thing too well. But she never + forgave Priscilla. How could she? Was the day of Tussie's coming of + age, that dreadful day when he was nearest death, a day a mother could + ever forget? It had all been most wanton, most cruel. We know she was + full of the milk of human kindness: on the subject of Priscilla it was + unmixed gall. +</p> +<p> + As for Tussie,—well, you cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs, + and Tussie on this occasion was the eggs. It is a painful part to + play. He found it exquisitely painful, and vainly sought comfort in + the consolation that it had been Priscilla's omelette. The consolation + proved empty, and for a long while he suffered every sort of torment + known to the sensitive. But he got over it. People do. They will get + over anything if you give them time, and he being young had plenty of + it. He lived it down as one lives down every sorrow and every joy; and + when in the fulness of time, after a series of years in which he went + about listlessly in a soft felt hat and an unsatisfactory collar, he + married, it was to Priscilla's capital that he went for his honeymoon. + She, hearing he was there, sent for them both and was kind. +</p> +<p> + As for Annalise, she never got her twenty thousand marks. On the + contrary, the vindictive Grand Duke caused her to be prosecuted for + blackmailing, and she would undoubtedly have languished in prison if + Priscilla had not interfered and sent her back to her parents. Like + Mrs. Morrison, she is chastened. She does not turn up her nose so + much. She does not sing. Indeed her songs ceased from the moment she + caught sight through a crack in the kitchen door of the Prince's broad + shoulders filling up Fritzing's sitting-room. From that moment + Annalise swooned from one depth of respect and awe to the other. She + became breathlessly willing, meek to vanishing point. But Priscilla + could not forget all she had made her suffer; and the Prince, who had + thought of everything, suddenly producing her head woman from some + recess in Baker's Farm, where she too had spent the night, Annalise + was superseded, her further bitter fate being to be left behind + at Creeper Cottage in the charge of the gentleman with the + cheque-book—who as it chanced was a faddist in food and would allow + nothing more comforting than dried fruits and nuts to darken the + doors—till he should have leisure to pack her up and send her home. +</p> +<p> + As for Emma, she was hunted out by that detective who travelled down + into Somersetshire with the fugitives and who had already been so + useful to the Prince; and Priscilla, desperately anxious to make + amends wherever she could, took her into her own household, watching + over her herself, seeing to it that no word of what she had done was + ever blown about among the crowd of idle tongues, and she ended, I + believe, by marrying a lacquey,—one of those splendid persons with + white silk calves who were so precious in the sight of Annalise. + Indeed I am not sure that it was not the very lacquey Annalise had + loved most and had intended to marry herself. In this story at least, + the claims of poetic justice shall be strictly attended to; and + Annalise had sniffed outrageously at Emma. +</p> +<p> + As for the Countess Disthal, she married the doctor and was sorry ever + afterwards; but her sorrow was as nothing compared with his. +</p> +<p> + As for Fritzing, he is <i>Hofbibliothekar</i> of the Prince's father's + court library; a court more brilliant than and a library vastly + inferior to the one he had fled from at Kunitz. He keeps much in his + rooms, and communes almost exclusively with the dead. He finds the + dead alone truly satisfactory. Priscilla loves him still and will + always love him, but she is very busy and has little time to think. + She does not let him give her children lessons; instead he plays with + them, and grows old and patient apace. +</p> +<p> + And now having finished my story, there is nothing left for me to + do but stand aside and watch Priscilla and her husband walking + hand-in-hand farther and farther away from me up a path which I + suppose is the path of glory, into something apparently golden and + rosy, something very glowing and full of promise, that turns out on + closer scrutiny to be their future. It certainly seems radiant enough + to the superficial observer. Even I, who have looked into her soul + and known its hungers, am a little dazzled. Let it not however be + imagined that a person who has been truthful so long as myself is + going to lapse into easy lies at the last, and pretend that she was + uninterruptedly satisfied and happy for the rest of her days. She was + not; but then who is? +</p> +<br> +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13141 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00ea67a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13141 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13141) diff --git a/old/13141-8.txt b/old/13141-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..753cf41 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13141-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9442 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight, by +Elizabeth von Arnim + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight + +Author: Elizabeth von Arnim + +Release Date: August 8, 2004 [eBook #13141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S +FORTNIGHT*** + + +E-text prepared by Cally Soukup, Janet Kegg, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Editorial note: We now know that "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" was + written by Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941). Born Mary + Annette Beauchamp in Australia, she grew up in England + and married a German, Count Henning August von + Arnim-Schlagenthin. After the couple moved to his country + estate she began writing children's books. Many of her + early books were published "By the Author of 'Elizabeth + and Her German Garden'," and later she published as + simply "Elizabeth." + + + + + +THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN" + +1905 + + + + + + + + "Oft habe ich die Welt durchwandert, und habe immer + gesehen, wie das Grosse am Kleinlichen scheitert, und das + Edle von dem ätzenden Gift des Alltäglichen zerfressen wird." + FRITZING, "Erlebtes und Erlittenes." + + + + + + +I + + +Her Grand Ducal Highness the Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz was +up to the age of twenty-one a most promising young lady. She was not +only poetic in appearance beyond the habit of princesses but she was +also of graceful and appropriate behaviour. She did what she was told; +or, more valuable, she did what was expected of her without being +told. Her father, in his youth and middle age a fiery man, now an +irritable old gentleman who liked good food and insisted on strictest +etiquette, was proud of her on those occasions when she happened to +cross his mind. Her mother, by birth an English princess of an +originality uncomfortable and unexpected in a royal lady that +continued to the end of her life to crop up at disconcerting moments, +died when Priscilla was sixteen. Her sisters, one older and one +younger than herself, were both far less pleasing to look upon than +she was, and much more difficult to manage; yet each married a +suitable prince and each became a credit to her House, while as for +Priscilla,--well, as for Priscilla, I propose to describe her dreadful +conduct. + +But first her appearance. She was well above the average height of +woman; a desirable thing in a princess, who, before everything, must +impress the public with her dignity. She had a long pointed chin, and +a sweet mouth with full lips that looked most kind. Her nose was not +quite straight, one side of it being the least bit different from the +other,--a slight crookedness that gave her face a charm absolutely +beyond the reach of those whose features are what is known as +chiselled. Her skin was of that fairness that freckles readily in hot +summers or on winter days when the sun shines brightly on the snow, a +delicate soft skin that is seen sometimes with golden eyelashes and +eyebrows, and hair that is more red than gold. Priscilla had these +eyelashes and eyebrows and this hair, and she had besides beautiful +grey-blue eyes--calm pools of thought, the court poet called them, +when her having a birthday compelled him to official raptures; and +because everybody felt sure they were not really anything of the kind +the poet's utterance was received with acclamations. Indeed, a +princess who should possess such pools would be most undesirable--in +Lothen-Kunitz nothing short of a calamity; for had they not had one +already? It was what had been the matter with the deceased Grand +Duchess; she would think, and no one could stop her, and her life in +consequence was a burden to herself and to everybody else at her +court. Priscilla, however, was very silent. She had never expressed an +opinion, and the inference was that she had no opinion to express. She +had not criticized, she had not argued, she had been tractable, +obedient, meek. Yet her sisters, who had often criticized and argued, +and who had rarely been obedient and never meek, became as I have said +the wives of appropriate princes, while Priscilla,--well, he who runs +may read what it was that Priscilla became. + +But first as to where she lived. The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz lies +in the south of Europe; that smiling region of fruitful plains, +forest-clothed hills, and broad rivers. It is one of the first places +Spring stops at on her way up from Italy; and Autumn, coming down from +the north sunburnt, fruit-laden, and blest, goes slowly when she +reaches it, lingering there with her serenity and ripeness, her calm +skies and her windless days long after the Saxons and Prussians have +lit their stoves and got out their furs. There figs can be eaten off +the trees in one's garden, and vineyards glow on the hillsides. There +the people are Catholics, and the Protestant pastor casts no shadow of +a black gown across life. There as you walk along the white roads, you +pass the image of the dead Christ by the wayside; mute reminder to +those who would otherwise forget of the beauty of pitifulness and +love. And there, so near is Kunitz to the soul of things, you may any +morning get into the train after breakfast and in the afternoon find +yourself drinking coffee in the cool colonnades of the Piazza San +Marco at Venice. + +Kunitz is the capital of the duchy, and the palace is built on a hill. +It is one of those piled-up buildings of many windows and turrets and +battlements on which the tourist gazes from below as at the +realization of a childhood's dream. A branch of the river Loth winds +round the base of the hill, separating the ducal family from the +red-roofed town along its other bank. Kunitz stretches right round the +hill, lying clasped about its castle like a necklet of ancient stones. +At the foot of the castle walls the ducal orchards and kitchen gardens +begin, continuing down to the water's edge and clothing the base of +the hill in a garment of blossom and fruit. No fairer sight is to be +seen than the glimpse of these grey walls and turrets rising out of a +cloud of blossom to be had by him who shall stand in the market place +of Kunitz and look eastward up the narrow street on a May morning; and +if he who gazes is a dreamer he could easily imagine that where the +setting of life is so lovely its days must of necessity be each like a +jewel, of perfect brightness and beauty. + +The Princess Priscilla, however, knew better. To her unfortunately the +life within the walls seemed of a quite blatant vulgarity; pervaded by +lacqueys, by officials of every kind and degree, by too much food, too +many clothes, by waste, by a feverish frittering away of time, by a +hideous want of privacy, by a dreariness unutterable. To her it was a +perpetual behaving according to the ideas officials had formed as to +the conduct to be expected of princesses, a perpetual pretending not +to see that the service offered was sheerest lip-service, a perpetual +shutting of the eyes to hypocrisy and grasping selfishness. Conceive, +you tourist full of illusions standing free down there in the market +place, the frightfulness of never being alone a moment from the time +you get out of bed to the time you get into it again. Conceive the +deadly patience needed to stand passive and be talked to, amused, +taken care of, all day long for years. Conceive the intolerableness, +if you are at all sensitive, of being watched by eyes so sharp and +prying, so eager to note the least change of expression and to use the +conclusions drawn for personal ends that nothing, absolutely nothing, +escapes them. Priscilla's sisters took all these things as a matter of +course, did not care in the least how keenly they were watched and +talked over, never wanted to be alone, liked being fussed over by +their ladies-in-waiting. They, happy girls, had thick skins. But +Priscilla was a dreamer of dreams, a poet who never wrote poems, but +whose soul though inarticulate was none the less saturated with the +desires and loves from which poems are born. She, like her sisters, +had actually known no other states; but then she dreamed of them +continuously, she desired them continuously, she read of them +continuously; and though there was only one person who knew she did +these things I suppose one person is enough in the way of +encouragement if your mind is bent on rebellion. This old person, +cause of all the mischief that followed, for without his help +I do not see what Priscilla could have done, was the ducal +librarian--_Hofbibliothekar_, head, and practically master of the +wonderful collection of books and manuscripts whose mere catalogue +made learned mouths in distant parts of Europe water and learned lungs +sigh in hopeless envy. He too had officials under him, but they were +unlike the others: meek youths, studious and short-sighted, whose +business as far as Priscilla could see was to bow themselves out +silently whenever she and her lady-in-waiting came in. The librarian's +name was Fritzing; plain Herr Fritzing originally, but gradually by +various stages at last arrived at the dignity and sonorousness of Herr +Geheimarchivrath Fritzing. The Grand Duke indeed had proposed to +ennoble him after he had successfully taught Priscilla English +grammar, but Fritzing, whose spirit dwelt among the Greeks, could not +be brought to see any desirability in such a step. Priscilla called +him Fritzi when her lady-in-waiting dozed; dearest Fritzi sometimes +even, in the heat of protest or persuasion. But afterwards, leaving +the room as solemnly as she had come in, followed by her wide-awake +attendant, she would nod a formally gracious "Good afternoon, Herr +Geheimrath," for all the world as though she had been talking that way +the whole time. The Countess (her lady-in-waiting was the Countess +Irmgard von Disthal, an ample slow lady, the unmarried daughter of a +noble house, about fifty at this time, and luckily--or unluckily--for +Priscilla, a great lover of much food and its resultant deep slumbers) +would bow in her turn in as stately a manner as her bulk permitted, +and with a frigidity so pronounced that in any one less skilled in +shades of deportment it would have resembled with a singular +completeness a sniff of scorn. Her frigidity was perfectly justified. +Was she not a _hochgeboren_, a member of an ancient house, of luminous +pedigree as far back as one could possibly see? And was he not the son +of an obscure Westphalian farmer, a person who in his youth had sat +barefoot watching pigs? It is true he had learning, and culture, and a +big head with plenty of brains in it, and the Countess Disthal had a +small head, hardly any brains, no soul to speak of, and no education. +This, I say, is true; but it is also neither here nor there. The +Countess was the Countess, and Fritzing was a nobody, and the +condescension she showed him was far more grand ducal than anything in +that way that Priscilla could or ever did produce. + +Fritzing, unusually gifted, and enterprising from the first--which +explains the gulf between pig-watching and _Hofbibliothekar_--had +spent ten years in Paris and twenty in England in various capacities, +but always climbing higher in the world of intellect, and had come +during this climbing to speak English quite as well as most +Englishmen, if in a statelier, Johnsonian manner. At fifty he began +his career in Kunitz, and being a lover of children took over the +English education of the three princesses; and now that they had long +since learned all they cared to know, and in Priscilla's case all of +grammar at least that he had to teach, he invented a talent for +drawing in Priscilla, who could not draw a straight line, much less a +curved one, so that she should still be able to come to the library as +often as she chose on the pretext of taking a drawing-lesson. The +Grand Duke's idea about his daughters was that they should know a +little of everything and nothing too well; and if Priscilla had said +she wanted to study Shakespeare with the librarian he would have +angrily forbidden it. Had she not had ten years for studying +Shakespeare? To go on longer than that would mean that she was eager, +and the Grand Duke loathed an eager woman. + +But he had nothing to say against a little drawing; and it was during +the drawing-lessons of the summer Priscilla was twenty-one that the +Countess Disthal slept so peacefully. The summer was hot, and the vast +room cool and quiet. The time was three o'clock--immediately, that is, +after luncheon. Through the narrow open windows sweet airs and scents +came in from the bright world outside. Sometimes a bee would wander up +from the fruit-gardens below, and lazily drone round shady corners. +Sometimes a flock of pigeons rose swiftly in front of the windows, +with a flash of shining wings. Every quarter of an hour the cathedral +clock down in the town sent up its slow chime. Voices of people +boating on the river floated up too, softened to melodiousness. Down +at the foot of the hill the red roofs of the town glistened in the +sun. Beyond them lay the sweltering cornfields. Beyond them forests +and villages. Beyond them a blue line of hills. Beyond them, said +Priscilla to herself, freedom. She sat in her white dress at a table +in one of the deep windows, her head on its long slender neck, where +the little rings of red-gold hair curled so prettily, bent over the +drawing-board, her voice murmuring ceaselessly, for time was short and +she had a great many things to say. At her side sat Fritzing, +listening and answering. Far away in the coolest, shadiest corner of +the room slumbered the Countess. She was lulled by the murmured talk +as sweetly as by the drone of the bee. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness receives many criticisms and much advice on +the subject of drawing from the Herr Geheimrath?" she said one day, +after a lesson during which she had been drowsily aware of much talk. + +"The Herr Geheimrath is most conscientious," said Priscilla in the +stately, it-has-nothing-to-do-with-you sort of tone she found most +effectual with the Countess; but she added a request under her breath +that the _lieber Gott_ might forgive her, for she knew she had told a +fib. + +Indeed, the last thing that Fritzing was at this convulsed period of +his life was what his master would have called conscientious. Was he +not encouraging the strangest, wickedest, wildest ideas in the +Princess? Strange and wicked and wild that is from the grand ducal +point of view, for to Priscilla they seemed all sweetness and light. +Fritzing had a perfect horror of the Grand Duke. He was everything +that Fritzing, lean man of learning, most detested. The pleasantest +fashion of describing the Grand Duke will be simply to say that he was +in all things, both of mind and body, the exact opposite of Fritzing. +Fritzing was a man who spent his time ignoring his body and digging +away at his mind. You know the bony aspect of such men. Hardly ever is +there much flesh on them; and though they are often ugly enough, their +spirit blazes at you out of wonderful eyes. I call him old Fritzing, +for he was sixty. To me he seemed old; to Priscilla at twenty he +seemed coeval with pyramids and kindred hoarinesses; while to all +those persons who were sixty-one he did not seem old at all. Only two +things could have kept this restless soul chained to the service of +the Grand Duke, and those two things were the unique library and +Priscilla. For the rest, his life at Kunitz revolted him. He loathed +the etiquette and the fuss and the intrigues of the castle. He loathed +each separate lady-in-waiting, and every one of the male officials. He +loathed the vulgar abundance and inordinate length and frequency of +the meals, when down in the town he knew there were people a-hungered. +He loathed the lacqueys with a quite peculiar loathing, scowling at +them from under angry eyebrows as he passed from his apartment to the +library; yet such is the power of an independent and scornful spirit +that though they had heard all about Westphalia and the pig-days never +once had they, who made insolence their study, dared be rude to him. + +Priscilla wanted to run away. This, I believe, is considered an awful +thing to do even if you are only a housemaid or somebody's wife. If it +were not considered awful, placed by the world high up on its list of +Utter Unforgivablenesses, there is, I suppose, not a woman who would +not at some time or other have run. She might come back, but she would +surely have gone. So bad is it held to be that even a housemaid who +runs is unfailingly pursued by maledictions more or less definite +according to the education of those she has run from; and a wife who +runs is pursued by social ruin, it being taken for granted that she +did not run alone. I know at least two wives who did run alone. Far +from wanting yet another burden added to them by adding to their lives +yet another man, they were anxiously endeavouring to get as far as +might be from the man they had got already. The world, foul hag with +the downcast eyes and lascivious lips, could not believe it possible, +and was quick to draw its dark mantle of disgrace over their shrinking +heads. One of them, unable to bear this, asked her husband's pardon. +She was a weak spirit, and now lives prostrate days, crushed beneath +the unchanging horror of a husband's free forgiveness. The other took +a cottage and laughed at the world. Was she not happy at last, and +happy in the right way? I go to see her sometimes, and we eat the +cabbages she has grown herself. Strange how the disillusioned find +their peace in cabbages. + +Priscilla, then, wanted to run away. What is awful in a housemaid and +in anybody's wife became in her case stupendous. The spirit that could +resolve it, decide to do it without being dragged to it by such things +as love or passion, calmly looking the risks and losses in the face, +and daring everything to free itself, was, it must be conceded, at +least worthy of respect. Fritzing thought it worthy of adoration; the +divinest spirit that had ever burned within a woman. He did not +say so. On the contrary, he was frightened, and tried angrily, +passionately, to dissuade. Yet he knew that if she wavered he would +never forgive her; she would drop at once from her high estate into +those depths in his opinion where the dull average of both sexes +sprawled for ever in indiscriminate heaps. Priscilla never dreamed of +wavering. She, most poetic of princesses, made apparently of ivory and +amber, outwardly so cool and serene and gentle, was inwardly on fire. +The fire, I should add, burnt with a very white flame. Nothing in +the shape of a young man had ever had the stoking of it. It was +that whitest of flames that leaps highest at the thought of +abstractions--freedom, beauty of life, simplicity, and the rest. This, +I would remark, is a most rare light to find burning in a woman's +breast. What she was, however, Fritzing had made her. True the +material had been extraordinarily good, and for ten years he had +done as he liked with it. Beginning with the simpler poems of +Wordsworth--he detested them, but they were better than soiling her +soul with Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans--those lessons in English +literature, meant by the authorities to be as innocuous to her as to +her sisters, had opened her eyes in a way nothing else could have done +to the width of the world and the littleness of Kunitz. With that good +teacher, as eager to lead as she to follow, she wandered down the +splendid walks of culture, met there the best people of all ages, +communed with mighty souls, heard how they talked, saw how they lived, +and none, not one, lived and talked as they lived and talked at +Kunitz. + +Imagine a girl influenced for ten years, ten of her softest most +wax-like years, by a Fritzing, taught to love freedom, to see the +beauty of plain things, of quietness, of the things appertaining to +the spirit, taught to see how ignoble it is, how intensely, hopelessly +vulgar to spend on one's own bodily comforts more than is exactly +necessary, taught to see a vision of happiness possible only to those +who look to their minds for their joys and not to their bodies, +imagine how such a girl, hearing these things every afternoon almost +of her life, would be likely to regard the palace mornings and +evenings, the ceremonies and publicity, all those hours spent as +though she were a celebrated picture, forced everlastingly to stand in +an attitude considered appropriate and smile while she was being +looked at. + +"No one," she said one day to Fritzing, "who hasn't himself been a +princess can have the least idea of what it is like." + +"Ma'am, it would be more correct to say herself in place of himself." + +"Well, they can't," said Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, to begin a sentence with the singular and continue it with the +plural is an infraction of all known rules." + +"But the sentiments, Fritzi--what do you think of the sentiments?" + +"Alas, ma'am, they too are an infraction of rules." + +"What is not in this place, I should like to know?" sighed Priscilla, +her chin on her hand, her eyes on that distant line of hills beyond +which, she told herself, lay freedom. + +She had long ago left off saying it only to herself. I think she must +have been about eighteen when she took to saying it aloud to Fritzing. +At first, before he realized to what extent she was sick for freedom, +he had painted in glowing colours the delights that lay on the other +side of the hills, or for that matter on this side of them if you were +alone and not a princess. Especially had he dwelt on the glories of +life in England, glories attainable indeed only by the obscure such as +he himself had been, and for ever impossible to those whom Fate +obliges to travel in state carriages and special trains. Then he had +come to scent danger and had grown wary; trying to put her off with +generalities, such as the inability of human beings to fly from their +own selves, and irrelevancies such as the amount of poverty and +wretchedness to be observed in the east of London; refusing to discuss +France, which she was always getting to as the first step towards +England, except in as far as it was a rebellious country that didn't +like kings; pointing out with no little temper that she had already +seen England; and finishing by inquiring very snappily when her Grand +Ducal Highness intended to go on with her drawing. + +Now what Priscilla had seen of England had been the insides of +Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; of all insides surely the most +august. To and from these she had been conveyed in closed carriages +and royal trains, and there was so close a family likeness between +them and Kunitz that to her extreme discomfort she had felt herself +completely at home. Even the presence of the Countess Disthal had not +been wanting. She therefore regarded this as not seeing England at +all, and said so. Fritzing remarked tartly that it was a way of seeing +it most English people would envy her; and she was so unable to +believe him that she said Nonsense. + +But lately her desires had taken definite shape so rapidly that he had +come to dread the very word hill and turn cold at the name of England. +He was being torn in different directions; for he was, you see, still +trying to do what other people had decided was his duty, and till a +man gives up doing that he will certainly be torn. How great would be +the temptation to pause here and consider the mangled state of such a +man, the wounds and weakness he will suffer from, and how his soul +will have to limp through life, if it were not that I must get on with +Priscilla. + +One day, after many weeks of edging nearer to it, of going all round +it yet never quite touching it, she took a deep breath and told him +she had determined to run away. She added an order that he was to help +her. With her most grand ducal air she merely informed, ordered, and +forbade. What she forbade, of course, was the betrayal of her plans. +"You may choose," she said, "between the Grand Duke and myself. If you +tell him, I have done with you for ever." + +Of course he chose Priscilla. + +His agonies now were very great. Those last lacerations of conscience +were terrific. Then, after nights spent striding, a sudden calm fell +upon him. At length he could feel what he had always seen, that there +could not be two duties for a man, that no man can serve two masters, +that a man's one clear duty is to be in the possession of his soul and +live the life it approves: in other and shorter words, instead of +leading Priscilla, Priscilla was now leading him. + +She did more than lead him; she drove him. The soul he had so +carefully tended and helped to grow was now grown stronger than his +own; for there was added to its natural strength the tremendous daring +of absolute inexperience. What can be more inexperienced than a +carefully guarded young princess? Priscilla's ignorance of the outside +world was pathetic. He groaned over her plans--for it was she who +planned and he who listened--and yet he loved them. She was a divine +woman, he said to himself; the sweetest and noblest, he was certain, +that the world would ever see. + +Her plans were these: + +First, that having had twenty-one years of life at the top of the +social ladder she was now going to get down and spend the next +twenty-one at the bottom of it. (Here she gave her reasons, and I will +not stop to describe Fritzing's writhings as his own past teachings +grinned at him through every word she said.) + +Secondly, that the only way to get to the bottom being to run away +from Kunitz, she was going to run. + +Thirdly, that the best and nicest place for living at the bottom would +be England. (Here she explained her conviction that beautiful things +grow quite naturally round the bottom of ladders that cannot easily +reach the top; flowers of self-sacrifice and love, of temperance, +charity, godliness--delicate things, with roots that find their +nourishment in common soil. You could not, said Priscilla, expect soil +at the top of ladders, could you? And as she felt that she too had +roots full of potentialities, she must take them down to where their +natural sustenance lay waiting.) + +Fourthly, they were to live somewhere in the country in England, in +the humblest way. + +Fifthly, she was to be his daughter. + +"Daughter?" cried Fritzing, bounding in his chair. "Your Grand Ducal +Highness forgets I have friends in England, every one of whom is aware +that I never had a wife." + +"Niece, then," said Priscilla. + +He gazed at her in silence, trying to imagine her his niece. He had +two sisters, and they had stopped exactly at the point they were at +when they helped him, barefoot, to watch Westphalian pigs. I do not +mean that they had not ultimately left the little farm, gone into +stockings, and married. It is their minds I am thinking of, and these +had never budged. They were like their father, a doomed dullard; while +Fritzing's mother, whom he resembled, had been a rather extraordinary +woman in a rough and barbarous way. He found himself wholly unable to +imagine either of his sisters the mother of this exquisite young lady. + +These, then, baldly, were Priscilla's plans. The carrying of them out +was left, she informed him, altogether to Fritzing. After having spent +several anxious days, she told him, considering whether she ought to +dye her hair black in order to escape recognition, or stay her own +colour but disguise herself as a man and buy a golden beard, she had +decided that these were questions Fritzing would settle better than +she could. "I'd dye my hair at once," she said, "but what about my +wretched eyelashes? Can one dye eyelashes?" + +Fritzing thought not, and anyhow was decidedly of opinion that her +eyelashes should not be tampered with; I think I have said that they +were very lovely. He also entirely discouraged the idea of dressing as +a man. "Your Grand Ducal Highness would only look like an extremely +conspicuous boy," he assured her. + +"I could wear a beard," said Priscilla. + +But Fritzing was absolutely opposed to the beard. + +As for the money part, she never thought of it. Money was a thing she +never did think about. It also, then, was to be Fritzing's business. +Possibly things might have gone on much longer as they were, with a +great deal of planning and talking, and no doing, if an exceedingly +desirable prince had not signified his intention of marrying +Priscilla. This had been done before by quite a number of princes. +They had, that is, not signified, but implored. On their knees would +they have implored if their knees could have helped them. They were +however all poor, and Priscilla and her sisters were rich; and how +foolish, said the Grand Duke, to marry poor men unless you are poor +yourself. The Grand Duke, therefore, took these young men aside and +crushed them, while Priscilla, indifferent, went on with her drawing. +But now came this one who was so eminently desirable that he had no +need to do more than merely signify. There had been much trouble and a +great deal of delay in finding him a wife, for he had insisted on +having a princess who should be both pretty and not his cousin. Europe +did not seem to contain such a thing. Everybody was his cousin, except +two or three young women whom he was rude enough to call ugly. The +Kunitz princesses had been considered in their turn and set aside, for +they too were cousins; and it seemed as if one of the most splendid +thrones in Europe would either have to go queen-less or be sat upon by +somebody plain, when fate brought the Prince to a great public +ceremony in Kunitz, and he saw Priscilla and fell so violently in love +with her that if she had been fifty times his cousin he would still +have married her. + +That same evening he signified his intention to the delighted Grand +Duke, who immediately fell to an irrelevant praising of God. + +"Bosh," said the Prince, in the nearest equivalent his mother-tongue +provided. + +This was very bad. Not, I mean, that the Prince should have said Bosh, +for he was so great that there was not a Grand Duke in Europe to whom +he might not have said it if he wanted to; but that Priscilla should +have been in imminent danger of marriage. Among Fritzing's many +preachings there had been one, often repeated in the strongest +possible language, that of all existing contemptibilities the very +most contemptible was for a woman to marry any one she did not love; +and the peroration, also extremely forcible, had been an announcement +that the prince did not exist who was fit to tie her shoestrings. This +Priscilla took to be an exaggeration, for she had no very great notion +of her shoestrings; but she did agree with the rest. The subject +however was an indifferent one, her father never yet having asked her +to marry anybody; and so long as he did not do so she need not, she +thought, waste time thinking about it. Now the peril was upon her, +suddenly, most unexpectedly, very menacingly. She knew there was no +hope from the moment she saw her father's face quite distorted by +delight. He took her hand and kissed it. To him she was already a +queen. As usual she gave him the impression of behaving exactly as he +could have wished. She certainly said very little, for she had long +ago learned the art of being silent; but her very silences were +somehow exquisite, and the Grand Duke thought her perfect. She gave +him to understand almost without words that it was a great surprise, +an immense honour, a huge compliment, but so sudden that she would be +grateful to both himself and the Prince if nothing more need be said +about it for a week or two--nothing, at least, till formal +negotiations had been opened. "I saw him yesterday for the first +time," she pleaded, "so naturally I am rather overwhelmed." + +Privately she had thought, his eyes, which he had never taken off her, +kind and pleasant; and if she had known of his having said Bosh who +knows but that he might have had a chance? As it was, the moment she +was alone she sent flying for Fritzing. "What," she said, "do you say +to my marrying this man?" + +"If you do, ma'am," said Fritzing, and his face seemed one blaze of +white conviction, "you will undoubtedly be eternally lost." + + + + +II + + +They fled on bicycles in the dusk. The goddess Good Luck, who seems to +have a predilection for sinners, helped them in a hundred ways. +Without her they would certainly not have got far, for both were very +ignorant of the art of running away. Once flight was decided on +Fritzing planned elaborately and feverishly, got things thought out +and arranged as well as he, poor harassed man, possibly could. But +what in this law-bound world can sinners do without the help of Luck? +She, amused and smiling dame, walked into the castle and smote the +Countess Disthal with influenza, crushing her down helpless into her +bed, and holding her there for days by the throat. While one hand was +doing this, with the other she gaily swept the Grand Duke into East +Prussia, a terrific distance, whither, all unaware of how he was being +trifled with, he thought he was being swept by an irresistible desire +to go, before the business of Priscilla's public betrothal should +begin, and shoot the roebucks of a friend. + +The Countess was thrust into her bed at noon of a Monday in October. +At three the Grand Duke started for East Prussia, incognito in a +motor--you know the difficulty news has in reaching persons in +motors. At four one of Priscilla's maids, an obscure damsel who had +been at the mercy of the others and was chosen because she hated them, +tripped out of the castle with shining eyes and pockets heavy with +bribes, and caused herself to be whisked away by the afternoon express +to Cologne. At six, just as the castle guard was being relieved, two +persons led their bicycles through the archway and down across the +bridge. It was dark, and nobody recognized them. Fritzing was got up +sportingly, almost waggishly--heaven knows his soul was not feeling +waggish--as differently as possible from his usual sober clothes. +Somehow he reminded Priscilla of a circus, and she found it extremely +hard not to laugh. On his head he had a cap with ear-pieces that hid +his grey hair; round his neck a gaudy handkerchief muffled well about +his face; immense goggles cloaked the familiar overhanging eyebrows +and deep-set eyes, goggles curiously at variance with the dapper +briskness of his gaitered legs. The Princess was in ordinary blue +serge, short and rather shabby, it having been subjected for hours +daily during the past week to rough treatment by the maid now +travelling to Cologne. As for her face and hair, they were completely +hidden in the swathings of a motor-veil. + +The sentinels stared rather as these two figures pushed their bicycles +through the gates, and undoubtedly did for some time afterwards wonder +who they could have been. The same thing happened down below on the +bridge; but once over that and in the town all they had to do was to +ride straight ahead. They were going to bicycle fifteen miles to Rühl, +a small town with a railway station on the main line between Kunitz +and Cologne. Express trains do not stop at Rühl, but there was a slow +train at eight which would get them to Gerstein, the capital of the +next duchy, by midnight. Here they would change into the Cologne +express; here they would join the bribed maid; here luggage had been +sent by Fritzing,--a neat bag for himself, and a neat box for his +niece. The neat box was filled with neat garments suggested to him by +the young lady in the shop in Gerstein where he had been two days +before to buy them. She told him of many other articles which, she +said, no lady's wardrobe could be considered complete without; and the +distracted man, fearing the whole shop would presently be put into +trunks and sent to the station to meet them, had ended by flinging +down two notes for a hundred marks each and bidding her keep strictly +within that limit. The young lady became very scornful. She told him +that she had never heard of any one being clothed from head to foot +inside and out, even to brushes, soap, and an umbrella, for two +hundred marks. Fritzing, in dread of conspicuous masses of luggage, +yet staggered by the girl's conviction, pulled out a third hundred +mark note, but added words in his extremity of so strong and final a +nature, that she, quailing, did keep within this limit, and the box +was packed. Thus Priscilla's outfit cost almost exactly fifteen +pounds. It will readily be imagined that it was neat. + +Painfully the two fugitives rode through the cobbled streets of +Kunitz. Priscilla was very shaky on a bicycle, and so was Fritzing. +Some years before this, when it had been the fashion, she had bicycled +every day in the grand ducal park on the other side of the town. Then, +tired of it, she had given it up; and now for the last week or two, +ever since Fritzing had told her that if they fled it would have to be +on bicycles, she had pretended a renewed passion for it, riding every +day round and round a circle of which the chilled and astonished +Countess Disthal, whose duty it was to stand and watch, had been the +disgusted central point. But the cobbles of Kunitz are very different +from those smooth places in the park. All who bicycle round Kunitz +know them as trying to the most skilful. Naturally, then, the +fugitives advanced very slowly, Fritzing's heart in his mouth each +time they passed a brightly-lit shop or a person who looked at them. +Conceive how nearly this poor heart must have jumped right out of his +mouth, leaving him dead, when a policeman who had been watching them +strode suddenly into the middle of the street, put up his hand, and +said, "Halt." + +Fritzing, unstrung man, received a shock so awful that he obeyed by +falling off. Priscilla, wholly unused to being told to halt and +absorbed by the difficulties of the way, did not grasp that the order +was meant for her and rode painfully on. Seeing this, the policeman +very gallantly removed her from her bicycle by putting his arms round +her and lifting her off. He set her quite gently on her feet, and was +altogether a charming policeman, as unlike those grim and ghastly eyes +of the law that glare up and down the streets of, say, Berlin, as it +is possible to imagine. + +But Priscilla was perfectly molten with rage, insulted as she had +never been in her life. "How dare you--how dare you," she stammered, +suffocating; and forgetting everything but an overwhelming desire to +box the giant's ears she had actually raised her hand to do it, which +would of course have been the ruin of her plan and the end of my tale, +when Fritzing, recovering his presence of mind, cried out in tones of +unmistakable agony, "Niece, be calm." + +She calmed at once to a calm of frozen horror. + +"Now, sir," said Fritzing, assuming an air of brisk bravery and +guiltlessness, "what can we do for you?" + +"Light your lamps," said the policeman, laconically. + +They did; or rather Fritzing did, while Priscilla stood passive. + +"I too have a niece," said the policeman, watching Fritzing at work; +"but I light no lamps for her. One should not wait on one's niece. +One's niece should wait on one." + +Fritzing did not answer. He finished lighting the lamps, and then +held Priscilla's bicycle and started her. + +"I never did that for my niece," said the policeman. + +"Confound your niece, sir," was on the tip of Fritzing's tongue; but +he gulped it down, and remarking instead as pleasantly as he could +that being an uncle did not necessarily prevent your being a +gentleman, picked up his bicycle and followed Priscilla. + +The policeman shook his head as they disappeared round the corner. +"One does not light lamps for one's niece," he repeated to himself. +"It's against nature. Consequently, though the peppery Fräulein may +well be somebody's niece she is not his." + +"Oh," murmured Priscilla, after they had ridden some way without +speaking, "I'm deteriorating already. For the first time in my life +I've wanted to box people's ears." + +"The provocation was great, ma'am," said Fritzing, himself shattered +by the spectacle of his Princess being lifted about by a policeman. + +"Do you think--" Priscilla hesitated, and looked at him. Her bicycle +immediately hesitated too, and swerving across the road taught her it +would have nothing looked at except its handles. "Do you think," she +went on, after she had got herself straight again, "that the way I'm +going to live now will make me want to do it often?" + +"Heaven forbid, ma'am. You are now going to live a most noble +life--the only fitting life for the thoughtful and the earnest. It +will be, once you are settled, far more sheltered from contact with +that which stirs ignoble impulses than anything your Grand Ducal +Highness has hitherto known." + +"If you mean policemen by things that stir ignoble impulses," said +Priscilla, "I was sheltered enough from them before. Why, I never +spoke to one. Much less"--she shuddered--"much less ever touched one." + +"Ma'am, you do not repent?" + +"Heavens, no," said Priscilla, pressing onward. + +Outside Rühl, about a hundred yards before its houses begin, there is +a pond by the wayside. Into this, after waiting a moment peering up +and down the dark road to see whether anybody was looking, Fritzing +hurled the bicycles. He knew the pond was deep, for he had studied it +the day he bought Priscilla's outfit; and the two bicycles one after +the other were hurled remorsely into the middle of it, disappearing +each in its turn with a tremendous splash and gurgle. Then they walked +on quickly towards the railway station, infinitely relieved to be on +their own feet again, and between them, all unsuspected, walked the +radiant One with the smiling eyes, she who was half-minded to see this +game through, giving the players just so many frights as would keep +her amused, the fickle, laughing goddess Good Luck. + +They caught the train neatly at Rühl. They only had to wait about the +station for ten minutes before it came in. Hardly any one was there, +and nobody took the least notice of them. Fritzing, after a careful +look round to see if it contained people he knew, put the Princess +into a second-class carriage labelled _Frauen_, and then respectfully +withdrew to another part of the train. He had decided that +second-class was safest. People in that country nearly always travel +second-class, especially women,--at all times in such matters more +economical than men; and a woman by herself in a first-class carriage +would have been an object of surmise and curiosity at every station. +Therefore Priscilla was put into the carriage labelled _Frauen_, and +found herself for the first time in her life alone with what she had +hitherto only heard alluded to vaguely as the public. + +She sat down in a corner with an odd feeling of surprise at being +included in the category _Frauen_, and giving a swift timid glance +through her veil at the public confronting her was relieved to find it +consisted only of a comfortable mother and her child. + +I know not why the adjective comfortable should so invariably be +descriptive of mothers in Germany. In England and France though you +may be a mother, you yet, I believe, may be so without being +comfortable. In Germany, somehow, you can't. Perhaps it is the +climate; perhaps it is the food; perhaps it is simply want of soul, or +that your soul does not burn with a fire sufficiently consuming. +Anyhow it is so. This mother had all the good-nature that goes with +amplitude. Being engaged in feeding her child with _belegte +Brödchen_--that immensely satisfying form of sandwich--she at once +offered Priscilla one. + +"No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking into her corner. + +"Do take one, Fräulein," said the mother, persuasively. + +"No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking. + +"On a journey it passes the time. Even if one is not hungry, thank God +one can always eat. Do take one." + +"No thank you," said Priscilla. + +"Why does she wear that black thing over her face?" inquired the +child. "Is she a witch?" + +"Silence, silence, little worthless one," cried the mother, +delightedly stroking his face with half a _Brödchen_. "You see he is +clever, Fräulein. He resembles his dear father as one egg does +another." + +"Does he?" said Priscilla, immediately conceiving a prejudice against +the father. + +"Why don't she take that black thing off?" said the child. + +"Hush, hush, small impudence. The Fräulein will take it off in a +minute. The Fräulein has only just got in." + +"Mutti, is she a witch? Mutti, Mutti, is she a witch, Mutti?" + +The child, his eyes fixed anxiously on Priscilla's swathed head, began +to whimper. + +"That child should be in bed," said Priscilla, with a severity born +of her anxiety lest, to calm him, humanity should force her to put up +her veil. "Persons who are as intelligent as that should never be in +trains at night. Their brains cannot bear it. Would he not be happier +if he lay down and went to sleep?" + +"Yes, yes; that is what I have been telling him ever since we left +Kunitz"--Priscilla shivered--"but he will not go. Dost thou hear what +the Fräulein says, Hans-Joachim?" + +"Why don't she take that black thing off?" whimpered the child. + +But how could the poor Princess, however anxious to be kind, take off +her veil and show her well-known face to this probable inhabitant of +Kunitz? + +"Do take it off, Fräulein," begged the mother, seeing she made no +preparations to do so. "When he gets ideas into his head there is +never peace till he has what he wants. He does remind me so much of +his father." + +"Did you ever," said Priscilla, temporizing, "try him with a +little--just a little slap? Only a little one," she added hastily, for +the mother looked at her oddly, "only as a sort of counter-irritant. +And it needn't be really hard, you know--" + +"_Ach_, she's a witch--Mutti, she's a witch!" shrieked the child, +flinging his face, butter and all, at these portentous words, into his +mother's lap. + +"There, there, poor tiny one," soothed the mother, with an indignant +side-glance at Priscilla. "Poor tiny man, no one shall slap thee. The +Fräulein does not allude to thee, little son. The Fräulein is thinking +of bad children such as the sons of Schultz and thy cousin Meyer. +Fräulein, if you do not remove your veil I fear he will have +convulsions." + +"Oh," said the unhappy Priscilla, getting as far into her corner as +she could, "I'm so sorry--but I--but I really can't." + +"She's a witch, Mutti!" roared the child, "I tell it to thee +again--therefore is she so black, and must not show her face!" + +"Hush, hush, shut thy little eyes," soothed the mother, putting her +hand over them. To Priscilla she said, with an obvious dawning of +distrust, "But Fräulein, what reason can you have for hiding +yourself?" + +"Hiding myself?" echoed Priscilla, now very unhappy indeed, "I'm not +hiding myself. I've got--I've got--I'm afraid I've got a--an affection +of the skin. That's why I wear a veil." + +"_Ach_, poor Fräulein," said the mother, brightening at once into +lively interest. "Hans-Joachim, sleep," she added sharply to her son, +who tried to raise his head to interrupt with fresh doubts a +conversation grown thrilling. "That is indeed a misfortune. It is a +rash?" + +"Oh, it's dreadful," said Priscilla, faintly. + +"_Ach_, poor Fräulein. When one is married, rashes no longer matter. +One's husband has to love one in spite of rashes. But for a Fräulein +every spot is of importance. There is a young lady of my acquaintance +whose life-happiness was shipwrecked only by spots. She came out in +them at the wrong moment." + +"Did she?" murmured Priscilla. + +"You are going to a doctor?" + +"Yes--that is, no--I've been." + +"Ah, you have been to Kunitz to Dr. Kraus?" + +"Y--es. I've been there." + +"What does he say?" + +"That I must always wear a veil." + +"Because it looks so bad?" + +"I suppose so." + +There was a silence. Priscilla lay back in her corner exhausted, and +shut her eyes. The mother stared fixedly at her, one hand mechanically +stroking Hans-Joachim, the other holding him down. + +"When I was a girl," said the mother, so suddenly that Priscilla +started, "I had a good deal of trouble with my skin. Therefore my +experience on the subject is great. Show me your face, Fräulein--I +might be able to tell you what to do to cure it." + +"Oh, on no account--on no account whatever," cried Priscilla, sitting +up very straight and speaking with extraordinary emphasis. "I couldn't +think of it--I really positively couldn't." + +"But my dear Fräulein, why mind a woman seeing it?" + +"But what do you want to see it for?" + +"I wish to help you." + +"I don't want to be helped. I'll show it to nobody--to nobody at all. +It's much too--too dreadful." + +"Well, well, do not be agitated. Girls, I know, are vain. If any one +can help you it will be Dr. Kraus. He is an excellent physician, is he +not?" + +"Yes," said Priscilla, dropping back into her corner. + +"The Grand Duke is a great admirer of his. He is going to ennoble +him." + +"Really?" + +"They say--no doubt it is gossip, but still, you know, he is a very +handsome man--that the Countess von Disthal will marry him." + +"Gracious!" cried Priscilla, startled, "what, whether he wants to or +not?" + +"No doubt he will want to. It would be a brilliant match for him." + +"But she's at least a hundred. Why, she looks like his mother. And he +is a person of no birth at all." + +"Birth? He is of course not noble yet, but his family is excellent. +And since it is not possible to have as many ailments as she has and +still be alive, some at least must be feigned. Why, then, should she +feign if it is not in order to see the doctor? They were saying in +Kunitz that she sent for him this very day." + +"Yes, she did. But she's really ill this time. I'm afraid the poor +thing caught cold watching--dear me, only see how sweetly your little +boy sleeps. You should make Levallier paint him in that position." + +"Ah, he looks truly lovely, does he not. Exactly thus does his dear +father look when asleep. Sometimes I cannot sleep myself for joy over +the splendid picture. What is the matter with the Countess Disthal? +Did Dr. Kraus tell you?" + +"No, no. I--I heard something--a rumour." + +"Ah, something feigned again, no doubt. Well, it will be a great match +for him. You know she is lady-in-waiting to the Princess Priscilla, +the one who is so popular and has such red hair? The Countess has an +easy life. The other two Princesses have given their ladies a world of +trouble, but Priscilla--oh, she is a model. Kunitz is indeed proud of +her. They say in all things she is exactly what a Princess should be, +and may be trusted never to say or do anything not entirely fitting +her station. You have seen her? She often drives through the town, and +then the people all run and look as pleased as if it were a holiday. +We in Gerstein are quite jealous. Our duchy has no such princess to +show. Do you think she is so beautiful? I have often seen her, and I +do not think she is. People exaggerate everything so about a princess. +My husband does not admire her at all. He says it is not what he calls +classic. Her hair, for instance--but that one might get over. And +people who are really beautiful always have dark eyelashes. Then her +nose--my husband often laughs, and says her nose--" + +"Oh," said Priscilla, faintly, "I've got a dreadful headache. I think +I'll try to sleep a little if you would not mind not talking." + +"Yes, that hot thing round your face must be very trying. Now if you +were not so vain--what does a rash matter when only women are present? +Well, well, I will not tease you. Do you know many of the Kunitzers? +Do you know the Levisohns well?" + +"Oh," sighed Priscilla, laying her distracted head against the +cushions and shutting her eyes, "who are they?" + +"Who are they? Who are the Levisohns? But dearest Fräulein if you know +Kunitz you must know the Levisohns. Why, the Levisohns _are_ Kunitz. +They are more important far than the Grand Duke. They lend to it, and +they lead it. You must know their magnificent shop at the corner of +the Heiligengeiststrasse? Perhaps," she added, with a glance at the +Princess's shabby serge gown, "you have not met them socially, but you +must know the magnificent shop. We visit." + +"Do you?" said Priscilla wearily, as the mother paused. + +"And you know her story, of course?" + +"Oh, oh," sighed Priscilla, turning her head from side to side on the +cushions, vainly seeking peace. + +"It is hardly a story for the ears of Fräuleins." + +"Please don't tell it, then." + +"No, I will not. It is not for Fräuleins. But one still sees she must +have been a handsome woman. And he, Levisohn, was clever enough to see +his way to Court favour. The Grand Duke--" + +"I don't think I care to hear about the Levisohns," said Priscilla, +sitting up suddenly and speaking with great distinctness. "Gossip is a +thing I detest. None shall be talked in my presence." + +"Hoity-toity," said the astonished mother; and it will easily be +believed that no one had ever said hoity-toity to Priscilla before. + +She turned scarlet under her veil. For a moment she sat with flashing +eyes, and the hand lying in her lap twitched convulsively. Is it +possible she was thinking of giving the comfortable mother that +admonition which the policeman had so narrowly escaped? I know not +what would have happened if the merry goddess, seeing things rushing +to this dreadful climax, had not stopped the train in the nick of time +at a wayside station and caused a breathless lady, pushing parcels +before her, to clamber in. The mother's surprised stare was of +necessity diverted to the new-comer. A parcel thrust into Priscilla's +hands brought her back of necessity to her senses. + +"_Danke, Danke_," cried the breathless lady, though no help had been +offered; and hoisting herself in she wished both her fellow-passengers +a boisterous good evening. The lady, evidently an able person, +arranged her parcels swiftly and neatly in the racks, pulled up the +windows, slammed the ventilators, stripped off her cloak, flung back +her veil, and sitting down with a sigh of vast depth and length stared +steadily for five minutes without wavering at the other two. At the +end of that time she and the mother began, as with a common impulse, +to talk. And at the end of five minutes more they had told each other +where they were going, where they had been, what their husbands +were, the number, age, and girth of their children, and all the +adjectives that might most conveniently be used to describe their +servants. The adjectives, very lurid ones, took some time. +Priscilla shut her eyes while they were going on, thankful to be +left quiet, feeling unstrung to the last degree; and she gradually +dropped into an uneasy doze whose chief feature was the distressful +repetition, like hammer-strokes on her brain, of the words, "You're +deteriorating--deteriorating--deteriorating." + +"_Lieber Gott_," she whispered at last, folding her hands in her lap, +"don't let me deteriorate too much. Please keep me from wanting to box +people's ears. _Lieber Gott_, it's so barbarous of me. I never used to +want to. Please stop me wanting to now." + +And after that she dropped off quite, into a placid little slumber. + + + + +III + + +They crossed from Calais in the turbine. Their quickest route would +have been Cologne-Ostend-Dover, and every moment being infinitely +valuable Fritzing wanted to go that way, but Priscilla was determined +to try whether turbines are really as steady as she had heard they +were. The turbine was so steady that no one could have told it was +doing anything but being quiescent on solid earth; but that was +because, as Fritzing explained, there was a dead calm, and in dead +calms--briefly, he explained the conduct of boats in dead calms with +much patience, and Priscilla remarked when he had done that they might +then, after all, have crossed by Ostend. + +"We might, ma'am, and we would be in London now if we had," said +Fritzing. + +They had, indeed, lost several hours and some money coming by Calais, +and Fritzing had lost his temper as well. + +Fritzing, you remember, was sixty, and had not closed his eyes all +night. He had not, so far as that goes, closed his eyes for nights +without number; and what his soul had gone through during those nights +was more than any soul no longer in its first youth should be called +upon to bear. In the train between Cologne and Calais he had even, +writhing in his seat, cursed every single one of his long-cherished +ideals, called them fools, shaken his fist at them; a dreadful state +of mind to get to. He did not reveal anything of this to his dear +Princess, and talking to her on the turbine wore the clear brow of the +philosopher; but he did feel that he was a much-tried man, and he +behaved to the maid Annalise exactly in the way much-tried men do +behave when they have found some one they think defenceless. +Unfortunately Annalise was only apparently defenceless. Fritzing would +have known it if he had been more used to running away. He did, in his +calmer moments, dimly opine it. The plain fact was that Annalise held +both him and Priscilla in the hollow of her hand. + +At this point she had not realized it. She still was awestruck by her +promotion, and looked so small and black and uncertain among her new +surroundings on the turbine that if not clever of him it was at least +natural that he should address her in a manner familiar to those who +have had to do with men when they are being tried. He behaved, that +is, to Annalise, as he had behaved to his ideals in the night; he +shook his fist at her, and called her fool. It was because she had +broken the Princess's umbrella. This was the new umbrella bought by +him with so much trouble in Gerstein two days before, and therefore +presumably of a sufficient toughness to stand any reasonable treatment +for a time. There was a mist and a drizzle at Calais, and Priscilla, +refusing to go under shelter, had sent Fritzing to fetch her umbrella, +and when he demanded it of Annalise, she offered it him in two pieces. +This alone was enough to upset a wise man, because wise men are easily +upset; but Annalise declared besides that the umbrella had broken +itself. It probably had. What may not one expect of anything so cheap? +Fritzing, however, was maddened by this explanation, and wasted quite +a long time pointing out to her in passionate language that it was an +inanimate object, and that inanimate objects have no initiative and +never therefore break themselves. To which Annalise, with a stoutness +ominous as a revelation of character, replied by repeating her +declaration that the umbrella had certainly broken itself. Then it was +that he shook his fist at her and called her fool. So greatly was he +moved that, after walking away and thinking it over, he went to her a +second time and shook his fist at her and called her knave. + +I will not linger over this of the umbrella; it teems with lessons. + +While it was going on the Princess was being very happy. She was +sitting unnoticed in a deck-chair and feeling she was really off at +last into the Ideal. Some of us know the fascination of that feeling, +and all of us know the fascination of new things; and to be unnoticed +was for her of a most thrilling newness. Nobody looked at her. People +walked up and down the deck in front of her as though she were not +there. One hurried passenger actually tripped over her feet, and +passed on with the briefest apology. Everywhere she saw indifferent +faces, indifferent, oblivious faces. It was simply glorious. And she +had had no trials since leaving Gerstein. There Fritzing had removed +her beyond the range of the mother's eyes, grown at last extremely +cold and piercing; Annalise, all meek anxiety to please, had put her +to bed in the sleeping-car of the Brussels express; and in the morning +her joy had been childish at having a little tray with bad coffee on +it thrust in by a busy attendant, who slammed it down on the table and +hurried out without so much as glancing at her. How delicious that +was. The Princess laughed with delight and drank the coffee, grits and +all. Oh, the blessed freedom of being insignificant. It was as good, +she thought, as getting rid of your body altogether and going about an +invisible spirit. She sat on the deck of the apparently motionless +turbine and thought gleefully of past journeys, now for ever done +with; of the grand ducal train, of herself drooping inside it as +wearily as the inevitable bouquets drooping on the tables, of the +crowds of starers on every platform, of the bowing officials wherever +your eye chanced to turn. The Countess Disthal, of course, had been +always at her elbow, and when she had to go to the window and do the +gracious her anxiety lest she should bestow one smile too few had only +been surpassed by the Countess's anxiety lest she should bestow one +smile too many. Well, that was done with now; as much done with as a +nightmare, grisly staleness, is done with when you wake to a fair +spring morning and the smell of dew. And she had no fears. She was +sure, knowing him as she did, that when the Grand Duke found out she +had run away he would make no attempt to fetch her back, but would +simply draw a line through his remembrance of her, rub her out of his +mind, (his heart, she knew, would need no rubbing, because she had +never been in it,) and after the first fury was over, fury solely on +account of the scandal, he would be as he had been before, while +she--oh wonderful new life!--she would be born again to all the +charities. + +Now how can I, weak vessel whose only ballast is a cargo of +interrogations past which life swirls with a thunder of derisively +contradictory replies, pretend to say whether Priscilla ought to have +had conscience-qualms or not? Am I not deafened by the roar of +answers, all seemingly so right yet all so different, that the +simplest question brings? And would not the answering roar to anything +so complicated as a question about conscience-qualms deafen me for +ever? I shall leave the Princess, then, to run away from her home and +her parent if she chooses, and make no effort to whitewash any part of +her conduct that may seem black. I shall chronicle, and not comment. I +shall try to, that is, for comments are very dear to me. Indeed I see +I cannot move on even now till I have pointed out that though +Priscilla was getting as far as she could from the Grand Duke she was +also getting as near as she could to the possession of her soul; and +there are many persons who believe this to be a thing so precious that +it is absolutely the one thing worth living for. + +The crossing to Dover, then, was accomplished quite peacefully by +Priscilla. Not so, however, by Fritzing. He, tormented man, chief +target for the goddess's darts, spent his time holding on to the rail +along the turbine's side in order to steady himself; and as there was +a dead calm that day the reader will at once perceive that the tempest +must have been inside Fritzing himself. It was; and it had been raised +to hurricane pitch by some snatches of the talk of two Englishmen he +had heard as they paced up and down past where he was standing. + +The first time they passed, one was saying to the other, "I never +heard of anything so infamous." + +This ought not to have made Fritzing, a person of stainless life and +noble principles, start, but it did. He started; and he listened +anxiously for more. + +"Yes," said the other, who had a newspaper under his arm, "they +deserve about as bad as they'll--" + +He was out of ear-shot; but Fritzing mechanically finished the +sentence himself. Who had been infamous? And what were they going to +get? It was at this point that he laid hold of the handrail to steady +himself till the two men should pass again. + +"You can tell, of course, what steps our Government will take," was +the next snatch. + +"I shall be curious to see the attitude of the foreign papers," was +the next. + +"Anything more wanton I never heard of," was the next. + +"Of all the harmless, innocent creatures--" was the next. + +And the last snatch of all--for though they went on walking Fritzing +heard no more after it--was the brief and singular expression +"Devils." + +Devils? _What_ were they talking about? Devils? Was that, then, how +the public stigmatized blameless persons in search of peace? Devils? +What, himself and--no, never Priscilla. She was clearly the harmless +innocent creature, and he must be the other thing. But why plural? He +could only suppose that he and Annalise together formed a sulphurous +plural. He clung very hard to the rail. Who could have dreamed it +would get so quickly into the papers? Who could have dreamed the news +of it would call forth such blazing words? They would be confronted at +Dover by horrified authorities. His Princess was going to be put in a +most impossible position. What had he done? Heavens and earth, what +had he done? + +He clung to the rail, staring miserably over the side into the oily +water. Some of the passengers lingered to watch him, at first because +they thought he was going to be seasick with so little provocation +that it amounted to genius, and afterwards because they were sure he +must want to commit suicide. When they found that time passed and he +did neither, he became unpopular, and they went away and left him +altogether and contemptuously alone. + +"Fritzi, are you worried about anything?" asked Priscilla, coming to +where he still stood staring, although they had got to Dover. + +Worried! When all Europe was going to be about their ears? When he was +in the eyes of the world a criminal--an aider, abettor, lurer-away of +youth and impulsiveness? He loved the Princess so much that he cared +nothing for his own risks, but what about hers? In an agony of haste +he rushed to his ideals and principles for justification and comfort, +tumbling them over, searching feverishly among them. They had forsaken +him. They were so much lifeless rubbish. Nowhere in his mind could he +find a rag of either comfort or justification with which to stop up +his ears against the words of the two Englishmen and his eyes against +the dreadful sight he felt sure awaited them on the quay at Dover--the +sight of incensed authorities ready to pounce on him and drag him away +for ever from his Princess. + +Priscilla gazed at him in astonishment. He was taking no notice of +her, and was looking fearfully up and down the row of faces that were +watching the turbine's arrival. + +"Fritzi, if you are worried it must be because you've not slept," +said Priscilla, laying her hand with a stroking little movement on his +sleeve; for what but overwrought nerves could make him look so odd? It +was after all Fritzing who had behaved with the braveness of a lion +the night before in that matter of the policeman; and it was he who +had asked in stern tones of rebuke, when her courage seemed aflicker, +whether she repented. "You do not repent?" she asked, imitating that +sternness. + +"Ma'am--" he began in a low and dreadful voice, his eyes ceaselessly +ranging up and down the figures on the quay. + +"Sh--sh--Niece," interrupted Priscilla, smiling. + +He turned and looked at her as a man may look for the last time at the +thing in life that has been most dear to him, and said nothing. + + + + +IV + + +But nobody was waiting for them at Dover. Fritzing's agonies might all +have been spared. They passed quite unnoticed through the crowd of +idlers to the train, and putting Priscilla and her maid into it he +rushed at the nearest newspaper-boy, pouncing on him, tearing a +handful of his papers from him, and was devouring their contents +before the astonished boy had well finished his request that he should +hold hard. The boy, who had been brought up in the simple faith that +one should pay one's pennies first and read next, said a few things +under his breath about Germans--crude short things not worth +repeating--and jerking his thumb towards the intent Fritzing, winked +at a detective who was standing near. The detective did not need the +wink. His bland, abstracted eyes were already on Fritzing, and he was +making rapid mental notes of the goggles, the muffler, the cap pulled +down over the ears. Truly it is a great art, that of running away, and +needs incessant practice. + +And after all there was not a word about the Princess in the papers. +They were full, as the Englishmen on the turbine had been full, of +something the Russians, who at that time were always doing something, +had just done--something that had struck England from end to end into +a blaze of indignation and that has nothing to do with my story. +Fritzing dropped the papers on the platform, and had so little public +spirit that he groaned aloud with relief. + +"Shilling and a penny 'alfpenny, please, sir," said the newspaper-boy +glibly. "_Westminster Gazette_, sir, _Daily Mail_, _Sporting and +Dramatic_, one _Lady_, and two _Standards_." From which it will be +seen that Fritzing had seized his handful very much at random. + +He paid the boy without heeding his earnest suggestions that he should +try _Tit-Bits_, the _Saturday Review_, and _Mother_, to complete, said +the boy, in substance if not in words, his bird's-eye view over the +field of representative English journalism, and went back to the +Princess with a lighter heart than he had had for months. The +detective, apparently one of Nature's gentlemen, picked up the +scattered papers, and following Fritzing offered them him in the +politest way imaginable just as Priscilla was saying she wanted to see +what tea-baskets were like. + +"Sir," said the detective, taking off his hat, "I believe these are +yours." + +"Sir," said Fritzing, taking off his cap in his turn and bowing with +all the ceremony of foreigners, "I am much obliged to you." + +"Pray don't mention it, sir," said the detective, on whose brain the +three were in that instant photographed--the veiled Priscilla, the +maid sitting on the edge of the seat as though hardly daring to sit +at all, and Fritzing's fine head and mop of grey hair. + +Priscilla, as she caught his departing eye, bowed and smiled +graciously. He withdrew to a little distance, and fell into a +reverie: where had he seen just that mechanically gracious bow and +smile? They were very familiar to him. + +As the train slowly left the station he saw the lady in the veil once +more. She was alone with her maid, and was looking out of the window +at nothing in particular, and the station-master, who was watching the +train go, chanced to meet her glance. Again there was the same smile +and bow, quite mechanical, quite absent-minded, distinctly gracious. +The station-master stared in astonishment after the receding carriage. +The detective roused himself from his reverie sufficiently to step +forward and neatly swing himself into the guard's van: there being +nothing to do in Dover he thought he would go to London. + +I believe I have forgotten, in the heat of narration, to say that the +fugitives were bound for Somersetshire. Fritzing had been a great +walker in the days when he lived in England, and among other places +had walked about Somersetshire. It is a pleasant county; fruitful, +leafy, and mild. Down in the valleys myrtles and rhododendrons have +been known to flower all through the winter. Devonshire junkets and +Devonshire cider are made there with the same skill precisely as in +Devonshire; and the parts of it that lie round Exmoor are esteemed by +those who hunt. + +Fritzing quite well remembered certain villages buried among the +hills, miles from the nearest railway, and he also remembered the +farmhouses round about these villages where he had lodged. To one of +these he had caused a friend in London to write engaging rooms for +himself and his niece, and there he proposed to stay till they should +have found the cottage the Princess had set her heart on. + +This cottage, as far as he could gather from the descriptions she +gave him from time to time, was going to be rather difficult to +find. He feared also that it would be a very insect-ridden place, +and that their calm pursuits would often be interrupted by things +like earwigs. It was to be ancient, and much thatched and latticed +and rose-overgrown. It was, too, to be very small; the smallest of +labourers' cottages. Yet though so small and so ancient it was to +have several bathrooms--one for each of them, so he understood; +"For," said the Princess, "if Annalise hasn't a bathroom how can +she have a bath? And if she hasn't had a bath how can I let her +touch me?" + +"Perhaps," said Fritzing, bold in his ignorance of Annalise's real +nature, "she could wash at the pump. People do, I believe, in the +country. I remember there were always pumps." + +"But do pumps make you clean enough?" inquired the Princess, +doubtfully. + +"We can try her with one. I fancy, ma'am, it will be less difficult +to find a cottage that has only two bathrooms than one that has three. +And I know there are invariably pumps." + +Searching his memory he could recollect no bathrooms at all, but he +did not say so, and silently hoped the best. + +To the Somerset village of Symford and to the farm about a mile +outside it known as Baker's, no longer, however, belonging to Baker, +but rented by a Mr. Pearce, they journeyed down from Dover without a +break. Nothing alarming happened on the way. They were at Victoria by +five, and the Princess sat joyfully making the acquaintance of a +four-wheeler's inside for twenty minutes during which Fritzing and +Annalise got the luggage through the customs. Fritzing's goggles and +other accessories of flight inspired so much interest in the customs +that they could hardly bear to let him go and it seemed as if they +would never tire of feeling about in the harmless depths of +Priscilla's neat box. They had however ultimately to part from him, +for never was luggage more innocent; and rattling past Buckingham +Palace on the way to Paddington Priscilla blew it a cheerful kiss, +symbolic of a happiness too great to bear ill-will. Later on Windsor +Castle would have got one too, if it had not been so dark that she +could not see it. The detective, who felt himself oddly drawn towards +the trio, went down into Somersetshire by the same train as they did, +but parted from them at Ullerton, the station you get out at when you +go to Symford. He did not consider it necessary to go further; and +taking a bedroom at Ullerton in the same little hotel from which +Fritzing had ordered the conveyance that was to drive them their last +seven miles he went to bed, it being close on midnight, with Mr. +Pearce's address neatly written in his notebook. + +This, at present, is the last of the detective. I will leave him +sleeping with a smile on his face, and follow the dog-cart as it drove +along that beautiful road between wooded hills that joins Ullerton to +Symford, on its way to Baker's Farm. + +At the risk of exhausting Priscilla Fritzing had urged pushing on +without a stop, and Priscilla made no objection. This is how it came +about that the ostler attached to the Ullerton Arms found himself +driving to Symford in the middle of the night. He could not recollect +ever having done such a thing before, and the memory of it would be +quite unlikely to do anything but remain fixed in his mind till his +dying day. Fritzing was a curiously conspicuous fugitive. + +It was a clear and beautiful night, and the stars twinkled brightly +over the black tree-tops. Down in the narrow gorge through which the +road runs they could not feel the keen wind that was blowing up on +Exmoor. The waters of the Sym, whose windings they followed, gurgled +over their stones almost as quietly as in summer. There was a fresh +wet smell, consoling and delicious after the train, the smell of +country puddles and country mud and dank dead leaves that had been +rained upon all day. Fritzing sat with the Princess on the back seat +of the dog-cart, and busied himself keeping the rug well round her, +the while his soul was full of thankfulness that their journey should +after all have been so easy. He was weary in body, but very jubilant +in mind. The Princess was so weary in body that she had no mind at +all, and dozed and nodded and threatened to fall out, and would have +fallen out a dozen times but for Fritzing's watchfulness. As for +Annalise, who can guess what thoughts were hers while she was being +jogged along to Baker's? That they were dark I have not a doubt. No +one had told her this was to be a journey into the Ideal; no one had +told her anything but that she was promoted to travelling with the +Princess and that she would be well paid so long as she held her +tongue. She had never travelled before, yet there were some +circumstances of the journey that could not fail to strike the most +inexperienced. This midnight jogging in the dog-cart, for instance. It +was the second night spent out of bed, and all day long she had +expected every moment would end the journey, and the end, she had +naturally supposed, would be a palace. There would be a palace, and +warmth, and light, and food, and welcome, and honour, and appreciative +lacqueys with beautiful white silk calves--alas, Annalise's ideal, her +one ideal, was to be for ever where there were beautiful white silk +calves. The road between Ullerton and Symford conveyed to her mind no +assurance whatever of the near neighbourhood of such things; and as +for the dog-cart--"_Himmel_," said Annalise to herself, whenever she +thought of the dog-cart. + +Their journey ended at two in the morning. Almost exactly at that hour +they stopped at the garden gate of Baker's Farm, and a woman came out +with a lantern and helped them down and lighted them up the path to +the porch. The Princess, who could hardly make her eyes open +themselves, leaned on Fritzing's arm in a sort of confused dream, got +somehow up a little staircase that seemed extraordinarily steep and +curly, and was sound asleep in a knobbly bed before Annalise realized +she had done with her. Priscilla had forgotten all about the Ideal, +all about her eager aspirations. Sleep, dear Mother with the cool +hand, had smoothed them all away, the whole rubbish of those daylight +toys, and for the next twelve hours sat tenderly by her pillow, her +finger on her lips. + + + + +V + + +No better place than Symford can be imagined for those in search of a +spot, picturesque and with creepers, where they may spend quiet years +guiding their feet along the way of peace. It is one of the prettiest +of English villages. It does and has and is everything the ideal +village ought to. It nestles, for instance, in the folds of hills; it +is very small, and far away from other places; its cottages are old +and thatched; its little inn is the inn of a story-book, with a quaint +signboard and an apparently genial landlord; its church stands +beautifully on rising ground among ancient trees, besides being hoary; +its vicarage is so charming that to see it makes you long to marry a +vicar; its vicar is venerable, with an eye so mild that to catch it is +to receive a blessing; pleasant little children with happy morning +faces pick butter-cups and go a-nutting at the proper seasons and +curtsey to you as you pass; old women with clean caps and suitable +faces read their Bibles behind latticed windows; hearths are scrubbed +and snowy; appropriate kettles simmer on hobs; climbing roses and trim +gardens are abundant; and it has a lady bountiful of so untiring a +kindness that each of its female inhabitants gets a new flannel +petticoat every Christmas and nothing is asked of her in return but +that she shall, during the ensuing year, be warm and happy and good. +The same thing was asked, I believe, of the male inhabitants, who get +comforters, and also that they should drink seltzer-water whenever +their lower natures urged them to drink rum; but comforters are so +much smaller than petticoats that the men of Symford's sense of +justice rebelled, and since the only time they ever felt really warm +and happy and good was when they were drinking rum they decided that +on the whole it would be more in accordance with their benefactress's +wishes to go on doing it. + +Lady Shuttleworth, the lady from whom these comforters and petticoats +proceeded, was a just woman who required no more of others than she +required of herself, and who was busy and kind, and, I am sure happy +and good, on cold water. But then she did not like rum; and I suppose +there are few things quite so easy as not to drink rum if you don't +like it. She lived at Symford Hall, two miles away in another fold of +the hills, and managed the estate of her son who was a minor--at this +time on the very verge of ceasing to be one--with great precision and +skill. All the old cottages in Symford were his, and so were the farms +dotted about the hills. Any one, therefore, seeking a cottage would +have to address himself to the Shuttleworth agent, Mr. Dawson, who too +lived in a house so picturesque that merely to see it made you long +either to poison or to marry Mr. Dawson--preferably, I think, to +poison him. + +These facts, stripped of the redundances with which I have +garnished them, were told Fritzing on the day after his arrival +at Baker's Farm by Mrs. Pearce the younger, old Mr. Pearce's +daughter-in-law, a dreary woman with a rent in her apron, who +brought in the bacon for Fritzing's solitary breakfast and the chop +for his solitary luncheon. She also brought in a junket so liquid +that the innocent Fritzing told her politely that he always drank +his milk out of a glass when he did drink milk, but that, as he +never did drink milk, she need not trouble to bring him any. + +"Sir," said Mrs. Pearce in her slow sad voice, after a glance at his +face in search of sarcasm, "'tisn't milk. 'Tis a junket that hasn't +junked." + +"Indeed?" said Fritzing, bland because ignorant. + +Mrs. Pearce fidgeted a little, wrestling perhaps with her conscience, +before she added defiantly, "It wouldn't." + +"Indeed?" said Fritzing once more; and he looked at the junket through +his spectacles with that air of extreme and intelligent interest with +which persons who wish to please look at other people's babies. + +He was desirous of being on good terms with Symford, and had been very +pleasant all the morning to Mrs. Pearce. That mood in which, shaken +himself to his foundations by anxiety, he had shaken his fist to +Annalise, was gone as completely as yesterday's wet mist. The golden +sunshine of October lay beautifully among the gentle hills and seemed +to lie as well in Fritzing's heart. He had gone through so much for so +many weeks that merely to be free from worries for the moment filled +him with thankfulness. So may he feel who has lived through days of +bodily torture in that first hour when his pain has gone: beaten, +crushed, and cowed by suffering, he melts with gratitude because he is +being left alone, he gasps with a relief so utter that it is almost +abject praise of the Cruelty that has for a little loosened its hold. +In this abjectly thankful mood was Fritzing when he found his worst +agonies were done. What was to come after he really for the moment did +not care. It was sufficient to exist untormented and to let his soul +stretch itself in the privacy and peace of Baker's. He and his +Princess had made a great and noble effort towards the realization of +dreams that he felt were lofty, and the gods so far had been with +them. All that first morning in Symford he had an oddly restful, +unburdened feeling, as of having been born again and born aged +twenty-five; and those persons who used to be twenty-five themselves +will perhaps agree that this must have been rather nice. He did not +stir from the parlour lest the Princess should come down and want him, +and he spent the waiting hours getting information from Mrs. Pearce +and informing her mind in his turn with just that amount of knowledge +about himself and his niece that he wished Symford to possess. With +impressive earnestness he told her his name was Neumann, repeating it +three times, almost as if in defiance of contradiction; that his niece +was his deceased brother's child; that her Christian name--here he was +swept away by inspiration--was Maria-Theresa; that he had saved enough +as a teacher of German in London to retire into the country; and that +he was looking for a cottage in which to spend his few remaining +years. + +It all sounded very innocent. Mrs. Pearce listened with her head on +one side and with something of the air of a sparrow who doesn't feel +well. She complimented him sadly on the fluency of his English, and +told him with a sigh that in no cottage would he ever again find the +comforts with which Baker's was now surrounding him. + +Fritzing was surprised to hear her say so, for his impressions had +all been the other way. As far as he, inexperienced man, could +tell, Baker's was a singularly draughty and unscrubbed place. He +smelt that its fires smoked, he heard that its windows rattled, he +knew that its mattresses had lumps in them, and he saw that its +food was inextricably mixed up with objects of a black and gritty +nature. But her calm face and sorrowful assurance shook the +evidence of his senses, and gazing at her in silence over his +spectacles a feeling crept dimly across his brain that if the +future held many dealings with women like Mrs. Pearce he was going +to be very helpless. + +Priscilla appeared while he was gazing. She was dressed for going out +and came in buttoning her gloves, and I suppose it was a long time +since Baker's had seen anything quite so radiant in the way of nieces +within its dusty walls. She had on the clothes she had travelled in, +for a search among the garments bought by Fritzing had resulted in +nothing but a sitting on the side of the bed and laughing tears, so it +was clearly not the clothes that made her seem all of a sparkle with +lovely youth and blitheness. Kunitz would not have recognized its +ivory Princess in this bright being. She was the statue come to life, +the cool perfection kissed by expectation into a bewitching living +woman. I doubt whether Fritzing had ever noticed her beauty while at +Kunitz. He had seen her every day from childhood on, and it is +probable that his attention being always riveted on her soul he had +never really known when her body left off being lanky and freckled. He +saw it now, however; he would have been blind if he had not; and it +set him vibrating with the throb of a new responsibility. Mrs. Pearce +saw it too, and stared astonished at this oddly inappropriate niece. +She stared still more when Fritzing, jumping up from his chair, bent +over the hand Priscilla held out and kissed it with a devotion and +respect wholly absent from the manner of Mrs. Pearce's own uncles. +She, therefore, withdrew into her kitchen, and being a person of +little culture crudely expressed her wonder by thinking "Lor." To +which, after an interval of vague meanderings among saucepans, she +added the elucidation, "Foreigners." + +Half an hour later Lady Shuttleworth's agent, Mr. Dawson, was +disturbed at his tea by the announcement that a gentleman wished to +speak to him. Mr. Dawson was a bluff person, and something of a +tyrant, for he reigned supreme in Symford after Lady Shuttleworth, and +to reign supreme over anybody, even over a handful of cottagers, does +bring out what a man may have in him of tyrant. Another circumstance +that brings this out is the possession of a meek wife; and Mr. +Dawson's wife was really so very meek that I fear when the Day of +Reckoning comes much of this tyranny will be forgiven him and laid to +her account. Mr. Dawson, in fact, represented an unending series of +pitfalls set along his wife's path by Fate, into every one of which +she fell; and since we are not supposed, on pain of punishment, to do +anything but keep very upright on our feet as we trudge along the +dusty road of life, no doubt all those amiable stumblings will be +imputed to her in the end for sin. "This man was handed over to you +quite nice and kind," one can imagine Justice saying in an awful +voice; "his intentions to start with were beyond reproach. Do you not +remember, on the eve of your wedding, how he swore with tears he would +be good to you? Look, now, what you have made of him. You have +prevented his being good to you by your own excessive goodness to +him. You have spent your time nourishing his bad qualities. Though he +still swears, he never does it with tears. Do you not know the +enormous, the almost insurmountable difficulty there is in not +bullying meekness, in not responding to the cringer with a kick? Weak +and unteachable woman, away with you." + +Certainly it is a great responsibility taking a man into one's life. +It is also an astonishment to me that I write thus in detail of Mrs. +Dawson, for she has nothing whatever to do with the story. + +"Who is it?" asked Mr. Dawson; immediately adding, "Say I'm engaged." + +"He gave no name, sir. He says he wishes to see you on business." + +"Business! I don't do business at tea time. Send him away." + +But Fritzing, for he it was, would not be sent away. Priscilla had +seen the cottage of her dreams, seen it almost at once on entering the +village, fallen instantly and very violently in love with it +regardless of what its inside might be, and had sent him to buy it. +She was waiting while he bought it in the adjoining churchyard sitting +on a tombstone, and he could neither let her sit there indefinitely +nor dare, so great was her eagerness to have the thing, go back +without at least a hope of it. Therefore he would not be sent away. +"Your master's in," he retorted, when the maid suggested he should +depart, "and I must see him. Tell him my business is pressing." + +"Will you give me your card, sir?" said the maid, wavering before +this determination. + +Fritzing, of course, had no card, so he wrote his new name in pencil +on a leaf of his notebook, adding his temporary address. + +"Tell Mr. Dawson," he said, tearing it out and giving it to her, "that +if he is so much engaged as to be unable to see me I shall go direct +to Lady Shuttleworth. My business will not wait." + +"Show him in, then," growled Mr. Dawson on receiving this message; for +he feared Lady Shuttleworth every bit as much as Mrs. Dawson feared +him. + +Fritzing was accordingly shown into the room used as an office, and +was allowed to cool himself there while Mr. Dawson finished his tea. +The thought of his Princess waiting on a tombstone that must be +growing colder every moment, for the sun was setting, made him at last +so impatient that he rang the bell. + +"Tell your master," he said when the maid appeared, "that I am now +going to Lady Shuttleworth." And he seized his hat and was making +indignantly for the door when Mr. Dawson appeared. + +Mr. Dawson was wiping his mouth. "You seem to be in a great hurry," he +said; and glancing at the slip of paper in his hand added, "Mr. +Newman." + +"Sir," said Fritzing, bowing with a freezing dignity, "I am." + +"Well, so am I. Sit down. What can I do for you? Time's money, you +know, and I'm a busy man. You're German, ain't you?" + +"I am, sir. My name is Neumann. I am here--" + +"Oh, Noyman, is it? I thought it was Newman." And he glanced again at +the paper. + +"Sir," said Fritzing, with a wave of his hand, "I am here to buy a +cottage, and the sooner we come to terms the better. I will not waste +valuable moments considering niceties of pronunciation." + +Mr. Dawson stared. Then he said, "Buy a cottage?" + +"Buy a cottage, sir. I understand that practically the whole of +Symford is the property of the Shuttleworth family, and that you are +that family's accredited agent. I therefore address myself in the +first instance to you. Now, sir, if you are unable, either through +disinclination or disability, to do business with me, kindly state the +fact at once, and I will straightway proceed to Lady Shuttleworth +herself. I have no time to lose." + +"I'm blessed if I have either, Mr."--he glanced again at the +paper--"Newman." + +"Neumann, sir," corrected Fritzing irritably. + +"All right--Noyman. But why don't you write it then? You've written +Newman as plain as a doorpost." + +"Sir, I am not here to exercise you in the proper pronunciation of +foreign tongues. These matters, of an immense elementariness I must +add, should be and generally are acquired by all persons of any +education in their childhood at school." + +Mr. Dawson stared. "You're a long-winded chap," he said, "but I'm +blessed if I know what you're driving at. Suppose you tell me what +you've come for, Mr."--he referred as if from habit to the +paper--"Newman." + +"_Neu_mann, sir," said Fritzing very loud, for he was greatly +irritated by Mr. Dawson's manner and appearance. + +"_Noy_mann, then," said Mr. Dawson, equally loudly; indeed it was +almost a shout. And he became possessed at the same instant of what +was known to Fritzing as a red head, which is the graphic German way +of describing the glow that accompanies wrath. "Look here," he said, +"if you don't say what you've got to say and have done with it you'd +better go. I'm not the chap for the fine-worded game, and I'm hanged +if I'll be preached to in my own house. I'll be hanged if I will, do +you hear?" And he brought his fist down on the table in a fashion very +familiar to Mrs. Dawson and the Symford cottagers. + +"Sir, your manners--" said Fritzing, rising and taking up his hat. + +"Never mind my manners, Mr. Newman." + +"_Neu_mann, sir!" roared Fritzing. + +"Confound you, sir," was Mr. Dawson's irrelevant reply. + +"Sir, confound _you_," said Fritzing, clapping on his hat. "And let me +tell you that I am going at once to Lady Shuttleworth and shall +recommend to her most serious consideration the extreme desirability +of removing you, sir." + +"Removing me! Where the deuce to?" + +"Sir, I care not whither so long as it is hence," cried Fritzing, +passionately striding to the door. + +Mr. Dawson lay back in his chair and gasped. The man was plainly mad; +but still Lady Shuttleworth might--you never know with women--"Look +here--hie, you! Mr. Newman!" he called, for Fritzing had torn open the +door and was through it. + +"_Neu_mann, sir," Fritzing hurled back at him over his shoulder. + +"Lady Shuttleworth won't see you, Mr. Noyman. She won't on principle." + +Fritzing wavered. + +"Everything goes through my hands. You'll only have your walk for +nothing. Come back and tell me what it is you want." + +"Sir, I will only negotiate with you," said Fritzing down the +passage--and Mrs. Dawson hearing him from the drawing-room folded her +hands in fear and wonder--"if you will undertake at least to imitate +the manners of a gentleman." + +"Come, come, you musn't misunderstand me," said Mr. Dawson getting up +and going to the door. "I'm a plain man, you know--" + +"Then, sir, all I can say is that I object to plain men." + +"I say, who are you? One would think you were a duke or somebody, +you're so peppery. Dressed up"--Mr. Dawson glanced at the suit of +pedagogic black into which Fritzing had once more relapsed--"dressed +up as a street preacher." + +"I am not dressed up as anything, sir," said Fritzing coming in rather +hurriedly. "I am a retired teacher of the German tongue, and have come +down from London in search of a cottage in which to spend my remaining +years. That cottage I have now found here in your village, and I have +come to inquire its price. I wish to buy it as quickly as possible." + +"That's all very well, Mr.--oh all right, all right, I won't say it. +But why on earth don't you write it properly, then? It's this paper's +set me wrong. I was going to say we've got no cottages here for sale. +And look here, if that's all you are, a retired teacher, I'll trouble +you not to get schoolmastering me again." + +"I really think, sir," said Fritzing stretching his hand towards his +hat, "that it is better I should try to obtain an interview with Lady +Shuttleworth, for I fear you are constitutionally incapable of +carrying on a business conversation with the requisite decent +self-command." + +"Pooh--you'll get nothing out of her. She'll send you back to me. Why, +you'd drive her mad in five minutes with that tongue of yours. If you +want anything I'm your man. Only let's get at what you do want, +without all these confounded dictionary words. Which cottage is it?" + +"It is the small cottage," said Fritzing mastering his anger, +"adjoining the churchyard. It stands by itself, and is separated from +the road by an extremely miniature garden. It is entirely covered by +creeping plants which I believe to be roses." + +"That's a couple." + +"So much the better." + +"And they're let. One to the shoemaker, and the other to old mother +Shaw." + +"Accommodation could no doubt be found for the present tenants in some +other house, and I am prepared to indemnify them handsomely. Might I +inquire the number of rooms the cottages contain?" + +"Two apiece, and a kitchen and attic. Coal-hole and pig-stye in the +back yard. Also a pump. But they're not for sale, so what's the use--" + +"Sir, do they also contain bathrooms?" + +"Bathrooms?" Mr. Dawson stared with so excessively stupid a stare that +Fritzing, who heaver could stand stupidity, got angry again. + +"I said bathrooms, sir," he said, raising his voice, "and I believe +with perfect distinctness." + +"Oh, I heard you right enough. I was only wondering if you were trying +to be funny." + +"Is this a business conversation or is it not?" cried Fritzing, in his +turn bringing his fist down on the table. + +"Look here, what do you suppose people who live in such places want?" + +"I imagine cleanliness and decency as much as anybody else." + +"Well, I've never been asked for one with a bathroom in my life." + +"You are being asked now," said Fritzing, glaring at him, "but you +wilfully refuse to reply. From your manner, however, I conclude that +they contain none. If so, no doubt I could quickly have some built." + +"Some? Why, how many do you want?" + +"I have a niece, sir, and she must have her own." + +Mr. Dawson again stared with what seemed to Fritzing so deplorably +foolish a stare. "I never heard of such a thing," he said. + +"What did you never hear of, sir?" + +"I never heard of one niece and one uncle in a labourer's cottage +wanting a bathroom apiece." + +"Apparently you have never heard of very many things," retorted +Fritzing angrily. "My niece desires to have her own bathroom, and it +is no one's business but hers." + +"She must be a queer sort of girl." + +"Sir," cried Fritzing, "leave my niece out of the conversation." + +"Oh all right--all right. I'm sure I don't want to talk about your +niece. But as for the cottages, it's no good wanting those or any +others, for you won't get 'em." + +"And pray why not, if I offer a good price?" + +"Lady Shuttleworth won't sell. Why should she? She'd only have to +build more to replace them. Her people must live somewhere. And she'll +never turn out old Shaw and the shoemaker to make room for a couple of +strangers." + +Fritzing was silent, for his heart was sinking. "Suppose, sir," he +said after a pause, during which his eyes had been fixed thoughtfully +on the carpet and Mr. Dawson had been staring at him and whistling +softly but very offensively, "suppose I informed Lady Shuttleworth of +my willingness to build two new cottages--excellent new cottages--for +the tenants of these old ones, and pay her a good price as well for +these, do you think she would listen to me?" + +"I say, the schoolmastering business must be a rattling good one. I'm +blessed if I know what you want to live in 'em for if money's so +little object with you. They're shabby and uncomfortable, and an old +chap like you--I mean, a man of your age, who's made his little pile, +and wants luxuries like plenty of bathrooms--ought to buy something +tight and snug. Good roof and electric light. Place for horse and +trap. And settle down and be a gentleman." + +"My niece," said Fritzing, brushing aside these suggestions with an +angrily contemptuous wave of his hand, "has taken a fancy--I may say +an exceedingly violent fancy--to these two cottages. What is all this +talk of traps and horses? My niece wishes for these cottages. I shall +do my utmost to secure them for her." + +"Well, all I can say is she must be a--" + +"Silence, sir!" cried Fritzing. + +Mr. Dawson got up and opened the door very wide. + +"Look here," he said, "there's no use going on talking. I've stood +more from you than I've stood from any one for years. Take my advice +and get back home and keep quiet for a bit. I've got no cottages, and +Lady Shuttleworth would shut the door in your face when you got to the +bathroom part. Where are you staying? At the Cock and Hens? +Oh--ah--yes--at Baker's. Well, ask Mrs. Pearce to take great care of +you. Tell her I said so. And good afternoon to you, Mr. Noyman. You +see I've got the name right now--just as we're going to part." + +"Before I go," said Fritzing, glaring down at Mr. Dawson, "let me +tell you that I have seldom met an individual who unites in his +manner so singularly offensive a combination of facetiousness and +hectoring as yourself. I shall certainly describe your conduct to +Lady Shuttleworth, and not, I hope, in unconvincing language. Sir, +good afternoon." + +"By-bye," said Mr. Dawson, grinning and waving a pleasant hand. +Several bathrooms indeed! He need have no fears of Lady Shuttleworth. +"Good luck to you with Lady S.!" he called after him cheerily. Then he +went to his wife and bade her see to it that the servant never let +Fritzing in again, explaining that he was not only a foreigner but a +lunatic, and that the mixture was so bad that it hardly bore thinking +of. + + + + +VI + + +While Fritzing was losing his temper in this manner at the agent's, +Priscilla sat up in the churchyard in the sun. The Symford churchyard, +its church, and the pair of coveted cottages, are on a little eminence +rising like an island out of the valley. Sitting under the trees of +this island Priscilla amused herself taking in the quiet scene at her +feet and letting her thoughts wander down happy paths. The valley was +already in shadow, but the tops of the hills on the west side of it +were golden in the late afternoon sunshine. From the cottage chimneys +smoke went up straight and blue into the soft sky, rooks came and +settled over her head in the branches of the elms, and every now and +then a yellow leaf would fall slowly at her feet. Priscilla's heart +was filled with peace. She was going to be so good, she was going to +lead such a clean and beautiful life, so quiet, so helpful to the +poor, so hidden, so cleared of all confusions. Never again would she +need to pose; never again be forced into conflict with her soul. She +had chosen the better part; she had given up everything and followed +after wisdom; and her life would be her justification. Who but knows +the inward peace that descends upon him who makes good resolutions +and abides with him till he suddenly discovers they have all been +broken? And what does the breaking of them matter, since it is their +making that is so wholesome, so bracing to the soul, bringing with it +moments of such extreme blessedness that he misses much who gives it +up for fear he will not keep them? Such blessed moments of lifting up +of the heart were Priscilla's as she sat in the churchyard waiting, +invisibly surrounded by the most beautiful resolutions it is possible +to imagine. The Rev. Edward Morrison, the vicar of whom I have spoken +as venerable, coming slowly up the path leaning on his son's arm with +the intention of going into the church in search of a mislaid +sermon-book, saw Priscilla's thoughtful back under the elm-tree and +perceived at once that it was a back unknown to him. He knew all the +Symford backs, and tourists hardly ever coming there, and never at +that time of the year, it could not, he thought, be the back of a +tourist. Nor could it belong to any one staying with the +Shuttleworths, for he had been there that very afternoon and had found +Lady Shuttleworth rejoicing over the brief period of solitude she and +her son were enjoying before the stream of guests for the coming of +age festivities began. + +"Robin, what girl is that?" asked the vicar of his son. + +"I'm sure I don't know," said Robin. + +"She'll catch cold," said the vicar. + +"I dare say," said Robin. + +When they came out of the church ten minutes later Priscilla had not +moved. + +"She'll certainly catch cold," said the vicar, concerned. + +"I should think it very likely," said Robin, locking the door. + +"She's sitting on a stone." + +"Yes, on old Dawson's slab." + +"Unwise," said the vicar. + +"Profane," said Robin. + +The vicar took his boy's arm again--the boy, head and shoulders taller +than his father, was down from Cambridge for the vacation then drawing +to its close--and moved, I fear, by the same impulse of pure curiosity +they walked together down the path that would take them right in front +of the young woman on the slab. + +Priscilla was lost in the bright dreams she was weaving, and looked up +with the radiance of them still in her eyes at the two figures between +her and the sunset. + +"My dear young lady," said the vicar kindly, "are you not afraid of +catching cold? The evenings are so damp now, and you have chosen a +very cold seat." + +"I don't feel cold," said Priscilla, smiling at this vision of +benevolence. + +"But I do think you ought not to linger here," said the vicar. + +"I am waiting for my uncle. He's gone to buy a cottage, and ought to +be back, really, by now." + +"Buy a cottage?" repeated the vicar. "My dear young lady, you say +that in the same voice you might use to tell me your uncle had gone to +buy a bun." + +"What is a bun?" asked Priscilla. + +"A bun?" repeated the vicar bewildered, for nobody had ever asked him +that before. + +"Oh I know--" said Priscilla quickly, faintly flushing, "it's a thing +you eat. Is there a special voice for buns?" + +"There is for a thing so--well, so momentous as the buying of a +cottage." + +"Is it momentous? It seems to me so nice and natural." + +She looked up at the vicar and his son, calmly scrutinizing first one +and then the other, and they stood looking down at her; and each time +her eyes rested on Robin they found his staring at her with the +frankest expression of surprise and admiration. + +"Pardon me," said the vicar, "if I seem inquisitive, but is it one of +the Symford cottages your uncle wishes to buy? I did not know any were +for sale." + +"It's that one by the gate," said Priscilla, slightly turning her head +in its direction. + +"Is it for sale? Dear me, I never knew Lady Shuttleworth sell a +cottage yet." + +"I don't know yet if she wants to," said Priscilla; "but Fr--, my +uncle, will give any price. And I must have it. I shall--I shall be +ill if I don't." + +The vicar gazed at her upturned face in perplexity. "Dear me," he +said, after a slight pause. + +"We must live somewhere," remarked Priscilla. + +"Of course you must," said Robin, suddenly and so heartily that she +examined his eager face in more detail. + +"Quite so, quite so," said the vicar. "Are you staying here at +present?" + +"Never at the Cock and Hens?" broke in Robin. + +"We're at Baker's Farm." + +"Ah yes--poor Mrs. Pearce will be glad of lodgers. Poor soul, poor +soul." + +"She's a very dirty soul," said Robin; and Priscilla's eyes flashed +over him with a sudden sparkle. + +"Is she the soul with the holes in its apron?" she asked. + +"I expect there are some there. There generally are," said Robin. + +They both laughed; but the vicar gently shook his head. "Ah well, poor +thing," he said, "she has an uphill life of it. They don't seem +able--they don't seem to understand the art of making both ends meet." + +"It's a great art," said Robin. + +"Perhaps they could be helped," said Priscilla, already arranging in +her mind to go and do it. + +"They do not belong to the class one can help. And Lady Shuttleworth, +I am afraid, disapproves of shiftless people too much to do anything +in the way of reducing the rent." + +"Lady Shuttleworth can't stand people who don't look happy and don't +mend their apron," said Robin. + +"But it's her own apron," objected Priscilla. + +"Exactly," said Robin. + +"Well, well, I hope they'll make you comfortable," said the vicar; and +having nothing more that he could well say without having to confess +to himself that he was inquisitive, he began to draw Robin away. "We +shall see you and your uncle on Sunday in church, I hope," he said +benevolently, and took off his hat and showed his snow-white hair. + +Priscilla hesitated. She was, it is true, a Protestant, it having been +arranged on her mother's marriage with the Catholic Grand Duke that +every alternate princess born to them was to belong to the Protestant +faith, and Priscilla being the alternate princess it came about that +of the Grand Duke's three children she alone was not a Catholic. +Therefore she could go to church in Symford as often as she chose; but +it was Fritzing's going that made her hesitate, for Fritzing was what +the vicar would have called a godless man, and never went to church. + +"You are a member of the Church of England?" inquired the vicar, +seeing her hesitate. + +"Why, pater, she's not English," burst out Robin. + +"Not English?" echoed the vicar. + +"Is my English so bad?" asked Priscilla, smiling. + +"It's frightfully good," said Robin; "but the 'r's,' you know--" + +"Ah, yes. No, I'm not English. I'm German." + +"Indeed?" said the vicar, with all the interest that attaches to any +unusual phenomenon, and a German in Symford was of all phenomena the +most unusual. "My dear young lady, how remarkable. I don't remember +ever having met a German before in these parts. Your English is really +surprising. I should never have noticed--my boy's ears are quicker +than my old ones. Will you think me unpardonably curious if I ask what +made you pitch on Symford as a place to live in?" + +"My uncle passed through it years ago and thought it so pretty that he +determined to spend his old age here." + +"And you, I suppose, are going to take care of him." + +"Yes," said Priscilla, "for we only"--she looked from one to the other +and thought herself extremely clever--"we only have each other in the +whole wide world." + +"Ah, poor child--you are an orphan." + +"I didn't say so," said Priscilla quickly, turning red; she who had +always been too proud to lie, how was she going to lie now to this +aged saint with the snow-white hair? + +"Ah well, well," said the vicar, vaguely soothing. "We shall see you +on Sunday perhaps. There is no reason that I know of why a member of +the German Church should not assist at the services of the Church of +England." And he took off his hat again, and tried to draw Robin away. + +But Robin lingered, and Priscilla saw so much bright curiosity in his +eyes that she felt she was giving an impression of mysteriousness; and +this being the last thing she wanted to do she thought she had better +explain a little--always a dangerous course to take--and she said, "My +uncle taught languages for years, and is old now and tired, and we +both long for the country and to be quiet. He taught me +English--that's why it's as good as it is. His name"--She was carried +away by the desire to blow out that questioning light in Robin's +eyes--"his name is Schultz." + +The vicar bowed slightly, and Robin asked with an air of great +politeness but still with that light in his eyes if he were to address +her, then, as Miss Schultz. + +"I'm afraid so," said Priscilla, regretfully. It really sounded gross. +Miss Schultz? She might just as well have chosen something romantic +while she was about it, for Fritzing in the hurry of many cares had +settled nothing yet with her about a name. + +Robin stared at her very hard, her answer seemed to him so odd. He +stared still more when she looked up with the air of one who has a +happy thought and informed him that her Christian name was Ethel. + +"Ethel?" echoed Robin. + +"It's a very pretty name, I think," said Priscilla, looking pleased. + +"Our housemaid's called Ethel, and so is the little girl that wheels +the gardener's baby's perambulator," was Robin's impetuous comment. + +"That doesn't make it less pretty," said Priscilla, frowning. + +"Surely," interrupted the vicar mildly, "Ethel is not a German name?" + +"I was christened after my mother," said Priscilla gently; and this +was strictly true, for the deceased Grand Duchess had also been +Priscilla. Then a feeling came over her that she was getting into +those depths where persons with secrets begin to flounder as a +preliminary to letting them out, and seized with panic she got up off +the slab. + +"You are half English, then," said Robin triumphantly, his bright eyes +snapping. He looked very bold and masterful staring straight at her, +his head thrown back, his handsome face twinkling with interest. But a +person of Priscilla's training could not possibly be discomposed by +the stare of any Robin, however masterful; had it not been up to now +her chief function in life to endure being stared at with graceful +indifference? "I did not say so," she said, glancing briefly at him; +and including both father and son in a small smile composed +indescribably of graciousness and chill she added, "It really is damp +here--I don't think I'll wait for my uncle," and slightly bowing +walked away without more ado. + +She walked very slowly, her skirts gathered loosely in one hand, every +line of her body speaking of the most absolute self-possession and +unapproachableness. Never had the two men seen any one quite so calm. +They watched her in silence as she went up the path and out at the +gate; then Robin looked down at his father and drew his hand more +firmly through his arm and said with a slight laugh, "Come on, pater, +let's go home. We're dismissed." + +"By a most charming young lady," said the vicar, smiling. + +"By a very cool one," said Robin, shrugging his shoulders, for he did +not like being dismissed. + +"Yes--oddly self-possessed for her age," agreed the vicar. + +"I wonder if all German teacher's nieces are like that," said Robin +with another laugh. + +"Few can be so blest by nature, I imagine." + +"Oh, I don't mean faces. She is certainly prettier by a good bit than +most girls." + +"She is quite unusually lovely, young man. Don't quibble." + +"Miss Schultz--Ethel Schultz," murmured Robin; adding under his +breath, "Good Lord." + +"She can't help her name. These things are thrust upon one." + +"It's a beastly common name. Macgrigor, who was a year in Dresden, +told me everybody in Germany is called Schultz." + +"Except those who are not." + +"Now, pater, you're being clever again," said Robin, smiling down at +his father. + +"Here comes some one in a hurry," said the vicar, his attention +arrested by the rapidly approaching figure of a man; and, looking up, +Robin beheld Fritzing striding through the churchyard, his hat well +down over his eyes as if clapped on with unusual vigour, both hands +thrust deep in his pockets, the umbrella, without which he never, even +on the fairest of days, went out, pressed close to his side under his +arm, and his long legs taking short and profane cuts over graves and +tombstones with the indifference to decency of one immersed in +unpleasant thought. It was not the custom in Symford to leap in this +manner over its tombs; and Fritzing arriving at a point a few yards +from the vicar, and being about to continue his headlong career across +the remaining graves to the tree under which he had left Priscilla, +the vicar raised his voice and exhorted him to keep to the path. + +"Quaint-looking person," remarked Robin. "Another stranger. I say, it +can't be--no, it can't possibly be the uncle?" For he saw he was a +foreigner, yet on the other hand never was there an uncle and a niece +who had less of family likeness. + +Fritzing was the last man wilfully to break local rules or wound +susceptibilities; and pulled out of his unpleasant abstraction by the +vicar's voice he immediately desisted from continuing his short cut, +and coming onto the path removed his hat and apologized with the +politeness that was always his so long as nobody was annoying him. + +"My name is Neumann, sir," he said, introducing himself after the +German fashion, "and I sincerely beg your pardon. I was looking for a +lady, and"--he gave his spectacles a little adjusting shove as though +they were in fault, and gazing across to the elm where he had left +Priscilla sitting added with sudden anxiety--"I fear I do not see +her." + +"Do you mean Miss Schultz?" asked the vicar, looking puzzled. + +"No, sir, I do not mean Miss Schultz," said Fritzing, peering about +him at all the other trees in evident surprise and distress. + +"A lady left about five minutes ago," said Robin. + +"A tall young lady in a blue costume?" + +"Yes. Miss Schultz." + +Fritzing looked at him with some sternness. "Sir, what have I to do +with Miss Schultz?" he inquired. + +"Oh come now," said the cheerful Robin, "aren't you looking for her?" + +"I am in search of my niece, sir." + +"Yes. Miss Schultz." + +"No sir," said Fritzing, controlling himself with an effort, "not +Miss Schultz. I neither know Miss Schultz nor do I care a--" + +"Sir, sir," interposed the vicar, hastily. + +"I do not care a _pfenning_ for any Miss Schultz." + +The vicar looked much puzzled. "There was a young lady," he said, +"waiting under that tree over there for her uncle who had gone, she +said, to see Lady Shuttleworth's agent about the cottage by the gate. +She said her uncle's name was Schultz." + +"She said she was Miss Ethel Schultz," said Robin. + +"She said she was staying at Baker's Farm," said the vicar. + +Fritzing stared for a moment from one to the other, then clutching his +hat mechanically half an inch into the air turned on his heel without +another word and went with great haste out of the churchyard and down +the hill and away up the road to the farm. + +"Quaint, isn't he," said Robin as they slowly followed this flying +figure to the gate. + +"I don't understand it," said the vicar. + +"It does seem a bit mixed." + +"Did he not say his name was Neumann?" + +"He did. And he looked as if he'd fight any one who said it wasn't." + +"It is hardly credible that there should be two sets of German uncles +and nieces in Symford at one and the same time," mused the vicar. +"Even one pair is a most unusual occurrence." + +"If there are," said Robin very earnestly, "pray let us cultivate the +Schultz set and not the other." + +"I don't understand it," repeated the vicar, helplessly. + + + + +VII + + +Symford, innocent village, went to bed very early; but early as it +went long before it had got there on this evening it contained no +family that had not heard of the arrivals at Baker's Farm. From the +vicarage the news had filtered that a pretty young lady called Schultz +was staying there with her uncle; from the agent's house the news that +a lunatic called Neumann was staying there with his niece; and about +supper-time, while it was still wondering at this sudden influx of +related Germans, came the postmistress and said that the boy from +Baker's who fetched the letters knew nothing whatever of any one +called Schultz. He had, said the postmistress, grown quite angry and +forgotten the greater and by far the better part of his manners when +she asked him how he could stand there and say such things after all +the years he had attended Sunday-school and if he were not afraid the +earth would open and swallow him up, and he had stuck to it with an +obstinacy that had at length convinced her that only one uncle and +niece were at Baker's, and their name was Neumann. He added that there +was another young lady there whose name he couldn't catch, but who sat +on the edge of her bed all day crying and refusing sustenance. +Appeased by the postmistress's apologies for her first unbelief he +ended by being anxious to give all the information in his power, and +came back quite a long way to tell her that he had forgotten to say +that his mother had said that the niece's Christian name was +Maria-Theresa. + +"But what, then," said the vicar's wife to the vicar when this news +had filtered through the vicarage walls to the very sofa where she +sat, "has become of the niece called Ethel?" + +"I don't know," said the vicar, helplessly. + +"Perhaps she is the one who cried all day." + +"My dear, we met her in the churchyard." + +"Perhaps they are forgers," suggested the vicar's wife. + +"My dear?" + +"Or anarchists." + +"Kate?" + +The vicar's wife said no more, but silently made up her mind to go the +very next day and call at Baker's. It would be terrible if a bad +influence got into Symford, her parish that she had kept in such good +order for so long. Besides, she had an official position as the wife +of the vicar and could and ought to call on everybody. Her call would +not bind her, any more than the call of a district visitor would, to +invite the called-upon to her house. Perhaps they were quite decent, +and she could ask the girl up to the Tuesday evenings in the +parish-room; hardly to the vicarage, because of her daughter Netta. On +the other hand, if they looked like what she imagined anarchists or +forgers look like, she would merely leave leaflets and be out when +they returned her call. + +Robin, all unaware of his mother's thoughts, was longing to ask her to +go to Baker's and take him with her as a first step towards the +acquaintance after which his soul thirsted, but he refrained for +various discreet reasons based on an intimate knowledge of his +mother's character; and he spent the evening perfecting a plan that +should introduce him into the interior of Baker's without her help. +The plan was of a barbarous simplicity: he was going to choose an +umbrella from the collection that years had brought together in the +stand in the hall, and go boldly and ask the man Neumann if he had +dropped it in the churchyard. The man Neumann would repudiate the +umbrella, perhaps with secret indignation, but he would be forced to +pretend he was grateful, and who knew what luck might not do for him +after that? + +While Robin was plotting, and his mother was plotting, that the next +day would certainly see them inside Baker's, a third person was trying +to do exactly the same thing at Symford Hall; and this third person +was no other than Augustus, the hope of all the Shuttleworths. +Augustus--he was known to his friends briefly as Tussie--had been +riding homewards late that afternoon, very slowly, for he was an +anxious young man who spent much of his time dodging things like being +overheated, when he saw a female figure walking towards him along the +lonely road. He was up on the heath above Symford, a solitary place of +heather, and gorse bushes, and winding roads that lead with many +hesitations and delays to different parts of Exmoor, and he himself +with his back to that wild region and the sunset was going, as every +sensible person would be going at that time of the evening, in the +direction of the village and home. But where could the girl be going? +For he now saw it was a girl, and in a minute or two more that it was +a beautiful girl. With the golden glow of the sky the sun had just +left on her face Priscilla came towards him out of the gathering dusk +of approaching evening, and Tussie, who had a poetic soul, gazed at +the vision openmouthed. Seeing him, she quickened her steps, and he +took off his cap eagerly when she asked him to tell her where Symford +was. "I've lost it," she said, looking up at him. + +"I'm going through it myself," he answered. "Will you let me show you +the way?" + +"Thank you," said Priscilla; and he got off his horse and she turned +and walked beside him with the same unruffled indifference with which +she would have walked beside the Countess Disthal or in front of an +attending lacquey. Nor did she speak, for she was busy thinking of +Fritzing and hoping he was not being too anxious about her, and Tussie +(God defend his innocence) thought she was shy. So sure was he as the +minutes past that her silence was an embarrassed one that he put an +end to it by remarking on the beauty of the evening, and Priscilla who +had entirely forgotten Miss Schultz gave him the iciest look as a +reminder that it was not his place to speak first. It was lost on +Tussie as a reminder, for naturally it did not remind him of anything, +and he put it down at first to the girl's being ill at ease alone up +there with a strange man, and perhaps to her feeling she had better +keep him at arm's length. A glance at her profile however dispelled +this illusion once and for ever, for never was profile of a profounder +calm. She was walking now with her face in shadow, and the glow behind +her played strange and glorious tricks with her hair. He looked at +her, and looked, and not by the quiver of an eyelash did she show she +was aware of anybody's presence. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, +and she was deep in thought tinged with remorsefulness that she should +have come up here instead of going straight home to the farm, and by +losing her way and staying out so long have given Fritzing's careful +heart an unnecessary pang of anxiety. He had had so many, and all +because of her. But then it had been the very first time in her life +that she had ever walked alone, and if words cannot describe the joy +and triumph of it how was it likely that she should have been able to +resist the temptation to stray aside up a lovely little lane that +lured her on and on from one bend to another till it left her at last +high up, breathless and dazzled, on the edge of the heath, with +Exmoor rolling far away in purple waves to the sunset and all the +splendour of the evening sky in her face? She had gone on, fascinated +by the beauty of the place, and when she wanted to turn back found she +had lost herself. Then appeared Sir Augustus to set her right, and +with a brief thought of him as a useful person on a nice horse she +fell into sober meditations as to the probable amount of torture her +poor Fritzi was going through, and Augustus ceased to exist for her as +completely as a sign-post ceases to exist for him who has taken its +advice and passed on. + +He looked at her, and looked, and looked again. He had never seen any +one quite so beautiful, and certainly never any one with such an air +of extreme detachment. He was twenty-one and much inclined to poetry, +and he thought as she walked beside him so tall and straight and +aloof, with the nimbus of flaming hair and the noble little head and +slightly stern brow that she looked like nothing less than a young +saint of God. + +Tussie was not bold like Robin. He was a gentle youth who loved quiet +things, quiet places, placid people, kind dogs, books, canaries even, +if they did not sing too loud. He was sensitive about himself, being +small and weakly, and took, as I have said, great care of what he had +of health, such care indeed that some of his robust friends called him +Fussie. He hated the idea of coming of age and of having a great deal +of money and a great many active duties and responsibilities. His +dream was to be left in peace to write his verses; to get away into +some sweet impossible wilderness, and sit there singing with as much +of the spirit of Omar Kayyam as could reasonably be expected to +descend on a youth who only drank water. He was not bold, I say; and +after that one quelling glance from the young saint's eyes did not +dare speak again for a long while. But they were getting near Symford; +they were halfway down the hill; he could not let her slip away +perhaps suddenly from his side into the shadows without at least +trying to find out where she was staying. He looked at her soft kind +mouth and opened his own to speak. He looked at her stern level brows +and shut it again. At last, keeping his eyes on her mouth he blurted +out, growing red, "I know every soul in Symford, and every soul for +miles round, but I don't know--" He stopped. He was going to say +"you," but he stopped. + +Priscilla's thoughts were so far away that she turned her head and +gazed vaguely at him for a moment while she collected them again. Then +she frowned at him. I do not know why Robin should have had at least +several smiles and poor Tussie only frowns, unless it was that during +this walk the young person Ethel Schultz had completely faded from +Priscilla's mind and the Royal Highness was well to the fore. She +certainly frowned at Tussie and asked herself what could possess the +man to keep on speaking to her. Keep on speaking! Poor Tussie. Aloud +she said freezingly, "Did you say something?" + +"Yes," said Tussie, his eyes on her mouth--surely a mouth only made +for kindness and gentle words. "I was wondering whether you were +staying at the vicarage." + +"No," said Priscilla, "we're staying at Baker's Farm." And at the +mention of that decayed lodging the friendly Schultz expression crept +back, smiling into her eyes. + +Tussie stopped short. "Baker's Farm?" he said. "Why, then this is the +way; down here, to the right. It's only a few yards from here." + +"Were you going that way too?" + +"I live on the other side of Symford." + +"Then good-bye and thank you." + +"Please let me go with you as far as the high-road--it's almost dark." + +"Oh no--I can't lose myself again if it's only a few yards." + +She nodded, and was turning down the lane. + +"Are you--are you comfortable there?" he asked hurriedly, blushing. +"The Pearces are tenants of ours. I hope they make you comfortable?" + +"Oh, we're only going to be there a few days. My uncle is buying a +cottage, and we shall leave almost directly." + +The girl Ethel nodded and smiled and went away quickly into the dusk; +and Tussie rode home thoughtfully, planning elaborate plans for a +descent the next day upon Baker's Farm that should have the necessary +air of inevitableness. + +Fritzing was raging up and down the road in front of the gate when +Priscilla emerged, five minutes later, from the shadows of the lane. +She ran up to him and put her arm through his, and looked up at him +with a face of great penitence. "Dear Fritzi," she said, "I'm so +sorry. I've been making you anxious, haven't I? Forgive me--it was the +first taste of liberty, and it got into my feet and set them off +exploring, and then I lost myself. Have you been worrying?" + +He was immensely agitated, and administered something very like a +scolding, and he urged the extreme desirability of taking Annalise +with her in future wherever she went--("Oh nonsense, Fritzi," +interjected Priscilla, drawing away her arm)--and he declared in a +voice that trembled that it was a most intolerable thought for him +that two strange men should have dared address her in the churchyard, +that he would never forgive himself for having left her there +alone--("Oh, Fritzi, how silly," interjected Priscilla)--and he begged +her almost with tears to tell him exactly what she had said to them, +for her Grand Ducal Highness must see that it was of the first +importance they should both say the same things to people. + +Priscilla declared she had said nothing at all but what was quite +diplomatic, in fact quite clever; indeed, she had been surprised at +the way ideas had seemed to flow. + +"So please," she finished, "don't look at me with such lamentable +eyes." + +"Ma'am, did you not tell them our name is Schultz?" + +"But so it is." + +"It is not, ma'am. Our name is Neumann." + +Priscilla stared astonished. "Neumann?" she said. "Nonsense, Fritzi. +Why should it be Neumann? We're Schultz. I told these people we were. +It's all settled." + +"Settled, ma'am? I told the woman here as well as the estate agent +that you are my brother's child and that we are Neumann." + +Priscilla was aghast. Then she said severely, "It was your duty to ask +me first. What right have you to christen me?" + +"I intended to discuss it during our walk to the village this +afternoon. I admit I forgot it. On the other hand I could not suppose +your Grand Ducal Highness, left for a moment unprotected, would inform +two strange gentlemen that our name was Schultz." + +"You should certainly have asked me first," repeated Priscilla with +knitted brows. "Why should I have to be Neumann?" + +"I might inquire with equal reason why I should have to be Schultz," +retorted Fritzing. + +"But why Neumann?" persisted Priscilla, greatly upset. + +"Ma'am, why not?" said Fritzing, still more upset. Then he added, +"Your Grand Ducal Highness might have known that at the agent's I +would be obliged to give some name." + +"I didn't think any more than you did," said Priscilla stopping in +front of the gate as a sign he was to open it for her. He did, and +they walked through the garden and into the house in silence. Then she +went into the parlour and dropped into a horsehair armchair, and +leaning her head against its prickliness she sighed a doleful sigh. + +"Shall I send Annalise to you, ma'am?" asked Fritzing, standing in the +doorway. + +"What can we do?" asked Priscilla, her eyes fixed on the tips of her +shoes in earnest thought. "Come in, Fritzi, and shut the door," she +added. "You don't behave a bit like an uncle." Then an idea struck +her, and looking up at him with sudden gaiety she said, "Can't we have +a hyphen?" + +"A hyphen?" + +"Yes, and be Neumann-Schultz?" + +"Certainly we can," said Fritzing, his face clearing; how muddled he +must be getting not to have thought of it himself! "I will cause cards +to be printed at once, and we will be Neumann-Schultz. Ma'am, your +woman's wit--" + +"Fritzi, you're deteriorating--you never flattered me at Kunitz. Let +us have tea. I invite you to tea with me. If you'll order it, I'll +pour it out for you and practice being a niece." + +So the evening was spent in harmony; a harmony clouded at intervals, +it is true, first by Priscilla's disappointment about the cottage, +then by a certain restiveness she showed before the more blatant +inefficiencies of the Baker housekeeping, then by a marked and ever +recurring incapacity to adapt herself to her new environment, and +lastly and very heavily when Fritzing in the course of conversation +let drop the fact that he had said she was Maria-Theresa. This was a +very black cloud and hung about for a long while; but it too passed +away ultimately in a compromise reached after much discussion that +Ethel should be prefixed to Maria-Theresa; and before Priscilla went +to bed it had been arranged that Fritzing should go next morning +directly after a very early breakfast to Lady Shuttleworth and not +leave that lady's side and house till he had secured the cottage, and +the Princess for her part faithfully promised to remain within the +Baker boundaries during his absence. + + + + +VIII + + +Lady Shuttleworth then, busiest and most unsuspecting of women, was +whisking through her breakfast and her correspondence next morning +with her customary celerity and method, when a servant appeared and +offered her one of those leaves from Fritzing's note-book which we +know did duty as his cards. + +Tussie was sitting at the other end of the table very limp and sad +after a night of tiresome tossing that was neither wholly sleep nor +wholly wakefulness, and sheltered by various dishes with spirit-lamps +burning beneath them worked gloomily at a sonnet inspired by the girl +he had met the day before while his mother thought he was eating his +patent food. The girl, it seemed, could not inspire much, for beyond +the fourth line his muse refused to go; and he was beginning to be +unable to stop himself from an angry railing at the restrictions the +sonnet form forces upon poets who love to be vague, which would +immediately have concentrated his mother's attention on himself and +resulted in his having to read her what he had written--for she +sturdily kept up the fiction of a lively interest in his poetic +tricklings--when the servant came in with Fritzing's leaf. + +"A gentleman wishes to see you on business, my lady," said the +servant. + +"Mr. Neumann-Schultz?" read out Lady Shuttleworth in an inquiring +voice. "Never heard of him. Where's he from?" + +"Baker's Farm, my lady." + +At that magic name Tussie's head went up with a jerk. + +"Tell him to go to Mr. Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth. + +The servant disappeared. + +"Why do you send him away, mother?" asked Tussie. + +"Why, you know things must go through Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth +pouncing on her letters again. "I'd be plagued to death if they +didn't." + +"But apparently this is the stranger within our gates. Isn't he +German?" + +"His name is. Dawson will be quite kind to him." + +"Dawson's rather a brute I fancy, when you're not looking." + +"Dearest, I always am looking." + +"He must be one of Pearce's lodgers." + +"Poor man, I'm sorry for him if he is. Of all the shiftless women--" + +"The gentleman says, my lady," said the servant reappearing with +rather an awestruck face, "that he wishes to speak to you most +particular." + +"James, did I not tell you to send him to Mr. Dawson?" + +"I delivered the message, my lady. But the gentleman says he's seen +Mr. Dawson, and that he"--the footman coughed slightly--"he don't want +to see any more of him, my lady." + +Lady Shuttleworth put on her glasses and stared at the servant. "Upon +my word he seems to be very cool," she said; and the servant, his gaze +fixed on a respectful point just above his mistress's head, reflected +on the extreme inapplicability of the adjective to anything so warm as +the gentleman at the door. + +"Shall I see him for you, mother?" volunteered Tussie briskly. + +"You?" said his mother surprised. + +"I'm rather a dab at German, you know. Perhaps he can't talk much +English"--the footman started--"evidently he wasn't able to say much +to Dawson. Probably he wants you to protect him from the onslaughts of +old Pearce's cockroaches. Anyhow as he's a foreigner I think it would +be kinder to see him." + +Lady Shuttleworth was astonished. Was Tussie going to turn over a new +leaf after all, now that he was coming of age, and interest himself in +more profitable things than verse-making? + +"Dearest," she said, quite touched, "he shall be seen if you think it +kinder. I'll see him--you haven't done breakfast yet. Show him into +the library, James." And she gathered up her letters and went out--she +never kept people waiting--and as she passed Tussie she laid her hand +tenderly for a moment on his shoulder. "If I find I can't understand +him I'll send for you," she said. + +Tussie folded up his sonnet and put it in his pocket. Then he ate a +few spoonfuls of the stuff warranted to give him pure blood, huge +muscles, and a vast intelligence; then he opened a newspaper and +stared vacantly at its contents; then he went to the fire and warmed +his feet; then he strolled round the table aimlessly for a little; and +then, when half an hour had passed and his mother had not returned, he +could bear it no longer and marched straight into the library. + +"I think the cigarettes must be here," said Tussie, going over to the +mantelpiece and throwing a look of eager interest at Fritzing. + +Fritzing rose and bowed ceremoniously. Lady Shuttleworth was sitting +in a straight-backed chair, her elbows on its arms, the tips of her +ten fingers nicely fitted together. She looked very angry, and yet +there was a sparkle of something like amusement in her eyes. Having +bowed to Tussie Fritzing sat down again with the elaboration of one +who means to stay a long while. During his walk from the farm he had +made up his mind to be of a most winning amiability and patience, +blended with a determination that nothing should shake. At the door, +it is true, he had been stirred to petulance by the foolish face and +utterances of the footman James, but during the whole of the time he +had been alone with Lady Shuttleworth he had behaved, he considered, +with the utmost restraint and tact. + +Tussie offered him a cigarette. + +"My dear Tussie," said his mother quickly, "we will not keep Mr. +Neumann-Schultz. I'm sure his time must be quite as valuable as mine +is." + +"Oh madam," said Fritzing with a vast politeness, settling himself yet +more firmly in his chair, "nothing of mine can possibly be of the same +value as anything of yours." + +Lady Shuttleworth stared--she had stared a good deal during the last +halfhour--then began to laugh, and got up. "If you see its value so +clearly," she said, "I'm sure you won't care to take up any more of +it." + +"Nay, madam," said Fritzing, forced to get up too, "I am here, as I +explained, in your own interests--or rather in those of your son, who +I hear is shortly to attain his majority. This young gentleman is, I +take it, your son?" + +Tussie assented. + +"And therefore the owner of the cottages?" + +"What cottages?" asked Tussie, eagerly. He was manifestly so violently +interested in Mr. Neumann-Schultz that his mother could only gaze at +him in wonder. He actually seemed to hang on that odd person's lips. + +"My dear Tussie, Mr. Neumann-Schultz has been trying to persuade me to +sell him the pair of cottages up by the church, and I have been trying +to persuade him to believe me when I tell him I won't." + +"But why won't you, mother?" asked Tussie. + +Lady Shuttleworth stared at him in astonishment. "Why won't I? Do I +ever sell cottages?" + +"Your esteemed parent's reasons for refusing," said Fritzing, "reasons +which she has given me with a brevity altogether unusual in one of her +sex and which I cannot sufficiently commend, do more credit, as was to +be expected in a lady, to her heart than to her head. I have offered +to build two new houses for the disturbed inhabitants of these. I have +offered to give her any price--any price at all, within the limits of +reason. Your interests, young gentleman, are what will suffer if this +business is not concluded between us." + +"Do you want them for yourself?" asked Tussie. + +"Yes, sir, for myself and for my niece." + +"Mother, why do you refuse to do a little business?" + +"Tussie, are we so poor?" + +"As far as I'm concerned," said Tussie airily to Fritzing, "you may +have the things and welcome." + +"Tussie?" + +"But they are not worth more than about fifty pounds apiece, and I +advise you not to give more for them than they're worth. Aren't they +very small, though? Isn't there any other place here you'd rather +have?" + +"Tussie?" + +"Do you mind telling me why you want them?" + +"Young man, to live in them." + +"And where are the people to live who are in them now?" asked Lady +Shuttleworth, greatly incensed. + +"Madam, I promised you to build." + +"Oh nonsense. I won't have new red-brick horrors about the place. +There's that nice good old Mrs. Shaw in one, so clean and tidy always, +and the shoemaker, a very good man except for his enormous family, in +the other. I will not turn them out." + +"Put 'em in the empty lodge at the north gate," suggested Tussie. +"They'd be delighted." + +Lady Shuttleworth turned angrily on Fritzing--she was indeed greatly +irritated by Tussie's unaccountable behaviour. "Why don't you build +for yourself?" she asked. + +"My niece has set her heart on these cottages in such a manner that I +actually fear the consequences to her health if she does not get +them." + +"Now, mother, you really can't make Mr. Neumann-Schultz's niece ill." + +"Dearest boy, have you suddenly lost your senses?" + +"Not unless it's losing them to be ready to do a kindness." + +"Well said, well said, young man," said Fritzing approvingly. + +"Tussie, have I ever shirked doing a kindness?" asked Lady +Shuttleworth, touched on her tenderest point. + +"Never. And that's why I can't let you begin now," said Tussie, +smiling at her. + +"Well said, well said, young man," approved Fritzing. "The woman up to +a certain age should lead the youth, and he should in all things +follow her counsels with respect and obedience. But she for her part +should know at what moment to lay down her authority, and begin, with +a fitting modesty, to follow him whom she has hitherto led." + +"Is that what your niece does?" asked Lady Shuttleworth quickly. + +"Madam?" + +"Is she following you into these cottages, or are you following her?" + +"You must pardon me, madam, if I decline to discuss my niece." + +"Do have a cigarette," said Tussie, delighted. + +"I never smoke, young man." + +"Something to drink, then?" + +"I never drink, young man." + +"If I decide to let you have these cottages--_if_ I do," said Lady +Shuttleworth, divided between astonishment at everything about +Fritzing and blankest amazement at her son's behaviour, "you will +understand that I only do it because my son seems to wish it." + +"Madam, provided I get the cottages I will understand anything you +like." + +"First that. Then I'd want some information about yourself. I +couldn't let a stranger come and live in the very middle of my son's +estate unless I knew all about him." + +"Why, mother--" began Tussie. + +"Is not the willingness to give you your own price sufficient?" +inquired Fritzing anxiously. + +"Not in the least sufficient," snapped Lady Shuttleworth. + +"What do you wish to know, madam?" said Fritzing stiffly. + +"I assure you a great deal." + +"Come, mother," said Tussie, to whom this was painful, for was not the +man, apart from his strange clothes and speeches, of a distinctly +refined and intellectual appearance? And even if he wasn't, was he not +still the uncle of that divine niece?--"these are things for Dawson to +arrange." + +Fritzing started at the hated name, and began to frown dreadfully. His +frown was always very impressive because of his bushy eyebrows and +deep-set eyes. "Dawson, as you call him," he said, "and he certainly +has no claim to any prefix of politeness, is not a person with whom I +will consent to arrange anything. Dawson is the most offensive +creature who ever walked this earth clad in the outer semblance of one +of God's creatures." + +This was too much for Lady Shuttleworth. "Really--" she said, +stretching out her hand to the bell. + +"Didn't I tell you so, mother?" cried Tussie triumphantly; and that +Tussie, her own dear boy, should in all things second this madman +completely overwhelmed her. "I knew he was a brute behind your back. +Let's sack him." + +"James, show this gentleman out." + +"Pardon me, madam, we have not yet arranged--" + +"Oh," interrupted Tussie, "the business part can be arranged between +you and me without bothering my mother. I'll come part of the way with +you and we'll talk it over. You're absolutely right about Dawson. He's +an outrageous mixture of bully and brute." And he hurried into the +hall to fetch his cap, humming _O dear unknown One with the stern +sweet face_, which was the first line of his sonnet in praise of +Priscilla, to a cheerful little tune of his own. + +"Tussie, it's so damp," cried his anxious mother after him--"you're +not really going out in this nasty Scotch mist? Stay in, and I'll +leave you to settle anything you like." + +"Oh, it's a jolly morning for a walk," called back Tussie gaily, +searching about for his cap--"_And eyes all beautiful with strenuous +thought_--Come on, sir." + +But Fritzing would not skimp any part of his farewell ceremonies. + +"Permit me, madam," he said, deeply bowing, "to thank you for your +extremely kind reception." + +"Kind?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, unable to stop herself from +smiling. + +"Yes, madam, kind, and before all things patient." + +"Yes, I do think I've been rather patient," agreed Lady Shuttleworth, +smiling again. + +"And let me," proceeded Fritzing, "join to my thanks my +congratulations on your possession of so unusually amiable and +promising a son." + +"Come on, sir--you'll make me vain," said Tussie, in the +doorway--"'_Hair like a web divine wherein is caught_,'"--he hummed, +getting more and more shrill and happy. + +Lady Shuttleworth put out her hand impulsively. Fritzing took it, bent +over it, and kissed it with much respect. + +"A most unusually promising young man," he repeated; "and, madam, I +can tell you it is not my habit to say a thing I do not mean." + +"'_The last reflection of God's daily grace_'"--chirped Tussie, +looking on much amused. + +"No, that I'm quite certain you don't," said Lady Shuttleworth with +conviction. + +"Don't say too many nice things about me," advised Tussie. "My mother +will swallow positively anything." + +But nevertheless he was delighted; for here were his mother and the +uncle--the valuable and highly to be cherished uncle--looking as +pleased as possible with each other, and apparently in the fairest way +to becoming fast friends. + + + + +IX + + +The cheerful goddess who had brought Fritzing and his Princess safely +over from Kunitz was certainly standing by them well. She it was who +had driven Priscilla up on to the heath and into the acquaintance of +Augustus Shuttleworth, without whom a cottage in Symford would have +been for ever unattainable. She it was who had sent the Morrisons, +father and son, to drive Priscilla from the churchyard before Fritzing +had joined her, without which driving she would never have met +Augustus. She it was who had used the trifling circumstance of a +mislaid sermon-book to take the vicar and Robin into the church at an +unaccustomed time, without which sermon-book they would never have met +Priscilla in the churchyard and driven her out of it. Thus are all our +doings ruled by Chance; and it is a pleasant pastime for an idle hour +to trace back big events to their original and sometimes absurd +beginnings. For myself I know that the larger lines of my life were +laid down once for all by--but what has this to do with Priscilla? +Thus, I say, are all our doings ruled by Chance, who loves to use +small means for the working of great wonders. And as for the gay +goddess's ugly sister, the lady of the shifty eye and lowering brow +called variously Misfortune and Ill Luck, she uses the same tools +exactly in her hammering out of lives, meanly taking little follies +and little weaknesses, so little and so amiable at first as hardly to +be distinguished from little virtues, and with them building up a +mighty mass that shall at last come down and crush our souls. Of the +crushing of souls, however, my story does not yet treat, and I will +not linger round subjects so awful. We who are nestling for the moment +like Priscilla beneath the warm wing of Good Fortune can dare to make +what the children call a face at her grey sister as she limps scowling +past. Shall we not too one day in our turn feel her claws? Let us when +we do at least not wince; and he who feeling them can still make a +face and laugh, shall be as the prince of the fairy tales, +transforming the sour hag by his courage into a bright reward, +striking his very griefs into a shining shower of blessing. + +From this brief excursion into the realm of barren musings, whither I +love above all things to wander and whence I have continually to fetch +myself back again by force, I will return to the story. + +At Tussie's suggestion when the business part of their talk was +over--and it took exactly five minutes for Tussie to sell and Fritzing +to buy the cottages, five minutes of the frothiest business talk ever +talked, so profound was the ignorance of both parties as to what most +people demand of cottages--Fritzing drove to Minehead in the +postmistress's son's two-wheeled cart in order to purchase suitable +furniture and bring back persons who would paper and paint. Minehead +lies about twenty miles to the north of Symford, so Fritzing could not +be back before evening. By the time he was back, promised Tussie, the +shoemaker and Mrs. Shaw should be cleared out and put into a place so +much better according to their views that they would probably make it +vocal with their praises. + +Fritzing quite loved Tussie. Here was a young man full of the noblest +spirit of helpfulness, and who had besides the invaluable gift of +seeing no difficulties anywhere. Even Fritzing, airy optimist, saw +more than Tussie, and whenever he expressed a doubt it was at once +brushed aside by the cheerfullest "Oh, that'll be all right." He was +the most practical, businesslike, unaffected, energetic young man, +thought Fritzing, that he had even seen. Tussie was surprised himself +at his own briskness, and putting the wonderful girl on the heath as +much as possible out of his thoughts, told himself that it was the +patent food beginning at last to keep its promises. + +He took Fritzing to the post-office and ordered the trap for him, +cautioned the postmistress's son, who was going to drive, against +going too fast down the many hills, for the bare idea of the priceless +uncle being brought back in bits or in any state but absolutely whole +and happy turned him cold, told Fritzing which shops to go to and +where to lunch, begged him to be careful what he ate, since hotel +luncheons were good for neither body nor soul, ordered rugs and a +mackintosh covering to be put in, and behaved generally with the +forethought of a mother. "I'd go with you myself," he said,--and the +postmistress, listening with both her ears, recognized that the +Baker's Farm lodgers were no longer persons to be criticised--"but I +can be of more use to you here. I must see Dawson about clearing out +the cottages. Of course it is very important you shouldn't stay a +moment longer than can be helped in uncomfortable lodgings." + +Here was a young man! Sensible, practical, overflowing with kindness. +Fritzing had not met any one he esteemed so much for years. They went +down the village street together, for Tussie was bound for Mr. Dawson +who was to be set to work at once, and Fritzing for the farm whither +the trap was to follow him as soon as ready, and all Symford, +curtseying to Tussie, recognized, as the postmistress had recognized, +that Fritzing was now raised far above their questionings, seated +firmly on the Shuttleworth rock. + +They parted at Mr. Dawson's gate, Mrs. Dawson mildly watching their +warmth over a wire blind. "When we are settled, young man," said +Fritzing, after eloquent words of thanks and appreciation, "you must +come in the evenings, and together we will roam across the splendid +fields of English literature." + +"Oh _thanks_" exclaimed Tussie, flushing with pleasure. He longed to +ask if the divine niece would roam too, but even if she did not, to +roam at all would be a delight, and he would besides be doing it under +the very roof that sheltered that bright and beautiful head. "Oh +_thanks_," cried Tussie, then, flushing. + +His extreme joy surprised Fritzing. "Are you so great a friend of +literature?" he inquired. + +"I believe," said Tussie, "that without it I'd have drowned myself +long ago. And as for the poets--" + +He stopped. No one knew what poetry had been to him in his sickly +existence--the one supreme interest, the one thing he really cared to +live for. + +Fritzing now loved him with all his heart. "_Ach Gott, ja_," he +ejaculated, clapping him on the shoulder, "the poets--_ja, +ja_--'Blessings be with them and eternal praise,' what? Young man," he +added enthusiastically, "I could wish that you had been my son. I +could indeed." And as he said it Robin Morrison coming down the street +and seeing the two together and the expression on Tussie's face +instantly knew that Tussie had met the niece. + +"Hullo, Tuss," he called across, hurrying past, for it would rather +upset his umbrella plan to be stopped and have to talk to the man +Neumann thus prematurely. But Tussie neither saw nor heard him, and +"By Jove, hasn't he just seen the niece though," said Robin to +himself, his eyes dancing as he strode nimbly along on long and +bird-like legs. The conviction seized him that when he and his +umbrella should descend upon Baker's that afternoon Tussie would +either be there already or would come in immediately afterwards. "Who +would have thought old Fuss would be so enterprising?" he wondered, +thinking of the extreme cordiality of Fritzing's face. "He's given +them those cottages, I'll swear." + +So Fritzing went to Minehead. I will not follow his painful footsteps +as they ranged about that dreary place, nor will I dwell upon his +purchases, which resolved themselves at last, after an infinite and +soul-killing amount of walking and bewilderment, into a sofa, a +revolving bookstand, and two beds. He forgot a bed for Annalise +because he forgot Annalise; and he didn't buy things like sheets +because he forgot that beds want them. On the other hand he spent +quite two hours in a delightful second-hand bookshop on his way to the +place where you buy crockery, and then forgot the crockery. He did, +reminded and directed by Mr. Vickerton, the postmistress's son, get to +a paperhanger's and order him and his men to come out in shoals to +Symford the next morning at daybreak, making the paperhanger vow, who +had never seen them, that the cottages should be done by nightfall. +Then, happening to come to the seashore, he stood for a moment +refreshing his nostrils with saltness, for he was desperately worn +out, and what he did after that heaven knows. Anyhow young Vickerton +found him hours afterwards walking up and down the shingle in the +dark, waving his arms about and crying-- + + "O, qui me gelidis convallibus Haemi + Sistat et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!" + +"Talking German out loud to himself," said young Vickerton to his +mother that night; and it is possible that he had been doing it all +the time. + +And while he was doing these things Priscilla was having calls paid +her. Nothing could exceed her astonishment when about four o'clock, as +she was sitting deep in thought and bored on the arm of a horsehair +chair, Mrs. Pearce opened the door and without the least warning let +in Mrs. Morrison. Priscilla had promised Fritzing for that one day to +stay quietly at the farm, and for the last two hours, finding the farm +of an intolerable dulness, she had been engaged in reflections of an +extremely complex nature on subjects such as Duty, Will, and +Personality. Her morning in the Baker fields and by the banks of that +part of the Sym that meanders through them had tuned her mind to +meditation. The food at one o'clock and the manner of its bringing in +by Annalise--Priscilla had relieved Mrs. Pearce of that office--tuned +it still more. The blended slipperiness and prickliness of all the +things she tried to sit on helped surprisingly; and if I knew how far +it is allowable to write of linen I could explain much of her state of +mind by a description of the garments in which she was clothed that +day. They were new garments taken straight from the Gerstein box. +They were not even linen,--how could they be for Fritzing's three +hundred marks? And their newness had not yet been exposed to the +softening influence of any wash-tub. Straight did they come, in all +their crackling stiffness, out of the shop and on to the Princess. +Annalise had been supposed to wash them or cause them to be washed the +day before, but Annalise had been far too busy crying to do anything +of the sort; and by four o'clock Priscilla was goaded by them into a +condition of mind so unworthy that she was thinking quite hard about +the Kunitz fine linen and other flesh-pots and actually finding the +recollection sweet. It was a place, Priscilla mused, where her body +had been exquisitely cared for. Those delicate meals, served in +spotlessness, surely they had been rather of the nature of poems? +Those web-like garments, soft as a kiss, how beautiful they had been +to touch and wear. True her soul had starved; yes, it had cruelly +starved. But was it then--she started at her own thought--was it then +being fed at Baker's? + +And into the middle of this question, a tremendous one to be asked on +the very threshold of the new life, walked Mrs. Morrison. + +"How d'y do," said Mrs. Morrison. "The vicar asked me to come and see +you. I hope the Pearces make you comfortable." + +"Well I never," thought Mrs. Pearce, lingering as was her custom on +the door-mat, and shaking her head in sorrow rather than in anger. + +Priscilla sat for a moment staring at her visitor. + +"You are Miss Schultz, are you not?" asked Mrs. Morrison rather +nervously. + +Priscilla said she was,--her name, that is, was Neumann-Schultz--and +got up. She had the vaguest notion as to how Miss Schultz would behave +under these trying circumstances, but imagined she would begin by +getting up. So she got up, and the sofa being a low one and her +movements leisurely, Mrs. Morrison told her husband afterwards there +seemed to be no end to the girl. The girl certainly was long, and when +at last unfolded and quite straightened out she towered over Mrs. +Morrison, who looked up uneasily at the grave young face. Why, Mrs. +Morrison asked herself, didn't the girl smile? It was the duty of a +Miss Schultz called upon by the vicar's wife to smile; so profound a +gravity on such an occasion was surely almost rude. Priscilla offered +her hand and hoped it was all right to do so, but still she did not +smile. "Are you Mrs. Morrison?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Morrison with an immense reserve in her voice. + +Then Priscilla suggested she should sit down. Mrs. Morrison was +already doing it; and Priscilla sank on to her sofa again and wondered +what she had better say next. She wondered so much that she became +lost in mazes of wonder, and there was so long a silence that Mrs. +Pearce outside the door deplored an inconsiderateness that could keep +her there for nothing. + +"I didn't know you had a double name," said Mrs. Morrison, staring at +Priscilla and trying to decide whether this was not a case for the +application of leaflets and instant departure. The girl was really +quite offensively pretty. She herself had been pretty--she thanked +heaven that she still was so--but never, never pretty--she thanked +heaven again--in this glaringly conspicuous fashion. + +"My name is Ethel Maria-Theresa Neumann-Schultz," said Priscilla, very +clearly and slowly; and though she was, as we know, absolutely +impervious to the steadiest staring, she did wonder whether this good +lady could have seen her photograph anywhere in some paper, her stare +was so very round and bright and piercing. + +"What a long name," said Mrs. Morrison. + +"Yes," said Priscilla; and as another silence seemed imminent she +added, "I have two hyphens." + +"Two what?" said Mrs. Morrison, startled; and so full was her head of +doubt and distrust that for one dreadful moment she thought the girl +had said two husbands. "Oh, hyphens. Yes. Germans have them a good +deal, I believe." + +"That sounds as if we were talking about diseases," said Priscilla, a +faint smile dawning far away somewhere in the depths of her eyes. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Morrison, fidgeting. + +Odd that Robin should have said nothing about the girl's face. Anyhow +she should be kept off Netta. Better keep her off the parish-room +Tuesdays as well. What in the world was she doing in Symford? She was +quite the sort of girl to turn the heads of silly boys. And so +unfortunate, just as Augustus Shuttleworth had taken to giving Netta +little volumes of Browning. + +"Is your uncle out?" she asked, some of the sharpness of her thoughts +getting into her voice. + +"He's gone to Minehead, to see about things for my cottage." + +"Your cottage? Have you got Mrs. Shaw's, then?" + +"Yes. She is being moved out to-day." + +"Dear me," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly struck. + +"Is it surprising?" + +"Most. So unlike Lady Shuttleworth." + +"She has been very kind." + +"Do you know her?" + +"No; but my uncle was there this morning." + +"And managed to persuade her?" + +"He is very eloquent," said Priscilla, with a demure downward sweep of +her eyelashes. + +"Just a little more," thought Mrs. Morrison, watching their dusky +golden curve, "and the girl would have had scarlet hair and +white-eyebrows and masses of freckles and been frightful." And she +sighed an impatient sigh, which, if translated into verse, would +undoubtedly have come out-- + + "Oh the little more and how much it is, + And the little less and what worlds away!" + +"And poor old Mrs. Shaw--how does she like being turned out?" + +"I believe she is being put into something that will seem to her a +palace." + +"Dear me, your uncle must really be very eloquent." + +"I assure you that he is," said Priscilla earnestly. + +There was a short pause, during which Mrs. Morrison staring straight +into those unfathomable pools, Priscilla's eyes, was very angry with +them for being so evidently lovely. "You are very young," she said, +"so you will not mind my questions--" + +"Don't the young mind questions?" asked Priscilla, for a moment +supposing it to be a characteristic of the young of England. + +"Not, surely, from experienced and--and married ladies," said Mrs. +Morrison tartly. + +"Please go on then." + +"Oh, I haven't anything particular to go on about," said Mrs. +Morrison, offended. "I assure you curiosity is not one of my faults." + +"No?" said Priscilla, whose attention had begun to wander. + +"Being human I have no doubt many failings, but I'm thankful to say +curiosity isn't one of them." + +"My uncle says that's just the difference between men and women. He +says women might achieve just as much as men if only they were curious +about things. But they're not. A man will ask a thousand questions, +and never rest till he's found out as much as he can about anything he +sees, and a woman is content hardly even to see it." + +"I hope your uncle is a Churchman," was Mrs. Morrison's unexpected +reply. + +Priscilla's mind could not leap like this, and she hesitated a moment +and smiled. ("It's the first time she's looked pleasant," thought Mrs. +Morrison, "and now it's in the wrong place.") + +"He was born, of course, in the Lutheran faith," said Priscilla. + +"Oh, a horrid faith. Excuse me, but it really is. I hope he isn't +going to upset Symford?" + +"Upset Symford?" + +"New people holding wrong tenets coming to such a small place do +sometimes, you know, and you say he is eloquent. And we are such a +simple and God-fearing little community. A few years ago we had a +great bother with a Dissenting family that came here. The cottagers +quite lost their heads." + +"I think I can promise that my uncle will not try to convert anybody," +said Priscilla. + +"Of course you mean pervert. It would be a pity if he did. It wouldn't +last, but it would give us a lot of trouble. We are very good +Churchmen here. The vicar, and my son too when he's at home, set +beautiful examples. My son is going into the Church himself. It has +been his dearest wish from a child. He thinks of nothing else--of +nothing else at all," she repeated, fixing her eyes on Priscilla with +a look of defiance. + +"Really?" said Priscilla, very willing to believe it. + +"I assure you it's wonderful how absorbed he is in his studies for it. +He reads Church history every spare moment, and he's got it so +completely on his mind that I've noticed even when he whistles it's +'The Church's One Foundation.'" + +"What is that?" inquired Priscilla. + +"Mr. Robin Morrison," announced Mrs. Pearce. + +The sitting-room at Baker's was a small, straightforward place, with +no screens, no big furniture, no plants in pots, nothing that could +for a moment conceal the persons already in it from the persons coming +in, and Robin entering jauntily with the umbrella under his arm fell +straight as it were into his mother's angry gaze. "Hullo mater, you +here?" he exclaimed genially, his face broadening with apparent +satisfaction. + +"Yes, Robin, I am here," she said, drawing herself up. + +"How do you do, Miss Schultz. I seem to have got shown into the wrong +room. It's a Mr. Neumann I've come to see; doesn't he live here?" + +Priscilla looked at him from her sofa seat and wondered what she had +done that she should be scourged in this manner by Morrisons. + +"You know my son, I believe?" said Mrs. Morrison in the stiffest +voice; for the girl's face showed neither recognition nor pleasure, +and though she would have been angry if she had looked unduly pleased +she was still angrier that she should look indifferent. + +"Yes. I met him yesterday. Did you want my uncle? His name is Neumann. +Neumann-Schultz. He's out." + +"I only wanted to give him this umbrella," said Robin, with a swift +glance at his mother as he drew it from under his arm. Would she +recognize it? He had chosen one of the most ancient; the one most +appropriate, as he thought, to the general appearance of the man +Neumann. + +"What umbrella is that, Robin?" asked his mother suspiciously. Really, +it was more than odd that Robin, whom she had left immersed in study, +should have got into Baker's Farm so quickly. Could he have been +expected? And had Providence, in its care for the righteous cause of +mothers, brought her here just in time to save him from this girl's +toils? The girl's indifference could not be real; and if it was not, +her good acting only betrayed the depths of her experience and +balefulness. "What umbrella is that?" asked Mrs. Morrison. + +"It's his," said Robin, throwing his head back and looking at his +mother as he laid it with elaborate care on the table. + +"My uncle's?" said Priscilla. "Had he lost it? Oh thank you--he would +have been dreadfully unhappy. Sit down." And she indicated with her +head the chair she would allow him to sit on. + +"The way she tells us to sit down!" thought Mrs. Morrison indignantly. +"As though she were a queen." Aloud she said, "You could have sent +Joyce round with it"--Joyce being that gardener whose baby's +perambulator was wheeled by another Ethel--"and need not have +interrupted your work." + +"So I could," said Robin, as though much struck by the suggestion. +"But it was a pleasure," he added to Priscilla, "to be able to return +it myself. It's a frightful bore losing one's umbrella--especially if +it's an old friend." + +"Uncle Fritzi's looks as if it were a very old friend," said +Priscilla, smiling at it. + +Mrs. Morrison glanced at it too, and then glanced again. When she +glanced a third time and her glance turned into a look that lingered +Robin jumped up and inquired if he should not put it in the passage. +"It's in the way here," he explained; though in whose way it could be +was not apparent, the table being perfectly empty. + +Priscilla made no objection, and he at once removed it beyond the +reach of his mother's eye, propping it up in a dark corner of the +passage and telling Mrs. Pearce, whom he found there that it was Mr. +Neumann's umbrella. + +"No it ain't," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"Yes it is," said Robin. + +"No it ain't. He's took his to Minehead," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"It is, and he has not," said Robin. + +"I see him take it," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"You did not," said Robin. + +This would have been the moment, Mrs. Morrison felt, for her to go and +to carry off Robin with her, but she was held in her seat by the +certainty that Robin would not let himself be carried off; and sooner +than say good-bye and then find he was staying on alone she would sit +there all night. Thus do mothers sacrifice themselves for their +children, thought Mrs. Morrison, for their all too frequently +thankless children. But though she would do it to any extent in order +to guard her boy she need not, she said to herself, be pleasant +besides,--she need not, so to speak, be the primroses on his path of +dalliance. Accordingly she behaved as little like a primrose as +possible, sitting in stony silence while he skirmished in the passage +with Mrs. Pearce, and the instant he came in again asked him where he +had found the umbrella. + +"I found it--not far from the church," said Robin, desiring to be +truthful as long as he could. "But mater, bother the umbrella. It +isn't so very noble to bring a man back his own. Did you get your +cottages?" he asked, turning quickly to Priscilla. + +"Robin, are you sure it is his own?" said his mother. + +"My dear mother, I'm never sure of anything. Nor are you. Nor is Miss +Schultz. Nor is anybody who is really intelligent. But I found the +thing, and Mr. Neumann--" + +"The name to-day is Neumann-Schultz," said Mrs. Morrison, in a voice +heavy with implications. + +"Mr. Neumann-Schultz, then, had been that way just before, and so I +felt somehow it must be his." + +"Your Uncle Cox had one just like it when he stayed with us last +time," remarked Mrs. Morrison. + +"Had he? I say, mater, what an eye you must have for an umbrella. That +must be five years ago." + +"Oh, he left it behind, and I see it in the stand every time I go +through the hall." + +"No! Do you?" said Robin, who was hurled by this statement into the +corner where his wits ended and where he probably would have stayed +ignominiously, for Miss Schultz seemed hardly to be listening and +really almost looked--he couldn't believe it, no girl had ever done it +in his presence yet, but she did undoubtedly almost look--bored, if +Mrs. Pearce had not flung open the door, and holding the torn portions +of her apron bunched together in her hands, nervously announced Lady +Shuttleworth. + +"Oh," thought Priscilla, "what a day I'm having." But she got up and +was gracious, for Fritzing had praised this lady as kind and +sensible; and the moment Lady Shuttleworth set her eyes on her the +mystery of her son's behaviour flashed into clearness. "Tussie's seen +her!" she exclaimed inwardly; instantly adding "Upon my word I can't +blame the boy." + +"My dear," she said, holding Priscilla's hand, "I've come to make +friends with you. See what a wise old woman I am. Frankly, I didn't +want you in those cottages, but now that my son has sold them I lose +no time in making friends. Isn't that true wisdom?" + +"It's true niceness," said Priscilla, smiling down at the little old +lady whose eyes were twinkling all over her. "I don't think you'll +find us in any way a nuisance. All we want is to be quiet." + +Mrs. Morrison sniffed. + +"Do you really?" said Lady Shuttleworth. "Then we shall get on +capitally. It's what I like best myself. And you've come too," she +went on, turning to Mrs. Morrison, "to make friends with your new +parishioner? Why, Robin, and you too?" + +"Oh, I'm only accidental," said Robin quickly. "Only a restorer of +lost property. And I'm just going," he added, beginning to make hasty +adieux; for Lady Shuttleworth invariably produced a conviction in him +that his clothes didn't fit and wanted brushing badly, and no young +man so attentive to his appearance as Robin could be expected to enjoy +that. He fled therefore, feeling that even Miss Schultz's loveliness +would not make up for Lady Shuttleworth's eyes; and in the passage, +from whence Mrs. Pearce had retreated, removing herself as far as +might be from the awful lady to whom her father-in-law owed rent and +who saw every hole, Robin pounced on his Uncle Cox's umbrella, tucked +is once more beneath his arm, and bore it swiftly back to the stand +where it had spent five peaceful years. "Really old women are rather +terrible things," he thought as he dropped it in again. "I wonder what +they're here for." + +"Ah, it's there, I see," remarked his mother that night as she passed +through the hall on her way to dinner. + +"What is?" inquired Robin who was just behind her. + +"Your Uncle Cox's umbrella." + +"Dear mater, why this extreme interest in my Uncle Cox's umbrella?" + +"I'm glad to see it back again, that's all. One gets so used to +things." + +Lady Shuttleworth and his mother--I shudder to think that it is +possible Robin included his mother in the reflection about old women, +but on the other hand one never can tell--had stayed on at the farm +for another twenty minutes after he left. They would have stayed +longer, for Lady Shuttleworth was more interested in Priscilla than +she had ever been in any girl before, and Mrs. Morrison, who saw this +interest and heard the kind speeches, had changed altogether from ice +to amiability, crushing her leaflets in her hand and more than once +expressing hopes that Miss Neumann-Schultz would soon come up to tea +and learn to know and like Netta--I repeat, they would have stayed +much longer, but that an extremely odd thing happened. + +Priscilla had been charming; chatting with what seemed absolute +frankness about her future life in the cottages, answering little +questionings of Lady Shuttleworth's with a discretion and plausibility +that would have warmed Fritzing's anxious heart, dwelling most, for +here the ground was safest, on her uncle, his work, his gifts and +character, and Lady Shuttleworth, completely fascinated, had offered +her help of every sort, help in the arranging of her little home, in +the planting of its garden, even in the building of those bathrooms +about which Tussie had been told by Mr. Dawson. She thought the desire +for many bathrooms entirely praiseworthy, and only a sign of lunacy in +persons of small means. Fritzing had assured Tussie that he had money +enough for the bathrooms; and if his poetic niece liked everybody +about her to be nicely washed was not that a taste to be applauded? +Perhaps Lady Shuttleworth expatiated on plans and probable +building-costs longer than Priscilla was able to be interested; +perhaps she was over-explanatory of practical details; anyhow +Priscilla's attention began to wander, and she gradually became very +tired of her callers. She answered in monosyllables, and her smile +grew vague. Then suddenly, at the first full stop Lady Shuttleworth +reached in a sentence about sanitation--the entire paragraph was never +finished--she got up with her usual deliberate grace, and held out her +hand. + +"It has been very kind of you to come and see me," she said to the +astounded lady, with a little gracious smile. "I hope you will both +come again another time." + +For an instant Lady Shuttleworth thought she was mad. Then to her own +amazement she found her body rising obediently and letting its hand be +taken. + +Mrs. Morrison did the same. Both had their hands slightly pressed, +both were smiled upon, and both went out at once and speechless. +Priscilla stood calmly while they walked to the door, with the little +smile fixed on her face. + +"Is it possible we've been insulted?" burst out Mrs. Morrison when +they got outside. + +"I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth, who looked extremely +thoughtful. + +"Do you think it can possibly be the barbarous German custom?" + +"I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth again. + +And all the way to the vicarage, whither she drove Mrs. Morrison, she +was very silent, and no exclamations and conjectures of that indignant +lady's could get a word out of her. + + + + +X + + +Kunitz meanwhile was keeping strangely quiet. Not a breath, not a +whisper, had reached the newspapers from that afflicted little town of +the dreadful thing that had happened to it. It will be remembered that +the Princess ran away on a Monday, arrived at Baker's in the small +hours of Wednesday morning, and had now spent both Wednesday and +Thursday in Symford. There had, then, been ample time for Europe to +receive in its startled ears the news of her flight; yet Europe, +judging from its silence, knew nothing at all about it. In Minehead on +the Thursday evening Fritzing bought papers, no longer it is true with +the frenzy he had displayed at Dover when every moment seemed packed +with peril, but still with eagerness; and not a paper mentioned +Kunitz. On the Saturday he did find the laconic information in the +London paper he had ordered to be sent him every day that the Grand +Duke of Lothen-Kunitz who was shooting in East Prussia had been joined +there by that Prince--I will not reveal his august name--who had so +badly wanted to marry Priscilla. And on the Sunday--it was of course +the paper published in London on Saturday--he read that the Princess +Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, the second and only unmarried daughter of +the Grand Duke, was confined to her bed by a sharp attack of +influenza. After that there was utter silence. Fritzing showed +Priscilla the paragraph about her influenza, and she was at first very +merry over it. The ease with which a princess can shake off her +fetters the moment she seriously tries to surprised her, and amused +her too, for a little. It surprised Fritzing, but without amusing him, +for he was a man who was never amused. Indeed, I am unable to recall +any single occasion on which I saw him smile. Other emotions shook him +vigorously as we know, but laughter never visited him with its +pleasant ticklings under the ribs; it slunk away abashed before a task +so awful, and left him at his happiest to a mood of mild contentment. +"Your Royal Parent," he remarked to Priscilla, "has chosen that which +is ever the better part of valour, and is hushing the incident up." + +"He never loved me," said Priscilla, wistfully. On thinking it over +she was not quite sure that she liked being allowed to run away so +easily. Did nobody care, then, what became of her? Was she of +positively no value at all? Running away is all very well, but your +pride demands that those runned from shall at least show some sign of +not liking it, make some effort, however humble, to fetch you back. If +they do not, if they remain perfectly quiescent and resigned, not even +sending forth a wail that shall be audible, you are naturally +extremely crushed. "My father," said Priscilla bitterly, "doesn't +care a bit. He'll give out I'm dangerously ill, and then you'll see, +Fritzi--I shall either die, or be sent away for an interminable +yachting cruise with the Countess. And so dust will be thrown in +people's eyes. My father is very good at that, and the Countess is a +perfect genius. You'll see." + +But Fritzing never saw, for there was no more mention at all either of +Kunitz or of influenza. And just then he was so much taken up by his +efforts to get into the cottages as quickly as possible that after a +passing feeling of thankfulness that the Grand Duke should be of such +a convenient indifference to his daughter's fate it dropped from his +mind in the easy fashion in which matters of importance always did +drop from it. What was the use, briefly reflected this philosopher, of +worrying about what they were or were not thinking at Kunitz? There +would be time enough for that when they actually began to do +something. He felt very safe from Kunitz in the folds of the Somerset +hills, and as the days passed calmly by he felt still safer. But +though no dangers seemed to threaten from without there were certain +dangers within that made it most desirable for them to get away from +Baker's and into their own little home without a moment's unnecessary +delay. He could not always be watching his tongue, and he found for +instance that it positively refused to call the Princess Ethel. It had +an almost equal objection to addressing her as niece; and it had a +most fatal habit of slipping out Grand Ducal Highnesses. True, at +first they mostly talked German together, but the tendency to talk +English grew more marked every day; it was in the air they breathed, +and they both could talk it so fatally well. Up at the cottages among +the workmen, or when they were joined by Mr. Dawson, grown zealous to +help, or by either of the young men Robin and Tussie, who seemed +constantly to be passing, the danger too was great. Fritzing was so +conscious of it that he used to break out into perspirations whenever +Priscilla was with him in public, and his very perspirations were +conspicuous. The strain made his manner oddly nervous when speaking to +or of his niece, and he became the subject of much conjecture to the +observant Robin. Robin thought that in spite of her caressing ways +with her uncle the girl must be privately a dreadful tyrant. It seemed +difficult to believe, but Robin prided himself on being ready to +believe anything at a moment's notice, especially if it was the worst, +and he called it having an open mind. The girl was obviously the most +spoilt of girls. No one could help seeing that. Her least wish seemed +to be for the uncle a command that was not even to be talked about. +Yet the uncle was never openly affectionate to her. It almost seemed +as though she must have some secret hold over him, be in possession, +perhaps, of some fact connected with a guilty past. But then this girl +and guilty pasts! Why, from the look in her eyes she could never even +have heard of such things. Robin thought himself fairly experienced +in knowledge of human nature, but he had to admit that he had never +yet met so incomprehensible a pair. He wanted to talk to Tussie +Shuttleworth about them, but Tussie would not talk. To Tussie it +seemed impossible to talk about Priscilla because she was sacred to +him, and she was sacred to him because he adored her so. He adored her +to an extent that amazes me to think of, worshipping her beauty with +all the headlong self-abasement of a very young man who is also a +poet. His soul was as wax within him, softest wax punched all over +with little pictures of Priscilla. No mother is happy while her +child's soul is in this state, and though he was extremely decent, and +hid it and smothered it and choked it with all the energy he +possessed, Lady Shuttleworth knew very well what was going on inside +him and spent her spare time trying to decide whether to laugh or to +cry over her poor Tussie. "When does Robin go back to Cambridge?" she +asked Mrs. Morrison the next time she met her, which was in the front +garden of a sick old woman's cottage. + +Mrs. Morrison was going in with a leaflet; Lady Shuttleworth was going +in with a pound of tea. From this place they could see Priscilla's +cottage, and Robin was nailing up its creepers in the sight of all +Symford. + +"Ah--I know what you mean," said Mrs. Morrison quickly. + +"It is always such a pity to see emotions wasted," said Lady +Shuttleworth slowly, as if weighing each word. + +"Wasted? You do think she's an adventuress, then?" said Mrs. Morrison +eagerly. + +"Sh-sh. My dear, how could I think anything so unkind? But we who are +old"--Mrs. Morrison jerked up her chin--"and can look on calmly, do +see the pity of it when beautiful emotions are lavished and wasted. So +much force, so much time frittered away in dreams. And all so useless, +so barren. Nothing I think is so sad as waste, and nothing is so +wasteful as a one-sided love." + +Mrs. Morrison gave the pink tulle bow she liked to wear in the +afternoons at her throat an agitated pat, and tried to conceal her +misery that Augustus Shuttleworth should also have succumbed to Miss +Neumann-Schultz. That he had done so was very clear from Lady +Shuttleworth's portentous remarks, for it was not in human nature for +a woman to be thus solemn about the wasted emotions of other people's +sons. His doing so might save Robin's future, but it would ruin +Netta's. We all have our little plans for the future--dear rosy things +that we dote on and hug to our bosoms with more tenderness even than +we hug the babies of our bodies, and the very rosiest and best +developed of Mrs. Morrison's darling plans was the marriage of her +daughter Netta with the rich young man Augustus. It was receiving a +rude knock on its hopeful little head at this moment in old Mrs. +Jones's front garden, and naturally the author of its being winced. +Augustus, she feared, must be extremely far gone in love, and it was +not likely that the girl would let such a chance go. It was a +consolation that the marriage would be a scandal,--this person from +nowhere, this niece of a German teacher, carrying off the wealthiest +young man in the county. The ways of so-called Providence were quite +criminally inscrutable, she thought, in stark defiance of what a +vicar's wife should think; but then she was greatly goaded. + +Priscilla herself came out of Mrs. Jones's door at that moment with a +very happy face. She had succeeded in comforting the sick woman to an +extent that surprised her. The sick woman had cheered up so suddenly +and so much that Priscilla, delighted, had at once concluded that work +among the sick poor was her true vocation. And how easy it had been! A +few smiles, a few kind words, a five-pound note put gently into the +withered old hands, and behold the thing was done. Never was sick +woman so much comforted as Mrs. Jones. She who had been disinclined to +speak above a whisper when Priscilla went in was able at the end of +the visit to pour forth conversation in streams, and quite loud +conversation, and even interspersed with chuckles. All Friday +Priscilla had tried to help in the arranging of her cottage, and had +made herself and Fritzing so tired over it that on Saturday she let +him go up alone and decided that she would, for her part, now begin to +do good to the people in the village. It was what she intended to do +in future. It was to be the chief work of her new life. She was going +to live like the poor and among them, smooth away their sorrows and +increase their joys, give them, as it were, a cheery arm along the +rough path of poverty, and in doing it get down herself out of the +clouds to the very soil, to the very beginnings and solid elementary +facts of life. And she would do it at once, and not sit idle at the +farm. It was on such idle days as the day Fritzing went to Minehead +that sillinesses assailed her soul--shrinkings of the flesh from +honest calico, disgust at the cooking, impatience at Annalise's +swollen eyes. Priscilla could have cried that night when she went to +bed, if she had not held tears in scorn, at the sickliness of her +spirit, her spirit that she had thought more than able to keep her +body in subjection, that she had hoped was unalterably firm and brave. +But see the uses of foolishness,--the reaction from it is so great +that it sends us with a bound twice as far again along the right road +as we were while we were wise and picking our way with clean shoes +slowly among the puddles. Who does not know that fresh impulse, so +strong and gracious, towards good that surges up in us after a period +of sitting still in mud? What an experience it is, that vigorous shake +and eager turning of our soiled face once more towards the blessed +light. "I will arise and go to my Father"--of all the experiences of +the spirit surely this is the most glorious; and behold the prudent, +the virtuous, the steadfast--dogged workers in the vineyard in the +heat of the day--are shut out from it for ever. + +Priscilla had not backslided much; but short as her tarrying had been +among the puddles she too sprang forward after it with renewed +strength along the path she had chosen as the best, and having +completed the second of her good works--the first had been performed +just previously, and had been a warm invitation made personally from +door to door to all the Symford mothers to send their children to tea +and games at Baker's Farm the next day, which was Sunday--she came +away very happy from the comforted Mrs. Jones, and met the two +arriving comforters in the front garden. + +Now Priscilla's and Mrs. Jones's last words together had been these: + +"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Priscilla had asked, +leaning over the old lady and patting her arm in farewell. + +"No, deary--you've done enough already, God bless your pretty face," +said Mrs. Jones, squeezing the five-pound note ecstatically in her +hands. + +"But isn't there anything you'd like? Can't I get you anything? See, I +can run about and you are here in bed. Tell me what I can do." + +Mrs. Jones blinked and worked her mouth and blinked again and wheezed +and cleared her throat. "Well, I do know of something would comfort +me," she said at last, amid much embarrassed coughing. + +"Tell me," said Priscilla. + +"I don't like," coughed Mrs. Jones. + +"Tell me," said Priscilla. + +"I'll whisper it, deary." + +Priscilla bent down her head, and the old lady put her twitching mouth +to her ear. + +"Why, of course," said Priscilla smiling, "I'll go and get you some at +once." + +"Now God for ever bless your beautiful face, darlin'!" shrilled Mrs. +Jones, quite beside herself with delight. "The Cock and 'Ens, +deary--that's the place. And the quart bottles are the best; one gets +more comfort out of them, and they're the cheapest in the end." + +And Priscilla issuing forth on this errand met the arriving visitors +in the garden. + +"How do you do," she said in a happy voice, smiling gaily at both of +them. She had seen neither since she had dismissed them, but naturally +she had never given that strange proceeding a thought. + +"Oh--how do you do," said Lady Shuttleworth, surprised to see her +there, and with a slight and very unusual confusion of manner. + +Mrs. Morrison said nothing but stood stiffly in the background, +answering Priscilla's smile with a stern, reluctant nod. + +"I've been talking to poor old Mrs. Jones. Your son"--she looked at +Mrs. Morrison--"told me how ill she was." + +"Did he?" said Mrs. Morrison, hardly raising her eyes a moment from +the ground. This girl was her double enemy: bound, whatever she did, +to make either a fool of her son or of her daughter. + +"So I went in and tried to cheer her up. And I really believe I did." + +"Well that was very kind of you," said Lady Shuttleworth, smiling in +spite of herself, unable to withstand the charm of Priscilla's +personality. How supremely ridiculous of Mrs. Morrison to think that +this girl was an adventuress. Such are the depths of ignorance one can +descend to if one is buried long enough in the country. + +"Now," said Priscilla cheerfully, "she wants rum, and I'm just going +to buy her some." + +"Rum?" cried Lady Shuttleworth in a voice of horror; and Mrs. Morrison +started violently. + +"Is it bad for her?" said Priscilla, surprised. + +"Bad!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"It is," said Mrs. Morrison with her eyes on the ground, "poison for +both body and soul." + +"Dear me," said Priscilla, her face falling. "Why, she said it would +comfort her." + +"It will poison both her body and her soul," repeated Mrs. Morrison +grimly. + +"My dear," said Lady Shuttleworth, "our efforts are all directed +towards training our people to keep from drinking." + +"But she doesn't want to drink," said Priscilla. "She only wants to +taste it now and then. I'm afraid she's dying. Mustn't she die +happy?" + +"It is our duty," said Mrs. Morrison, "to see that our parishioners +die sober." + +"But I've promised," said Priscilla. + +"Did she--did she ask for it herself?" asked Lady Shuttleworth, a +great anxiety in her voice. + +"Yes, and I promised." + +Both the women looked very grave. Mrs. Jones, who was extremely old +and certainly dying--not from any special disease but from mere +inability to go on living--had been up to this a shining example to +Symford of the manner in which Christian old ladies ought to die. As +such she was continually quoted by the vicar's wife, and Lady +Shuttleworth had felt an honest pride in this ordered and seemly +death-bed. The vicar went every day and sat with her and said that he +came away refreshed. Mrs. Morrison read her all those of her leaflets +that described the enthusiasm with which other good persons behave in +a like case. Lady Shuttleworth never drove through the village without +taking her some pleasant gift--tea, or fruit, or eggs, or even little +pots of jam, to be eaten discreetly and in spoonfuls. She also paid a +woman to look in at short intervals during the day and shake up her +pillow. Kindness and attention and even affection could not, it will +be admitted, go further; all three had been heaped on Mrs. Jones with +generous hands; and in return she had expressed no sentiments that +were not appropriate, and never, never had breathed the faintest +suggestion to any of her benefactors that what she really wanted most +was rum. It shocked both the women inexpressibly, and positively +pained Lady Shuttleworth. Mrs. Morrison privately believed Priscilla +had put the idea into the old lady's head, and began to regard her in +something of the light of a fiend. + +"Suppose," said Priscilla, "we look upon it as medicine." + +"But my dear, it is not medicine," said Lady Shuttleworth. + +"It is poison," repeated Mrs. Morrison. + +"How can it be if it does her so much good? I must keep my promise. I +wouldn't disappoint her for the world. If only you'd seen her +delight"--they quivered--"you'd agree that she mustn't be +disappointed, poor old dying thing. Why, it might kill her. But +suppose we treat it as a medicine, and I lock up the bottle and go +round and give her a little myself three or four times a day--wouldn't +that be a good plan? Surely it couldn't hurt?" + +"There is no law to stop you," said Mrs. Morrison; and Lady +Shuttleworth stared at the girl in silent dismay. + +"I can try it at least," said Priscilla; "and if I find it's really +doing her harm I'll leave off. But I promised, and she's expecting it +now every minute. I can't break my promise. Do tell me--is the Cock +and Hens that inn round the corner? She told me it was best there." + +"But you cannot go yourself to the Cock and Hens and buy rum," +exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth, roused to energy; and her voice was full +of so determined a protest that the vicar's wife, who thought it +didn't matter at all where such a young woman went, received a fresh +shock. + +"Why not?" inquired Priscilla. + +"My dear, sooner than you should do that I'll--I'll go and buy it +myself," cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"Gracious heavens," thought Mrs. Morrison, perfectly staggered by this +speech. Had Lady Shuttleworth suddenly lost her reason? Or was she +already accepting the girl as her son's wife? Priscilla looked at her +a moment with grave eyes. "Is it because I'm a girl that I mustn't?" +she asked. + +"Yes. For one thing. But--" Lady Shuttleworth shut her mouth. + +"But what?" asked Priscilla. + +"Oh, nothing." + +"If it's not the custom of the country for a girl to go I'll send Mr. +Morrison," said Priscilla. + +"Send Mr. Morrison?" gasped the vicar's wife. + +"What, the vicar?" exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth. + +"No, no," said Priscilla smiling, "young Mr. Morrison. I see him over +there tying up my creepers. He's so kind. He'll go. I'll ask him." + +And nodding good-bye she hurried out of the garden and over to her +cottage, almost running in her desire not to keep Mrs. Jones any +longer in suspense. + +The two women, rooted to the ground, watched her as if fascinated, saw +her speak to Robin on his ladder, saw how he started and dropped his +nails, saw how nimbly he clambered down, and how after the shortest +parley the infatuated youth rushed away at once in the direction of +the Cock and Hens. The only thing they did not see from where they +stood was the twinkle in his eye. + +"I don't think," murmured Lady Shuttleworth, "I don't think, my dear, +that I quite care to go in to Mrs. Jones to-day. I--I think I'll go +home." + +"So shall I," said Mrs. Morrison, biting her lips to keep them steady. +"I shall go and speak to the vicar." + + + + +XI + + +What she meant by speaking to the vicar was a vigorous stirring of him +up to wrath; but you cannot stir up vicars if they are truly good. The +vicar was a pious and patient old man, practiced in forgiveness, in +overlooking, in waiting, in trying again. Always slow to anger, as the +years drew him more and more apart into the shadows of old age and he +watched from their clear coolness with an ever larger comprehension +the younger generations striving together in the heat, he grew at last +unable to be angered at all. The scriptural injunction not to let the +sun go down upon your wrath had no uses for him, for he possessed no +wrath for the sun to go down upon. He had that lovable nature that +sees the best in everything first, and then prefers to look no +further. He took for granted that people were at bottom good and +noble, and the assumption went a long way towards making them so. +Robin, for instance, was probably saved by his father's unclouded +faith in him. Mrs. Morrison, a woman who had much trouble with +herself, having come into the world with the wings of the angel in her +well glued down and prevented from spreading by a multitude of little +defects, had been helped without her knowing it by his example out of +many a pit of peevishness and passion. Who shall measure the influence +of one kind and blameless life? His wife, in her gustier moments, +thought it sheer weakness, this persistent turning away from evil, +this refusal to investigate and dissect, to take sides, to wrestle. +The evil was there, and it was making an ostrich or a vegetable of +one's self to go on being calm in the face of it. With the blindness +of wives, who are prevented from seeing clearly by the very closeness +of the object--the same remark exactly applies to husbands--she did +not see that the vicar was the candle shining in a naughty world, that +he was the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. And just as leaven +leavens by its mere presence in the lump, by merely passively being +there, and will go on doing it so long as there is a lump to leaven, +so had the vicar, more than his hardworking wife, more than the +untiring Lady Shuttleworth, more than any district visitor, parish +nurse, or other holy person, influenced Symford by simply living in it +in a way that would have surprised him had he known. There is a great +virtue in sweeping out one's own house and trimming its lamps before +starting on the house and lamps of a neighbour; and since new dust +settles every day, and lamps, I believe, need constant trimming, I +know not when the truly tidy soul will have attained so perfect a +spotlessness as to justify its issuing forth to attack the private +dust of other people. And if it ever did, lo, it would find the +necessity no longer there. Its bright untiringness would +unconsciously have done its work, and every dimmer soul within sight +of that cheerful shining been strengthened and inspired to go and do +likewise. + +But Mrs. Morrison, who saw things differently, was constantly trying +to stir up storms in the calm waters of the vicar's mind; and after +the episode in Mrs. Jones's front garden she made a very determined +effort to get him to rebuke Priscilla. Her own indignation was poured +out passionately. The vicar was surprised at her heat, he who was so +beautifully cool himself, and though he shook his head over Mrs. +Jones's rum he also smiled as he shook it. Nor was he more reasonable +about Robin. On the contrary, he declared that he would think mightily +little of a young man who did not immediately fall head over ears in +love with such a pretty girl. + +"You don't mind our boy's heart being broken, then?" questioned his +wife bitterly; of her plans for Netta she had never cared to speak. + +"My dear, if it is to be broken there is no young lady I would sooner +entrust with the job." + +"You don't mind his marrying an adventuress, then?" + +"My dear, I know of no adventuress." + +"You rather like our old people to be tempted to drink, to have it +thrust upon them on their very dying beds?" + +"Kate, are you not bitter?" + +"Psha," said his wife, drumming her foot. + +"Psha, Kate?" inquired the vicar mildly; and it is not always that +the saintly produce a soothing effect on their wives. + +It really seemed as if the girl were to have her own way in Symford, +unchecked even by Lady Shuttleworth, whose attitude was entirely +incomprehensible. She was to be allowed to corrupt the little hamlet +that had always been so good, to lead it astray, to lure it down paths +of forbidden indulgence, to turn it topsy turvy to an extent not even +reached by the Dissenting family that had given so much trouble a few +years before. It was on the Sunday morning as the church bells were +ringing, that Mrs. Morrison, prayer-book in hand, looked in at Mrs. +Jones's on her way to service and discovered the five-pound note. + +The old lady was propped up in bed with her open Bible on her lap and +her spectacles lying in it, and as usual presented to her visitor the +perfect realization of her ideal as to the looks and manners most +appropriate to ailing Christians. There was nowhere a trace of rum, +and the only glass in the room was innocently filled with the china +roses that flowered so profusely in the garden at Baker's Farm. But +Mrs. Morrison could not for all that dissemble the disappointment and +sternness of her heart, and the old lady glanced up at her as she came +in with a kind of quavering fearfulness, like that of a little child +who is afraid it may be going to be whipped, or of a conscientious dog +who has lapsed unaccountably from rectitude. + +"I have come to read the gospel for the day to you," said Mrs. +Morrison, sitting down firmly beside her. + +"Thank you mum," said Mrs. Jones with meekness. + +"My prayer-book has such small print--give me your Bible." + +A look of great anxiety came into Mrs. Jones's eyes, but the Bible was +drawn from between her trembling old hands, and Mrs. Morrison began to +turn its pages. She had not turned many before she came to the +five-pound note. "What is this?" she asked, in extreme surprise. + +Mrs. Jones gave a little gasp, and twisted her fingers about. + +"A five-pound note?" exclaimed Mrs. Morrison, holding it up. "How did +it come here?" + +"It's mine, mum," quavered Mrs. Jones. + +"Yours? Do you mean to say you have money hidden away and yet allow +Lady Shuttleworth to pay everything for you?" + +"It's the first I ever 'ad, mum," faintly murmured the old lady, her +eyes following every movement of Mrs. Morrison's hands with a look of +almost animal anxiety. + +"Where did it come from?" + +"The young lady give it me yesterday, mum." + +"The young lady?" Mrs. Morrison's voice grew very loud. "Do you mean +the person staying at the Pearces'?" + +Mrs. Jones gulped, and feebly nodded. + +"Most improper. Most wrong. Most dangerous. You cannot tell how she +came by it, and I must say I'm surprised at you, Mrs. Jones. It +probably is not a real one. It is unlikely a chit like that should be +able to give so large a sum away--" And Mrs. Morrison held up the note +to the light and turned it round and round, scrutinizing it from every +point of view, upside down, back to front, sideways, with one eye +shut; but it refused to look like anything but a good five-pound note, +and she could only repeat grimly "Most dangerous." + +The old lady watched her, a terrible anxiety in her eyes. Her worst +fears were fulfilled when the vicar's wife folded it up and said +decidedly, "For the present I shall take care of it for you. You +cannot lie here with so much money loose about the place. Why, if it +got round the village you might have some one in who'd murder you. +People have been murdered before now for less than this. I shall speak +to the vicar about it." And she put it in her purse, shut it with a +snap, and took up the Bible again. + +Mrs. Jones made a little sound between a gasp and a sob. Her head +rolled back on the pillow, and two tears dropped helplessly down the +furrows of her face. In that moment she felt the whole crushing misery +of being weak, and sick, and old,--so old that you have outlived your +claims to everything but the despotic care of charitable ladies, so +old that you are a mere hurdy-gurdy, expected each time any one in +search of edification chooses to turn your handle to quaver out tunes +of immortality. It is a bad thing to be very old. Of all the bad +things life forces upon us as we pass along it is the last and +worst--the bitterness at the bottom of the cup, the dregs of what for +many was after all always only medicine. Mrs. Jones had just enough of +the strength of fear left to keep quite still while the vicar's wife +read the Gospel in a voice that anger made harsh; but when she had +gone, after a parting admonition and a dreadful assurance that she +would come again soon, the tears rolled unchecked and piteous, and it +was a mercy that Priscilla also took it into her head to look in on +her way to church, for if she had not I don't know who would have +dried them for this poor baby of eighty-five. And I regret to say that +Priscilla's ideas of doing good were in such a state of crudeness that +she had no sooner mastered the facts brokenly sobbed out than she ran +to the cupboard and gave Mrs. Jones a tablespoonful of rum for the +strengthening of her body and then took out her purse and gave her +another five-pound note for the comforting of her soul. And then she +wiped her eyes, and patted her, and begged her not to mind. Such +conduct was, I suppose, what is called indiscriminate charity and +therefore blameworthy, but its effect was great. Priscilla went to +church with the reflection of the old lady's wonder and joy shining in +her own face. "Hide it," had been her last words at the door, her +finger on her lips, her head nodding expressively in the direction of +the vicarage; and by this advice she ranged herself once and for all +on the opposite side to Mrs. Morrison and the followers of obedience +and order. Mrs. Jones would certainly have taken her for an angel +working miracles with five-pound notes and an inexhaustible pocket if +it had not been for the rum; even in her rapture she did feel that a +genuine angel would be incapable of any really harmonious combination +with rum. But so far had she fallen from the kind of thinking that the +vicar's wife thought proper in a person so near her end that she +boldly told herself she preferred Priscilla. + +Now this was the day of Priscilla's children's party, and though all +Symford had been talking of it for twenty-four hours the news of it +had not yet reached Mrs. Morrison's ears. The reason was that Symford +talked in whispers, only too sure that the authorities would consider +it wrong for it to send its children a-merrymaking on a Sunday, and +desperately afraid lest the forbidden cup should be snatched from its +longing lips. But the news did get to Mrs. Morrison's ears, and it got +to them in the porch of the church as she was passing in to prayer. +She had it from an overgrown girl who was waiting outside for her +father, and who was really much too big for children's parties but had +got an invitation by looking wistful at the right moment. + +"Emma," said Mrs. Morrison in passing, "you have not returned the +book I lent you. Bring it up this afternoon." + +"Please mum, I'll bring it to-morrow, mum," said the girl, curtseying +and turning red. + +"No, Emma, you will do as I direct. One can never be too particular +about returning books. You have kept it an unconscionable time. You +will bring it to the vicarage at four o'clock." + +"Please mum, I--I can't at four o'clock." + +"And pray, Emma, what is to prevent you?" + +"I--I'm going to Baker's, mum." + +"Going to Baker's? Why are you going to Baker's, Emma?" + +So it all came out. + +The bells were just stopping, and Mrs. Morrison, who played the organ, +was forced to hurry in without having told Emma her whole opinion of +those who gave and those who attended Sunday parties, but the prelude +she played that day expressed the tumult of her mind very well, and +struck Tussie Shuttleworth, who had sensitive ears, quite cold. He was +the only person in the church acutely sensitive to sound, and it was +very afflicting to him, this plunging among the pedals, this angry +shrieking of stops no man ever yet had heard together. The very blower +seemed frightened, and blew in gasps; and the startled Tussie, +comparing the sounds to the clamourings of a fiend in pain, could not +possibly guess they were merely the musical expression of the state of +a just woman's soul. + +Mrs. Morrison's anger was perfectly proper. It had been the +conscientious endeavour of twenty-five solid years of her life to make +of Symford a model parish, and working under Lady Shuttleworth, whose +power was great since all the cottages were her son's and were lived +in by his own labourers, it had been kept in a state of order so +nearly perfect as to raise it to the position of an example to the +adjoining parishes. The church was full, the Sunday-school well +attended, the Sabbath was kept holy, the women were one and all sober +and thrifty, the men were fairly satisfactory except on Saturday +nights, there was no want, little sickness, and very seldom downright +sin. The expression downright sin is Mrs. Morrison's own,--heaven +forbid that I should have anything to do with such an expression--and +I suppose she meant by it thieving, murder, and other grossnesses that +would bring the sinner, as she often told her awe-struck Dorcas class, +to infallible gallows, and the sinner's parents' grey hairs to +sorrowful graves. "Please mum, will the parents go too?" asked a girl +one day who had listened breathlessly, an inquiring-minded girl who +liked to get to the root of things. + +"Go where, Bessie?" + +"With the grey hairs, mum." + +Mrs. Morrison paused a moment and fixed a searching gaze on Bessie's +face. Then she said with much dignity, "The parents, Bessie, will +naturally follow the hairs." And to a girl bred in the near +neighbourhood of Exmoor it sounded very sporting. + +Into this innocent, frugal, well-managed hamlet Priscilla dropped +suddenly from nowhere, trailing with her thunder-clouds of impulsive +and childish ideas about doing good, and holding in her hands the +dangerous weapon of wealth. It is hard to stand by and see one's +life-work broken up before one's eyes by an irresponsible stranger, a +foreigner, a girl, a young girl, a pretty girl; especially hard if one +was born with an unbending character, tough and determined, ambitious +and vain. These are not reproaches being piled up on the vicar's wife; +who shall dare reproach another? And how could she help being born so? +We would all if we could be born good and amiable and beautiful, and +remain so perpetually during our lives; and she too was one of God's +children, and inside her soul, behind the crust of failings that +hindered it during these years from coming out, sat her bright angel, +waiting. Meanwhile she was not a person to watch the destruction of +her hopes without making violent efforts to stop it; and immediately +she had played the vicar into the vestry after service that Sunday she +left the congregation organless and hurried away into the churchyard. +There she stood and waited for the villagers to question them about +this unheard of thing; and it was bad to see how they melted away in +other directions,--out at unused gates, making detours over the grass, +visiting the long-neglected graves of relatives, anywhere rather than +along the ordinary way, which was the path where the vicar's wife +stood. At last came Mrs. Vickerton the postmistress. She was deep in +conversation with the innkeeper's wife, and did not see the figure on +the path in time to melt away herself. If she had she certainly would +have melted, for though she had no children but her grown-up son she +felt very guilty; for it was her son who had been sent the afternoon +before to Minehead by Priscilla with a list as long as his arm of the +cakes and things to be ordered for the party. "Oh Mrs. Morrison, I +didn't see you," she exclaimed, starting and smiling and turning red. +She was a genteel woman who called no one mum. + +The innkeeper's wife slipped deftly away among graves. + +"Is it true that the children are going to Baker's Farm this +afternoon?" asked Mrs. Morrison, turning and walking grimly by Mrs. +Vickerton. + +"I did hear something about it, Mrs. Morrison," said Mrs. Vickerton, +hiding her agitation behind a series of smiles with sudden endings. + +"All?" + +"I did hear they pretty well all thought of it," said Mrs. Vickerton, +coughing. "Beautiful weather, isn't it, Mrs. Morrison." + +"They are to have tea there?" + +Mrs. Vickerton gazed pleasantly at the clouds and the tree-tops. "I +should think there might be tea, Mrs. Morrison," she said; and the +vision of that mighty list of cakes rising before her eyes made her +put up her hand and cough again. + +"Have the parents lost their senses?" + +"I couldn't say--I really couldn't say, Mrs. Morrison." + +"Have they forgotten the commandments?" + +"Oh I 'ope not, Mrs. Morrison." + +"And the vicar's teaching? And the good habits of years?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Morrison." + +"I never heard of anything more disgraceful. Disgraceful to the giver +and to those who accept. Wicked, scandalous, and unscriptural." + +"We all 'oped you'd see no harm in it, Mrs. Morrison. It's a fine day, +and they'll just have tea, and perhaps--sing a little, and they don't +get treats often this time of year." + +"Why, it's disgraceful--disgraceful anywhere to have a treat on a +Sunday; but in a parish like this it is scandalous. When Lady +Shuttleworth hears of it I quite expect she'll give everybody notice +to quit." + +"Notice to quit? Oh I hope not, Mrs. Morrison. And she do know about +it. She heard it last night. And Sir Augustus himself has promised the +young lady to go and help." + +"Sir Augustus?" + +"And we all think it so kind of him, and so kind of the young lady +too," said Mrs. Vickerton, gathering courage. + +"Sir Augustus?" repeated Mrs. Morrison. Then a horrid presentiment +laid cold fingers on her heart. "Is any one else going to help?" she +asked quickly. + +"Only the young lady's uncle, and--" + +Mrs. Vickerton hesitated, and looked at the vicar's wife with a +slightly puzzled air. + +"And who?" + +"Of course Mr. Robin." + + + + +XII + + +It is the practice of Providence often to ignore the claims of poetic +justice. Properly, the Symford children ought to have been choked by +Priscilla's cakes; and if they had been, the parents who had sent them +merrymaking on a Sunday would have been well punished by the +undeniable awfulness of possessing choked children. But nobody was +choked; and when in the early days of the following week there were in +nearly every cottage pangs being assuaged, they were so naturally the +consequence of the strange things that had been eaten that only Mrs. +Morrison was able to see in them weapons being wielded by Providence +in the cause of eternal right. She, however, saw it so plainly that +each time during the next few days that a worried mother came and +asked advice, she left her work or her meals without a murmur, and +went to the castor-oil cupboard with an alacrity that was almost +cheerful; and seldom, I suppose, have such big doses been supplied and +administered as the ones she prescribed for suffering Symford. + +But on this dark side of the picture I do not care to look; the +party, anyhow, had been a great success, and Priscilla became at +one stroke as popular among the poor of Symford as she had been in +Lothen-Kunitz. Its success it is true was chiefly owing to the +immense variety of things to eat she had provided; for the +conjuror, merry-go-round, and cocoa-nuts to be shied at that she +had told young Vickerton to bring with him from Minehead, had all +been abandoned on Tussie's earnest advice, who instructed her +innocent German mind that these amusements, undoubtedly admirable +in themselves and on week days, were looked upon askance in England +on Sundays. + +"Why?" asked Priscilla, in great surprise. + +"It's not keeping the day holy," said Tussie, blushing. + +"How funny," said Priscilla. + +"Oh, I don't know." + +"Why," said Priscilla, "in Kun--" but she pulled herself up just as +she was about to give him a description of the varied nature of Sunday +afternoons in Kunitz. + +"You must have noticed," said Tussie, "as you have lived so long in +London, that everything's shut on Sundays. There are no theatres and +things--certainly no cocoa-nuts." + +"No, I don't remember any cocoa-nuts," mused Priscilla, her memory +going over those past Sundays she had spent in England. + +Tussie tried to make amends for having obstructed her plans by +exerting himself to the utmost to entertain the children as far as +decorum allowed. He encouraged them to sing, he who felt every +ugliness in sound like a blow; he urged them to recite for prizes of +sixpences, he on whose soul Casabianca and Excelsior had much the +effect of scourges on a tender skin; he led them out into a field +between tea and supper and made them run races, himself setting the +example, he who caught cold so easily that he knew it probably meant a +week in bed. Robin helped too, but his exertions were confined to the +near neighbourhood of Priscilla. His mother had been very angry with +him, and he had been very angry with his mother for being angry, and +he had come away from the vicarage with a bad taste in his mouth and a +great defiance in his heart. It was the first time he had said hard +things to her, and it had been a shocking moment,--a moment sometimes +inevitable in the lives of parents and children of strong character +and opposed desires. He had found himself quite unable in his anger to +clothe his hard sayings in forms of speech that would have hidden +their brutal force, and he had turned his back at last on her +answering bitterness and fled to Baker's, thankful to find when he got +there that Priscilla's beauty and the interest of the mystery that +hung about her wiped out every other remembrance. + +Priscilla was in the big farm kitchen, looking on at the children +having tea. That was all she did at her party, except go round every +now and then saying pleasant little things to each child; but this +going round was done in so accomplished a manner, she seemed so used +to it, was so well provided with an apparently endless supply of +appropriate remarks, was so kind, and yet so--what was the word? +could it be mechanical?--that Robin for the hundredth time found +himself pondering over something odd, half-remembered, elusive about +the girl. Then there was the uncle; manifestly a man who had never +before been required to assist at a school-treat, manifestly on this +occasion an unhappy man, yet look how he worked while she sat idly +watching, look how he laboured round with cakes and bread-and-butter, +clumsily, strenuously, with all the heat and anxiety of one eager to +please and obey. Yes, that was what he did; Robin had hit on it at +last. This extraordinary uncle obeyed his niece; and Robin knew very +well that Germany was the last country in the world to produce men who +did that. Had he not a cousin who had married a German officer? A +whilom gay and sprightly cousin, who spent her time, as she dolefully +wrote, having her mind weeded of its green growth of little opinions +and gravelled and rolled and stamped with the opinions of her male +relations-in-law. "And I'd rather have weeds than gravel," she wrote +at the beginning of this process when she was still restive under the +roller, "for they at least are green." But long ago she had left off +complaining, long ago she too had entered into the rest that remaineth +for him who has given up, who has become what men praise as reasonable +and gods deplore as dull, who is tired of bothering, tired of trying, +tired of everything but sleep. Then there was the girl's maid. This +was the first time Robin had seen her; and while she was helping Mrs. +Pearce pour out cups of chocolate and put a heaped spoonful of whipped +cream on the top of each cup in the fashion familiar to Germans and +altogether lovely in the eyes of the children of Symford, Robin went +to her and offered help. + +Annalise looked at him with heavy eyes, and shook her head. + +"She don't speak no English, sir," explained Mrs. Pearce. "This one's +pure heathen." + +"No English," echoed Annalise drearily, who had at least learned that +much, "no English, no English." + +Robin gathered up his crumbs of German and presented them to her with +a smile. Immediately on hearing her own tongue she flared into life, +and whipping out a little pocket-book and pencil asked him eagerly +where she was. + +"Where you are?" repeated Robin, astonished. + +"_Ja, Ja_. The address. This address. What is it? Where am I?" + +"What, don't you know?" + +"Tell me--quick," begged Annalise. + +"But why--I don't understand. You must know you are in England?" + +"England! Naturally I know it is England. But this--where is it? What +is its address? For letters to reach me? Quick--tell me quick!" + +Robin, however, would not be quick. "Why has no one told you?" he +asked, with an immense curiosity. + +"_Ach_, I have not been told. I know nothing. I am kept in the dark +like--like a prisoner." And Annalise dragged her handkerchief out of +her pocket, and put it to her eyes just in time to stop her ready +tears from falling into the whipped cream and spoiling it. + +"There she goes again," sniffed Mrs. Pearce. "It's cry, cry, from +morning till night, and nothing good enough for her. It's a mercy she +goes out of this to-morrow. I never see such an image." + +"Tell me," implored Annalise, "tell me quick, before my mistress--" + +"I'll write it for you," said Robin, taking the note-book from her. +"You know you go into a cottage next week, so I'll put your new +address." And he wrote it in a large round hand and gave it to her +quickly, for Mrs. Pearce was listening to all this German and watching +him write with a look that made him feel cheap. So cheap did it make +him feel that he resisted for the present his desire to go on +questioning Annalise, and putting his hands in his pockets sauntered +away to the other end of the kitchen where Priscilla sat looking on. +"I'm afraid that really was cheap of me," he thought ruefully, when he +came once more into Priscilla's sweet presence; but he comforted +himself with the reflection that no girl ought to be mysterious, +and if this one chose to be so it was fair to cross her plans +occasionally. Yet he went on feeling cheap; and when Tussie who was +hurrying along with a cup of chocolate in each hand ran into him and +spilt some on his sleeve the sudden rage with which he said "Confound +you, Tussie," had little to do with the hot stuff soaking through to +his skin and a great deal with the conviction that Tussie, despised +from their common childhood for his weakness, smallness and ugliness, +would never have done what he had just done and betrayed what the girl +had chosen to keep secret from her maid. + +"But why secret? Why? Why?" asked Robin, torn with desire to find out +all about Priscilla. + +"I'm going to do this often," said Priscilla, looking up at him with a +pleased smile. "I never saw such easily amused little creatures. Don't +you think it is beautiful, to give poor people a few happy moments +sometimes?" + +"Very beautiful," said Robin, his eyes on her face. + +"It is what I mean to do in future," she said dreamily, her chin on +her hand. + +"It will be expensive," remarked Robin; for there were nearly two +hundred children, and Priscilla had collected the strangest things in +food on the long tables as a result of her method, when inviting, of +asking each mother what her child best liked to eat and then ordering +it with the lavishness of ignorance from Minehead. + +"Oh, we shall live so simply ourselves that there will be enough left +to do all I want. And it will be the most blessed change and +refreshment, living simply. Fritzi hated the fuss and luxury quite as +much as I did." + +"Did he?" said Robin, holding his breath. The girl was evidently off +her guard. He had not heard her call her uncle baldly Fritzi before; +and what fuss and luxury could a German teacher's life have known? + +"He it was who first made me see that the body is more than meat and +the soul than raiment," mused Priscilla. + +"Was he?" + +"He pulled my soul out of the flesh-pots. I'm a sort of Israel come +out of Egypt, but an Egypt that was altogether too comfortable." + +"Too comfortable? Can one be too comfortable?" + +"I was. I couldn't move or see or breathe for comfort. It was like a +feather bed all over me." + +"I wouldn't call that comfort," said Robin, for she paused, and he was +afraid she was not going on. "It sounds much more like torture." + +"So it was at last. And Fritzi helped me to shake it off. If he hadn't +I'd have smothered slowly, and perhaps if I'd never known him I'd have +done it as gracefully as my sisters did. Why, they don't know to this +day that they are dead." + +Robin was silent. He was afraid to speak lest anything he said should +remind her of the part she ought to be playing. He had no doubt now +at all that she was keeping a secret. A hundred questions were burning +on his lips. He hated himself for wanting to ask them, for being so +inquisitive, for taking advantage of the girl's being off her guard, +but what are you to do with your inherited failings? Robin's mother +was inquisitive and it had got into his blood, and I know of no moral +magnesia that will purify these things away. "You said the other day," +he burst out at last, quite unable to stop himself, "that you only had +your uncle in the world. Are your sisters--are they in London?" + +"In London?" Priscilla gazed at him a moment with a vague surprise. +Then fright flashed into her eyes. "Did I not tell you they were dead? +Smothered?" she said, getting up quickly, her face setting into the +frown that had so chilled Tussie on the heath. + +"But I took that as a parable." + +"How can I help how you took it?" + +And she instantly left him and went away round the tables, beginning +those little pleasant observations to the children again that struck +him as so strange. + +Well did he know the sort of thing. He had seen Lady Shuttleworth do +it fifty times to the tenants, to the cottagers, at flower-shows, +bazaars, on all occasions of public hospitality or ceremony; but +practised and old as Lady Shuttleworth was this girl seemed yet more +practised. She was a finished artist in the work, he said to himself +as he leaned against the wall, his handsome face flushed, his eyes +sulky, watching her. It was enough to make any good-looking young +man sulky, the mixture of mystery and aloofness about Miss +Neumann-Schultz. Extraordinary as it seemed, up to this point he had +found it quite impossible to indulge with her in that form of more or +less illustrated dialogue known to Symford youths and maidens as +billing and cooing. Very fain would Robin have billed and have cooed. +It was a practice he excelled in. And yet though he had devoted +himself for three whole days, stood on ladders, nailed up creepers, +bought and carried rum, had a horrible scene with his mother because +of her, he had not got an inch nearer things personal and cosy. Miss +Neumann-Schultz thanked him quite kindly and graciously for his +pains--oh, she was very gracious; gracious in the sort of way Lady +Shuttleworth used to be when he came home for the holidays and she +patted his head and uttered benignities--and having thanked, +apparently forgot him till the next time she wanted anything. + +"Fritzi," said Priscilla, when in the course of her progress down the +room she met that burdened man, "I'm dreadfully afraid I've said some +foolish things." + +Fritzing put the plate of cake he was carrying down on a dresser and +wiped his forehead. "Ma'am," he said looking worried, "I cannot watch +you and administer food to these barbarians simultaneously. If your +tongue is so unruly I would recommend complete silence." + +"I've said something about my sisters." + +"Sisters, ma'am?" said Fritzing anxiously. + +"Does it matter?" + +"Matter? I have carefully instructed the woman Pearce, who has +certainly informed, as I intended she should inform, the entire +village, that you were my brother's only child. Consequently, ma'am, +you have no sisters." + +Priscilla made a gesture of despair. "How fearfully difficult it is +not to be straightforward," she said. + +"Yes, ma'am, it is. Since we started on this adventure the whole race +of rogues has become the object of my sincerest admiration. What wits, +what quickness, what gifts--so varied and so deftly used--what skill +in deception, what resourcefulness in danger, what self-command--" + +"Yes but Fritzi what are we to do?" + +"Do, ma'am? About your royal sisters? Would to heaven I had been born +a rogue!" + +"Yes, but as you were not--ought I to go back and say they're only +half-sisters? Or step-sisters? Or sisters in law? Wouldn't that do?" + +"With whom were you speaking?" + +"Mr. Morrison." + +"Ma'am, let me beg you to be more prudent with that youth than with +any one. Our young friend Cæsar Augustus is I believe harmlessness +itself compared with him. Be on your guard, ma'am. Curb that fatal +feminine appendage, your tongue. I have remarked that he watches us. +But a short time since I saw him eagerly conversing with your Grand +Ducal Highness's maid. For me he has already laid several traps that I +have only just escaped falling into by an extraordinary presence of +mind and a nimbleness in dialectic almost worthy of a born rogue." + +"Oh Fritzi," said the frightened Priscilla, laying her hand on his +sleeve, "do go and tell him I didn't mean what I said." + +Fritzing wiped his brow again. "I fail to understand," he said, +looking at Priscilla with worried eyes, "what there is about us that +can possibly attract any one's attention." + +"Why, there isn't anything," said Priscilla, with conviction. "We've +been most careful and clever. But just now--I don't know why--I began +to think aloud." + +"Think aloud?" exclaimed Fritzing, horrified. "Oh ma'am let me beseech +you never again to do that. Better a thousand times not to think at +all. What was it that your Grand Ducal Highness thought aloud?" + +And Priscilla, shamefaced, told him as well as she could remember. + +"I will endeavour to remedy it," said poor Fritzing, running an +agitated hand through his hair. + +Priscilla sighed, and stood drooping and penitent by the dresser while +he went down the room to where Robin still leaned against the wall. + +"Sir," said Fritzing--he never called Robin young man, as he did +Tussie--"my niece tells me you are unable to distinguish truth from +parable." + +"What?" said Robin staring. + +"You are not, sir, to suppose that when my niece described her sisters +as dead that they are not really so." + +"All right sir," said Robin, his eyes beginning to twinkle. + +"The only portion of the story in which my niece used allegory was +when she described them as having been smothered. These young ladies, +sir, died in the ordinary way, in their beds." + +"Feather beds, sir?" asked Robin briskly. + +"Sir, I have not inquired into the nature of the beds," said Fritzing +with severity. + +"Is it not rather unusual," asked Robin, "for two young ladies in one +family to die at once? Were they unhealthy young ladies?" + +"Sir, they did not die at once, nor were they unhealthy. They were +perfectly healthy until they--until they began to die." + +"Indeed," said Robin, with an interest properly tinged with regret. +"At least, sir," he added politely, after a pause in which he and +Fritzing stared very hard at each other, "I trust I may be permitted +to express my sympathy." + +"Sir, you may." And bowing stiffly Fritzing returned to Priscilla, and +with a sigh of relief informed her that he had made things right +again. + +"Dear Fritzi," said Priscilla looking at him with love and admiration, +"how clever you are." + + + + +XIII + + +It was on the Tuesday, the day Priscilla and Fritzing left Baker's and +moved into Creeper Cottage, that the fickle goddess who had let them +nestle for more than a week beneath her wing got tired of them and +shook them out. Perhaps she was vexed by their clumsiness at +pretending, perhaps she thought she had done more than enough for +them, perhaps she was an epicure in words and did not like a cottage +called Creeper; anyhow she shook them out. And if they had had eyes to +see they would not have walked into their new home with such sighs of +satisfaction and such a comfortable feeling that now at last the era +of systematic serenity and self-realization, beautifully combined with +the daily exercise of charity, had begun; for waiting for them in +Priscilla's parlour, established indeed in her easy-chair by the fire +and warming her miserable toes on the very hob, sat grey Ill Luck +horribly squinting. + +Creeper Cottage, it will be remembered, consisted of two cottages, +each with two rooms, an attic, and a kitchen, and in the back yard the +further accommodation of a coal-hole, a pig-stye, and a pump. Thanks +to Tussie's efforts more furniture had been got from Minehead. Tussie +had gone in himself, after a skilful questioning of Fritzing had made +him realize how little had been ordered, and had, with Fritzing's +permission, put the whole thing into the hands of a Minehead firm. +Thus there was a bed for Annalise and sheets for everybody, and the +place was as decent as it could be made in the time. It was so tiny +that it got done, after a great deal of urging from Tussie, by the +Tuesday at midday, and Tussie himself had superintended the storing of +wood in the coal-hole and the lighting of the fire that was to warm +his divine lady and that Ill Luck found so comforting to her toes. The +Shuttleworth horses had a busy time on the Friday, Saturday, and +Monday, trotting up and down between Symford and Minehead; and the +Shuttleworth servants and tenants, not being more blind than other +people, saw very well that their Augustus had lost his heart to the +lady from nowhere. As for Lady Shuttleworth, she only smiled a rueful +smile and stroked her poor Tussie's hair in silence when, having +murmured something about the horses being tired, he reproved her by +telling her that it was everybody's duty to do what they could for +strangers in difficulties. + +Priscilla's side of Creeper Cottage was the end abutting on the +churchyard, and her parlour had one latticed window looking south down +the village street, and one looking west opening directly on to the +churchyard. The long grass of the churchyard, its dandelions and +daisies, grew right up beneath this window to her wall, and a tall +tombstone half-blocked her view of the elm-trees and the church. Over +this room, with the same romantic and gloomy outlook, was her bedroom. +Behind her parlour was what had been the shoemaker's kitchen, but it +had been turned into a temporary bathroom. True no water was laid on +as yet, but the pump was just outside, and nobody thought there would +be any difficulty about filling the bath every morning by means of the +pump combined with buckets. Over the bathroom was the attic. This was +Annalise's bedroom. Nobody thought there would be any difficulty about +that either; nobody, in fact, thought anything about anything. It was +a simple place, after the manner of attics, with a window in its +sloping ceiling through which stars might be studied with great +comfort as one lay in bed. A frugal mind, an earnest soul, would have +liked the attic, would have found a healthy enjoyment in a place so +plain and fresh, so swept in windy weather by the airs of heaven. A +poet, too, would certainly have flooded any parts of it that seemed +dark with the splendour of his own inner light; a nature-lover, again, +would have quickly discovered the spiders that dwelt in its corners, +and spent profitable hours on all fours observing them. But an +Annalise--what was she to make of such a place? Is it not true that +the less a person has inside him of culture and imagination the more +he wants outside him of the upholstery of life? I think it is true; +and if it is, then the vacancy of Annalise's mind may be measured by +the fact that what she demanded of life in return for the negative +services of not crying and wringing her hands was nothing less filled +with food and sofas and servants than a grand ducal palace. + +But neither Priscilla nor Fritzing knew anything of Annalise's mind, +and if they had they would instantly have forgotten it again, of such +extreme unimportance would it have seemed. Nor would I dwell on it +myself if it were not that its very vacancy and smallness was the +cause of huge upheavals in Creeper Cottage, and the stone that the +builders ignored if they did not actually reject behaved as such +stones sometimes do and came down upon the builders' heads and crushed +them. Annalise, you see, was unable to appreciate peace, yet on the +other hand she was very able to destroy the peace of other people; and +Priscilla meant her cottage to be so peaceful--a temple, a holy place, +within whose quiet walls sacred years were going to be spent in doing +justly, in loving mercy, in walking humbly. True she had not as yet +made a nearer acquaintance with its inconveniences, but anyhow she +held the theory that inconveniences were things to be laughed at +and somehow circumvented, and that they do not enter into the +consideration of persons whose thoughts are absorbed by the burning +desire to live out their ideals. "You can be happy in any place +whatever," she remarked to Tussie on the Monday, when he was +expressing fears as to her future comfort; "absolutely any place will +do--a tub, a dingle, the top of a pillar--any place at all, if only +your soul is on fire." + +"Of course you can," cried Tussie, ready to kiss her feet. + +"And look how comfortable my cottage seems," said Priscilla, "directly +one compares it with things like tubs." + +"Yes, yes," agreed Tussie, "I do see that it's enough for free spirits +to live in. I was only wondering whether--whether bodies would find it +enough." + +"Oh bother bodies," said Priscilla airily. + +But Tussie could not bring himself to bother bodies if they included +her own; on the contrary, the infatuated young man thought it would be +difficult sufficiently to cherish a thing so supremely precious and +sweet. And each time he went home after having been in the frugal +baldness of Creeper Cottage he hated the superfluities of his own +house more and more, he accused himself louder and louder of being +mean-spirited, effeminate, soft, vulgar, he loathed himself for living +embedded in such luxury while she, the dear and lovely one, was ready +cheerfully to pack her beauty into a tub if needs be, or let it be +weather-beaten on a pillar for thirty years if by so doing she could +save her soul alive. Tussie at this time became unable to see a sleek +servant dart to help him take off his coat without saying something +sharp to him, could not sit through a meal without making bitter +comparisons between what they were eating and what the poor were +probably eating, could not walk up his spacious staircase and along +his lofty corridors without scowling; they, indeed, roused his +contemptuous wrath in quite a special degree, the reason being that +Priscilla's stairs, the stairs up and down which her little feet would +have to clamber daily, were like a ladder, and she possessed no +passages at all. But what of that? Priscilla could not see that it +mattered, when Tussie drew her attention to it. + +Both Fritzing's and her front door opened straight into their +sitting-rooms; both their staircases walked straight from the kitchens +up into the rooms above. They had meant to have a door knocked in the +dividing wall downstairs, but had been so anxious to get away from +Baker's that there was no time. In order therefore to get to Fritzing +Priscilla would have either to go out into the street and in again at +his front door, or go out at her back door and in again at his. Any +meals, too, she might choose to have served alone would have to be +carried round to her from the kitchen in Fritzing's half, either +through the backyard or through the street. + +Tussie thought of this each time he sat at his own meals, surrounded +by deft menials, lapped as he told himself in luxury,--oh, thought +Tussie writhing, it was base. His much-tried mother had to listen to +many a cross and cryptic remark flung across the table from the dear +boy who had always been so gentle; and more than that, he put his +foot down once and for all and refused with a flatness that silenced +her to eat any more patent foods. "Absurd," cried Tussie. "No wonder +I'm such an idiot. Who could be anything else with his stomach full of +starch? Why, I believe the stuff has filled my veins with milk instead +of good honest blood." + +"Dearest, I'll have it thrown out of the nearest window," said Lady +Shuttleworth, smiling bravely in her poor Tussie's small cross face. +"But what shall I give you instead? You know you won't eat meat." + +"Give me lentils," cried Tussie. "They're cheap." + +"Cheap?" + +"Mother, I do think it offensive to spend much on what goes into or +onto one's body. Why not have fewer things, and give the rest to the +poor?" + +"But I do give the rest to the poor; I'm always doing it. And there's +quite enough for us and for the poor too." + +"Give them more, then. Why," fumed Tussie, "can't we live decently? +Hasn't it struck you that we're very vulgar?" + +"No, dearest, I can't say that it has." + +"Well, we are. Everything we have that is beyond bare necessaries +makes us vulgar. And surely, mother, you do see that that's not a nice +thing to be." + +"It's a horrid thing to be," said his mother, arranging his tie with +an immense and lingering tenderness. + +"It's a difficult thing not to be," said Tussie, "if one is rich. +Hasn't it struck you that this ridiculous big house, and the masses of +things in it, and the whole place and all the money will inevitably +end by crushing us both out of heaven?" + +"No, I can't say it has. I expect you've been thinking of things like +the eyes of needles and camels having to go through them," said his +mother, still patting and stroking his tie. + +"Well, that's terrifically true," mused Tussie, reflecting ruefully on +the size and weight of the money-bags that were dragging him down into +darkness. Then he added suddenly, "Will you have a small bed--a little +iron one--put in my bedroom?" + +"A small bed? But there's a bed there already, dear." + +"That big thing's only fit for a sick woman. I won't wallow in it any +longer." + +"But dearest, all your forefathers wallowed, as you call it, in it. +Doesn't it seem rather--a pity not to carry on traditions?" + +"Well mother be kind and dear, and let me depart in peace from them. A +camp bed,--that's what I'd like. Shall I order it, or will you? And +did I tell you I've given Bryce the sack?" + +"Bryce? Why, what has he done?" + +"Oh he hasn't done anything that I know of, except make a sort of doll +or baby of me. Why should I be put into my clothes and taken out of +them again as though I hadn't been weaned yet?" + +Now all this was very bad, but the greatest blow for Lady Shuttleworth +fell when Tussie declared that he would not come of age. The cheerful +face with which his mother had managed to listen to his other +defiances went very blank at that; do what she would she could not +prevent its falling. "Not come of age?" she repeated stupidly. "But my +darling, you can't help yourself--you must come of age." + +"Oh I know I can't help being twenty-one and coming into all +this"--and he waved contemptuous arms--"but I won't do it blatantly." + +"I--I don't understand," faltered Lady Shuttleworth. + +"There mustn't be any fuss, mother." + +"Do you mean no one is to come?" + +"No one at all, except the tenants and people. Of course they are to +have their fun--I'll see that they have a jolly good time. But I won't +have our own set and the relations." + +"Tussie, they've all accepted." + +"Send round circulars." + +"Tussie, you are putting me in a most painful position." + +"Dear mother, I'm very sorry for that. I wish I'd thought like this +sooner. But really the idea is so revolting to me--it's so sickening +to think of all these people coming to pretend to rejoice over a worm +like myself." + +"Tussle, you are not a worm." + +"And then the expense and waste of entertaining them--the dreariness, +the boredom--oh, I wish I only possessed a tub--one single tub--or had +the pluck to live like Lavengro in a dingle." + +"It's quite impossible to stop it now," interrupted Lady Shuttleworth +in the greatest distress; of Lavengro she had never heard. + +"Yes you can, mother. Write and put it off." + +"Write? What could I write? To-day is Tuesday, and they all arrive on +Friday. What excuse can I make at the last moment? And how can a +birthday be put off? My dearest boy, I simply can't." And Lady +Shuttleworth, the sensible, the cheery, the resourceful, the +perennially brave, wrung her hands and began quite helplessly to cry. + +This unusual and pitiful sight at once conquered Tussie. For a moment +he stood aghast; then his arms were round his mother, and he promised +everything she wanted. What he said to her besides and what she sobbed +back to him I shall not tell. They never spoke of it again; but for +years they both looked back to it, that precious moment of clinging +together with bursting hearts, her old cheek against his young one, +her tears on his face, as to one of the most acutely sweet, acutely, +painfully, tender experiences of their joint lives. + +It will be conceded that Priscilla had achieved a good deal in the one +week that had passed since she laid aside her high estate and stepped +down among ordinary people for the purpose of being and doing good. +She had brought violent discord into a hitherto peaceful vicarage, +thwarted the hopes of a mother, been the cause of a bitter quarrel +between her and her son, brought out by her mysteriousness a prying +tendency in the son that might have gone on sleeping for ever, +entirely upset the amiable Tussie's life by rending him asunder with a +love as strong as it was necessarily hopeless, made his mother anxious +and unhappy, and, what was perhaps the greatest achievement of all, +actually succeeded in making that mother cry. For of course Priscilla +was the ultimate cause of these unusual tears, as Lady Shuttleworth +very well knew. Lady Shuttleworth was the deceased Sir Augustus's +second wife, had married him when she was over forty and well out of +the crying stage, which in the busy does not last beyond childhood, +had lost him soon after Tussie's birth, had cried copiously and most +properly at his funeral, and had not cried since. It was then +undoubtedly a great achievement on the part of the young lady from +nowhere, this wringing of tears out of eyes that had been dry for one +and twenty years. But the list of what Priscilla had done does not end +with this havoc among mothers. Had she not interrupted the decent +course of Mrs. Jones's dying, and snatched her back to a hankering +after the unfit? Had she not taught the entire village to break the +Sabbath? Had she not made all its children either sick or cross under +the pretence of giving them a treat? On the Monday she did something +else that was equally well-meaning, and yet, as I shall presently +relate, of disastrous consequences: she went round the village from +cottage to cottage making friends with the children's mothers and +leaving behind her, wherever she went, little presents of money. She +had found money so extraordinarily efficacious in the comforting of +Mrs. Jones that before she started she told Fritzing to fill her purse +well, and in each cottage it was made somehow so clear how badly +different things were wanted that the purse was empty before she was +half round the village and she had to go back for a fresh supply. She +was extremely happy that afternoon, and so were the visited mothers. +They, indeed, talked of nothing else for the rest of the day, +discussed it over their garden hedges, looked in on each other to +compare notes, hurried to meet their husbands on their return from +work to tell them about it, and were made at one stroke into something +very like a colony of eager beggars. And in spite of Priscilla's +injunction to Mrs. Jones to hide her five-pound note all Symford knew +of that as well, and also of the five-pound note Mrs. Morrison had +taken away. Nothing was talked of in Symford but Priscilla. She had in +one week created quite a number of disturbances of a nature fruitful +for evil in that orderly village; and when on the Tuesday she and +Fritzing moved into Creeper Cottage they were objects of the intensest +interest to the entire country side, and the report of their riches, +their recklessness, and their eccentric choice of a dwelling had +rolled over the intervening hills as far as Minehead, where it was the +subject of many interesting comments in the local papers. + +They got into their cottage about tea time; and the first thing +Priscilla did was to exclaim at the pleasant sight of the wood fire +and sit down in the easy-chair to warm herself. We know who was +sitting in it already; and thus she was received by Bad Luck at once +into her very lap, and clutched about securely by that unpleasant +lady's cold and skinny arms. She looked up at Fritzing with a shiver +to remark wonderingly that the room, in spite of its big fire and its +smallness, was like ice, but her lips fell apart in a frozen stare and +she gazed blankly past him at the wall behind his head. "Look," she +whispered, pointing with a horrified forefinger. And Fritzing, turning +quickly, was just in time to snatch a row of cheap coloured portraits +from the wall and fling them face downwards under the table before +Tussie came in to ask if he could do anything. + +The portraits were those of all the reigning princes of Germany and +had been put up as a delicate compliment by the representative of the +Minehead furnishers, while Priscilla and Fritzing were taking leave of +Baker's Farm; and the print Priscilla's eye had lighted on was the +portrait of her august parent, smiling at her. He was splendid in +state robes and orders, and there was a charger, and an obviously +expensive looped-up curtain, and much smoke as of nations furiously +raging together in the background, and outside this magnificence +meandered the unmeaning rosebuds of Priscilla's cheap wallpaper. His +smile seemed very terrible under the circumstances. Fritzing felt +this, and seized him and flung him with a desperate energy under the +table, where he went on smiling, as Priscilla remembered with a guilty +shudder, at nothing but oilcloth. "I don't believe I'll sleep if I +know he--he's got nothing he'd like better than oilcloth to look at," +she whispered with an awestruck face to Fritzing as Tussie came in. + +"I will cause them all to be returned," Fritzing assured her. + +"What, have those people sent wrong things?" asked Tussie anxiously, +who felt that the entire responsibility of this _ménage_ was on his +shoulders. + +"Oh, only some cheap prints," said Priscilla hastily. "I think they're +called oleographs or something." + +"What impertinence," said Tussie hotly. + +"I expect it was kindly meant, but I--I like my cottage quite plain." + +"I'll have them sent back, sir," Tussie said to Fritzing, who was +rubbing his hands nervously through his hair; for the sight of his +grand ducal master's face smiling at him on whom he would surely never +wish to smile again, and doing it, too, from the walls of Creeper +Cottage, had given him a shock. + +"You are ever helpful, young man," he said, bowing abstractedly and +going away to put down his hat and umbrella; and Priscilla, with a +cold feeling that she had had a bad omen, rang the handbell Tussie's +thoughtfulness had placed on her table and ordered Annalise to bring +tea. + +Now Annalise had been standing on the threshold of her attic staring +at it in an amazement too deep for words when the bell fetched her +down. She appeared, however, before her mistress with a composed face, +received the order with her customary respectfulness, and sought out +Fritzing to inquire of him where the servants were to be found. "Her +Grand Ducal Highness desires tea," announced Annalise, appearing in +Fritzing's sitting-room, where he was standing absorbed in the bill +from the furnishers that he had found lying on his table. + +"Then take it in," said Fritzing impatiently, without looking up. + +"To whom shall I give the order?" inquired Annalise. + +"To whom shall you give the order?" repeated Fritzing, pausing +in his study to stare at her, the bill in one hand and his +pocket-handkerchief, with which he was mopping his forehead, in +the other. + +"Where," asked Annalise, "shall I find the cook?" + +"Where shall you find the cook?" repeated Fritzing, staring still +harder. "This house is so gigantic is it not," he said with an +enormous sarcasm, "that no doubt the cook has lost himself. Have you +perhaps omitted to investigate the coal-hole?" + +"Herr Geheimrath, where shall I find the cook?" asked Annalise tossing +her head. + +"Fräulein, is there a mirror in your bedroom?" + +"The smallest I ever saw. Only one-half of my face can I see reflected +in it at a time." + +"Fräulein, the half of that face you see reflected in it is the half +of the face of the cook." + +"I do not understand," said Annalise. + +"Yet it is as clear as shining after rain. You, _mein liebes Kind_, +are the cook." + +It was now Annalise's turn to stare, and she stood for a moment doing +it, her face changing from white to red while Fritzing turned his back +and taking out a pencil made little sums on the margin of the bill. +"Herr Geheimrath, I am not a cook," she said at last, swallowing her +indignation. + +"What, still there?" he exclaimed, looking up sharply. "Unworthy one, +get thee quickly to the kitchen. Is it seemly to keep the Princess +waiting?" + +"I am not a cook," said Annalise defiantly. "I was not engaged as a +cook, I never was a cook, and I will not be a cook." + +Fritzing flung down the bill and came and glared close into +Annalise's face. "Not a cook?" he cried. "You, a German girl, the +daughter of poor parents, you are not ashamed to say it? You do not +hide your head for shame? No--a being so useful, so necessary, so +worthy of respect as a cook you are not and never will be. I'll tell +you what you are,--I've told you once already, and I repeat it--you +are a knave, my Fräulein, a knave, I say. And in those parts of your +miserable nature where you are not a knave--for I willingly concede +that no man or woman is bad all through--in those parts, I say, where +your knavishness is intermittent, you are an absolute, unmitigated +fool." + +"I will not bear this," cried Annalise. + +"Will not! Cannot! Shall not! Inept Negation, get thee to thy kitchen +and seek wisdom among the pots." + +"I am no one's slave," cried Annalise, "I am no one's prisoner." + +"Hark at her! Who said you were? Have I not told you the only two +things you are?" + +"But I am treated as a prisoner, I am treated as a slave," sobbed +Annalise. + +"Unmannerly one, how dare you linger talking follies when your royal +mistress is waiting for her tea? Run--run! Or must I show you how?" + +"Her Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, not budging, "told me also +to prepare the bath for her this evening." + +"Well, what of that?" cried Fritzing, snatching up the bill again and +adding up furiously. "Prepare it, then." + +"I see no water-taps." + +"Woman, there are none." + +"How can I prepare a bath without water-taps?" + +"O thou Inefficiency! Ineptitude garbed as woman! Must I then teach +thee the elements of thy business? Hast thou not observed the pump? Go +to it, and draw water. Cause the water to flow into buckets. Carry +these buckets--need I go on? Will not Nature herself teach thee what +to do with buckets?" + +Annalise flushed scarlet. "I will not go to the pump," she said. + +"What, you will not carry out her Grand Ducal Highness's orders?" + +"I will not go to the pump." + +"You refuse to prepare the bath?" + +"I will not go to the pump." + +"You refuse to prepare the tea?" + +"I will not be a cook." + +"You are rankly rebellious?" + +"I will not sleep in the attic." + +"What!" + +"I will not eat the food." + +"What!" + +"I will not do the work." + +"What!" + +"I will go." + +"Go?" + +"_Go_," repeated Annalise, stamping her foot. "I demand my wages, the +increased wages that were promised me, and I will go." + +"And where, Impudence past believing, will you go, in a country whose +tongue you most luckily do not understand?" + +Annalise looked up into Fritzing's furious eyes with the challenge +of him who flings down his trump card. "Go?" she cried, with a +defiance that was blood-curdling in one so small and hitherto so +silent, "I will first go to that young gentleman who speaks my +language and I will tell him all, and then, with his assistance, I +will go straight--but _straight_, do you hear?"--and she stamped +her foot again--"to Lothen-Kunitz." + + + + +XIV + + +Early in this story I pointed out what to the intelligent must have +been from the beginning apparent, that Annalise held Priscilla and +Fritzing in the hollow of her hand. In the first excitement of the +start she had not noticed it, but during those woeful days of +disillusionment at Baker's she saw it with an ever-growing clearness; +and since Sunday, since the day she found a smiling young gentleman +ready to talk German to her and answer questions, she was perfectly +aware that she had only to close her hand and her victims would +squeeze into any shape she liked. She proposed to do this closing at +the first moment of sheer intolerableness, and that moment seemed well +reached when she entered Creeper Cottage and realized what the attic, +the kitchen, and the pump really meant. + +It is always a shock to find one's self in the company of a worm that +turns, always a shock and an amazement; a spectacle one never, +somehow, gets used to. But how dreadful does it become when one is in +the power of the worm, and the worm is resentful, and ready to squeeze +to any extent. Fritzing reflected bitterly that Annalise might quite +well have been left at home. Quite well? A thousand times better. +What had she done but whine during her passive period? And now that +she was active, a volcano in full activity hurling forth hot streams +of treachery on two most harmless heads, she, the insignificant, the +base-born, the empty-brained, was actually going to be able to ruin +the plans of the noblest woman on earth. + +Thus thought Fritzing, mopping his forehead. Annalise had rushed away +to her attic after flinging her defiance at him, her spirit ready to +dare anything but her body too small, she felt, to risk staying within +reach of a man who looked more like somebody who meant to shake her +than any one she had ever seen. Fritzing mopped his forehead, and +mopped and mopped again. He stood where she had left him, his eyes +fixed on the ground, his distress so extreme that he was quite near +crying. What was he to do? What was he to say to his Princess? How was +he to stop the girl's going back to Kunitz? How was he to stop her +going even so far as young Morrison? That she should tell young +Morrison who Priscilla was would indeed be a terrible thing. It would +end their being able to live in Symford. It would end their being able +to live in England. The Grand Duke would be after them, and there +would have to be another flight to another country, another start +there, another search for a home, another set of explanations, +pretences, fears, lies,--things of which he was so weary. But there +was something else, something worse than any of these things, that +made Fritzing mop his forehead with so extreme a desperation: Annalise +had demanded the money due to her, and Fritzing had no money. + +I am afraid Fritzing was never meant for a conspirator. Nature never +meant him to be a plotter, an arranger of unpleasant surprises for +parents. She never meant him to run away. She meant him, probably, +to spend his days communing with the past in a lofty room with +distempered walls and busts round them. That he should be forced to +act, to decide, to be artful, to wrangle with maids, to make ends +meet, to squeeze his long frame and explosive disposition into a +Creeper Cottage where only an ill-fitting door separated him from the +noise and fumes of the kitchen, was surely a cruel trick of Fate, and +not less cruel because he had brought it on himself. That he should +have thought he could run away as well as any man is merely a proof of +his singleness of soul. A man who does that successfully is always, +among a great many other things, a man who takes plenty of money with +him and knows exactly where to put his hand on more when it is wanted. +Fritzing had thought it better to get away quickly with little money +than to wait and get away with more. He had seized all he could of his +own that was not invested, and Priscilla had drawn her loose cash from +the Kunitz bank; but what he took hidden in his gaiters after paying +for Priscilla's outfit and bribing Annalise was not more than three +hundred pounds; and what is three hundred pounds to a person who buys +and furnishes cottages and scatters five-pound notes among the poor? +The cottages were paid for. He had insisted on doing that at once, +chiefly in order to close his dealings with Mr. Dawson; but Mr. Dawson +had not let them go for less than a hundred and fifty for the two, in +spite of Tussie's having said a hundred was enough. When Fritzing told +Mr. Dawson what Tussie had said Mr. Dawson soon proved that Tussie +could not possibly have meant it; and Fritzing, knowing how rich +Priscilla really was and what vast savings he had himself lying over +in Germany in comfortable securities, paid him without arguing and +hastened from the hated presence. Then the journey for the three from +Kunitz had been expensive; the stay at Baker's Farm had been, strange +to say, expensive; Mrs. Jones's comforting had been expensive; the +village mothers had twice emptied Priscilla's purse of ten pounds; and +the treat to the Symford children had not been cheap. After paying for +this--the Minehead confectioner turned out to be a man of little faith +in unknown foreigners, and insisted on being paid at once--Fritzing +had about forty pounds left. This, he had thought, would do for food +and lights and things for a long while,--certainly till he had hit on +a plan by which he would be able to get hold of the Princess's money +and his own without betraying where they were; and here on his table, +the second unpleasant surprise that greeted him on entering his new +home (the first had been his late master's dreadful smile) was the +bill for the furnishing of it. To a man possessed of only forty pounds +any bill will seem tremendous. This one was for nearly two hundred; +and at the end of the long list of items, the biggest of which was +that bathroom without water that had sent Annalise out on strike, was +the information that a remittance would oblige. A remittance! Poor +Fritzing. He crushed the paper in his hand and made caustic mental +comments on the indecency of these people, clamouring for their money +almost before the last workman was out of the place, certainly before +the smell of paint was out of it, and clamouring, too, in the face of +the Shuttleworth countenance and support. He had not been a week yet +in Symford, and had been so busy, so rushed, that he had put off +thinking out a plan for getting his money over from Germany until he +should be settled. Never had he imagined people would demand payment +in this manner. Never, either, had he imagined the Princess would want +so much money for the poor; and never, of course, had he imagined that +there would be a children's treat within three days of their arrival. +Least of all had he dreamed that Annalise would so soon need more +bribing; for that was clearly the only thing to do. He saw it was the +only thing, after he had stood for some time thinking and wiping the +cold sweat from his forehead. She must be bribed, silenced, given in +to. He must part with as much as he possibly could of that last forty +pounds; as much, also, as he possibly could of his pride, and submit +to have the hussy's foot on his neck. Some day, some day, thought +Fritzing grinding his teeth, he would be even with her; and when that +day came he promised himself that it should certainly begin with a +sound shaking. "Truly," he reflected, "the foolish things of the world +confound the wise, and the weak things of the world confound the +things that are mighty." And he went out, and standing in the back +yard beneath Annalise's window softly called to her. "Fräulein," +called Fritzing, softly as a dove wooing its mate. + +"Aha," thought Annalise, sitting on her bed, quick to mark the change; +but she did not move. + +"Fräulein," called Fritzing again; and it was hardly a call so much as +a melodious murmur. + +Annalise did not move, but she grinned. + +"Fräulein, come down one moment," cooed Fritzing, whose head was quite +near the attic window so low was Creeper Cottage. "I wish to speak to +you. I wish to give you something." + +Annalise did not move, but she stuffed her handkerchief into her +mouth; for the first time since she left Calais she was enjoying +herself. + +"If," went on Fritzing after an anxious pause, "I was sharp with you +just now--and I fear I may have been hasty--you should not take it +amiss from one who, like Brutus, is sick of many griefs. Come down, +Fräulein, and let me make amends." + +The Princess's bell rang. At once habit impelled Annalise to that +which Fritzing's pleadings would never have effected; she scrambled +down the ladder, and leaving him still under her window presented +herself before her mistress with her usual face of meek respect. + +"I said tea," said Priscilla very distinctly, looking at her with +slightly lifted eyebrows. + +Annalise curtseyed and disappeared. + +"How fearfully polite German maids are," remarked Tussie. + +"In what way?" asked Priscilla. + +"Those curtseys. They're magnificent." + +"Don't English maids curtsey?" + +"None that I've ever seen. Perhaps they do to royalties." + +"Oh?" said Priscilla with a little jump. She was still so much +unnerved by the unexpected meeting with her father on the wall of +Creeper Cottage that she could not prevent the little jump. + +"What would German maids do, I wonder, in dealing with royalties," +said Tussie, "if they curtsey so beautifully to ordinary mistresses? +They'd have to go down on their knees to a princess, wouldn't they?" + +"How should I know?" said Priscilla, irritably, alarmed to feel she +was turning red; and with great determination she began to talk +literature. + +Fritzing was lying in wait for Annalise, and caught her as she came +into the bathroom. + +"Fräulein," said the miserable man trying to screw his face into +persuasiveness, "you cannot let the Princess go without tea." + +"Yes I can," said Annalise. + +He thrust his hands into his pockets to keep them off her shoulders. + +"Make it this once, Fräulein, and I will hire a woman of the village +to make it in future. And see, you must not leave the Princess's +service, a service of such great honour to yourself, because I chanced +to be perhaps a little--hasty. I will give you two hundred marks to +console you for the slight though undoubted difference in the mode of +living, and I will, as I said, hire a woman to come each day and cook. +Will it not be well so?" + +"No," said Annalise. + +"No?" + +Annalise put her hands on her hips, and swaying lightly from side to +side began to sing softly. Fritzing gazed at this fresh development in +her manners in silent astonishment. "_Jedermann macht mir die Cour, +c'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_," sang Annalise, her head one side, her +eyes on the ceiling. + +"_Liebes Kind_, are your promises of no value? Did you not promise to +keep your mouth shut, and not betray the Princess's confidence? Did +she not seek you out from all the others for the honour of keeping her +secrets? And you will, after one week, divulge them to a stranger? You +will leave her service? You will return to Kunitz? Is it well so?" + +"_C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_," sang Annalise, swaying. + +"Is it well so, Fräulein?" repeated Fritzing, strangling a furious +desire to slap her. + +"Did you speak?" inquired Annalise, pausing in her song. + +"I am speaking all the time. I asked if it were well to betray the +secrets of your royal mistress." + +"I have been starved," said Annalise. + +"You have had the same fare as ourselves." + +"I have been called names." + +"Have I not expressed--regret?" + +"I have been treated as dirt." + +"Well, well, I have apologized." + +"If you had behaved to me as a maid of a royal lady should be behaved +to, I would have faithfully done my part and kept silence. Now give me +my money and I will go." + +"I will give you your money--certainly, _liebes Kind_. It is what I am +most desirous of doing. But only on condition that you stay. If you +go, you go without it. If you stay, I will do as I said about the cook +and will--" Fritzing paused--"I will endeavour to refrain from calling +you anything hasty." + +"Two hundred marks," said Annalise gazing at the ceiling, "is +nothing." + +"Nothing?" cried Fritzing. "You know very well that it is, for you, a +great sum." + +"It is nothing. I require a thousand." + +"A thousand? What, fifty English sovereigns? Nay, then, but there is +no reasoning with you," cried Fritzing in tones of real despair. + +She caught the conviction in them and hesitated. "Eight hundred, +then," she said. + +"Impossible. And besides it would be a sin. I will give you twenty." + +"Twenty? Twenty marks?" Annalise stared at him a moment then resumed +her swaying and her song--"_Jedermann macht mir die Cour_"--sang +Annalise with redoubled conviction. + +"No, no, not marks--twenty pounds," said Fritzing, interrupting what +was to him a most maddening music. "Four hundred marks. As much as +many a German girl can only earn by labouring two years you will +receive for doing nothing but hold your tongue." + +Annalise closed her lips tightly and shook her head. "My tongue cannot +be held for that," she said, beginning to sway again and hum. + +Adjectives foamed on Fritzing's own, but he kept them back. +"_Mädchen_," he said with the gentleness of a pastor in a confirmation +class, "do you not remember that the love of money is the root of all +evil? I do not recognize you. Since when have you become thus greedy +for it?" + +"Give me eight hundred and I will stop." + +"I will give you six hundred," said Fritzing, fighting for each of his +last precious pounds. + +"Eight." + +"Six." + +"I said eight," said Annalise, stopping and looking at him with lifted +eye-brows and exactly imitating the distinctness with which the +Princess had just said "I said tea." + +"Six is an enormous sum. Why, what would you do with it?" + +"That is my affair. Perhaps buy food," she said with a malicious +side-glance. + +"I tell you there shall be a cook." + +"A cook," said Annalise counting on her fingers,--"and a good cook, +observe--not a cook like the Frau Pearce--a cook, then, no more rude +names, and eight hundred marks. Then I stop. I suffer. I am silent." + +"It cannot be done. I cannot give you eight." + +"_C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_.... The Princess waits for her tea. I +will prepare it for her this once. I am good, you see, at heart. But I +must have eight hundred marks. _Cest l'amo-o-o-o-o-our_." + +"I will give you seven," said Fritzing, doing rapid sums in his head. +Seven hundred was something under thirty-five pounds. He would still +have five pounds left for housekeeping. How long that would last he +admitted to himself that probably only heaven knew, but he hoped that +with economy it might be made to carry them over a fortnight; and +surely by the end of a fortnight he would have hit on a way of getting +fresh supplies from Germany? "I will give you seven hundred. That is +the utter-most. I can give no more till I have written home for money. +I have only a little more than that here altogether. See, I treat you +like a reasonable being--I set the truth plainly before you. More +than seven hundred I could not give if I would." + +"Good," said Annalise, breaking off her music suddenly. "I will take +that now and guarantee to be silent for fourteen days. At the end of +that time the Herr Geheimrath will have plenty more money and will, if +he still desires my services and my silence, give me the three hundred +still due to me on the thousand I demand. If the Herr Geheimrath +prefers not to, then I depart to my native country. While the +fortnight lasts I will suffer all there is to suffer in silence. Is +the Herr Geheimrath agreed?" + +"Shameless one!" mentally shrieked Fritzing, "Wait and see what will +happen to thee when my turn comes!" But aloud he only agreed. "It is +well, Fräulein," he said. "Take in the Princess's tea, and then come +to my sitting-room and I will give you the money. The fire burns in +the kitchen. Utensils, I believe, are ready to hand. It should not +prove a task too difficult." + +"Perhaps the Herr Geheimrath will show me where the tea and milk is? +And also the sugar, and the bread and butter if any?" suggested +Annalise in a small meek voice as she tripped before him into the +kitchen. + +What could he do but follow? Her foot was well on his neck; and it +occurred to him as he rummaged miserably among canisters that if the +creature should take it into her head to marry him he might +conceivably have to let her do it. As it was it was he and not +Annalise who took the kettle out to the pump to fill it, and her face +while he was doing it would have rejoiced her parents or other persons +to whom she was presumably dear, it was wide with so enormous a +satisfaction. Thus terrible is it to be in the power of an Annalise. + + + + +XV + + +The first evening in Creeper Cottage was unpleasant. There was a +blazing wood fire, the curtains were drawn, the lamp shone rosily +through its red shade, and when Priscilla stood up her hair dusted the +oak beams of the ceiling, it was so low. The background, you see, was +perfectly satisfactory; exactly what a cottage background should be on +an autumn night when outside a wet mist is hanging like a grey curtain +across the window panes; and Tussie arriving at nine o'clock to help +consecrate the new life with Shakespeare felt, as he opened the door +and walked out of the darkness into the rosy, cosy little room, that +he need not after all worry himself with doubts as to the divine +girl's being comfortable. Never did place appear more comfortable. It +did not occur to him that a lamp with a red shade and the blaze of a +wood fire will make any place appear comfortable so long as they go on +shining, and he looked up at Priscilla--I am afraid he had to look up +at her when they were both standing--with the broadest smile of +genuine pleasure. "It _does_ look jolly," he said heartily. + +His pleasure was doomed to an immediate wiping out. Priscilla smiled, +but with a reservation behind her smile that his sensitive spirit felt +at once. She was alone, and there was no sign whatever either of her +uncle or of preparations for the reading of Shakespeare. + +"Is anything not quite right?" Tussie asked, his face falling at once +to an anxious pucker. + +Priscilla looked at him and smiled again, but this time the smile was +real, in her eyes as well as on her lips, dancing in them together +with the flickering firelight. "It's rather funny," she said. "It has +never happened to me before. What do you think? I'm hungry." + +"Hungry?" + +"Hungry." + +Tussie stared, arrested in the unwinding of his comforter. + +"Really hungry. _Dreadfully_ hungry. So hungry that I hate +Shakespeare." + +"But--" + +"I know. You're going to say why not eat? It does seem simple. But +you've no idea how difficult it really is. I'm afraid my uncle and I +have rather heaps to learn. We forgot to get a cook." + +"A cook? But I thought--I understood that curtseying maid of yours was +going to do all that?" + +"So did I. So did he. But she won't." + +Priscilla flushed, for since Tussie left after tea she had had +grievous surprises, of a kind that made her first indignant and then +inclined to wince. Fritzing had not been able to hide from her that +Annalise had rebelled and refused to cook, and Priscilla had not been +able to follow her immediate impulse and dismiss her. It was at this +point, when she realized this, that the wincing began. She felt +perfectly sick at the thought, flashed upon her for the first time, +that she was in the power of a servant. + +"Do you mean to say," said Tussie in a voice hollow with +consternation, "that you've had no dinner?" + +"Dinner? In a cottage? Why of course there was no dinner. There never +will be any dinner--at night, at least. But the tragic thing is there +was no supper. We didn't think of it till we began to get hungry. +Annalise began first. She got hungry at six o'clock, and said +something to Fritz--my uncle about it, but he wasn't hungry himself +then and so he snubbed her. Now he is hungry himself, and he's gone +out to see if he can't find a cook. It's very stupid. There's nothing +in the house. Annalise ate the bread and things she found. She's +upstairs now, crying." And Priscilla's lips twitched as she looked at +Tussie's concerned face, and she began to laugh. + +He seized his hat. "I'll go and get you something," he said, dashing +at the door. + +"I can't think what, at this time of the night. The only shop shuts at +seven." + +"I'll make them open it." + +"They go to bed at nine." + +"I'll get them out of bed if I have to shie stones at their windows +all night." + +"Don't go without your coat--you'll catch a most frightful cold." + +He put his arm through the door to take it, and vanished in the fog. +He did not put on the coat in his agitation, but kept it over his arm. +His comforter stayed in Priscilla's parlour, on the chair where he had +flung it. He was in evening dress, and his throat was sore already +with the cold that was coming on and that he had caught, as he +expected, running races on the Sunday at Priscilla's children's party. + +Priscilla went back to her seat by the fire, and thought very hard +about things like bread. It would of course be impossible that she +should have reached this state of famine only because one meal had +been missed; but she had eaten nothing all day,--disliked the Baker's +Farm breakfast too much even to look at it, forgotten the Baker's Farm +dinner because she was just moving into her cottage, and at tea had +been too greatly upset by the unexpected appearance of her father on +the wall to care to eat the bread and butter Annalise brought in. Now +she was in that state when you tremble and feel cold. She had told +Annalise, about half-past seven, to bring her the bread left from tea, +but Annalise had eaten it. At half-past eight she had told Annalise to +bring her the sugar, for she had read somewhere that if you eat enough +sugar it takes away the desire even of the hungriest for other food, +but Annalise, who had eaten the sugar as well, said that the Herr +Geheimrath must have eaten it. It certainly was not there, and neither +was the Herr Geheimrath to defend himself; since half-past seven he +had been out looking for a cook, his mind pervaded by the idea that if +only he could get a cook food would follow in her wake as naturally as +flowers follow after rain. Priscilla fretting in her chair that he +should stay away so long saw very clearly that no cook could help +them. What is the use of a cook in a house where there is nothing to +cook? If only Fritzing would come back quickly with a great many +loaves of bread! The door was opened a little way and somebody's +knuckles knocked. She thought it was Tussie, quick and clever as ever, +and in a voice full of welcome told him to come in; upon which in +stepped Robin Morrison very briskly, delighted by the warmth of the +invitation. "Why now this _is_ nice," said Robin, all smiles. + +Priscilla did not move and did not offer to shake hands, so he stood +on the hearthrug and spread out his own to the blaze, looking down at +her with bright, audacious eyes. He thought he had not yet seen her so +beautiful. There was an extraordinary depth and mystery in her look, +he thought, as it rested for a moment on his face, and she had never +yet dropped her eyelashes as she now did when her eyes met his. We +know she was very hungry, and there was no strength in her at all. +Not only did her eyelashes drop, but her head as well, and her hands +hung helplessly, like drooping white flowers, one over each arm of the +chair. + +"I came in to ask Mr. Neumann-Schultz if there's anything I can do for +you," said Robin. + +"Did you? He lives next door." + +"I know. I knocked there first, but he didn't answer so I thought he +must be here." + +Priscilla said nothing. At any other time she would have snubbed Robin +and got rid of him. Now she merely sat and drooped. + +"Has he gone out?" + +"Yes." + +Her voice was very low, hardly more than a whisper. Those who know the +faintness of hunger at this stage will also know the pathos that +steals into the voice of the sufferer when he is unwillingly made to +speak; it becomes plaintive, melodious with yearning, the yearning for +food. But if you do not know this, if you have yourself just come from +dinner, if you are half in love and want the other person to be quite +in love, if you are full of faith in your own fascinations, you are +apt to fall into Robin's error and mistake the nature of the yearning. +Tussie in Robin's place would have doubted the evidence of his senses, +but then Tussie was very modest. Robin doubted nothing. He saw, he +heard, and he thrilled; and underneath his thrilling, which was real +enough to make him flush to the roots of his hair, far down underneath +it was the swift contemptuous comment, "They're all alike." + +Priscilla shut her eyes. She was listening for the first sound of +Tussie's or Fritzing's footfall, the glad sound heralding the approach +of something to eat, and wishing Robin would go away. He was kind at +times and obliging, but on the whole a nuisance. It was a great pity +there were so many people in the world who were nuisances and did not +know it. Somebody ought to tell them,--their mothers, or other useful +persons of that sort. She vaguely decided that the next time she met +Robin and was strengthened properly by food she would say a few things +to him from which recovery would take a long while. + +"Are you--not well?" Robin asked, after a silence during which his +eyes never left her and hers were shut; and even to himself his voice +sounded deeper, more intense than usual. + +"Oh yes," murmured Priscilla with a little sigh. + +"Are you--happy?" + +Happy? Can anybody who is supperless, dinnerless, breakfastless, be +happy, Priscilla wondered? But the question struck her as funny, and +the vibrating tones in which it was asked struck her as rather funny +too, and she opened her eyes for a moment to look up at Robin with a +smile of amusement--a smile that she could not guess was turned by the +hunger within her into something wistful and tremulous. "Yes," said +Priscilla in that strange pathetic voice, "I--think so." And after a +brief glance at him down went her weary eyelids again. + +The next thing that happened was that Robin, who was trembling, +kissed her hand. This she let him do with perfect placidity. Every +German woman is used to having her hand kissed. It is kissed on +meeting, it is kissed on parting, it is kissed at a great many odd +times in between; she holds it up mechanically when she comes +across a male acquaintance; she is never surprised at the ceremony; +the only thing that surprises her is if it is left out. Priscilla +then simply thought Robin was going. "What a mercy," she said to +herself, glancing at him a moment through her eyelashes. But Robin +was not used to hand-kissing and saw things in a very different +light. He felt she made no attempt to draw her hand away, he heard +her murmuring something inarticulate--it was merely Good-bye--he +was hurled along to his doom; and stooping over her the unfortunate +young man kissed her hair. + +Priscilla opened her eyes suddenly and very wide. I don't know what +folly he would have perpetrated next, or what sillinesses were on the +tip of his tongue, or what meaning he still chose to read in her look, +but an instant afterwards he was brought down for ever from the giddy +heights of his illusions: Priscilla boxed his ears. + +I am sorry to have to record it. It is always sweeter if a woman does +not box ears. The action is shrewish, benighted, mediæval, nay, +barbarous; and this box was a very hard one indeed, extraordinarily +hard for so little a hand and so fasting a girl. But we know she had +twice already been on the verge of doing it; and the pent-up vigour of +what the policeman had not got and what the mother in the train had +not got was added I imagine to what Robin got. Anyhow it was +efficacious. There was an exclamation--I think of surprise, for surely +a young man would not have minded the pain?--and he put his hand up +quickly to his face. Priscilla got up just as quickly out of her chair +and rang the handbell furiously, her eyes on his, her face ablaze. +Annalise must have thrown herself down the ladder, for they hardly +seemed to have been standing there an instant face to face, their eyes +on a level, he scarlet, she white, both deadly silent, before the maid +was in the room. + +"This person has insulted me," said Priscilla, turning to her and +pointing at Robin. "He never comes here again. Don't let me find you +forgetting that," she added, frowning at the girl; for she remembered +they had been seen talking eagerly together at the children's treat. + +"I never"--began Robin. + +"Will you go?" + +Annalise opened the door for him. He went out, and she shut it behind +him. Then she walked sedately across the room again, looking sideways +at the Princess, who took no notice of her but stood motionless by the +table gazing straight before her, her lips compressed, her face set +in a kind of frozen white rage, and having got into the bathroom +Annalise began to run. She ran out at the back door, in again at +Fritzing's back door, out at his front door into the street, and +caught up Robin as he was turning down the lane to the vicarage. "What +have you done?" she asked him breathlessly, in German. + +"Done?" Robin threw back his head and laughed quite loud. + +"Sh--sh," said Annalise, glancing back fearfully over her shoulder. + +"Done?" said Robin, subduing his bitter mirth. "What do you suppose +I've done? I've done what any man would have in my place--encouraged, +almost asked to do it. I kissed your young lady, _liebes Fräulein_, +and she pretended not to like it. Now isn't that what a sensible girl +like you would call absurd?" + +But Annalise started back from the hand he held out to her in genuine +horror. "What?" she cried, "What?" + +"What? What?" mocked Robin. "Well then, what? Are you all such prudes +in Germany? Even you pretending, you little hypocrite?" + +"Oh," cried Annalise hysterically, pushing him away with both her +hands, "what have you done? _Elender Junge_, what have you done?" + +"I think you must all be mad," said Robin angrily. "You can't persuade +me that nobody ever kisses anybody over in Germany." + +"Oh yes they do--oh yes they do," cried Annalise, wringing her hands, +"but neither there nor anywhere else--in England, anywhere in the +world--do the sons of pastors--the sons of pastors--" She seemed to +struggle for breath, and twisted and untwisted her apron round her +hands in a storm of agitation while Robin, utterly astonished, stared +at her--"Neither there nor anywhere else do they--the sons of +pastors--kiss--kiss royal princesses." + +It was now Robin's turn to say "What?" + + + + +XVI + + +He went up to Cambridge the next morning. Term had not begun, but he +went; a Robin with all the briskness gone out of him, and if still +with something of the bird left only of a bird that is moulting. His +father was mildly surprised, but applauded the apparent desire for +solitary study. His mother was violently surprised, and tried hard +to get at his true reasons. She saw with the piercing eye of a +relation--that eye from which hardly anything can ever be hidden--that +something had happened and that the something was sobering and +unpleasant. She could not imagine what it was, for she did not know he +had been to Creeper Cottage the night before and all the afternoon and +at dinner he had talked and behaved as usual. Now he did not talk at +all, and his behaviour was limited to a hasty packing of portmanteaus. +Determined to question him she called him into the study just before +he started, and shut the door. + +"I must go mater," he said, pulling out his watch; he had carefully +avoided her since breakfast though she had laid many traps for him. + +"Robin, I want to tell you that I think you splendid." + +"Splendid? What on earth for? You were telling me a very different +sort of thing a day or two ago." + +"I am sorry now for what I said on Sunday." + +"I don't think a mother ought ever to say she's sorry," said Robin +gloomily. + +"Not if she is?" + +"She oughtn't to say so." + +"Well dear let us be friends. Don't go away angry with me. I do +appreciate you so much for going. You are my own dear boy." And she +put her hands on his shoulders. + +He took out his watch again. "I say, I must be off." + +"Don't suppose a mother doesn't see and understand." + +"Oh I don't suppose anything. Good-bye mater." + +"I think it so splendid of you to go, to turn your back on temptation, +to unwind yourself from that wretched girl's coils." + +"Coils?" + +"My Robin"--she stroked his cheek, the same cheek, as it happened, +Priscilla had smitten--"my Robin must not throw himself away. I am +ambitious where you are concerned, my darling. It would have broken my +heart for you to have married a nobody--perhaps a worse than nobody." + +Robin, who was staring at her with an indescribable expression on his +face, took her hands off his shoulders. "Look here mater," he +said--and he was seized by a desire to laugh terrifically--"there is +nothing in the world quite so amusing as the way people will talk +wisely of things they don't in the faintest degree understand. They +seem to feel wise in proportion to their ignorance. I expect you think +that's a funny speech for me to make. I can tell you I don't think it +half as funny as yours was. Good-bye. I shall miss my train you know +if you keep me, and then I'd be exposed again to those--what was the +word? ah, yes--coils. Coils!" He burst into loud laughter. "Good-bye +mater." + +She was staring at him blankly. He hastily brushed her forehead with +his moustache and hurried to the door, his face full of strange mirth. +"I say," he said, putting in his head again, "there's just one thing +I'd like to say." + +She made an eager step towards him. "Do say it my darling--say all +that is in your heart." + +"Oh it's not much--it's only God help poor Tuss." And that was the +last of him. She heard him chuckling all down the passage; but long +before his fly had reached Ullerton he had left off doing that and was +moulting again. + +It rained that day in Somersetshire, a steady, hopeless rain that +soaked many a leaf off the trees before its time and made the year +look suddenly quite old. From the windows of Creeper Cottage you could +see the water running in rivulets down the hill into the deserted +village, and wreaths of mist hanging about the downs beyond. The +dripping tombstone that blocked Priscilla's window grew danker and +blacker as the day went by. The fires in the cottage burnt badly, for +the wood had somehow got wet. The oilcloth and the wall-papers looked +very dismal in the grey daylight. Rain came in underneath the two +front doors and made puddles that nobody wiped away. + +Priscilla had got up very late, after a night spent staring into the +darkness, and then had sent for Fritzing and told him what Robin had +done. The unhappy man's horror will be easily imagined. She was in bed +the night before when he came in, quite cured of her hunger and only +wanting to be alone with her wrath. Fritzing had found no one in the +parlour but Tussie clasping an immense biscuit-tin in his arms, with a +face so tragic that Fritzing thought something terrible must have +happened. Tussie had returned joyfully, laden with biscuits and +sardines, to find the girl standing straight and speechless by the +table, her face rigid, her eyes ablaze. She had not so much as glanced +at the biscuits; she had not said a single word; her look rested on +him a moment as though she did not see him and then she went into the +next room and upstairs to bed. He knew she went upstairs to bed for in +Creeper Cottage you could hear everything. + +Fritzing coming in a few minutes later without the cook he had hoped +to find, was glad enough of Tussie's sardines and biscuits--they were +ginger biscuits--and while he ate them, abstractedly and together, +Tussie looked on and wondered in spite of his wretchedness what the +combination could possibly taste like. Then, after a late breakfast +on the Wednesday morning, Priscilla sent for Fritzing and told him +what Robin had done. The burdened man, so full already of anxieties +and worries, was shattered by the blow. "I have always held duelling +in extreme contempt," he said when at last he could speak, "but now I +shall certainly fight." + +"Fight? You? Fritzi, I've only told you because I--I feel so +unprotected here and you must keep him off if he ever tries to come +again. But you shall not fight. What, first he is to insult me and +then hurt or kill my Fritzi? Besides, nobody ever fights duels in +England." + +"That remains to be seen. I shall now go to his house and insult him +steadily for half an hour. At the expiration of that time he will +probably be himself anxious to fight. We might go to France--" + +"Oh Fritzi don't be so dreadful. Don't go to him--leave him +alone--nobody must ever know--" + +"I shall now go and insult him," repeated Fritzing with an +inflexibility that silenced her. + +And she saw him a minute later pass her window under his umbrella, +splashing indifferently through all the puddles, battle and +destruction in his face. + +Robin, however, was at Ullerton by the time Fritzing got to the +vicarage. He waved the servant aside when she told him he had gone, +and insisted on penetrating into the presence of the young man's +father. He waved Mrs. Morrison aside too when she tried to substitute +herself for the vicar, and did at last by his stony persistency get +into the good man's presence. Not until the vicar himself told him +that Robin had gone would Fritzing believe it. "The villain has fled," +he told Priscilla, coming back drenched in body but unquenchable in +spirit. "Your chastisement, ma'am, was very effectual." + +"If he's gone, then don't let us think about him any more." + +"Nay, ma'am, I now set out for Cambridge. If I may not meet him fairly +in duel and have my chance of honourably removing him from a world +that has had enough of him, I would fain in my turn box his ears." + +But Priscilla caught him by both arms. "Why, Fritzi," she cried, "he +might remove you and not you him--and from a world that hasn't had +nearly enough of you. Fritzi, you cannot leave me. I won't let you go. +I wish I had never told you. Don't let us talk of it ever again. It is +hateful to me. I--I can't bear it." And she looked into his face with +something very like tears in her eyes. + +Of course Fritzing stayed. How could he go away even for one hour, +even in search of a cook, when such dreadful things happened? He was +bowed down by the burden of his responsibilities. He went into his +sitting-room and spent the morning striding up and down it between the +street door and the door into the kitchen,--a stride and a half one +way, and a stride and a half back back again,--doing what all +evildoers have to do sooner or later, cudgelling his brains for a way +out of life's complications: and every now and then the terribleness +of what had happened to his Princess, his guarded Princess, his +unapproachable one, came over him with a fresh wave of horror and he +groaned aloud. + +In the kitchen sat the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid, a most accomplished +young person, listening to the groans and wondering what next. Tussie +had sent her, with fearful threats of what sort of character she would +get if she refused to go. She had at once given notice, but had been +forced all the same to go, being driven over in a dog-cart in the +early morning rain by a groom who made laboured pleasantries at her +expense. She could cook very well, almost as well as that great +personage the Shuttleworth cook, but she could only cook if there were +things to be cooked; and what she found at Creeper Cottage was the +rest of the ginger biscuits and sardines. Well, I will not linger over +that. Priscilla did get breakfast somehow, the girl, after trying +vainly to strike sparks of helpfulness out of Annalise, going to the +store and ordering what was necessary. Then she washed up, while +Annalise tripped in and out for the express purpose, so it seemed, of +turning up her nose; then she sat and waited and wondered what next. +For a long time she supposed somebody would send for her to come and +talk about luncheon; but nobody did. She heard the ceaseless +stridings in the next room, and every now and then the groans. The +rain on the kitchen window did not patter more ceaselessly than the +footsteps strode up and down, and the groans got very much on to the +girl's nerves. At last she decided that no person who was groaning +like that would ever want to order luncheon, and she had better go to +the young lady. She went out accordingly and knocked at Priscilla's +door. Priscilla was in her chair by the fire, lost in troublous +thought. She looked vaguely at the kitchenmaid for a moment, and then +asked her to go away. "I'm busy," explained Priscilla, whose hands +were folded in her lap. + +"Please miss, what do you wish for luncheon?" + +"Who are you?" + +"I'm the--assistant cook at the 'All, miss. Lady Shuttleworth's +assistant cook. Sir Augustus desired me to cook for you to-day." + +"Then please do it." + +"Yes miss. What do you wish for luncheon?" + +"Nothing." + +"Yes miss. And the gentleman--don't he want nothing neither?" + +"He'll probably tell you when he does." + +"Yes miss. It's as well to know a little beforehand, ain't it, miss. +There's nothing in the--a-hem--'ouse, and I suppose I'd have to buy +something." + +"Please do." + +"Yes miss. Perhaps if you'd tell me what the gentleman likes I could +go out and get it." + +"But I don't know what he likes. And wouldn't you get wet? Send +somebody." + +"Yes miss. Who?" + +Priscilla gazed at her a moment. "Ah yes--" she said, "I forgot. I'm +afraid there isn't anybody. I think you had better ask my uncle what +he wants, and then if you would--I'm very sorry you should have such +bad weather--but if you don't mind, would you go and buy the things?" + +"Yes miss." + +The girl went away, and Priscilla began for the first time to consider +the probability of her having in the near future to think of and order +three meals every day of her life; and not only three meals, but she +dimly perceived there would be a multitude of other dreary things to +think of and order,--their linen, for instance, must be washed, and +how did one set about that? And would not Fritzing's buttons presently +come off and have to be sewn on again? His socks, when they went into +holes, could be thrown out of the window and new ones bought, but even +Priscilla saw that you could not throw a whole coat out of a window +because its buttons had come off. There would, then, have to be some +mending done for Fritzing, and Annalise would certainly not be the one +to do it. Was the simple life a sordid life as well? Did it only look +simple from outside and far away? And was it, close, mere drudging? A +fear came over her that her soul, her precious soul, for whose sake +she had dared everything, instead of being able to spread its wings in +the light of a glorious clear life was going to be choked out of +existence by weeds just as completely as at Kunitz. + +The Shuttleworth kitchenmaid meanwhile, who was not hindered at every +turn by a regard for her soul, made her way to Fritzing as she had +been told and inquired of him what she should cook for his dinner. No +man likes to be interrupted in his groanings; and Fritzing, who was +not hungry and was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger in +his room asking him intimate questions, a person of whose presence in +the cottage he had been unaware, flew at her. "Woman, what have I to +do with you?" he cried, stopping in his walk and confronting her with +surprising fierceness. "Is it seemly to burst in on a man like this? +Have you no decency? No respect for another's privacy? Begone, I +command you--begone! Begone!" And he made the same movements with his +hands that persons do when they shoo away fowls or other animals in +flocks. + +This was too much for the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid. The obligations, +she considered, were all on the side of Creeper Cottage, and she +retreated in amazement and anger to the kitchen, put on her hat and +mackintosh, and at once departed, regardless of the rain and the +consequences, through two miles of dripping lanes to Symford Hall. +What would have happened to her there if she had been discovered by +Tussie I do not know, but I imagine it would have been something bad. +She was saved, however, by his being in bed, clutched by the throat by +a violent cold; and there he lay helpless, burning and shivering and +throbbing, the pains of his body increased a hundredfold by the +distraction of his mind about Priscilla. Why, Tussie asked himself +over and over again, had she looked so strange the night before? Why +had she gone starving to bed? What was she doing to-day? Was the +kitchenmaid taking proper care of her? Was she keeping warm and dry +this shocking weather? Had she slept comfortably the first night in +her little home? Poor Tussie. It is a grievous thing to love any one +too much; a grievous, wasteful, paralyzing thing; a tumbling of the +universe out of focus, a bringing of the whole world down to the mean +level of one desire, a shutting out of wider, more beautiful feelings, +a wrapping of one's self in a thick garment of selfishness, outside +which all the dear, tender, modest, everyday affections and +friendships, the wholesome, ordinary loves, the precious loves of use +and wont, are left to shiver and grow cold. Tussie's mother sat +outside growing very cold indeed. Her heart was stricken within her. +She, most orderly of women, did not in the least mind, so occupied was +she with deeper cares, that her household was in rebellion, her cook +who had been with her practically all her life leaving because she had +been commanded by Tussie, before he had to fall back on the +kitchenmaid, to proceed forthwith to Creeper Cottage and stay there +indefinitely; her kitchenmaid, also a valued functionary, leaving; +Bryce, Tussie's servant who took such care of him and was so clever in +sickness, gone suddenly in his indignation at having to go at +all,--all these things no longer mattered. Nor did it matter that the +coming of age festivities were thrown into hopeless confusion by +Tussie's illness, that the guests must all be telegraphed to and put +off, that the whole village would be aghast at such a disappointment, +that all her plans and preparations had been wasted. As the first day +and night of illness dragged slowly past she grew to be nothing but +one great ache of yearning over her sick boy, a most soul-rending +yearning to do what she knew was for ever impossible, to put her arms +so close round him, so close, so carefully, so tenderly, that nothing, +no evil, no pain, could get through that clasp of love to hurt him any +more. + +"Why don't you take better care of your only son?" said the doctor +grimly after he had seen Tussie that evening, who by that time was in +a very pitiable condition. + +Lady Shuttleworth stared at him, wide-eyed and speechless. + +"It's absurd, you know, to let him get into this state. I've often +warned you. He can't be allowed to play ducks and drakes with himself +like other young men. He's got no strength to fall back upon. I +consider you are directly responsible for this illness. Why do you +let him go out at night this time of year? Why do you let him +over-exert himself? I suppose," said the doctor, who had brought +Tussie into the world and was as brutal as he was clever, besides +being at that moment extremely angry, "I suppose you want to lose him, +eh?" + +How could she explain to him what she knew to be true, that the one +person responsible for Tussie's illness was Priscilla? She therefore +only stared, wide-eyed and speechless; and indeed her heart was very +nearly broken. + + + + +XVII + + +About three o'clock that afternoon Priscilla saw quite clearly what +she had dimly perceived in the morning, that if there was to be +domestic peace in Creeper Cottage she must bestir herself. She did not +like bestirring herself; at least, not in such directions. She would +go out and help the poor, talk to them, cheer them, nurse their babies +even and stir their porridge, but she had not up to this point +realized her own needs, and how urgent they could be and how +importunate. It was hunger that cleared her vision. The first time she +was hungry she had been amused. Now when it happened again she was +both surprised and indignant. "Can one's wretched body _never_ keep +quiet?" she thought impatiently, when the first twinges dragged her +relentlessly out of her dejected dreaming by the fire. She remembered +the cold tremblings of the night before, and felt that that state +would certainly be reached again quite soon if she did not stop it at +once. She rang for Annalise. "Tell the cook I will have some luncheon +after all," she said. + +"The cook is gone," said Annalise, whose eyes were more aggressively +swollen than they had yet been. + +"Gone where?" + +"Gone away. Gone for ever." + +"But why?" asked Priscilla, really dismayed. + +"The Herr Geheimrath insulted her. I heard him doing it. No woman of +decency can permit such a tone. She at once left. There has been no +dinner to-day. There will be, I greatly fear, n--o--o--supp--pper." +And Annalise gave a loud sob and covered her face with her apron. + +Then Priscilla saw that if life was to roll along at all it was her +shoulder that would have to be put to the wheel. Fritzing's shoulder +was evidently not a popular one among the lower classes. The vision of +her own doing anything with wheels was sufficiently amazing, but she +did not stop to gaze upon it. "Annalise," she said, getting up quickly +and giving herself a little shake, "fetch me my hat and coat. I'm +going out." + +Annalise let her apron drop far enough to enable her to point to the +deluge going on out of doors. "Not in this weather?" she faltered, +images of garments soaked in mud and needing much drying and brushing +troubling her. + +"Get me the things," said Priscilla. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness will be wet through." + +"Get me the things. And don't cry quite so much. Crying really is the +most shocking waste of time." + +Annalise withdrew, and Priscilla went round to Fritzing. It was the +first time she had been round to him. He was sitting at his table, his +head in his hands, staring at the furnisher's bill, and he started to +see her coming in unexpectedly through the kitchen, and shut the bill +hastily in a drawer. + +"Fritzi, have you had anything to eat to-day?" + +"Certainly. I had an excellent breakfast." + +"Nothing since?" + +"I have not yet felt the need." + +"You know the cook Lady Shuttleworth sent has gone again?" + +"What, that woman who burst in upon me was Lady Shuttleworth's cook?" + +"Yes. And you frightened her so she ran home." + +"Ma'am, she overstepped the limits of my patience." + +"Dear Fritzi, I often wonder where exactly the limits of your patience +are. With me they have withdrawn into infinite space--I've never been +able to reach them. But every one else seems to have a knack--well, +somebody must cook. You tell me Annalise won't. Perhaps she really +can't. Anyhow I cannot mention it to her, because it would be too +horrible to have her flatly refusing to do something I told her to do +and yet not be able to send her away. But somebody must cook, and I'm +going out to get the somebody. Hush"--she put up her hand as he opened +his mouth to speak--"I know it's raining. I know I'll get wet. Don't +let us waste time protesting. I'm going." + +Fritzing was conscience-stricken. "Ma'am," he said, "you must forgive +me for unwittingly bringing this bother upon you. Had I had time for +reflection I would not have been so sharp. But the woman burst upon +me. I knew not who she was. Sooner than offend her I would have cut +out my tongue, could I have foreseen you would yourself go in search +in the rain of a substitute. Permit me to seek another." + +"No, no--you have no luck with cooks," said Priscilla smiling. "I'm +going. Why I feel more cheerful already--just getting out of that +chair makes me feel better." + +"Were you not cheerful before?" inquired Fritzing anxiously. + +"Not very," admitted Priscilla. "But then neither were you. Don't +suppose I didn't see you with your head in your hands when I came in. +Cheerful people never seize their heads in that way. Now Fritzi I know +what's worrying you--it's that absurd affair last night. I've left off +thinking about it. I'm going to be very happy again, and so must you +be. We won't let one mad young man turn all our beautiful life sour, +will we?" + +He bent down and kissed her hand. "Permit me to accompany you at +least," he begged. "I cannot endure--" + +But she shook her head; and as she presently walked through the rain +holding Fritzing's umbrella,--none had been bought to replace hers, +broken on the journey--getting muddier and more draggled every +minute, she felt that now indeed she had got down to elementary +conditions, climbed right down out of the clouds to the place where +life lies unvarnished and uncomfortable, where Necessity spends her +time forcing you to do all the things you don't like, where the whole +world seems hungry and muddy and wet. It was an extraordinary +experience for her, this slopping through the mud with soaking shoes, +no prospect of a meal, and a heart that insisted on sinking in spite +of her attempts to persuade herself that the situation was amusing. It +did not amuse her. It might have amused somebody else,--the Grand +Duke, for instance, if he could have watched her now (from, say, a +Gothic window, himself dry and fed and taken care of), being punished +so naturally and inevitably by the weapons Providence never allows to +rust, those weapons that save parents and guardians so much personal +exertion if only they will let things take their course, those sharp, +swift consequences that attend the actions of the impetuous. I might, +indeed, if this were a sermon and there were a congregation unable to +get away, expatiate on the habit these weapons have of smiting with +equal fury the just and the unjust; how you only need to be a little +foolish, quite a little foolish, under conditions that seem to force +it upon you, and down they come, sure and relentless, and you are +smitten with a thoroughness that leaves you lame for years; how +motives are nothing, circumstances are nothing; how the motives may +have been aflame with goodness, the circumstances such that any other +course was impossible; how all these things don't matter in the +least,--you are and shall be smitten. But this is not a sermon. I have +no congregation. And why should I preach to a reader who meanwhile has +skipped? + +It comforted Priscilla to find that almost the whole village wanted to +come and cook for her, or as the women put it "do" for her. Their +cooking powers were strictly limited, and they proposed to make up for +this by doing for her very completely in other ways; they would scrub, +sweep, clean windows, wash,--anything and everything they would do. +Would they also sew buttons on her uncle's clothes? Priscilla asked +anxiously. And they were ready to sew buttons all over Fritzing if +buttons would make him happy. This eagerness was very gratifying, but +it was embarrassing as well. The extremely aged and the extremely +young were the only ones that refrained from offering their services. +Some of the girls were excluded as too weedy; some of the mothers +because their babies were too new; some of the wives because their +husbands were too exacting; but when Priscilla counted up the names +she had written down she found there were twenty-five. For a moment +she was staggered. Then she rose to the occasion and got out of the +difficulty with what she thought great skill, arranging, as it was +impossible to disappoint twenty-four of these, that they should take +it in turn, each coming for one day until all had had a day and then +beginning again with the first one. It seemed a brilliant plan. Life +at Creeper Cottage promised to be very varied. She gathered them +together in the village shop to talk it over. She asked them if they +thought ten shillings a day and food would be enough. She asked it +hesitatingly, afraid lest she were making them an impossibly frugal +offer. She was relieved at the cry of assent; but it was followed +after a moment by murmurs from the married women, when they had had +time to reflect, that it was unfair to pay the raw young ones at the +same rate as themselves. Priscilla however turned a deaf ear to their +murmurings. "The girls may not," she said, raising her hand to impose +silence, "be able to get through as much as you do in a day, but +they'll be just as tired when evening comes. Certainly I shall give +them the same wages." She made them draw lots as to who should begin, +and took the winner home with her then and there; she too, though the +day was far spent, was to have her ten shillings. "What, have you +forgotten your New Testaments?" Priscilla cried, when more murmurs +greeted this announcement. "Don't you remember the people who came at +the eleventh hour to labour in the vineyard and got just the same as +the others? Why should I try to improve on parables?" And there was +something about Priscilla, an air, an authority, that twisted the +women of Symford into any shape of agreement she chose. The +twenty-four went their several ways. The twenty-fifth ran home to put +on a clean apron, and got back to the shop in time to carry the eggs +and butter and bread Priscilla had bought. "I forgot to bring any +money," said Priscilla when the postmistress--it was she who kept the +village shop--told her how much it came to. "Does it matter?" + +"Oh don't mention it, Miss Neumann-Schultz," was the pleasant answer +of that genteel and trustful lady; and she suggested that Priscilla +should take with her a well-recommended leg of mutton she had that +day for sale as well. Priscilla shuddered at the sight of it and +determined never to eat legs of mutton again. The bacon, too, piled up +on the counter, revolted her. The only things that looked as decent +raw as when they were cooked were eggs; and on eggs she decided she +and Fritzing would in future live. She broke off a piece of the crust +of the bread Mrs. Vickerton was wrapping up and ate it, putting great +pressure on herself to do it carelessly, with a becoming indifference. + +"It's good bread," said Mrs. Vickerton, doing up her parcel. + +"Where in the world do you get it from?" asked Priscilla +enthusiastically. "The man must be a genius." + +"The carrier brings it every day," said Mrs. Vickerton, pleased and +touched by such appreciation. "It's a Minehead baker's." + +"He ought to be given an order, if ever man ought." + +"An order? For you regular, Miss Neumann-Schultz?" + +"No, no,--the sort you pin on your breast," said Priscilla. + +"Ho," smiled Mrs. Vickerton vaguely, who did not follow; she was so +genteel that she could never have enough of aspirates. And Priscilla, +giving the parcel to her breathless new help, hurried back to Creeper +Cottage. + +Now this help, or char-girl--you could not call her a charwoman she +was manifestly still so very young--was that Emma who had been obliged +to tell the vicar's wife about Priscilla's children's treat and who +did not punctually return books. I will not go so far as to say that +not to return books punctually is sinful, though deep down in my soul +I think it is, but anyhow it is a symptom of moral slackness. Emma was +quite good so long as she was left alone. She could walk quite +straight so long as there were no stones in the way and nobody to pull +her aside. If there were stones, she instantly stumbled; if somebody +pulled, she instantly went. She was weak, amiable, well-intentioned. +She had a widowed father who was unpleasant and who sometimes beat her +on Saturday nights, and on Sunday mornings sometimes, if the fumes of +the Cock and Hens still hung about him, threw things at her before she +went to church. A widowed father in Emma's class is an ill being to +live with. The vicar did his best to comfort her. Mrs. Morrison talked +of the commandments and of honouring one's father and mother and of +how the less there was to honour the greater the glory of doing it; +and Emma was so amiable that she actually did manage to honour him six +days out of the seven. At the same time she could not help thinking it +would be nice to go away to a place where he wasn't. They were +extremely poor; almost the poorest family in the village, and the +vision of possessing ten shillings of her very own was a dizzy one. +She had a sweetheart, and she had sent him word by a younger sister of +the good fortune that had befallen her and begged him to come up to +Creeper Cottage that evening and help her carry the precious wages +safely home; and at nine o'clock when her work was done she presented +herself all blushes and smiles before Priscilla and shyly asked her +for them. + +Priscilla was alone in her parlour reading. She referred her, as her +habit was, to Fritzing; but Fritzing had gone out for a little air, +the rain having cleared off, and when the girl told her so Priscilla +bade her come round in the morning and fetch the money. + +Emma's face fell so woefully at this--was not her John at that moment +all expectant round the corner?--that Priscilla smiled and got up to +see if she could find some money herself. In the first drawer she +opened in Fritzing's sitting-room was a pocket-book, and in this +pocket-book Fritzing's last five-pound note. There was nothing else +except the furnisher's bill. She pushed that on one side without +looking at it; what did bills matter? Bills never yet had mattered to +Priscilla. She pushed it on one side and searched for silver, but +found none. "Perhaps you can change this?" she said, holding out the +note. + +"The shop's shut now, miss," said Laura, gazing with round eyes at the +mighty sum. + +"Well then take it, and bring me the change in the morning." + +Emma took it with trembling fingers--she had not in her life touched +so much money--and ran out into the darkness to where her John was +waiting. Symford never saw either of them again. Priscilla never saw +her change. Emma went to perdition. Priscilla went back to her chair +by the fire. She was under the distinct and comfortable impression +that she had been the means of making the girl happy. "How easy it is, +making people happy," thought Priscilla placidly, the sweetest smile +on her charming mouth. + + + + +XVIII + + +Bad luck, it will be seen, dogged the footsteps of Priscilla. Never +indeed for a single hour after she entered Creeper Cottage did the +gloomy lady cease from her attentions. The place was pervaded by her +thick and evil atmosphere. Fritzing could not go out for an airing +without something of far-reaching consequence happening while he was +away. It was of course Bad Luck that made the one girl in Symford who +was easily swayed by passing winds of temptation draw the lot that put +the five-pound note into her hands; if she had come to the cottage +just one day later, or if the rain had gone on just half an hour +longer and kept Fritzing indoors, she would, I have no doubt whatever, +be still in Symford practising every feeble virtue either on her +father or on her John, by this time probably her very own John. As it +was she was a thief, a lost soul, a banished face for ever from the +ways of grace. + +Thus are we all the sport of circumstance. Thus was all Symford the +sport of Priscilla. Fritzing knew nothing of his loss. He had not told +Priscilla a word of his money difficulties, his idea being to keep +every cloud from her life as long and as completely as possible. +Besides, how idle to talk of these things to some one who could in no +way help him with counsel or suggestions. He had put the money in his +drawer, and the thought that it was still unchanged and safe comforted +him a little in the watches of the sleepless nights. + +Nothing particular happened on the Thursday morning, except that the +second of the twenty-five kept on breaking things, and Priscilla who +was helping Fritzing arrange the books he had ordered from London +remarked at the fifth terrific smash, a smash so terrific as to cause +Creeper Cottage to tremble all over, that more crockery had better be +bought. + +"Yes," said Fritzing, glancing swiftly at her with almost a guilty +glance. + +He felt very keenly his want of resourcefulness in this matter of +getting the money over from Germany, but he clung to the hope that a +few more wakeful nights would clear his brain and show him the way; +and meanwhile there was always the five-pound note in the drawer. + +"And Fritzi, I shall have to get some clothes soon," Priscilla went +on, dusting the books as he handed them to her. + +"Clothes, ma'am?" repeated Fritzing, straightening himself to stare at +her. + +"Those things you bought for me in Gerstein--they're delicious, +they're curiosities, but they're not clothes. I mean always to keep +them. I'll have them put in a glass case, and they shall always be +near me when we're happy again." + +"Happy again, ma'am?" + +"Settled again, I mean," quickly amended Priscilla. + +She dusted in silence for a little, and began to put the books she had +dusted in the shelves. "I'd better write to Paris," she said +presently. + +Fritzing jumped. "Paris, ma'am?" + +"They've got my measurements. This dress can't stand much more. It's +the one I've worn all the time. The soaking it got yesterday was very +bad for it. You don't see such things, but if you did you'd probably +get a tremendous shock." + +"Ma'am, if you write to Paris you must give your own name, which of +course is impossible. They will send nothing to an unknown customer in +England called Neumann-Schultz." + +"Oh but we'd send the money with the order. That's quite easy, isn't +it?" + +"Perfectly easy," said Fritzing in an oddly exasperated voice; at once +adding, still more snappily, "Might I request your Grand Ducal +Highness to have the goodness not to put my Æschylus--a most valuable +edition--head downwards on the shelf? It is a manner of treating books +often to be observed in housemaids and similar ignorants. But you, +ma'am, have been trained by me I trust in other and more reverent ways +of handling what is left to us of the mighty spirits of the past." + +"I'm sorry," said Priscilla, hastily turning the Æschylus right side +up again; and by launching forth into a long and extremely bitter +dissertation on the various ways persons of no intellectual +conscience have of ill-treating books, he got rid of some of his +agitation and fixed her attention for the time on questions less +fraught with complications than clothes from Paris. + +About half-past two they were still sitting over the eggs and bread +and butter that Priscilla ordered three times a day and that Fritzing +ate with unquestioning obedience, when the Shuttleworth victoria +stopped in front of the cottage and Lady Shuttleworth got out. +Fritzing, polite man, hastened to meet her, pushing aside the footman +and offering his arm. She looked at him vaguely, and asked if his +niece were at home. + +"Certainly," said Fritzing, leading her into Priscilla's parlour. +"Shall I inquire if she will receive you?" + +"Do," said Lady Shuttleworth, taking no apparent notice of the odd +wording of this question. "Tussie isn't well," she said the moment +Priscilla appeared, fixing her eyes on her face but looking as though +she hardly saw her, as though she saw past her, through her, to +something beyond, while she said a lesson learned by rote. + +"Isn't he? Oh I'm sorry," said Priscilla. + +"He caught cold last Sunday at your treat. He oughtn't to have run +those races with the boys. He can't--stand--much." + +Priscilla looked at her questioningly. The old lady's face was quite +set and calm, but there had been a queer catch in her voice at the +last words. + +"Why does he do such things, then?" asked Priscilla, feeling vaguely +distressed. + +"Ah yes, my dear--why? That is a question for you to answer, is it +not?" + +"For me?" + +"On Tuesday night," continued Lady Shuttleworth, "he was ill when he +left home to come here. He would come. It was a terrible night for a +delicate boy to go out. And he didn't stay here, I understand. He went +out to buy something after closing time, and stood a long while trying +to wake the people up." + +"Yes," said Priscilla, feeling guilty, "I--that was my fault. He went +for me." + +"Yes my dear. Since then he has been ill. I've come to ask you if +you'll drive back with me and see if--if you cannot persuade him that +you are happy. He seems to be much--troubled." + +"Troubled?" + +"He seems to be afraid you are not happy. You know," she added with a +little quavering smile, "Tussie is very kind. He is very unselfish. He +takes everybody's burdens on his shoulders. He seems to be quite +haunted by the idea that your life here is unendurably uncomfortable, +and it worries him dreadfully that he can't get to you to set things +straight. I think if he were to see you, and you were very cheerful, +and--and smiled, my dear, it might help to get him over this." + +"Get him over this?" echoed Priscilla. "Is he so ill?" + +Lady Shuttleworth looked at her and said nothing. + +"Of course I'll come," said Priscilla, hastily ringing the bell. + +"But you must not look unhappy," said Lady Shuttleworth, laying her +hand on the girl's arm, "that would make matters ten times worse. You +must promise to be as gay as possible." + +"Yes, yes--I'll be gay," promised Priscilla, while her heart became as +lead within her at the thought that she was the cause of poor Tussie's +sufferings. But was she really, she asked herself during the drive? +What had she done but accept help eagerly offered? Surely it was very +innocent to do that? It was what she had been doing all her life, and +people had been delighted when she let them be kind to her, and +certainly had not got ill immediately afterwards. Were you never to +let anybody do anything for you lest while they were doing it they +should get wet feet and things, and then their colds would be upon +your head? She was very sorry Tussie should be ill, dreadfully sorry. +He was so kind and good that it was impossible not to like him. She +did like him. She liked him quite as well as most young men and much +better than many. "I'm afraid you are very unhappy," she said suddenly +to Lady Shuttleworth, struck by the look on her face as she leaned +back, silent, in her corner. + +"I do feel rather at my wits' end," said Lady Shuttleworth. "For +instance, I'm wondering whether what I'm doing now isn't a great +mistake." + +"What you are doing now?" + +"Taking you to see Tussie." + +"Oh but I promise to be cheerful. I'll tell him how comfortable we +are. He'll see I look well taken care of." + +"But for all that I'm afraid he may--he may--" + +"Why, we're going to be tremendously taken care of. Even he will see +that. Only think--I've engaged twenty-five cooks." + +"Twenty-five cooks?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, staring in spite of her +sorrows. "But isn't my kitchenmaid--?" + +"Oh she left us almost at once. She couldn't stand my uncle. He is +rather difficult to stand at first. You have to know him quite a long +while before you can begin to like him. And I don't think kitchenmaids +ever would begin." + +"But my dear, twenty-five cooks?" + +And Priscilla explained how and why she had come by them; and though +Lady Shuttleworth, remembering the order till now prevailing in the +village and the lowness of the wages, could not help thinking that +here was a girl more potent for mischief than any girl she had ever +met, yet a feeble gleam of amusement did, as she listened, slant +across the inky blackness of her soul. + +Tussie was sitting up in bed with a great many pillows behind him, +finding immense difficulty in breathing, when his mother, her bonnet +off and every trace of having been out removed, came in and said Miss +Neumann-Schultz was downstairs. + +"Downstairs? Here? In this house?" gasped Tussie, his eyes round with +wonder and joy. + +"Yes. She--called. Would you like her to come up and see you?" + +"Oh mother!" + +Lady Shuttleworth hurried out. How could she bear this, she thought, +stumbling a little as though she did not see very well. She went +downstairs with the sound of that Oh mother throbbing in her ears. + +Tussie's temperature, high already, went up by leaps during the few +minutes of waiting. He gave feverish directions to the nurse about a +comfortable chair being put exactly in the right place, about his +pillows being smoothed, his medicine bottles hidden, and was very +anxious that the flannel garment he was made to wear when ill, a +garment his mother called a nightingale--not after the bird but the +lady--and that was the bluest flannel garment ever seen, should be +arranged neatly over his narrow chest. + +The nurse looked disapproving. She did not like her patients to be +happy. Perhaps she was right. It is always better, I believe, to be +cautious and careful, to husband your strength, to be deadly prudent +and deadly dull. As you would poison, so should you avoid doing what +the poet calls living too much in your large hours. The truly prudent +never have large hours; nor should you, if you want to be comfortable. +And you get your reward, I am told, in living longer; in having, that +is, a few more of those years that cluster round the end, during which +you are fed and carried and washed by persons who generally grumble. +Who wants to be a flame, doomed to be blown out by the same gust of +wind that has first fanned it to its very brightest? If you are not a +flame you cannot, of course, be blown out. Gusts no longer shake you. +Tempests pass you by untouched. And if besides you have the additional +advantage of being extremely smug, extremely thick-skinned, you shall +go on living till ninety, and not during the whole of that time be +stirred by so much as a single draught. + +Priscilla came up determined to be so cheerful that she began to smile +almost before she got to the door. "I've come to tell you how +splendidly we're getting on at the cottage," she said taking Tussie's +lean hot hand, the shell of her smile remaining but the heart and +substance gone out of it, he looked so pitiful and strange. + +"Really? Really?" choked Tussie, putting the other lean hot hand over +hers and burning all the coolness out of it. + +The nurse looked still more disapproving. She had not heard Sir +Augustus had a _fiancée_, and even if he had this was no time for +philandering. She too had noticed the voice in which he had said Oh +mother, and she saw by his eyes that his temperature had gone up. Who +was this shabby young lady? She felt sure that no one so shabby could +be his _fiancée_, and she could only conclude that Lady Shuttleworth +must be mad. + +"Nurse, I'm going to stay here a little," said Lady Shuttleworth. +"I'll call you when I want you." + +"I think, madam, Sir Augustus ought not--" began the nurse. + +"No, no, he shall not. Go and have forty winks, nurse." + +And the nurse had to go; people generally did when Lady Shuttleworth +sent them. + +"Sit down--no don't--stay a moment like this," said Tussie, his breath +coming in little jerks,--"unless you are tired? Did you walk?" + +"I'm afraid you are very ill," said Priscilla, leaving her hand in his +and looking down at him with a face that all her efforts could not +induce to smile. + +"Oh I'll be all right soon. How good of you to come. You've not been +hungry since?" + +"No, no," said Priscilla, stroking his hands with her free hand and +giving them soothing pats as one would to a sick child. + +"Really not? I've thought of that ever since. I've never got your face +that night out of my head. What had happened? While I was away--what +had happened?" + +"Nothing--nothing had happened," said Priscilla hastily. "I was tired. +I had a mood. I get them, you know. I get angry easily. Then I like +to be alone till I'm sorry." + +"But what had made you angry? Had I--?" + +"No, never. You have never been anything but good and kind. You've +been our protecting spirit since we came here." + +Tussie laughed shrilly, and immediately was seized by a coughing fit. +Lady Shuttleworth stood at the foot of the bed watching him with a +face from which happiness seemed to have fled for ever. Priscilla grew +more and more wretched, caught, obliged to stand there, distractedly +stroking his hands in her utter inability to think of anything else to +do. + +"A nice protecting spirit," gasped Tussie derisively, when he could +speak. "Look at me here, tied down to this bed for heaven knows how +long, and not able to do a thing for you." + +"But there's nothing now to do. We're quite comfortable. We are +really. Do, do believe it." + +"Are you only comfortable, or are you happy as well?" + +"Oh, we're _very_ happy," said Priscilla with all the emphasis she +could get into her voice; and again she tried, quite unsuccessfully, +to wrench her mouth into a smile. + +"Then, if you're happy, why do you look so miserable?" + +He was gazing up into her face with eyes whose piercing brightness +would have frightened the nurse. There was no shyness now about +Tussie. There never is about persons whose temperature is 102. + +"Miserable?" repeated Priscilla. She tried to smile; looked helplessly +at Lady Shuttleworth; looked down again at Tussie; and stammering +"Because you are so ill and it's all my fault," to her horror, to her +boundless indignation at herself, two tears, big and not to be hidden, +rolled down her face and dropped on to Tussie's and her clasped hands. + +Tussie struggled to sit up straight. "Look, mother, look--" he cried, +gasping, "my beautiful one--my dear and lovely one--my darling--she's +crying--I've made her cry--now never tell me I'm not a brute +again--see, see what I've done!" + +"Oh"--murmured Priscilla, in great distress and amazement. Was the +poor dear delirious? And she tried to get her hands away. + +But Tussie would not let them go. He held them in a clutch that seemed +like hot iron in both his, and dragging himself nearer to them covered +them with wild kisses. + +Lady Shuttleworth was appalled. "Tussie," she said in a very even +voice, "you must let Miss Neumann-Schultz go now. You must be quiet +again now. Let her go, dear. Perhaps she'll--come again." + +"Oh mother, leave me alone," cried Tussie, lying right across his +pillows, his face on Priscilla's hands. "What do you know of these +things? This is my darling--this is my wife--dream of my spirit--star +of my soul--" + +"Never in this world!" cried Lady Shuttleworth, coming round to the +head of the bed as quickly as her shaking limbs would take her. + +"Yes, yes, come here if you like, mother--come close--listen while I +tell her how I love her. I don't care who hears. Why should I? If I +weren't ill I'd care. I'd be tongue-tied--I'd have gone on being +tongue-tied for ever. Oh I bless being ill, I bless being ill--I can +say anything, anything--" + +"Tussie, don't say it," entreated his mother. "The less you say now +the more grateful you'll be later on. Let her go." + +"Listen to her!" cried Tussie, interrupting his kissing of her hands +to look up at Priscilla and smile with a sort of pitying wonder, "Let +you go? Does one let one's life go? One's hope of salvation go? One's +little precious minute of perfect happiness go? When I'm well again I +shall be just as dull and stupid as ever, just such a shy fool, not +able to speak--" + +"But it's a gracious state"--stammered poor Priscilla. + +"Loving you? Loving you?" + +"No, no--not being able to speak. It's always best--" + +"It isn't. It's best to be true to one's self, to show honestly what +one feels, as I am now--as I am now--" And he fell to kissing her +hands again. + +"Tussie, this isn't being honest," said Lady Shuttleworth sternly, +"it's being feverish." + +"Listen to her! Was ever a man interrupted like this in the act of +asking a girl to marry him?" + +"Tussie!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"Ethel, will you marry me? Because I love you so? It's an absurd +reason--the most magnificently absurd reason, but I know there's no +other why you should--" + +Priscilla was shaken and stricken as she had never yet been; shaken +with pity, stricken with remorse. She looked down at him in dismay +while he kissed her hands with desperate, overwhelming love. What was +she to do? Lady Shuttleworth tried to draw her away. What was she to +do? If Tussie was overwhelmed with love, she was overwhelmed with +pity. + +"Ethel--Ethel--" gasped Tussie, kissing her hands, looking up at her, +kissing them again. + +Pity overcame her, engulfed her. She bent her head down to his and +laid her cheek an instant on the absurd flannel nightingale, tenderly, +apologetically. + +"Ethel--Ethel," choked Tussie, "will you marry me?" + +"Dear Tussie," she whispered in a shaky whisper, "I promise to answer +you when you are well. Not yet. Not now. Get quite well, and then if +you still want an answer I promise to give you one. Now let me go." + +"Ethel," implored Tussie, looking at her with a wild entreaty in his +eyes, "will you kiss me? Just once--to help me to live--" + +And in her desire to comfort him she stooped down again and did kiss +him, soberly, almost gingerly, on the forehead. + +He let her hands slide away from between his and lay back on his +pillows in a state for the moment of absolute beatitude. He shut his +eyes, and did not move while she crept softly out of the room. + +"What have you done?" asked Lady Shuttleworth trembling, when they +were safely in the passage and the door shut behind them. + +"I can't think--I can't think," groaned Priscilla, wringing her hands. +And, leaning against the balusters, then and there in that most +public situation she began very bitterly to cry. + + + + +XIX + + +Priscilla went home dazed. All her suitors hitherto had approached her +ceremoniously, timidly, through the Grand Duke; and we know they had +not approached very near. But here was one, timid enough in health, +who was positively reckless under circumstances that made most people +meek. He had proposed to her arrayed in a blue flannel nightingale, +and Priscilla felt that headlong self-effacement could go no further. +"He must have a great soul," she said to herself over and over again +during the drive home, "a great, _great_ soul." And it seemed of +little use wiping her tears away, so many fresh ones immediately took +their place. + +She ached over Tussie and Tussie's mother. What had she done? She felt +she had done wrong; yet how, except by just existing? and she did feel +she couldn't help doing that. Certainly she had made two kind hearts +extremely miserable,--one was miserable now, and the other didn't yet +know how miserable it was going to be. She ought to have known, she +ought to have thought, she ought to have foreseen. She of all persons +in the world ought to have been careful with young men who believed +her to be of their own class. Contrition and woe took possession of +Priscilla's soul. She knew it was true that she could not help +existing, but she knew besides, far back in a remote and seldom +investigated corner of her mind, a corner on which she did not care to +turn the light of careful criticism, that she ought not to be existing +in Symford. It was because she was there, out of her proper sphere, in +a place she had no business to be in at all, that these strange and +heart-wringing scenes with young men occurred. And Fritzing would +notice her red eyes and ask what had happened; and here within two +days was a second story to be told of a young man unintentionally +hurried to his doom. Would Fritzing be angry? She never knew +beforehand. Would he, only remembering she was grand ducal, regard it +as an insult and want to fight Tussie? The vision of poor Tussie, +weak, fevered, embedded in pillows, swathed in flannel, receiving +bloodthirsty messages of defiance from Fritzing upset her into more +tears. Fritzing, she felt at that moment, was a trial. He burdened her +with his gigantic efforts to keep her from burdens. He burdened her +with his inflated notions of how burdenless she ought to be. He was +admirable, unselfish, devoted; but she felt it was possible to be too +admirable, too unselfish, too devoted. In a word Priscilla's mind +was in a state of upheaval, and the only ray of light she saw +anywhere--and never was ray more watery--was that Tussie, for the +moment at least, was content. The attitude of his mother, on the +other hand, was distressing and disturbing. There had been no more My +dears and other kind ways. She had watched her crying on the stairs in +stony silence, had gone down with her to the door in stony silence, +and just at the last had said in an unmistakably stony voice, "All +this is very cruel." + +Priscilla was overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. The world was +too much with her, she felt, a very great deal too much. She sent the +Shuttleworth carriage away at the entrance to the village and went in +to sit with Mrs. Jones a little, so that her eyes might lose their +redness before she faced Fritzing; and Mrs. Jones was so glad to see +her, so full of praises of her unselfish goodness in coming in, that +once again Priscilla was forced to be ashamed of herself and of +everything she did. + +"I'm not unselfish, and I'm not good," she said, smoothing the old +lady's coverlet. + +Mrs. Jones chuckled faintly. "Pretty dear," was her only comment. + +"I don't think I'm pretty and I know I'm not a dear," said Priscilla, +quite vexed. + +"Ain't you then, deary," murmured Mrs. Jones soothingly. + +Priscilla saw it was no use arguing, and taking up the Bible that +always lay on the table by the bed began to read aloud. She read and +read till both were quieted,--Mrs. Jones into an evidently sweet +sleep, she herself into peace. Then she left off and sat for some time +watching the old lady, the open Bible in-her lap, her soul filled +with calm words and consolations, wondering what it could be like +being so near death. Must it not be beautiful, thought Priscilla, to +slip away so quietly in that sunny room, with no sound to break the +peace but the ticking of the clock that marked off the last minutes, +and outside the occasional footstep of a passer-by still hurrying on +life's business? Wonderful to have done with everything, to have it +all behind one, settled, lived through, endured. The troublous joys +as well as the pains, all finished; the griefs and the stinging +happinesses, all alike lived down; and now evening, and sleep. In the +few days Priscilla had known her the old lady had drawn visibly nearer +death. Lying there on the pillow, so little and light that she hardly +pressed it down at all, she looked very near it indeed. And how kind +Death was, rubbing away the traces of what must have been a sordid +existence, set about years back with the usual coarse pleasures and +selfish hopes,--how kind Death was, letting all there was of spirit +shine out so sweetly at the end. There was an enlarged photograph of +Mrs. Jones and her husband over the fireplace, a photograph taken for +their silver wedding; she must have been about forty-five; how kind +Death was, thought Priscilla, looking from the picture to the figure +on the bed. She sighed a little, and got up. Life lay before her, an +endless ladder up each of whose steep rungs she would have to clamber; +in every sort of weather she would have to clamber, getting more +battered, more blistered with every rung.... She looked wistfully at +the figure on the bed, and sighed a little. Then she crept out, and +softly shut the door. + +She walked home lost in thought. As she was going up the hill to her +cottage Fritzing suddenly emerged from it and indulged in movements so +strange and complicated that they looked like nothing less than a +desperate dancing on the doorstep. Priscilla walked faster, staring in +astonishment. He made strange gestures, his face was pale, his hair +rubbed up into a kind of infuriated mop. + +"Why, what in the world--" began the amazed Priscilla, as soon as she +was near enough. + +"Ma'am, I've been robbed," shouted Fritzing; and all Symford might +have heard if it had happened to be listening. + +"Robbed?" repeated Priscilla. "What of?" + +"Of all my money, ma'am. Of all I had--of all we had--to live on." + +"Nonsense, Fritzi," said Priscilla; but she did turn a little paler. +"Don't let us stand out here," she added; and she got him in and shut +the street door. + +He would have left it open and would have shouted his woes through +it as through a trumpet down the street, oblivious of all things +under heaven but his misfortune. He tore open the drawer of the +writing-table. "In this drawer--in the pocket-book you see in this +drawer--in this now empty pocket-book, did I leave it. It was there +yesterday. It was there last night. Now it is gone. Miscreants from +without have visited us. Or perhaps, viler still, miscreants from +within. A miscreant, I do believe, capable of anything--Annalise--" + +"Fritzi, I took a five-pound note out of that last night, if that's +what you miss." + +"You, ma'am?" + +"To pay the girl who worked here her wages. You weren't here. I +couldn't find anything smaller." + +"_Gott sei Dank! Gott sei Dank_!" cried Fritzing, going back to German +in his joy. "Oh ma'am, if you had told me earlier you would have +spared me great anguish. Have you the change?" + +"Didn't she bring it?" + +"Bring it, ma'am?" + +"I gave it to her last night to change. She was to bring it round this +morning. Didn't she?" + +Fritzing stared aghast. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. In a +moment he was back again. "She has not been here," he said, in a voice +packed once more with torment. + +"Perhaps she has forgotten." + +"Ma'am, how came you--" + +"Now you're going to scold me." + +"No, no--but how is it possible that you should have trusted--" + +"Fritzi, you _are_ going to scold me, and I'm so tired. What else has +been taken? You said all your money--" + +He snatched up his hat. "Nothing else, ma'am, nothing else. I will go +and seek the girl." And he clapped it down over his eyes as he always +did in moments of great mental stress. + +"What a fuss," thought Priscilla wearily. Aloud she said, "The girl +here to-day will tell you where she lives. Of course she has +forgotten, or not been able to change it yet." And she left him, and +went out to get into her own half of the house. + +Yes, Fritzi really was a trial. Why such a fuss and such big words +about five pounds? If it were lost and the girl afraid to come and say +so, it didn't matter much; anyhow nothing like so much as having one's +peace upset. How foolish to be so agitated and talk of having been +robbed of everything. Fritzing's mind, she feared, that large, +enlightened mind on whose breadth and serenity she had gazed +admiringly ever since she could remember gazing at all, was shrinking +to dimensions that would presently exactly match the dimensions of +Creeper Cottage. She went upstairs disheartened and tired, and +dropping down full length on her sofa desired Annalise to wash her +face. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness has been weeping," said Annalise, whisking +the sponge in and out of corners with a skill surprising in one who +had only practised the process during the last ten days. + +Priscilla opened her eyes to stare at her in frankest surprise, for +never yet had Annalise dared make a remark unrequested. Annalise, by +beginning to wash them, forced her to shut them again. + +Priscilla then opened her mouth to tell her what she thought of her. +Immediately Annalise's swift sponge stopped it up. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, washing Priscilla's mouth +with a thoroughness and an amount of water suggestive of its not +having been washed for months, "told me only yesterday that weeping +was a terrible--_schreckliche_--waste of time. Therefore, since your +Grand Ducal Highness knows that and yet herself weeps, it is easy to +see that there exists a reason for weeping which makes weeping +inevitable." + +"Will you--" began Priscilla, only to be stopped instantly by the +ready sponge. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness is unhappy. 'Tis not to be wondered at. +Trust a faithful servant, one whose life-blood is at your Grand Ducal +Highness's disposal, and tell her if it is not then true that the Herr +Geheimrath has decoyed you from your home and your Grossherzoglicher +Herr Papa?" + +"Will you--" + +Again the pouncing sponge. + +"My heart bleeds--indeed it bleeds--to think of the Herr Papa's +sufferings, his fears, his anxieties. It is a picture on which I +cannot calmly look. Day and night--for at night I lie sleepless on my +bed--I am inquiring of myself what it can be, the spell that the Herr +Geheimrath has cast over your Grand Ducal--" + +"Will you--" + +Again the pouncing sponge; but this time Priscilla caught the girl's +hand, and holding it at arm's length sat up. "Are you mad?" she asked, +looking at Annalise as though she saw her for the first time. + +Annalise dropped the sponge and clasped her hands. "Not mad," she +said, "only very, very devoted." + +"No. Mad. Give me a towel." + +Priscilla was so angry that she did not dare say more. If she had said +a part even of what she wanted to say all would have been over between +herself and Annalise; so she dried her face in silence, declining to +allow it to be touched. "You can go," she said, glancing at the door, +her face pale with suppressed wrath but also, it must be confessed, +very clean; and when she was alone she dropped once again on to the +sofa and buried her head in the cushion. How dared Annalise? How dared +she? How dared she? Priscilla asked herself over and over again, +wincing, furious. Why had she not thought of this, known that she +would be in the power of any servant they chose to bring? Surely there +was no limit, positively none, to what the girl might do or say? How +was she going to bear her about her, endure the sight and sound of +that veiled impertinence? She buried her head very deep in the +cushion, vainly striving to blot out the world and Annalise in its +feathers, but even there there was no peace, for suddenly a great +noise of doors going and legs striding penetrated through its +stuffiness and she heard Fritzing's voice very loud and near--all +sounds in Creeper Cottage were loud and near--ordering Annalise to ask +her Grand Ducal Highness to descend. + +"I won't," thought Priscilla, burying her head deeper. "That poor Emma +has lost the note and he's going to fuss. I won't descend." + +Then came Annalise's tap at her door. Priscilla did not answer. +Annalise tapped again. Priscilla did not answer, but turning her head +face upwards composed herself to an appearance of sleep. + +Annalise tapped a third time. "The Herr Geheimrath wishes to speak to +your Grand Ducal Highness," she called through the door; and after a +pause opened it and peeped in. "Her Grand Ducal Highness sleeps," she +informed Fritzing down the stairs, her nose at the angle in the air it +always took when she spoke to him. + +"Then wake her! Wake her!" cried Fritzing. + +"Is it possible something has happened?" thought Annalise joyfully, +her eyes gleaming as she willingly flew back to Priscilla's +door,--anything, anything, she thought, sooner than the life she was +leading. + +Priscilla heard Fritzing's order and sat up at once, surprised at such +an unprecedented indifference to her comfort. Her heart began to beat +faster; a swift fear that Kunitz was at her heels seized her; she +jumped up and ran out. + +Fritzing was standing at the foot of the stairs. + +"Come down, ma'am," he said; "I must speak to you at once." + +"What's the matter?" asked Priscilla, getting down the steep little +stairs as quickly as was possible without tumbling. + +"Hateful English tongue," thought Annalise, to whom the habit the +Princess and Fritzing had got into of talking English together was a +constant annoyance and disappointment. + +Fritzing preceded Priscilla into her parlour, and when she was in he +shut the door behind her. Then he leaned his hands on the table to +steady himself and confronted her with a twitching face. Priscilla +looked at him appalled. Was the Grand Duke round the corner? +Lingering, perhaps, among the very tombs just outside her window? +"What is it?" she asked faintly. + +"Ma'am, the five pounds has disappeared for ever." + +"Really Fritzi, you are too absurd about that wretched five pounds," +cried Priscilla, blazing into anger. + +"But it was all we had." + +"All we--?" + +"Ma'am, it was positively our last penny." + +"I--don't understand." + +He made her understand. With paper and pencil, with the bills and his +own calculations, he made her understand. His hands shook, but he +went through with it item by item, through everything they had spent +from the moment they left Kunitz. They were in such a corner, so +tightly jammed, that all efforts to hide it and pretend there was no +corner seemed to him folly. He now saw that such efforts always had +been folly, and that he ought to have seen to it that her mind on this +important point was from the first perfectly clear; then nothing would +have happened. "You have had the misfortune, ma'am, to choose a fool +for your protector in this adventure," he said bitterly, pushing the +papers from him as though he loathed the sight of them. + +Priscilla sat dumfoundered. She was looking quite straight for the +first time at certain pitiless aspects of life. For the first time she +was face to face with the sternness, the hardness, the relentlessness +of everything that has to do with money so soon as one has not got +any. It seemed almost incredible to her that she who had given so +lavishly to anybody and everybody, who had been so glad to give, who +had thought of money when she thought of it at all as a thing to be +passed on, as a thing that soiled one unless it was passed on, but +that, passed on, became strangely glorified and powerful for good--it +seemed incredible that she should be in need of it herself, and unable +to think of a single person who would give her some. And what a little +she needed: just to tide them over the next week or two till they had +got theirs from home; yet even that little, the merest nothing +compared to what she had flung about in the village, was as +unattainable as though it had been a fortune. "Can we--can we not +borrow?" she said at last. + +"Yes ma'am, we can and we must. I will proceed this evening to Symford +Hall and borrow of Augustus." + +"No," said Priscilla; so suddenly and so energetically that Fritzing +started. + +"No, ma'am?" he repeated, astonished. "Why, he is the very person. In +fact he is our only hope. He must and shall help us." + +"No," repeated Priscilla, still more energetically. + +"Pray ma'am," said Fritzing, shrugging his shoulders, "are these +women's whims--I never comprehended them rightly and doubt if I ever +shall--are they to be allowed to lead us even in dangerous crises? To +lead us to certain shipwreck, ma'am? The alternatives in this case are +three. Permit me to point them out. Either we return to Kunitz--" + +"Oh," shivered Priscilla, shrinking as from a blow. + +"Or, after a brief period of starvation and other violent discomfort, +we are cast into gaol for debt--" + +"Oh?" shivered Priscilla, in tones of terrified inquiry. + +"Or, I borrow of Augustus." + +"No," said Priscilla, just as energetically as before. + +"Augustus is wealthy. Augustus is willing. Ma'am, I would stake my +soul that he is willing." + +"You shall not borrow of him," said Priscilla. "He--he's too ill." + +"Well then, ma'am," said Fritzing with a gesture of extreme +exasperation, "since you cannot be allowed to be cast into gaol there +remains but Kunitz. Like the dogs of the Scriptures we will return--" + +"Why not borrow of the vicar?" interrupted Priscilla. "Surely he would +be glad to help any one in difficulties?" + +"Of the vicar? What, of the father of the young man who insulted your +Grand Ducal Highness and whom I propose to kill in duel my first +leisure moment? Ma'am, there are depths of infamy to which even a +desperate man will not descend." + +Priscilla dug holes in the tablecloth with the point of the pencil. "I +can't conceive," she said, "why you gave Annalise all that money. So +_much_." + +"Why, ma'am, she refused, unless I did, to prepare your Grand Ducal +Highness's tea." + +"Oh Fritzi!" Priscilla looked up at him, shaking her head and smiling +through all her troubles. Was ever so much love and so much folly +united in one wise old man? Was ever, for that matter, so expensive a +tea? + +"I admit I permitted the immediate, the passing, moment to blot out +the future from my clearer vision on that occasion." + +"On that occasion? Oh Fritzi. What about all the other occasions? +When you gave me all I asked for--for the poor people, for my party. +You must have suffered tortures of anxiety. And all by yourself. Oh +Fritzi. It was dear of you--perfectly, wonderfully, dear. But you +ought to have been different with me from the beginning--treated me +exactly as you would have treated a real niece--" + +"Ma'am," cried Fritzing, jumping up, "this is waste of time. Our case +is very urgent. Money must be obtained. You must allow me to judge in +this matter, however ill I have acquitted myself up to now. I shall +start at once for Symford Hall and obtain a loan of Augustus." + +Priscilla pushed back her chair and got up too. "My dear Fritzi, +please leave that unfortunate young man out of the question," she +said, flushing. "How can you worry a person who is ill in bed with +such things?" + +"His mother is not ill in bed and will do quite as well. I am +certainly going." + +"You are not going. I won't have you ask his mother. I--forbid you to +do anything of the sort. Oh Fritzi," she added in despair, for he had +picked up the hat and stick he had flung down on coming in and was +evidently not going to take the least notice of her commands--"oh +Fritzi, you can't ask Tussie for money. It would kill him to know we +were in difficulties." + +"Kill him, ma'am? Why should it kill him?" shouted Fritzing, +exasperated by such a picture of softness. + +"It wouldn't only kill him--it would be simply too dreadful besides," +said Priscilla, greatly distressed. "Why, he asked me this +afternoon--wasn't going to tell you, but you force me to--he asked me +this very afternoon to marry him, and the dreadful part is that I'm +afraid he thinks--he hopes--that I'm going to." + + + + +XX + + +The only inhabitant of Creeper Cottage who slept that night was +Annalise. Priscilla spent it walking up and down her bedroom, and +Fritzing on the other side of the wall spent it walking up and down +his. They could hear each other doing it; it was a melancholy sound. +Once Priscilla was seized with laughter--a not very genial mirth, but +still laughter--and had to fling herself on her bed and bury her face +in the pillows lest Fritzing should hear so blood-curdling a noise. It +was when their steps had fallen steadily together for several turns +and the church clock, just as she was noticing this, had struck three. +Not for this, to tramp up and down their rooms all night, not for this +had they left Kunitz. The thought of all they had dreamed life in +Creeper Cottage was going to be, of all they had never doubted it was +going to be, of peaceful nights passed in wholesome slumber, of days +laden with fruitful works, of evenings with the poets, came into her +head and made this tormented marching suddenly seem intensely droll. +She laughed into her pillow till the tears rolled down her face, and +the pains she had to take to keep all sounds from reaching Fritzing +only made her laugh more. + +It was a windy night, and the wind sighed round the cottage and +rattled the casements and rose every now and then to a howl very +dreary to hear. While Priscilla was laughing a great gust shook the +house, and involuntarily she raised her head to listen. It died away, +and her head dropped back on to her arms again, but the laughter was +gone. She lay solemn enough, listening to Fritzing's creakings, and +thought of the past day and of the days to come till her soul grew +cold. Surely she was a sort of poisonous weed, fatal to every one +about her? Fritzing, Tussie, the poor girl Emma--oh, it could not be +true about Emma. She had lost the money, and was trying to gather +courage to come and say so; or she had simply not been able to change +it yet. Fritzing had jumped to the conclusion, because nothing had +been heard of her all day at home, that she had run away with it. +Priscilla twisted herself about uneasily. It was not the loss of the +five pounds that made her twist, bad though that loss was in their +utter poverty; it was the thought that if Emma had really run away +she, by her careless folly, had driven the girl to ruin. And then +Tussie. How dreadful that was. At three in the morning, with the +wailing wind rising and falling and the room black with the inky +blackness of a moonless October night, the Tussie complication seemed +to be gigantic, of a quite appalling size, threatening to choke her, +to crush all the spring and youth out of her. If Tussie got well she +was going to break his heart; if Tussie died it would be her fault. +No one but herself was responsible for his illness, her own selfish, +hateful self. Yes, she was a poisonous weed; a baleful, fatal thing, +not fit for great undertakings, not fit for a noble life, too foolish +to depart successfully from the lines laid down for her by other +people; wickedly careless; shamefully shortsighted; spoiling, ruining, +everything she touched. Priscilla writhed. Nobody likes being forced +to recognize that they are poisonous weeds. Even to be a plain weed is +grievous to one's vanity, but to be a weed and poisonous as well is a +very desperate thing to be. She passed a dreadful night. It was the +worst she could remember. + +And the evening too--how bad it had been; though contrary to her +expectations Fritzing showed no desire to fight Tussie. He was not so +unreasonable as she had supposed; and besides, he was too completely +beaten down by the ever-increasing weight and number of his +responsibilities to do anything in regard to that unfortunate youth +but be sorry for him. More than once that evening he looked at +Priscilla in silent wonder at the amount of trouble one young woman +could give. How necessary, he thought, and how wise was that plan at +which he used in his ignorance to rail, of setting an elderly female +like the Disthal to control the actions and dog the footsteps of the +Priscillas of this world. He hated the Disthal and all women like her, +women with mountainous bodies and minimal brains--bodies self-indulged +into shapelessness, brains neglected into disappearance; but the +nobler and simpler and the more generous the girl the more did she +need some such mixture of fleshliness and cunning constantly with her. +It seemed absurd, and it seemed all wrong; yet surely it was so. He +pondered over it long in dejected musings, the fighting tendency gone +out of him completely for the time, so dark was his spirit with the +shadows of the future. + +They had borrowed the wages--it was a dreadful moment--for that day's +cook from Annalise. For their food they decided to run up a bill at +the store; but every day each fresh cook would have to be paid, and +every day her wages would have to be lent by Annalise. Annalise lent +superbly; with an air as of giving freely, with joy. All she required +was the Princess's signature to a memorandum drawn up by herself by +which she was promised the money back, doubled, within three months. +Priscilla read this, flushed to her hair, signed, and ordered her out +of the room. Annalise, who was beginning to enjoy herself, went +upstairs singing. In the parlour Priscilla broke the pen she had +signed with into quite small pieces and flung them on to the fire,--a +useless demonstration, but then she was a quick-tempered young lady. +In the attic Annalise sat down and wrote a letter breathing lofty +sentiments to the Countess Disthal in Kunitz, telling her she could no +longer keep silence in the face of a royal parent's anxieties and she +was willing to reveal the address of the Princess Priscilla and so +staunch the bleeding of a noble heart if the Grand Duke would forward +her or forward to her parents on her behalf the sum of twenty thousand +marks. Gladly would she render this service, which was at the same +time her duty, for nothing, if she had not the future to consider and +an infirm father. Meanwhile she gave the Symford post-office as an +address, assuring the Countess that it was at least fifty miles from +the Princess's present hiding-place, the address of which would only +be sent on the conditions named. Then, immensely proud of her +cleverness, she trotted down to the post-office, bought stamps, and +put the letter herself in the box. + +That evening she sang in the kitchen, she sang in the bath-room, she +sang in the attic and on the stairs to the attic. What she sang, +persistently, over and over again, and loudest outside Fritzing's +door, was a German song about how beautiful it is at evening when the +bells ring one to rest, and the refrain at the end of each verse was +ding-dong twice repeated. Priscilla rang her own bell, unable to +endure it, but Annalise did not consider this to be one of those that +are beautiful and did not answer it till it had been rung three times. + +"Do not sing," said Priscilla, when she appeared. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness objects?" + +Priscilla turned red. "I'll give no reasons," she said icily. "Do not +sing." + +"Yet it is a sign of a light heart. Your Grand Ducal Highness did not +like to see me weep--she should the more like to hear me rejoice." + +"You can go." + +"My heart to-night is light, because I am the means of being of use +to your Grand Ducal Highness, of showing my devotion, of being of +service." + +"Do me the service of being quiet." + +Annalise curtseyed and withdrew, and spent the rest of the evening +bursting into spasmodic and immediately interrupted song,--breaking +off after a few bars with a cough of remembrance and apology. When +this happened Fritzing and Priscilla looked at each other with grave +and meditative eyes; they knew how completely they were in her power. + +Fritzing wrote that night to the friend in London who had engaged the +rooms for him at Baker's Farm, and asked him to lend him fifty pounds +for a week,--preferably three hundred (this would cover the +furnisher's bill), but if he could lend neither five would do. The +friend, a teacher of German, could as easily have lent the three +hundred as the five, so poor was he, so fit an object for a loan +himself; but long before his letter explaining this in words eloquent +of regret (for he was a loyal friend) reached Fritzing, many things +had happened to that bewildered man to whom so many things had +happened already, and caused him to forget both his friend and his +request. + +This, then, was how the afternoon and evening of Thursday were +passed; and on Friday morning, quite unstrung by their sleepless +night, Priscilla and Fritzing were proposing to go up together on +to the moor, there to seek width and freshness, be blown upon by +moist winds, and forget for a little the crushing narrowness and +perplexities of Creeper Cottage, when Mrs. Morrison walked in. She +opened the door first and then, when half of her was inside, knocked +with her knuckles, which were the only things to knock with on +Priscilla's simple door. + +Priscilla was standing by the fire dressed to go out, waiting for +Fritzing, and she stared at this apparition in great and unconcealed +surprise. What business, said Priscilla's look more plainly than any +words, what business had people to walk into other people's cottages +in such a manner? She stood quite still, and scrutinized Mrs. Morrison +with the questioning expression she used to find so effective in +Kunitz days when confronted by a person inclined to forget which, +exactly, was his proper place. But Mrs. Morrison knew nothing of +Kunitz, and the look lost half its potency without its impressive +background. Besides, the lady was not one to notice things so slight +as looks; to keep her in her proper place you would have needed +sledge-hammers. She came in without thinking it necessary to wait to +be asked to, nodded something that might perhaps have represented a +greeting and of which Priscilla took no notice, and her face was the +face of somebody who is angry. + +"How wearing for the vicar," thought Priscilla, "to have a wife who +is angry at ten o'clock in the morning." + +"I've come in the interests--" began Mrs. Morrison, whose voice was +quite as angry as her face. + +"I'm just going out," said Priscilla. + +"--Of religion and morality." + +"Are they distinct?" asked Priscilla, drawing on her gloves. + +"You can imagine that nothing would make me pay you a visit but the +strongest sense of the duty I owe to my position in the parish." + +"Why should I imagine it?" + +"Of course I expect impertinence." + +"I'm afraid you've come here to be rude." + +"I shall not be daunted by anything you may say from doing my duty." + +"Will you please do it, then, and get it over?" + +"The duties of a clergyman's wife are often very disagreeable." + +"Probably you've got hold of a perfectly wrong idea of what yours +really are." + +"It is a new experience for me to be told so by a girl of your age." + +"I am not telling you. I only suggest." + +"I was prepared for rudeness." + +"Then why did you come?" + +"How long are you going to stay in this parish?" + +"You don't expect me to answer that?" + +"You've not been in it a fortnight, and you have done more harm than +most people in a lifetime." + +"I'm afraid you exaggerate." + +"You have taught it to drink." + +"I gave a dying old woman what she most longed for." + +"You've taught it to break the Sabbath." + +"I made a great many little children very happy." + +"You have ruined the habits of thrift we have been at such pains to +teach and encourage for twenty-five years." + +"I helped the poor when they asked me to." + +"And now what I want to know is, what has become of the Hancock girl?" + +"Pray who, exactly, is the Hancock girl?" + +"That unfortunate creature who worked here for you on Wednesday." + +Priscilla's face changed. "Emma?" she asked. + +"Emma. At this hour the day before yesterday she was as good a girl as +any in the village. She was good, and dutiful, and honest. Now what is +she and where is she?" + +"Has she--isn't she in her home?" + +"She never went home." + +"Then she did lose the money?" + +"Lose it? She has stolen it. Do you not see you have deliberately made +a thief out of an honest girl?" + +Priscilla gazed in dismay at the avenging vicar's wife. It was true +then, and she had the fatal gift of spoiling all she touched. + +"And worse than that--you have brought a good girl to ruin. He'll +never marry her now." + +"He?" + +"Do you not know the person she was engaged to has gone with her?" + +"I don't know anything." + +"They walked from here to Ullerton and went to London. Her father came +round to us yesterday after your uncle had been to him making +inquiries, and it is all as clear as day. Till your uncle told him, he +did not know about the money, and had been too--not well enough that +day to notice Emma's not having come home. Your uncle's visit sobered +him. We telegraphed to the police. They've been traced to London. +That's all. Except," and she glared at Priscilla with all the wrath of +a prophet whose denunciations have been justified, "except that one +more life is ruined." + +"I'm very sorry--very, very sorry," said Priscilla, so earnestly, so +abjectly even, that her eyes filled with tears. "I see now how +thoughtless it was of me." + +"Thoughtless!" + +"It was inexcusably thoughtless." + +"Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison again. + +"If you like, it was criminally thoughtless." + +"Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison a third time. + +"But it wasn't more than thoughtless. I'd give anything to be able to +set it right. I am most truly grieved. But isn't it a little hard to +make me responsible?" + +Mrs. Morrison stared at her as one who eyes some strange new monster. +"How amazingly selfish you are," she said at last, in tones almost of +awe. + +"Selfish?" faltered Priscilla, who began to wonder what she was not. + +"In the face of such total ruin, such utter shipwreck, to be thinking +of what is hard on you. You! Why, here you are with a safe skin, free +from the bitter anxieties and temptations poor people have to fight +with, with so much time unoccupied that you fill it up with mischief, +with more money than you know what to do with"--Priscilla pressed her +hands together--"sheltered, free from every care"--Priscilla opened +her lips but shut them again--"and there is that miserable Emma, +hopeless, branded, for ever an outcast because of you,--only because +of you, and you think of yourself and talk of its being hard." + +Priscilla looked at Mrs. Morrison, opened her mouth to say something, +shut it, opened it again, and remarked very lamely that the heart +alone knows its own bitterness. + +"Psha," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly incensed at having the Scriptures, +her own speciality, quoted at her. "I'd like to know what bitterness +yours has known, unless it's the bitterness of a bad conscience. Now +I've come here to-day"--she raised her voice to a note of warning--"to +give you a chance. To make you think, by pointing out the path you +are treading. You are young, and it is my duty to let no young person +go downhill without one warning word. You have brought much evil on +our village--why you, a stranger, should be bent on making us all +unhappy I can't imagine. You hypocritically try to pretend that what +plain people call evil is really good. But your last action, forcing +Emma Hancock to be a thief and worse, even you cannot possibly defend. +You have much on your conscience--far, far more than I should care to +have on mine. How wicked to give all that money to Mrs. Jones. Don't +you see you are tempting people who know she is defenceless to steal +it from her? Perhaps even murder her? I saved her from that--you did +not reckon with me, you see. Take my advice--leave Symford, and go +back to where you came from"--Priscilla started--"and get something to +do that will keep you fully occupied. If you don't, you'll be laying +up a wretched, perhaps a degraded future for yourself. Don't +suppose,"--her voice grew very loud--"don't suppose we are fools here +and are not all of us aware of the way you have tried to lure young +men on"--Priscilla started again--"in the hope, of course, of getting +one of them to marry you. But your intentions have been frustrated +luckily, in the one case by Providence flinging your victim on a bed +of sickness and in the other by your having altogether mistaken the +sort of young fellow you were dealing with." + +Mrs. Morrison paused for breath. This last part of her speech had been +made with an ever accumulating rage. Priscilla stood looking at her, +her eyebrows drawn down very level over her eyes. + +"My son is much too steady and conscientious, besides being too much +accustomed to first-rate society, to stoop to anything so vulgar--" + +"As myself?" inquired Priscilla. + +"As a love-affair with the first stray girl he picks up." + +"Do you mean me?" + +"He saw through your intentions, laughed at them, and calmly returned +to his studies at Cambridge." + +"I boxed his ears." + +"What?" + +"I boxed his ears." + +"You?" + +"I boxed his ears. That's why he went. He didn't go calmly. It wasn't +his studies." + +"How dare you box--oh, this is too horrible--and you stand there and +tell me so to my face?" + +"I'm afraid I must. The tone of your remarks positively demands it. +Your son's conduct positively demanded that I should box his ears. So +I did." + +"Of all the shameless--" + +"I'm afraid you're becoming like him--altogether impossible." + +"You first lure him on, and then--oh, it is shameful!" + +"Have you finished what you came for?" + +"You are the most brazen--" + +"Hush. Do be careful. Suppose my uncle were to hear you? If you've +finished won't you go?" + +"Go? I shall not go till I have said my say. I shall send the vicar to +you about Robin--such conduct is so--so infamous that I can't--I +can't--I can't--" + +"I'm sorry if it has distressed you." + +"Distressed me? You are the most--" + +"Really I think we've done, haven't we?" said Priscilla hurriedly, +dreadfully afraid lest Fritzing should come in and hear her being +called names. + +"To think that you dared--to think that my--my noble boy--" + +"He wasn't very noble. Mothers don't ever really know their sons, I +think." + +"Shameless girl!" cried Mrs. Morrison, so loud, so completely beside +herself, that Priscilla hastily rang her bell, certain that Fritzing +must hear and would plunge in to her rescue; and of all things she had +learned to dread Fritzing's plunging to her rescue. "Open the door for +this lady," she said to Annalise, who appeared with a marvellous +promptitude; and as Mrs. Morrison still stood her ground and refused +to see either Annalise or the door Priscilla ended the interview by +walking out herself, with great dignity, into the bathroom. + + + + +XXI + + +And now I have come to a part of my story that I would much rather not +write. Always my inclination if left alone is to sit in the sun and +sing of things like crocuses, of nothing less fresh and clean than +crocuses. The engaging sprightliness of crocuses; their dear little +smell, not to be smelled except by the privileged few; their luminous +transparency--I am thinking of the white and the purple; their kind +way of not keeping hearts sick for Spring waiting longer than they can +just bear; how pleasant to sit with a friend in the sun, a friend who +like myself likes to babble of green fields, and talk together about +all things flowery. But Priscilla's story has taken such a hold on me, +it seemed when first I heard it to be so full of lessons, that I feel +bound to set it down from beginning to end for the use and warning of +all persons, princesses and others, who think that by searching, by +going far afield, they will find happiness, and do not see that it is +lying all the while at their feet. They do not see it because it is so +close. It is so close that there is a danger of its being trodden on +or kicked away. And it is shy, and waits to be picked up. Priscilla, +we know, went very far afield in search of hers, and having +undertaken to tell of what befell her I must not now, only because I +would rather, suppress any portion of the story. Besides, it is a +portion vital to the catastrophe. + +In Minehead, then, there lived at this time a murderer. He had not +been found out yet and he was not a murderer by profession, for he was +a bricklayer; but in his heart he was, and that is just as bad. He had +had a varied career into the details of which I do not propose to go, +had come three or four years before to live in the West of England +because it was so far from all the other places he had lived in, had +got work in Minehead, settled there respectably, married, and was a +friend of that carrier who brought the bread and other parcels every +day to the Symford store. At this time he was in money difficulties +and his wife, of whom he was fond, was in an expensive state of +health. The accounts of Priscilla's generosity and wealth had reached +Minehead as I said some time ago, and had got even into the local +papers. The carrier was the chief transmitter of news, for he saw Mrs. +Vickerton every day and she was a woman who loved to talk; but those +of the Shuttleworth servants who were often in Minehead on divers +errands ratified and added to all he said, and embellished the tale +besides with what was to them the most interesting part, the +unmistakable signs their Augustus showed of intending to marry the +young woman. This did not interest the murderer. Sir Augustus and the +lady he meant to marry were outside his sphere altogether; too well +protected, too powerful. What he liked to hear about was the money +Priscilla had scattered among the cottagers, how much each woman had +got, whether it had been spent or not, whether she had a husband, or +grown-up children; and best of all he liked to hear about the money +Mrs. Jones had got. All the village, and therefore Mrs. Vickerton and +the carrier, knew of it, knew even the exact spot beneath the bolster +where it was kept, knew it was kept there for safety from the +depredations of the vicar's wife, knew the vicar's wife had taken away +Priscilla's first present. The carrier knew too of Mrs. Jones's age, +her weakness, her nearness to death. He remarked that such a sum +wasn't of much use to an old woman certain to die in a few days, and +that it might just as well not be hers at all for all the spending it +got. The murderer, whose reputation in Minehead was so immaculate that +not a single fly had ever dared blow on it, said kindly that no doubt +just to have it in her possession was cheering and that one should not +grudge the old their little bits of comfort; and he walked over to +Symford that night, and getting there about one o'clock murdered Mrs. +Jones. I will not enter into details. I believe it was quite simple. +He was back by six next morning with the five pounds in his pocket, +and his wife that day had meat for dinner. + +That is all I shall say about the murderer, except that he was never +found out; and nothing shall induce me to dwell upon the murder. But +what about the effect it had on Priscilla? Well, it absolutely crushed +her. + +The day before, after Mrs. Morrison's visit, she had been wretched +enough, spending most of it walking very fast, as driven spirits do, +with Fritzing for miles across the bleak and blowy moor, by turns +contrite and rebellious, one moment ready to admit she was a miserable +sinner, the next indignantly repudiating Mrs. Morrison's and her own +conscience's accusations, her soul much beaten and bent by winds of +misgiving but still on its feet, still defiant, still sheltering +itself when it could behind plain common sense which whispered at +intervals that all that had happened was only bad luck. They walked +miles that day; often in silence, sometimes in gusty talk--talk gusty +with the swift changes of Priscilla's mood scudding across the leaden +background of Fritzing's steadier despair--and they got back tired, +hungry, their clothes splashed with mud, their minds no nearer light +than when they started. She had, I say, been wretched enough; but what +was this wretchedness to that which followed? In her ignorance she +thought it the worst day she had ever had, the most tormented; and +when she went to bed she sought comfort in its very badness by telling +herself that it was over and could never come again. It could not. But +Time is prolific of surprises; and on Saturday morning Symford woke +with a shudder to the murder of Mrs. Jones. + +Now such a thing as this had not happened in that part of +Somersetshire within the memory of living man, and though Symford +shuddered it was also proud and pleased. The mixed feeling of horror, +pleasure, and pride was a thrilling one. It felt itself at once raised +to a position of lurid conspicuousness in the county, its name would +be in every mouth, the papers, perhaps even the London papers, would +talk about it. At all times, in spite of the care and guidance it had +had from the clergy and gentry, the account of a murder gave Symford +more pure pleasure than any other form of entertainment; and now here +was one, not at second-hand, not to be viewed through the cooling +medium of print and pictures, but in its midst, before its eyes, at +its very doors. Mrs. Jones went up strangely in its estimation. The +general feeling was that it was an honour to have known her. Nobody +worked that day. The school was deserted. Dinners were not cooked. +Babies shrieked uncomforted. All Symford was gathered in groups +outside Mrs. Jones's cottage, and as the day wore on and the news +spread, visitors from the neighbouring villages, from Minehead and +from Ullerton, arrived with sandwiches and swelled them. + +Priscilla saw these groups from her windows. The fatal cottage was at +the foot of the hill in full view both of her bedroom and her parlour. +Only by sitting in the bathroom would she be able to get away from it. +When the news was brought her, breathlessly, pallidly, by Annalise in +the early morning with her hot water, she refused to believe it. +Annalise knew no English and must have got hold of a horrible wrong +tale. The old lady was dead no doubt, had died quietly in her sleep as +had been expected, but what folly was all this about a murder? Yet she +sat up in bed and felt rather cold as she looked at Annalise, for +Annalise was very pallid. And then at last she had to believe it. +Annalise had had it told her from beginning to end, with the help of +signs, by the charwoman. She had learned more English in those few +crimson minutes than in the whole of the time she had been in England. +The charwoman had begun her demonstration by slowly drawing her finger +across her throat from one ear to the other, and Annalise repeated the +action for Priscilla's clearer comprehension. How Priscilla got up +that day and dressed she never knew. Once at least during the process +she stumbled back on to the bed and lay with her face on her arms, +shaken by a most desperate weeping. That fatal charity; those fatal +five-pound notes. Annalise, panic-stricken lest she who possessed so +many should be the next victim, poured out the tale of the missing +money, of the plain motive for the murder, with a convincingness, a +naked truth, that stabbed Priscilla to the heart with each clinching +word. + +"They say the old woman must have cried out--must have been awakened, +or the man would have taken the money without--" + +"Oh don't--oh leave me--" moaned Priscilla. + +She did not go downstairs that day. Every time Annalise tried to come +in she sent her away. When she was talked to of food, she felt sick. +Once she began to pace about the room, but the sight of those eager +black knots of people down the street, of policemen and other +important and official-looking persons going in and out of the +cottage, drove her back to her bed and its sheltering, world-deadening +pillow. Indeed the waters of life had gone over her head and swallowed +her up in hopeless blackness. She acknowledged herself wrong. She gave +in utterly. Every word Mrs. Morrison--a dreadful woman, yet dreadful +as she was still a thousand times better than herself--every word she +had said, every one of those bitter words at which she had been so +indignant the morning before, was true, was justified. That day +Priscilla tore the last shreds of self-satisfaction from her soul and +sat staring at it with horrified eyes as at a thing wholly repulsive, +dangerous, blighting. What was to become of her, and of poor Fritzing, +dragged down by her to an equal misery? About one o'clock she heard +Mrs. Morrison's voice below, in altercation apparently with him. At +this time she was crying again; bitter, burning tears; those scorching +tears that follow in the wake of destroyed illusions, that drop, hot +and withering, on to the fragments of what was once the guiding glory +of an ideal. She was brought so low, was so humbled, so uncertain of +herself, that she felt it would bring her peace if she might go down +to Mrs. Morrison and acknowledge all her vileness; tell her how wrong +she had been, ask her forgiveness for her rudeness, beg her for pity, +for help, for counsel. She needed some kind older woman,--oh she +needed some kind older woman to hold out cool hands of wisdom and show +her the way. But then she would have to make a complete confession of +everything she had done, and how would Mrs. Morrison or any other +decent woman look upon her flight from her father's home? Would they +not turn away shuddering from what she now saw was a hideous +selfishness and ingratitude? The altercation going on below rose +rapidly in heat. Just at the end it grew so heated that even through +the pillow Priscilla could hear its flaming conclusion. + +"Man, I tell you your niece is to all intents and purposes a +murderess, a double murderess," cried Mrs. Morrison. "Not only has she +the woman's murder to answer for, but the ruined soul of the murderer +as well." + +Upon which there was a loud shout of "Hence! Hence!" and a great +slamming of the street door. + +For some time after this Priscilla heard fevered walking about in her +parlour and sounds as of many and muffled imprecations; then, when +they had grown a little more intermittent, careful footsteps came up +her stairs, footsteps so careful, so determined not to disturb, that +the stairs cracked and wheezed more than they had ever yet been known +to do. Arrived at the top they paused outside her door, and Priscilla, +checking her sobs, could hear how Fritzing stood there wrestling with +his body's determination to breathe too loud. He stood there listening +for what seemed to her an eternity. She almost screamed at last as the +minutes passed and she knew he was still there, motionless, listening. +After a long while he went away again with the same anxious care to +make no noise, and she, with a movement of utter abandonment to woe, +turned over and cried herself sick. + +Till evening she lay there alone, and then the steps came up again, +accompanied this time by the tinkle of china and spoons. Priscilla was +sitting at the window looking on to the churchyard, staring into the +dark with its swaying branches and few faint stars, and when she heard +him outside the door listening again in anxious silence she got up and +opened it. + +Fritzing held a plate of food in one hand and a glass of milk in the +other. The expression on his face was absurdly like that of a mother +yearning over a sick child. "_Mein liebes Kind_--_mein liebes Kind_," +he stammered when she came out, so woebegone, so crushed, so utterly +unlike any Priscilla of any one of her moods that he had ever seen +before. Her eyes were red, her eyelids heavy with tears, her face was +pinched and narrower, the corners of her mouth had a most piteous +droop, her very hair, pushed back off her forehead, seemed sad, and +hung in spiritless masses about her neck and ears. "_Mein liebes +Kind_," stammered poor Fritzing; and his hand shook so that he upset +some of the milk. + +Priscilla leaned against the door-post. She was feeling sick and +giddy. "How dreadful this is," she murmured, looking at him with +weary, woeful eyes. + +"No, no--all will be well," said Fritzing, striving to be brisk. +"Drink some milk, ma'am." + +"Oh, I have been wicked." + +"Wicked?" + +Fritzing hastily put the plate and glass down on the floor, and +catching up the hand hanging limply by her side passionately kissed +it. "You are the noblest woman on earth," he said. + +"Oh," said Priscilla, turning away her head and shutting her eyes for +very weariness of such futile phrases. + +"Ma'am, you are. I would swear it. But you are also a child, and so +you are ready at the first reverse to suppose you have done with +happiness for ever. Who knows," said Fritzing with a great show of +bright belief in his own prophecy, the while his heart was a stone, +"who knows but what you are now on the very threshold of it?" + +"Oh," murmured Priscilla, too beaten to do anything but droop her +head. + +"It is insisting on the commonplace to remind you, ma'am, that the +darkest hour comes before dawn. Yet it is a well-known natural +phenomenon." + +Priscilla leaned her head against the door-post. She stood there +motionless, her hands hanging by her side, her eyes shut, her mouth +slightly open, the very picture of one who has given up. + +"Drink some milk, ma'am. At least endeavour to." + +She took no heed of him. + +"For God's sake, ma'am, do not approach these slight misadventures in +so tragic a spirit. You have done nothing wrong whatever. I know you +accuse yourself. It is madness to do so. I, who have so often scolded +you, who have never spared the lash of my tongue when in past years I +saw fair reason to apply it, I tell you now with the same reliable +candour that your actions in this village and the motives that +prompted them have been in each single case of a stainless nobility." + +She took no heed of him. + +He stooped down and picked up the glass. "Drink some milk, ma'am. A +few mouthfuls, perhaps even one, will help to clear the muddied vision +of your mind. I cannot understand," he went on, half despairing, half +exasperated, "what reasons you can possibly have for refusing to drink +some milk. It is a feat most easily accomplished." + +She did not move. + +"Do you perchance imagine that a starved and badly treated body can +ever harbour that most precious gift of the gods, a clear, sane mind?" + +She did not move. + +He looked at her in silence for a moment, then put down the glass. +"This is all my fault," he said slowly. "The whole responsibility for +this unhappiness is on my shoulders, and I frankly confess it is a +burden so grievous that I know not how to bear it." + +He paused, but she took no notice. + +"Ma'am, I have loved you." + +She took no notice. + +"And the property of love, I have observed, is often to mangle and +kill the soul of its object." + +She might have been asleep. + +"Ma'am, I have brought you to a sorry pass. I was old, and you were +young. I experienced, you ignorant. I deliberate, you impulsive. I a +man, you a woman. Instead of restraining you, guiding you, shielding +you from yourself, I was most vile, and fired you with desires for +freedom that under the peculiar circumstances were wicked, set a ball +rolling that I might have foreseen could never afterwards be stopped, +put thoughts into your head that never without me would have entered +it, embarked you on an enterprise in which the happiness of your whole +life was doomed to shipwreck." + +She stirred a little, and sighed a faint protest. + +"This is very terrible to me--of a crushing, killing weight. Let it +not also have to be said that I mangled your very soul, dimmed your +reason, impaired the sweet sanity, the nice adjustment of what I know +was once a fair and balanced mind." + +She raised her head slowly and looked at him. "What?" she said. "Do +you think--do you think I'm going mad?" + +"I think it very likely, ma'am," said Fritzing with conviction. + +A startled expression crept into her eyes. + +"So much morbid introspection," he went on, "followed by hours of +weeping and fasting, if indulged in long enough will certainly have +that result. A person who fasts a sufficient length of time invariably +parts piecemeal with valuable portions of his wits." + +She stretched out her hand. + +He mistook the action and bent down and kissed it. + +"No," said Priscilla, "I want the milk." + +He snatched it up and gave it to her, watching her drink with all the +relief, the thankfulness of a mother whose child's sickness takes a +turn for the better. When she had finished she gave him back the +glass. "Fritzi," she said, looking at him with eyes wide open now and +dark with anxious questioning, "we won't reproach ourselves then if we +can help it--" + +"Certainly not, ma'am--a most futile thing to do." + +"I'll try to believe what you say about me, if you promise to believe +what I say about you." + +"Ma'am, I'll believe anything if only you will be reasonable." + +"You've been everything to me--that's what I want to say. Always, ever +since I can remember." + +"And you, ma'am? What have you not been to me?" + +"And there's nothing, nothing you can blame yourself for." + +"Ma'am--" + +"You've been too good, too unselfish, and I've dragged you down." + +"Ma'am--" + +"Well, we won't begin again. But tell me one thing--and tell me the +truth--oh Fritzi tell me the truth as you value your soul--do you +anywhere see the least light on our future? Do you anywhere see even a +bit, a smallest bit of hope?" + +He took her hand again and kissed it; then lifted his head and looked +at her very solemnly. "No, ma'am," he said with the decision of an +unshakable conviction, "upon my immortal soul I do not see a shred." + + + + +XXII + + +Let the reader now picture Priscilla coming downstairs the next +morning, a golden Sunday morning full of Sabbath calm, and a Priscilla +leaden-eyed and leaden-souled, her shabby garments worn out to a +symbol of her worn out zeals, her face the face of one who has +forgotten peace, her eyes the eyes of one at strife with the future, +of one for ever asking "What next?" and shrinking with a shuddering +"Oh please not that," from the bald reply. + +Out of doors Nature wore her mildest, most beneficent aspect. She very +evidently cared nothing for the squalid tragedies of human fate. Her +hills were bathed in gentle light. Her sunshine lay warm along the +cottage fronts. In the gardens her hopeful bees, cheated into thoughts +of summer, droned round the pale mauves and purples of what was left +of starworts. The grass in the churchyard sparkled with the fairy film +of gossamers. Sparrows chirped. Robins whistled. And humanity gave the +last touch to the picture by ringing the church bells melodiously to +prayer. + +Without doubt it was a day of blessing, supposing any one could be +found willing to be blest. Let the reader, then, imagine this outward +serenity, this divine calmness, this fair and light-flooded world, +and within the musty walls of Creeper Cottage Priscilla coming down to +breakfast, despair in her eyes and heart. + +They breakfasted late; so late that it was done to the accompaniment, +strangely purified and beautified by the intervening church walls and +graveyard, of Mrs. Morrison's organ playing and the chanting of the +village choir. Their door stood wide open, for the street was empty. +Everybody was in church. The service was, as Mrs. Morrison afterwards +remarked, unusually well attended. The voluntaries she played that day +were Dead Marches, and the vicar preached a conscience-shattering +sermon upon the text "Lord, who is it?" + +He thought that Mrs. Jones's murderer must be one of his parishioners. +It was a painful thought, but it had to be faced. He had lived so long +shut out from gossip, so deaf to the ever-clicking tongue of rumour, +that he had forgotten how far even small scraps can travel, and that +the news of Mrs. Jones's bolster being a hiding-place for her money +should have spread beyond the village never occurred to him. He was +moved on this occasion as much as a man who has long ago given up +being moved can be, for he had had a really dreadful two days with +Mrs. Morrison, dating from the moment she came in with the news of the +boxing of their only son's ears. He had, as the reader will have +gathered, nothing of it having been recorded, refused to visit and +reprimand Priscilla for this. He had found excuses for her. He had +sided with her against his son. He had been as wholly, maddeningly +obstinate as the extremely good sometimes are. Then came Mrs. Jones's +murder. He was greatly shaken, but still refused to call upon +Priscilla in connection with it, and pooh-poohed the notion of her +being responsible for the crime as definitely as an aged saint of +habitually grave speech can be expected to pooh-pooh at all. He said +she was not responsible. He said, when his wife with all the emphasis +apparently inseparable from the conversation of those who feel +strongly, told him that he owed it to himself, to his parish, to his +country, to go and accuse her, that he owed no man anything but to +love one another. There was nothing to be done with the vicar. Still +these scenes had not left him scathless, and it was a vicar moved to +the utmost limits of his capacity in that direction who went into the +pulpit that day repeating the question "Who is it?" so insistently, so +appealingly, with such searching glances along the rows of faces in +the pews, that the congregation, shuffling and uncomfortable, looked +furtively at each other with an ever growing suspicion and dislike. +The vicar as he went on waxing warmer, more insistent, observed at +least a dozen persons with guilt on every feature. It darted out like +a toad from the hiding-place of some private ooze at the bottom of +each soul into one face after the other; and there was a certain youth +who grew so visibly in guilt, who had so many beads of an obviously +guilty perspiration on his forehead, and eyes so guiltily starting +from their sockets, that only by a violent effort of self-control +could the vicar stop himself from pointing at him and shouting out +then and there "Thou art the man!" + +Meanwhile the real murderer had hired a waggonette and was taking his +wife for a pleasant country drive. + +It was to pacify Fritzing that Priscilla came down to breakfast. Left +to herself she would by preference never have breakfasted again. She +even drank more milk to please him; but though it might please him, no +amount of milk could wash out the utter blackness of her spirit. He, +seeing her droop behind the jug, seeing her gazing drearily at nothing +in particular, jumped up and took a book from the shelves and without +more ado began to read aloud. "It is better, ma'am," he explained +briefly, glancing at her over his spectacles, "than that you should +give yourself over to gloom." + +Priscilla turned vague eyes on to him. "How can I help gloom?" she +asked. + +"Yes, yes, that may be. But nobody should be gloomy at breakfast. The +entire day is very apt, in consequence, to be curdled." + +"It will be curdled anyhow," said Priscilla, her head sinking on to +her chest. + +"Ma'am, listen to this." + +And with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, from which he took +occasional hurried bites, and the other raised in appropriate varying +gesticulation, Fritzing read portions of the Persae of Æschylus to +her, first in Greek for the joy of his own ear and then translating it +into English for the edification of hers. He, at least, was off after +the first line, sailing golden seas remote and glorious, places where +words were lovely and deeds heroic, places most beautiful and brave, +most admirably, most restfully unlike Creeper Cottage. He rolled out +the sentences, turning them on his tongue, savouring them, reluctant +to let them go. She sat looking at him, wondering how he could +possibly even for an instant forget the actual and the present. + +"'Xerxes went forth, Xerxes perished, Xerxes mismanaged all things in +the depths of the sea--'" declaimed Fritzing. + +"He must have been like us," murmured Priscilla. + +"'O for Darius the scatheless, the protector! No woman ever mourned +for deed of his--'" + +"What a nice man," sighed Priscilla. "'O for Darius!'" + +"Ma'am, if you interrupt how can I read? And it is a most beautiful +passage." + +"But we do want a Darius badly," moaned Priscilla. + +"'The ships went forth, the grey-faced ships, like to each other as +bird is to bird, the ships and all they carried perished, the ships +perished by the hand of the Greeks. The king, 'tis said, escapes, but +hardly, by the plains of Thrace and the toilsome ways, and behind him +he leaves his first-fruits--sailors unburied on the shores of Salamis. +Then grieve, sting yourselves to grief, make heaven echo, howl like +dogs for the horror, for they are battered together by the terrible +waters, they are shredded to pieces by the voiceless children of the +Pure. The house has no master--'" + +"Fritzi, I wish you'd leave off," implored Priscilla. "It's quite as +gloomy as anything I was thinking." + +"But ma'am the difference is that it is also beautiful, whereas the +gloom at present enveloping us is mere squalor. 'The voiceless +children of the Pure--' how is that, ma'am, for beauty?" + +"I don't even know what it means," sighed Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, it is an extremely beautiful manner of alluding to fish." + +"I don't care," said Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, is it possible that the blight of passing and outward +circumstance has penetrated to and settled upon what should always be +of a sublime inaccessibility, your soul?" + +"I don't care about the fish," repeated Priscilla listlessly. Then +with a sudden movement she pushed back her chair and jumped up. "Oh," +she cried, beating her hands together, "don't talk to me of fish when +I can't see an inch--oh not a single inch into the future!" + +Fritzing looked at her, his finger on the page. Half of him was still +at the bottom of classic seas with the battered and shredded sailors. +How much rather would he have stayed there, have gone on reading +Æschylus a little, have taken her with him for a brief space of +serenity into that moist refuge from the harassed present, have +forgotten at least for one morning the necessity, the dreariness of +being forced to face things, to talk over, to decide. Besides, what +could he decide? The unhappy man had no idea. Nor had Priscilla. To +stay in Symford seemed impossible, but to leave it seemed still more +so. And sooner than go back disgraced to Kunitz and fling herself at +paternal feet which would in all probability immediately spurn her, +Priscilla felt she would die. But how could she stay in Symford, +surrounded by angry neighbours, next door to Tussie, with Robin coming +back for vacations, with Mrs. Morrison hating her, with Lady +Shuttleworth hating her, with Emma's father hating her, with the blood +of Mrs. Jones on her head? Could one live peacefully in such an +accursed place? Yet how could they go away? Even if they were able to +compose their nerves sufficiently to make new plans they could not go +because they were in debt. + +"Fritzi," cried Priscilla with more passion than she had ever put into +speech before, "life's too much for me--I tell you life's too much for +me!" And with a gesture of her arms as though she would sweep it all +back, keep it from surging over her, from choking her, she ran out +into the street to get into her own room and be alone, pulling the +door to behind her for fear he should follow and want to explain and +comfort, leaving him with his Æschylus in which, happening to glance +sighing, he, enviable man, at once became again absorbed, and running +blindly, headlong, as he runs who is surrounded and accompanied by a +swarm of deadly insects which he vainly tries to out-distance, she ran +straight into somebody coming from the opposite direction, ran full +tilt, was almost knocked off her feet, and looking up with the +impatient anguish of him who is asked to endure his last straw her +lips fell apart in an utter and boundless amazement; for the person +she had run against was that Prince--the last of the series, +distinguished from the rest by his having quenched the Grand Duke's +irrelevant effervescence by the simple expedient of saying Bosh--who +had so earnestly desired to marry her. + + + + +XXIII + + +"Hullo," said the Prince, who spoke admirable English. + +Priscilla could only stare. + +His instinct was to repeat the exclamation which he felt represented +his feelings very exactly, for her appearance--clothes, expression, +everything--astonished him, but he doubted whether it would well bear +repeating. "Is this where you are staying?" he inquired instead. + +"Yes," said Priscilla. + +"May I come in?" + +"Yes," said Priscilla. + +He followed her into her parlour. He looked at her critically as she +walked slowly before him, from head to foot he looked at her +critically; at every inch of the shabby serge gown, at the little head +with its badly arranged hair, at the little heel that caught in an +unmended bit of braid, at the little shoe with its bow of frayed +ribbon, and he smiled broadly behind his moustache. But when she +turned round he was perfectly solemn. + +"I suppose," said the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets and +gazing about the room with an appearance of cheerful interest, "this +is what one calls a snug little place." + +Priscilla stood silent. She felt as though she had been shaken +abruptly out of sleep. Her face even now after the soul-rending time +she had been having, in spite of the shadows beneath the eyes, the +droop at the corners of the mouth, in spite, too, it must be said of +the flagrantly cottage fashion in which Annalise had done her hair, +seemed to the Prince so extremely beautiful, so absolutely the face of +his dearest, best desires, so limpid, apart from all grace of +colouring and happy circumstance of feature, with the light of a sweet +and noble nature, so manifestly the outward expression of an +indwelling lovely soul, that his eyes, after one glance round the +room, fixed themselves upon it and never were able to leave it again. + +For a minute or two she stood silent, trying to collect her thoughts, +trying to shake off the feeling that she was being called back to life +out of a dream. It had not been a dream, she kept telling herself--bad +though it was it had not been a dream but the reality; and this man +dropped suddenly in to the middle of it from another world, he was the +dream, part of the dream she had rebelled against and run away from a +fortnight before. + +Then she looked at him, and she knew she was putting off her soul with +nonsense. Never was anybody less like a dream than the Prince; never +was anybody more squarely, more certainly real. And he was of her own +kind, of her own world. He and she were equals. They could talk +together plainly, baldly, a talk ungarnished and unretarded by +deferences on the one side and on the other a kindness apt to become +excessive in its anxiety not to appear to condescend. The feeling that +once more after what seemed an eternity she was with an equal was of a +singular refreshment. During those few moments in which they stood +silent, facing each other, in spite of her efforts to keep it out, in +spite of really conscientious efforts, a great calm came in and spread +over her spirit. Yet she had no reason to feel calm she thought, +struggling. Was there not rather cause for an infinity of shame? What +had he come for? He of all people. The scandalously jilted, the +affronted, the run away from. Was it because she had been looking so +long at Fritzing that this man seemed so nicely groomed? Or at Tussie, +that he seemed so well put together? Or at Robin, that he seemed so +modest? Was it because people's eyes--Mrs. Morrison's, Lady +Shuttleworth's--had been so angry lately whenever they rested on her +that his seemed so very kind? No; she did remember thinking them that, +even being struck by them, when she saw him first in Kunitz. A dull +red crept into her face when she remembered that day and what +followed. "It isn't very snug," she said at last, trying to hide by a +careful coldness of speech all the strange things she was feeling. +"When it rains there are puddles by the door. The door, you see, opens +into the street." + +"I see," said the Prince. + +There was a silence. + +"I don't suppose you really do," said Priscilla, full of strange +feelings. + +"My dear cousin?" + +"I don't know if you've come to laugh at me?" + +"Do I look as if I had?" + +"I dare say you think--because you've not been through it +yourself--that it--it's rather ridiculous." + +"My dear cousin," protested the Prince. + +Her lips quivered. She had gone through much, and she had lived for +two days only on milk. + +"Do you wipe the puddles up, or does old Fritzing?" + +"You see you _have_ come to laugh." + +"I hope you'll believe that I've not. Must I be gloomy?" + +"How do you know Fritzing's here?" + +"Why everybody knows that." + +"Everybody?" There was an astonished pause. "How do you know we're +here--here, in Creeper Cottage?" + +"Creeper Cottage is it? I didn't know it had a name. Do you have so +many earwigs?" + +"How did you know we were in Symford?" + +"Why everybody knows that." + +Priscilla was silent. Again she felt she was being awakened from a +dream. + +"I've met quite a lot of interesting people since I saw you last," he +said. "At least, they interested me because they all knew you." + +"Knew me?" + +"Knew you and that old scound--the excellent Fritzing. There's an +extremely pleasant policeman, for instance, in Kunitz--" + +"Oh," said Priscilla, starting and turning red. She could not think of +that policeman without crisping her fingers. + +"He and I are intimate friends. And there's a most intelligent +person--really a most helpful, obliging person--who came with you from +Dover to Ullerton." + +"With us?" + +"I found the conversation, too, of the ostler at the Ullerton Arms of +immense interest." + +"But what--" + +"And last night I slept at Baker's Farm, and spent a very pleasant +evening with Mrs. Pearce." + +"But why--" + +"She's an instructive woman. Her weakest point, I should say, is her +junkets." + +"I wonder why you bother to talk like this--to be sarcastic." + +"About the junkets? Didn't you think they were bad?" + +"Do you suppose it's worth while to--to kick somebody who's down? And +so low down? So completely got to the bottom?" + +"Kick? On my soul I assure you that the very last thing I want to do +is to kick you." + +"Then why do you do it?" + +"I don't do it. Do you know what I've come for?" + +"Is my father round the corner?" + +"Nobody's round the corner. I've muzzled your father. I've come quite +by myself. And do you know why?" + +"No," said Priscilla, shortly, defiantly; adding before he could +speak, "I can't imagine." And adding to that, again before he could +speak, "Unless it's for the fun of hunting down a defenceless quarry." + +"I say, that's rather picturesque," said the Prince with every +appearance of being struck. + +Priscilla blushed. In spite of herself every word they said to each +other made her feel more natural, farther away from self-torment and +sordid fears, nearer to that healthy state of mind, swamped out of her +lately, when petulance comes more easily than meekness. The mere +presence of the Prince seemed to set things right, to raise her again +in her own esteem. There was undoubtedly something wholesome about the +man, something everyday and reassuring, something dependable and sane. +The first smile for I don't know how long came and cheered the corners +of her mouth. "I'm afraid I've grown magniloquent since--since--" + +"Since you ran away?" + +She nodded. "Fritzing, you know, is most persistently picturesque. I +think it's catching. But he's wonderful," she added quickly,--"most +wonderful in patience and goodness." + +"Oh everybody knows he's wonderful. Where is the great man?" + +"In the next room. Do you want him?" + +"Good Lord, no. You've not told me what you suppose I've come for." + +"I did. I told you I couldn't imagine." + +"It's for a most saintly, really nice reason. Guess." + +"I can't guess." + +"Oh but try." + +Priscilla to her extreme disgust felt herself turning very red. "I +suppose to spy out the nakedness of the land," she said severely. + +"Now you're picturesque again. You must have been reading a tremendous +lot lately. Of course you would, with that learned old fossil about. +No my dear, I've come simply to see if you are happy." + +She looked at him, and her flush slowly died away. + +"Simply to convince myself that you are happy." + +Her eyes filling with tears she thought it more expedient to fix them +on the table-cloth. She did fix them on it, and the golden fringe of +eyelashes that he very rightly thought so beautiful lay in long dusky +curves on her serious face. "It's extraordinarily nice of you if--if +it's true," she said. + +"But it is true. And if you are, if you tell me you are and I'm able +to believe it, I bow myself out, dear cousin, and shall devote any +energies I have left after doing that to going on muzzling your +father. He shall not, I promise you, in any way disturb you. Haven't +I kept him well in hand up to this?" + +She raised her eyes to his. "Was it you keeping him so quiet?" + +"It was, my dear. He was very restive. You've no notion of all the +things he wanted to do. It wanted a pretty strong hand, and a light +one too, I can tell you. But I was determined you should have your +head. That woman Disthal--" + +Priscilla started. + +"You don't like her?" inquired the Prince sympathetically. + +"No." + +"I was afraid you couldn't. But I didn't know how to manage that part. +She's in London." + +Priscilla started again. "I thought--I thought she was in bed," she +said. + +"She was, but she got out again. Your--departure cured her." + +"Didn't you tell me nobody was round the corner?" + +"Well, you don't call London round the corner? I wouldn't let her come +any nearer to you. She's waiting there quite quietly." + +"What is she waiting for?" asked Priscilla quickly. + +"Come now, she's your lady in waiting you know. It seems natural +enough she should wait, don't it?" + +"No," said Priscilla, knitting her eyebrows. + +"Don't frown. She had to come too. She's brought some of your women +and a whole lot"--he glanced at the blue serge suit and put his hand +up to his moustache--"a whole lot of clothes." + +"Clothes?" A wave of colour flooded her face. She could not help it at +the moment any more than a starving man can help looking eager when +food is set before him. "Oh," she said, "I hope they're the ones I was +expecting from Paris?" + +"I should think it very likely. There seem to be a great many. I never +saw so many boxes for one little cousin." + +Priscilla made a sudden movement with her hands. "You can't think," +she said, "how tired I am of this dress." + +"Yes I can," the Prince assured her. + +"I've worn it every day." + +"You must have." + +"Every single day since the day I--I--" + +"The day you ran away from me." + +She blushed. "I didn't run away from you. At least, not exactly. You +were only the last straw." + +"A nice thing for a man to be." + +"I ran because--because--oh, it's a long story, and I'm afraid a very +foolish one." + +A gleam came into the Prince's eyes. He took a step nearer her, but +immediately thinking better of it took it back again. "Perhaps," he +said pleasantly, "only the beginning was foolish, and you'll settle +down after a bit and get quite fond of Creeper Cottage." + +She looked at him startled. + +"You see my dear it was rather tremendous what you did. You must have +been most fearfully sick of things at Kunitz. I can well understand +it. You couldn't be expected to like me all at once. And if I had to +have that Disthal woman at my heels wherever I went I'd shoot myself. +What you've done is much braver really than shooting one's self. But +the question is do you like it as much as you thought you would?" + +Priscilla gave him a swift look, and said nothing. + +"If you don't, there's the Disthal waiting for you with all those +charming frocks, and all you've got to do is to put them on and go +home." + +"But I can't go home. How can I? I am disgraced. My father would never +let me in." + +"Oh I'd arrange all that. I don't think you'd find him angry if you +followed my advice very carefully. On the other hand, if you like +this and want to stay on there's nothing more to be said. I'll say +good-bye, and promise you shall be left in peace. You shall be left to +be happy entirely in your own way." + +Priscilla was silent. + +"You don't--look happy," he said, scrutinizing her face. + +She was silent. + +"You've got very thin. How did you manage that in such a little +while?" + +"We've muddled things rather," she said with an ashamed sort of smile. +"On the days when I was hungry there wasn't anything to eat, and then +when there were things I wasn't hungry." + +The Prince looked puzzled. "Didn't that old scamp--I mean didn't the +excellent Fritzing bring enough money?" + +"He thought he did, but it wasn't enough." + +"Is it all gone?" + +"We're in debt." + +Again he put his hand up to his moustache. "Well I'll see to all that, +of course," he said gravely. "And when that has been set right you're +sure you'll like staying on here?" + +She summoned all her courage, and looked at him for an instant +straight in the face. "No," she said. + +"No?" + +"No." + +There was another silence. He was standing on the hearthrug, she on +the other side of the table; but the room was so small that by putting +out his hand he could have touched her. A queer expression was in his +eyes as he looked at her, an expression entirely at variance with his +calm and good-natured talk, the exceedingly anxious expression of a +man who knows his whole happiness is quivering in the balance. She did +not see it, for she preferred to look at the table-cloth. + +"Dreadful things have happened here," she said in a low voice. + +"What sort?" + +"Horrid sorts. Appalling sorts." + +"Tell me." + +"I couldn't bear to." + +"But I think I know." + +She looked at him astonished. + +"Mrs. Pearce--" + +"She told you?" + +"What she knew she told me. Perhaps there's something she doesn't +know." + +Priscilla remembered Robin, and blushed. + +"Yes, she told me about that," said the Prince nodding. + +"About what?" asked Priscilla, startled. + +"About the squire intending to marry you." + +"Oh," said Priscilla. + +"It seems hard on him, don't it? Has it struck you that such things +are likely to occur pretty often to Miss Maria-Theresa Ethel +Neumann-Schultz?" + +"I'm afraid you really have come only to laugh," said Priscilla, her +lips quivering. + +"I swear it's only to see if you are happy." + +"Well, see then." And throwing back her head with a great defiance she +looked at him while her eyes filled with tears; and though they +presently brimmed over, and began to drop down pitifully one by one, +she would not flinch but went on looking. + +"I see," said the Prince quietly. "And I'm convinced. Of course, then, +I shall suggest your leaving this." + +"I want to." + +"And putting yourself in the care of the Disthal." + +Priscilla winced. + +"Only her temporary care. Quite temporary. And letting her take you +back to Kunitz." + +Priscilla winced again. + +"Only temporarily," said the Prince. + +"But my father would never--" + +"Yes my dear, he will. He'll be delighted to see you. He'll rejoice." + +"Rejoice?" + +"I assure you he will. You've only got to do what I tell you." + +"Shall you--come too?" + +"If you'll let me." + +"But then--but then--" + +"Then what, my dear?" + +She looked at him, and her face changed slowly from white to red and +red to white again. Fritzing's words crossed her mind--"If you marry +him you will be undoubtedly eternally lost," and her very soul cried +out that they were folly. Why should she be eternally lost? What +cobwebs were these, cobwebs of an old brain preoccupied with shadows, +dusty things to be swept away at the first touch of Nature's vigorous +broom? Indeed she thought it far more likely that she would be +eternally found. But she was ashamed of herself, ashamed of all she +had done, ashamed of the disgraceful way she had treated this man, +terribly disillusioned, terribly out of conceit with herself, and she +stood there changing colour, hanging her head, humbled, penitent, +every shred of the dignity she had been trained to gone, simply +somebody who has been very silly and is very sorry. + +The Prince put out his hand. + +She pretended not to see it. + +The Prince came round the table. "You know," he said, "our engagement +hasn't been broken off yet?" + +Her instinct was to edge away, but she would not stoop to edging. "Was +it ever made?" she asked, not able to induce her voice to rise above a +whisper. + +"Practically." + +There was another silence. + +"Why, then--" began Priscilla, for the silence had come to be more +throbbing, more intolerably expressive than any speech. + +"Yes?" encouraged the Prince, coming very close. + +She turned her head slowly. "Why, then--" said Priscilla again, her +face breaking into a smile, half touched, half mischievous, wholly +adorable. + +"I think so too," said the Prince; and he shut her mouth with a kiss. + + * * * * * + +"And now," said the Prince some time afterwards, "let us go to that +old sinner Fritzing." + +Priscilla hung back, reluctant to deal this final blow to the heart +that had endured so many. "He'll be terribly shocked," she said. + +But the Prince declared it had to be done; and hand in hand they went +out into the street, and opening Fritzing's door stood before him. + +He was still absorbed in his Æschylus, had been sitting absorbed in +the deeds of the dead and departed, of the long dead Xerxes, the long +dead Darius, the very fish, voiceless but voracious, long since as +dead as the most shredded of the sailors,--he had been sitting +absorbed in these various corpses all the while that in the next room, +on the other side of a few inches of plaster and paper, so close you +would have thought his heart must have burned within him, so close you +would have thought he must be scorched, the living present had been +pulsing and glowing, beating against the bright bars of the future, +stirring up into alertness a whole row of little red-headed souls till +then asleep, souls with golden eyelashes, souls eager to come and be +princes and princesses of--I had almost revealed the mighty nation's +name. A shadow fell across his book, and looking up he saw the two +standing before him hand in hand. + +Priscilla caught her breath: what white anguish was going to flash +into his face when he grasped the situation? Judge then of her +amazement, her hesitation whether to be pleased or vexed, to laugh or +cry, when, grasping it, he leaped to his feet and in tones of a most +limitless, a most unutterable relief, shouted three times running +"_Gott sei Dank_!" + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +So that was the end of Priscilla's fortnight,--according to the way +you look at it glorious or inglorious. I shall not say which I think +it was; whether it is better to marry a prince, become in course of +time a queen, be at the head of a great nation, be surfeited with +honour, wealth, power and magnificence till the day when Death with +calm, indifferent fingers strips everything away and leaves you at +last to the meek simplicity of a shroud; or whether toilsome paths, +stern resistances, buffetings bravely taken, battles fought inch by +inch, an ideal desperately clung to even though in clinging you are +slain, is not rather the part to be chosen of him whose soul would sit +attired with stars. Anyhow the goddess laughed, the goddess who had +left Priscilla in the lurch, when she heard the end of the adventure; +and her unpleasant sister, having nothing more to do in Creeper +Cottage, gathered up her rags and grinned too as she left it. At least +her claws had lacerated much over-tender flesh during her stay; and +though the Prince had interrupted the operation and forced her for the +moment to inactivity, she was not dissatisfied with what had been +accomplished. + +Priscilla, it will readily be imagined, made no farewell calls. She +disappeared from Symford as suddenly as she had appeared; and Mrs. +Morrison, coming into Creeper Cottage on Monday afternoon to unload +her conscience yet more, found only a pleasant gentleman, a stranger +of mellifluous manners, writing out cheques. She had ten minutes talk +with him, and went home very sad and wise. Indeed from that day, her +spirit being the spirit of the true snob, the hectorer of the humble, +the devout groveller in the courtyards of the great, she was a +much-changed woman. Even her hair felt it, and settled down unchecked +to greyness. She no longer cared to put on a pink tulle bow in the +afternoons, which may or may not be a sign of grace. She ceased to +suppose that she was pretty. When the accounts of Priscilla's wedding +filled all the papers she became so ill that she had to go to bed and +be nursed. Sometimes to the vicar's mild surprise she hesitated before +expressing an opinion. Once at least she of her own accord said +she had been wrong. And although she never told any one of the +conversation with the gentleman writing cheques, when Robin came home +for Christmas and looked at her he knew at once what she knew. + +As for Lady Shuttleworth, she got a letter from Priscilla; quite a +long one, enclosing a little one for Tussie to be given him if and +when his mother thought expedient. Lady Shuttleworth was not surprised +by what she read. She had suspected it from the moment Priscilla rose +up the day she called on her at Baker's Farm and dismissed her. Till +her marriage with the late Sir Augustus she had been lady-in-waiting +to one of the English princesses, and she could not be mistaken on +such points. She knew the sort of thing too well. But she never +forgave Priscilla. How could she? Was the day of Tussie's coming of +age, that dreadful day when he was nearest death, a day a mother could +ever forget? It had all been most wanton, most cruel. We know she was +full of the milk of human kindness: on the subject of Priscilla it was +unmixed gall. + +As for Tussie,--well, you cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs, +and Tussie on this occasion was the eggs. It is a painful part to +play. He found it exquisitely painful, and vainly sought comfort in +the consolation that it had been Priscilla's omelette. The consolation +proved empty, and for a long while he suffered every sort of torment +known to the sensitive. But he got over it. People do. They will get +over anything if you give them time, and he being young had plenty of +it. He lived it down as one lives down every sorrow and every joy; and +when in the fulness of time, after a series of years in which he went +about listlessly in a soft felt hat and an unsatisfactory collar, he +married, it was to Priscilla's capital that he went for his honeymoon. +She, hearing he was there, sent for them both and was kind. + +As for Annalise, she never got her twenty thousand marks. On the +contrary, the vindictive Grand Duke caused her to be prosecuted for +blackmailing, and she would undoubtedly have languished in prison if +Priscilla had not interfered and sent her back to her parents. Like +Mrs. Morrison, she is chastened. She does not turn up her nose so +much. She does not sing. Indeed her songs ceased from the moment she +caught sight through a crack in the kitchen door of the Prince's broad +shoulders filling up Fritzing's sitting-room. From that moment +Annalise swooned from one depth of respect and awe to the other. She +became breathlessly willing, meek to vanishing point. But Priscilla +could not forget all she had made her suffer; and the Prince, who had +thought of everything, suddenly producing her head woman from some +recess in Baker's Farm, where she too had spent the night, Annalise +was superseded, her further bitter fate being to be left behind +at Creeper Cottage in the charge of the gentleman with the +cheque-book--who as it chanced was a faddist in food and would allow +nothing more comforting than dried fruits and nuts to darken the +doors--till he should have leisure to pack her up and send her home. + +As for Emma, she was hunted out by that detective who travelled down +into Somersetshire with the fugitives and who had already been so +useful to the Prince; and Priscilla, desperately anxious to make +amends wherever she could, took her into her own household, watching +over her herself, seeing to it that no word of what she had done was +ever blown about among the crowd of idle tongues, and she ended, I +believe, by marrying a lacquey,--one of those splendid persons with +white silk calves who were so precious in the sight of Annalise. +Indeed I am not sure that it was not the very lacquey Annalise had +loved most and had intended to marry herself. In this story at least, +the claims of poetic justice shall be strictly attended to; and +Annalise had sniffed outrageously at Emma. + +As for the Countess Disthal, she married the doctor and was sorry ever +afterwards; but her sorrow was as nothing compared with his. + +As for Fritzing, he is _Hofbibliothekar_ of the Prince's father's +court library; a court more brilliant than and a library vastly +inferior to the one he had fled from at Kunitz. He keeps much in his +rooms, and communes almost exclusively with the dead. He finds the +dead alone truly satisfactory. Priscilla loves him still and will +always love him, but she is very busy and has little time to think. +She does not let him give her children lessons; instead he plays with +them, and grows old and patient apace. + +And now having finished my story, there is nothing left for me to +do but stand aside and watch Priscilla and her husband walking +hand-in-hand farther and farther away from me up a path which I +suppose is the path of glory, into something apparently golden and +rosy, something very glowing and full of promise, that turns out on +closer scrutiny to be their future. It certainly seems radiant enough +to the superficial observer. Even I, who have looked into her soul +and known its hungers, am a little dazzled. Let it not however be +imagined that a person who has been truthful so long as myself is +going to lapse into easy lies at the last, and pretend that she was +uninterruptedly satisfied and happy for the rest of her days. She was +not; but then who is? + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT*** + + +******* This file should be named 13141-8.txt or 13141-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/4/13141 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight</p> +<p>Author: Elizabeth von Arnim</p> +<p>Release Date: August 8, 2004 [eBook #13141]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT***</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>E-text prepared by Cally Soukup, Janet Kegg,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3> +<br> +<br> +<center> +<table border=0 bgcolor="ccccff" cellpadding=10 width="70%"> + <tr> + <td> + <center> + Editorial Note + </center> + We now know that "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" was + written by Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941). Born Mary + Annette Beauchamp in Australia, she grew up in England + and married a German, Count Henning August von + Arnim-Schlagenthin. After the couple moved to his country + estate she began writing children's books. Many of her + early books were published "By the Author of 'Elizabeth + and Her German Garden'," and later she published as + simply "Elizabeth." + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE</h2> +<h1> PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S </h1> +<h1> FORTNIGHT </h1> + +<br> + +<h3>BY THE AUTHOR OF</h3> +<h3>"ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN"</h3> +<br> +<p class="note"> + "Oft habe ich die Welt durchwandert, und habe immer + gesehen, wie das Grosse am Kleinlichen scheitert, und das + Edle von dem ätzenden Gift des Alltäglichen zerfressen wird." +</p> +<p class="ar"> F<small>RITZING</small>, "Erlebtes und Erlittenes." +</p> +<br> +<h5>1905</h5> + +<hr> + +<p class="toc">C<small>HAPTERS</small><br> <a href="#2H_4_0001"> +I +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0002"> +II +</a>, +<a href="#2H_4_0003"> +III +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0004"> +IV +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0005"> +V +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0006"> +VI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0007"> +VII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0008"> +VIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0009"> +IX +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0010"> +X +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0011"> +XI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0012"> +XII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0013"> +XIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0014"> +XIV +</a>,<br> + <a href="#2H_4_0015"> +XV +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0016"> +XVI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0017"> +XVII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0018"> +XVIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0019"> +XIX +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0020"> +XX +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0021"> +XXI +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0022"> +XXII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_4_0023"> +XXIII +</a>, + <a href="#2H_CONC"> +<small>CONCLUSION</small> +</a> +<hr> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT +</h2> +<br> +<h2> + I +</h2> +<p> + Her Grand Ducal Highness the Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz was + up to the age of twenty-one a most promising young lady. She was not + only poetic in appearance beyond the habit of princesses but she was + also of graceful and appropriate behaviour. She did what she was told; + or, more valuable, she did what was expected of her without being + told. Her father, in his youth and middle age a fiery man, now an + irritable old gentleman who liked good food and insisted on strictest + etiquette, was proud of her on those occasions when she happened to + cross his mind. Her mother, by birth an English princess of an + originality uncomfortable and unexpected in a royal lady that + continued to the end of her life to crop up at disconcerting moments, + died when Priscilla was sixteen. Her sisters, one older and one + younger than herself, were both far less pleasing to look upon than + she was, and much more difficult to manage; yet each married a + suitable prince and each became a credit to her House, while as for + Priscilla,—well, as for Priscilla, I propose to describe her dreadful + conduct. +</p> +<p> + But first her appearance. She was well above the average height of + woman; a desirable thing in a princess, who, before everything, must + impress the public with her dignity. She had a long pointed chin, and + a sweet mouth with full lips that looked most kind. Her nose was not + quite straight, one side of it being the least bit different from the + other,—a slight crookedness that gave her face a charm absolutely + beyond the reach of those whose features are what is known as + chiselled. Her skin was of that fairness that freckles readily in hot + summers or on winter days when the sun shines brightly on the snow, a + delicate soft skin that is seen sometimes with golden eyelashes and + eyebrows, and hair that is more red than gold. Priscilla had these + eyelashes and eyebrows and this hair, and she had besides beautiful + grey-blue eyes—calm pools of thought, the court poet called them, + when her having a birthday compelled him to official raptures; and + because everybody felt sure they were not really anything of the kind + the poet's utterance was received with acclamations. Indeed, a + princess who should possess such pools would be most undesirable—in + Lothen-Kunitz nothing short of a calamity; for had they not had one + already? It was what had been the matter with the deceased Grand + Duchess; she would think, and no one could stop her, and her life in + consequence was a burden to herself and to everybody else at her + court. Priscilla, however, was very silent. She had never expressed an + opinion, and the inference was that she had no opinion to express. She + had not criticized, she had not argued, she had been tractable, + obedient, meek. Yet her sisters, who had often criticized and argued, + and who had rarely been obedient and never meek, became as I have said + the wives of appropriate princes, while Priscilla,—well, he who runs + may read what it was that Priscilla became. +</p> +<p> + But first as to where she lived. The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz lies + in the south of Europe; that smiling region of fruitful plains, + forest-clothed hills, and broad rivers. It is one of the first places + Spring stops at on her way up from Italy; and Autumn, coming down from + the north sunburnt, fruit-laden, and blest, goes slowly when she + reaches it, lingering there with her serenity and ripeness, her calm + skies and her windless days long after the Saxons and Prussians have + lit their stoves and got out their furs. There figs can be eaten off + the trees in one's garden, and vineyards glow on the hillsides. There + the people are Catholics, and the Protestant pastor casts no shadow of + a black gown across life. There as you walk along the white roads, you + pass the image of the dead Christ by the wayside; mute reminder to + those who would otherwise forget of the beauty of pitifulness and + love. And there, so near is Kunitz to the soul of things, you may any + morning get into the train after breakfast and in the afternoon find + yourself drinking coffee in the cool colonnades of the Piazza San + Marco at Venice. +</p> +<p> + Kunitz is the capital of the duchy, and the palace is built on a hill. + It is one of those piled-up buildings of many windows and turrets and + battlements on which the tourist gazes from below as at the + realization of a childhood's dream. A branch of the river Loth winds + round the base of the hill, separating the ducal family from the + red-roofed town along its other bank. Kunitz stretches right round the + hill, lying clasped about its castle like a necklet of ancient stones. + At the foot of the castle walls the ducal orchards and kitchen gardens + begin, continuing down to the water's edge and clothing the base of + the hill in a garment of blossom and fruit. No fairer sight is to be + seen than the glimpse of these grey walls and turrets rising out of a + cloud of blossom to be had by him who shall stand in the market place + of Kunitz and look eastward up the narrow street on a May morning; and + if he who gazes is a dreamer he could easily imagine that where the + setting of life is so lovely its days must of necessity be each like a + jewel, of perfect brightness and beauty. +</p> +<p> + The Princess Priscilla, however, knew better. To her unfortunately the + life within the walls seemed of a quite blatant vulgarity; pervaded by + lacqueys, by officials of every kind and degree, by too much food, too + many clothes, by waste, by a feverish frittering away of time, by a + hideous want of privacy, by a dreariness unutterable. To her it was a + perpetual behaving according to the ideas officials had formed as to + the conduct to be expected of princesses, a perpetual pretending not + to see that the service offered was sheerest lip-service, a perpetual + shutting of the eyes to hypocrisy and grasping selfishness. Conceive, + you tourist full of illusions standing free down there in the market + place, the frightfulness of never being alone a moment from the time + you get out of bed to the time you get into it again. Conceive the + deadly patience needed to stand passive and be talked to, amused, + taken care of, all day long for years. Conceive the intolerableness, + if you are at all sensitive, of being watched by eyes so sharp and + prying, so eager to note the least change of expression and to use the + conclusions drawn for personal ends that nothing, absolutely nothing, + escapes them. Priscilla's sisters took all these things as a matter of + course, did not care in the least how keenly they were watched and + talked over, never wanted to be alone, liked being fussed over by + their ladies-in-waiting. They, happy girls, had thick skins. But + Priscilla was a dreamer of dreams, a poet who never wrote poems, but + whose soul though inarticulate was none the less saturated with the + desires and loves from which poems are born. She, like her sisters, + had actually known no other states; but then she dreamed of them + continuously, she desired them continuously, she read of them + continuously; and though there was only one person who knew she did + these things I suppose one person is enough in the way of + encouragement if your mind is bent on rebellion. This old person, + cause of all the mischief that followed, for without his help + I do not see what Priscilla could have done, was the ducal + librarian—<i>Hofbibliothekar</i>, head, and practically master of the + wonderful collection of books and manuscripts whose mere catalogue + made learned mouths in distant parts of Europe water and learned lungs + sigh in hopeless envy. He too had officials under him, but they were + unlike the others: meek youths, studious and short-sighted, whose + business as far as Priscilla could see was to bow themselves out + silently whenever she and her lady-in-waiting came in. The librarian's + name was Fritzing; plain Herr Fritzing originally, but gradually by + various stages at last arrived at the dignity and sonorousness of Herr + Geheimarchivrath Fritzing. The Grand Duke indeed had proposed to + ennoble him after he had successfully taught Priscilla English + grammar, but Fritzing, whose spirit dwelt among the Greeks, could not + be brought to see any desirability in such a step. Priscilla called + him Fritzi when her lady-in-waiting dozed; dearest Fritzi sometimes + even, in the heat of protest or persuasion. But afterwards, leaving + the room as solemnly as she had come in, followed by her wide-awake + attendant, she would nod a formally gracious "Good afternoon, Herr + Geheimrath," for all the world as though she had been talking that way + the whole time. The Countess (her lady-in-waiting was the Countess + Irmgard von Disthal, an ample slow lady, the unmarried daughter of a + noble house, about fifty at this time, and luckily—or unluckily—for + Priscilla, a great lover of much food and its resultant deep slumbers) + would bow in her turn in as stately a manner as her bulk permitted, + and with a frigidity so pronounced that in any one less skilled in + shades of deportment it would have resembled with a singular + completeness a sniff of scorn. Her frigidity was perfectly justified. + Was she not a <i>hochgeboren</i>, a member of an ancient house, of luminous + pedigree as far back as one could possibly see? And was he not the son + of an obscure Westphalian farmer, a person who in his youth had sat + barefoot watching pigs? It is true he had learning, and culture, and a + big head with plenty of brains in it, and the Countess Disthal had a + small head, hardly any brains, no soul to speak of, and no education. + This, I say, is true; but it is also neither here nor there. The + Countess was the Countess, and Fritzing was a nobody, and the + condescension she showed him was far more grand ducal than anything in + that way that Priscilla could or ever did produce. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, unusually gifted, and enterprising from the first—which + explains the gulf between pig-watching and <i>Hofbibliothekar</i>—had + spent ten years in Paris and twenty in England in various capacities, + but always climbing higher in the world of intellect, and had come + during this climbing to speak English quite as well as most + Englishmen, if in a statelier, Johnsonian manner. At fifty he began + his career in Kunitz, and being a lover of children took over the + English education of the three princesses; and now that they had long + since learned all they cared to know, and in Priscilla's case all of + grammar at least that he had to teach, he invented a talent for + drawing in Priscilla, who could not draw a straight line, much less a + curved one, so that she should still be able to come to the library as + often as she chose on the pretext of taking a drawing-lesson. The + Grand Duke's idea about his daughters was that they should know a + little of everything and nothing too well; and if Priscilla had said + she wanted to study Shakespeare with the librarian he would have + angrily forbidden it. Had she not had ten years for studying + Shakespeare? To go on longer than that would mean that she was eager, + and the Grand Duke loathed an eager woman. +</p> +<p> + But he had nothing to say against a little drawing; and it was during + the drawing-lessons of the summer Priscilla was twenty-one that the + Countess Disthal slept so peacefully. The summer was hot, and the vast + room cool and quiet. The time was three o'clock—immediately, that is, + after luncheon. Through the narrow open windows sweet airs and scents + came in from the bright world outside. Sometimes a bee would wander up + from the fruit-gardens below, and lazily drone round shady corners. + Sometimes a flock of pigeons rose swiftly in front of the windows, + with a flash of shining wings. Every quarter of an hour the cathedral + clock down in the town sent up its slow chime. Voices of people + boating on the river floated up too, softened to melodiousness. Down + at the foot of the hill the red roofs of the town glistened in the + sun. Beyond them lay the sweltering cornfields. Beyond them forests + and villages. Beyond them a blue line of hills. Beyond them, said + Priscilla to herself, freedom. She sat in her white dress at a table + in one of the deep windows, her head on its long slender neck, where + the little rings of red-gold hair curled so prettily, bent over the + drawing-board, her voice murmuring ceaselessly, for time was short and + she had a great many things to say. At her side sat Fritzing, + listening and answering. Far away in the coolest, shadiest corner of + the room slumbered the Countess. She was lulled by the murmured talk + as sweetly as by the drone of the bee. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness receives many criticisms and much advice on + the subject of drawing from the Herr Geheimrath?" she said one day, + after a lesson during which she had been drowsily aware of much talk. +</p> +<p> + "The Herr Geheimrath is most conscientious," said Priscilla in the + stately, it-has-nothing-to-do-with-you sort of tone she found most + effectual with the Countess; but she added a request under her breath + that the <i>lieber Gott</i> might forgive her, for she knew she had told a + fib. +</p> +<p> + Indeed, the last thing that Fritzing was at this convulsed period of + his life was what his master would have called conscientious. Was he + not encouraging the strangest, wickedest, wildest ideas in the + Princess? Strange and wicked and wild that is from the grand ducal + point of view, for to Priscilla they seemed all sweetness and light. + Fritzing had a perfect horror of the Grand Duke. He was everything + that Fritzing, lean man of learning, most detested. The pleasantest + fashion of describing the Grand Duke will be simply to say that he was + in all things, both of mind and body, the exact opposite of Fritzing. + Fritzing was a man who spent his time ignoring his body and digging + away at his mind. You know the bony aspect of such men. Hardly ever is + there much flesh on them; and though they are often ugly enough, their + spirit blazes at you out of wonderful eyes. I call him old Fritzing, + for he was sixty. To me he seemed old; to Priscilla at twenty he + seemed coeval with pyramids and kindred hoarinesses; while to all + those persons who were sixty-one he did not seem old at all. Only two + things could have kept this restless soul chained to the service of + the Grand Duke, and those two things were the unique library and + Priscilla. For the rest, his life at Kunitz revolted him. He loathed + the etiquette and the fuss and the intrigues of the castle. He loathed + each separate lady-in-waiting, and every one of the male officials. He + loathed the vulgar abundance and inordinate length and frequency of + the meals, when down in the town he knew there were people a-hungered. + He loathed the lacqueys with a quite peculiar loathing, scowling at + them from under angry eyebrows as he passed from his apartment to the + library; yet such is the power of an independent and scornful spirit + that though they had heard all about Westphalia and the pig-days never + once had they, who made insolence their study, dared be rude to him. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla wanted to run away. This, I believe, is considered an awful + thing to do even if you are only a housemaid or somebody's wife. If it + were not considered awful, placed by the world high up on its list of + Utter Unforgivablenesses, there is, I suppose, not a woman who would + not at some time or other have run. She might come back, but she would + surely have gone. So bad is it held to be that even a housemaid who + runs is unfailingly pursued by maledictions more or less definite + according to the education of those she has run from; and a wife who + runs is pursued by social ruin, it being taken for granted that she + did not run alone. I know at least two wives who did run alone. Far + from wanting yet another burden added to them by adding to their lives + yet another man, they were anxiously endeavouring to get as far as + might be from the man they had got already. The world, foul hag with + the downcast eyes and lascivious lips, could not believe it possible, + and was quick to draw its dark mantle of disgrace over their shrinking + heads. One of them, unable to bear this, asked her husband's pardon. + She was a weak spirit, and now lives prostrate days, crushed beneath + the unchanging horror of a husband's free forgiveness. The other took + a cottage and laughed at the world. Was she not happy at last, and + happy in the right way? I go to see her sometimes, and we eat the + cabbages she has grown herself. Strange how the disillusioned find + their peace in cabbages. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla, then, wanted to run away. What is awful in a housemaid and + in anybody's wife became in her case stupendous. The spirit that could + resolve it, decide to do it without being dragged to it by such things + as love or passion, calmly looking the risks and losses in the face, + and daring everything to free itself, was, it must be conceded, at + least worthy of respect. Fritzing thought it worthy of adoration; the + divinest spirit that had ever burned within a woman. He did not + say so. On the contrary, he was frightened, and tried angrily, + passionately, to dissuade. Yet he knew that if she wavered he would + never forgive her; she would drop at once from her high estate into + those depths in his opinion where the dull average of both sexes + sprawled for ever in indiscriminate heaps. Priscilla never dreamed of + wavering. She, most poetic of princesses, made apparently of ivory and + amber, outwardly so cool and serene and gentle, was inwardly on fire. + The fire, I should add, burnt with a very white flame. Nothing in + the shape of a young man had ever had the stoking of it. It was + that whitest of flames that leaps highest at the thought of + abstractions—freedom, beauty of life, simplicity, and the rest. This, + I would remark, is a most rare light to find burning in a woman's + breast. What she was, however, Fritzing had made her. True the + material had been extraordinarily good, and for ten years he had + done as he liked with it. Beginning with the simpler poems of + Wordsworth—he detested them, but they were better than soiling her + soul with Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans—those lessons in English + literature, meant by the authorities to be as innocuous to her as to + her sisters, had opened her eyes in a way nothing else could have done + to the width of the world and the littleness of Kunitz. With that good + teacher, as eager to lead as she to follow, she wandered down the + splendid walks of culture, met there the best people of all ages, + communed with mighty souls, heard how they talked, saw how they lived, + and none, not one, lived and talked as they lived and talked at + Kunitz. +</p> +<p> + Imagine a girl influenced for ten years, ten of her softest most + wax-like years, by a Fritzing, taught to love freedom, to see the + beauty of plain things, of quietness, of the things appertaining to + the spirit, taught to see how ignoble it is, how intensely, hopelessly + vulgar to spend on one's own bodily comforts more than is exactly + necessary, taught to see a vision of happiness possible only to those + who look to their minds for their joys and not to their bodies, + imagine how such a girl, hearing these things every afternoon almost + of her life, would be likely to regard the palace mornings and + evenings, the ceremonies and publicity, all those hours spent as + though she were a celebrated picture, forced everlastingly to stand in + an attitude considered appropriate and smile while she was being + looked at. +</p> +<p> + "No one," she said one day to Fritzing, "who hasn't himself been a + princess can have the least idea of what it is like." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, it would be more correct to say herself in place of himself." +</p> +<p> + "Well, they can't," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, to begin a sentence with the singular and continue it with the + plural is an infraction of all known rules." +</p> +<p> + "But the sentiments, Fritzi—what do you think of the sentiments?" +</p> +<p> + "Alas, ma'am, they too are an infraction of rules." +</p> +<p> + "What is not in this place, I should like to know?" sighed Priscilla, + her chin on her hand, her eyes on that distant line of hills beyond + which, she told herself, lay freedom. +</p> +<p> + She had long ago left off saying it only to herself. I think she must + have been about eighteen when she took to saying it aloud to Fritzing. + At first, before he realized to what extent she was sick for freedom, + he had painted in glowing colours the delights that lay on the other + side of the hills, or for that matter on this side of them if you were + alone and not a princess. Especially had he dwelt on the glories of + life in England, glories attainable indeed only by the obscure such as + he himself had been, and for ever impossible to those whom Fate + obliges to travel in state carriages and special trains. Then he had + come to scent danger and had grown wary; trying to put her off with + generalities, such as the inability of human beings to fly from their + own selves, and irrelevancies such as the amount of poverty and + wretchedness to be observed in the east of London; refusing to discuss + France, which she was always getting to as the first step towards + England, except in as far as it was a rebellious country that didn't + like kings; pointing out with no little temper that she had already + seen England; and finishing by inquiring very snappily when her Grand + Ducal Highness intended to go on with her drawing. +</p> +<p> + Now what Priscilla had seen of England had been the insides of + Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; of all insides surely the most + august. To and from these she had been conveyed in closed carriages + and royal trains, and there was so close a family likeness between + them and Kunitz that to her extreme discomfort she had felt herself + completely at home. Even the presence of the Countess Disthal had not + been wanting. She therefore regarded this as not seeing England at + all, and said so. Fritzing remarked tartly that it was a way of seeing + it most English people would envy her; and she was so unable to + believe him that she said Nonsense. +</p> +<p> + But lately her desires had taken definite shape so rapidly that he had + come to dread the very word hill and turn cold at the name of England. + He was being torn in different directions; for he was, you see, still + trying to do what other people had decided was his duty, and till a + man gives up doing that he will certainly be torn. How great would be + the temptation to pause here and consider the mangled state of such a + man, the wounds and weakness he will suffer from, and how his soul + will have to limp through life, if it were not that I must get on with + Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + One day, after many weeks of edging nearer to it, of going all round + it yet never quite touching it, she took a deep breath and told him + she had determined to run away. She added an order that he was to help + her. With her most grand ducal air she merely informed, ordered, and + forbade. What she forbade, of course, was the betrayal of her plans. + "You may choose," she said, "between the Grand Duke and myself. If you + tell him, I have done with you for ever." +</p> +<p> + Of course he chose Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + His agonies now were very great. Those last lacerations of conscience + were terrific. Then, after nights spent striding, a sudden calm fell + upon him. At length he could feel what he had always seen, that there + could not be two duties for a man, that no man can serve two masters, + that a man's one clear duty is to be in the possession of his soul and + live the life it approves: in other and shorter words, instead of + leading Priscilla, Priscilla was now leading him. +</p> +<p> + She did more than lead him; she drove him. The soul he had so + carefully tended and helped to grow was now grown stronger than his + own; for there was added to its natural strength the tremendous daring + of absolute inexperience. What can be more inexperienced than a + carefully guarded young princess? Priscilla's ignorance of the outside + world was pathetic. He groaned over her plans—for it was she who + planned and he who listened—and yet he loved them. She was a divine + woman, he said to himself; the sweetest and noblest, he was certain, + that the world would ever see. +</p> +<p> + Her plans were these: +</p> +<p> + First, that having had twenty-one years of life at the top of the + social ladder she was now going to get down and spend the next + twenty-one at the bottom of it. (Here she gave her reasons, and I will + not stop to describe Fritzing's writhings as his own past teachings + grinned at him through every word she said.) +</p> +<p> + Secondly, that the only way to get to the bottom being to run away + from Kunitz, she was going to run. +</p> +<p> + Thirdly, that the best and nicest place for living at the bottom would + be England. (Here she explained her conviction that beautiful things + grow quite naturally round the bottom of ladders that cannot easily + reach the top; flowers of self-sacrifice and love, of temperance, + charity, godliness—delicate things, with roots that find their + nourishment in common soil. You could not, said Priscilla, expect soil + at the top of ladders, could you? And as she felt that she too had + roots full of potentialities, she must take them down to where their + natural sustenance lay waiting.) +</p> +<p> + Fourthly, they were to live somewhere in the country in England, in + the humblest way. +</p> +<p> + Fifthly, she was to be his daughter. +</p> +<p> + "Daughter?" cried Fritzing, bounding in his chair. "Your Grand Ducal + Highness forgets I have friends in England, every one of whom is aware + that I never had a wife." +</p> +<p> + "Niece, then," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + He gazed at her in silence, trying to imagine her his niece. He had + two sisters, and they had stopped exactly at the point they were at + when they helped him, barefoot, to watch Westphalian pigs. I do not + mean that they had not ultimately left the little farm, gone into + stockings, and married. It is their minds I am thinking of, and these + had never budged. They were like their father, a doomed dullard; while + Fritzing's mother, whom he resembled, had been a rather extraordinary + woman in a rough and barbarous way. He found himself wholly unable to + imagine either of his sisters the mother of this exquisite young lady. +</p> +<p> + These, then, baldly, were Priscilla's plans. The carrying of them out + was left, she informed him, altogether to Fritzing. After having spent + several anxious days, she told him, considering whether she ought to + dye her hair black in order to escape recognition, or stay her own + colour but disguise herself as a man and buy a golden beard, she had + decided that these were questions Fritzing would settle better than + she could. "I'd dye my hair at once," she said, "but what about my + wretched eyelashes? Can one dye eyelashes?" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing thought not, and anyhow was decidedly of opinion that her + eyelashes should not be tampered with; I think I have said that they + were very lovely. He also entirely discouraged the idea of dressing as + a man. "Your Grand Ducal Highness would only look like an extremely + conspicuous boy," he assured her. +</p> +<p> + "I could wear a beard," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing was absolutely opposed to the beard. +</p> +<p> + As for the money part, she never thought of it. Money was a thing she + never did think about. It also, then, was to be Fritzing's business. + Possibly things might have gone on much longer as they were, with a + great deal of planning and talking, and no doing, if an exceedingly + desirable prince had not signified his intention of marrying + Priscilla. This had been done before by quite a number of princes. + They had, that is, not signified, but implored. On their knees would + they have implored if their knees could have helped them. They were + however all poor, and Priscilla and her sisters were rich; and how + foolish, said the Grand Duke, to marry poor men unless you are poor + yourself. The Grand Duke, therefore, took these young men aside and + crushed them, while Priscilla, indifferent, went on with her drawing. + But now came this one who was so eminently desirable that he had no + need to do more than merely signify. There had been much trouble and a + great deal of delay in finding him a wife, for he had insisted on + having a princess who should be both pretty and not his cousin. Europe + did not seem to contain such a thing. Everybody was his cousin, except + two or three young women whom he was rude enough to call ugly. The + Kunitz princesses had been considered in their turn and set aside, for + they too were cousins; and it seemed as if one of the most splendid + thrones in Europe would either have to go queen-less or be sat upon by + somebody plain, when fate brought the Prince to a great public + ceremony in Kunitz, and he saw Priscilla and fell so violently in love + with her that if she had been fifty times his cousin he would still + have married her. +</p> +<p> + That same evening he signified his intention to the delighted Grand + Duke, who immediately fell to an irrelevant praising of God. +</p> +<p> + "Bosh," said the Prince, in the nearest equivalent his mother-tongue + provided. +</p> +<p> + This was very bad. Not, I mean, that the Prince should have said Bosh, + for he was so great that there was not a Grand Duke in Europe to whom + he might not have said it if he wanted to; but that Priscilla should + have been in imminent danger of marriage. Among Fritzing's many + preachings there had been one, often repeated in the strongest + possible language, that of all existing contemptibilities the very + most contemptible was for a woman to marry any one she did not love; + and the peroration, also extremely forcible, had been an announcement + that the prince did not exist who was fit to tie her shoestrings. This + Priscilla took to be an exaggeration, for she had no very great notion + of her shoestrings; but she did agree with the rest. The subject + however was an indifferent one, her father never yet having asked her + to marry anybody; and so long as he did not do so she need not, she + thought, waste time thinking about it. Now the peril was upon her, + suddenly, most unexpectedly, very menacingly. She knew there was no + hope from the moment she saw her father's face quite distorted by + delight. He took her hand and kissed it. To him she was already a + queen. As usual she gave him the impression of behaving exactly as he + could have wished. She certainly said very little, for she had long + ago learned the art of being silent; but her very silences were + somehow exquisite, and the Grand Duke thought her perfect. She gave + him to understand almost without words that it was a great surprise, + an immense honour, a huge compliment, but so sudden that she would be + grateful to both himself and the Prince if nothing more need be said + about it for a week or two—nothing, at least, till formal + negotiations had been opened. "I saw him yesterday for the first + time," she pleaded, "so naturally I am rather overwhelmed." +</p> +<p> + Privately she had thought, his eyes, which he had never taken off her, + kind and pleasant; and if she had known of his having said Bosh who + knows but that he might have had a chance? As it was, the moment she + was alone she sent flying for Fritzing. "What," she said, "do you say + to my marrying this man?" +</p> +<p> + "If you do, ma'am," said Fritzing, and his face seemed one blaze of + white conviction, "you will undoubtedly be eternally lost." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + II +</h2> +<p> + They fled on bicycles in the dusk. The goddess Good Luck, who seems to + have a predilection for sinners, helped them in a hundred ways. + Without her they would certainly not have got far, for both were very + ignorant of the art of running away. Once flight was decided on + Fritzing planned elaborately and feverishly, got things thought out + and arranged as well as he, poor harassed man, possibly could. But + what in this law-bound world can sinners do without the help of Luck? + She, amused and smiling dame, walked into the castle and smote the + Countess Disthal with influenza, crushing her down helpless into her + bed, and holding her there for days by the throat. While one hand was + doing this, with the other she gaily swept the Grand Duke into East + Prussia, a terrific distance, whither, all unaware of how he was being + trifled with, he thought he was being swept by an irresistible desire + to go, before the business of Priscilla's public betrothal should + begin, and shoot the roebucks of a friend. +</p> +<p> + The Countess was thrust into her bed at noon of a Monday in October. + At three the Grand Duke started for East Prussia, incognito in a + motor—you know the difficulty news has in reaching persons in + motors. At four one of Priscilla's maids, an obscure damsel who had + been at the mercy of the others and was chosen because she hated them, + tripped out of the castle with shining eyes and pockets heavy with + bribes, and caused herself to be whisked away by the afternoon express + to Cologne. At six, just as the castle guard was being relieved, two + persons led their bicycles through the archway and down across the + bridge. It was dark, and nobody recognized them. Fritzing was got up + sportingly, almost waggishly—heaven knows his soul was not feeling + waggish—as differently as possible from his usual sober clothes. + Somehow he reminded Priscilla of a circus, and she found it extremely + hard not to laugh. On his head he had a cap with ear-pieces that hid + his grey hair; round his neck a gaudy handkerchief muffled well about + his face; immense goggles cloaked the familiar overhanging eyebrows + and deep-set eyes, goggles curiously at variance with the dapper + briskness of his gaitered legs. The Princess was in ordinary blue + serge, short and rather shabby, it having been subjected for hours + daily during the past week to rough treatment by the maid now + travelling to Cologne. As for her face and hair, they were completely + hidden in the swathings of a motor-veil. +</p> +<p> + The sentinels stared rather as these two figures pushed their bicycles + through the gates, and undoubtedly did for some time afterwards wonder + who they could have been. The same thing happened down below on the + bridge; but once over that and in the town all they had to do was to + ride straight ahead. They were going to bicycle fifteen miles to Rühl, + a small town with a railway station on the main line between Kunitz + and Cologne. Express trains do not stop at Rühl, but there was a slow + train at eight which would get them to Gerstein, the capital of the + next duchy, by midnight. Here they would change into the Cologne + express; here they would join the bribed maid; here luggage had been + sent by Fritzing,—a neat bag for himself, and a neat box for his + niece. The neat box was filled with neat garments suggested to him by + the young lady in the shop in Gerstein where he had been two days + before to buy them. She told him of many other articles which, she + said, no lady's wardrobe could be considered complete without; and the + distracted man, fearing the whole shop would presently be put into + trunks and sent to the station to meet them, had ended by flinging + down two notes for a hundred marks each and bidding her keep strictly + within that limit. The young lady became very scornful. She told him + that she had never heard of any one being clothed from head to foot + inside and out, even to brushes, soap, and an umbrella, for two + hundred marks. Fritzing, in dread of conspicuous masses of luggage, + yet staggered by the girl's conviction, pulled out a third hundred + mark note, but added words in his extremity of so strong and final a + nature, that she, quailing, did keep within this limit, and the box + was packed. Thus Priscilla's outfit cost almost exactly fifteen + pounds. It will readily be imagined that it was neat. +</p> +<p> + Painfully the two fugitives rode through the cobbled streets of + Kunitz. Priscilla was very shaky on a bicycle, and so was Fritzing. + Some years before this, when it had been the fashion, she had bicycled + every day in the grand ducal park on the other side of the town. Then, + tired of it, she had given it up; and now for the last week or two, + ever since Fritzing had told her that if they fled it would have to be + on bicycles, she had pretended a renewed passion for it, riding every + day round and round a circle of which the chilled and astonished + Countess Disthal, whose duty it was to stand and watch, had been the + disgusted central point. But the cobbles of Kunitz are very different + from those smooth places in the park. All who bicycle round Kunitz + know them as trying to the most skilful. Naturally, then, the + fugitives advanced very slowly, Fritzing's heart in his mouth each + time they passed a brightly-lit shop or a person who looked at them. + Conceive how nearly this poor heart must have jumped right out of his + mouth, leaving him dead, when a policeman who had been watching them + strode suddenly into the middle of the street, put up his hand, and + said, "Halt." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, unstrung man, received a shock so awful that he obeyed by + falling off. Priscilla, wholly unused to being told to halt and + absorbed by the difficulties of the way, did not grasp that the order + was meant for her and rode painfully on. Seeing this, the policeman + very gallantly removed her from her bicycle by putting his arms round + her and lifting her off. He set her quite gently on her feet, and was + altogether a charming policeman, as unlike those grim and ghastly eyes + of the law that glare up and down the streets of, say, Berlin, as it + is possible to imagine. +</p> +<p> + But Priscilla was perfectly molten with rage, insulted as she had + never been in her life. "How dare you—how dare you," she stammered, + suffocating; and forgetting everything but an overwhelming desire to + box the giant's ears she had actually raised her hand to do it, which + would of course have been the ruin of her plan and the end of my tale, + when Fritzing, recovering his presence of mind, cried out in tones of + unmistakable agony, "Niece, be calm." +</p> +<p> + She calmed at once to a calm of frozen horror. +</p> +<p> + "Now, sir," said Fritzing, assuming an air of brisk bravery and + guiltlessness, "what can we do for you?" +</p> +<p> + "Light your lamps," said the policeman, laconically. +</p> +<p> + They did; or rather Fritzing did, while Priscilla stood passive. +</p> +<p> + "I too have a niece," said the policeman, watching Fritzing at work; + "but I light no lamps for her. One should not wait on one's niece. + One's niece should wait on one." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing did not answer. He finished lighting the lamps, and then + held Priscilla's bicycle and started her. +</p> +<p> + "I never did that for my niece," said the policeman. +</p> +<p> + "Confound your niece, sir," was on the tip of Fritzing's tongue; but + he gulped it down, and remarking instead as pleasantly as he could + that being an uncle did not necessarily prevent your being a + gentleman, picked up his bicycle and followed Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + The policeman shook his head as they disappeared round the corner. + "One does not light lamps for one's niece," he repeated to himself. + "It's against nature. Consequently, though the peppery Fräulein may + well be somebody's niece she is not his." +</p> +<p> + "Oh," murmured Priscilla, after they had ridden some way without + speaking, "I'm deteriorating already. For the first time in my life + I've wanted to box people's ears." +</p> +<p> + "The provocation was great, ma'am," said Fritzing, himself shattered + by the spectacle of his Princess being lifted about by a policeman. +</p> +<p> + "Do you think—" Priscilla hesitated, and looked at him. Her bicycle + immediately hesitated too, and swerving across the road taught her it + would have nothing looked at except its handles. "Do you think," she + went on, after she had got herself straight again, "that the way I'm + going to live now will make me want to do it often?" +</p> +<p> + "Heaven forbid, ma'am. You are now going to live a most noble + life—the only fitting life for the thoughtful and the earnest. It + will be, once you are settled, far more sheltered from contact with + that which stirs ignoble impulses than anything your Grand Ducal + Highness has hitherto known." +</p> +<p> + "If you mean policemen by things that stir ignoble impulses," said + Priscilla, "I was sheltered enough from them before. Why, I never + spoke to one. Much less"—she shuddered—"much less ever touched one." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, you do not repent?" +</p> +<p> + "Heavens, no," said Priscilla, pressing onward. +</p> +<p> + Outside Rühl, about a hundred yards before its houses begin, there is + a pond by the wayside. Into this, after waiting a moment peering up + and down the dark road to see whether anybody was looking, Fritzing + hurled the bicycles. He knew the pond was deep, for he had studied it + the day he bought Priscilla's outfit; and the two bicycles one after + the other were hurled remorsely into the middle of it, disappearing + each in its turn with a tremendous splash and gurgle. Then they walked + on quickly towards the railway station, infinitely relieved to be on + their own feet again, and between them, all unsuspected, walked the + radiant One with the smiling eyes, she who was half-minded to see this + game through, giving the players just so many frights as would keep + her amused, the fickle, laughing goddess Good Luck. +</p> +<p> + They caught the train neatly at Rühl. They only had to wait about the + station for ten minutes before it came in. Hardly any one was there, + and nobody took the least notice of them. Fritzing, after a careful + look round to see if it contained people he knew, put the Princess + into a second-class carriage labelled <i>Frauen</i>, and then respectfully + withdrew to another part of the train. He had decided that + second-class was safest. People in that country nearly always travel + second-class, especially women,—at all times in such matters more + economical than men; and a woman by herself in a first-class carriage + would have been an object of surmise and curiosity at every station. + Therefore Priscilla was put into the carriage labelled <i>Frauen</i>, and + found herself for the first time in her life alone with what she had + hitherto only heard alluded to vaguely as the public. +</p> +<p> + She sat down in a corner with an odd feeling of surprise at being + included in the category <i>Frauen</i>, and giving a swift timid glance + through her veil at the public confronting her was relieved to find it + consisted only of a comfortable mother and her child. +</p> +<p> + I know not why the adjective comfortable should so invariably be + descriptive of mothers in Germany. In England and France though you + may be a mother, you yet, I believe, may be so without being + comfortable. In Germany, somehow, you can't. Perhaps it is the + climate; perhaps it is the food; perhaps it is simply want of soul, or + that your soul does not burn with a fire sufficiently consuming. + Anyhow it is so. This mother had all the good-nature that goes with + amplitude. Being engaged in feeding her child with <i>belegte + Brödchen</i>—that immensely satisfying form of sandwich—she at once + offered Priscilla one. +</p> +<p> + "No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking into her corner. +</p> +<p> + "Do take one, Fräulein," said the mother, persuasively. +</p> +<p> + "No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking. +</p> +<p> + "On a journey it passes the time. Even if one is not hungry, thank God + one can always eat. Do take one." +</p> +<p> + "No thank you," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Why does she wear that black thing over her face?" inquired the + child. "Is she a witch?" +</p> +<p> + "Silence, silence, little worthless one," cried the mother, + delightedly stroking his face with half a <i>Brödchen</i>. "You see he is + clever, Fräulein. He resembles his dear father as one egg does + another." +</p> +<p> + "Does he?" said Priscilla, immediately conceiving a prejudice against + the father. +</p> +<p> + "Why don't she take that black thing off?" said the child. +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush, small impudence. The Fräulein will take it off in a + minute. The Fräulein has only just got in." +</p> +<p> + "Mutti, is she a witch? Mutti, Mutti, is she a witch, Mutti?" +</p> +<p> + The child, his eyes fixed anxiously on Priscilla's swathed head, began + to whimper. +</p> +<p> + "That child should be in bed," said Priscilla, with a severity born + of her anxiety lest, to calm him, humanity should force her to put up + her veil. "Persons who are as intelligent as that should never be in + trains at night. Their brains cannot bear it. Would he not be happier + if he lay down and went to sleep?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes; that is what I have been telling him ever since we left + Kunitz"—Priscilla shivered—"but he will not go. Dost thou hear what + the Fräulein says, Hans-Joachim?" +</p> +<p> + "Why don't she take that black thing off?" whimpered the child. +</p> +<p> + But how could the poor Princess, however anxious to be kind, take off + her veil and show her well-known face to this probable inhabitant of + Kunitz? +</p> +<p> + "Do take it off, Fräulein," begged the mother, seeing she made no + preparations to do so. "When he gets ideas into his head there is + never peace till he has what he wants. He does remind me so much of + his father." +</p> +<p> + "Did you ever," said Priscilla, temporizing, "try him with a + little—just a little slap? Only a little one," she added hastily, for + the mother looked at her oddly, "only as a sort of counter-irritant. + And it needn't be really hard, you know—" +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, she's a witch—Mutti, she's a witch!" shrieked the child, + flinging his face, butter and all, at these portentous words, into his + mother's lap. +</p> +<p> + "There, there, poor tiny one," soothed the mother, with an indignant + side-glance at Priscilla. "Poor tiny man, no one shall slap thee. The + Fräulein does not allude to thee, little son. The Fräulein is thinking + of bad children such as the sons of Schultz and thy cousin Meyer. + Fräulein, if you do not remove your veil I fear he will have + convulsions." +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said the unhappy Priscilla, getting as far into her corner as + she could, "I'm so sorry—but I—but I really can't." +</p> +<p> + "She's a witch, Mutti!" roared the child, "I tell it to thee + again—therefore is she so black, and must not show her face!" +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush, shut thy little eyes," soothed the mother, putting her + hand over them. To Priscilla she said, with an obvious dawning of + distrust, "But Fräulein, what reason can you have for hiding + yourself?" +</p> +<p> + "Hiding myself?" echoed Priscilla, now very unhappy indeed, "I'm not + hiding myself. I've got—I've got—I'm afraid I've got a—an affection + of the skin. That's why I wear a veil." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, poor Fräulein," said the mother, brightening at once into + lively interest. "Hans-Joachim, sleep," she added sharply to her son, + who tried to raise his head to interrupt with fresh doubts a + conversation grown thrilling. "That is indeed a misfortune. It is a + rash?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, it's dreadful," said Priscilla, faintly. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, poor Fräulein. When one is married, rashes no longer matter. + One's husband has to love one in spite of rashes. But for a Fräulein + every spot is of importance. There is a young lady of my acquaintance + whose life-happiness was shipwrecked only by spots. She came out in + them at the wrong moment." +</p> +<p> + "Did she?" murmured Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "You are going to a doctor?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes—that is, no—I've been." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, you have been to Kunitz to Dr. Kraus?" +</p> +<p> + "Y—es. I've been there." +</p> +<p> + "What does he say?" +</p> +<p> + "That I must always wear a veil." +</p> +<p> + "Because it looks so bad?" +</p> +<p> + "I suppose so." +</p> +<p> + There was a silence. Priscilla lay back in her corner exhausted, and + shut her eyes. The mother stared fixedly at her, one hand mechanically + stroking Hans-Joachim, the other holding him down. +</p> +<p> + "When I was a girl," said the mother, so suddenly that Priscilla + started, "I had a good deal of trouble with my skin. Therefore my + experience on the subject is great. Show me your face, Fräulein—I + might be able to tell you what to do to cure it." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, on no account—on no account whatever," cried Priscilla, sitting + up very straight and speaking with extraordinary emphasis. "I couldn't + think of it—I really positively couldn't." +</p> +<p> + "But my dear Fräulein, why mind a woman seeing it?" +</p> +<p> + "But what do you want to see it for?" +</p> +<p> + "I wish to help you." +</p> +<p> + "I don't want to be helped. I'll show it to nobody—to nobody at all. + It's much too—too dreadful." +</p> +<p> + "Well, well, do not be agitated. Girls, I know, are vain. If any one + can help you it will be Dr. Kraus. He is an excellent physician, is he + not?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla, dropping back into her corner. +</p> +<p> + "The Grand Duke is a great admirer of his. He is going to ennoble + him." +</p> +<p> + "Really?" +</p> +<p> + "They say—no doubt it is gossip, but still, you know, he is a very + handsome man—that the Countess von Disthal will marry him." +</p> +<p> + "Gracious!" cried Priscilla, startled, "what, whether he wants to or + not?" +</p> +<p> + "No doubt he will want to. It would be a brilliant match for him." +</p> +<p> + "But she's at least a hundred. Why, she looks like his mother. And he + is a person of no birth at all." +</p> +<p> + "Birth? He is of course not noble yet, but his family is excellent. + And since it is not possible to have as many ailments as she has and + still be alive, some at least must be feigned. Why, then, should she + feign if it is not in order to see the doctor? They were saying in + Kunitz that she sent for him this very day." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, she did. But she's really ill this time. I'm afraid the poor + thing caught cold watching—dear me, only see how sweetly your little + boy sleeps. You should make Levallier paint him in that position." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, he looks truly lovely, does he not. Exactly thus does his dear + father look when asleep. Sometimes I cannot sleep myself for joy over + the splendid picture. What is the matter with the Countess Disthal? + Did Dr. Kraus tell you?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no. I—I heard something—a rumour." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, something feigned again, no doubt. Well, it will be a great match + for him. You know she is lady-in-waiting to the Princess Priscilla, + the one who is so popular and has such red hair? The Countess has an + easy life. The other two Princesses have given their ladies a world of + trouble, but Priscilla—oh, she is a model. Kunitz is indeed proud of + her. They say in all things she is exactly what a Princess should be, + and may be trusted never to say or do anything not entirely fitting + her station. You have seen her? She often drives through the town, and + then the people all run and look as pleased as if it were a holiday. + We in Gerstein are quite jealous. Our duchy has no such princess to + show. Do you think she is so beautiful? I have often seen her, and I + do not think she is. People exaggerate everything so about a princess. + My husband does not admire her at all. He says it is not what he calls + classic. Her hair, for instance—but that one might get over. And + people who are really beautiful always have dark eyelashes. Then her + nose—my husband often laughs, and says her nose—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla, faintly, "I've got a dreadful headache. I think + I'll try to sleep a little if you would not mind not talking." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, that hot thing round your face must be very trying. Now if you + were not so vain—what does a rash matter when only women are present? + Well, well, I will not tease you. Do you know many of the Kunitzers? + Do you know the Levisohns well?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," sighed Priscilla, laying her distracted head against the + cushions and shutting her eyes, "who are they?" +</p> +<p> + "Who are they? Who are the Levisohns? But dearest Fräulein if you know + Kunitz you must know the Levisohns. Why, the Levisohns <i>are</i> Kunitz. + They are more important far than the Grand Duke. They lend to it, and + they lead it. You must know their magnificent shop at the corner of + the Heiligengeiststrasse? Perhaps," she added, with a glance at the + Princess's shabby serge gown, "you have not met them socially, but you + must know the magnificent shop. We visit." +</p> +<p> + "Do you?" said Priscilla wearily, as the mother paused. +</p> +<p> + "And you know her story, of course?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, oh," sighed Priscilla, turning her head from side to side on the + cushions, vainly seeking peace. +</p> +<p> + "It is hardly a story for the ears of Fräuleins." +</p> +<p> + "Please don't tell it, then." +</p> +<p> + "No, I will not. It is not for Fräuleins. But one still sees she must + have been a handsome woman. And he, Levisohn, was clever enough to see + his way to Court favour. The Grand Duke—" +</p> +<p> + "I don't think I care to hear about the Levisohns," said Priscilla, + sitting up suddenly and speaking with great distinctness. "Gossip is a + thing I detest. None shall be talked in my presence." +</p> +<p> + "Hoity-toity," said the astonished mother; and it will easily be + believed that no one had ever said hoity-toity to Priscilla before. +</p> +<p> + She turned scarlet under her veil. For a moment she sat with flashing + eyes, and the hand lying in her lap twitched convulsively. Is it + possible she was thinking of giving the comfortable mother that + admonition which the policeman had so narrowly escaped? I know not + what would have happened if the merry goddess, seeing things rushing + to this dreadful climax, had not stopped the train in the nick of time + at a wayside station and caused a breathless lady, pushing parcels + before her, to clamber in. The mother's surprised stare was of + necessity diverted to the new-comer. A parcel thrust into Priscilla's + hands brought her back of necessity to her senses. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Danke, Danke</i>," cried the breathless lady, though no help had been + offered; and hoisting herself in she wished both her fellow-passengers + a boisterous good evening. The lady, evidently an able person, + arranged her parcels swiftly and neatly in the racks, pulled up the + windows, slammed the ventilators, stripped off her cloak, flung back + her veil, and sitting down with a sigh of vast depth and length stared + steadily for five minutes without wavering at the other two. At the + end of that time she and the mother began, as with a common impulse, + to talk. And at the end of five minutes more they had told each other + where they were going, where they had been, what their husbands + were, the number, age, and girth of their children, and all the + adjectives that might most conveniently be used to describe their + servants. The adjectives, very lurid ones, took some time. + Priscilla shut her eyes while they were going on, thankful to be + left quiet, feeling unstrung to the last degree; and she gradually + dropped into an uneasy doze whose chief feature was the distressful + repetition, like hammer-strokes on her brain, of the words, "You're + deteriorating—deteriorating—deteriorating." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Lieber Gott</i>," she whispered at last, folding her hands in her lap, + "don't let me deteriorate too much. Please keep me from wanting to box + people's ears. <i>Lieber Gott</i>, it's so barbarous of me. I never used to + want to. Please stop me wanting to now." +</p> +<p> + And after that she dropped off quite, into a placid little slumber. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + III +</h2> +<p> + They crossed from Calais in the turbine. Their quickest route would + have been Cologne-Ostend-Dover, and every moment being infinitely + valuable Fritzing wanted to go that way, but Priscilla was determined + to try whether turbines are really as steady as she had heard they + were. The turbine was so steady that no one could have told it was + doing anything but being quiescent on solid earth; but that was + because, as Fritzing explained, there was a dead calm, and in dead + calms—briefly, he explained the conduct of boats in dead calms with + much patience, and Priscilla remarked when he had done that they might + then, after all, have crossed by Ostend. +</p> +<p> + "We might, ma'am, and we would be in London now if we had," said + Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + They had, indeed, lost several hours and some money coming by Calais, + and Fritzing had lost his temper as well. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, you remember, was sixty, and had not closed his eyes all + night. He had not, so far as that goes, closed his eyes for nights + without number; and what his soul had gone through during those nights + was more than any soul no longer in its first youth should be called + upon to bear. In the train between Cologne and Calais he had even, + writhing in his seat, cursed every single one of his long-cherished + ideals, called them fools, shaken his fist at them; a dreadful state + of mind to get to. He did not reveal anything of this to his dear + Princess, and talking to her on the turbine wore the clear brow of the + philosopher; but he did feel that he was a much-tried man, and he + behaved to the maid Annalise exactly in the way much-tried men do + behave when they have found some one they think defenceless. + Unfortunately Annalise was only apparently defenceless. Fritzing would + have known it if he had been more used to running away. He did, in his + calmer moments, dimly opine it. The plain fact was that Annalise held + both him and Priscilla in the hollow of her hand. +</p> +<p> + At this point she had not realized it. She still was awestruck by her + promotion, and looked so small and black and uncertain among her new + surroundings on the turbine that if not clever of him it was at least + natural that he should address her in a manner familiar to those who + have had to do with men when they are being tried. He behaved, that + is, to Annalise, as he had behaved to his ideals in the night; he + shook his fist at her, and called her fool. It was because she had + broken the Princess's umbrella. This was the new umbrella bought by + him with so much trouble in Gerstein two days before, and therefore + presumably of a sufficient toughness to stand any reasonable treatment + for a time. There was a mist and a drizzle at Calais, and Priscilla, + refusing to go under shelter, had sent Fritzing to fetch her umbrella, + and when he demanded it of Annalise, she offered it him in two pieces. + This alone was enough to upset a wise man, because wise men are easily + upset; but Annalise declared besides that the umbrella had broken + itself. It probably had. What may not one expect of anything so cheap? + Fritzing, however, was maddened by this explanation, and wasted quite + a long time pointing out to her in passionate language that it was an + inanimate object, and that inanimate objects have no initiative and + never therefore break themselves. To which Annalise, with a stoutness + ominous as a revelation of character, replied by repeating her + declaration that the umbrella had certainly broken itself. Then it was + that he shook his fist at her and called her fool. So greatly was he + moved that, after walking away and thinking it over, he went to her a + second time and shook his fist at her and called her knave. +</p> +<p> + I will not linger over this of the umbrella; it teems with lessons. +</p> +<p> + While it was going on the Princess was being very happy. She was + sitting unnoticed in a deck-chair and feeling she was really off at + last into the Ideal. Some of us know the fascination of that feeling, + and all of us know the fascination of new things; and to be unnoticed + was for her of a most thrilling newness. Nobody looked at her. People + walked up and down the deck in front of her as though she were not + there. One hurried passenger actually tripped over her feet, and + passed on with the briefest apology. Everywhere she saw indifferent + faces, indifferent, oblivious faces. It was simply glorious. And she + had had no trials since leaving Gerstein. There Fritzing had removed + her beyond the range of the mother's eyes, grown at last extremely + cold and piercing; Annalise, all meek anxiety to please, had put her + to bed in the sleeping-car of the Brussels express; and in the morning + her joy had been childish at having a little tray with bad coffee on + it thrust in by a busy attendant, who slammed it down on the table and + hurried out without so much as glancing at her. How delicious that + was. The Princess laughed with delight and drank the coffee, grits and + all. Oh, the blessed freedom of being insignificant. It was as good, + she thought, as getting rid of your body altogether and going about an + invisible spirit. She sat on the deck of the apparently motionless + turbine and thought gleefully of past journeys, now for ever done + with; of the grand ducal train, of herself drooping inside it as + wearily as the inevitable bouquets drooping on the tables, of the + crowds of starers on every platform, of the bowing officials wherever + your eye chanced to turn. The Countess Disthal, of course, had been + always at her elbow, and when she had to go to the window and do the + gracious her anxiety lest she should bestow one smile too few had only + been surpassed by the Countess's anxiety lest she should bestow one + smile too many. Well, that was done with now; as much done with as a + nightmare, grisly staleness, is done with when you wake to a fair + spring morning and the smell of dew. And she had no fears. She was + sure, knowing him as she did, that when the Grand Duke found out she + had run away he would make no attempt to fetch her back, but would + simply draw a line through his remembrance of her, rub her out of his + mind, (his heart, she knew, would need no rubbing, because she had + never been in it,) and after the first fury was over, fury solely on + account of the scandal, he would be as he had been before, while + she—oh wonderful new life!—she would be born again to all the + charities. +</p> +<p> + Now how can I, weak vessel whose only ballast is a cargo of + interrogations past which life swirls with a thunder of derisively + contradictory replies, pretend to say whether Priscilla ought to have + had conscience-qualms or not? Am I not deafened by the roar of + answers, all seemingly so right yet all so different, that the + simplest question brings? And would not the answering roar to anything + so complicated as a question about conscience-qualms deafen me for + ever? I shall leave the Princess, then, to run away from her home and + her parent if she chooses, and make no effort to whitewash any part of + her conduct that may seem black. I shall chronicle, and not comment. I + shall try to, that is, for comments are very dear to me. Indeed I see + I cannot move on even now till I have pointed out that though + Priscilla was getting as far as she could from the Grand Duke she was + also getting as near as she could to the possession of her soul; and + there are many persons who believe this to be a thing so precious that + it is absolutely the one thing worth living for. +</p> +<p> + The crossing to Dover, then, was accomplished quite peacefully by + Priscilla. Not so, however, by Fritzing. He, tormented man, chief + target for the goddess's darts, spent his time holding on to the rail + along the turbine's side in order to steady himself; and as there was + a dead calm that day the reader will at once perceive that the tempest + must have been inside Fritzing himself. It was; and it had been raised + to hurricane pitch by some snatches of the talk of two Englishmen he + had heard as they paced up and down past where he was standing. +</p> +<p> + The first time they passed, one was saying to the other, "I never + heard of anything so infamous." +</p> +<p> + This ought not to have made Fritzing, a person of stainless life and + noble principles, start, but it did. He started; and he listened + anxiously for more. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said the other, who had a newspaper under his arm, "they + deserve about as bad as they'll—" +</p> +<p> + He was out of ear-shot; but Fritzing mechanically finished the + sentence himself. Who had been infamous? And what were they going to + get? It was at this point that he laid hold of the handrail to steady + himself till the two men should pass again. +</p> +<p> + "You can tell, of course, what steps our Government will take," was + the next snatch. +</p> +<p> + "I shall be curious to see the attitude of the foreign papers," was + the next. +</p> +<p> + "Anything more wanton I never heard of," was the next. +</p> +<p> + "Of all the harmless, innocent creatures—" was the next. +</p> +<p> + And the last snatch of all—for though they went on walking Fritzing + heard no more after it—was the brief and singular expression + "Devils." +</p> +<p> + Devils? <i>What</i> were they talking about? Devils? Was that, then, how + the public stigmatized blameless persons in search of peace? Devils? + What, himself and—no, never Priscilla. She was clearly the harmless + innocent creature, and he must be the other thing. But why plural? He + could only suppose that he and Annalise together formed a sulphurous + plural. He clung very hard to the rail. Who could have dreamed it + would get so quickly into the papers? Who could have dreamed the news + of it would call forth such blazing words? They would be confronted at + Dover by horrified authorities. His Princess was going to be put in a + most impossible position. What had he done? Heavens and earth, what + had he done? +</p> +<p> + He clung to the rail, staring miserably over the side into the oily + water. Some of the passengers lingered to watch him, at first because + they thought he was going to be seasick with so little provocation + that it amounted to genius, and afterwards because they were sure he + must want to commit suicide. When they found that time passed and he + did neither, he became unpopular, and they went away and left him + altogether and contemptuously alone. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, are you worried about anything?" asked Priscilla, coming to + where he still stood staring, although they had got to Dover. +</p> +<p> + Worried! When all Europe was going to be about their ears? When he was + in the eyes of the world a criminal—an aider, abettor, lurer-away of + youth and impulsiveness? He loved the Princess so much that he cared + nothing for his own risks, but what about hers? In an agony of haste + he rushed to his ideals and principles for justification and comfort, + tumbling them over, searching feverishly among them. They had forsaken + him. They were so much lifeless rubbish. Nowhere in his mind could he + find a rag of either comfort or justification with which to stop up + his ears against the words of the two Englishmen and his eyes against + the dreadful sight he felt sure awaited them on the quay at Dover—the + sight of incensed authorities ready to pounce on him and drag him away + for ever from his Princess. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gazed at him in astonishment. He was taking no notice of + her, and was looking fearfully up and down the row of faces that were + watching the turbine's arrival. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, if you are worried it must be because you've not slept," + said Priscilla, laying her hand with a stroking little movement on his + sleeve; for what but overwrought nerves could make him look so odd? It + was after all Fritzing who had behaved with the braveness of a lion + the night before in that matter of the policeman; and it was he who + had asked in stern tones of rebuke, when her courage seemed aflicker, + whether she repented. "You do not repent?" she asked, imitating that + sternness. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am—" he began in a low and dreadful voice, his eyes ceaselessly + ranging up and down the figures on the quay. +</p> +<p> + "Sh—sh—Niece," interrupted Priscilla, smiling. +</p> +<p> + He turned and looked at her as a man may look for the last time at the + thing in life that has been most dear to him, and said nothing. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IV +</h2> +<p> + But nobody was waiting for them at Dover. Fritzing's agonies might all + have been spared. They passed quite unnoticed through the crowd of + idlers to the train, and putting Priscilla and her maid into it he + rushed at the nearest newspaper-boy, pouncing on him, tearing a + handful of his papers from him, and was devouring their contents + before the astonished boy had well finished his request that he should + hold hard. The boy, who had been brought up in the simple faith that + one should pay one's pennies first and read next, said a few things + under his breath about Germans—crude short things not worth + repeating—and jerking his thumb towards the intent Fritzing, winked + at a detective who was standing near. The detective did not need the + wink. His bland, abstracted eyes were already on Fritzing, and he was + making rapid mental notes of the goggles, the muffler, the cap pulled + down over the ears. Truly it is a great art, that of running away, and + needs incessant practice. +</p> +<p> + And after all there was not a word about the Princess in the papers. + They were full, as the Englishmen on the turbine had been full, of + something the Russians, who at that time were always doing something, + had just done—something that had struck England from end to end into + a blaze of indignation and that has nothing to do with my story. + Fritzing dropped the papers on the platform, and had so little public + spirit that he groaned aloud with relief. +</p> +<p> + "Shilling and a penny 'alfpenny, please, sir," said the newspaper-boy + glibly. "<i>Westminster Gazette</i>, sir, <i>Daily Mail</i>, <i>Sporting and + Dramatic</i>, one <i>Lady</i>, and two <i>Standards</i>." From which it will be + seen that Fritzing had seized his handful very much at random. +</p> +<p> + He paid the boy without heeding his earnest suggestions that he should + try <i>Tit-Bits</i>, the <i>Saturday Review</i>, and <i>Mother</i>, to complete, said + the boy, in substance if not in words, his bird's-eye view over the + field of representative English journalism, and went back to the + Princess with a lighter heart than he had had for months. The + detective, apparently one of Nature's gentlemen, picked up the + scattered papers, and following Fritzing offered them him in the + politest way imaginable just as Priscilla was saying she wanted to see + what tea-baskets were like. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said the detective, taking off his hat, "I believe these are + yours." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing, taking off his cap in his turn and bowing with + all the ceremony of foreigners, "I am much obliged to you." +</p> +<p> + "Pray don't mention it, sir," said the detective, on whose brain the + three were in that instant photographed—the veiled Priscilla, the + maid sitting on the edge of the seat as though hardly daring to sit + at all, and Fritzing's fine head and mop of grey hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla, as she caught his departing eye, bowed and smiled + graciously. He withdrew to a little distance, and fell into a + reverie: where had he seen just that mechanically gracious bow and + smile? They were very familiar to him. +</p> +<p> + As the train slowly left the station he saw the lady in the veil once + more. She was alone with her maid, and was looking out of the window + at nothing in particular, and the station-master, who was watching the + train go, chanced to meet her glance. Again there was the same smile + and bow, quite mechanical, quite absent-minded, distinctly gracious. + The station-master stared in astonishment after the receding carriage. + The detective roused himself from his reverie sufficiently to step + forward and neatly swing himself into the guard's van: there being + nothing to do in Dover he thought he would go to London. +</p> +<p> + I believe I have forgotten, in the heat of narration, to say that the + fugitives were bound for Somersetshire. Fritzing had been a great + walker in the days when he lived in England, and among other places + had walked about Somersetshire. It is a pleasant county; fruitful, + leafy, and mild. Down in the valleys myrtles and rhododendrons have + been known to flower all through the winter. Devonshire junkets and + Devonshire cider are made there with the same skill precisely as in + Devonshire; and the parts of it that lie round Exmoor are esteemed by + those who hunt. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing quite well remembered certain villages buried among the + hills, miles from the nearest railway, and he also remembered the + farmhouses round about these villages where he had lodged. To one of + these he had caused a friend in London to write engaging rooms for + himself and his niece, and there he proposed to stay till they should + have found the cottage the Princess had set her heart on. +</p> +<p> + This cottage, as far as he could gather from the descriptions she + gave him from time to time, was going to be rather difficult to + find. He feared also that it would be a very insect-ridden place, + and that their calm pursuits would often be interrupted by things + like earwigs. It was to be ancient, and much thatched and latticed + and rose-overgrown. It was, too, to be very small; the smallest of + labourers' cottages. Yet though so small and so ancient it was to + have several bathrooms—one for each of them, so he understood; + "For," said the Princess, "if Annalise hasn't a bathroom how can + she have a bath? And if she hasn't had a bath how can I let her + touch me?" +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps," said Fritzing, bold in his ignorance of Annalise's real + nature, "she could wash at the pump. People do, I believe, in the + country. I remember there were always pumps." +</p> +<p> + "But do pumps make you clean enough?" inquired the Princess, + doubtfully. +</p> +<p> + "We can try her with one. I fancy, ma'am, it will be less difficult + to find a cottage that has only two bathrooms than one that has three. + And I know there are invariably pumps." +</p> +<p> + Searching his memory he could recollect no bathrooms at all, but he + did not say so, and silently hoped the best. +</p> +<p> + To the Somerset village of Symford and to the farm about a mile + outside it known as Baker's, no longer, however, belonging to Baker, + but rented by a Mr. Pearce, they journeyed down from Dover without a + break. Nothing alarming happened on the way. They were at Victoria by + five, and the Princess sat joyfully making the acquaintance of a + four-wheeler's inside for twenty minutes during which Fritzing and + Annalise got the luggage through the customs. Fritzing's goggles and + other accessories of flight inspired so much interest in the customs + that they could hardly bear to let him go and it seemed as if they + would never tire of feeling about in the harmless depths of + Priscilla's neat box. They had however ultimately to part from him, + for never was luggage more innocent; and rattling past Buckingham + Palace on the way to Paddington Priscilla blew it a cheerful kiss, + symbolic of a happiness too great to bear ill-will. Later on Windsor + Castle would have got one too, if it had not been so dark that she + could not see it. The detective, who felt himself oddly drawn towards + the trio, went down into Somersetshire by the same train as they did, + but parted from them at Ullerton, the station you get out at when you + go to Symford. He did not consider it necessary to go further; and + taking a bedroom at Ullerton in the same little hotel from which + Fritzing had ordered the conveyance that was to drive them their last + seven miles he went to bed, it being close on midnight, with Mr. + Pearce's address neatly written in his notebook. +</p> +<p> + This, at present, is the last of the detective. I will leave him + sleeping with a smile on his face, and follow the dog-cart as it drove + along that beautiful road between wooded hills that joins Ullerton to + Symford, on its way to Baker's Farm. +</p> +<p> + At the risk of exhausting Priscilla Fritzing had urged pushing on + without a stop, and Priscilla made no objection. This is how it came + about that the ostler attached to the Ullerton Arms found himself + driving to Symford in the middle of the night. He could not recollect + ever having done such a thing before, and the memory of it would be + quite unlikely to do anything but remain fixed in his mind till his + dying day. Fritzing was a curiously conspicuous fugitive. +</p> +<p> + It was a clear and beautiful night, and the stars twinkled brightly + over the black tree-tops. Down in the narrow gorge through which the + road runs they could not feel the keen wind that was blowing up on + Exmoor. The waters of the Sym, whose windings they followed, gurgled + over their stones almost as quietly as in summer. There was a fresh + wet smell, consoling and delicious after the train, the smell of + country puddles and country mud and dank dead leaves that had been + rained upon all day. Fritzing sat with the Princess on the back seat + of the dog-cart, and busied himself keeping the rug well round her, + the while his soul was full of thankfulness that their journey should + after all have been so easy. He was weary in body, but very jubilant + in mind. The Princess was so weary in body that she had no mind at + all, and dozed and nodded and threatened to fall out, and would have + fallen out a dozen times but for Fritzing's watchfulness. As for + Annalise, who can guess what thoughts were hers while she was being + jogged along to Baker's? That they were dark I have not a doubt. No + one had told her this was to be a journey into the Ideal; no one had + told her anything but that she was promoted to travelling with the + Princess and that she would be well paid so long as she held her + tongue. She had never travelled before, yet there were some + circumstances of the journey that could not fail to strike the most + inexperienced. This midnight jogging in the dog-cart, for instance. It + was the second night spent out of bed, and all day long she had + expected every moment would end the journey, and the end, she had + naturally supposed, would be a palace. There would be a palace, and + warmth, and light, and food, and welcome, and honour, and appreciative + lacqueys with beautiful white silk calves—alas, Annalise's ideal, her + one ideal, was to be for ever where there were beautiful white silk + calves. The road between Ullerton and Symford conveyed to her mind no + assurance whatever of the near neighbourhood of such things; and as + for the dog-cart—"<i>Himmel</i>," said Annalise to herself, whenever she + thought of the dog-cart. +</p> +<p> + Their journey ended at two in the morning. Almost exactly at that hour + they stopped at the garden gate of Baker's Farm, and a woman came out + with a lantern and helped them down and lighted them up the path to + the porch. The Princess, who could hardly make her eyes open + themselves, leaned on Fritzing's arm in a sort of confused dream, got + somehow up a little staircase that seemed extraordinarily steep and + curly, and was sound asleep in a knobbly bed before Annalise realized + she had done with her. Priscilla had forgotten all about the Ideal, + all about her eager aspirations. Sleep, dear Mother with the cool + hand, had smoothed them all away, the whole rubbish of those daylight + toys, and for the next twelve hours sat tenderly by her pillow, her + finger on her lips. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + V +</h2> +<p> + No better place than Symford can be imagined for those in search of a + spot, picturesque and with creepers, where they may spend quiet years + guiding their feet along the way of peace. It is one of the prettiest + of English villages. It does and has and is everything the ideal + village ought to. It nestles, for instance, in the folds of hills; it + is very small, and far away from other places; its cottages are old + and thatched; its little inn is the inn of a story-book, with a quaint + signboard and an apparently genial landlord; its church stands + beautifully on rising ground among ancient trees, besides being hoary; + its vicarage is so charming that to see it makes you long to marry a + vicar; its vicar is venerable, with an eye so mild that to catch it is + to receive a blessing; pleasant little children with happy morning + faces pick butter-cups and go a-nutting at the proper seasons and + curtsey to you as you pass; old women with clean caps and suitable + faces read their Bibles behind latticed windows; hearths are scrubbed + and snowy; appropriate kettles simmer on hobs; climbing roses and trim + gardens are abundant; and it has a lady bountiful of so untiring a + kindness that each of its female inhabitants gets a new flannel + petticoat every Christmas and nothing is asked of her in return but + that she shall, during the ensuing year, be warm and happy and good. + The same thing was asked, I believe, of the male inhabitants, who get + comforters, and also that they should drink seltzer-water whenever + their lower natures urged them to drink rum; but comforters are so + much smaller than petticoats that the men of Symford's sense of + justice rebelled, and since the only time they ever felt really warm + and happy and good was when they were drinking rum they decided that + on the whole it would be more in accordance with their benefactress's + wishes to go on doing it. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth, the lady from whom these comforters and petticoats + proceeded, was a just woman who required no more of others than she + required of herself, and who was busy and kind, and, I am sure happy + and good, on cold water. But then she did not like rum; and I suppose + there are few things quite so easy as not to drink rum if you don't + like it. She lived at Symford Hall, two miles away in another fold of + the hills, and managed the estate of her son who was a minor—at this + time on the very verge of ceasing to be one—with great precision and + skill. All the old cottages in Symford were his, and so were the farms + dotted about the hills. Any one, therefore, seeking a cottage would + have to address himself to the Shuttleworth agent, Mr. Dawson, who too + lived in a house so picturesque that merely to see it made you long + either to poison or to marry Mr. Dawson—preferably, I think, to + poison him. +</p> +<p> + These facts, stripped of the redundances with which I have + garnished them, were told Fritzing on the day after his arrival + at Baker's Farm by Mrs. Pearce the younger, old Mr. Pearce's + daughter-in-law, a dreary woman with a rent in her apron, who + brought in the bacon for Fritzing's solitary breakfast and the chop + for his solitary luncheon. She also brought in a junket so liquid + that the innocent Fritzing told her politely that he always drank + his milk out of a glass when he did drink milk, but that, as he + never did drink milk, she need not trouble to bring him any. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Mrs. Pearce in her slow sad voice, after a glance at his + face in search of sarcasm, "'tisn't milk. 'Tis a junket that hasn't + junked." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed?" said Fritzing, bland because ignorant. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Pearce fidgeted a little, wrestling perhaps with her conscience, + before she added defiantly, "It wouldn't." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed?" said Fritzing once more; and he looked at the junket through + his spectacles with that air of extreme and intelligent interest with + which persons who wish to please look at other people's babies. +</p> +<p> + He was desirous of being on good terms with Symford, and had been very + pleasant all the morning to Mrs. Pearce. That mood in which, shaken + himself to his foundations by anxiety, he had shaken his fist to + Annalise, was gone as completely as yesterday's wet mist. The golden + sunshine of October lay beautifully among the gentle hills and seemed + to lie as well in Fritzing's heart. He had gone through so much for so + many weeks that merely to be free from worries for the moment filled + him with thankfulness. So may he feel who has lived through days of + bodily torture in that first hour when his pain has gone: beaten, + crushed, and cowed by suffering, he melts with gratitude because he is + being left alone, he gasps with a relief so utter that it is almost + abject praise of the Cruelty that has for a little loosened its hold. + In this abjectly thankful mood was Fritzing when he found his worst + agonies were done. What was to come after he really for the moment did + not care. It was sufficient to exist untormented and to let his soul + stretch itself in the privacy and peace of Baker's. He and his + Princess had made a great and noble effort towards the realization of + dreams that he felt were lofty, and the gods so far had been with + them. All that first morning in Symford he had an oddly restful, + unburdened feeling, as of having been born again and born aged + twenty-five; and those persons who used to be twenty-five themselves + will perhaps agree that this must have been rather nice. He did not + stir from the parlour lest the Princess should come down and want him, + and he spent the waiting hours getting information from Mrs. Pearce + and informing her mind in his turn with just that amount of knowledge + about himself and his niece that he wished Symford to possess. With + impressive earnestness he told her his name was Neumann, repeating it + three times, almost as if in defiance of contradiction; that his niece + was his deceased brother's child; that her Christian name—here he was + swept away by inspiration—was Maria-Theresa; that he had saved enough + as a teacher of German in London to retire into the country; and that + he was looking for a cottage in which to spend his few remaining + years. +</p> +<p> + It all sounded very innocent. Mrs. Pearce listened with her head on + one side and with something of the air of a sparrow who doesn't feel + well. She complimented him sadly on the fluency of his English, and + told him with a sigh that in no cottage would he ever again find the + comforts with which Baker's was now surrounding him. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was surprised to hear her say so, for his impressions had + all been the other way. As far as he, inexperienced man, could + tell, Baker's was a singularly draughty and unscrubbed place. He + smelt that its fires smoked, he heard that its windows rattled, he + knew that its mattresses had lumps in them, and he saw that its + food was inextricably mixed up with objects of a black and gritty + nature. But her calm face and sorrowful assurance shook the + evidence of his senses, and gazing at her in silence over his + spectacles a feeling crept dimly across his brain that if the + future held many dealings with women like Mrs. Pearce he was going + to be very helpless. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla appeared while he was gazing. She was dressed for going out + and came in buttoning her gloves, and I suppose it was a long time + since Baker's had seen anything quite so radiant in the way of nieces + within its dusty walls. She had on the clothes she had travelled in, + for a search among the garments bought by Fritzing had resulted in + nothing but a sitting on the side of the bed and laughing tears, so it + was clearly not the clothes that made her seem all of a sparkle with + lovely youth and blitheness. Kunitz would not have recognized its + ivory Princess in this bright being. She was the statue come to life, + the cool perfection kissed by expectation into a bewitching living + woman. I doubt whether Fritzing had ever noticed her beauty while at + Kunitz. He had seen her every day from childhood on, and it is + probable that his attention being always riveted on her soul he had + never really known when her body left off being lanky and freckled. He + saw it now, however; he would have been blind if he had not; and it + set him vibrating with the throb of a new responsibility. Mrs. Pearce + saw it too, and stared astonished at this oddly inappropriate niece. + She stared still more when Fritzing, jumping up from his chair, bent + over the hand Priscilla held out and kissed it with a devotion and + respect wholly absent from the manner of Mrs. Pearce's own uncles. + She, therefore, withdrew into her kitchen, and being a person of + little culture crudely expressed her wonder by thinking "Lor." To + which, after an interval of vague meanderings among saucepans, she + added the elucidation, "Foreigners." +</p> +<p> + Half an hour later Lady Shuttleworth's agent, Mr. Dawson, was + disturbed at his tea by the announcement that a gentleman wished to + speak to him. Mr. Dawson was a bluff person, and something of a + tyrant, for he reigned supreme in Symford after Lady Shuttleworth, and + to reign supreme over anybody, even over a handful of cottagers, does + bring out what a man may have in him of tyrant. Another circumstance + that brings this out is the possession of a meek wife; and Mr. + Dawson's wife was really so very meek that I fear when the Day of + Reckoning comes much of this tyranny will be forgiven him and laid to + her account. Mr. Dawson, in fact, represented an unending series of + pitfalls set along his wife's path by Fate, into every one of which + she fell; and since we are not supposed, on pain of punishment, to do + anything but keep very upright on our feet as we trudge along the + dusty road of life, no doubt all those amiable stumblings will be + imputed to her in the end for sin. "This man was handed over to you + quite nice and kind," one can imagine Justice saying in an awful + voice; "his intentions to start with were beyond reproach. Do you not + remember, on the eve of your wedding, how he swore with tears he would + be good to you? Look, now, what you have made of him. You have + prevented his being good to you by your own excessive goodness to + him. You have spent your time nourishing his bad qualities. Though he + still swears, he never does it with tears. Do you not know the + enormous, the almost insurmountable difficulty there is in not + bullying meekness, in not responding to the cringer with a kick? Weak + and unteachable woman, away with you." +</p> +<p> + Certainly it is a great responsibility taking a man into one's life. + It is also an astonishment to me that I write thus in detail of Mrs. + Dawson, for she has nothing whatever to do with the story. +</p> +<p> + "Who is it?" asked Mr. Dawson; immediately adding, "Say I'm engaged." +</p> +<p> + "He gave no name, sir. He says he wishes to see you on business." +</p> +<p> + "Business! I don't do business at tea time. Send him away." +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing, for he it was, would not be sent away. Priscilla had + seen the cottage of her dreams, seen it almost at once on entering the + village, fallen instantly and very violently in love with it + regardless of what its inside might be, and had sent him to buy it. + She was waiting while he bought it in the adjoining churchyard sitting + on a tombstone, and he could neither let her sit there indefinitely + nor dare, so great was her eagerness to have the thing, go back + without at least a hope of it. Therefore he would not be sent away. + "Your master's in," he retorted, when the maid suggested he should + depart, "and I must see him. Tell him my business is pressing." +</p> +<p> + "Will you give me your card, sir?" said the maid, wavering before + this determination. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing, of course, had no card, so he wrote his new name in pencil + on a leaf of his notebook, adding his temporary address. +</p> +<p> + "Tell Mr. Dawson," he said, tearing it out and giving it to her, "that + if he is so much engaged as to be unable to see me I shall go direct + to Lady Shuttleworth. My business will not wait." +</p> +<p> + "Show him in, then," growled Mr. Dawson on receiving this message; for + he feared Lady Shuttleworth every bit as much as Mrs. Dawson feared + him. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was accordingly shown into the room used as an office, and + was allowed to cool himself there while Mr. Dawson finished his tea. + The thought of his Princess waiting on a tombstone that must be + growing colder every moment, for the sun was setting, made him at last + so impatient that he rang the bell. +</p> +<p> + "Tell your master," he said when the maid appeared, "that I am now + going to Lady Shuttleworth." And he seized his hat and was making + indignantly for the door when Mr. Dawson appeared. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson was wiping his mouth. "You seem to be in a great hurry," he + said; and glancing at the slip of paper in his hand added, "Mr. + Newman." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing, bowing with a freezing dignity, "I am." +</p> +<p> + "Well, so am I. Sit down. What can I do for you? Time's money, you + know, and I'm a busy man. You're German, ain't you?" +</p> +<p> + "I am, sir. My name is Neumann. I am here—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, Noyman, is it? I thought it was Newman." And he glanced again at + the paper. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing, with a wave of his hand, "I am here to buy a + cottage, and the sooner we come to terms the better. I will not waste + valuable moments considering niceties of pronunciation." +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson stared. Then he said, "Buy a cottage?" +</p> +<p> + "Buy a cottage, sir. I understand that practically the whole of + Symford is the property of the Shuttleworth family, and that you are + that family's accredited agent. I therefore address myself in the + first instance to you. Now, sir, if you are unable, either through + disinclination or disability, to do business with me, kindly state the + fact at once, and I will straightway proceed to Lady Shuttleworth + herself. I have no time to lose." +</p> +<p> + "I'm blessed if I have either, Mr."—he glanced again at the + paper—"Newman." +</p> +<p> + "Neumann, sir," corrected Fritzing irritably. +</p> +<p> + "All right—Noyman. But why don't you write it then? You've written + Newman as plain as a doorpost." +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I am not here to exercise you in the proper pronunciation of + foreign tongues. These matters, of an immense elementariness I must + add, should be and generally are acquired by all persons of any + education in their childhood at school." +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson stared. "You're a long-winded chap," he said, "but I'm + blessed if I know what you're driving at. Suppose you tell me what + you've come for, Mr."—he referred as if from habit to the + paper—"Newman." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Neu</i>mann, sir," said Fritzing very loud, for he was greatly + irritated by Mr. Dawson's manner and appearance. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Noy</i>mann, then," said Mr. Dawson, equally loudly; indeed it was + almost a shout. And he became possessed at the same instant of what + was known to Fritzing as a red head, which is the graphic German way + of describing the glow that accompanies wrath. "Look here," he said, + "if you don't say what you've got to say and have done with it you'd + better go. I'm not the chap for the fine-worded game, and I'm hanged + if I'll be preached to in my own house. I'll be hanged if I will, do + you hear?" And he brought his fist down on the table in a fashion very + familiar to Mrs. Dawson and the Symford cottagers. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, your manners—" said Fritzing, rising and taking up his hat. +</p> +<p> + "Never mind my manners, Mr. Newman." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Neu</i>mann, sir!" roared Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "Confound you, sir," was Mr. Dawson's irrelevant reply. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, confound <i>you</i>," said Fritzing, clapping on his hat. "And let me + tell you that I am going at once to Lady Shuttleworth and shall + recommend to her most serious consideration the extreme desirability + of removing you, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Removing me! Where the deuce to?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I care not whither so long as it is hence," cried Fritzing, + passionately striding to the door. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson lay back in his chair and gasped. The man was plainly mad; + but still Lady Shuttleworth might—you never know with women—"Look + here—hie, you! Mr. Newman!" he called, for Fritzing had torn open the + door and was through it. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Neu</i>mann, sir," Fritzing hurled back at him over his shoulder. +</p> +<p> + "Lady Shuttleworth won't see you, Mr. Noyman. She won't on principle." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing wavered. +</p> +<p> + "Everything goes through my hands. You'll only have your walk for + nothing. Come back and tell me what it is you want." +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I will only negotiate with you," said Fritzing down the + passage—and Mrs. Dawson hearing him from the drawing-room folded her + hands in fear and wonder—"if you will undertake at least to imitate + the manners of a gentleman." +</p> +<p> + "Come, come, you musn't misunderstand me," said Mr. Dawson getting up + and going to the door. "I'm a plain man, you know—" +</p> +<p> + "Then, sir, all I can say is that I object to plain men." +</p> +<p> + "I say, who are you? One would think you were a duke or somebody, + you're so peppery. Dressed up"—Mr. Dawson glanced at the suit of + pedagogic black into which Fritzing had once more relapsed—"dressed + up as a street preacher." +</p> +<p> + "I am not dressed up as anything, sir," said Fritzing coming in rather + hurriedly. "I am a retired teacher of the German tongue, and have come + down from London in search of a cottage in which to spend my remaining + years. That cottage I have now found here in your village, and I have + come to inquire its price. I wish to buy it as quickly as possible." +</p> +<p> + "That's all very well, Mr.—oh all right, all right, I won't say it. + But why on earth don't you write it properly, then? It's this paper's + set me wrong. I was going to say we've got no cottages here for sale. + And look here, if that's all you are, a retired teacher, I'll trouble + you not to get schoolmastering me again." +</p> +<p> + "I really think, sir," said Fritzing stretching his hand towards his + hat, "that it is better I should try to obtain an interview with Lady + Shuttleworth, for I fear you are constitutionally incapable of + carrying on a business conversation with the requisite decent + self-command." +</p> +<p> + "Pooh—you'll get nothing out of her. She'll send you back to me. Why, + you'd drive her mad in five minutes with that tongue of yours. If you + want anything I'm your man. Only let's get at what you do want, + without all these confounded dictionary words. Which cottage is it?" +</p> +<p> + "It is the small cottage," said Fritzing mastering his anger, + "adjoining the churchyard. It stands by itself, and is separated from + the road by an extremely miniature garden. It is entirely covered by + creeping plants which I believe to be roses." +</p> +<p> + "That's a couple." +</p> +<p> + "So much the better." +</p> +<p> + "And they're let. One to the shoemaker, and the other to old mother + Shaw." +</p> +<p> + "Accommodation could no doubt be found for the present tenants in some + other house, and I am prepared to indemnify them handsomely. Might I + inquire the number of rooms the cottages contain?" +</p> +<p> + "Two apiece, and a kitchen and attic. Coal-hole and pig-stye in the + back yard. Also a pump. But they're not for sale, so what's the use—" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, do they also contain bathrooms?" +</p> +<p> + "Bathrooms?" Mr. Dawson stared with so excessively stupid a stare that + Fritzing, who heaver could stand stupidity, got angry again. +</p> +<p> + "I said bathrooms, sir," he said, raising his voice, "and I believe + with perfect distinctness." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I heard you right enough. I was only wondering if you were trying + to be funny." +</p> +<p> + "Is this a business conversation or is it not?" cried Fritzing, in his + turn bringing his fist down on the table. +</p> +<p> + "Look here, what do you suppose people who live in such places want?" +</p> +<p> + "I imagine cleanliness and decency as much as anybody else." +</p> +<p> + "Well, I've never been asked for one with a bathroom in my life." +</p> +<p> + "You are being asked now," said Fritzing, glaring at him, "but you + wilfully refuse to reply. From your manner, however, I conclude that + they contain none. If so, no doubt I could quickly have some built." +</p> +<p> + "Some? Why, how many do you want?" +</p> +<p> + "I have a niece, sir, and she must have her own." +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson again stared with what seemed to Fritzing so deplorably + foolish a stare. "I never heard of such a thing," he said. +</p> +<p> + "What did you never hear of, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "I never heard of one niece and one uncle in a labourer's cottage + wanting a bathroom apiece." +</p> +<p> + "Apparently you have never heard of very many things," retorted + Fritzing angrily. "My niece desires to have her own bathroom, and it + is no one's business but hers." +</p> +<p> + "She must be a queer sort of girl." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," cried Fritzing, "leave my niece out of the conversation." +</p> +<p> + "Oh all right—all right. I'm sure I don't want to talk about your + niece. But as for the cottages, it's no good wanting those or any + others, for you won't get 'em." +</p> +<p> + "And pray why not, if I offer a good price?" +</p> +<p> + "Lady Shuttleworth won't sell. Why should she? She'd only have to + build more to replace them. Her people must live somewhere. And she'll + never turn out old Shaw and the shoemaker to make room for a couple of + strangers." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was silent, for his heart was sinking. "Suppose, sir," he + said after a pause, during which his eyes had been fixed thoughtfully + on the carpet and Mr. Dawson had been staring at him and whistling + softly but very offensively, "suppose I informed Lady Shuttleworth of + my willingness to build two new cottages—excellent new cottages—for + the tenants of these old ones, and pay her a good price as well for + these, do you think she would listen to me?" +</p> +<p> + "I say, the schoolmastering business must be a rattling good one. I'm + blessed if I know what you want to live in 'em for if money's so + little object with you. They're shabby and uncomfortable, and an old + chap like you—I mean, a man of your age, who's made his little pile, + and wants luxuries like plenty of bathrooms—ought to buy something + tight and snug. Good roof and electric light. Place for horse and + trap. And settle down and be a gentleman." +</p> +<p> + "My niece," said Fritzing, brushing aside these suggestions with an + angrily contemptuous wave of his hand, "has taken a fancy—I may say + an exceedingly violent fancy—to these two cottages. What is all this + talk of traps and horses? My niece wishes for these cottages. I shall + do my utmost to secure them for her." +</p> +<p> + "Well, all I can say is she must be a—" +</p> +<p> + "Silence, sir!" cried Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Dawson got up and opened the door very wide. +</p> +<p> + "Look here," he said, "there's no use going on talking. I've stood + more from you than I've stood from any one for years. Take my advice + and get back home and keep quiet for a bit. I've got no cottages, and + Lady Shuttleworth would shut the door in your face when you got to the + bathroom part. Where are you staying? At the Cock and Hens? + Oh—ah—yes—at Baker's. Well, ask Mrs. Pearce to take great care of + you. Tell her I said so. And good afternoon to you, Mr. Noyman. You + see I've got the name right now—just as we're going to part." +</p> +<p> + "Before I go," said Fritzing, glaring down at Mr. Dawson, "let me + tell you that I have seldom met an individual who unites in his + manner so singularly offensive a combination of facetiousness and + hectoring as yourself. I shall certainly describe your conduct to + Lady Shuttleworth, and not, I hope, in unconvincing language. Sir, + good afternoon." +</p> +<p> + "By-bye," said Mr. Dawson, grinning and waving a pleasant hand. + Several bathrooms indeed! He need have no fears of Lady Shuttleworth. + "Good luck to you with Lady S.!" he called after him cheerily. Then he + went to his wife and bade her see to it that the servant never let + Fritzing in again, explaining that he was not only a foreigner but a + lunatic, and that the mixture was so bad that it hardly bore thinking + of. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VI +</h2> +<p> + While Fritzing was losing his temper in this manner at the agent's, + Priscilla sat up in the churchyard in the sun. The Symford churchyard, + its church, and the pair of coveted cottages, are on a little eminence + rising like an island out of the valley. Sitting under the trees of + this island Priscilla amused herself taking in the quiet scene at her + feet and letting her thoughts wander down happy paths. The valley was + already in shadow, but the tops of the hills on the west side of it + were golden in the late afternoon sunshine. From the cottage chimneys + smoke went up straight and blue into the soft sky, rooks came and + settled over her head in the branches of the elms, and every now and + then a yellow leaf would fall slowly at her feet. Priscilla's heart + was filled with peace. She was going to be so good, she was going to + lead such a clean and beautiful life, so quiet, so helpful to the + poor, so hidden, so cleared of all confusions. Never again would she + need to pose; never again be forced into conflict with her soul. She + had chosen the better part; she had given up everything and followed + after wisdom; and her life would be her justification. Who but knows + the inward peace that descends upon him who makes good resolutions + and abides with him till he suddenly discovers they have all been + broken? And what does the breaking of them matter, since it is their + making that is so wholesome, so bracing to the soul, bringing with it + moments of such extreme blessedness that he misses much who gives it + up for fear he will not keep them? Such blessed moments of lifting up + of the heart were Priscilla's as she sat in the churchyard waiting, + invisibly surrounded by the most beautiful resolutions it is possible + to imagine. The Rev. Edward Morrison, the vicar of whom I have spoken + as venerable, coming slowly up the path leaning on his son's arm with + the intention of going into the church in search of a mislaid + sermon-book, saw Priscilla's thoughtful back under the elm-tree and + perceived at once that it was a back unknown to him. He knew all the + Symford backs, and tourists hardly ever coming there, and never at + that time of the year, it could not, he thought, be the back of a + tourist. Nor could it belong to any one staying with the + Shuttleworths, for he had been there that very afternoon and had found + Lady Shuttleworth rejoicing over the brief period of solitude she and + her son were enjoying before the stream of guests for the coming of + age festivities began. +</p> +<p> + "Robin, what girl is that?" asked the vicar of his son. +</p> +<p> + "I'm sure I don't know," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "She'll catch cold," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "I dare say," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + When they came out of the church ten minutes later Priscilla had not + moved. +</p> +<p> + "She'll certainly catch cold," said the vicar, concerned. +</p> +<p> + "I should think it very likely," said Robin, locking the door. +</p> +<p> + "She's sitting on a stone." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, on old Dawson's slab." +</p> +<p> + "Unwise," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "Profane," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + The vicar took his boy's arm again—the boy, head and shoulders taller + than his father, was down from Cambridge for the vacation then drawing + to its close—and moved, I fear, by the same impulse of pure curiosity + they walked together down the path that would take them right in front + of the young woman on the slab. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was lost in the bright dreams she was weaving, and looked up + with the radiance of them still in her eyes at the two figures between + her and the sunset. +</p> +<p> + "My dear young lady," said the vicar kindly, "are you not afraid of + catching cold? The evenings are so damp now, and you have chosen a + very cold seat." +</p> +<p> + "I don't feel cold," said Priscilla, smiling at this vision of + benevolence. +</p> +<p> + "But I do think you ought not to linger here," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "I am waiting for my uncle. He's gone to buy a cottage, and ought to + be back, really, by now." +</p> +<p> + "Buy a cottage?" repeated the vicar. "My dear young lady, you say + that in the same voice you might use to tell me your uncle had gone to + buy a bun." +</p> +<p> + "What is a bun?" asked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "A bun?" repeated the vicar bewildered, for nobody had ever asked him + that before. +</p> +<p> + "Oh I know—" said Priscilla quickly, faintly flushing, "it's a thing + you eat. Is there a special voice for buns?" +</p> +<p> + "There is for a thing so—well, so momentous as the buying of a + cottage." +</p> +<p> + "Is it momentous? It seems to me so nice and natural." +</p> +<p> + She looked up at the vicar and his son, calmly scrutinizing first one + and then the other, and they stood looking down at her; and each time + her eyes rested on Robin they found his staring at her with the + frankest expression of surprise and admiration. +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me," said the vicar, "if I seem inquisitive, but is it one of + the Symford cottages your uncle wishes to buy? I did not know any were + for sale." +</p> +<p> + "It's that one by the gate," said Priscilla, slightly turning her head + in its direction. +</p> +<p> + "Is it for sale? Dear me, I never knew Lady Shuttleworth sell a + cottage yet." +</p> +<p> + "I don't know yet if she wants to," said Priscilla; "but Fr—, my + uncle, will give any price. And I must have it. I shall—I shall be + ill if I don't." +</p> +<p> + The vicar gazed at her upturned face in perplexity. "Dear me," he + said, after a slight pause. +</p> +<p> + "We must live somewhere," remarked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Of course you must," said Robin, suddenly and so heartily that she + examined his eager face in more detail. +</p> +<p> + "Quite so, quite so," said the vicar. "Are you staying here at + present?" +</p> +<p> + "Never at the Cock and Hens?" broke in Robin. +</p> +<p> + "We're at Baker's Farm." +</p> +<p> + "Ah yes—poor Mrs. Pearce will be glad of lodgers. Poor soul, poor + soul." +</p> +<p> + "She's a very dirty soul," said Robin; and Priscilla's eyes flashed + over him with a sudden sparkle. +</p> +<p> + "Is she the soul with the holes in its apron?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "I expect there are some there. There generally are," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + They both laughed; but the vicar gently shook his head. "Ah well, poor + thing," he said, "she has an uphill life of it. They don't seem + able—they don't seem to understand the art of making both ends meet." +</p> +<p> + "It's a great art," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps they could be helped," said Priscilla, already arranging in + her mind to go and do it. +</p> +<p> + "They do not belong to the class one can help. And Lady Shuttleworth, + I am afraid, disapproves of shiftless people too much to do anything + in the way of reducing the rent." +</p> +<p> + "Lady Shuttleworth can't stand people who don't look happy and don't + mend their apron," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "But it's her own apron," objected Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Exactly," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Well, well, I hope they'll make you comfortable," said the vicar; and + having nothing more that he could well say without having to confess + to himself that he was inquisitive, he began to draw Robin away. "We + shall see you and your uncle on Sunday in church, I hope," he said + benevolently, and took off his hat and showed his snow-white hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla hesitated. She was, it is true, a Protestant, it having been + arranged on her mother's marriage with the Catholic Grand Duke that + every alternate princess born to them was to belong to the Protestant + faith, and Priscilla being the alternate princess it came about that + of the Grand Duke's three children she alone was not a Catholic. + Therefore she could go to church in Symford as often as she chose; but + it was Fritzing's going that made her hesitate, for Fritzing was what + the vicar would have called a godless man, and never went to church. +</p> +<p> + "You are a member of the Church of England?" inquired the vicar, + seeing her hesitate. +</p> +<p> + "Why, pater, she's not English," burst out Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Not English?" echoed the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "Is my English so bad?" asked Priscilla, smiling. +</p> +<p> + "It's frightfully good," said Robin; "but the 'r's,' you know—" +</p> +<p> + "Ah, yes. No, I'm not English. I'm German." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed?" said the vicar, with all the interest that attaches to any + unusual phenomenon, and a German in Symford was of all phenomena the + most unusual. "My dear young lady, how remarkable. I don't remember + ever having met a German before in these parts. Your English is really + surprising. I should never have noticed—my boy's ears are quicker + than my old ones. Will you think me unpardonably curious if I ask what + made you pitch on Symford as a place to live in?" +</p> +<p> + "My uncle passed through it years ago and thought it so pretty that he + determined to spend his old age here." +</p> +<p> + "And you, I suppose, are going to take care of him." +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla, "for we only"—she looked from one to the other + and thought herself extremely clever—"we only have each other in the + whole wide world." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, poor child—you are an orphan." +</p> +<p> + "I didn't say so," said Priscilla quickly, turning red; she who had + always been too proud to lie, how was she going to lie now to this + aged saint with the snow-white hair? +</p> +<p> + "Ah well, well," said the vicar, vaguely soothing. "We shall see you + on Sunday perhaps. There is no reason that I know of why a member of + the German Church should not assist at the services of the Church of + England." And he took off his hat again, and tried to draw Robin away. +</p> +<p> + But Robin lingered, and Priscilla saw so much bright curiosity in his + eyes that she felt she was giving an impression of mysteriousness; and + this being the last thing she wanted to do she thought she had better + explain a little—always a dangerous course to take—and she said, "My + uncle taught languages for years, and is old now and tired, and we + both long for the country and to be quiet. He taught me + English—that's why it's as good as it is. His name"—She was carried + away by the desire to blow out that questioning light in Robin's + eyes—"his name is Schultz." +</p> +<p> + The vicar bowed slightly, and Robin asked with an air of great + politeness but still with that light in his eyes if he were to address + her, then, as Miss Schultz. +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid so," said Priscilla, regretfully. It really sounded gross. + Miss Schultz? She might just as well have chosen something romantic + while she was about it, for Fritzing in the hurry of many cares had + settled nothing yet with her about a name. +</p> +<p> + Robin stared at her very hard, her answer seemed to him so odd. He + stared still more when she looked up with the air of one who has a + happy thought and informed him that her Christian name was Ethel. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel?" echoed Robin. +</p> +<p> + "It's a very pretty name, I think," said Priscilla, looking pleased. +</p> +<p> + "Our housemaid's called Ethel, and so is the little girl that wheels + the gardener's baby's perambulator," was Robin's impetuous comment. +</p> +<p> + "That doesn't make it less pretty," said Priscilla, frowning. +</p> +<p> + "Surely," interrupted the vicar mildly, "Ethel is not a German name?" +</p> +<p> + "I was christened after my mother," said Priscilla gently; and this + was strictly true, for the deceased Grand Duchess had also been + Priscilla. Then a feeling came over her that she was getting into + those depths where persons with secrets begin to flounder as a + preliminary to letting them out, and seized with panic she got up off + the slab. +</p> +<p> + "You are half English, then," said Robin triumphantly, his bright eyes + snapping. He looked very bold and masterful staring straight at her, + his head thrown back, his handsome face twinkling with interest. But a + person of Priscilla's training could not possibly be discomposed by + the stare of any Robin, however masterful; had it not been up to now + her chief function in life to endure being stared at with graceful + indifference? "I did not say so," she said, glancing briefly at him; + and including both father and son in a small smile composed + indescribably of graciousness and chill she added, "It really is damp + here—I don't think I'll wait for my uncle," and slightly bowing + walked away without more ado. +</p> +<p> + She walked very slowly, her skirts gathered loosely in one hand, every + line of her body speaking of the most absolute self-possession and + unapproachableness. Never had the two men seen any one quite so calm. + They watched her in silence as she went up the path and out at the + gate; then Robin looked down at his father and drew his hand more + firmly through his arm and said with a slight laugh, "Come on, pater, + let's go home. We're dismissed." +</p> +<p> + "By a most charming young lady," said the vicar, smiling. +</p> +<p> + "By a very cool one," said Robin, shrugging his shoulders, for he did + not like being dismissed. +</p> +<p> + "Yes—oddly self-possessed for her age," agreed the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "I wonder if all German teacher's nieces are like that," said Robin + with another laugh. +</p> +<p> + "Few can be so blest by nature, I imagine." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I don't mean faces. She is certainly prettier by a good bit than + most girls." +</p> +<p> + "She is quite unusually lovely, young man. Don't quibble." +</p> +<p> + "Miss Schultz—Ethel Schultz," murmured Robin; adding under his + breath, "Good Lord." +</p> +<p> + "She can't help her name. These things are thrust upon one." +</p> +<p> + "It's a beastly common name. Macgrigor, who was a year in Dresden, + told me everybody in Germany is called Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "Except those who are not." +</p> +<p> + "Now, pater, you're being clever again," said Robin, smiling down at + his father. +</p> +<p> + "Here comes some one in a hurry," said the vicar, his attention + arrested by the rapidly approaching figure of a man; and, looking up, + Robin beheld Fritzing striding through the churchyard, his hat well + down over his eyes as if clapped on with unusual vigour, both hands + thrust deep in his pockets, the umbrella, without which he never, even + on the fairest of days, went out, pressed close to his side under his + arm, and his long legs taking short and profane cuts over graves and + tombstones with the indifference to decency of one immersed in + unpleasant thought. It was not the custom in Symford to leap in this + manner over its tombs; and Fritzing arriving at a point a few yards + from the vicar, and being about to continue his headlong career across + the remaining graves to the tree under which he had left Priscilla, + the vicar raised his voice and exhorted him to keep to the path. +</p> +<p> + "Quaint-looking person," remarked Robin. "Another stranger. I say, it + can't be—no, it can't possibly be the uncle?" For he saw he was a + foreigner, yet on the other hand never was there an uncle and a niece + who had less of family likeness. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was the last man wilfully to break local rules or wound + susceptibilities; and pulled out of his unpleasant abstraction by the + vicar's voice he immediately desisted from continuing his short cut, + and coming onto the path removed his hat and apologized with the + politeness that was always his so long as nobody was annoying him. +</p> +<p> + "My name is Neumann, sir," he said, introducing himself after the + German fashion, "and I sincerely beg your pardon. I was looking for a + lady, and"—he gave his spectacles a little adjusting shove as though + they were in fault, and gazing across to the elm where he had left + Priscilla sitting added with sudden anxiety—"I fear I do not see + her." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean Miss Schultz?" asked the vicar, looking puzzled. +</p> +<p> + "No, sir, I do not mean Miss Schultz," said Fritzing, peering about + him at all the other trees in evident surprise and distress. +</p> +<p> + "A lady left about five minutes ago," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "A tall young lady in a blue costume?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes. Miss Schultz." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing looked at him with some sternness. "Sir, what have I to do + with Miss Schultz?" he inquired. +</p> +<p> + "Oh come now," said the cheerful Robin, "aren't you looking for her?" +</p> +<p> + "I am in search of my niece, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Yes. Miss Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "No sir," said Fritzing, controlling himself with an effort, "not + Miss Schultz. I neither know Miss Schultz nor do I care a—" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, sir," interposed the vicar, hastily. +</p> +<p> + "I do not care a <i>pfenning</i> for any Miss Schultz." +</p> +<p> + The vicar looked much puzzled. "There was a young lady," he said, + "waiting under that tree over there for her uncle who had gone, she + said, to see Lady Shuttleworth's agent about the cottage by the gate. + She said her uncle's name was Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "She said she was Miss Ethel Schultz," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "She said she was staying at Baker's Farm," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing stared for a moment from one to the other, then clutching his + hat mechanically half an inch into the air turned on his heel without + another word and went with great haste out of the churchyard and down + the hill and away up the road to the farm. +</p> +<p> + "Quaint, isn't he," said Robin as they slowly followed this flying + figure to the gate. +</p> +<p> + "I don't understand it," said the vicar. +</p> +<p> + "It does seem a bit mixed." +</p> +<p> + "Did he not say his name was Neumann?" +</p> +<p> + "He did. And he looked as if he'd fight any one who said it wasn't." +</p> +<p> + "It is hardly credible that there should be two sets of German uncles + and nieces in Symford at one and the same time," mused the vicar. + "Even one pair is a most unusual occurrence." +</p> +<p> + "If there are," said Robin very earnestly, "pray let us cultivate the + Schultz set and not the other." +</p> +<p> + "I don't understand it," repeated the vicar, helplessly. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VII +</h2> +<p> + Symford, innocent village, went to bed very early; but early as it + went long before it had got there on this evening it contained no + family that had not heard of the arrivals at Baker's Farm. From the + vicarage the news had filtered that a pretty young lady called Schultz + was staying there with her uncle; from the agent's house the news that + a lunatic called Neumann was staying there with his niece; and about + supper-time, while it was still wondering at this sudden influx of + related Germans, came the postmistress and said that the boy from + Baker's who fetched the letters knew nothing whatever of any one + called Schultz. He had, said the postmistress, grown quite angry and + forgotten the greater and by far the better part of his manners when + she asked him how he could stand there and say such things after all + the years he had attended Sunday-school and if he were not afraid the + earth would open and swallow him up, and he had stuck to it with an + obstinacy that had at length convinced her that only one uncle and + niece were at Baker's, and their name was Neumann. He added that there + was another young lady there whose name he couldn't catch, but who sat + on the edge of her bed all day crying and refusing sustenance. + Appeased by the postmistress's apologies for her first unbelief he + ended by being anxious to give all the information in his power, and + came back quite a long way to tell her that he had forgotten to say + that his mother had said that the niece's Christian name was + Maria-Theresa. +</p> +<p> + "But what, then," said the vicar's wife to the vicar when this news + had filtered through the vicarage walls to the very sofa where she + sat, "has become of the niece called Ethel?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know," said the vicar, helplessly. +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps she is the one who cried all day." +</p> +<p> + "My dear, we met her in the churchyard." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps they are forgers," suggested the vicar's wife. +</p> +<p> + "My dear?" +</p> +<p> + "Or anarchists." +</p> +<p> + "Kate?" +</p> +<p> + The vicar's wife said no more, but silently made up her mind to go the + very next day and call at Baker's. It would be terrible if a bad + influence got into Symford, her parish that she had kept in such good + order for so long. Besides, she had an official position as the wife + of the vicar and could and ought to call on everybody. Her call would + not bind her, any more than the call of a district visitor would, to + invite the called-upon to her house. Perhaps they were quite decent, + and she could ask the girl up to the Tuesday evenings in the + parish-room; hardly to the vicarage, because of her daughter Netta. On + the other hand, if they looked like what she imagined anarchists or + forgers look like, she would merely leave leaflets and be out when + they returned her call. +</p> +<p> + Robin, all unaware of his mother's thoughts, was longing to ask her to + go to Baker's and take him with her as a first step towards the + acquaintance after which his soul thirsted, but he refrained for + various discreet reasons based on an intimate knowledge of his + mother's character; and he spent the evening perfecting a plan that + should introduce him into the interior of Baker's without her help. + The plan was of a barbarous simplicity: he was going to choose an + umbrella from the collection that years had brought together in the + stand in the hall, and go boldly and ask the man Neumann if he had + dropped it in the churchyard. The man Neumann would repudiate the + umbrella, perhaps with secret indignation, but he would be forced to + pretend he was grateful, and who knew what luck might not do for him + after that? +</p> +<p> + While Robin was plotting, and his mother was plotting, that the next + day would certainly see them inside Baker's, a third person was trying + to do exactly the same thing at Symford Hall; and this third person + was no other than Augustus, the hope of all the Shuttleworths. + Augustus—he was known to his friends briefly as Tussie—had been + riding homewards late that afternoon, very slowly, for he was an + anxious young man who spent much of his time dodging things like being + overheated, when he saw a female figure walking towards him along the + lonely road. He was up on the heath above Symford, a solitary place of + heather, and gorse bushes, and winding roads that lead with many + hesitations and delays to different parts of Exmoor, and he himself + with his back to that wild region and the sunset was going, as every + sensible person would be going at that time of the evening, in the + direction of the village and home. But where could the girl be going? + For he now saw it was a girl, and in a minute or two more that it was + a beautiful girl. With the golden glow of the sky the sun had just + left on her face Priscilla came towards him out of the gathering dusk + of approaching evening, and Tussie, who had a poetic soul, gazed at + the vision openmouthed. Seeing him, she quickened her steps, and he + took off his cap eagerly when she asked him to tell her where Symford + was. "I've lost it," she said, looking up at him. +</p> +<p> + "I'm going through it myself," he answered. "Will you let me show you + the way?" +</p> +<p> + "Thank you," said Priscilla; and he got off his horse and she turned + and walked beside him with the same unruffled indifference with which + she would have walked beside the Countess Disthal or in front of an + attending lacquey. Nor did she speak, for she was busy thinking of + Fritzing and hoping he was not being too anxious about her, and Tussie + (God defend his innocence) thought she was shy. So sure was he as the + minutes past that her silence was an embarrassed one that he put an + end to it by remarking on the beauty of the evening, and Priscilla who + had entirely forgotten Miss Schultz gave him the iciest look as a + reminder that it was not his place to speak first. It was lost on + Tussie as a reminder, for naturally it did not remind him of anything, + and he put it down at first to the girl's being ill at ease alone up + there with a strange man, and perhaps to her feeling she had better + keep him at arm's length. A glance at her profile however dispelled + this illusion once and for ever, for never was profile of a profounder + calm. She was walking now with her face in shadow, and the glow behind + her played strange and glorious tricks with her hair. He looked at + her, and looked, and not by the quiver of an eyelash did she show she + was aware of anybody's presence. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, + and she was deep in thought tinged with remorsefulness that she should + have come up here instead of going straight home to the farm, and by + losing her way and staying out so long have given Fritzing's careful + heart an unnecessary pang of anxiety. He had had so many, and all + because of her. But then it had been the very first time in her life + that she had ever walked alone, and if words cannot describe the joy + and triumph of it how was it likely that she should have been able to + resist the temptation to stray aside up a lovely little lane that + lured her on and on from one bend to another till it left her at last + high up, breathless and dazzled, on the edge of the heath, with + Exmoor rolling far away in purple waves to the sunset and all the + splendour of the evening sky in her face? She had gone on, fascinated + by the beauty of the place, and when she wanted to turn back found she + had lost herself. Then appeared Sir Augustus to set her right, and + with a brief thought of him as a useful person on a nice horse she + fell into sober meditations as to the probable amount of torture her + poor Fritzi was going through, and Augustus ceased to exist for her as + completely as a sign-post ceases to exist for him who has taken its + advice and passed on. +</p> +<p> + He looked at her, and looked, and looked again. He had never seen any + one quite so beautiful, and certainly never any one with such an air + of extreme detachment. He was twenty-one and much inclined to poetry, + and he thought as she walked beside him so tall and straight and + aloof, with the nimbus of flaming hair and the noble little head and + slightly stern brow that she looked like nothing less than a young + saint of God. +</p> +<p> + Tussie was not bold like Robin. He was a gentle youth who loved quiet + things, quiet places, placid people, kind dogs, books, canaries even, + if they did not sing too loud. He was sensitive about himself, being + small and weakly, and took, as I have said, great care of what he had + of health, such care indeed that some of his robust friends called him + Fussie. He hated the idea of coming of age and of having a great deal + of money and a great many active duties and responsibilities. His + dream was to be left in peace to write his verses; to get away into + some sweet impossible wilderness, and sit there singing with as much + of the spirit of Omar Kayyam as could reasonably be expected to + descend on a youth who only drank water. He was not bold, I say; and + after that one quelling glance from the young saint's eyes did not + dare speak again for a long while. But they were getting near Symford; + they were halfway down the hill; he could not let her slip away + perhaps suddenly from his side into the shadows without at least + trying to find out where she was staying. He looked at her soft kind + mouth and opened his own to speak. He looked at her stern level brows + and shut it again. At last, keeping his eyes on her mouth he blurted + out, growing red, "I know every soul in Symford, and every soul for + miles round, but I don't know—" He stopped. He was going to say + "you," but he stopped. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's thoughts were so far away that she turned her head and + gazed vaguely at him for a moment while she collected them again. Then + she frowned at him. I do not know why Robin should have had at least + several smiles and poor Tussie only frowns, unless it was that during + this walk the young person Ethel Schultz had completely faded from + Priscilla's mind and the Royal Highness was well to the fore. She + certainly frowned at Tussie and asked herself what could possess the + man to keep on speaking to her. Keep on speaking! Poor Tussie. Aloud + she said freezingly, "Did you say something?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Tussie, his eyes on her mouth—surely a mouth only made + for kindness and gentle words. "I was wondering whether you were + staying at the vicarage." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, "we're staying at Baker's Farm." And at the + mention of that decayed lodging the friendly Schultz expression crept + back, smiling into her eyes. +</p> +<p> + Tussie stopped short. "Baker's Farm?" he said. "Why, then this is the + way; down here, to the right. It's only a few yards from here." +</p> +<p> + "Were you going that way too?" +</p> +<p> + "I live on the other side of Symford." +</p> +<p> + "Then good-bye and thank you." +</p> +<p> + "Please let me go with you as far as the high-road—it's almost dark." +</p> +<p> + "Oh no—I can't lose myself again if it's only a few yards." +</p> +<p> + She nodded, and was turning down the lane. +</p> +<p> + "Are you—are you comfortable there?" he asked hurriedly, blushing. + "The Pearces are tenants of ours. I hope they make you comfortable?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, we're only going to be there a few days. My uncle is buying a + cottage, and we shall leave almost directly." +</p> +<p> + The girl Ethel nodded and smiled and went away quickly into the dusk; + and Tussie rode home thoughtfully, planning elaborate plans for a + descent the next day upon Baker's Farm that should have the necessary + air of inevitableness. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was raging up and down the road in front of the gate when + Priscilla emerged, five minutes later, from the shadows of the lane. + She ran up to him and put her arm through his, and looked up at him + with a face of great penitence. "Dear Fritzi," she said, "I'm so + sorry. I've been making you anxious, haven't I? Forgive me—it was the + first taste of liberty, and it got into my feet and set them off + exploring, and then I lost myself. Have you been worrying?" +</p> +<p> + He was immensely agitated, and administered something very like a + scolding, and he urged the extreme desirability of taking Annalise + with her in future wherever she went—("Oh nonsense, Fritzi," + interjected Priscilla, drawing away her arm)—and he declared in a + voice that trembled that it was a most intolerable thought for him + that two strange men should have dared address her in the churchyard, + that he would never forgive himself for having left her there + alone—("Oh, Fritzi, how silly," interjected Priscilla)—and he begged + her almost with tears to tell him exactly what she had said to them, + for her Grand Ducal Highness must see that it was of the first + importance they should both say the same things to people. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla declared she had said nothing at all but what was quite + diplomatic, in fact quite clever; indeed, she had been surprised at + the way ideas had seemed to flow. +</p> +<p> + "So please," she finished, "don't look at me with such lamentable + eyes." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, did you not tell them our name is Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "But so it is." +</p> +<p> + "It is not, ma'am. Our name is Neumann." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla stared astonished. "Neumann?" she said. "Nonsense, Fritzi. + Why should it be Neumann? We're Schultz. I told these people we were. + It's all settled." +</p> +<p> + "Settled, ma'am? I told the woman here as well as the estate agent + that you are my brother's child and that we are Neumann." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was aghast. Then she said severely, "It was your duty to ask + me first. What right have you to christen me?" +</p> +<p> + "I intended to discuss it during our walk to the village this + afternoon. I admit I forgot it. On the other hand I could not suppose + your Grand Ducal Highness, left for a moment unprotected, would inform + two strange gentlemen that our name was Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "You should certainly have asked me first," repeated Priscilla with + knitted brows. "Why should I have to be Neumann?" +</p> +<p> + "I might inquire with equal reason why I should have to be Schultz," + retorted Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "But why Neumann?" persisted Priscilla, greatly upset. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, why not?" said Fritzing, still more upset. Then he added, + "Your Grand Ducal Highness might have known that at the agent's I + would be obliged to give some name." +</p> +<p> + "I didn't think any more than you did," said Priscilla stopping in + front of the gate as a sign he was to open it for her. He did, and + they walked through the garden and into the house in silence. Then she + went into the parlour and dropped into a horsehair armchair, and + leaning her head against its prickliness she sighed a doleful sigh. +</p> +<p> + "Shall I send Annalise to you, ma'am?" asked Fritzing, standing in the + doorway. +</p> +<p> + "What can we do?" asked Priscilla, her eyes fixed on the tips of her + shoes in earnest thought. "Come in, Fritzi, and shut the door," she + added. "You don't behave a bit like an uncle." Then an idea struck + her, and looking up at him with sudden gaiety she said, "Can't we have + a hyphen?" +</p> +<p> + "A hyphen?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, and be Neumann-Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly we can," said Fritzing, his face clearing; how muddled he + must be getting not to have thought of it himself! "I will cause cards + to be printed at once, and we will be Neumann-Schultz. Ma'am, your + woman's wit—" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, you're deteriorating—you never flattered me at Kunitz. Let + us have tea. I invite you to tea with me. If you'll order it, I'll + pour it out for you and practice being a niece." +</p> +<p> + So the evening was spent in harmony; a harmony clouded at intervals, + it is true, first by Priscilla's disappointment about the cottage, + then by a certain restiveness she showed before the more blatant + inefficiencies of the Baker housekeeping, then by a marked and ever + recurring incapacity to adapt herself to her new environment, and + lastly and very heavily when Fritzing in the course of conversation + let drop the fact that he had said she was Maria-Theresa. This was a + very black cloud and hung about for a long while; but it too passed + away ultimately in a compromise reached after much discussion that + Ethel should be prefixed to Maria-Theresa; and before Priscilla went + to bed it had been arranged that Fritzing should go next morning + directly after a very early breakfast to Lady Shuttleworth and not + leave that lady's side and house till he had secured the cottage, and + the Princess for her part faithfully promised to remain within the + Baker boundaries during his absence. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VIII +</h2> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth then, busiest and most unsuspecting of women, was + whisking through her breakfast and her correspondence next morning + with her customary celerity and method, when a servant appeared and + offered her one of those leaves from Fritzing's note-book which we + know did duty as his cards. +</p> +<p> + Tussie was sitting at the other end of the table very limp and sad + after a night of tiresome tossing that was neither wholly sleep nor + wholly wakefulness, and sheltered by various dishes with spirit-lamps + burning beneath them worked gloomily at a sonnet inspired by the girl + he had met the day before while his mother thought he was eating his + patent food. The girl, it seemed, could not inspire much, for beyond + the fourth line his muse refused to go; and he was beginning to be + unable to stop himself from an angry railing at the restrictions the + sonnet form forces upon poets who love to be vague, which would + immediately have concentrated his mother's attention on himself and + resulted in his having to read her what he had written—for she + sturdily kept up the fiction of a lively interest in his poetic + tricklings—when the servant came in with Fritzing's leaf. +</p> +<p> + "A gentleman wishes to see you on business, my lady," said the + servant. +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Neumann-Schultz?" read out Lady Shuttleworth in an inquiring + voice. "Never heard of him. Where's he from?" +</p> +<p> + "Baker's Farm, my lady." +</p> +<p> + At that magic name Tussie's head went up with a jerk. +</p> +<p> + "Tell him to go to Mr. Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + The servant disappeared. +</p> +<p> + "Why do you send him away, mother?" asked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "Why, you know things must go through Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth + pouncing on her letters again. "I'd be plagued to death if they + didn't." +</p> +<p> + "But apparently this is the stranger within our gates. Isn't he + German?" +</p> +<p> + "His name is. Dawson will be quite kind to him." +</p> +<p> + "Dawson's rather a brute I fancy, when you're not looking." +</p> +<p> + "Dearest, I always am looking." +</p> +<p> + "He must be one of Pearce's lodgers." +</p> +<p> + "Poor man, I'm sorry for him if he is. Of all the shiftless women—" +</p> +<p> + "The gentleman says, my lady," said the servant reappearing with + rather an awestruck face, "that he wishes to speak to you most + particular." +</p> +<p> + "James, did I not tell you to send him to Mr. Dawson?" +</p> +<p> + "I delivered the message, my lady. But the gentleman says he's seen + Mr. Dawson, and that he"—the footman coughed slightly—"he don't want + to see any more of him, my lady." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth put on her glasses and stared at the servant. "Upon + my word he seems to be very cool," she said; and the servant, his gaze + fixed on a respectful point just above his mistress's head, reflected + on the extreme inapplicability of the adjective to anything so warm as + the gentleman at the door. +</p> +<p> + "Shall I see him for you, mother?" volunteered Tussie briskly. +</p> +<p> + "You?" said his mother surprised. +</p> +<p> + "I'm rather a dab at German, you know. Perhaps he can't talk much + English"—the footman started—"evidently he wasn't able to say much + to Dawson. Probably he wants you to protect him from the onslaughts of + old Pearce's cockroaches. Anyhow as he's a foreigner I think it would + be kinder to see him." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth was astonished. Was Tussie going to turn over a new + leaf after all, now that he was coming of age, and interest himself in + more profitable things than verse-making? +</p> +<p> + "Dearest," she said, quite touched, "he shall be seen if you think it + kinder. I'll see him—you haven't done breakfast yet. Show him into + the library, James." And she gathered up her letters and went out—she + never kept people waiting—and as she passed Tussie she laid her hand + tenderly for a moment on his shoulder. "If I find I can't understand + him I'll send for you," she said. +</p> +<p> + Tussie folded up his sonnet and put it in his pocket. Then he ate a + few spoonfuls of the stuff warranted to give him pure blood, huge + muscles, and a vast intelligence; then he opened a newspaper and + stared vacantly at its contents; then he went to the fire and warmed + his feet; then he strolled round the table aimlessly for a little; and + then, when half an hour had passed and his mother had not returned, he + could bear it no longer and marched straight into the library. +</p> +<p> + "I think the cigarettes must be here," said Tussie, going over to the + mantelpiece and throwing a look of eager interest at Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing rose and bowed ceremoniously. Lady Shuttleworth was sitting + in a straight-backed chair, her elbows on its arms, the tips of her + ten fingers nicely fitted together. She looked very angry, and yet + there was a sparkle of something like amusement in her eyes. Having + bowed to Tussie Fritzing sat down again with the elaboration of one + who means to stay a long while. During his walk from the farm he had + made up his mind to be of a most winning amiability and patience, + blended with a determination that nothing should shake. At the door, + it is true, he had been stirred to petulance by the foolish face and + utterances of the footman James, but during the whole of the time he + had been alone with Lady Shuttleworth he had behaved, he considered, + with the utmost restraint and tact. +</p> +<p> + Tussie offered him a cigarette. +</p> +<p> + "My dear Tussie," said his mother quickly, "we will not keep Mr. + Neumann-Schultz. I'm sure his time must be quite as valuable as mine + is." +</p> +<p> + "Oh madam," said Fritzing with a vast politeness, settling himself yet + more firmly in his chair, "nothing of mine can possibly be of the same + value as anything of yours." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth stared—she had stared a good deal during the last + halfhour—then began to laugh, and got up. "If you see its value so + clearly," she said, "I'm sure you won't care to take up any more of + it." +</p> +<p> + "Nay, madam," said Fritzing, forced to get up too, "I am here, as I + explained, in your own interests—or rather in those of your son, who + I hear is shortly to attain his majority. This young gentleman is, I + take it, your son?" +</p> +<p> + Tussie assented. +</p> +<p> + "And therefore the owner of the cottages?" +</p> +<p> + "What cottages?" asked Tussie, eagerly. He was manifestly so violently + interested in Mr. Neumann-Schultz that his mother could only gaze at + him in wonder. He actually seemed to hang on that odd person's lips. +</p> +<p> + "My dear Tussie, Mr. Neumann-Schultz has been trying to persuade me to + sell him the pair of cottages up by the church, and I have been trying + to persuade him to believe me when I tell him I won't." +</p> +<p> + "But why won't you, mother?" asked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth stared at him in astonishment. "Why won't I? Do I + ever sell cottages?" +</p> +<p> + "Your esteemed parent's reasons for refusing," said Fritzing, "reasons + which she has given me with a brevity altogether unusual in one of her + sex and which I cannot sufficiently commend, do more credit, as was to + be expected in a lady, to her heart than to her head. I have offered + to build two new houses for the disturbed inhabitants of these. I have + offered to give her any price—any price at all, within the limits of + reason. Your interests, young gentleman, are what will suffer if this + business is not concluded between us." +</p> +<p> + "Do you want them for yourself?" asked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, sir, for myself and for my niece." +</p> +<p> + "Mother, why do you refuse to do a little business?" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, are we so poor?" +</p> +<p> + "As far as I'm concerned," said Tussie airily to Fritzing, "you may + have the things and welcome." +</p> +<p> + "Tussie?" +</p> +<p> + "But they are not worth more than about fifty pounds apiece, and I + advise you not to give more for them than they're worth. Aren't they + very small, though? Isn't there any other place here you'd rather + have?" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie?" +</p> +<p> + "Do you mind telling me why you want them?" +</p> +<p> + "Young man, to live in them." +</p> +<p> + "And where are the people to live who are in them now?" asked Lady + Shuttleworth, greatly incensed. +</p> +<p> + "Madam, I promised you to build." +</p> +<p> + "Oh nonsense. I won't have new red-brick horrors about the place. + There's that nice good old Mrs. Shaw in one, so clean and tidy always, + and the shoemaker, a very good man except for his enormous family, in + the other. I will not turn them out." +</p> +<p> + "Put 'em in the empty lodge at the north gate," suggested Tussie. + "They'd be delighted." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth turned angrily on Fritzing—she was indeed greatly + irritated by Tussie's unaccountable behaviour. "Why don't you build + for yourself?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "My niece has set her heart on these cottages in such a manner that I + actually fear the consequences to her health if she does not get + them." +</p> +<p> + "Now, mother, you really can't make Mr. Neumann-Schultz's niece ill." +</p> +<p> + "Dearest boy, have you suddenly lost your senses?" +</p> +<p> + "Not unless it's losing them to be ready to do a kindness." +</p> +<p> + "Well said, well said, young man," said Fritzing approvingly. +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, have I ever shirked doing a kindness?" asked Lady + Shuttleworth, touched on her tenderest point. +</p> +<p> + "Never. And that's why I can't let you begin now," said Tussie, + smiling at her. +</p> +<p> + "Well said, well said, young man," approved Fritzing. "The woman up to + a certain age should lead the youth, and he should in all things + follow her counsels with respect and obedience. But she for her part + should know at what moment to lay down her authority, and begin, with + a fitting modesty, to follow him whom she has hitherto led." +</p> +<p> + "Is that what your niece does?" asked Lady Shuttleworth quickly. +</p> +<p> + "Madam?" +</p> +<p> + "Is she following you into these cottages, or are you following her?" +</p> +<p> + "You must pardon me, madam, if I decline to discuss my niece." +</p> +<p> + "Do have a cigarette," said Tussie, delighted. +</p> +<p> + "I never smoke, young man." +</p> +<p> + "Something to drink, then?" +</p> +<p> + "I never drink, young man." +</p> +<p> + "If I decide to let you have these cottages—<i>if</i> I do," said Lady + Shuttleworth, divided between astonishment at everything about + Fritzing and blankest amazement at her son's behaviour, "you will + understand that I only do it because my son seems to wish it." +</p> +<p> + "Madam, provided I get the cottages I will understand anything you + like." +</p> +<p> + "First that. Then I'd want some information about yourself. I + couldn't let a stranger come and live in the very middle of my son's + estate unless I knew all about him." +</p> +<p> + "Why, mother—" began Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "Is not the willingness to give you your own price sufficient?" + inquired Fritzing anxiously. +</p> +<p> + "Not in the least sufficient," snapped Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "What do you wish to know, madam?" said Fritzing stiffly. +</p> +<p> + "I assure you a great deal." +</p> +<p> + "Come, mother," said Tussie, to whom this was painful, for was not the + man, apart from his strange clothes and speeches, of a distinctly + refined and intellectual appearance? And even if he wasn't, was he not + still the uncle of that divine niece?—"these are things for Dawson to + arrange." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing started at the hated name, and began to frown dreadfully. His + frown was always very impressive because of his bushy eyebrows and + deep-set eyes. "Dawson, as you call him," he said, "and he certainly + has no claim to any prefix of politeness, is not a person with whom I + will consent to arrange anything. Dawson is the most offensive + creature who ever walked this earth clad in the outer semblance of one + of God's creatures." +</p> +<p> + This was too much for Lady Shuttleworth. "Really—" she said, + stretching out her hand to the bell. +</p> +<p> + "Didn't I tell you so, mother?" cried Tussie triumphantly; and that + Tussie, her own dear boy, should in all things second this madman + completely overwhelmed her. "I knew he was a brute behind your back. + Let's sack him." +</p> +<p> + "James, show this gentleman out." +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, madam, we have not yet arranged—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," interrupted Tussie, "the business part can be arranged between + you and me without bothering my mother. I'll come part of the way with + you and we'll talk it over. You're absolutely right about Dawson. He's + an outrageous mixture of bully and brute." And he hurried into the + hall to fetch his cap, humming <i>O dear unknown One with the stern + sweet face</i>, which was the first line of his sonnet in praise of + Priscilla, to a cheerful little tune of his own. +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, it's so damp," cried his anxious mother after him—"you're + not really going out in this nasty Scotch mist? Stay in, and I'll + leave you to settle anything you like." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, it's a jolly morning for a walk," called back Tussie gaily, + searching about for his cap—"<i>And eyes all beautiful with strenuous + thought</i>—Come on, sir." +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing would not skimp any part of his farewell ceremonies. +</p> +<p> + "Permit me, madam," he said, deeply bowing, "to thank you for your + extremely kind reception." +</p> +<p> + "Kind?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, unable to stop herself from + smiling. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, madam, kind, and before all things patient." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, I do think I've been rather patient," agreed Lady Shuttleworth, + smiling again. +</p> +<p> + "And let me," proceeded Fritzing, "join to my thanks my + congratulations on your possession of so unusually amiable and + promising a son." +</p> +<p> + "Come on, sir—you'll make me vain," said Tussie, in the + doorway—"'<i>Hair like a web divine wherein is caught</i>,'"—he hummed, + getting more and more shrill and happy. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth put out her hand impulsively. Fritzing took it, bent + over it, and kissed it with much respect. +</p> +<p> + "A most unusually promising young man," he repeated; "and, madam, I + can tell you it is not my habit to say a thing I do not mean." +</p> +<p> + "'<i>The last reflection of God's daily grace</i>'"—chirped Tussie, + looking on much amused. +</p> +<p> + "No, that I'm quite certain you don't," said Lady Shuttleworth with + conviction. +</p> +<p> + "Don't say too many nice things about me," advised Tussie. "My mother + will swallow positively anything." +</p> +<p> + But nevertheless he was delighted; for here were his mother and the + uncle—the valuable and highly to be cherished uncle—looking as + pleased as possible with each other, and apparently in the fairest way + to becoming fast friends. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IX +</h2> +<p> + The cheerful goddess who had brought Fritzing and his Princess safely + over from Kunitz was certainly standing by them well. She it was who + had driven Priscilla up on to the heath and into the acquaintance of + Augustus Shuttleworth, without whom a cottage in Symford would have + been for ever unattainable. She it was who had sent the Morrisons, + father and son, to drive Priscilla from the churchyard before Fritzing + had joined her, without which driving she would never have met + Augustus. She it was who had used the trifling circumstance of a + mislaid sermon-book to take the vicar and Robin into the church at an + unaccustomed time, without which sermon-book they would never have met + Priscilla in the churchyard and driven her out of it. Thus are all our + doings ruled by Chance; and it is a pleasant pastime for an idle hour + to trace back big events to their original and sometimes absurd + beginnings. For myself I know that the larger lines of my life were + laid down once for all by—but what has this to do with Priscilla? + Thus, I say, are all our doings ruled by Chance, who loves to use + small means for the working of great wonders. And as for the gay + goddess's ugly sister, the lady of the shifty eye and lowering brow + called variously Misfortune and Ill Luck, she uses the same tools + exactly in her hammering out of lives, meanly taking little follies + and little weaknesses, so little and so amiable at first as hardly to + be distinguished from little virtues, and with them building up a + mighty mass that shall at last come down and crush our souls. Of the + crushing of souls, however, my story does not yet treat, and I will + not linger round subjects so awful. We who are nestling for the moment + like Priscilla beneath the warm wing of Good Fortune can dare to make + what the children call a face at her grey sister as she limps scowling + past. Shall we not too one day in our turn feel her claws? Let us when + we do at least not wince; and he who feeling them can still make a + face and laugh, shall be as the prince of the fairy tales, + transforming the sour hag by his courage into a bright reward, + striking his very griefs into a shining shower of blessing. +</p> +<p> + From this brief excursion into the realm of barren musings, whither I + love above all things to wander and whence I have continually to fetch + myself back again by force, I will return to the story. +</p> +<p> + At Tussie's suggestion when the business part of their talk was + over—and it took exactly five minutes for Tussie to sell and Fritzing + to buy the cottages, five minutes of the frothiest business talk ever + talked, so profound was the ignorance of both parties as to what most + people demand of cottages—Fritzing drove to Minehead in the + postmistress's son's two-wheeled cart in order to purchase suitable + furniture and bring back persons who would paper and paint. Minehead + lies about twenty miles to the north of Symford, so Fritzing could not + be back before evening. By the time he was back, promised Tussie, the + shoemaker and Mrs. Shaw should be cleared out and put into a place so + much better according to their views that they would probably make it + vocal with their praises. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing quite loved Tussie. Here was a young man full of the noblest + spirit of helpfulness, and who had besides the invaluable gift of + seeing no difficulties anywhere. Even Fritzing, airy optimist, saw + more than Tussie, and whenever he expressed a doubt it was at once + brushed aside by the cheerfullest "Oh, that'll be all right." He was + the most practical, businesslike, unaffected, energetic young man, + thought Fritzing, that he had even seen. Tussie was surprised himself + at his own briskness, and putting the wonderful girl on the heath as + much as possible out of his thoughts, told himself that it was the + patent food beginning at last to keep its promises. +</p> +<p> + He took Fritzing to the post-office and ordered the trap for him, + cautioned the postmistress's son, who was going to drive, against + going too fast down the many hills, for the bare idea of the priceless + uncle being brought back in bits or in any state but absolutely whole + and happy turned him cold, told Fritzing which shops to go to and + where to lunch, begged him to be careful what he ate, since hotel + luncheons were good for neither body nor soul, ordered rugs and a + mackintosh covering to be put in, and behaved generally with the + forethought of a mother. "I'd go with you myself," he said,—and the + postmistress, listening with both her ears, recognized that the + Baker's Farm lodgers were no longer persons to be criticised—"but I + can be of more use to you here. I must see Dawson about clearing out + the cottages. Of course it is very important you shouldn't stay a + moment longer than can be helped in uncomfortable lodgings." +</p> +<p> + Here was a young man! Sensible, practical, overflowing with kindness. + Fritzing had not met any one he esteemed so much for years. They went + down the village street together, for Tussie was bound for Mr. Dawson + who was to be set to work at once, and Fritzing for the farm whither + the trap was to follow him as soon as ready, and all Symford, + curtseying to Tussie, recognized, as the postmistress had recognized, + that Fritzing was now raised far above their questionings, seated + firmly on the Shuttleworth rock. +</p> +<p> + They parted at Mr. Dawson's gate, Mrs. Dawson mildly watching their + warmth over a wire blind. "When we are settled, young man," said + Fritzing, after eloquent words of thanks and appreciation, "you must + come in the evenings, and together we will roam across the splendid + fields of English literature." +</p> +<p> + "Oh <i>thanks</i>" exclaimed Tussie, flushing with pleasure. He longed to + ask if the divine niece would roam too, but even if she did not, to + roam at all would be a delight, and he would besides be doing it under + the very roof that sheltered that bright and beautiful head. "Oh + <i>thanks</i>," cried Tussie, then, flushing. +</p> +<p> + His extreme joy surprised Fritzing. "Are you so great a friend of + literature?" he inquired. +</p> +<p> + "I believe," said Tussie, "that without it I'd have drowned myself + long ago. And as for the poets—" +</p> +<p> + He stopped. No one knew what poetry had been to him in his sickly + existence—the one supreme interest, the one thing he really cared to + live for. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing now loved him with all his heart. "<i>Ach Gott, ja</i>," he + ejaculated, clapping him on the shoulder, "the poets—<i>ja, + ja</i>—'Blessings be with them and eternal praise,' what? Young man," he + added enthusiastically, "I could wish that you had been my son. I + could indeed." And as he said it Robin Morrison coming down the street + and seeing the two together and the expression on Tussie's face + instantly knew that Tussie had met the niece. +</p> +<p> + "Hullo, Tuss," he called across, hurrying past, for it would rather + upset his umbrella plan to be stopped and have to talk to the man + Neumann thus prematurely. But Tussie neither saw nor heard him, and + "By Jove, hasn't he just seen the niece though," said Robin to + himself, his eyes dancing as he strode nimbly along on long and + bird-like legs. The conviction seized him that when he and his + umbrella should descend upon Baker's that afternoon Tussie would + either be there already or would come in immediately afterwards. "Who + would have thought old Fuss would be so enterprising?" he wondered, + thinking of the extreme cordiality of Fritzing's face. "He's given + them those cottages, I'll swear." +</p> +<p> + So Fritzing went to Minehead. I will not follow his painful footsteps + as they ranged about that dreary place, nor will I dwell upon his + purchases, which resolved themselves at last, after an infinite and + soul-killing amount of walking and bewilderment, into a sofa, a + revolving bookstand, and two beds. He forgot a bed for Annalise + because he forgot Annalise; and he didn't buy things like sheets + because he forgot that beds want them. On the other hand he spent + quite two hours in a delightful second-hand bookshop on his way to the + place where you buy crockery, and then forgot the crockery. He did, + reminded and directed by Mr. Vickerton, the postmistress's son, get to + a paperhanger's and order him and his men to come out in shoals to + Symford the next morning at daybreak, making the paperhanger vow, who + had never seen them, that the cottages should be done by nightfall. + Then, happening to come to the seashore, he stood for a moment + refreshing his nostrils with saltness, for he was desperately worn + out, and what he did after that heaven knows. Anyhow young Vickerton + found him hours afterwards walking up and down the shingle in the + dark, waving his arms about and crying— +</p> +<p class="block2"> + "O, qui me gelidis convallibus Haemi<br> + Sistat et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!" +</p> +<p> + "Talking German out loud to himself," said young Vickerton to his + mother that night; and it is possible that he had been doing it all + the time. +</p> +<p> + And while he was doing these things Priscilla was having calls paid + her. Nothing could exceed her astonishment when about four o'clock, as + she was sitting deep in thought and bored on the arm of a horsehair + chair, Mrs. Pearce opened the door and without the least warning let + in Mrs. Morrison. Priscilla had promised Fritzing for that one day to + stay quietly at the farm, and for the last two hours, finding the farm + of an intolerable dulness, she had been engaged in reflections of an + extremely complex nature on subjects such as Duty, Will, and + Personality. Her morning in the Baker fields and by the banks of that + part of the Sym that meanders through them had tuned her mind to + meditation. The food at one o'clock and the manner of its bringing in + by Annalise—Priscilla had relieved Mrs. Pearce of that office—tuned + it still more. The blended slipperiness and prickliness of all the + things she tried to sit on helped surprisingly; and if I knew how far + it is allowable to write of linen I could explain much of her state of + mind by a description of the garments in which she was clothed that + day. They were new garments taken straight from the Gerstein box. + They were not even linen,—how could they be for Fritzing's three + hundred marks? And their newness had not yet been exposed to the + softening influence of any wash-tub. Straight did they come, in all + their crackling stiffness, out of the shop and on to the Princess. + Annalise had been supposed to wash them or cause them to be washed the + day before, but Annalise had been far too busy crying to do anything + of the sort; and by four o'clock Priscilla was goaded by them into a + condition of mind so unworthy that she was thinking quite hard about + the Kunitz fine linen and other flesh-pots and actually finding the + recollection sweet. It was a place, Priscilla mused, where her body + had been exquisitely cared for. Those delicate meals, served in + spotlessness, surely they had been rather of the nature of poems? + Those web-like garments, soft as a kiss, how beautiful they had been + to touch and wear. True her soul had starved; yes, it had cruelly + starved. But was it then—she started at her own thought—was it then + being fed at Baker's? +</p> +<p> + And into the middle of this question, a tremendous one to be asked on + the very threshold of the new life, walked Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "How d'y do," said Mrs. Morrison. "The vicar asked me to come and see + you. I hope the Pearces make you comfortable." +</p> +<p> + "Well I never," thought Mrs. Pearce, lingering as was her custom on + the door-mat, and shaking her head in sorrow rather than in anger. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla sat for a moment staring at her visitor. +</p> +<p> + "You are Miss Schultz, are you not?" asked Mrs. Morrison rather + nervously. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla said she was,—her name, that is, was Neumann-Schultz—and + got up. She had the vaguest notion as to how Miss Schultz would behave + under these trying circumstances, but imagined she would begin by + getting up. So she got up, and the sofa being a low one and her + movements leisurely, Mrs. Morrison told her husband afterwards there + seemed to be no end to the girl. The girl certainly was long, and when + at last unfolded and quite straightened out she towered over Mrs. + Morrison, who looked up uneasily at the grave young face. Why, Mrs. + Morrison asked herself, didn't the girl smile? It was the duty of a + Miss Schultz called upon by the vicar's wife to smile; so profound a + gravity on such an occasion was surely almost rude. Priscilla offered + her hand and hoped it was all right to do so, but still she did not + smile. "Are you Mrs. Morrison?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Mrs. Morrison with an immense reserve in her voice. +</p> +<p> + Then Priscilla suggested she should sit down. Mrs. Morrison was + already doing it; and Priscilla sank on to her sofa again and wondered + what she had better say next. She wondered so much that she became + lost in mazes of wonder, and there was so long a silence that Mrs. + Pearce outside the door deplored an inconsiderateness that could keep + her there for nothing. +</p> +<p> + "I didn't know you had a double name," said Mrs. Morrison, staring at + Priscilla and trying to decide whether this was not a case for the + application of leaflets and instant departure. The girl was really + quite offensively pretty. She herself had been pretty—she thanked + heaven that she still was so—but never, never pretty—she thanked + heaven again—in this glaringly conspicuous fashion. +</p> +<p> + "My name is Ethel Maria-Theresa Neumann-Schultz," said Priscilla, very + clearly and slowly; and though she was, as we know, absolutely + impervious to the steadiest staring, she did wonder whether this good + lady could have seen her photograph anywhere in some paper, her stare + was so very round and bright and piercing. +</p> +<p> + "What a long name," said Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla; and as another silence seemed imminent she + added, "I have two hyphens." +</p> +<p> + "Two what?" said Mrs. Morrison, startled; and so full was her head of + doubt and distrust that for one dreadful moment she thought the girl + had said two husbands. "Oh, hyphens. Yes. Germans have them a good + deal, I believe." +</p> +<p> + "That sounds as if we were talking about diseases," said Priscilla, a + faint smile dawning far away somewhere in the depths of her eyes. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Mrs. Morrison, fidgeting. +</p> +<p> + Odd that Robin should have said nothing about the girl's face. Anyhow + she should be kept off Netta. Better keep her off the parish-room + Tuesdays as well. What in the world was she doing in Symford? She was + quite the sort of girl to turn the heads of silly boys. And so + unfortunate, just as Augustus Shuttleworth had taken to giving Netta + little volumes of Browning. +</p> +<p> + "Is your uncle out?" she asked, some of the sharpness of her thoughts + getting into her voice. +</p> +<p> + "He's gone to Minehead, to see about things for my cottage." +</p> +<p> + "Your cottage? Have you got Mrs. Shaw's, then?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes. She is being moved out to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Dear me," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly struck. +</p> +<p> + "Is it surprising?" +</p> +<p> + "Most. So unlike Lady Shuttleworth." +</p> +<p> + "She has been very kind." +</p> +<p> + "Do you know her?" +</p> +<p> + "No; but my uncle was there this morning." +</p> +<p> + "And managed to persuade her?" +</p> +<p> + "He is very eloquent," said Priscilla, with a demure downward sweep of + her eyelashes. +</p> +<p> + "Just a little more," thought Mrs. Morrison, watching their dusky + golden curve, "and the girl would have had scarlet hair and + white-eyebrows and masses of freckles and been frightful." And she + sighed an impatient sigh, which, if translated into verse, would + undoubtedly have come out— +</p> +<p class="block"> + "Oh the little more and how much it is,<br> + And the little less and what worlds away!" +</p> +<p> + "And poor old Mrs. Shaw—how does she like being turned out?" +</p> +<p> + "I believe she is being put into something that will seem to her a + palace." +</p> +<p> + "Dear me, your uncle must really be very eloquent." +</p> +<p> + "I assure you that he is," said Priscilla earnestly. +</p> +<p> + There was a short pause, during which Mrs. Morrison staring straight + into those unfathomable pools, Priscilla's eyes, was very angry with + them for being so evidently lovely. "You are very young," she said, + "so you will not mind my questions—" +</p> +<p> + "Don't the young mind questions?" asked Priscilla, for a moment + supposing it to be a characteristic of the young of England. +</p> +<p> + "Not, surely, from experienced and—and married ladies," said Mrs. + Morrison tartly. +</p> +<p> + "Please go on then." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I haven't anything particular to go on about," said Mrs. + Morrison, offended. "I assure you curiosity is not one of my faults." +</p> +<p> + "No?" said Priscilla, whose attention had begun to wander. +</p> +<p> + "Being human I have no doubt many failings, but I'm thankful to say + curiosity isn't one of them." +</p> +<p> + "My uncle says that's just the difference between men and women. He + says women might achieve just as much as men if only they were curious + about things. But they're not. A man will ask a thousand questions, + and never rest till he's found out as much as he can about anything he + sees, and a woman is content hardly even to see it." +</p> +<p> + "I hope your uncle is a Churchman," was Mrs. Morrison's unexpected + reply. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's mind could not leap like this, and she hesitated a moment + and smiled. ("It's the first time she's looked pleasant," thought Mrs. + Morrison, "and now it's in the wrong place.") +</p> +<p> + "He was born, of course, in the Lutheran faith," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, a horrid faith. Excuse me, but it really is. I hope he isn't + going to upset Symford?" +</p> +<p> + "Upset Symford?" +</p> +<p> + "New people holding wrong tenets coming to such a small place do + sometimes, you know, and you say he is eloquent. And we are such a + simple and God-fearing little community. A few years ago we had a + great bother with a Dissenting family that came here. The cottagers + quite lost their heads." +</p> +<p> + "I think I can promise that my uncle will not try to convert anybody," + said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Of course you mean pervert. It would be a pity if he did. It wouldn't + last, but it would give us a lot of trouble. We are very good + Churchmen here. The vicar, and my son too when he's at home, set + beautiful examples. My son is going into the Church himself. It has + been his dearest wish from a child. He thinks of nothing else—of + nothing else at all," she repeated, fixing her eyes on Priscilla with + a look of defiance. +</p> +<p> + "Really?" said Priscilla, very willing to believe it. +</p> +<p> + "I assure you it's wonderful how absorbed he is in his studies for it. + He reads Church history every spare moment, and he's got it so + completely on his mind that I've noticed even when he whistles it's + 'The Church's One Foundation.'" +</p> +<p> + "What is that?" inquired Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Robin Morrison," announced Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + The sitting-room at Baker's was a small, straightforward place, with + no screens, no big furniture, no plants in pots, nothing that could + for a moment conceal the persons already in it from the persons coming + in, and Robin entering jauntily with the umbrella under his arm fell + straight as it were into his mother's angry gaze. "Hullo mater, you + here?" he exclaimed genially, his face broadening with apparent + satisfaction. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, Robin, I am here," she said, drawing herself up. +</p> +<p> + "How do you do, Miss Schultz. I seem to have got shown into the wrong + room. It's a Mr. Neumann I've come to see; doesn't he live here?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at him from her sofa seat and wondered what she had + done that she should be scourged in this manner by Morrisons. +</p> +<p> + "You know my son, I believe?" said Mrs. Morrison in the stiffest + voice; for the girl's face showed neither recognition nor pleasure, + and though she would have been angry if she had looked unduly pleased + she was still angrier that she should look indifferent. +</p> +<p> + "Yes. I met him yesterday. Did you want my uncle? His name is Neumann. + Neumann-Schultz. He's out." +</p> +<p> + "I only wanted to give him this umbrella," said Robin, with a swift + glance at his mother as he drew it from under his arm. Would she + recognize it? He had chosen one of the most ancient; the one most + appropriate, as he thought, to the general appearance of the man + Neumann. +</p> +<p> + "What umbrella is that, Robin?" asked his mother suspiciously. Really, + it was more than odd that Robin, whom she had left immersed in study, + should have got into Baker's Farm so quickly. Could he have been + expected? And had Providence, in its care for the righteous cause of + mothers, brought her here just in time to save him from this girl's + toils? The girl's indifference could not be real; and if it was not, + her good acting only betrayed the depths of her experience and + balefulness. "What umbrella is that?" asked Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "It's his," said Robin, throwing his head back and looking at his + mother as he laid it with elaborate care on the table. +</p> +<p> + "My uncle's?" said Priscilla. "Had he lost it? Oh thank you—he would + have been dreadfully unhappy. Sit down." And she indicated with her + head the chair she would allow him to sit on. +</p> +<p> + "The way she tells us to sit down!" thought Mrs. Morrison indignantly. + "As though she were a queen." Aloud she said, "You could have sent + Joyce round with it"—Joyce being that gardener whose baby's + perambulator was wheeled by another Ethel—"and need not have + interrupted your work." +</p> +<p> + "So I could," said Robin, as though much struck by the suggestion. + "But it was a pleasure," he added to Priscilla, "to be able to return + it myself. It's a frightful bore losing one's umbrella—especially if + it's an old friend." +</p> +<p> + "Uncle Fritzi's looks as if it were a very old friend," said + Priscilla, smiling at it. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison glanced at it too, and then glanced again. When she + glanced a third time and her glance turned into a look that lingered + Robin jumped up and inquired if he should not put it in the passage. + "It's in the way here," he explained; though in whose way it could be + was not apparent, the table being perfectly empty. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla made no objection, and he at once removed it beyond the + reach of his mother's eye, propping it up in a dark corner of the + passage and telling Mrs. Pearce, whom he found there that it was Mr. + Neumann's umbrella. +</p> +<p> + "No it ain't," said Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + "Yes it is," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "No it ain't. He's took his to Minehead," said Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + "It is, and he has not," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "I see him take it," said Mrs. Pearce. +</p> +<p> + "You did not," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + This would have been the moment, Mrs. Morrison felt, for her to go and + to carry off Robin with her, but she was held in her seat by the + certainty that Robin would not let himself be carried off; and sooner + than say good-bye and then find he was staying on alone she would sit + there all night. Thus do mothers sacrifice themselves for their + children, thought Mrs. Morrison, for their all too frequently + thankless children. But though she would do it to any extent in order + to guard her boy she need not, she said to herself, be pleasant + besides,—she need not, so to speak, be the primroses on his path of + dalliance. Accordingly she behaved as little like a primrose as + possible, sitting in stony silence while he skirmished in the passage + with Mrs. Pearce, and the instant he came in again asked him where he + had found the umbrella. +</p> +<p> + "I found it—not far from the church," said Robin, desiring to be + truthful as long as he could. "But mater, bother the umbrella. It + isn't so very noble to bring a man back his own. Did you get your + cottages?" he asked, turning quickly to Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Robin, are you sure it is his own?" said his mother. +</p> +<p> + "My dear mother, I'm never sure of anything. Nor are you. Nor is Miss + Schultz. Nor is anybody who is really intelligent. But I found the + thing, and Mr. Neumann—" +</p> +<p> + "The name to-day is Neumann-Schultz," said Mrs. Morrison, in a voice + heavy with implications. +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Neumann-Schultz, then, had been that way just before, and so I + felt somehow it must be his." +</p> +<p> + "Your Uncle Cox had one just like it when he stayed with us last + time," remarked Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "Had he? I say, mater, what an eye you must have for an umbrella. That + must be five years ago." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, he left it behind, and I see it in the stand every time I go + through the hall." +</p> +<p> + "No! Do you?" said Robin, who was hurled by this statement into the + corner where his wits ended and where he probably would have stayed + ignominiously, for Miss Schultz seemed hardly to be listening and + really almost looked—he couldn't believe it, no girl had ever done it + in his presence yet, but she did undoubtedly almost look—bored, if + Mrs. Pearce had not flung open the door, and holding the torn portions + of her apron bunched together in her hands, nervously announced Lady + Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "Oh," thought Priscilla, "what a day I'm having." But she got up and + was gracious, for Fritzing had praised this lady as kind and + sensible; and the moment Lady Shuttleworth set her eyes on her the + mystery of her son's behaviour flashed into clearness. "Tussie's seen + her!" she exclaimed inwardly; instantly adding "Upon my word I can't + blame the boy." +</p> +<p> + "My dear," she said, holding Priscilla's hand, "I've come to make + friends with you. See what a wise old woman I am. Frankly, I didn't + want you in those cottages, but now that my son has sold them I lose + no time in making friends. Isn't that true wisdom?" +</p> +<p> + "It's true niceness," said Priscilla, smiling down at the little old + lady whose eyes were twinkling all over her. "I don't think you'll + find us in any way a nuisance. All we want is to be quiet." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison sniffed. +</p> +<p> + "Do you really?" said Lady Shuttleworth. "Then we shall get on + capitally. It's what I like best myself. And you've come too," she + went on, turning to Mrs. Morrison, "to make friends with your new + parishioner? Why, Robin, and you too?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I'm only accidental," said Robin quickly. "Only a restorer of + lost property. And I'm just going," he added, beginning to make hasty + adieux; for Lady Shuttleworth invariably produced a conviction in him + that his clothes didn't fit and wanted brushing badly, and no young + man so attentive to his appearance as Robin could be expected to enjoy + that. He fled therefore, feeling that even Miss Schultz's loveliness + would not make up for Lady Shuttleworth's eyes; and in the passage, + from whence Mrs. Pearce had retreated, removing herself as far as + might be from the awful lady to whom her father-in-law owed rent and + who saw every hole, Robin pounced on his Uncle Cox's umbrella, tucked + is once more beneath his arm, and bore it swiftly back to the stand + where it had spent five peaceful years. "Really old women are rather + terrible things," he thought as he dropped it in again. "I wonder what + they're here for." +</p> +<p> + "Ah, it's there, I see," remarked his mother that night as she passed + through the hall on her way to dinner. +</p> +<p> + "What is?" inquired Robin who was just behind her. +</p> +<p> + "Your Uncle Cox's umbrella." +</p> +<p> + "Dear mater, why this extreme interest in my Uncle Cox's umbrella?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm glad to see it back again, that's all. One gets so used to + things." +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth and his mother—I shudder to think that it is + possible Robin included his mother in the reflection about old women, + but on the other hand one never can tell—had stayed on at the farm + for another twenty minutes after he left. They would have stayed + longer, for Lady Shuttleworth was more interested in Priscilla than + she had ever been in any girl before, and Mrs. Morrison, who saw this + interest and heard the kind speeches, had changed altogether from ice + to amiability, crushing her leaflets in her hand and more than once + expressing hopes that Miss Neumann-Schultz would soon come up to tea + and learn to know and like Netta—I repeat, they would have stayed + much longer, but that an extremely odd thing happened. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla had been charming; chatting with what seemed absolute + frankness about her future life in the cottages, answering little + questionings of Lady Shuttleworth's with a discretion and plausibility + that would have warmed Fritzing's anxious heart, dwelling most, for + here the ground was safest, on her uncle, his work, his gifts and + character, and Lady Shuttleworth, completely fascinated, had offered + her help of every sort, help in the arranging of her little home, in + the planting of its garden, even in the building of those bathrooms + about which Tussie had been told by Mr. Dawson. She thought the desire + for many bathrooms entirely praiseworthy, and only a sign of lunacy in + persons of small means. Fritzing had assured Tussie that he had money + enough for the bathrooms; and if his poetic niece liked everybody + about her to be nicely washed was not that a taste to be applauded? + Perhaps Lady Shuttleworth expatiated on plans and probable + building-costs longer than Priscilla was able to be interested; + perhaps she was over-explanatory of practical details; anyhow + Priscilla's attention began to wander, and she gradually became very + tired of her callers. She answered in monosyllables, and her smile + grew vague. Then suddenly, at the first full stop Lady Shuttleworth + reached in a sentence about sanitation—the entire paragraph was never + finished—she got up with her usual deliberate grace, and held out her + hand. +</p> +<p> + "It has been very kind of you to come and see me," she said to the + astounded lady, with a little gracious smile. "I hope you will both + come again another time." +</p> +<p> + For an instant Lady Shuttleworth thought she was mad. Then to her own + amazement she found her body rising obediently and letting its hand be + taken. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison did the same. Both had their hands slightly pressed, + both were smiled upon, and both went out at once and speechless. + Priscilla stood calmly while they walked to the door, with the little + smile fixed on her face. +</p> +<p> + "Is it possible we've been insulted?" burst out Mrs. Morrison when + they got outside. +</p> +<p> + "I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth, who looked extremely + thoughtful. +</p> +<p> + "Do you think it can possibly be the barbarous German custom?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth again. +</p> +<p> + And all the way to the vicarage, whither she drove Mrs. Morrison, she + was very silent, and no exclamations and conjectures of that indignant + lady's could get a word out of her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + X +</h2> +<p> + Kunitz meanwhile was keeping strangely quiet. Not a breath, not a + whisper, had reached the newspapers from that afflicted little town of + the dreadful thing that had happened to it. It will be remembered that + the Princess ran away on a Monday, arrived at Baker's in the small + hours of Wednesday morning, and had now spent both Wednesday and + Thursday in Symford. There had, then, been ample time for Europe to + receive in its startled ears the news of her flight; yet Europe, + judging from its silence, knew nothing at all about it. In Minehead on + the Thursday evening Fritzing bought papers, no longer it is true with + the frenzy he had displayed at Dover when every moment seemed packed + with peril, but still with eagerness; and not a paper mentioned + Kunitz. On the Saturday he did find the laconic information in the + London paper he had ordered to be sent him every day that the Grand + Duke of Lothen-Kunitz who was shooting in East Prussia had been joined + there by that Prince—I will not reveal his august name—who had so + badly wanted to marry Priscilla. And on the Sunday—it was of course + the paper published in London on Saturday—he read that the Princess + Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, the second and only unmarried daughter of + the Grand Duke, was confined to her bed by a sharp attack of + influenza. After that there was utter silence. Fritzing showed + Priscilla the paragraph about her influenza, and she was at first very + merry over it. The ease with which a princess can shake off her + fetters the moment she seriously tries to surprised her, and amused + her too, for a little. It surprised Fritzing, but without amusing him, + for he was a man who was never amused. Indeed, I am unable to recall + any single occasion on which I saw him smile. Other emotions shook him + vigorously as we know, but laughter never visited him with its + pleasant ticklings under the ribs; it slunk away abashed before a task + so awful, and left him at his happiest to a mood of mild contentment. + "Your Royal Parent," he remarked to Priscilla, "has chosen that which + is ever the better part of valour, and is hushing the incident up." +</p> +<p> + "He never loved me," said Priscilla, wistfully. On thinking it over + she was not quite sure that she liked being allowed to run away so + easily. Did nobody care, then, what became of her? Was she of + positively no value at all? Running away is all very well, but your + pride demands that those runned from shall at least show some sign of + not liking it, make some effort, however humble, to fetch you back. If + they do not, if they remain perfectly quiescent and resigned, not even + sending forth a wail that shall be audible, you are naturally + extremely crushed. "My father," said Priscilla bitterly, "doesn't + care a bit. He'll give out I'm dangerously ill, and then you'll see, + Fritzi—I shall either die, or be sent away for an interminable + yachting cruise with the Countess. And so dust will be thrown in + people's eyes. My father is very good at that, and the Countess is a + perfect genius. You'll see." +</p> +<p> + But Fritzing never saw, for there was no more mention at all either of + Kunitz or of influenza. And just then he was so much taken up by his + efforts to get into the cottages as quickly as possible that after a + passing feeling of thankfulness that the Grand Duke should be of such + a convenient indifference to his daughter's fate it dropped from his + mind in the easy fashion in which matters of importance always did + drop from it. What was the use, briefly reflected this philosopher, of + worrying about what they were or were not thinking at Kunitz? There + would be time enough for that when they actually began to do + something. He felt very safe from Kunitz in the folds of the Somerset + hills, and as the days passed calmly by he felt still safer. But + though no dangers seemed to threaten from without there were certain + dangers within that made it most desirable for them to get away from + Baker's and into their own little home without a moment's unnecessary + delay. He could not always be watching his tongue, and he found for + instance that it positively refused to call the Princess Ethel. It had + an almost equal objection to addressing her as niece; and it had a + most fatal habit of slipping out Grand Ducal Highnesses. True, at + first they mostly talked German together, but the tendency to talk + English grew more marked every day; it was in the air they breathed, + and they both could talk it so fatally well. Up at the cottages among + the workmen, or when they were joined by Mr. Dawson, grown zealous to + help, or by either of the young men Robin and Tussie, who seemed + constantly to be passing, the danger too was great. Fritzing was so + conscious of it that he used to break out into perspirations whenever + Priscilla was with him in public, and his very perspirations were + conspicuous. The strain made his manner oddly nervous when speaking to + or of his niece, and he became the subject of much conjecture to the + observant Robin. Robin thought that in spite of her caressing ways + with her uncle the girl must be privately a dreadful tyrant. It seemed + difficult to believe, but Robin prided himself on being ready to + believe anything at a moment's notice, especially if it was the worst, + and he called it having an open mind. The girl was obviously the most + spoilt of girls. No one could help seeing that. Her least wish seemed + to be for the uncle a command that was not even to be talked about. + Yet the uncle was never openly affectionate to her. It almost seemed + as though she must have some secret hold over him, be in possession, + perhaps, of some fact connected with a guilty past. But then this girl + and guilty pasts! Why, from the look in her eyes she could never even + have heard of such things. Robin thought himself fairly experienced + in knowledge of human nature, but he had to admit that he had never + yet met so incomprehensible a pair. He wanted to talk to Tussie + Shuttleworth about them, but Tussie would not talk. To Tussie it + seemed impossible to talk about Priscilla because she was sacred to + him, and she was sacred to him because he adored her so. He adored her + to an extent that amazes me to think of, worshipping her beauty with + all the headlong self-abasement of a very young man who is also a + poet. His soul was as wax within him, softest wax punched all over + with little pictures of Priscilla. No mother is happy while her + child's soul is in this state, and though he was extremely decent, and + hid it and smothered it and choked it with all the energy he + possessed, Lady Shuttleworth knew very well what was going on inside + him and spent her spare time trying to decide whether to laugh or to + cry over her poor Tussie. "When does Robin go back to Cambridge?" she + asked Mrs. Morrison the next time she met her, which was in the front + garden of a sick old woman's cottage. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison was going in with a leaflet; Lady Shuttleworth was going + in with a pound of tea. From this place they could see Priscilla's + cottage, and Robin was nailing up its creepers in the sight of all + Symford. +</p> +<p> + "Ah—I know what you mean," said Mrs. Morrison quickly. +</p> +<p> + "It is always such a pity to see emotions wasted," said Lady + Shuttleworth slowly, as if weighing each word. +</p> +<p> + "Wasted? You do think she's an adventuress, then?" said Mrs. Morrison + eagerly. +</p> +<p> + "Sh-sh. My dear, how could I think anything so unkind? But we who are + old"—Mrs. Morrison jerked up her chin—"and can look on calmly, do + see the pity of it when beautiful emotions are lavished and wasted. So + much force, so much time frittered away in dreams. And all so useless, + so barren. Nothing I think is so sad as waste, and nothing is so + wasteful as a one-sided love." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison gave the pink tulle bow she liked to wear in the + afternoons at her throat an agitated pat, and tried to conceal her + misery that Augustus Shuttleworth should also have succumbed to Miss + Neumann-Schultz. That he had done so was very clear from Lady + Shuttleworth's portentous remarks, for it was not in human nature for + a woman to be thus solemn about the wasted emotions of other people's + sons. His doing so might save Robin's future, but it would ruin + Netta's. We all have our little plans for the future—dear rosy things + that we dote on and hug to our bosoms with more tenderness even than + we hug the babies of our bodies, and the very rosiest and best + developed of Mrs. Morrison's darling plans was the marriage of her + daughter Netta with the rich young man Augustus. It was receiving a + rude knock on its hopeful little head at this moment in old Mrs. + Jones's front garden, and naturally the author of its being winced. + Augustus, she feared, must be extremely far gone in love, and it was + not likely that the girl would let such a chance go. It was a + consolation that the marriage would be a scandal,—this person from + nowhere, this niece of a German teacher, carrying off the wealthiest + young man in the county. The ways of so-called Providence were quite + criminally inscrutable, she thought, in stark defiance of what a + vicar's wife should think; but then she was greatly goaded. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla herself came out of Mrs. Jones's door at that moment with a + very happy face. She had succeeded in comforting the sick woman to an + extent that surprised her. The sick woman had cheered up so suddenly + and so much that Priscilla, delighted, had at once concluded that work + among the sick poor was her true vocation. And how easy it had been! A + few smiles, a few kind words, a five-pound note put gently into the + withered old hands, and behold the thing was done. Never was sick + woman so much comforted as Mrs. Jones. She who had been disinclined to + speak above a whisper when Priscilla went in was able at the end of + the visit to pour forth conversation in streams, and quite loud + conversation, and even interspersed with chuckles. All Friday + Priscilla had tried to help in the arranging of her cottage, and had + made herself and Fritzing so tired over it that on Saturday she let + him go up alone and decided that she would, for her part, now begin to + do good to the people in the village. It was what she intended to do + in future. It was to be the chief work of her new life. She was going + to live like the poor and among them, smooth away their sorrows and + increase their joys, give them, as it were, a cheery arm along the + rough path of poverty, and in doing it get down herself out of the + clouds to the very soil, to the very beginnings and solid elementary + facts of life. And she would do it at once, and not sit idle at the + farm. It was on such idle days as the day Fritzing went to Minehead + that sillinesses assailed her soul—shrinkings of the flesh from + honest calico, disgust at the cooking, impatience at Annalise's + swollen eyes. Priscilla could have cried that night when she went to + bed, if she had not held tears in scorn, at the sickliness of her + spirit, her spirit that she had thought more than able to keep her + body in subjection, that she had hoped was unalterably firm and brave. + But see the uses of foolishness,—the reaction from it is so great + that it sends us with a bound twice as far again along the right road + as we were while we were wise and picking our way with clean shoes + slowly among the puddles. Who does not know that fresh impulse, so + strong and gracious, towards good that surges up in us after a period + of sitting still in mud? What an experience it is, that vigorous shake + and eager turning of our soiled face once more towards the blessed + light. "I will arise and go to my Father"—of all the experiences of + the spirit surely this is the most glorious; and behold the prudent, + the virtuous, the steadfast—dogged workers in the vineyard in the + heat of the day—are shut out from it for ever. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla had not backslided much; but short as her tarrying had been + among the puddles she too sprang forward after it with renewed + strength along the path she had chosen as the best, and having + completed the second of her good works—the first had been performed + just previously, and had been a warm invitation made personally from + door to door to all the Symford mothers to send their children to tea + and games at Baker's Farm the next day, which was Sunday—she came + away very happy from the comforted Mrs. Jones, and met the two + arriving comforters in the front garden. +</p> +<p> + Now Priscilla's and Mrs. Jones's last words together had been these: +</p> +<p> + "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Priscilla had asked, + leaning over the old lady and patting her arm in farewell. +</p> +<p> + "No, deary—you've done enough already, God bless your pretty face," + said Mrs. Jones, squeezing the five-pound note ecstatically in her + hands. +</p> +<p> + "But isn't there anything you'd like? Can't I get you anything? See, I + can run about and you are here in bed. Tell me what I can do." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones blinked and worked her mouth and blinked again and wheezed + and cleared her throat. "Well, I do know of something would comfort + me," she said at last, amid much embarrassed coughing. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "I don't like," coughed Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "I'll whisper it, deary." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla bent down her head, and the old lady put her twitching mouth + to her ear. +</p> +<p> + "Why, of course," said Priscilla smiling, "I'll go and get you some at + once." +</p> +<p> + "Now God for ever bless your beautiful face, darlin'!" shrilled Mrs. + Jones, quite beside herself with delight. "The Cock and 'Ens, + deary—that's the place. And the quart bottles are the best; one gets + more comfort out of them, and they're the cheapest in the end." +</p> +<p> + And Priscilla issuing forth on this errand met the arriving visitors + in the garden. +</p> +<p> + "How do you do," she said in a happy voice, smiling gaily at both of + them. She had seen neither since she had dismissed them, but naturally + she had never given that strange proceeding a thought. +</p> +<p> + "Oh—how do you do," said Lady Shuttleworth, surprised to see her + there, and with a slight and very unusual confusion of manner. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison said nothing but stood stiffly in the background, + answering Priscilla's smile with a stern, reluctant nod. +</p> +<p> + "I've been talking to poor old Mrs. Jones. Your son"—she looked at + Mrs. Morrison—"told me how ill she was." +</p> +<p> + "Did he?" said Mrs. Morrison, hardly raising her eyes a moment from + the ground. This girl was her double enemy: bound, whatever she did, + to make either a fool of her son or of her daughter. +</p> +<p> + "So I went in and tried to cheer her up. And I really believe I did." +</p> +<p> + "Well that was very kind of you," said Lady Shuttleworth, smiling in + spite of herself, unable to withstand the charm of Priscilla's + personality. How supremely ridiculous of Mrs. Morrison to think that + this girl was an adventuress. Such are the depths of ignorance one can + descend to if one is buried long enough in the country. +</p> +<p> + "Now," said Priscilla cheerfully, "she wants rum, and I'm just going + to buy her some." +</p> +<p> + "Rum?" cried Lady Shuttleworth in a voice of horror; and Mrs. Morrison + started violently. +</p> +<p> + "Is it bad for her?" said Priscilla, surprised. +</p> +<p> + "Bad!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "It is," said Mrs. Morrison with her eyes on the ground, "poison for + both body and soul." +</p> +<p> + "Dear me," said Priscilla, her face falling. "Why, she said it would + comfort her." +</p> +<p> + "It will poison both her body and her soul," repeated Mrs. Morrison + grimly. +</p> +<p> + "My dear," said Lady Shuttleworth, "our efforts are all directed + towards training our people to keep from drinking." +</p> +<p> + "But she doesn't want to drink," said Priscilla. "She only wants to + taste it now and then. I'm afraid she's dying. Mustn't she die + happy?" +</p> +<p> + "It is our duty," said Mrs. Morrison, "to see that our parishioners + die sober." +</p> +<p> + "But I've promised," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Did she—did she ask for it herself?" asked Lady Shuttleworth, a + great anxiety in her voice. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, and I promised." +</p> +<p> + Both the women looked very grave. Mrs. Jones, who was extremely old + and certainly dying—not from any special disease but from mere + inability to go on living—had been up to this a shining example to + Symford of the manner in which Christian old ladies ought to die. As + such she was continually quoted by the vicar's wife, and Lady + Shuttleworth had felt an honest pride in this ordered and seemly + death-bed. The vicar went every day and sat with her and said that he + came away refreshed. Mrs. Morrison read her all those of her leaflets + that described the enthusiasm with which other good persons behave in + a like case. Lady Shuttleworth never drove through the village without + taking her some pleasant gift—tea, or fruit, or eggs, or even little + pots of jam, to be eaten discreetly and in spoonfuls. She also paid a + woman to look in at short intervals during the day and shake up her + pillow. Kindness and attention and even affection could not, it will + be admitted, go further; all three had been heaped on Mrs. Jones with + generous hands; and in return she had expressed no sentiments that + were not appropriate, and never, never had breathed the faintest + suggestion to any of her benefactors that what she really wanted most + was rum. It shocked both the women inexpressibly, and positively + pained Lady Shuttleworth. Mrs. Morrison privately believed Priscilla + had put the idea into the old lady's head, and began to regard her in + something of the light of a fiend. +</p> +<p> + "Suppose," said Priscilla, "we look upon it as medicine." +</p> +<p> + "But my dear, it is not medicine," said Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "It is poison," repeated Mrs. Morrison. +</p> +<p> + "How can it be if it does her so much good? I must keep my promise. I + wouldn't disappoint her for the world. If only you'd seen her + delight"—they quivered—"you'd agree that she mustn't be + disappointed, poor old dying thing. Why, it might kill her. But + suppose we treat it as a medicine, and I lock up the bottle and go + round and give her a little myself three or four times a day—wouldn't + that be a good plan? Surely it couldn't hurt?" +</p> +<p> + "There is no law to stop you," said Mrs. Morrison; and Lady + Shuttleworth stared at the girl in silent dismay. +</p> +<p> + "I can try it at least," said Priscilla; "and if I find it's really + doing her harm I'll leave off. But I promised, and she's expecting it + now every minute. I can't break my promise. Do tell me—is the Cock + and Hens that inn round the corner? She told me it was best there." +</p> +<p> + "But you cannot go yourself to the Cock and Hens and buy rum," + exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth, roused to energy; and her voice was full + of so determined a protest that the vicar's wife, who thought it + didn't matter at all where such a young woman went, received a fresh + shock. +</p> +<p> + "Why not?" inquired Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "My dear, sooner than you should do that I'll—I'll go and buy it + myself," cried Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "Gracious heavens," thought Mrs. Morrison, perfectly staggered by this + speech. Had Lady Shuttleworth suddenly lost her reason? Or was she + already accepting the girl as her son's wife? Priscilla looked at her + a moment with grave eyes. "Is it because I'm a girl that I mustn't?" + she asked. +</p> +<p> + "Yes. For one thing. But—" Lady Shuttleworth shut her mouth. +</p> +<p> + "But what?" asked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, nothing." +</p> +<p> + "If it's not the custom of the country for a girl to go I'll send Mr. + Morrison," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Send Mr. Morrison?" gasped the vicar's wife. +</p> +<p> + "What, the vicar?" exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Priscilla smiling, "young Mr. Morrison. I see him over + there tying up my creepers. He's so kind. He'll go. I'll ask him." +</p> +<p> + And nodding good-bye she hurried out of the garden and over to her + cottage, almost running in her desire not to keep Mrs. Jones any + longer in suspense. +</p> +<p> + The two women, rooted to the ground, watched her as if fascinated, saw + her speak to Robin on his ladder, saw how he started and dropped his + nails, saw how nimbly he clambered down, and how after the shortest + parley the infatuated youth rushed away at once in the direction of + the Cock and Hens. The only thing they did not see from where they + stood was the twinkle in his eye. +</p> +<p> + "I don't think," murmured Lady Shuttleworth, "I don't think, my dear, + that I quite care to go in to Mrs. Jones to-day. I—I think I'll go + home." +</p> +<p> + "So shall I," said Mrs. Morrison, biting her lips to keep them steady. + "I shall go and speak to the vicar." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XI +</h2> +<p> + What she meant by speaking to the vicar was a vigorous stirring of him + up to wrath; but you cannot stir up vicars if they are truly good. The + vicar was a pious and patient old man, practiced in forgiveness, in + overlooking, in waiting, in trying again. Always slow to anger, as the + years drew him more and more apart into the shadows of old age and he + watched from their clear coolness with an ever larger comprehension + the younger generations striving together in the heat, he grew at last + unable to be angered at all. The scriptural injunction not to let the + sun go down upon your wrath had no uses for him, for he possessed no + wrath for the sun to go down upon. He had that lovable nature that + sees the best in everything first, and then prefers to look no + further. He took for granted that people were at bottom good and + noble, and the assumption went a long way towards making them so. + Robin, for instance, was probably saved by his father's unclouded + faith in him. Mrs. Morrison, a woman who had much trouble with + herself, having come into the world with the wings of the angel in her + well glued down and prevented from spreading by a multitude of little + defects, had been helped without her knowing it by his example out of + many a pit of peevishness and passion. Who shall measure the influence + of one kind and blameless life? His wife, in her gustier moments, + thought it sheer weakness, this persistent turning away from evil, + this refusal to investigate and dissect, to take sides, to wrestle. + The evil was there, and it was making an ostrich or a vegetable of + one's self to go on being calm in the face of it. With the blindness + of wives, who are prevented from seeing clearly by the very closeness + of the object—the same remark exactly applies to husbands—she did + not see that the vicar was the candle shining in a naughty world, that + he was the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. And just as leaven + leavens by its mere presence in the lump, by merely passively being + there, and will go on doing it so long as there is a lump to leaven, + so had the vicar, more than his hardworking wife, more than the + untiring Lady Shuttleworth, more than any district visitor, parish + nurse, or other holy person, influenced Symford by simply living in it + in a way that would have surprised him had he known. There is a great + virtue in sweeping out one's own house and trimming its lamps before + starting on the house and lamps of a neighbour; and since new dust + settles every day, and lamps, I believe, need constant trimming, I + know not when the truly tidy soul will have attained so perfect a + spotlessness as to justify its issuing forth to attack the private + dust of other people. And if it ever did, lo, it would find the + necessity no longer there. Its bright untiringness would + unconsciously have done its work, and every dimmer soul within sight + of that cheerful shining been strengthened and inspired to go and do + likewise. +</p> +<p> + But Mrs. Morrison, who saw things differently, was constantly trying + to stir up storms in the calm waters of the vicar's mind; and after + the episode in Mrs. Jones's front garden she made a very determined + effort to get him to rebuke Priscilla. Her own indignation was poured + out passionately. The vicar was surprised at her heat, he who was so + beautifully cool himself, and though he shook his head over Mrs. + Jones's rum he also smiled as he shook it. Nor was he more reasonable + about Robin. On the contrary, he declared that he would think mightily + little of a young man who did not immediately fall head over ears in + love with such a pretty girl. +</p> +<p> + "You don't mind our boy's heart being broken, then?" questioned his + wife bitterly; of her plans for Netta she had never cared to speak. +</p> +<p> + "My dear, if it is to be broken there is no young lady I would sooner + entrust with the job." +</p> +<p> + "You don't mind his marrying an adventuress, then?" +</p> +<p> + "My dear, I know of no adventuress." +</p> +<p> + "You rather like our old people to be tempted to drink, to have it + thrust upon them on their very dying beds?" +</p> +<p> + "Kate, are you not bitter?" +</p> +<p> + "Psha," said his wife, drumming her foot. +</p> +<p> + "Psha, Kate?" inquired the vicar mildly; and it is not always that + the saintly produce a soothing effect on their wives. +</p> +<p> + It really seemed as if the girl were to have her own way in Symford, + unchecked even by Lady Shuttleworth, whose attitude was entirely + incomprehensible. She was to be allowed to corrupt the little hamlet + that had always been so good, to lead it astray, to lure it down paths + of forbidden indulgence, to turn it topsy turvy to an extent not even + reached by the Dissenting family that had given so much trouble a few + years before. It was on the Sunday morning as the church bells were + ringing, that Mrs. Morrison, prayer-book in hand, looked in at Mrs. + Jones's on her way to service and discovered the five-pound note. +</p> +<p> + The old lady was propped up in bed with her open Bible on her lap and + her spectacles lying in it, and as usual presented to her visitor the + perfect realization of her ideal as to the looks and manners most + appropriate to ailing Christians. There was nowhere a trace of rum, + and the only glass in the room was innocently filled with the china + roses that flowered so profusely in the garden at Baker's Farm. But + Mrs. Morrison could not for all that dissemble the disappointment and + sternness of her heart, and the old lady glanced up at her as she came + in with a kind of quavering fearfulness, like that of a little child + who is afraid it may be going to be whipped, or of a conscientious dog + who has lapsed unaccountably from rectitude. +</p> +<p> + "I have come to read the gospel for the day to you," said Mrs. + Morrison, sitting down firmly beside her. +</p> +<p> + "Thank you mum," said Mrs. Jones with meekness. +</p> +<p> + "My prayer-book has such small print—give me your Bible." +</p> +<p> + A look of great anxiety came into Mrs. Jones's eyes, but the Bible was + drawn from between her trembling old hands, and Mrs. Morrison began to + turn its pages. She had not turned many before she came to the + five-pound note. "What is this?" she asked, in extreme surprise. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones gave a little gasp, and twisted her fingers about. +</p> +<p> + "A five-pound note?" exclaimed Mrs. Morrison, holding it up. "How did + it come here?" +</p> +<p> + "It's mine, mum," quavered Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> + "Yours? Do you mean to say you have money hidden away and yet allow + Lady Shuttleworth to pay everything for you?" +</p> +<p> + "It's the first I ever 'ad, mum," faintly murmured the old lady, her + eyes following every movement of Mrs. Morrison's hands with a look of + almost animal anxiety. +</p> +<p> + "Where did it come from?" +</p> +<p> + "The young lady give it me yesterday, mum." +</p> +<p> + "The young lady?" Mrs. Morrison's voice grew very loud. "Do you mean + the person staying at the Pearces'?" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones gulped, and feebly nodded. +</p> +<p> + "Most improper. Most wrong. Most dangerous. You cannot tell how she + came by it, and I must say I'm surprised at you, Mrs. Jones. It + probably is not a real one. It is unlikely a chit like that should be + able to give so large a sum away—" And Mrs. Morrison held up the note + to the light and turned it round and round, scrutinizing it from every + point of view, upside down, back to front, sideways, with one eye + shut; but it refused to look like anything but a good five-pound note, + and she could only repeat grimly "Most dangerous." +</p> +<p> + The old lady watched her, a terrible anxiety in her eyes. Her worst + fears were fulfilled when the vicar's wife folded it up and said + decidedly, "For the present I shall take care of it for you. You + cannot lie here with so much money loose about the place. Why, if it + got round the village you might have some one in who'd murder you. + People have been murdered before now for less than this. I shall speak + to the vicar about it." And she put it in her purse, shut it with a + snap, and took up the Bible again. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones made a little sound between a gasp and a sob. Her head + rolled back on the pillow, and two tears dropped helplessly down the + furrows of her face. In that moment she felt the whole crushing misery + of being weak, and sick, and old,—so old that you have outlived your + claims to everything but the despotic care of charitable ladies, so + old that you are a mere hurdy-gurdy, expected each time any one in + search of edification chooses to turn your handle to quaver out tunes + of immortality. It is a bad thing to be very old. Of all the bad + things life forces upon us as we pass along it is the last and + worst—the bitterness at the bottom of the cup, the dregs of what for + many was after all always only medicine. Mrs. Jones had just enough of + the strength of fear left to keep quite still while the vicar's wife + read the Gospel in a voice that anger made harsh; but when she had + gone, after a parting admonition and a dreadful assurance that she + would come again soon, the tears rolled unchecked and piteous, and it + was a mercy that Priscilla also took it into her head to look in on + her way to church, for if she had not I don't know who would have + dried them for this poor baby of eighty-five. And I regret to say that + Priscilla's ideas of doing good were in such a state of crudeness that + she had no sooner mastered the facts brokenly sobbed out than she ran + to the cupboard and gave Mrs. Jones a tablespoonful of rum for the + strengthening of her body and then took out her purse and gave her + another five-pound note for the comforting of her soul. And then she + wiped her eyes, and patted her, and begged her not to mind. Such + conduct was, I suppose, what is called indiscriminate charity and + therefore blameworthy, but its effect was great. Priscilla went to + church with the reflection of the old lady's wonder and joy shining in + her own face. "Hide it," had been her last words at the door, her + finger on her lips, her head nodding expressively in the direction of + the vicarage; and by this advice she ranged herself once and for all + on the opposite side to Mrs. Morrison and the followers of obedience + and order. Mrs. Jones would certainly have taken her for an angel + working miracles with five-pound notes and an inexhaustible pocket if + it had not been for the rum; even in her rapture she did feel that a + genuine angel would be incapable of any really harmonious combination + with rum. But so far had she fallen from the kind of thinking that the + vicar's wife thought proper in a person so near her end that she + boldly told herself she preferred Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + Now this was the day of Priscilla's children's party, and though all + Symford had been talking of it for twenty-four hours the news of it + had not yet reached Mrs. Morrison's ears. The reason was that Symford + talked in whispers, only too sure that the authorities would consider + it wrong for it to send its children a-merrymaking on a Sunday, and + desperately afraid lest the forbidden cup should be snatched from its + longing lips. But the news did get to Mrs. Morrison's ears, and it got + to them in the porch of the church as she was passing in to prayer. + She had it from an overgrown girl who was waiting outside for her + father, and who was really much too big for children's parties but had + got an invitation by looking wistful at the right moment. +</p> +<p> + "Emma," said Mrs. Morrison in passing, "you have not returned the + book I lent you. Bring it up this afternoon." +</p> +<p> + "Please mum, I'll bring it to-morrow, mum," said the girl, curtseying + and turning red. +</p> +<p> + "No, Emma, you will do as I direct. One can never be too particular + about returning books. You have kept it an unconscionable time. You + will bring it to the vicarage at four o'clock." +</p> +<p> + "Please mum, I—I can't at four o'clock." +</p> +<p> + "And pray, Emma, what is to prevent you?" +</p> +<p> + "I—I'm going to Baker's, mum." +</p> +<p> + "Going to Baker's? Why are you going to Baker's, Emma?" +</p> +<p> + So it all came out. +</p> +<p> + The bells were just stopping, and Mrs. Morrison, who played the organ, + was forced to hurry in without having told Emma her whole opinion of + those who gave and those who attended Sunday parties, but the prelude + she played that day expressed the tumult of her mind very well, and + struck Tussie Shuttleworth, who had sensitive ears, quite cold. He was + the only person in the church acutely sensitive to sound, and it was + very afflicting to him, this plunging among the pedals, this angry + shrieking of stops no man ever yet had heard together. The very blower + seemed frightened, and blew in gasps; and the startled Tussie, + comparing the sounds to the clamourings of a fiend in pain, could not + possibly guess they were merely the musical expression of the state of + a just woman's soul. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison's anger was perfectly proper. It had been the + conscientious endeavour of twenty-five solid years of her life to make + of Symford a model parish, and working under Lady Shuttleworth, whose + power was great since all the cottages were her son's and were lived + in by his own labourers, it had been kept in a state of order so + nearly perfect as to raise it to the position of an example to the + adjoining parishes. The church was full, the Sunday-school well + attended, the Sabbath was kept holy, the women were one and all sober + and thrifty, the men were fairly satisfactory except on Saturday + nights, there was no want, little sickness, and very seldom downright + sin. The expression downright sin is Mrs. Morrison's own,—heaven + forbid that I should have anything to do with such an expression—and + I suppose she meant by it thieving, murder, and other grossnesses that + would bring the sinner, as she often told her awe-struck Dorcas class, + to infallible gallows, and the sinner's parents' grey hairs to + sorrowful graves. "Please mum, will the parents go too?" asked a girl + one day who had listened breathlessly, an inquiring-minded girl who + liked to get to the root of things. +</p> +<p> + "Go where, Bessie?" +</p> +<p> + "With the grey hairs, mum." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison paused a moment and fixed a searching gaze on Bessie's + face. Then she said with much dignity, "The parents, Bessie, will + naturally follow the hairs." And to a girl bred in the near + neighbourhood of Exmoor it sounded very sporting. +</p> +<p> + Into this innocent, frugal, well-managed hamlet Priscilla dropped + suddenly from nowhere, trailing with her thunder-clouds of impulsive + and childish ideas about doing good, and holding in her hands the + dangerous weapon of wealth. It is hard to stand by and see one's + life-work broken up before one's eyes by an irresponsible stranger, a + foreigner, a girl, a young girl, a pretty girl; especially hard if one + was born with an unbending character, tough and determined, ambitious + and vain. These are not reproaches being piled up on the vicar's wife; + who shall dare reproach another? And how could she help being born so? + We would all if we could be born good and amiable and beautiful, and + remain so perpetually during our lives; and she too was one of God's + children, and inside her soul, behind the crust of failings that + hindered it during these years from coming out, sat her bright angel, + waiting. Meanwhile she was not a person to watch the destruction of + her hopes without making violent efforts to stop it; and immediately + she had played the vicar into the vestry after service that Sunday she + left the congregation organless and hurried away into the churchyard. + There she stood and waited for the villagers to question them about + this unheard of thing; and it was bad to see how they melted away in + other directions,—out at unused gates, making detours over the grass, + visiting the long-neglected graves of relatives, anywhere rather than + along the ordinary way, which was the path where the vicar's wife + stood. At last came Mrs. Vickerton the postmistress. She was deep in + conversation with the innkeeper's wife, and did not see the figure on + the path in time to melt away herself. If she had she certainly would + have melted, for though she had no children but her grown-up son she + felt very guilty; for it was her son who had been sent the afternoon + before to Minehead by Priscilla with a list as long as his arm of the + cakes and things to be ordered for the party. "Oh Mrs. Morrison, I + didn't see you," she exclaimed, starting and smiling and turning red. + She was a genteel woman who called no one mum. +</p> +<p> + The innkeeper's wife slipped deftly away among graves. +</p> +<p> + "Is it true that the children are going to Baker's Farm this + afternoon?" asked Mrs. Morrison, turning and walking grimly by Mrs. + Vickerton. +</p> +<p> + "I did hear something about it, Mrs. Morrison," said Mrs. Vickerton, + hiding her agitation behind a series of smiles with sudden endings. +</p> +<p> + "All?" +</p> +<p> + "I did hear they pretty well all thought of it," said Mrs. Vickerton, + coughing. "Beautiful weather, isn't it, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "They are to have tea there?" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Vickerton gazed pleasantly at the clouds and the tree-tops. "I + should think there might be tea, Mrs. Morrison," she said; and the + vision of that mighty list of cakes rising before her eyes made her + put up her hand and cough again. +</p> +<p> + "Have the parents lost their senses?" +</p> +<p> + "I couldn't say—I really couldn't say, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "Have they forgotten the commandments?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh I 'ope not, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "And the vicar's teaching? And the good habits of years?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, Mrs. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "I never heard of anything more disgraceful. Disgraceful to the giver + and to those who accept. Wicked, scandalous, and unscriptural." +</p> +<p> + "We all 'oped you'd see no harm in it, Mrs. Morrison. It's a fine day, + and they'll just have tea, and perhaps—sing a little, and they don't + get treats often this time of year." +</p> +<p> + "Why, it's disgraceful—disgraceful anywhere to have a treat on a + Sunday; but in a parish like this it is scandalous. When Lady + Shuttleworth hears of it I quite expect she'll give everybody notice + to quit." +</p> +<p> + "Notice to quit? Oh I hope not, Mrs. Morrison. And she do know about + it. She heard it last night. And Sir Augustus himself has promised the + young lady to go and help." +</p> +<p> + "Sir Augustus?" +</p> +<p> + "And we all think it so kind of him, and so kind of the young lady + too," said Mrs. Vickerton, gathering courage. +</p> +<p> + "Sir Augustus?" repeated Mrs. Morrison. Then a horrid presentiment + laid cold fingers on her heart. "Is any one else going to help?" she + asked quickly. +</p> +<p> + "Only the young lady's uncle, and—" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Vickerton hesitated, and looked at the vicar's wife with a + slightly puzzled air. +</p> +<p> + "And who?" +</p> +<p> + "Of course Mr. Robin." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XII +</h2> +<p> + It is the practice of Providence often to ignore the claims of poetic + justice. Properly, the Symford children ought to have been choked by + Priscilla's cakes; and if they had been, the parents who had sent them + merrymaking on a Sunday would have been well punished by the + undeniable awfulness of possessing choked children. But nobody was + choked; and when in the early days of the following week there were in + nearly every cottage pangs being assuaged, they were so naturally the + consequence of the strange things that had been eaten that only Mrs. + Morrison was able to see in them weapons being wielded by Providence + in the cause of eternal right. She, however, saw it so plainly that + each time during the next few days that a worried mother came and + asked advice, she left her work or her meals without a murmur, and + went to the castor-oil cupboard with an alacrity that was almost + cheerful; and seldom, I suppose, have such big doses been supplied and + administered as the ones she prescribed for suffering Symford. +</p> +<p> + But on this dark side of the picture I do not care to look; the + party, anyhow, had been a great success, and Priscilla became at + one stroke as popular among the poor of Symford as she had been in + Lothen-Kunitz. Its success it is true was chiefly owing to the + immense variety of things to eat she had provided; for the + conjuror, merry-go-round, and cocoa-nuts to be shied at that she + had told young Vickerton to bring with him from Minehead, had all + been abandoned on Tussie's earnest advice, who instructed her + innocent German mind that these amusements, undoubtedly admirable + in themselves and on week days, were looked upon askance in England + on Sundays. +</p> +<p> + "Why?" asked Priscilla, in great surprise. +</p> +<p> + "It's not keeping the day holy," said Tussie, blushing. +</p> +<p> + "How funny," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I don't know." +</p> +<p> + "Why," said Priscilla, "in Kun—" but she pulled herself up just as + she was about to give him a description of the varied nature of Sunday + afternoons in Kunitz. +</p> +<p> + "You must have noticed," said Tussie, "as you have lived so long in + London, that everything's shut on Sundays. There are no theatres and + things—certainly no cocoa-nuts." +</p> +<p> + "No, I don't remember any cocoa-nuts," mused Priscilla, her memory + going over those past Sundays she had spent in England. +</p> +<p> + Tussie tried to make amends for having obstructed her plans by + exerting himself to the utmost to entertain the children as far as + decorum allowed. He encouraged them to sing, he who felt every + ugliness in sound like a blow; he urged them to recite for prizes of + sixpences, he on whose soul Casabianca and Excelsior had much the + effect of scourges on a tender skin; he led them out into a field + between tea and supper and made them run races, himself setting the + example, he who caught cold so easily that he knew it probably meant a + week in bed. Robin helped too, but his exertions were confined to the + near neighbourhood of Priscilla. His mother had been very angry with + him, and he had been very angry with his mother for being angry, and + he had come away from the vicarage with a bad taste in his mouth and a + great defiance in his heart. It was the first time he had said hard + things to her, and it had been a shocking moment,—a moment sometimes + inevitable in the lives of parents and children of strong character + and opposed desires. He had found himself quite unable in his anger to + clothe his hard sayings in forms of speech that would have hidden + their brutal force, and he had turned his back at last on her + answering bitterness and fled to Baker's, thankful to find when he got + there that Priscilla's beauty and the interest of the mystery that + hung about her wiped out every other remembrance. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was in the big farm kitchen, looking on at the children + having tea. That was all she did at her party, except go round every + now and then saying pleasant little things to each child; but this + going round was done in so accomplished a manner, she seemed so used + to it, was so well provided with an apparently endless supply of + appropriate remarks, was so kind, and yet so—what was the word? + could it be mechanical?—that Robin for the hundredth time found + himself pondering over something odd, half-remembered, elusive about + the girl. Then there was the uncle; manifestly a man who had never + before been required to assist at a school-treat, manifestly on this + occasion an unhappy man, yet look how he worked while she sat idly + watching, look how he laboured round with cakes and bread-and-butter, + clumsily, strenuously, with all the heat and anxiety of one eager to + please and obey. Yes, that was what he did; Robin had hit on it at + last. This extraordinary uncle obeyed his niece; and Robin knew very + well that Germany was the last country in the world to produce men who + did that. Had he not a cousin who had married a German officer? A + whilom gay and sprightly cousin, who spent her time, as she dolefully + wrote, having her mind weeded of its green growth of little opinions + and gravelled and rolled and stamped with the opinions of her male + relations-in-law. "And I'd rather have weeds than gravel," she wrote + at the beginning of this process when she was still restive under the + roller, "for they at least are green." But long ago she had left off + complaining, long ago she too had entered into the rest that remaineth + for him who has given up, who has become what men praise as reasonable + and gods deplore as dull, who is tired of bothering, tired of trying, + tired of everything but sleep. Then there was the girl's maid. This + was the first time Robin had seen her; and while she was helping Mrs. + Pearce pour out cups of chocolate and put a heaped spoonful of whipped + cream on the top of each cup in the fashion familiar to Germans and + altogether lovely in the eyes of the children of Symford, Robin went + to her and offered help. +</p> +<p> + Annalise looked at him with heavy eyes, and shook her head. +</p> +<p> + "She don't speak no English, sir," explained Mrs. Pearce. "This one's + pure heathen." +</p> +<p> + "No English," echoed Annalise drearily, who had at least learned that + much, "no English, no English." +</p> +<p> + Robin gathered up his crumbs of German and presented them to her with + a smile. Immediately on hearing her own tongue she flared into life, + and whipping out a little pocket-book and pencil asked him eagerly + where she was. +</p> +<p> + "Where you are?" repeated Robin, astonished. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ja, Ja</i>. The address. This address. What is it? Where am I?" +</p> +<p> + "What, don't you know?" +</p> +<p> + "Tell me—quick," begged Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "But why—I don't understand. You must know you are in England?" +</p> +<p> + "England! Naturally I know it is England. But this—where is it? What + is its address? For letters to reach me? Quick—tell me quick!" +</p> +<p> + Robin, however, would not be quick. "Why has no one told you?" he + asked, with an immense curiosity. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Ach</i>, I have not been told. I know nothing. I am kept in the dark + like—like a prisoner." And Annalise dragged her handkerchief out of + her pocket, and put it to her eyes just in time to stop her ready + tears from falling into the whipped cream and spoiling it. +</p> +<p> + "There she goes again," sniffed Mrs. Pearce. "It's cry, cry, from + morning till night, and nothing good enough for her. It's a mercy she + goes out of this to-morrow. I never see such an image." +</p> +<p> + "Tell me," implored Annalise, "tell me quick, before my mistress—" +</p> +<p> + "I'll write it for you," said Robin, taking the note-book from her. + "You know you go into a cottage next week, so I'll put your new + address." And he wrote it in a large round hand and gave it to her + quickly, for Mrs. Pearce was listening to all this German and watching + him write with a look that made him feel cheap. So cheap did it make + him feel that he resisted for the present his desire to go on + questioning Annalise, and putting his hands in his pockets sauntered + away to the other end of the kitchen where Priscilla sat looking on. + "I'm afraid that really was cheap of me," he thought ruefully, when he + came once more into Priscilla's sweet presence; but he comforted + himself with the reflection that no girl ought to be mysterious, + and if this one chose to be so it was fair to cross her plans + occasionally. Yet he went on feeling cheap; and when Tussie who was + hurrying along with a cup of chocolate in each hand ran into him and + spilt some on his sleeve the sudden rage with which he said "Confound + you, Tussie," had little to do with the hot stuff soaking through to + his skin and a great deal with the conviction that Tussie, despised + from their common childhood for his weakness, smallness and ugliness, + would never have done what he had just done and betrayed what the girl + had chosen to keep secret from her maid. +</p> +<p> + "But why secret? Why? Why?" asked Robin, torn with desire to find out + all about Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "I'm going to do this often," said Priscilla, looking up at him with a + pleased smile. "I never saw such easily amused little creatures. Don't + you think it is beautiful, to give poor people a few happy moments + sometimes?" +</p> +<p> + "Very beautiful," said Robin, his eyes on her face. +</p> +<p> + "It is what I mean to do in future," she said dreamily, her chin on + her hand. +</p> +<p> + "It will be expensive," remarked Robin; for there were nearly two + hundred children, and Priscilla had collected the strangest things in + food on the long tables as a result of her method, when inviting, of + asking each mother what her child best liked to eat and then ordering + it with the lavishness of ignorance from Minehead. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, we shall live so simply ourselves that there will be enough left + to do all I want. And it will be the most blessed change and + refreshment, living simply. Fritzi hated the fuss and luxury quite as + much as I did." +</p> +<p> + "Did he?" said Robin, holding his breath. The girl was evidently off + her guard. He had not heard her call her uncle baldly Fritzi before; + and what fuss and luxury could a German teacher's life have known? +</p> +<p> + "He it was who first made me see that the body is more than meat and + the soul than raiment," mused Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Was he?" +</p> +<p> + "He pulled my soul out of the flesh-pots. I'm a sort of Israel come + out of Egypt, but an Egypt that was altogether too comfortable." +</p> +<p> + "Too comfortable? Can one be too comfortable?" +</p> +<p> + "I was. I couldn't move or see or breathe for comfort. It was like a + feather bed all over me." +</p> +<p> + "I wouldn't call that comfort," said Robin, for she paused, and he was + afraid she was not going on. "It sounds much more like torture." +</p> +<p> + "So it was at last. And Fritzi helped me to shake it off. If he hadn't + I'd have smothered slowly, and perhaps if I'd never known him I'd have + done it as gracefully as my sisters did. Why, they don't know to this + day that they are dead." +</p> +<p> + Robin was silent. He was afraid to speak lest anything he said should + remind her of the part she ought to be playing. He had no doubt now + at all that she was keeping a secret. A hundred questions were burning + on his lips. He hated himself for wanting to ask them, for being so + inquisitive, for taking advantage of the girl's being off her guard, + but what are you to do with your inherited failings? Robin's mother + was inquisitive and it had got into his blood, and I know of no moral + magnesia that will purify these things away. "You said the other day," + he burst out at last, quite unable to stop himself, "that you only had + your uncle in the world. Are your sisters—are they in London?" +</p> +<p> + "In London?" Priscilla gazed at him a moment with a vague surprise. + Then fright flashed into her eyes. "Did I not tell you they were dead? + Smothered?" she said, getting up quickly, her face setting into the + frown that had so chilled Tussie on the heath. +</p> +<p> + "But I took that as a parable." +</p> +<p> + "How can I help how you took it?" +</p> +<p> + And she instantly left him and went away round the tables, beginning + those little pleasant observations to the children again that struck + him as so strange. +</p> +<p> + Well did he know the sort of thing. He had seen Lady Shuttleworth do + it fifty times to the tenants, to the cottagers, at flower-shows, + bazaars, on all occasions of public hospitality or ceremony; but + practised and old as Lady Shuttleworth was this girl seemed yet more + practised. She was a finished artist in the work, he said to himself + as he leaned against the wall, his handsome face flushed, his eyes + sulky, watching her. It was enough to make any good-looking young + man sulky, the mixture of mystery and aloofness about Miss + Neumann-Schultz. Extraordinary as it seemed, up to this point he had + found it quite impossible to indulge with her in that form of more or + less illustrated dialogue known to Symford youths and maidens as + billing and cooing. Very fain would Robin have billed and have cooed. + It was a practice he excelled in. And yet though he had devoted + himself for three whole days, stood on ladders, nailed up creepers, + bought and carried rum, had a horrible scene with his mother because + of her, he had not got an inch nearer things personal and cosy. Miss + Neumann-Schultz thanked him quite kindly and graciously for his + pains—oh, she was very gracious; gracious in the sort of way Lady + Shuttleworth used to be when he came home for the holidays and she + patted his head and uttered benignities—and having thanked, + apparently forgot him till the next time she wanted anything. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi," said Priscilla, when in the course of her progress down the + room she met that burdened man, "I'm dreadfully afraid I've said some + foolish things." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing put the plate of cake he was carrying down on a dresser and + wiped his forehead. "Ma'am," he said looking worried, "I cannot watch + you and administer food to these barbarians simultaneously. If your + tongue is so unruly I would recommend complete silence." +</p> +<p> + "I've said something about my sisters." +</p> +<p> + "Sisters, ma'am?" said Fritzing anxiously. +</p> +<p> + "Does it matter?" +</p> +<p> + "Matter? I have carefully instructed the woman Pearce, who has + certainly informed, as I intended she should inform, the entire + village, that you were my brother's only child. Consequently, ma'am, + you have no sisters." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla made a gesture of despair. "How fearfully difficult it is + not to be straightforward," she said. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, ma'am, it is. Since we started on this adventure the whole race + of rogues has become the object of my sincerest admiration. What wits, + what quickness, what gifts—so varied and so deftly used—what skill + in deception, what resourcefulness in danger, what self-command—" +</p> +<p> + "Yes but Fritzi what are we to do?" +</p> +<p> + "Do, ma'am? About your royal sisters? Would to heaven I had been born + a rogue!" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, but as you were not—ought I to go back and say they're only + half-sisters? Or step-sisters? Or sisters in law? Wouldn't that do?" +</p> +<p> + "With whom were you speaking?" +</p> +<p> + "Mr. Morrison." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, let me beg you to be more prudent with that youth than with + any one. Our young friend Cæsar Augustus is I believe harmlessness + itself compared with him. Be on your guard, ma'am. Curb that fatal + feminine appendage, your tongue. I have remarked that he watches us. + But a short time since I saw him eagerly conversing with your Grand + Ducal Highness's maid. For me he has already laid several traps that I + have only just escaped falling into by an extraordinary presence of + mind and a nimbleness in dialectic almost worthy of a born rogue." +</p> +<p> + "Oh Fritzi," said the frightened Priscilla, laying her hand on his + sleeve, "do go and tell him I didn't mean what I said." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing wiped his brow again. "I fail to understand," he said, + looking at Priscilla with worried eyes, "what there is about us that + can possibly attract any one's attention." +</p> +<p> + "Why, there isn't anything," said Priscilla, with conviction. "We've + been most careful and clever. But just now—I don't know why—I began + to think aloud." +</p> +<p> + "Think aloud?" exclaimed Fritzing, horrified. "Oh ma'am let me beseech + you never again to do that. Better a thousand times not to think at + all. What was it that your Grand Ducal Highness thought aloud?" +</p> +<p> + And Priscilla, shamefaced, told him as well as she could remember. +</p> +<p> + "I will endeavour to remedy it," said poor Fritzing, running an + agitated hand through his hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla sighed, and stood drooping and penitent by the dresser while + he went down the room to where Robin still leaned against the wall. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Fritzing—he never called Robin young man, as he did + Tussie—"my niece tells me you are unable to distinguish truth from + parable." +</p> +<p> + "What?" said Robin staring. +</p> +<p> + "You are not, sir, to suppose that when my niece described her sisters + as dead that they are not really so." +</p> +<p> + "All right sir," said Robin, his eyes beginning to twinkle. +</p> +<p> + "The only portion of the story in which my niece used allegory was + when she described them as having been smothered. These young ladies, + sir, died in the ordinary way, in their beds." +</p> +<p> + "Feather beds, sir?" asked Robin briskly. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I have not inquired into the nature of the beds," said Fritzing + with severity. +</p> +<p> + "Is it not rather unusual," asked Robin, "for two young ladies in one + family to die at once? Were they unhealthy young ladies?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir, they did not die at once, nor were they unhealthy. They were + perfectly healthy until they—until they began to die." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed," said Robin, with an interest properly tinged with regret. + "At least, sir," he added politely, after a pause in which he and + Fritzing stared very hard at each other, "I trust I may be permitted + to express my sympathy." +</p> +<p> + "Sir, you may." And bowing stiffly Fritzing returned to Priscilla, and + with a sigh of relief informed her that he had made things right + again. +</p> +<p> + "Dear Fritzi," said Priscilla looking at him with love and admiration, + "how clever you are." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIII +</h2> +<p> + It was on the Tuesday, the day Priscilla and Fritzing left Baker's and + moved into Creeper Cottage, that the fickle goddess who had let them + nestle for more than a week beneath her wing got tired of them and + shook them out. Perhaps she was vexed by their clumsiness at + pretending, perhaps she thought she had done more than enough for + them, perhaps she was an epicure in words and did not like a cottage + called Creeper; anyhow she shook them out. And if they had had eyes to + see they would not have walked into their new home with such sighs of + satisfaction and such a comfortable feeling that now at last the era + of systematic serenity and self-realization, beautifully combined with + the daily exercise of charity, had begun; for waiting for them in + Priscilla's parlour, established indeed in her easy-chair by the fire + and warming her miserable toes on the very hob, sat grey Ill Luck + horribly squinting. +</p> +<p> + Creeper Cottage, it will be remembered, consisted of two cottages, + each with two rooms, an attic, and a kitchen, and in the back yard the + further accommodation of a coal-hole, a pig-stye, and a pump. Thanks + to Tussie's efforts more furniture had been got from Minehead. Tussie + had gone in himself, after a skilful questioning of Fritzing had made + him realize how little had been ordered, and had, with Fritzing's + permission, put the whole thing into the hands of a Minehead firm. + Thus there was a bed for Annalise and sheets for everybody, and the + place was as decent as it could be made in the time. It was so tiny + that it got done, after a great deal of urging from Tussie, by the + Tuesday at midday, and Tussie himself had superintended the storing of + wood in the coal-hole and the lighting of the fire that was to warm + his divine lady and that Ill Luck found so comforting to her toes. The + Shuttleworth horses had a busy time on the Friday, Saturday, and + Monday, trotting up and down between Symford and Minehead; and the + Shuttleworth servants and tenants, not being more blind than other + people, saw very well that their Augustus had lost his heart to the + lady from nowhere. As for Lady Shuttleworth, she only smiled a rueful + smile and stroked her poor Tussie's hair in silence when, having + murmured something about the horses being tired, he reproved her by + telling her that it was everybody's duty to do what they could for + strangers in difficulties. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's side of Creeper Cottage was the end abutting on the + churchyard, and her parlour had one latticed window looking south down + the village street, and one looking west opening directly on to the + churchyard. The long grass of the churchyard, its dandelions and + daisies, grew right up beneath this window to her wall, and a tall + tombstone half-blocked her view of the elm-trees and the church. Over + this room, with the same romantic and gloomy outlook, was her bedroom. + Behind her parlour was what had been the shoemaker's kitchen, but it + had been turned into a temporary bathroom. True no water was laid on + as yet, but the pump was just outside, and nobody thought there would + be any difficulty about filling the bath every morning by means of the + pump combined with buckets. Over the bathroom was the attic. This was + Annalise's bedroom. Nobody thought there would be any difficulty about + that either; nobody, in fact, thought anything about anything. It was + a simple place, after the manner of attics, with a window in its + sloping ceiling through which stars might be studied with great + comfort as one lay in bed. A frugal mind, an earnest soul, would have + liked the attic, would have found a healthy enjoyment in a place so + plain and fresh, so swept in windy weather by the airs of heaven. A + poet, too, would certainly have flooded any parts of it that seemed + dark with the splendour of his own inner light; a nature-lover, again, + would have quickly discovered the spiders that dwelt in its corners, + and spent profitable hours on all fours observing them. But an + Annalise—what was she to make of such a place? Is it not true that + the less a person has inside him of culture and imagination the more + he wants outside him of the upholstery of life? I think it is true; + and if it is, then the vacancy of Annalise's mind may be measured by + the fact that what she demanded of life in return for the negative + services of not crying and wringing her hands was nothing less filled + with food and sofas and servants than a grand ducal palace. +</p> +<p> + But neither Priscilla nor Fritzing knew anything of Annalise's mind, + and if they had they would instantly have forgotten it again, of such + extreme unimportance would it have seemed. Nor would I dwell on it + myself if it were not that its very vacancy and smallness was the + cause of huge upheavals in Creeper Cottage, and the stone that the + builders ignored if they did not actually reject behaved as such + stones sometimes do and came down upon the builders' heads and crushed + them. Annalise, you see, was unable to appreciate peace, yet on the + other hand she was very able to destroy the peace of other people; and + Priscilla meant her cottage to be so peaceful—a temple, a holy place, + within whose quiet walls sacred years were going to be spent in doing + justly, in loving mercy, in walking humbly. True she had not as yet + made a nearer acquaintance with its inconveniences, but anyhow she + held the theory that inconveniences were things to be laughed at + and somehow circumvented, and that they do not enter into the + consideration of persons whose thoughts are absorbed by the burning + desire to live out their ideals. "You can be happy in any place + whatever," she remarked to Tussie on the Monday, when he was + expressing fears as to her future comfort; "absolutely any place will + do—a tub, a dingle, the top of a pillar—any place at all, if only + your soul is on fire." +</p> +<p> + "Of course you can," cried Tussie, ready to kiss her feet. +</p> +<p> + "And look how comfortable my cottage seems," said Priscilla, "directly + one compares it with things like tubs." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes," agreed Tussie, "I do see that it's enough for free spirits + to live in. I was only wondering whether—whether bodies would find it + enough." +</p> +<p> + "Oh bother bodies," said Priscilla airily. +</p> +<p> + But Tussie could not bring himself to bother bodies if they included + her own; on the contrary, the infatuated young man thought it would be + difficult sufficiently to cherish a thing so supremely precious and + sweet. And each time he went home after having been in the frugal + baldness of Creeper Cottage he hated the superfluities of his own + house more and more, he accused himself louder and louder of being + mean-spirited, effeminate, soft, vulgar, he loathed himself for living + embedded in such luxury while she, the dear and lovely one, was ready + cheerfully to pack her beauty into a tub if needs be, or let it be + weather-beaten on a pillar for thirty years if by so doing she could + save her soul alive. Tussie at this time became unable to see a sleek + servant dart to help him take off his coat without saying something + sharp to him, could not sit through a meal without making bitter + comparisons between what they were eating and what the poor were + probably eating, could not walk up his spacious staircase and along + his lofty corridors without scowling; they, indeed, roused his + contemptuous wrath in quite a special degree, the reason being that + Priscilla's stairs, the stairs up and down which her little feet would + have to clamber daily, were like a ladder, and she possessed no + passages at all. But what of that? Priscilla could not see that it + mattered, when Tussie drew her attention to it. +</p> +<p> + Both Fritzing's and her front door opened straight into their + sitting-rooms; both their staircases walked straight from the kitchens + up into the rooms above. They had meant to have a door knocked in the + dividing wall downstairs, but had been so anxious to get away from + Baker's that there was no time. In order therefore to get to Fritzing + Priscilla would have either to go out into the street and in again at + his front door, or go out at her back door and in again at his. Any + meals, too, she might choose to have served alone would have to be + carried round to her from the kitchen in Fritzing's half, either + through the backyard or through the street. +</p> +<p> + Tussie thought of this each time he sat at his own meals, surrounded + by deft menials, lapped as he told himself in luxury,—oh, thought + Tussie writhing, it was base. His much-tried mother had to listen to + many a cross and cryptic remark flung across the table from the dear + boy who had always been so gentle; and more than that, he put his + foot down once and for all and refused with a flatness that silenced + her to eat any more patent foods. "Absurd," cried Tussie. "No wonder + I'm such an idiot. Who could be anything else with his stomach full of + starch? Why, I believe the stuff has filled my veins with milk instead + of good honest blood." +</p> +<p> + "Dearest, I'll have it thrown out of the nearest window," said Lady + Shuttleworth, smiling bravely in her poor Tussie's small cross face. + "But what shall I give you instead? You know you won't eat meat." +</p> +<p> + "Give me lentils," cried Tussie. "They're cheap." +</p> +<p> + "Cheap?" +</p> +<p> + "Mother, I do think it offensive to spend much on what goes into or + onto one's body. Why not have fewer things, and give the rest to the + poor?" +</p> +<p> + "But I do give the rest to the poor; I'm always doing it. And there's + quite enough for us and for the poor too." +</p> +<p> + "Give them more, then. Why," fumed Tussie, "can't we live decently? + Hasn't it struck you that we're very vulgar?" +</p> +<p> + "No, dearest, I can't say that it has." +</p> +<p> + "Well, we are. Everything we have that is beyond bare necessaries + makes us vulgar. And surely, mother, you do see that that's not a nice + thing to be." +</p> +<p> + "It's a horrid thing to be," said his mother, arranging his tie with + an immense and lingering tenderness. +</p> +<p> + "It's a difficult thing not to be," said Tussie, "if one is rich. + Hasn't it struck you that this ridiculous big house, and the masses of + things in it, and the whole place and all the money will inevitably + end by crushing us both out of heaven?" +</p> +<p> + "No, I can't say it has. I expect you've been thinking of things like + the eyes of needles and camels having to go through them," said his + mother, still patting and stroking his tie. +</p> +<p> + "Well, that's terrifically true," mused Tussie, reflecting ruefully on + the size and weight of the money-bags that were dragging him down into + darkness. Then he added suddenly, "Will you have a small bed—a little + iron one—put in my bedroom?" +</p> +<p> + "A small bed? But there's a bed there already, dear." +</p> +<p> + "That big thing's only fit for a sick woman. I won't wallow in it any + longer." +</p> +<p> + "But dearest, all your forefathers wallowed, as you call it, in it. + Doesn't it seem rather—a pity not to carry on traditions?" +</p> +<p> + "Well mother be kind and dear, and let me depart in peace from them. A + camp bed,—that's what I'd like. Shall I order it, or will you? And + did I tell you I've given Bryce the sack?" +</p> +<p> + "Bryce? Why, what has he done?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh he hasn't done anything that I know of, except make a sort of doll + or baby of me. Why should I be put into my clothes and taken out of + them again as though I hadn't been weaned yet?" +</p> +<p> + Now all this was very bad, but the greatest blow for Lady Shuttleworth + fell when Tussie declared that he would not come of age. The cheerful + face with which his mother had managed to listen to his other + defiances went very blank at that; do what she would she could not + prevent its falling. "Not come of age?" she repeated stupidly. "But my + darling, you can't help yourself—you must come of age." +</p> +<p> + "Oh I know I can't help being twenty-one and coming into all + this"—and he waved contemptuous arms—"but I won't do it blatantly." +</p> +<p> + "I—I don't understand," faltered Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "There mustn't be any fuss, mother." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean no one is to come?" +</p> +<p> + "No one at all, except the tenants and people. Of course they are to + have their fun—I'll see that they have a jolly good time. But I won't + have our own set and the relations." +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, they've all accepted." +</p> +<p> + "Send round circulars." +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, you are putting me in a most painful position." +</p> +<p> + "Dear mother, I'm very sorry for that. I wish I'd thought like this + sooner. But really the idea is so revolting to me—it's so sickening + to think of all these people coming to pretend to rejoice over a worm + like myself." +</p> +<p> + "Tussle, you are not a worm." +</p> +<p> + "And then the expense and waste of entertaining them—the dreariness, + the boredom—oh, I wish I only possessed a tub—one single tub—or had + the pluck to live like Lavengro in a dingle." +</p> +<p> + "It's quite impossible to stop it now," interrupted Lady Shuttleworth + in the greatest distress; of Lavengro she had never heard. +</p> +<p> + "Yes you can, mother. Write and put it off." +</p> +<p> + "Write? What could I write? To-day is Tuesday, and they all arrive on + Friday. What excuse can I make at the last moment? And how can a + birthday be put off? My dearest boy, I simply can't." And Lady + Shuttleworth, the sensible, the cheery, the resourceful, the + perennially brave, wrung her hands and began quite helplessly to cry. +</p> +<p> + This unusual and pitiful sight at once conquered Tussie. For a moment + he stood aghast; then his arms were round his mother, and he promised + everything she wanted. What he said to her besides and what she sobbed + back to him I shall not tell. They never spoke of it again; but for + years they both looked back to it, that precious moment of clinging + together with bursting hearts, her old cheek against his young one, + her tears on his face, as to one of the most acutely sweet, acutely, + painfully, tender experiences of their joint lives. +</p> +<p> + It will be conceded that Priscilla had achieved a good deal in the one + week that had passed since she laid aside her high estate and stepped + down among ordinary people for the purpose of being and doing good. + She had brought violent discord into a hitherto peaceful vicarage, + thwarted the hopes of a mother, been the cause of a bitter quarrel + between her and her son, brought out by her mysteriousness a prying + tendency in the son that might have gone on sleeping for ever, + entirely upset the amiable Tussie's life by rending him asunder with a + love as strong as it was necessarily hopeless, made his mother anxious + and unhappy, and, what was perhaps the greatest achievement of all, + actually succeeded in making that mother cry. For of course Priscilla + was the ultimate cause of these unusual tears, as Lady Shuttleworth + very well knew. Lady Shuttleworth was the deceased Sir Augustus's + second wife, had married him when she was over forty and well out of + the crying stage, which in the busy does not last beyond childhood, + had lost him soon after Tussie's birth, had cried copiously and most + properly at his funeral, and had not cried since. It was then + undoubtedly a great achievement on the part of the young lady from + nowhere, this wringing of tears out of eyes that had been dry for one + and twenty years. But the list of what Priscilla had done does not end + with this havoc among mothers. Had she not interrupted the decent + course of Mrs. Jones's dying, and snatched her back to a hankering + after the unfit? Had she not taught the entire village to break the + Sabbath? Had she not made all its children either sick or cross under + the pretence of giving them a treat? On the Monday she did something + else that was equally well-meaning, and yet, as I shall presently + relate, of disastrous consequences: she went round the village from + cottage to cottage making friends with the children's mothers and + leaving behind her, wherever she went, little presents of money. She + had found money so extraordinarily efficacious in the comforting of + Mrs. Jones that before she started she told Fritzing to fill her purse + well, and in each cottage it was made somehow so clear how badly + different things were wanted that the purse was empty before she was + half round the village and she had to go back for a fresh supply. She + was extremely happy that afternoon, and so were the visited mothers. + They, indeed, talked of nothing else for the rest of the day, + discussed it over their garden hedges, looked in on each other to + compare notes, hurried to meet their husbands on their return from + work to tell them about it, and were made at one stroke into something + very like a colony of eager beggars. And in spite of Priscilla's + injunction to Mrs. Jones to hide her five-pound note all Symford knew + of that as well, and also of the five-pound note Mrs. Morrison had + taken away. Nothing was talked of in Symford but Priscilla. She had in + one week created quite a number of disturbances of a nature fruitful + for evil in that orderly village; and when on the Tuesday she and + Fritzing moved into Creeper Cottage they were objects of the intensest + interest to the entire country side, and the report of their riches, + their recklessness, and their eccentric choice of a dwelling had + rolled over the intervening hills as far as Minehead, where it was the + subject of many interesting comments in the local papers. +</p> +<p> + They got into their cottage about tea time; and the first thing + Priscilla did was to exclaim at the pleasant sight of the wood fire + and sit down in the easy-chair to warm herself. We know who was + sitting in it already; and thus she was received by Bad Luck at once + into her very lap, and clutched about securely by that unpleasant + lady's cold and skinny arms. She looked up at Fritzing with a shiver + to remark wonderingly that the room, in spite of its big fire and its + smallness, was like ice, but her lips fell apart in a frozen stare and + she gazed blankly past him at the wall behind his head. "Look," she + whispered, pointing with a horrified forefinger. And Fritzing, turning + quickly, was just in time to snatch a row of cheap coloured portraits + from the wall and fling them face downwards under the table before + Tussie came in to ask if he could do anything. +</p> +<p> + The portraits were those of all the reigning princes of Germany and + had been put up as a delicate compliment by the representative of the + Minehead furnishers, while Priscilla and Fritzing were taking leave of + Baker's Farm; and the print Priscilla's eye had lighted on was the + portrait of her august parent, smiling at her. He was splendid in + state robes and orders, and there was a charger, and an obviously + expensive looped-up curtain, and much smoke as of nations furiously + raging together in the background, and outside this magnificence + meandered the unmeaning rosebuds of Priscilla's cheap wallpaper. His + smile seemed very terrible under the circumstances. Fritzing felt + this, and seized him and flung him with a desperate energy under the + table, where he went on smiling, as Priscilla remembered with a guilty + shudder, at nothing but oilcloth. "I don't believe I'll sleep if I + know he—he's got nothing he'd like better than oilcloth to look at," + she whispered with an awestruck face to Fritzing as Tussie came in. +</p> +<p> + "I will cause them all to be returned," Fritzing assured her. +</p> +<p> + "What, have those people sent wrong things?" asked Tussie anxiously, + who felt that the entire responsibility of this <i>ménage</i> was on his + shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, only some cheap prints," said Priscilla hastily. "I think they're + called oleographs or something." +</p> +<p> + "What impertinence," said Tussie hotly. +</p> +<p> + "I expect it was kindly meant, but I—I like my cottage quite plain." +</p> +<p> + "I'll have them sent back, sir," Tussie said to Fritzing, who was + rubbing his hands nervously through his hair; for the sight of his + grand ducal master's face smiling at him on whom he would surely never + wish to smile again, and doing it, too, from the walls of Creeper + Cottage, had given him a shock. +</p> +<p> + "You are ever helpful, young man," he said, bowing abstractedly and + going away to put down his hat and umbrella; and Priscilla, with a + cold feeling that she had had a bad omen, rang the handbell Tussie's + thoughtfulness had placed on her table and ordered Annalise to bring + tea. +</p> +<p> + Now Annalise had been standing on the threshold of her attic staring + at it in an amazement too deep for words when the bell fetched her + down. She appeared, however, before her mistress with a composed face, + received the order with her customary respectfulness, and sought out + Fritzing to inquire of him where the servants were to be found. "Her + Grand Ducal Highness desires tea," announced Annalise, appearing in + Fritzing's sitting-room, where he was standing absorbed in the bill + from the furnishers that he had found lying on his table. +</p> +<p> + "Then take it in," said Fritzing impatiently, without looking up. +</p> +<p> + "To whom shall I give the order?" inquired Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "To whom shall you give the order?" repeated Fritzing, pausing + in his study to stare at her, the bill in one hand and his + pocket-handkerchief, with which he was mopping his forehead, in + the other. +</p> +<p> + "Where," asked Annalise, "shall I find the cook?" +</p> +<p> + "Where shall you find the cook?" repeated Fritzing, staring still + harder. "This house is so gigantic is it not," he said with an + enormous sarcasm, "that no doubt the cook has lost himself. Have you + perhaps omitted to investigate the coal-hole?" +</p> +<p> + "Herr Geheimrath, where shall I find the cook?" asked Annalise tossing + her head. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein, is there a mirror in your bedroom?" +</p> +<p> + "The smallest I ever saw. Only one-half of my face can I see reflected + in it at a time." +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein, the half of that face you see reflected in it is the half + of the face of the cook." +</p> +<p> + "I do not understand," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "Yet it is as clear as shining after rain. You, <i>mein liebes Kind</i>, + are the cook." +</p> +<p> + It was now Annalise's turn to stare, and she stood for a moment doing + it, her face changing from white to red while Fritzing turned his back + and taking out a pencil made little sums on the margin of the bill. + "Herr Geheimrath, I am not a cook," she said at last, swallowing her + indignation. +</p> +<p> + "What, still there?" he exclaimed, looking up sharply. "Unworthy one, + get thee quickly to the kitchen. Is it seemly to keep the Princess + waiting?" +</p> +<p> + "I am not a cook," said Annalise defiantly. "I was not engaged as a + cook, I never was a cook, and I will not be a cook." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing flung down the bill and came and glared close into + Annalise's face. "Not a cook?" he cried. "You, a German girl, the + daughter of poor parents, you are not ashamed to say it? You do not + hide your head for shame? No—a being so useful, so necessary, so + worthy of respect as a cook you are not and never will be. I'll tell + you what you are,—I've told you once already, and I repeat it—you + are a knave, my Fräulein, a knave, I say. And in those parts of your + miserable nature where you are not a knave—for I willingly concede + that no man or woman is bad all through—in those parts, I say, where + your knavishness is intermittent, you are an absolute, unmitigated + fool." +</p> +<p> + "I will not bear this," cried Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "Will not! Cannot! Shall not! Inept Negation, get thee to thy kitchen + and seek wisdom among the pots." +</p> +<p> + "I am no one's slave," cried Annalise, "I am no one's prisoner." +</p> +<p> + "Hark at her! Who said you were? Have I not told you the only two + things you are?" +</p> +<p> + "But I am treated as a prisoner, I am treated as a slave," sobbed + Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "Unmannerly one, how dare you linger talking follies when your royal + mistress is waiting for her tea? Run—run! Or must I show you how?" +</p> +<p> + "Her Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, not budging, "told me also + to prepare the bath for her this evening." +</p> +<p> + "Well, what of that?" cried Fritzing, snatching up the bill again and + adding up furiously. "Prepare it, then." +</p> +<p> + "I see no water-taps." +</p> +<p> + "Woman, there are none." +</p> +<p> + "How can I prepare a bath without water-taps?" +</p> +<p> + "O thou Inefficiency! Ineptitude garbed as woman! Must I then teach + thee the elements of thy business? Hast thou not observed the pump? Go + to it, and draw water. Cause the water to flow into buckets. Carry + these buckets—need I go on? Will not Nature herself teach thee what + to do with buckets?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise flushed scarlet. "I will not go to the pump," she said. +</p> +<p> + "What, you will not carry out her Grand Ducal Highness's orders?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not go to the pump." +</p> +<p> + "You refuse to prepare the bath?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not go to the pump." +</p> +<p> + "You refuse to prepare the tea?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not be a cook." +</p> +<p> + "You are rankly rebellious?" +</p> +<p> + "I will not sleep in the attic." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + "I will not eat the food." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + "I will not do the work." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + "I will go." +</p> +<p> + "Go?" +</p> +<p> + "<i>Go</i>," repeated Annalise, stamping her foot. "I demand my wages, the + increased wages that were promised me, and I will go." +</p> +<p> + "And where, Impudence past believing, will you go, in a country whose + tongue you most luckily do not understand?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise looked up into Fritzing's furious eyes with the challenge + of him who flings down his trump card. "Go?" she cried, with a + defiance that was blood-curdling in one so small and hitherto so + silent, "I will first go to that young gentleman who speaks my + language and I will tell him all, and then, with his assistance, I + will go straight—but <i>straight</i>, do you hear?"—and she stamped + her foot again—"to Lothen-Kunitz." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIV +</h2> +<p> + Early in this story I pointed out what to the intelligent must have + been from the beginning apparent, that Annalise held Priscilla and + Fritzing in the hollow of her hand. In the first excitement of the + start she had not noticed it, but during those woeful days of + disillusionment at Baker's she saw it with an ever-growing clearness; + and since Sunday, since the day she found a smiling young gentleman + ready to talk German to her and answer questions, she was perfectly + aware that she had only to close her hand and her victims would + squeeze into any shape she liked. She proposed to do this closing at + the first moment of sheer intolerableness, and that moment seemed well + reached when she entered Creeper Cottage and realized what the attic, + the kitchen, and the pump really meant. +</p> +<p> + It is always a shock to find one's self in the company of a worm that + turns, always a shock and an amazement; a spectacle one never, + somehow, gets used to. But how dreadful does it become when one is in + the power of the worm, and the worm is resentful, and ready to squeeze + to any extent. Fritzing reflected bitterly that Annalise might quite + well have been left at home. Quite well? A thousand times better. + What had she done but whine during her passive period? And now that + she was active, a volcano in full activity hurling forth hot streams + of treachery on two most harmless heads, she, the insignificant, the + base-born, the empty-brained, was actually going to be able to ruin + the plans of the noblest woman on earth. +</p> +<p> + Thus thought Fritzing, mopping his forehead. Annalise had rushed away + to her attic after flinging her defiance at him, her spirit ready to + dare anything but her body too small, she felt, to risk staying within + reach of a man who looked more like somebody who meant to shake her + than any one she had ever seen. Fritzing mopped his forehead, and + mopped and mopped again. He stood where she had left him, his eyes + fixed on the ground, his distress so extreme that he was quite near + crying. What was he to do? What was he to say to his Princess? How was + he to stop the girl's going back to Kunitz? How was he to stop her + going even so far as young Morrison? That she should tell young + Morrison who Priscilla was would indeed be a terrible thing. It would + end their being able to live in Symford. It would end their being able + to live in England. The Grand Duke would be after them, and there + would have to be another flight to another country, another start + there, another search for a home, another set of explanations, + pretences, fears, lies,—things of which he was so weary. But there + was something else, something worse than any of these things, that + made Fritzing mop his forehead with so extreme a desperation: Annalise + had demanded the money due to her, and Fritzing had no money. +</p> +<p> + I am afraid Fritzing was never meant for a conspirator. Nature never + meant him to be a plotter, an arranger of unpleasant surprises for + parents. She never meant him to run away. She meant him, probably, + to spend his days communing with the past in a lofty room with + distempered walls and busts round them. That he should be forced to + act, to decide, to be artful, to wrangle with maids, to make ends + meet, to squeeze his long frame and explosive disposition into a + Creeper Cottage where only an ill-fitting door separated him from the + noise and fumes of the kitchen, was surely a cruel trick of Fate, and + not less cruel because he had brought it on himself. That he should + have thought he could run away as well as any man is merely a proof of + his singleness of soul. A man who does that successfully is always, + among a great many other things, a man who takes plenty of money with + him and knows exactly where to put his hand on more when it is wanted. + Fritzing had thought it better to get away quickly with little money + than to wait and get away with more. He had seized all he could of his + own that was not invested, and Priscilla had drawn her loose cash from + the Kunitz bank; but what he took hidden in his gaiters after paying + for Priscilla's outfit and bribing Annalise was not more than three + hundred pounds; and what is three hundred pounds to a person who buys + and furnishes cottages and scatters five-pound notes among the poor? + The cottages were paid for. He had insisted on doing that at once, + chiefly in order to close his dealings with Mr. Dawson; but Mr. Dawson + had not let them go for less than a hundred and fifty for the two, in + spite of Tussie's having said a hundred was enough. When Fritzing told + Mr. Dawson what Tussie had said Mr. Dawson soon proved that Tussie + could not possibly have meant it; and Fritzing, knowing how rich + Priscilla really was and what vast savings he had himself lying over + in Germany in comfortable securities, paid him without arguing and + hastened from the hated presence. Then the journey for the three from + Kunitz had been expensive; the stay at Baker's Farm had been, strange + to say, expensive; Mrs. Jones's comforting had been expensive; the + village mothers had twice emptied Priscilla's purse of ten pounds; and + the treat to the Symford children had not been cheap. After paying for + this—the Minehead confectioner turned out to be a man of little faith + in unknown foreigners, and insisted on being paid at once—Fritzing + had about forty pounds left. This, he had thought, would do for food + and lights and things for a long while,—certainly till he had hit on + a plan by which he would be able to get hold of the Princess's money + and his own without betraying where they were; and here on his table, + the second unpleasant surprise that greeted him on entering his new + home (the first had been his late master's dreadful smile) was the + bill for the furnishing of it. To a man possessed of only forty pounds + any bill will seem tremendous. This one was for nearly two hundred; + and at the end of the long list of items, the biggest of which was + that bathroom without water that had sent Annalise out on strike, was + the information that a remittance would oblige. A remittance! Poor + Fritzing. He crushed the paper in his hand and made caustic mental + comments on the indecency of these people, clamouring for their money + almost before the last workman was out of the place, certainly before + the smell of paint was out of it, and clamouring, too, in the face of + the Shuttleworth countenance and support. He had not been a week yet + in Symford, and had been so busy, so rushed, that he had put off + thinking out a plan for getting his money over from Germany until he + should be settled. Never had he imagined people would demand payment + in this manner. Never, either, had he imagined the Princess would want + so much money for the poor; and never, of course, had he imagined that + there would be a children's treat within three days of their arrival. + Least of all had he dreamed that Annalise would so soon need more + bribing; for that was clearly the only thing to do. He saw it was the + only thing, after he had stood for some time thinking and wiping the + cold sweat from his forehead. She must be bribed, silenced, given in + to. He must part with as much as he possibly could of that last forty + pounds; as much, also, as he possibly could of his pride, and submit + to have the hussy's foot on his neck. Some day, some day, thought + Fritzing grinding his teeth, he would be even with her; and when that + day came he promised himself that it should certainly begin with a + sound shaking. "Truly," he reflected, "the foolish things of the world + confound the wise, and the weak things of the world confound the + things that are mighty." And he went out, and standing in the back + yard beneath Annalise's window softly called to her. "Fräulein," + called Fritzing, softly as a dove wooing its mate. +</p> +<p> + "Aha," thought Annalise, sitting on her bed, quick to mark the change; + but she did not move. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein," called Fritzing again; and it was hardly a call so much as + a melodious murmur. +</p> +<p> + Annalise did not move, but she grinned. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein, come down one moment," cooed Fritzing, whose head was quite + near the attic window so low was Creeper Cottage. "I wish to speak to + you. I wish to give you something." +</p> +<p> + Annalise did not move, but she stuffed her handkerchief into her + mouth; for the first time since she left Calais she was enjoying + herself. +</p> +<p> + "If," went on Fritzing after an anxious pause, "I was sharp with you + just now—and I fear I may have been hasty—you should not take it + amiss from one who, like Brutus, is sick of many griefs. Come down, + Fräulein, and let me make amends." +</p> +<p> + The Princess's bell rang. At once habit impelled Annalise to that + which Fritzing's pleadings would never have effected; she scrambled + down the ladder, and leaving him still under her window presented + herself before her mistress with her usual face of meek respect. +</p> +<p> + "I said tea," said Priscilla very distinctly, looking at her with + slightly lifted eyebrows. +</p> +<p> + Annalise curtseyed and disappeared. +</p> +<p> + "How fearfully polite German maids are," remarked Tussie. +</p> +<p> + "In what way?" asked Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Those curtseys. They're magnificent." +</p> +<p> + "Don't English maids curtsey?" +</p> +<p> + "None that I've ever seen. Perhaps they do to royalties." +</p> +<p> + "Oh?" said Priscilla with a little jump. She was still so much + unnerved by the unexpected meeting with her father on the wall of + Creeper Cottage that she could not prevent the little jump. +</p> +<p> + "What would German maids do, I wonder, in dealing with royalties," + said Tussie, "if they curtsey so beautifully to ordinary mistresses? + They'd have to go down on their knees to a princess, wouldn't they?" +</p> +<p> + "How should I know?" said Priscilla, irritably, alarmed to feel she + was turning red; and with great determination she began to talk + literature. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was lying in wait for Annalise, and caught her as she came + into the bathroom. +</p> +<p> + "Fräulein," said the miserable man trying to screw his face into + persuasiveness, "you cannot let the Princess go without tea." +</p> +<p> + "Yes I can," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + He thrust his hands into his pockets to keep them off her shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "Make it this once, Fräulein, and I will hire a woman of the village + to make it in future. And see, you must not leave the Princess's + service, a service of such great honour to yourself, because I chanced + to be perhaps a little—hasty. I will give you two hundred marks to + console you for the slight though undoubted difference in the mode of + living, and I will, as I said, hire a woman to come each day and cook. + Will it not be well so?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "No?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise put her hands on her hips, and swaying lightly from side to + side began to sing softly. Fritzing gazed at this fresh development in + her manners in silent astonishment. "<i>Jedermann macht mir die Cour, + c'est l'amour, c'est l'amour</i>," sang Annalise, her head one side, her + eyes on the ceiling. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Liebes Kind</i>, are your promises of no value? Did you not promise to + keep your mouth shut, and not betray the Princess's confidence? Did + she not seek you out from all the others for the honour of keeping her + secrets? And you will, after one week, divulge them to a stranger? You + will leave her service? You will return to Kunitz? Is it well so?" +</p> +<p> + "<i>C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour</i>," sang Annalise, swaying. +</p> +<p> + "Is it well so, Fräulein?" repeated Fritzing, strangling a furious + desire to slap her. +</p> +<p> + "Did you speak?" inquired Annalise, pausing in her song. +</p> +<p> + "I am speaking all the time. I asked if it were well to betray the + secrets of your royal mistress." +</p> +<p> + "I have been starved," said Annalise. +</p> +<p> + "You have had the same fare as ourselves." +</p> +<p> + "I have been called names." +</p> +<p> + "Have I not expressed—regret?" +</p> +<p> + "I have been treated as dirt." +</p> +<p> + "Well, well, I have apologized." +</p> +<p> + "If you had behaved to me as a maid of a royal lady should be behaved + to, I would have faithfully done my part and kept silence. Now give me + my money and I will go." +</p> +<p> + "I will give you your money—certainly, <i>liebes Kind</i>. It is what I am + most desirous of doing. But only on condition that you stay. If you + go, you go without it. If you stay, I will do as I said about the cook + and will—" Fritzing paused—"I will endeavour to refrain from calling + you anything hasty." +</p> +<p> + "Two hundred marks," said Annalise gazing at the ceiling, "is + nothing." +</p> +<p> + "Nothing?" cried Fritzing. "You know very well that it is, for you, a + great sum." +</p> +<p> + "It is nothing. I require a thousand." +</p> +<p> + "A thousand? What, fifty English sovereigns? Nay, then, but there is + no reasoning with you," cried Fritzing in tones of real despair. +</p> +<p> + She caught the conviction in them and hesitated. "Eight hundred, + then," she said. +</p> +<p> + "Impossible. And besides it would be a sin. I will give you twenty." +</p> +<p> + "Twenty? Twenty marks?" Annalise stared at him a moment then resumed + her swaying and her song—"<i>Jedermann macht mir die Cour</i>"—sang + Annalise with redoubled conviction. +</p> +<p> + "No, no, not marks—twenty pounds," said Fritzing, interrupting what + was to him a most maddening music. "Four hundred marks. As much as + many a German girl can only earn by labouring two years you will + receive for doing nothing but hold your tongue." +</p> +<p> + Annalise closed her lips tightly and shook her head. "My tongue cannot + be held for that," she said, beginning to sway again and hum. +</p> +<p> + Adjectives foamed on Fritzing's own, but he kept them back. + "<i>Mädchen</i>," he said with the gentleness of a pastor in a confirmation + class, "do you not remember that the love of money is the root of all + evil? I do not recognize you. Since when have you become thus greedy + for it?" +</p> +<p> + "Give me eight hundred and I will stop." +</p> +<p> + "I will give you six hundred," said Fritzing, fighting for each of his + last precious pounds. +</p> +<p> + "Eight." +</p> +<p> + "Six." +</p> +<p> + "I said eight," said Annalise, stopping and looking at him with lifted + eye-brows and exactly imitating the distinctness with which the + Princess had just said "I said tea." +</p> +<p> + "Six is an enormous sum. Why, what would you do with it?" +</p> +<p> + "That is my affair. Perhaps buy food," she said with a malicious + side-glance. +</p> +<p> + "I tell you there shall be a cook." +</p> +<p> + "A cook," said Annalise counting on her fingers,—"and a good cook, + observe—not a cook like the Frau Pearce—a cook, then, no more rude + names, and eight hundred marks. Then I stop. I suffer. I am silent." +</p> +<p> + "It cannot be done. I cannot give you eight." +</p> +<p> + "<i>C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour</i>.... The Princess waits for her tea. I + will prepare it for her this once. I am good, you see, at heart. But I + must have eight hundred marks. <i>Cest l'amo-o-o-o-o-our</i>." +</p> +<p> + "I will give you seven," said Fritzing, doing rapid sums in his head. + Seven hundred was something under thirty-five pounds. He would still + have five pounds left for housekeeping. How long that would last he + admitted to himself that probably only heaven knew, but he hoped that + with economy it might be made to carry them over a fortnight; and + surely by the end of a fortnight he would have hit on a way of getting + fresh supplies from Germany? "I will give you seven hundred. That is + the utter-most. I can give no more till I have written home for money. + I have only a little more than that here altogether. See, I treat you + like a reasonable being—I set the truth plainly before you. More + than seven hundred I could not give if I would." +</p> +<p> + "Good," said Annalise, breaking off her music suddenly. "I will take + that now and guarantee to be silent for fourteen days. At the end of + that time the Herr Geheimrath will have plenty more money and will, if + he still desires my services and my silence, give me the three hundred + still due to me on the thousand I demand. If the Herr Geheimrath + prefers not to, then I depart to my native country. While the + fortnight lasts I will suffer all there is to suffer in silence. Is + the Herr Geheimrath agreed?" +</p> +<p> + "Shameless one!" mentally shrieked Fritzing, "Wait and see what will + happen to thee when my turn comes!" But aloud he only agreed. "It is + well, Fräulein," he said. "Take in the Princess's tea, and then come + to my sitting-room and I will give you the money. The fire burns in + the kitchen. Utensils, I believe, are ready to hand. It should not + prove a task too difficult." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps the Herr Geheimrath will show me where the tea and milk is? + And also the sugar, and the bread and butter if any?" suggested + Annalise in a small meek voice as she tripped before him into the + kitchen. +</p> +<p> + What could he do but follow? Her foot was well on his neck; and it + occurred to him as he rummaged miserably among canisters that if the + creature should take it into her head to marry him he might + conceivably have to let her do it. As it was it was he and not + Annalise who took the kettle out to the pump to fill it, and her face + while he was doing it would have rejoiced her parents or other persons + to whom she was presumably dear, it was wide with so enormous a + satisfaction. Thus terrible is it to be in the power of an Annalise. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XV +</h2> +<p> + The first evening in Creeper Cottage was unpleasant. There was a + blazing wood fire, the curtains were drawn, the lamp shone rosily + through its red shade, and when Priscilla stood up her hair dusted the + oak beams of the ceiling, it was so low. The background, you see, was + perfectly satisfactory; exactly what a cottage background should be on + an autumn night when outside a wet mist is hanging like a grey curtain + across the window panes; and Tussie arriving at nine o'clock to help + consecrate the new life with Shakespeare felt, as he opened the door + and walked out of the darkness into the rosy, cosy little room, that + he need not after all worry himself with doubts as to the divine + girl's being comfortable. Never did place appear more comfortable. It + did not occur to him that a lamp with a red shade and the blaze of a + wood fire will make any place appear comfortable so long as they go on + shining, and he looked up at Priscilla—I am afraid he had to look up + at her when they were both standing—with the broadest smile of + genuine pleasure. "It <i>does</i> look jolly," he said heartily. +</p> +<p> + His pleasure was doomed to an immediate wiping out. Priscilla smiled, + but with a reservation behind her smile that his sensitive spirit felt + at once. She was alone, and there was no sign whatever either of her + uncle or of preparations for the reading of Shakespeare. +</p> +<p> + "Is anything not quite right?" Tussie asked, his face falling at once + to an anxious pucker. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at him and smiled again, but this time the smile was + real, in her eyes as well as on her lips, dancing in them together + with the flickering firelight. "It's rather funny," she said. "It has + never happened to me before. What do you think? I'm hungry." +</p> +<p> + "Hungry?" +</p> +<p> + "Hungry." +</p> +<p> + Tussie stared, arrested in the unwinding of his comforter. +</p> +<p> + "Really hungry. <i>Dreadfully</i> hungry. So hungry that I hate + Shakespeare." +</p> +<p> + "But—" +</p> +<p> + "I know. You're going to say why not eat? It does seem simple. But + you've no idea how difficult it really is. I'm afraid my uncle and I + have rather heaps to learn. We forgot to get a cook." +</p> +<p> + "A cook? But I thought—I understood that curtseying maid of yours was + going to do all that?" +</p> +<p> + "So did I. So did he. But she won't." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla flushed, for since Tussie left after tea she had had + grievous surprises, of a kind that made her first indignant and then + inclined to wince. Fritzing had not been able to hide from her that + Annalise had rebelled and refused to cook, and Priscilla had not been + able to follow her immediate impulse and dismiss her. It was at this + point, when she realized this, that the wincing began. She felt + perfectly sick at the thought, flashed upon her for the first time, + that she was in the power of a servant. +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean to say," said Tussie in a voice hollow with + consternation, "that you've had no dinner?" +</p> +<p> + "Dinner? In a cottage? Why of course there was no dinner. There never + will be any dinner—at night, at least. But the tragic thing is there + was no supper. We didn't think of it till we began to get hungry. + Annalise began first. She got hungry at six o'clock, and said + something to Fritz—my uncle about it, but he wasn't hungry himself + then and so he snubbed her. Now he is hungry himself, and he's gone + out to see if he can't find a cook. It's very stupid. There's nothing + in the house. Annalise ate the bread and things she found. She's + upstairs now, crying." And Priscilla's lips twitched as she looked at + Tussie's concerned face, and she began to laugh. +</p> +<p> + He seized his hat. "I'll go and get you something," he said, dashing + at the door. +</p> +<p> + "I can't think what, at this time of the night. The only shop shuts at + seven." +</p> +<p> + "I'll make them open it." +</p> +<p> + "They go to bed at nine." +</p> +<p> + "I'll get them out of bed if I have to shie stones at their windows + all night." +</p> +<p> + "Don't go without your coat—you'll catch a most frightful cold." +</p> +<p> + He put his arm through the door to take it, and vanished in the fog. + He did not put on the coat in his agitation, but kept it over his arm. + His comforter stayed in Priscilla's parlour, on the chair where he had + flung it. He was in evening dress, and his throat was sore already + with the cold that was coming on and that he had caught, as he + expected, running races on the Sunday at Priscilla's children's party. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla went back to her seat by the fire, and thought very hard + about things like bread. It would of course be impossible that she + should have reached this state of famine only because one meal had + been missed; but she had eaten nothing all day,—disliked the Baker's + Farm breakfast too much even to look at it, forgotten the Baker's Farm + dinner because she was just moving into her cottage, and at tea had + been too greatly upset by the unexpected appearance of her father on + the wall to care to eat the bread and butter Annalise brought in. Now + she was in that state when you tremble and feel cold. She had told + Annalise, about half-past seven, to bring her the bread left from tea, + but Annalise had eaten it. At half-past eight she had told Annalise to + bring her the sugar, for she had read somewhere that if you eat enough + sugar it takes away the desire even of the hungriest for other food, + but Annalise, who had eaten the sugar as well, said that the Herr + Geheimrath must have eaten it. It certainly was not there, and neither + was the Herr Geheimrath to defend himself; since half-past seven he + had been out looking for a cook, his mind pervaded by the idea that if + only he could get a cook food would follow in her wake as naturally as + flowers follow after rain. Priscilla fretting in her chair that he + should stay away so long saw very clearly that no cook could help + them. What is the use of a cook in a house where there is nothing to + cook? If only Fritzing would come back quickly with a great many + loaves of bread! The door was opened a little way and somebody's + knuckles knocked. She thought it was Tussie, quick and clever as ever, + and in a voice full of welcome told him to come in; upon which in + stepped Robin Morrison very briskly, delighted by the warmth of the + invitation. "Why now this <i>is</i> nice," said Robin, all smiles. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla did not move and did not offer to shake hands, so he stood + on the hearthrug and spread out his own to the blaze, looking down at + her with bright, audacious eyes. He thought he had not yet seen her so + beautiful. There was an extraordinary depth and mystery in her look, + he thought, as it rested for a moment on his face, and she had never + yet dropped her eyelashes as she now did when her eyes met his. We + know she was very hungry, and there was no strength in her at all. + Not only did her eyelashes drop, but her head as well, and her hands + hung helplessly, like drooping white flowers, one over each arm of the + chair. +</p> +<p> + "I came in to ask Mr. Neumann-Schultz if there's anything I can do for + you," said Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Did you? He lives next door." +</p> +<p> + "I know. I knocked there first, but he didn't answer so I thought he + must be here." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla said nothing. At any other time she would have snubbed Robin + and got rid of him. Now she merely sat and drooped. +</p> +<p> + "Has he gone out?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + Her voice was very low, hardly more than a whisper. Those who know the + faintness of hunger at this stage will also know the pathos that + steals into the voice of the sufferer when he is unwillingly made to + speak; it becomes plaintive, melodious with yearning, the yearning for + food. But if you do not know this, if you have yourself just come from + dinner, if you are half in love and want the other person to be quite + in love, if you are full of faith in your own fascinations, you are + apt to fall into Robin's error and mistake the nature of the yearning. + Tussie in Robin's place would have doubted the evidence of his senses, + but then Tussie was very modest. Robin doubted nothing. He saw, he + heard, and he thrilled; and underneath his thrilling, which was real + enough to make him flush to the roots of his hair, far down underneath + it was the swift contemptuous comment, "They're all alike." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla shut her eyes. She was listening for the first sound of + Tussie's or Fritzing's footfall, the glad sound heralding the approach + of something to eat, and wishing Robin would go away. He was kind at + times and obliging, but on the whole a nuisance. It was a great pity + there were so many people in the world who were nuisances and did not + know it. Somebody ought to tell them,—their mothers, or other useful + persons of that sort. She vaguely decided that the next time she met + Robin and was strengthened properly by food she would say a few things + to him from which recovery would take a long while. +</p> +<p> + "Are you—not well?" Robin asked, after a silence during which his + eyes never left her and hers were shut; and even to himself his voice + sounded deeper, more intense than usual. +</p> +<p> + "Oh yes," murmured Priscilla with a little sigh. +</p> +<p> + "Are you—happy?" +</p> +<p> + Happy? Can anybody who is supperless, dinnerless, breakfastless, be + happy, Priscilla wondered? But the question struck her as funny, and + the vibrating tones in which it was asked struck her as rather funny + too, and she opened her eyes for a moment to look up at Robin with a + smile of amusement—a smile that she could not guess was turned by the + hunger within her into something wistful and tremulous. "Yes," said + Priscilla in that strange pathetic voice, "I—think so." And after a + brief glance at him down went her weary eyelids again. +</p> +<p> + The next thing that happened was that Robin, who was trembling, + kissed her hand. This she let him do with perfect placidity. Every + German woman is used to having her hand kissed. It is kissed on + meeting, it is kissed on parting, it is kissed at a great many odd + times in between; she holds it up mechanically when she comes + across a male acquaintance; she is never surprised at the ceremony; + the only thing that surprises her is if it is left out. Priscilla + then simply thought Robin was going. "What a mercy," she said to + herself, glancing at him a moment through her eyelashes. But Robin + was not used to hand-kissing and saw things in a very different + light. He felt she made no attempt to draw her hand away, he heard + her murmuring something inarticulate—it was merely Good-bye—he + was hurled along to his doom; and stooping over her the unfortunate + young man kissed her hair. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla opened her eyes suddenly and very wide. I don't know what + folly he would have perpetrated next, or what sillinesses were on the + tip of his tongue, or what meaning he still chose to read in her look, + but an instant afterwards he was brought down for ever from the giddy + heights of his illusions: Priscilla boxed his ears. +</p> +<p> + I am sorry to have to record it. It is always sweeter if a woman does + not box ears. The action is shrewish, benighted, mediæval, nay, + barbarous; and this box was a very hard one indeed, extraordinarily + hard for so little a hand and so fasting a girl. But we know she had + twice already been on the verge of doing it; and the pent-up vigour of + what the policeman had not got and what the mother in the train had + not got was added I imagine to what Robin got. Anyhow it was + efficacious. There was an exclamation—I think of surprise, for surely + a young man would not have minded the pain?—and he put his hand up + quickly to his face. Priscilla got up just as quickly out of her chair + and rang the handbell furiously, her eyes on his, her face ablaze. + Annalise must have thrown herself down the ladder, for they hardly + seemed to have been standing there an instant face to face, their eyes + on a level, he scarlet, she white, both deadly silent, before the maid + was in the room. +</p> +<p> + "This person has insulted me," said Priscilla, turning to her and + pointing at Robin. "He never comes here again. Don't let me find you + forgetting that," she added, frowning at the girl; for she remembered + they had been seen talking eagerly together at the children's treat. +</p> +<p> + "I never"—began Robin. +</p> +<p> + "Will you go?" +</p> +<p> + Annalise opened the door for him. He went out, and she shut it behind + him. Then she walked sedately across the room again, looking sideways + at the Princess, who took no notice of her but stood motionless by the + table gazing straight before her, her lips compressed, her face set + in a kind of frozen white rage, and having got into the bathroom + Annalise began to run. She ran out at the back door, in again at + Fritzing's back door, out at his front door into the street, and + caught up Robin as he was turning down the lane to the vicarage. "What + have you done?" she asked him breathlessly, in German. +</p> +<p> + "Done?" Robin threw back his head and laughed quite loud. +</p> +<p> + "Sh—sh," said Annalise, glancing back fearfully over her shoulder. +</p> +<p> + "Done?" said Robin, subduing his bitter mirth. "What do you suppose + I've done? I've done what any man would have in my place—encouraged, + almost asked to do it. I kissed your young lady, <i>liebes Fräulein</i>, + and she pretended not to like it. Now isn't that what a sensible girl + like you would call absurd?" +</p> +<p> + But Annalise started back from the hand he held out to her in genuine + horror. "What?" she cried, "What?" +</p> +<p> + "What? What?" mocked Robin. "Well then, what? Are you all such prudes + in Germany? Even you pretending, you little hypocrite?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," cried Annalise hysterically, pushing him away with both her + hands, "what have you done? <i>Elender Junge</i>, what have you done?" +</p> +<p> + "I think you must all be mad," said Robin angrily. "You can't persuade + me that nobody ever kisses anybody over in Germany." +</p> +<p> + "Oh yes they do—oh yes they do," cried Annalise, wringing her hands, + "but neither there nor anywhere else—in England, anywhere in the + world—do the sons of pastors—the sons of pastors—" She seemed to + struggle for breath, and twisted and untwisted her apron round her + hands in a storm of agitation while Robin, utterly astonished, stared + at her—"Neither there nor anywhere else do they—the sons of + pastors—kiss—kiss royal princesses." +</p> +<p> + It was now Robin's turn to say "What?" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVI +</h2> +<p> + He went up to Cambridge the next morning. Term had not begun, but he + went; a Robin with all the briskness gone out of him, and if still + with something of the bird left only of a bird that is moulting. His + father was mildly surprised, but applauded the apparent desire for + solitary study. His mother was violently surprised, and tried hard + to get at his true reasons. She saw with the piercing eye of a + relation—that eye from which hardly anything can ever be hidden—that + something had happened and that the something was sobering and + unpleasant. She could not imagine what it was, for she did not know he + had been to Creeper Cottage the night before and all the afternoon and + at dinner he had talked and behaved as usual. Now he did not talk at + all, and his behaviour was limited to a hasty packing of portmanteaus. + Determined to question him she called him into the study just before + he started, and shut the door. +</p> +<p> + "I must go mater," he said, pulling out his watch; he had carefully + avoided her since breakfast though she had laid many traps for him. +</p> +<p> + "Robin, I want to tell you that I think you splendid." +</p> +<p> + "Splendid? What on earth for? You were telling me a very different + sort of thing a day or two ago." +</p> +<p> + "I am sorry now for what I said on Sunday." +</p> +<p> + "I don't think a mother ought ever to say she's sorry," said Robin + gloomily. +</p> +<p> + "Not if she is?" +</p> +<p> + "She oughtn't to say so." +</p> +<p> + "Well dear let us be friends. Don't go away angry with me. I do + appreciate you so much for going. You are my own dear boy." And she + put her hands on his shoulders. +</p> +<p> + He took out his watch again. "I say, I must be off." +</p> +<p> + "Don't suppose a mother doesn't see and understand." +</p> +<p> + "Oh I don't suppose anything. Good-bye mater." +</p> +<p> + "I think it so splendid of you to go, to turn your back on temptation, + to unwind yourself from that wretched girl's coils." +</p> +<p> + "Coils?" +</p> +<p> + "My Robin"—she stroked his cheek, the same cheek, as it happened, + Priscilla had smitten—"my Robin must not throw himself away. I am + ambitious where you are concerned, my darling. It would have broken my + heart for you to have married a nobody—perhaps a worse than nobody." +</p> +<p> + Robin, who was staring at her with an indescribable expression on his + face, took her hands off his shoulders. "Look here mater," he + said—and he was seized by a desire to laugh terrifically—"there is + nothing in the world quite so amusing as the way people will talk + wisely of things they don't in the faintest degree understand. They + seem to feel wise in proportion to their ignorance. I expect you think + that's a funny speech for me to make. I can tell you I don't think it + half as funny as yours was. Good-bye. I shall miss my train you know + if you keep me, and then I'd be exposed again to those—what was the + word? ah, yes—coils. Coils!" He burst into loud laughter. "Good-bye + mater." +</p> +<p> + She was staring at him blankly. He hastily brushed her forehead with + his moustache and hurried to the door, his face full of strange mirth. + "I say," he said, putting in his head again, "there's just one thing + I'd like to say." +</p> +<p> + She made an eager step towards him. "Do say it my darling—say all + that is in your heart." +</p> +<p> + "Oh it's not much—it's only God help poor Tuss." And that was the + last of him. She heard him chuckling all down the passage; but long + before his fly had reached Ullerton he had left off doing that and was + moulting again. +</p> +<p> + It rained that day in Somersetshire, a steady, hopeless rain that + soaked many a leaf off the trees before its time and made the year + look suddenly quite old. From the windows of Creeper Cottage you could + see the water running in rivulets down the hill into the deserted + village, and wreaths of mist hanging about the downs beyond. The + dripping tombstone that blocked Priscilla's window grew danker and + blacker as the day went by. The fires in the cottage burnt badly, for + the wood had somehow got wet. The oilcloth and the wall-papers looked + very dismal in the grey daylight. Rain came in underneath the two + front doors and made puddles that nobody wiped away. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla had got up very late, after a night spent staring into the + darkness, and then had sent for Fritzing and told him what Robin had + done. The unhappy man's horror will be easily imagined. She was in bed + the night before when he came in, quite cured of her hunger and only + wanting to be alone with her wrath. Fritzing had found no one in the + parlour but Tussie clasping an immense biscuit-tin in his arms, with a + face so tragic that Fritzing thought something terrible must have + happened. Tussie had returned joyfully, laden with biscuits and + sardines, to find the girl standing straight and speechless by the + table, her face rigid, her eyes ablaze. She had not so much as glanced + at the biscuits; she had not said a single word; her look rested on + him a moment as though she did not see him and then she went into the + next room and upstairs to bed. He knew she went upstairs to bed for in + Creeper Cottage you could hear everything. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing coming in a few minutes later without the cook he had hoped + to find, was glad enough of Tussie's sardines and biscuits—they were + ginger biscuits—and while he ate them, abstractedly and together, + Tussie looked on and wondered in spite of his wretchedness what the + combination could possibly taste like. Then, after a late breakfast + on the Wednesday morning, Priscilla sent for Fritzing and told him + what Robin had done. The burdened man, so full already of anxieties + and worries, was shattered by the blow. "I have always held duelling + in extreme contempt," he said when at last he could speak, "but now I + shall certainly fight." +</p> +<p> + "Fight? You? Fritzi, I've only told you because I—I feel so + unprotected here and you must keep him off if he ever tries to come + again. But you shall not fight. What, first he is to insult me and + then hurt or kill my Fritzi? Besides, nobody ever fights duels in + England." +</p> +<p> + "That remains to be seen. I shall now go to his house and insult him + steadily for half an hour. At the expiration of that time he will + probably be himself anxious to fight. We might go to France—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh Fritzi don't be so dreadful. Don't go to him—leave him + alone—nobody must ever know—" +</p> +<p> + "I shall now go and insult him," repeated Fritzing with an + inflexibility that silenced her. +</p> +<p> + And she saw him a minute later pass her window under his umbrella, + splashing indifferently through all the puddles, battle and + destruction in his face. +</p> +<p> + Robin, however, was at Ullerton by the time Fritzing got to the + vicarage. He waved the servant aside when she told him he had gone, + and insisted on penetrating into the presence of the young man's + father. He waved Mrs. Morrison aside too when she tried to substitute + herself for the vicar, and did at last by his stony persistency get + into the good man's presence. Not until the vicar himself told him + that Robin had gone would Fritzing believe it. "The villain has fled," + he told Priscilla, coming back drenched in body but unquenchable in + spirit. "Your chastisement, ma'am, was very effectual." +</p> +<p> + "If he's gone, then don't let us think about him any more." +</p> +<p> + "Nay, ma'am, I now set out for Cambridge. If I may not meet him fairly + in duel and have my chance of honourably removing him from a world + that has had enough of him, I would fain in my turn box his ears." +</p> +<p> + But Priscilla caught him by both arms. "Why, Fritzi," she cried, "he + might remove you and not you him—and from a world that hasn't had + nearly enough of you. Fritzi, you cannot leave me. I won't let you go. + I wish I had never told you. Don't let us talk of it ever again. It is + hateful to me. I—I can't bear it." And she looked into his face with + something very like tears in her eyes. +</p> +<p> + Of course Fritzing stayed. How could he go away even for one hour, + even in search of a cook, when such dreadful things happened? He was + bowed down by the burden of his responsibilities. He went into his + sitting-room and spent the morning striding up and down it between the + street door and the door into the kitchen,—a stride and a half one + way, and a stride and a half back back again,—doing what all + evildoers have to do sooner or later, cudgelling his brains for a way + out of life's complications: and every now and then the terribleness + of what had happened to his Princess, his guarded Princess, his + unapproachable one, came over him with a fresh wave of horror and he + groaned aloud. +</p> +<p> + In the kitchen sat the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid, a most accomplished + young person, listening to the groans and wondering what next. Tussie + had sent her, with fearful threats of what sort of character she would + get if she refused to go. She had at once given notice, but had been + forced all the same to go, being driven over in a dog-cart in the + early morning rain by a groom who made laboured pleasantries at her + expense. She could cook very well, almost as well as that great + personage the Shuttleworth cook, but she could only cook if there were + things to be cooked; and what she found at Creeper Cottage was the + rest of the ginger biscuits and sardines. Well, I will not linger over + that. Priscilla did get breakfast somehow, the girl, after trying + vainly to strike sparks of helpfulness out of Annalise, going to the + store and ordering what was necessary. Then she washed up, while + Annalise tripped in and out for the express purpose, so it seemed, of + turning up her nose; then she sat and waited and wondered what next. + For a long time she supposed somebody would send for her to come and + talk about luncheon; but nobody did. She heard the ceaseless + stridings in the next room, and every now and then the groans. The + rain on the kitchen window did not patter more ceaselessly than the + footsteps strode up and down, and the groans got very much on to the + girl's nerves. At last she decided that no person who was groaning + like that would ever want to order luncheon, and she had better go to + the young lady. She went out accordingly and knocked at Priscilla's + door. Priscilla was in her chair by the fire, lost in troublous + thought. She looked vaguely at the kitchenmaid for a moment, and then + asked her to go away. "I'm busy," explained Priscilla, whose hands + were folded in her lap. +</p> +<p> + "Please miss, what do you wish for luncheon?" +</p> +<p> + "Who are you?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm the—assistant cook at the 'All, miss. Lady Shuttleworth's + assistant cook. Sir Augustus desired me to cook for you to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Then please do it." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. What do you wish for luncheon?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. And the gentleman—don't he want nothing neither?" +</p> +<p> + "He'll probably tell you when he does." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. It's as well to know a little beforehand, ain't it, miss. + There's nothing in the—a-hem—'ouse, and I suppose I'd have to buy + something." +</p> +<p> + "Please do." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. Perhaps if you'd tell me what the gentleman likes I could + go out and get it." +</p> +<p> + "But I don't know what he likes. And wouldn't you get wet? Send + somebody." +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss. Who?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gazed at her a moment. "Ah yes—" she said, "I forgot. I'm + afraid there isn't anybody. I think you had better ask my uncle what + he wants, and then if you would—I'm very sorry you should have such + bad weather—but if you don't mind, would you go and buy the things?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes miss." +</p> +<p> + The girl went away, and Priscilla began for the first time to consider + the probability of her having in the near future to think of and order + three meals every day of her life; and not only three meals, but she + dimly perceived there would be a multitude of other dreary things to + think of and order,—their linen, for instance, must be washed, and + how did one set about that? And would not Fritzing's buttons presently + come off and have to be sewn on again? His socks, when they went into + holes, could be thrown out of the window and new ones bought, but even + Priscilla saw that you could not throw a whole coat out of a window + because its buttons had come off. There would, then, have to be some + mending done for Fritzing, and Annalise would certainly not be the one + to do it. Was the simple life a sordid life as well? Did it only look + simple from outside and far away? And was it, close, mere drudging? A + fear came over her that her soul, her precious soul, for whose sake + she had dared everything, instead of being able to spread its wings in + the light of a glorious clear life was going to be choked out of + existence by weeds just as completely as at Kunitz. +</p> +<p> + The Shuttleworth kitchenmaid meanwhile, who was not hindered at every + turn by a regard for her soul, made her way to Fritzing as she had + been told and inquired of him what she should cook for his dinner. No + man likes to be interrupted in his groanings; and Fritzing, who was + not hungry and was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger in + his room asking him intimate questions, a person of whose presence in + the cottage he had been unaware, flew at her. "Woman, what have I to + do with you?" he cried, stopping in his walk and confronting her with + surprising fierceness. "Is it seemly to burst in on a man like this? + Have you no decency? No respect for another's privacy? Begone, I + command you—begone! Begone!" And he made the same movements with his + hands that persons do when they shoo away fowls or other animals in + flocks. +</p> +<p> + This was too much for the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid. The obligations, + she considered, were all on the side of Creeper Cottage, and she + retreated in amazement and anger to the kitchen, put on her hat and + mackintosh, and at once departed, regardless of the rain and the + consequences, through two miles of dripping lanes to Symford Hall. + What would have happened to her there if she had been discovered by + Tussie I do not know, but I imagine it would have been something bad. + She was saved, however, by his being in bed, clutched by the throat by + a violent cold; and there he lay helpless, burning and shivering and + throbbing, the pains of his body increased a hundredfold by the + distraction of his mind about Priscilla. Why, Tussie asked himself + over and over again, had she looked so strange the night before? Why + had she gone starving to bed? What was she doing to-day? Was the + kitchenmaid taking proper care of her? Was she keeping warm and dry + this shocking weather? Had she slept comfortably the first night in + her little home? Poor Tussie. It is a grievous thing to love any one + too much; a grievous, wasteful, paralyzing thing; a tumbling of the + universe out of focus, a bringing of the whole world down to the mean + level of one desire, a shutting out of wider, more beautiful feelings, + a wrapping of one's self in a thick garment of selfishness, outside + which all the dear, tender, modest, everyday affections and + friendships, the wholesome, ordinary loves, the precious loves of use + and wont, are left to shiver and grow cold. Tussie's mother sat + outside growing very cold indeed. Her heart was stricken within her. + She, most orderly of women, did not in the least mind, so occupied was + she with deeper cares, that her household was in rebellion, her cook + who had been with her practically all her life leaving because she had + been commanded by Tussie, before he had to fall back on the + kitchenmaid, to proceed forthwith to Creeper Cottage and stay there + indefinitely; her kitchenmaid, also a valued functionary, leaving; + Bryce, Tussie's servant who took such care of him and was so clever in + sickness, gone suddenly in his indignation at having to go at + all,—all these things no longer mattered. Nor did it matter that the + coming of age festivities were thrown into hopeless confusion by + Tussie's illness, that the guests must all be telegraphed to and put + off, that the whole village would be aghast at such a disappointment, + that all her plans and preparations had been wasted. As the first day + and night of illness dragged slowly past she grew to be nothing but + one great ache of yearning over her sick boy, a most soul-rending + yearning to do what she knew was for ever impossible, to put her arms + so close round him, so close, so carefully, so tenderly, that nothing, + no evil, no pain, could get through that clasp of love to hurt him any + more. +</p> +<p> + "Why don't you take better care of your only son?" said the doctor + grimly after he had seen Tussie that evening, who by that time was in + a very pitiable condition. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth stared at him, wide-eyed and speechless. +</p> +<p> + "It's absurd, you know, to let him get into this state. I've often + warned you. He can't be allowed to play ducks and drakes with himself + like other young men. He's got no strength to fall back upon. I + consider you are directly responsible for this illness. Why do you + let him go out at night this time of year? Why do you let him + over-exert himself? I suppose," said the doctor, who had brought + Tussie into the world and was as brutal as he was clever, besides + being at that moment extremely angry, "I suppose you want to lose him, + eh?" +</p> +<p> + How could she explain to him what she knew to be true, that the one + person responsible for Tussie's illness was Priscilla? She therefore + only stared, wide-eyed and speechless; and indeed her heart was very + nearly broken. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVII +</h2> +<p> + About three o'clock that afternoon Priscilla saw quite clearly what + she had dimly perceived in the morning, that if there was to be + domestic peace in Creeper Cottage she must bestir herself. She did not + like bestirring herself; at least, not in such directions. She would + go out and help the poor, talk to them, cheer them, nurse their babies + even and stir their porridge, but she had not up to this point + realized her own needs, and how urgent they could be and how + importunate. It was hunger that cleared her vision. The first time she + was hungry she had been amused. Now when it happened again she was + both surprised and indignant. "Can one's wretched body <i>never</i> keep + quiet?" she thought impatiently, when the first twinges dragged her + relentlessly out of her dejected dreaming by the fire. She remembered + the cold tremblings of the night before, and felt that that state + would certainly be reached again quite soon if she did not stop it at + once. She rang for Annalise. "Tell the cook I will have some luncheon + after all," she said. +</p> +<p> + "The cook is gone," said Annalise, whose eyes were more aggressively + swollen than they had yet been. +</p> +<p> + "Gone where?" +</p> +<p> + "Gone away. Gone for ever." +</p> +<p> + "But why?" asked Priscilla, really dismayed. +</p> +<p> + "The Herr Geheimrath insulted her. I heard him doing it. No woman of + decency can permit such a tone. She at once left. There has been no + dinner to-day. There will be, I greatly fear, n—o—o—supp—pper." + And Annalise gave a loud sob and covered her face with her apron. +</p> +<p> + Then Priscilla saw that if life was to roll along at all it was her + shoulder that would have to be put to the wheel. Fritzing's shoulder + was evidently not a popular one among the lower classes. The vision of + her own doing anything with wheels was sufficiently amazing, but she + did not stop to gaze upon it. "Annalise," she said, getting up quickly + and giving herself a little shake, "fetch me my hat and coat. I'm + going out." +</p> +<p> + Annalise let her apron drop far enough to enable her to point to the + deluge going on out of doors. "Not in this weather?" she faltered, + images of garments soaked in mud and needing much drying and brushing + troubling her. +</p> +<p> + "Get me the things," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness will be wet through." +</p> +<p> + "Get me the things. And don't cry quite so much. Crying really is the + most shocking waste of time." +</p> +<p> + Annalise withdrew, and Priscilla went round to Fritzing. It was the + first time she had been round to him. He was sitting at his table, his + head in his hands, staring at the furnisher's bill, and he started to + see her coming in unexpectedly through the kitchen, and shut the bill + hastily in a drawer. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, have you had anything to eat to-day?" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly. I had an excellent breakfast." +</p> +<p> + "Nothing since?" +</p> +<p> + "I have not yet felt the need." +</p> +<p> + "You know the cook Lady Shuttleworth sent has gone again?" +</p> +<p> + "What, that woman who burst in upon me was Lady Shuttleworth's cook?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes. And you frightened her so she ran home." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, she overstepped the limits of my patience." +</p> +<p> + "Dear Fritzi, I often wonder where exactly the limits of your patience + are. With me they have withdrawn into infinite space—I've never been + able to reach them. But every one else seems to have a knack—well, + somebody must cook. You tell me Annalise won't. Perhaps she really + can't. Anyhow I cannot mention it to her, because it would be too + horrible to have her flatly refusing to do something I told her to do + and yet not be able to send her away. But somebody must cook, and I'm + going out to get the somebody. Hush"—she put up her hand as he opened + his mouth to speak—"I know it's raining. I know I'll get wet. Don't + let us waste time protesting. I'm going." +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was conscience-stricken. "Ma'am," he said, "you must forgive + me for unwittingly bringing this bother upon you. Had I had time for + reflection I would not have been so sharp. But the woman burst upon + me. I knew not who she was. Sooner than offend her I would have cut + out my tongue, could I have foreseen you would yourself go in search + in the rain of a substitute. Permit me to seek another." +</p> +<p> + "No, no—you have no luck with cooks," said Priscilla smiling. "I'm + going. Why I feel more cheerful already—just getting out of that + chair makes me feel better." +</p> +<p> + "Were you not cheerful before?" inquired Fritzing anxiously. +</p> +<p> + "Not very," admitted Priscilla. "But then neither were you. Don't + suppose I didn't see you with your head in your hands when I came in. + Cheerful people never seize their heads in that way. Now Fritzi I know + what's worrying you—it's that absurd affair last night. I've left off + thinking about it. I'm going to be very happy again, and so must you + be. We won't let one mad young man turn all our beautiful life sour, + will we?" +</p> +<p> + He bent down and kissed her hand. "Permit me to accompany you at + least," he begged. "I cannot endure—" +</p> +<p> + But she shook her head; and as she presently walked through the rain + holding Fritzing's umbrella,—none had been bought to replace hers, + broken on the journey—getting muddier and more draggled every + minute, she felt that now indeed she had got down to elementary + conditions, climbed right down out of the clouds to the place where + life lies unvarnished and uncomfortable, where Necessity spends her + time forcing you to do all the things you don't like, where the whole + world seems hungry and muddy and wet. It was an extraordinary + experience for her, this slopping through the mud with soaking shoes, + no prospect of a meal, and a heart that insisted on sinking in spite + of her attempts to persuade herself that the situation was amusing. It + did not amuse her. It might have amused somebody else,—the Grand + Duke, for instance, if he could have watched her now (from, say, a + Gothic window, himself dry and fed and taken care of), being punished + so naturally and inevitably by the weapons Providence never allows to + rust, those weapons that save parents and guardians so much personal + exertion if only they will let things take their course, those sharp, + swift consequences that attend the actions of the impetuous. I might, + indeed, if this were a sermon and there were a congregation unable to + get away, expatiate on the habit these weapons have of smiting with + equal fury the just and the unjust; how you only need to be a little + foolish, quite a little foolish, under conditions that seem to force + it upon you, and down they come, sure and relentless, and you are + smitten with a thoroughness that leaves you lame for years; how + motives are nothing, circumstances are nothing; how the motives may + have been aflame with goodness, the circumstances such that any other + course was impossible; how all these things don't matter in the + least,—you are and shall be smitten. But this is not a sermon. I have + no congregation. And why should I preach to a reader who meanwhile has + skipped? +</p> +<p> + It comforted Priscilla to find that almost the whole village wanted to + come and cook for her, or as the women put it "do" for her. Their + cooking powers were strictly limited, and they proposed to make up for + this by doing for her very completely in other ways; they would scrub, + sweep, clean windows, wash,—anything and everything they would do. + Would they also sew buttons on her uncle's clothes? Priscilla asked + anxiously. And they were ready to sew buttons all over Fritzing if + buttons would make him happy. This eagerness was very gratifying, but + it was embarrassing as well. The extremely aged and the extremely + young were the only ones that refrained from offering their services. + Some of the girls were excluded as too weedy; some of the mothers + because their babies were too new; some of the wives because their + husbands were too exacting; but when Priscilla counted up the names + she had written down she found there were twenty-five. For a moment + she was staggered. Then she rose to the occasion and got out of the + difficulty with what she thought great skill, arranging, as it was + impossible to disappoint twenty-four of these, that they should take + it in turn, each coming for one day until all had had a day and then + beginning again with the first one. It seemed a brilliant plan. Life + at Creeper Cottage promised to be very varied. She gathered them + together in the village shop to talk it over. She asked them if they + thought ten shillings a day and food would be enough. She asked it + hesitatingly, afraid lest she were making them an impossibly frugal + offer. She was relieved at the cry of assent; but it was followed + after a moment by murmurs from the married women, when they had had + time to reflect, that it was unfair to pay the raw young ones at the + same rate as themselves. Priscilla however turned a deaf ear to their + murmurings. "The girls may not," she said, raising her hand to impose + silence, "be able to get through as much as you do in a day, but + they'll be just as tired when evening comes. Certainly I shall give + them the same wages." She made them draw lots as to who should begin, + and took the winner home with her then and there; she too, though the + day was far spent, was to have her ten shillings. "What, have you + forgotten your New Testaments?" Priscilla cried, when more murmurs + greeted this announcement. "Don't you remember the people who came at + the eleventh hour to labour in the vineyard and got just the same as + the others? Why should I try to improve on parables?" And there was + something about Priscilla, an air, an authority, that twisted the + women of Symford into any shape of agreement she chose. The + twenty-four went their several ways. The twenty-fifth ran home to put + on a clean apron, and got back to the shop in time to carry the eggs + and butter and bread Priscilla had bought. "I forgot to bring any + money," said Priscilla when the postmistress—it was she who kept the + village shop—told her how much it came to. "Does it matter?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh don't mention it, Miss Neumann-Schultz," was the pleasant answer + of that genteel and trustful lady; and she suggested that Priscilla + should take with her a well-recommended leg of mutton she had that + day for sale as well. Priscilla shuddered at the sight of it and + determined never to eat legs of mutton again. The bacon, too, piled up + on the counter, revolted her. The only things that looked as decent + raw as when they were cooked were eggs; and on eggs she decided she + and Fritzing would in future live. She broke off a piece of the crust + of the bread Mrs. Vickerton was wrapping up and ate it, putting great + pressure on herself to do it carelessly, with a becoming indifference. +</p> +<p> + "It's good bread," said Mrs. Vickerton, doing up her parcel. +</p> +<p> + "Where in the world do you get it from?" asked Priscilla + enthusiastically. "The man must be a genius." +</p> +<p> + "The carrier brings it every day," said Mrs. Vickerton, pleased and + touched by such appreciation. "It's a Minehead baker's." +</p> +<p> + "He ought to be given an order, if ever man ought." +</p> +<p> + "An order? For you regular, Miss Neumann-Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no,—the sort you pin on your breast," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ho," smiled Mrs. Vickerton vaguely, who did not follow; she was so + genteel that she could never have enough of aspirates. And Priscilla, + giving the parcel to her breathless new help, hurried back to Creeper + Cottage. +</p> +<p> + Now this help, or char-girl—you could not call her a charwoman she + was manifestly still so very young—was that Emma who had been obliged + to tell the vicar's wife about Priscilla's children's treat and who + did not punctually return books. I will not go so far as to say that + not to return books punctually is sinful, though deep down in my soul + I think it is, but anyhow it is a symptom of moral slackness. Emma was + quite good so long as she was left alone. She could walk quite + straight so long as there were no stones in the way and nobody to pull + her aside. If there were stones, she instantly stumbled; if somebody + pulled, she instantly went. She was weak, amiable, well-intentioned. + She had a widowed father who was unpleasant and who sometimes beat her + on Saturday nights, and on Sunday mornings sometimes, if the fumes of + the Cock and Hens still hung about him, threw things at her before she + went to church. A widowed father in Emma's class is an ill being to + live with. The vicar did his best to comfort her. Mrs. Morrison talked + of the commandments and of honouring one's father and mother and of + how the less there was to honour the greater the glory of doing it; + and Emma was so amiable that she actually did manage to honour him six + days out of the seven. At the same time she could not help thinking it + would be nice to go away to a place where he wasn't. They were + extremely poor; almost the poorest family in the village, and the + vision of possessing ten shillings of her very own was a dizzy one. + She had a sweetheart, and she had sent him word by a younger sister of + the good fortune that had befallen her and begged him to come up to + Creeper Cottage that evening and help her carry the precious wages + safely home; and at nine o'clock when her work was done she presented + herself all blushes and smiles before Priscilla and shyly asked her + for them. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was alone in her parlour reading. She referred her, as her + habit was, to Fritzing; but Fritzing had gone out for a little air, + the rain having cleared off, and when the girl told her so Priscilla + bade her come round in the morning and fetch the money. +</p> +<p> + Emma's face fell so woefully at this—was not her John at that moment + all expectant round the corner?—that Priscilla smiled and got up to + see if she could find some money herself. In the first drawer she + opened in Fritzing's sitting-room was a pocket-book, and in this + pocket-book Fritzing's last five-pound note. There was nothing else + except the furnisher's bill. She pushed that on one side without + looking at it; what did bills matter? Bills never yet had mattered to + Priscilla. She pushed it on one side and searched for silver, but + found none. "Perhaps you can change this?" she said, holding out the + note. +</p> +<p> + "The shop's shut now, miss," said Laura, gazing with round eyes at the + mighty sum. +</p> +<p> + "Well then take it, and bring me the change in the morning." +</p> +<p> + Emma took it with trembling fingers—she had not in her life touched + so much money—and ran out into the darkness to where her John was + waiting. Symford never saw either of them again. Priscilla never saw + her change. Emma went to perdition. Priscilla went back to her chair + by the fire. She was under the distinct and comfortable impression + that she had been the means of making the girl happy. "How easy it is, + making people happy," thought Priscilla placidly, the sweetest smile + on her charming mouth. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVIII +</h2> +<p> + Bad luck, it will be seen, dogged the footsteps of Priscilla. Never + indeed for a single hour after she entered Creeper Cottage did the + gloomy lady cease from her attentions. The place was pervaded by her + thick and evil atmosphere. Fritzing could not go out for an airing + without something of far-reaching consequence happening while he was + away. It was of course Bad Luck that made the one girl in Symford who + was easily swayed by passing winds of temptation draw the lot that put + the five-pound note into her hands; if she had come to the cottage + just one day later, or if the rain had gone on just half an hour + longer and kept Fritzing indoors, she would, I have no doubt whatever, + be still in Symford practising every feeble virtue either on her + father or on her John, by this time probably her very own John. As it + was she was a thief, a lost soul, a banished face for ever from the + ways of grace. +</p> +<p> + Thus are we all the sport of circumstance. Thus was all Symford the + sport of Priscilla. Fritzing knew nothing of his loss. He had not told + Priscilla a word of his money difficulties, his idea being to keep + every cloud from her life as long and as completely as possible. + Besides, how idle to talk of these things to some one who could in no + way help him with counsel or suggestions. He had put the money in his + drawer, and the thought that it was still unchanged and safe comforted + him a little in the watches of the sleepless nights. +</p> +<p> + Nothing particular happened on the Thursday morning, except that the + second of the twenty-five kept on breaking things, and Priscilla who + was helping Fritzing arrange the books he had ordered from London + remarked at the fifth terrific smash, a smash so terrific as to cause + Creeper Cottage to tremble all over, that more crockery had better be + bought. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Fritzing, glancing swiftly at her with almost a guilty + glance. +</p> +<p> + He felt very keenly his want of resourcefulness in this matter of + getting the money over from Germany, but he clung to the hope that a + few more wakeful nights would clear his brain and show him the way; + and meanwhile there was always the five-pound note in the drawer. +</p> +<p> + "And Fritzi, I shall have to get some clothes soon," Priscilla went + on, dusting the books as he handed them to her. +</p> +<p> + "Clothes, ma'am?" repeated Fritzing, straightening himself to stare at + her. +</p> +<p> + "Those things you bought for me in Gerstein—they're delicious, + they're curiosities, but they're not clothes. I mean always to keep + them. I'll have them put in a glass case, and they shall always be + near me when we're happy again." +</p> +<p> + "Happy again, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "Settled again, I mean," quickly amended Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + She dusted in silence for a little, and began to put the books she had + dusted in the shelves. "I'd better write to Paris," she said + presently. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing jumped. "Paris, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "They've got my measurements. This dress can't stand much more. It's + the one I've worn all the time. The soaking it got yesterday was very + bad for it. You don't see such things, but if you did you'd probably + get a tremendous shock." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, if you write to Paris you must give your own name, which of + course is impossible. They will send nothing to an unknown customer in + England called Neumann-Schultz." +</p> +<p> + "Oh but we'd send the money with the order. That's quite easy, isn't + it?" +</p> +<p> + "Perfectly easy," said Fritzing in an oddly exasperated voice; at once + adding, still more snappily, "Might I request your Grand Ducal + Highness to have the goodness not to put my Æschylus—a most valuable + edition—head downwards on the shelf? It is a manner of treating books + often to be observed in housemaids and similar ignorants. But you, + ma'am, have been trained by me I trust in other and more reverent ways + of handling what is left to us of the mighty spirits of the past." +</p> +<p> + "I'm sorry," said Priscilla, hastily turning the Æschylus right side + up again; and by launching forth into a long and extremely bitter + dissertation on the various ways persons of no intellectual + conscience have of ill-treating books, he got rid of some of his + agitation and fixed her attention for the time on questions less + fraught with complications than clothes from Paris. +</p> +<p> + About half-past two they were still sitting over the eggs and bread + and butter that Priscilla ordered three times a day and that Fritzing + ate with unquestioning obedience, when the Shuttleworth victoria + stopped in front of the cottage and Lady Shuttleworth got out. + Fritzing, polite man, hastened to meet her, pushing aside the footman + and offering his arm. She looked at him vaguely, and asked if his + niece were at home. +</p> +<p> + "Certainly," said Fritzing, leading her into Priscilla's parlour. + "Shall I inquire if she will receive you?" +</p> +<p> + "Do," said Lady Shuttleworth, taking no apparent notice of the odd + wording of this question. "Tussie isn't well," she said the moment + Priscilla appeared, fixing her eyes on her face but looking as though + she hardly saw her, as though she saw past her, through her, to + something beyond, while she said a lesson learned by rote. +</p> +<p> + "Isn't he? Oh I'm sorry," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "He caught cold last Sunday at your treat. He oughtn't to have run + those races with the boys. He can't—stand—much." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at her questioningly. The old lady's face was quite + set and calm, but there had been a queer catch in her voice at the + last words. +</p> +<p> + "Why does he do such things, then?" asked Priscilla, feeling vaguely + distressed. +</p> +<p> + "Ah yes, my dear—why? That is a question for you to answer, is it + not?" +</p> +<p> + "For me?" +</p> +<p> + "On Tuesday night," continued Lady Shuttleworth, "he was ill when he + left home to come here. He would come. It was a terrible night for a + delicate boy to go out. And he didn't stay here, I understand. He went + out to buy something after closing time, and stood a long while trying + to wake the people up." +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla, feeling guilty, "I—that was my fault. He went + for me." +</p> +<p> + "Yes my dear. Since then he has been ill. I've come to ask you if + you'll drive back with me and see if—if you cannot persuade him that + you are happy. He seems to be much—troubled." +</p> +<p> + "Troubled?" +</p> +<p> + "He seems to be afraid you are not happy. You know," she added with a + little quavering smile, "Tussie is very kind. He is very unselfish. He + takes everybody's burdens on his shoulders. He seems to be quite + haunted by the idea that your life here is unendurably uncomfortable, + and it worries him dreadfully that he can't get to you to set things + straight. I think if he were to see you, and you were very cheerful, + and—and smiled, my dear, it might help to get him over this." +</p> +<p> + "Get him over this?" echoed Priscilla. "Is he so ill?" +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth looked at her and said nothing. +</p> +<p> + "Of course I'll come," said Priscilla, hastily ringing the bell. +</p> +<p> + "But you must not look unhappy," said Lady Shuttleworth, laying her + hand on the girl's arm, "that would make matters ten times worse. You + must promise to be as gay as possible." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes—I'll be gay," promised Priscilla, while her heart became as + lead within her at the thought that she was the cause of poor Tussie's + sufferings. But was she really, she asked herself during the drive? + What had she done but accept help eagerly offered? Surely it was very + innocent to do that? It was what she had been doing all her life, and + people had been delighted when she let them be kind to her, and + certainly had not got ill immediately afterwards. Were you never to + let anybody do anything for you lest while they were doing it they + should get wet feet and things, and then their colds would be upon + your head? She was very sorry Tussie should be ill, dreadfully sorry. + He was so kind and good that it was impossible not to like him. She + did like him. She liked him quite as well as most young men and much + better than many. "I'm afraid you are very unhappy," she said suddenly + to Lady Shuttleworth, struck by the look on her face as she leaned + back, silent, in her corner. +</p> +<p> + "I do feel rather at my wits' end," said Lady Shuttleworth. "For + instance, I'm wondering whether what I'm doing now isn't a great + mistake." +</p> +<p> + "What you are doing now?" +</p> +<p> + "Taking you to see Tussie." +</p> +<p> + "Oh but I promise to be cheerful. I'll tell him how comfortable we + are. He'll see I look well taken care of." +</p> +<p> + "But for all that I'm afraid he may—he may—" +</p> +<p> + "Why, we're going to be tremendously taken care of. Even he will see + that. Only think—I've engaged twenty-five cooks." +</p> +<p> + "Twenty-five cooks?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, staring in spite of her + sorrows. "But isn't my kitchenmaid—?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh she left us almost at once. She couldn't stand my uncle. He is + rather difficult to stand at first. You have to know him quite a long + while before you can begin to like him. And I don't think kitchenmaids + ever would begin." +</p> +<p> + "But my dear, twenty-five cooks?" +</p> +<p> + And Priscilla explained how and why she had come by them; and though + Lady Shuttleworth, remembering the order till now prevailing in the + village and the lowness of the wages, could not help thinking that + here was a girl more potent for mischief than any girl she had ever + met, yet a feeble gleam of amusement did, as she listened, slant + across the inky blackness of her soul. +</p> +<p> + Tussie was sitting up in bed with a great many pillows behind him, + finding immense difficulty in breathing, when his mother, her bonnet + off and every trace of having been out removed, came in and said Miss + Neumann-Schultz was downstairs. +</p> +<p> + "Downstairs? Here? In this house?" gasped Tussie, his eyes round with + wonder and joy. +</p> +<p> + "Yes. She—called. Would you like her to come up and see you?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh mother!" +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth hurried out. How could she bear this, she thought, + stumbling a little as though she did not see very well. She went + downstairs with the sound of that Oh mother throbbing in her ears. +</p> +<p> + Tussie's temperature, high already, went up by leaps during the few + minutes of waiting. He gave feverish directions to the nurse about a + comfortable chair being put exactly in the right place, about his + pillows being smoothed, his medicine bottles hidden, and was very + anxious that the flannel garment he was made to wear when ill, a + garment his mother called a nightingale—not after the bird but the + lady—and that was the bluest flannel garment ever seen, should be + arranged neatly over his narrow chest. +</p> +<p> + The nurse looked disapproving. She did not like her patients to be + happy. Perhaps she was right. It is always better, I believe, to be + cautious and careful, to husband your strength, to be deadly prudent + and deadly dull. As you would poison, so should you avoid doing what + the poet calls living too much in your large hours. The truly prudent + never have large hours; nor should you, if you want to be comfortable. + And you get your reward, I am told, in living longer; in having, that + is, a few more of those years that cluster round the end, during which + you are fed and carried and washed by persons who generally grumble. + Who wants to be a flame, doomed to be blown out by the same gust of + wind that has first fanned it to its very brightest? If you are not a + flame you cannot, of course, be blown out. Gusts no longer shake you. + Tempests pass you by untouched. And if besides you have the additional + advantage of being extremely smug, extremely thick-skinned, you shall + go on living till ninety, and not during the whole of that time be + stirred by so much as a single draught. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla came up determined to be so cheerful that she began to smile + almost before she got to the door. "I've come to tell you how + splendidly we're getting on at the cottage," she said taking Tussie's + lean hot hand, the shell of her smile remaining but the heart and + substance gone out of it, he looked so pitiful and strange. +</p> +<p> + "Really? Really?" choked Tussie, putting the other lean hot hand over + hers and burning all the coolness out of it. +</p> +<p> + The nurse looked still more disapproving. She had not heard Sir + Augustus had a <i>fiancée</i>, and even if he had this was no time for + philandering. She too had noticed the voice in which he had said Oh + mother, and she saw by his eyes that his temperature had gone up. Who + was this shabby young lady? She felt sure that no one so shabby could + be his <i>fiancée</i>, and she could only conclude that Lady Shuttleworth + must be mad. +</p> +<p> + "Nurse, I'm going to stay here a little," said Lady Shuttleworth. + "I'll call you when I want you." +</p> +<p> + "I think, madam, Sir Augustus ought not—" began the nurse. +</p> +<p> + "No, no, he shall not. Go and have forty winks, nurse." +</p> +<p> + And the nurse had to go; people generally did when Lady Shuttleworth + sent them. +</p> +<p> + "Sit down—no don't—stay a moment like this," said Tussie, his breath + coming in little jerks,—"unless you are tired? Did you walk?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you are very ill," said Priscilla, leaving her hand in his + and looking down at him with a face that all her efforts could not + induce to smile. +</p> +<p> + "Oh I'll be all right soon. How good of you to come. You've not been + hungry since?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Priscilla, stroking his hands with her free hand and + giving them soothing pats as one would to a sick child. +</p> +<p> + "Really not? I've thought of that ever since. I've never got your face + that night out of my head. What had happened? While I was away—what + had happened?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing—nothing had happened," said Priscilla hastily. "I was tired. + I had a mood. I get them, you know. I get angry easily. Then I like + to be alone till I'm sorry." +</p> +<p> + "But what had made you angry? Had I—?" +</p> +<p> + "No, never. You have never been anything but good and kind. You've + been our protecting spirit since we came here." +</p> +<p> + Tussie laughed shrilly, and immediately was seized by a coughing fit. + Lady Shuttleworth stood at the foot of the bed watching him with a + face from which happiness seemed to have fled for ever. Priscilla grew + more and more wretched, caught, obliged to stand there, distractedly + stroking his hands in her utter inability to think of anything else to + do. +</p> +<p> + "A nice protecting spirit," gasped Tussie derisively, when he could + speak. "Look at me here, tied down to this bed for heaven knows how + long, and not able to do a thing for you." +</p> +<p> + "But there's nothing now to do. We're quite comfortable. We are + really. Do, do believe it." +</p> +<p> + "Are you only comfortable, or are you happy as well?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, we're <i>very</i> happy," said Priscilla with all the emphasis she + could get into her voice; and again she tried, quite unsuccessfully, + to wrench her mouth into a smile. +</p> +<p> + "Then, if you're happy, why do you look so miserable?" +</p> +<p> + He was gazing up into her face with eyes whose piercing brightness + would have frightened the nurse. There was no shyness now about + Tussie. There never is about persons whose temperature is 102. +</p> +<p> + "Miserable?" repeated Priscilla. She tried to smile; looked helplessly + at Lady Shuttleworth; looked down again at Tussie; and stammering + "Because you are so ill and it's all my fault," to her horror, to her + boundless indignation at herself, two tears, big and not to be hidden, + rolled down her face and dropped on to Tussie's and her clasped hands. +</p> +<p> + Tussie struggled to sit up straight. "Look, mother, look—" he cried, + gasping, "my beautiful one—my dear and lovely one—my darling—she's + crying—I've made her cry—now never tell me I'm not a brute + again—see, see what I've done!" +</p> +<p> + "Oh"—murmured Priscilla, in great distress and amazement. Was the + poor dear delirious? And she tried to get her hands away. +</p> +<p> + But Tussie would not let them go. He held them in a clutch that seemed + like hot iron in both his, and dragging himself nearer to them covered + them with wild kisses. +</p> +<p> + Lady Shuttleworth was appalled. "Tussie," she said in a very even + voice, "you must let Miss Neumann-Schultz go now. You must be quiet + again now. Let her go, dear. Perhaps she'll—come again." +</p> +<p> + "Oh mother, leave me alone," cried Tussie, lying right across his + pillows, his face on Priscilla's hands. "What do you know of these + things? This is my darling—this is my wife—dream of my spirit—star + of my soul—" +</p> +<p> + "Never in this world!" cried Lady Shuttleworth, coming round to the + head of the bed as quickly as her shaking limbs would take her. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes, come here if you like, mother—come close—listen while I + tell her how I love her. I don't care who hears. Why should I? If I + weren't ill I'd care. I'd be tongue-tied—I'd have gone on being + tongue-tied for ever. Oh I bless being ill, I bless being ill—I can + say anything, anything—" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, don't say it," entreated his mother. "The less you say now + the more grateful you'll be later on. Let her go." +</p> +<p> + "Listen to her!" cried Tussie, interrupting his kissing of her hands + to look up at Priscilla and smile with a sort of pitying wonder, "Let + you go? Does one let one's life go? One's hope of salvation go? One's + little precious minute of perfect happiness go? When I'm well again I + shall be just as dull and stupid as ever, just such a shy fool, not + able to speak—" +</p> +<p> + "But it's a gracious state"—stammered poor Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Loving you? Loving you?" +</p> +<p> + "No, no—not being able to speak. It's always best—" +</p> +<p> + "It isn't. It's best to be true to one's self, to show honestly what + one feels, as I am now—as I am now—" And he fell to kissing her + hands again. +</p> +<p> + "Tussie, this isn't being honest," said Lady Shuttleworth sternly, + "it's being feverish." +</p> +<p> + "Listen to her! Was ever a man interrupted like this in the act of + asking a girl to marry him?" +</p> +<p> + "Tussie!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel, will you marry me? Because I love you so? It's an absurd + reason—the most magnificently absurd reason, but I know there's no + other why you should—" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was shaken and stricken as she had never yet been; shaken + with pity, stricken with remorse. She looked down at him in dismay + while he kissed her hands with desperate, overwhelming love. What was + she to do? Lady Shuttleworth tried to draw her away. What was she to + do? If Tussie was overwhelmed with love, she was overwhelmed with + pity. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel—Ethel—" gasped Tussie, kissing her hands, looking up at her, + kissing them again. +</p> +<p> + Pity overcame her, engulfed her. She bent her head down to his and + laid her cheek an instant on the absurd flannel nightingale, tenderly, + apologetically. +</p> +<p> + "Ethel—Ethel," choked Tussie, "will you marry me?" +</p> +<p> + "Dear Tussie," she whispered in a shaky whisper, "I promise to answer + you when you are well. Not yet. Not now. Get quite well, and then if + you still want an answer I promise to give you one. Now let me go." +</p> +<p> + "Ethel," implored Tussie, looking at her with a wild entreaty in his + eyes, "will you kiss me? Just once—to help me to live—" +</p> +<p> + And in her desire to comfort him she stooped down again and did kiss + him, soberly, almost gingerly, on the forehead. +</p> +<p> + He let her hands slide away from between his and lay back on his + pillows in a state for the moment of absolute beatitude. He shut his + eyes, and did not move while she crept softly out of the room. +</p> +<p> + "What have you done?" asked Lady Shuttleworth trembling, when they + were safely in the passage and the door shut behind them. +</p> +<p> + "I can't think—I can't think," groaned Priscilla, wringing her hands. + And, leaning against the balusters, then and there in that most + public situation she began very bitterly to cry. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIX +</h2> +<p> + Priscilla went home dazed. All her suitors hitherto had approached her + ceremoniously, timidly, through the Grand Duke; and we know they had + not approached very near. But here was one, timid enough in health, + who was positively reckless under circumstances that made most people + meek. He had proposed to her arrayed in a blue flannel nightingale, + and Priscilla felt that headlong self-effacement could go no further. + "He must have a great soul," she said to herself over and over again + during the drive home, "a great, <i>great</i> soul." And it seemed of + little use wiping her tears away, so many fresh ones immediately took + their place. +</p> +<p> + She ached over Tussie and Tussie's mother. What had she done? She felt + she had done wrong; yet how, except by just existing? and she did feel + she couldn't help doing that. Certainly she had made two kind hearts + extremely miserable,—one was miserable now, and the other didn't yet + know how miserable it was going to be. She ought to have known, she + ought to have thought, she ought to have foreseen. She of all persons + in the world ought to have been careful with young men who believed + her to be of their own class. Contrition and woe took possession of + Priscilla's soul. She knew it was true that she could not help + existing, but she knew besides, far back in a remote and seldom + investigated corner of her mind, a corner on which she did not care to + turn the light of careful criticism, that she ought not to be existing + in Symford. It was because she was there, out of her proper sphere, in + a place she had no business to be in at all, that these strange and + heart-wringing scenes with young men occurred. And Fritzing would + notice her red eyes and ask what had happened; and here within two + days was a second story to be told of a young man unintentionally + hurried to his doom. Would Fritzing be angry? She never knew + beforehand. Would he, only remembering she was grand ducal, regard it + as an insult and want to fight Tussie? The vision of poor Tussie, + weak, fevered, embedded in pillows, swathed in flannel, receiving + bloodthirsty messages of defiance from Fritzing upset her into more + tears. Fritzing, she felt at that moment, was a trial. He burdened her + with his gigantic efforts to keep her from burdens. He burdened her + with his inflated notions of how burdenless she ought to be. He was + admirable, unselfish, devoted; but she felt it was possible to be too + admirable, too unselfish, too devoted. In a word Priscilla's mind + was in a state of upheaval, and the only ray of light she saw + anywhere—and never was ray more watery—was that Tussie, for the + moment at least, was content. The attitude of his mother, on the + other hand, was distressing and disturbing. There had been no more My + dears and other kind ways. She had watched her crying on the stairs in + stony silence, had gone down with her to the door in stony silence, + and just at the last had said in an unmistakably stony voice, "All + this is very cruel." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. The world was + too much with her, she felt, a very great deal too much. She sent the + Shuttleworth carriage away at the entrance to the village and went in + to sit with Mrs. Jones a little, so that her eyes might lose their + redness before she faced Fritzing; and Mrs. Jones was so glad to see + her, so full of praises of her unselfish goodness in coming in, that + once again Priscilla was forced to be ashamed of herself and of + everything she did. +</p> +<p> + "I'm not unselfish, and I'm not good," she said, smoothing the old + lady's coverlet. +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Jones chuckled faintly. "Pretty dear," was her only comment. +</p> +<p> + "I don't think I'm pretty and I know I'm not a dear," said Priscilla, + quite vexed. +</p> +<p> + "Ain't you then, deary," murmured Mrs. Jones soothingly. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla saw it was no use arguing, and taking up the Bible that + always lay on the table by the bed began to read aloud. She read and + read till both were quieted,—Mrs. Jones into an evidently sweet + sleep, she herself into peace. Then she left off and sat for some time + watching the old lady, the open Bible in-her lap, her soul filled + with calm words and consolations, wondering what it could be like + being so near death. Must it not be beautiful, thought Priscilla, to + slip away so quietly in that sunny room, with no sound to break the + peace but the ticking of the clock that marked off the last minutes, + and outside the occasional footstep of a passer-by still hurrying on + life's business? Wonderful to have done with everything, to have it + all behind one, settled, lived through, endured. The troublous joys + as well as the pains, all finished; the griefs and the stinging + happinesses, all alike lived down; and now evening, and sleep. In the + few days Priscilla had known her the old lady had drawn visibly nearer + death. Lying there on the pillow, so little and light that she hardly + pressed it down at all, she looked very near it indeed. And how kind + Death was, rubbing away the traces of what must have been a sordid + existence, set about years back with the usual coarse pleasures and + selfish hopes,—how kind Death was, letting all there was of spirit + shine out so sweetly at the end. There was an enlarged photograph of + Mrs. Jones and her husband over the fireplace, a photograph taken for + their silver wedding; she must have been about forty-five; how kind + Death was, thought Priscilla, looking from the picture to the figure + on the bed. She sighed a little, and got up. Life lay before her, an + endless ladder up each of whose steep rungs she would have to clamber; + in every sort of weather she would have to clamber, getting more + battered, more blistered with every rung.... She looked wistfully at + the figure on the bed, and sighed a little. Then she crept out, and + softly shut the door. +</p> +<p> + She walked home lost in thought. As she was going up the hill to her + cottage Fritzing suddenly emerged from it and indulged in movements so + strange and complicated that they looked like nothing less than a + desperate dancing on the doorstep. Priscilla walked faster, staring in + astonishment. He made strange gestures, his face was pale, his hair + rubbed up into a kind of infuriated mop. +</p> +<p> + "Why, what in the world—" began the amazed Priscilla, as soon as she + was near enough. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I've been robbed," shouted Fritzing; and all Symford might + have heard if it had happened to be listening. +</p> +<p> + "Robbed?" repeated Priscilla. "What of?" +</p> +<p> + "Of all my money, ma'am. Of all I had—of all we had—to live on." +</p> +<p> + "Nonsense, Fritzi," said Priscilla; but she did turn a little paler. + "Don't let us stand out here," she added; and she got him in and shut + the street door. +</p> +<p> + He would have left it open and would have shouted his woes through + it as through a trumpet down the street, oblivious of all things + under heaven but his misfortune. He tore open the drawer of the + writing-table. "In this drawer—in the pocket-book you see in this + drawer—in this now empty pocket-book, did I leave it. It was there + yesterday. It was there last night. Now it is gone. Miscreants from + without have visited us. Or perhaps, viler still, miscreants from + within. A miscreant, I do believe, capable of anything—Annalise—" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, I took a five-pound note out of that last night, if that's + what you miss." +</p> +<p> + "You, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "To pay the girl who worked here her wages. You weren't here. I + couldn't find anything smaller." +</p> +<p> + "<i>Gott sei Dank! Gott sei Dank</i>!" cried Fritzing, going back to German + in his joy. "Oh ma'am, if you had told me earlier you would have + spared me great anguish. Have you the change?" +</p> +<p> + "Didn't she bring it?" +</p> +<p> + "Bring it, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> + "I gave it to her last night to change. She was to bring it round this + morning. Didn't she?" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing stared aghast. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. In a + moment he was back again. "She has not been here," he said, in a voice + packed once more with torment. +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps she has forgotten." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, how came you—" +</p> +<p> + "Now you're going to scold me." +</p> +<p> + "No, no—but how is it possible that you should have trusted—" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, you <i>are</i> going to scold me, and I'm so tired. What else has + been taken? You said all your money—" +</p> +<p> + He snatched up his hat. "Nothing else, ma'am, nothing else. I will go + and seek the girl." And he clapped it down over his eyes as he always + did in moments of great mental stress. +</p> +<p> + "What a fuss," thought Priscilla wearily. Aloud she said, "The girl + here to-day will tell you where she lives. Of course she has + forgotten, or not been able to change it yet." And she left him, and + went out to get into her own half of the house. +</p> +<p> + Yes, Fritzi really was a trial. Why such a fuss and such big words + about five pounds? If it were lost and the girl afraid to come and say + so, it didn't matter much; anyhow nothing like so much as having one's + peace upset. How foolish to be so agitated and talk of having been + robbed of everything. Fritzing's mind, she feared, that large, + enlightened mind on whose breadth and serenity she had gazed + admiringly ever since she could remember gazing at all, was shrinking + to dimensions that would presently exactly match the dimensions of + Creeper Cottage. She went upstairs disheartened and tired, and + dropping down full length on her sofa desired Annalise to wash her + face. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness has been weeping," said Annalise, whisking + the sponge in and out of corners with a skill surprising in one who + had only practised the process during the last ten days. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla opened her eyes to stare at her in frankest surprise, for + never yet had Annalise dared make a remark unrequested. Annalise, by + beginning to wash them, forced her to shut them again. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla then opened her mouth to tell her what she thought of her. + Immediately Annalise's swift sponge stopped it up. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, washing Priscilla's mouth + with a thoroughness and an amount of water suggestive of its not + having been washed for months, "told me only yesterday that weeping + was a terrible—<i>schreckliche</i>—waste of time. Therefore, since your + Grand Ducal Highness knows that and yet herself weeps, it is easy to + see that there exists a reason for weeping which makes weeping + inevitable." +</p> +<p> + "Will you—" began Priscilla, only to be stopped instantly by the + ready sponge. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness is unhappy. 'Tis not to be wondered at. + Trust a faithful servant, one whose life-blood is at your Grand Ducal + Highness's disposal, and tell her if it is not then true that the Herr + Geheimrath has decoyed you from your home and your Grossherzoglicher + Herr Papa?" +</p> +<p> + "Will you—" +</p> +<p> + Again the pouncing sponge. +</p> +<p> + "My heart bleeds—indeed it bleeds—to think of the Herr Papa's + sufferings, his fears, his anxieties. It is a picture on which I + cannot calmly look. Day and night—for at night I lie sleepless on my + bed—I am inquiring of myself what it can be, the spell that the Herr + Geheimrath has cast over your Grand Ducal—" +</p> +<p> + "Will you—" +</p> +<p> + Again the pouncing sponge; but this time Priscilla caught the girl's + hand, and holding it at arm's length sat up. "Are you mad?" she asked, + looking at Annalise as though she saw her for the first time. +</p> +<p> + Annalise dropped the sponge and clasped her hands. "Not mad," she + said, "only very, very devoted." +</p> +<p> + "No. Mad. Give me a towel." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was so angry that she did not dare say more. If she had said + a part even of what she wanted to say all would have been over between + herself and Annalise; so she dried her face in silence, declining to + allow it to be touched. "You can go," she said, glancing at the door, + her face pale with suppressed wrath but also, it must be confessed, + very clean; and when she was alone she dropped once again on to the + sofa and buried her head in the cushion. How dared Annalise? How dared + she? How dared she? Priscilla asked herself over and over again, + wincing, furious. Why had she not thought of this, known that she + would be in the power of any servant they chose to bring? Surely there + was no limit, positively none, to what the girl might do or say? How + was she going to bear her about her, endure the sight and sound of + that veiled impertinence? She buried her head very deep in the + cushion, vainly striving to blot out the world and Annalise in its + feathers, but even there there was no peace, for suddenly a great + noise of doors going and legs striding penetrated through its + stuffiness and she heard Fritzing's voice very loud and near—all + sounds in Creeper Cottage were loud and near—ordering Annalise to ask + her Grand Ducal Highness to descend. +</p> +<p> + "I won't," thought Priscilla, burying her head deeper. "That poor Emma + has lost the note and he's going to fuss. I won't descend." +</p> +<p> + Then came Annalise's tap at her door. Priscilla did not answer. + Annalise tapped again. Priscilla did not answer, but turning her head + face upwards composed herself to an appearance of sleep. +</p> +<p> + Annalise tapped a third time. "The Herr Geheimrath wishes to speak to + your Grand Ducal Highness," she called through the door; and after a + pause opened it and peeped in. "Her Grand Ducal Highness sleeps," she + informed Fritzing down the stairs, her nose at the angle in the air it + always took when she spoke to him. +</p> +<p> + "Then wake her! Wake her!" cried Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "Is it possible something has happened?" thought Annalise joyfully, + her eyes gleaming as she willingly flew back to Priscilla's + door,—anything, anything, she thought, sooner than the life she was + leading. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla heard Fritzing's order and sat up at once, surprised at such + an unprecedented indifference to her comfort. Her heart began to beat + faster; a swift fear that Kunitz was at her heels seized her; she + jumped up and ran out. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing was standing at the foot of the stairs. +</p> +<p> + "Come down, ma'am," he said; "I must speak to you at once." +</p> +<p> + "What's the matter?" asked Priscilla, getting down the steep little + stairs as quickly as was possible without tumbling. +</p> +<p> + "Hateful English tongue," thought Annalise, to whom the habit the + Princess and Fritzing had got into of talking English together was a + constant annoyance and disappointment. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing preceded Priscilla into her parlour, and when she was in he + shut the door behind her. Then he leaned his hands on the table to + steady himself and confronted her with a twitching face. Priscilla + looked at him appalled. Was the Grand Duke round the corner? + Lingering, perhaps, among the very tombs just outside her window? + "What is it?" she asked faintly. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, the five pounds has disappeared for ever." +</p> +<p> + "Really Fritzi, you are too absurd about that wretched five pounds," + cried Priscilla, blazing into anger. +</p> +<p> + "But it was all we had." +</p> +<p> + "All we—?" +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, it was positively our last penny." +</p> +<p> + "I—don't understand." +</p> +<p> + He made her understand. With paper and pencil, with the bills and his + own calculations, he made her understand. His hands shook, but he + went through with it item by item, through everything they had spent + from the moment they left Kunitz. They were in such a corner, so + tightly jammed, that all efforts to hide it and pretend there was no + corner seemed to him folly. He now saw that such efforts always had + been folly, and that he ought to have seen to it that her mind on this + important point was from the first perfectly clear; then nothing would + have happened. "You have had the misfortune, ma'am, to choose a fool + for your protector in this adventure," he said bitterly, pushing the + papers from him as though he loathed the sight of them. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla sat dumfoundered. She was looking quite straight for the + first time at certain pitiless aspects of life. For the first time she + was face to face with the sternness, the hardness, the relentlessness + of everything that has to do with money so soon as one has not got + any. It seemed almost incredible to her that she who had given so + lavishly to anybody and everybody, who had been so glad to give, who + had thought of money when she thought of it at all as a thing to be + passed on, as a thing that soiled one unless it was passed on, but + that, passed on, became strangely glorified and powerful for good—it + seemed incredible that she should be in need of it herself, and unable + to think of a single person who would give her some. And what a little + she needed: just to tide them over the next week or two till they had + got theirs from home; yet even that little, the merest nothing + compared to what she had flung about in the village, was as + unattainable as though it had been a fortune. "Can we—can we not + borrow?" she said at last. +</p> +<p> + "Yes ma'am, we can and we must. I will proceed this evening to Symford + Hall and borrow of Augustus." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla; so suddenly and so energetically that Fritzing + started. +</p> +<p> + "No, ma'am?" he repeated, astonished. "Why, he is the very person. In + fact he is our only hope. He must and shall help us." +</p> +<p> + "No," repeated Priscilla, still more energetically. +</p> +<p> + "Pray ma'am," said Fritzing, shrugging his shoulders, "are these + women's whims—I never comprehended them rightly and doubt if I ever + shall—are they to be allowed to lead us even in dangerous crises? To + lead us to certain shipwreck, ma'am? The alternatives in this case are + three. Permit me to point them out. Either we return to Kunitz—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," shivered Priscilla, shrinking as from a blow. +</p> +<p> + "Or, after a brief period of starvation and other violent discomfort, + we are cast into gaol for debt—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh?" shivered Priscilla, in tones of terrified inquiry. +</p> +<p> + "Or, I borrow of Augustus." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, just as energetically as before. +</p> +<p> + "Augustus is wealthy. Augustus is willing. Ma'am, I would stake my + soul that he is willing." +</p> +<p> + "You shall not borrow of him," said Priscilla. "He—he's too ill." +</p> +<p> + "Well then, ma'am," said Fritzing with a gesture of extreme + exasperation, "since you cannot be allowed to be cast into gaol there + remains but Kunitz. Like the dogs of the Scriptures we will return—" +</p> +<p> + "Why not borrow of the vicar?" interrupted Priscilla. "Surely he would + be glad to help any one in difficulties?" +</p> +<p> + "Of the vicar? What, of the father of the young man who insulted your + Grand Ducal Highness and whom I propose to kill in duel my first + leisure moment? Ma'am, there are depths of infamy to which even a + desperate man will not descend." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla dug holes in the tablecloth with the point of the pencil. "I + can't conceive," she said, "why you gave Annalise all that money. So + <i>much</i>." +</p> +<p> + "Why, ma'am, she refused, unless I did, to prepare your Grand Ducal + Highness's tea." +</p> +<p> + "Oh Fritzi!" Priscilla looked up at him, shaking her head and smiling + through all her troubles. Was ever so much love and so much folly + united in one wise old man? Was ever, for that matter, so expensive a + tea? +</p> +<p> + "I admit I permitted the immediate, the passing, moment to blot out + the future from my clearer vision on that occasion." +</p> +<p> + "On that occasion? Oh Fritzi. What about all the other occasions? + When you gave me all I asked for—for the poor people, for my party. + You must have suffered tortures of anxiety. And all by yourself. Oh + Fritzi. It was dear of you—perfectly, wonderfully, dear. But you + ought to have been different with me from the beginning—treated me + exactly as you would have treated a real niece—" +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am," cried Fritzing, jumping up, "this is waste of time. Our case + is very urgent. Money must be obtained. You must allow me to judge in + this matter, however ill I have acquitted myself up to now. I shall + start at once for Symford Hall and obtain a loan of Augustus." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla pushed back her chair and got up too. "My dear Fritzi, + please leave that unfortunate young man out of the question," she + said, flushing. "How can you worry a person who is ill in bed with + such things?" +</p> +<p> + "His mother is not ill in bed and will do quite as well. I am + certainly going." +</p> +<p> + "You are not going. I won't have you ask his mother. I—forbid you to + do anything of the sort. Oh Fritzi," she added in despair, for he had + picked up the hat and stick he had flung down on coming in and was + evidently not going to take the least notice of her commands—"oh + Fritzi, you can't ask Tussie for money. It would kill him to know we + were in difficulties." +</p> +<p> + "Kill him, ma'am? Why should it kill him?" shouted Fritzing, + exasperated by such a picture of softness. +</p> +<p> + "It wouldn't only kill him—it would be simply too dreadful besides," + said Priscilla, greatly distressed. "Why, he asked me this + afternoon—wasn't going to tell you, but you force me to—he asked me + this very afternoon to marry him, and the dreadful part is that I'm + afraid he thinks—he hopes—that I'm going to." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XX +</h2> +<p> + The only inhabitant of Creeper Cottage who slept that night was + Annalise. Priscilla spent it walking up and down her bedroom, and + Fritzing on the other side of the wall spent it walking up and down + his. They could hear each other doing it; it was a melancholy sound. + Once Priscilla was seized with laughter—a not very genial mirth, but + still laughter—and had to fling herself on her bed and bury her face + in the pillows lest Fritzing should hear so blood-curdling a noise. It + was when their steps had fallen steadily together for several turns + and the church clock, just as she was noticing this, had struck three. + Not for this, to tramp up and down their rooms all night, not for this + had they left Kunitz. The thought of all they had dreamed life in + Creeper Cottage was going to be, of all they had never doubted it was + going to be, of peaceful nights passed in wholesome slumber, of days + laden with fruitful works, of evenings with the poets, came into her + head and made this tormented marching suddenly seem intensely droll. + She laughed into her pillow till the tears rolled down her face, and + the pains she had to take to keep all sounds from reaching Fritzing + only made her laugh more. +</p> +<p> + It was a windy night, and the wind sighed round the cottage and + rattled the casements and rose every now and then to a howl very + dreary to hear. While Priscilla was laughing a great gust shook the + house, and involuntarily she raised her head to listen. It died away, + and her head dropped back on to her arms again, but the laughter was + gone. She lay solemn enough, listening to Fritzing's creakings, and + thought of the past day and of the days to come till her soul grew + cold. Surely she was a sort of poisonous weed, fatal to every one + about her? Fritzing, Tussie, the poor girl Emma—oh, it could not be + true about Emma. She had lost the money, and was trying to gather + courage to come and say so; or she had simply not been able to change + it yet. Fritzing had jumped to the conclusion, because nothing had + been heard of her all day at home, that she had run away with it. + Priscilla twisted herself about uneasily. It was not the loss of the + five pounds that made her twist, bad though that loss was in their + utter poverty; it was the thought that if Emma had really run away + she, by her careless folly, had driven the girl to ruin. And then + Tussie. How dreadful that was. At three in the morning, with the + wailing wind rising and falling and the room black with the inky + blackness of a moonless October night, the Tussie complication seemed + to be gigantic, of a quite appalling size, threatening to choke her, + to crush all the spring and youth out of her. If Tussie got well she + was going to break his heart; if Tussie died it would be her fault. + No one but herself was responsible for his illness, her own selfish, + hateful self. Yes, she was a poisonous weed; a baleful, fatal thing, + not fit for great undertakings, not fit for a noble life, too foolish + to depart successfully from the lines laid down for her by other + people; wickedly careless; shamefully shortsighted; spoiling, ruining, + everything she touched. Priscilla writhed. Nobody likes being forced + to recognize that they are poisonous weeds. Even to be a plain weed is + grievous to one's vanity, but to be a weed and poisonous as well is a + very desperate thing to be. She passed a dreadful night. It was the + worst she could remember. +</p> +<p> + And the evening too—how bad it had been; though contrary to her + expectations Fritzing showed no desire to fight Tussie. He was not so + unreasonable as she had supposed; and besides, he was too completely + beaten down by the ever-increasing weight and number of his + responsibilities to do anything in regard to that unfortunate youth + but be sorry for him. More than once that evening he looked at + Priscilla in silent wonder at the amount of trouble one young woman + could give. How necessary, he thought, and how wise was that plan at + which he used in his ignorance to rail, of setting an elderly female + like the Disthal to control the actions and dog the footsteps of the + Priscillas of this world. He hated the Disthal and all women like her, + women with mountainous bodies and minimal brains—bodies self-indulged + into shapelessness, brains neglected into disappearance; but the + nobler and simpler and the more generous the girl the more did she + need some such mixture of fleshliness and cunning constantly with her. + It seemed absurd, and it seemed all wrong; yet surely it was so. He + pondered over it long in dejected musings, the fighting tendency gone + out of him completely for the time, so dark was his spirit with the + shadows of the future. +</p> +<p> + They had borrowed the wages—it was a dreadful moment—for that day's + cook from Annalise. For their food they decided to run up a bill at + the store; but every day each fresh cook would have to be paid, and + every day her wages would have to be lent by Annalise. Annalise lent + superbly; with an air as of giving freely, with joy. All she required + was the Princess's signature to a memorandum drawn up by herself by + which she was promised the money back, doubled, within three months. + Priscilla read this, flushed to her hair, signed, and ordered her out + of the room. Annalise, who was beginning to enjoy herself, went + upstairs singing. In the parlour Priscilla broke the pen she had + signed with into quite small pieces and flung them on to the fire,—a + useless demonstration, but then she was a quick-tempered young lady. + In the attic Annalise sat down and wrote a letter breathing lofty + sentiments to the Countess Disthal in Kunitz, telling her she could no + longer keep silence in the face of a royal parent's anxieties and she + was willing to reveal the address of the Princess Priscilla and so + staunch the bleeding of a noble heart if the Grand Duke would forward + her or forward to her parents on her behalf the sum of twenty thousand + marks. Gladly would she render this service, which was at the same + time her duty, for nothing, if she had not the future to consider and + an infirm father. Meanwhile she gave the Symford post-office as an + address, assuring the Countess that it was at least fifty miles from + the Princess's present hiding-place, the address of which would only + be sent on the conditions named. Then, immensely proud of her + cleverness, she trotted down to the post-office, bought stamps, and + put the letter herself in the box. +</p> +<p> + That evening she sang in the kitchen, she sang in the bath-room, she + sang in the attic and on the stairs to the attic. What she sang, + persistently, over and over again, and loudest outside Fritzing's + door, was a German song about how beautiful it is at evening when the + bells ring one to rest, and the refrain at the end of each verse was + ding-dong twice repeated. Priscilla rang her own bell, unable to + endure it, but Annalise did not consider this to be one of those that + are beautiful and did not answer it till it had been rung three times. +</p> +<p> + "Do not sing," said Priscilla, when she appeared. +</p> +<p> + "Your Grand Ducal Highness objects?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla turned red. "I'll give no reasons," she said icily. "Do not + sing." +</p> +<p> + "Yet it is a sign of a light heart. Your Grand Ducal Highness did not + like to see me weep—she should the more like to hear me rejoice." +</p> +<p> + "You can go." +</p> +<p> + "My heart to-night is light, because I am the means of being of use + to your Grand Ducal Highness, of showing my devotion, of being of + service." +</p> +<p> + "Do me the service of being quiet." +</p> +<p> + Annalise curtseyed and withdrew, and spent the rest of the evening + bursting into spasmodic and immediately interrupted song,—breaking + off after a few bars with a cough of remembrance and apology. When + this happened Fritzing and Priscilla looked at each other with grave + and meditative eyes; they knew how completely they were in her power. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing wrote that night to the friend in London who had engaged the + rooms for him at Baker's Farm, and asked him to lend him fifty pounds + for a week,—preferably three hundred (this would cover the + furnisher's bill), but if he could lend neither five would do. The + friend, a teacher of German, could as easily have lent the three + hundred as the five, so poor was he, so fit an object for a loan + himself; but long before his letter explaining this in words eloquent + of regret (for he was a loyal friend) reached Fritzing, many things + had happened to that bewildered man to whom so many things had + happened already, and caused him to forget both his friend and his + request. +</p> +<p> + This, then, was how the afternoon and evening of Thursday were + passed; and on Friday morning, quite unstrung by their sleepless + night, Priscilla and Fritzing were proposing to go up together on + to the moor, there to seek width and freshness, be blown upon by + moist winds, and forget for a little the crushing narrowness and + perplexities of Creeper Cottage, when Mrs. Morrison walked in. She + opened the door first and then, when half of her was inside, knocked + with her knuckles, which were the only things to knock with on + Priscilla's simple door. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was standing by the fire dressed to go out, waiting for + Fritzing, and she stared at this apparition in great and unconcealed + surprise. What business, said Priscilla's look more plainly than any + words, what business had people to walk into other people's cottages + in such a manner? She stood quite still, and scrutinized Mrs. Morrison + with the questioning expression she used to find so effective in + Kunitz days when confronted by a person inclined to forget which, + exactly, was his proper place. But Mrs. Morrison knew nothing of + Kunitz, and the look lost half its potency without its impressive + background. Besides, the lady was not one to notice things so slight + as looks; to keep her in her proper place you would have needed + sledge-hammers. She came in without thinking it necessary to wait to + be asked to, nodded something that might perhaps have represented a + greeting and of which Priscilla took no notice, and her face was the + face of somebody who is angry. +</p> +<p> + "How wearing for the vicar," thought Priscilla, "to have a wife who + is angry at ten o'clock in the morning." +</p> +<p> + "I've come in the interests—" began Mrs. Morrison, whose voice was + quite as angry as her face. +</p> +<p> + "I'm just going out," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "—Of religion and morality." +</p> +<p> + "Are they distinct?" asked Priscilla, drawing on her gloves. +</p> +<p> + "You can imagine that nothing would make me pay you a visit but the + strongest sense of the duty I owe to my position in the parish." +</p> +<p> + "Why should I imagine it?" +</p> +<p> + "Of course I expect impertinence." +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you've come here to be rude." +</p> +<p> + "I shall not be daunted by anything you may say from doing my duty." +</p> +<p> + "Will you please do it, then, and get it over?" +</p> +<p> + "The duties of a clergyman's wife are often very disagreeable." +</p> +<p> + "Probably you've got hold of a perfectly wrong idea of what yours + really are." +</p> +<p> + "It is a new experience for me to be told so by a girl of your age." +</p> +<p> + "I am not telling you. I only suggest." +</p> +<p> + "I was prepared for rudeness." +</p> +<p> + "Then why did you come?" +</p> +<p> + "How long are you going to stay in this parish?" +</p> +<p> + "You don't expect me to answer that?" +</p> +<p> + "You've not been in it a fortnight, and you have done more harm than + most people in a lifetime." +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you exaggerate." +</p> +<p> + "You have taught it to drink." +</p> +<p> + "I gave a dying old woman what she most longed for." +</p> +<p> + "You've taught it to break the Sabbath." +</p> +<p> + "I made a great many little children very happy." +</p> +<p> + "You have ruined the habits of thrift we have been at such pains to + teach and encourage for twenty-five years." +</p> +<p> + "I helped the poor when they asked me to." +</p> +<p> + "And now what I want to know is, what has become of the Hancock girl?" +</p> +<p> + "Pray who, exactly, is the Hancock girl?" +</p> +<p> + "That unfortunate creature who worked here for you on Wednesday." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla's face changed. "Emma?" she asked. +</p> +<p> + "Emma. At this hour the day before yesterday she was as good a girl as + any in the village. She was good, and dutiful, and honest. Now what is + she and where is she?" +</p> +<p> + "Has she—isn't she in her home?" +</p> +<p> + "She never went home." +</p> +<p> + "Then she did lose the money?" +</p> +<p> + "Lose it? She has stolen it. Do you not see you have deliberately made + a thief out of an honest girl?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gazed in dismay at the avenging vicar's wife. It was true + then, and she had the fatal gift of spoiling all she touched. +</p> +<p> + "And worse than that—you have brought a good girl to ruin. He'll + never marry her now." +</p> +<p> + "He?" +</p> +<p> + "Do you not know the person she was engaged to has gone with her?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know anything." +</p> +<p> + "They walked from here to Ullerton and went to London. Her father came + round to us yesterday after your uncle had been to him making + inquiries, and it is all as clear as day. Till your uncle told him, he + did not know about the money, and had been too—not well enough that + day to notice Emma's not having come home. Your uncle's visit sobered + him. We telegraphed to the police. They've been traced to London. + That's all. Except," and she glared at Priscilla with all the wrath of + a prophet whose denunciations have been justified, "except that one + more life is ruined." +</p> +<p> + "I'm very sorry—very, very sorry," said Priscilla, so earnestly, so + abjectly even, that her eyes filled with tears. "I see now how + thoughtless it was of me." +</p> +<p> + "Thoughtless!" +</p> +<p> + "It was inexcusably thoughtless." +</p> +<p> + "Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison again. +</p> +<p> + "If you like, it was criminally thoughtless." +</p> +<p> + "Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison a third time. +</p> +<p> + "But it wasn't more than thoughtless. I'd give anything to be able to + set it right. I am most truly grieved. But isn't it a little hard to + make me responsible?" +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison stared at her as one who eyes some strange new monster. + "How amazingly selfish you are," she said at last, in tones almost of + awe. +</p> +<p> + "Selfish?" faltered Priscilla, who began to wonder what she was not. +</p> +<p> + "In the face of such total ruin, such utter shipwreck, to be thinking + of what is hard on you. You! Why, here you are with a safe skin, free + from the bitter anxieties and temptations poor people have to fight + with, with so much time unoccupied that you fill it up with mischief, + with more money than you know what to do with"—Priscilla pressed her + hands together—"sheltered, free from every care"—Priscilla opened + her lips but shut them again—"and there is that miserable Emma, + hopeless, branded, for ever an outcast because of you,—only because + of you, and you think of yourself and talk of its being hard." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla looked at Mrs. Morrison, opened her mouth to say something, + shut it, opened it again, and remarked very lamely that the heart + alone knows its own bitterness. +</p> +<p> + "Psha," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly incensed at having the Scriptures, + her own speciality, quoted at her. "I'd like to know what bitterness + yours has known, unless it's the bitterness of a bad conscience. Now + I've come here to-day"—she raised her voice to a note of warning—"to + give you a chance. To make you think, by pointing out the path you + are treading. You are young, and it is my duty to let no young person + go downhill without one warning word. You have brought much evil on + our village—why you, a stranger, should be bent on making us all + unhappy I can't imagine. You hypocritically try to pretend that what + plain people call evil is really good. But your last action, forcing + Emma Hancock to be a thief and worse, even you cannot possibly defend. + You have much on your conscience—far, far more than I should care to + have on mine. How wicked to give all that money to Mrs. Jones. Don't + you see you are tempting people who know she is defenceless to steal + it from her? Perhaps even murder her? I saved her from that—you did + not reckon with me, you see. Take my advice—leave Symford, and go + back to where you came from"—Priscilla started—"and get something to + do that will keep you fully occupied. If you don't, you'll be laying + up a wretched, perhaps a degraded future for yourself. Don't + suppose,"—her voice grew very loud—"don't suppose we are fools here + and are not all of us aware of the way you have tried to lure young + men on"—Priscilla started again—"in the hope, of course, of getting + one of them to marry you. But your intentions have been frustrated + luckily, in the one case by Providence flinging your victim on a bed + of sickness and in the other by your having altogether mistaken the + sort of young fellow you were dealing with." +</p> +<p> + Mrs. Morrison paused for breath. This last part of her speech had been + made with an ever accumulating rage. Priscilla stood looking at her, + her eyebrows drawn down very level over her eyes. +</p> +<p> + "My son is much too steady and conscientious, besides being too much + accustomed to first-rate society, to stoop to anything so vulgar—" +</p> +<p> + "As myself?" inquired Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "As a love-affair with the first stray girl he picks up." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean me?" +</p> +<p> + "He saw through your intentions, laughed at them, and calmly returned + to his studies at Cambridge." +</p> +<p> + "I boxed his ears." +</p> +<p> + "What?" +</p> +<p> + "I boxed his ears." +</p> +<p> + "You?" +</p> +<p> + "I boxed his ears. That's why he went. He didn't go calmly. It wasn't + his studies." +</p> +<p> + "How dare you box—oh, this is too horrible—and you stand there and + tell me so to my face?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid I must. The tone of your remarks positively demands it. + Your son's conduct positively demanded that I should box his ears. So + I did." +</p> +<p> + "Of all the shameless—" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you're becoming like him—altogether impossible." +</p> +<p> + "You first lure him on, and then—oh, it is shameful!" +</p> +<p> + "Have you finished what you came for?" +</p> +<p> + "You are the most brazen—" +</p> +<p> + "Hush. Do be careful. Suppose my uncle were to hear you? If you've + finished won't you go?" +</p> +<p> + "Go? I shall not go till I have said my say. I shall send the vicar to + you about Robin—such conduct is so—so infamous that I can't—I + can't—I can't—" +</p> +<p> + "I'm sorry if it has distressed you." +</p> +<p> + "Distressed me? You are the most—" +</p> +<p> + "Really I think we've done, haven't we?" said Priscilla hurriedly, + dreadfully afraid lest Fritzing should come in and hear her being + called names. +</p> +<p> + "To think that you dared—to think that my—my noble boy—" +</p> +<p> + "He wasn't very noble. Mothers don't ever really know their sons, I + think." +</p> +<p> + "Shameless girl!" cried Mrs. Morrison, so loud, so completely beside + herself, that Priscilla hastily rang her bell, certain that Fritzing + must hear and would plunge in to her rescue; and of all things she had + learned to dread Fritzing's plunging to her rescue. "Open the door for + this lady," she said to Annalise, who appeared with a marvellous + promptitude; and as Mrs. Morrison still stood her ground and refused + to see either Annalise or the door Priscilla ended the interview by + walking out herself, with great dignity, into the bathroom. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXI +</h2> +<p> + And now I have come to a part of my story that I would much rather not + write. Always my inclination if left alone is to sit in the sun and + sing of things like crocuses, of nothing less fresh and clean than + crocuses. The engaging sprightliness of crocuses; their dear little + smell, not to be smelled except by the privileged few; their luminous + transparency—I am thinking of the white and the purple; their kind + way of not keeping hearts sick for Spring waiting longer than they can + just bear; how pleasant to sit with a friend in the sun, a friend who + like myself likes to babble of green fields, and talk together about + all things flowery. But Priscilla's story has taken such a hold on me, + it seemed when first I heard it to be so full of lessons, that I feel + bound to set it down from beginning to end for the use and warning of + all persons, princesses and others, who think that by searching, by + going far afield, they will find happiness, and do not see that it is + lying all the while at their feet. They do not see it because it is so + close. It is so close that there is a danger of its being trodden on + or kicked away. And it is shy, and waits to be picked up. Priscilla, + we know, went very far afield in search of hers, and having + undertaken to tell of what befell her I must not now, only because I + would rather, suppress any portion of the story. Besides, it is a + portion vital to the catastrophe. +</p> +<p> + In Minehead, then, there lived at this time a murderer. He had not + been found out yet and he was not a murderer by profession, for he was + a bricklayer; but in his heart he was, and that is just as bad. He had + had a varied career into the details of which I do not propose to go, + had come three or four years before to live in the West of England + because it was so far from all the other places he had lived in, had + got work in Minehead, settled there respectably, married, and was a + friend of that carrier who brought the bread and other parcels every + day to the Symford store. At this time he was in money difficulties + and his wife, of whom he was fond, was in an expensive state of + health. The accounts of Priscilla's generosity and wealth had reached + Minehead as I said some time ago, and had got even into the local + papers. The carrier was the chief transmitter of news, for he saw Mrs. + Vickerton every day and she was a woman who loved to talk; but those + of the Shuttleworth servants who were often in Minehead on divers + errands ratified and added to all he said, and embellished the tale + besides with what was to them the most interesting part, the + unmistakable signs their Augustus showed of intending to marry the + young woman. This did not interest the murderer. Sir Augustus and the + lady he meant to marry were outside his sphere altogether; too well + protected, too powerful. What he liked to hear about was the money + Priscilla had scattered among the cottagers, how much each woman had + got, whether it had been spent or not, whether she had a husband, or + grown-up children; and best of all he liked to hear about the money + Mrs. Jones had got. All the village, and therefore Mrs. Vickerton and + the carrier, knew of it, knew even the exact spot beneath the bolster + where it was kept, knew it was kept there for safety from the + depredations of the vicar's wife, knew the vicar's wife had taken away + Priscilla's first present. The carrier knew too of Mrs. Jones's age, + her weakness, her nearness to death. He remarked that such a sum + wasn't of much use to an old woman certain to die in a few days, and + that it might just as well not be hers at all for all the spending it + got. The murderer, whose reputation in Minehead was so immaculate that + not a single fly had ever dared blow on it, said kindly that no doubt + just to have it in her possession was cheering and that one should not + grudge the old their little bits of comfort; and he walked over to + Symford that night, and getting there about one o'clock murdered Mrs. + Jones. I will not enter into details. I believe it was quite simple. + He was back by six next morning with the five pounds in his pocket, + and his wife that day had meat for dinner. +</p> +<p> + That is all I shall say about the murderer, except that he was never + found out; and nothing shall induce me to dwell upon the murder. But + what about the effect it had on Priscilla? Well, it absolutely crushed + her. +</p> +<p> + The day before, after Mrs. Morrison's visit, she had been wretched + enough, spending most of it walking very fast, as driven spirits do, + with Fritzing for miles across the bleak and blowy moor, by turns + contrite and rebellious, one moment ready to admit she was a miserable + sinner, the next indignantly repudiating Mrs. Morrison's and her own + conscience's accusations, her soul much beaten and bent by winds of + misgiving but still on its feet, still defiant, still sheltering + itself when it could behind plain common sense which whispered at + intervals that all that had happened was only bad luck. They walked + miles that day; often in silence, sometimes in gusty talk—talk gusty + with the swift changes of Priscilla's mood scudding across the leaden + background of Fritzing's steadier despair—and they got back tired, + hungry, their clothes splashed with mud, their minds no nearer light + than when they started. She had, I say, been wretched enough; but what + was this wretchedness to that which followed? In her ignorance she + thought it the worst day she had ever had, the most tormented; and + when she went to bed she sought comfort in its very badness by telling + herself that it was over and could never come again. It could not. But + Time is prolific of surprises; and on Saturday morning Symford woke + with a shudder to the murder of Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> + Now such a thing as this had not happened in that part of + Somersetshire within the memory of living man, and though Symford + shuddered it was also proud and pleased. The mixed feeling of horror, + pleasure, and pride was a thrilling one. It felt itself at once raised + to a position of lurid conspicuousness in the county, its name would + be in every mouth, the papers, perhaps even the London papers, would + talk about it. At all times, in spite of the care and guidance it had + had from the clergy and gentry, the account of a murder gave Symford + more pure pleasure than any other form of entertainment; and now here + was one, not at second-hand, not to be viewed through the cooling + medium of print and pictures, but in its midst, before its eyes, at + its very doors. Mrs. Jones went up strangely in its estimation. The + general feeling was that it was an honour to have known her. Nobody + worked that day. The school was deserted. Dinners were not cooked. + Babies shrieked uncomforted. All Symford was gathered in groups + outside Mrs. Jones's cottage, and as the day wore on and the news + spread, visitors from the neighbouring villages, from Minehead and + from Ullerton, arrived with sandwiches and swelled them. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla saw these groups from her windows. The fatal cottage was at + the foot of the hill in full view both of her bedroom and her parlour. + Only by sitting in the bathroom would she be able to get away from it. + When the news was brought her, breathlessly, pallidly, by Annalise in + the early morning with her hot water, she refused to believe it. + Annalise knew no English and must have got hold of a horrible wrong + tale. The old lady was dead no doubt, had died quietly in her sleep as + had been expected, but what folly was all this about a murder? Yet she + sat up in bed and felt rather cold as she looked at Annalise, for + Annalise was very pallid. And then at last she had to believe it. + Annalise had had it told her from beginning to end, with the help of + signs, by the charwoman. She had learned more English in those few + crimson minutes than in the whole of the time she had been in England. + The charwoman had begun her demonstration by slowly drawing her finger + across her throat from one ear to the other, and Annalise repeated the + action for Priscilla's clearer comprehension. How Priscilla got up + that day and dressed she never knew. Once at least during the process + she stumbled back on to the bed and lay with her face on her arms, + shaken by a most desperate weeping. That fatal charity; those fatal + five-pound notes. Annalise, panic-stricken lest she who possessed so + many should be the next victim, poured out the tale of the missing + money, of the plain motive for the murder, with a convincingness, a + naked truth, that stabbed Priscilla to the heart with each clinching + word. +</p> +<p> + "They say the old woman must have cried out—must have been awakened, + or the man would have taken the money without—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh don't—oh leave me—" moaned Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + She did not go downstairs that day. Every time Annalise tried to come + in she sent her away. When she was talked to of food, she felt sick. + Once she began to pace about the room, but the sight of those eager + black knots of people down the street, of policemen and other + important and official-looking persons going in and out of the + cottage, drove her back to her bed and its sheltering, world-deadening + pillow. Indeed the waters of life had gone over her head and swallowed + her up in hopeless blackness. She acknowledged herself wrong. She gave + in utterly. Every word Mrs. Morrison—a dreadful woman, yet dreadful + as she was still a thousand times better than herself—every word she + had said, every one of those bitter words at which she had been so + indignant the morning before, was true, was justified. That day + Priscilla tore the last shreds of self-satisfaction from her soul and + sat staring at it with horrified eyes as at a thing wholly repulsive, + dangerous, blighting. What was to become of her, and of poor Fritzing, + dragged down by her to an equal misery? About one o'clock she heard + Mrs. Morrison's voice below, in altercation apparently with him. At + this time she was crying again; bitter, burning tears; those scorching + tears that follow in the wake of destroyed illusions, that drop, hot + and withering, on to the fragments of what was once the guiding glory + of an ideal. She was brought so low, was so humbled, so uncertain of + herself, that she felt it would bring her peace if she might go down + to Mrs. Morrison and acknowledge all her vileness; tell her how wrong + she had been, ask her forgiveness for her rudeness, beg her for pity, + for help, for counsel. She needed some kind older woman,—oh she + needed some kind older woman to hold out cool hands of wisdom and show + her the way. But then she would have to make a complete confession of + everything she had done, and how would Mrs. Morrison or any other + decent woman look upon her flight from her father's home? Would they + not turn away shuddering from what she now saw was a hideous + selfishness and ingratitude? The altercation going on below rose + rapidly in heat. Just at the end it grew so heated that even through + the pillow Priscilla could hear its flaming conclusion. +</p> +<p> + "Man, I tell you your niece is to all intents and purposes a + murderess, a double murderess," cried Mrs. Morrison. "Not only has she + the woman's murder to answer for, but the ruined soul of the murderer + as well." +</p> +<p> + Upon which there was a loud shout of "Hence! Hence!" and a great + slamming of the street door. +</p> +<p> + For some time after this Priscilla heard fevered walking about in her + parlour and sounds as of many and muffled imprecations; then, when + they had grown a little more intermittent, careful footsteps came up + her stairs, footsteps so careful, so determined not to disturb, that + the stairs cracked and wheezed more than they had ever yet been known + to do. Arrived at the top they paused outside her door, and Priscilla, + checking her sobs, could hear how Fritzing stood there wrestling with + his body's determination to breathe too loud. He stood there listening + for what seemed to her an eternity. She almost screamed at last as the + minutes passed and she knew he was still there, motionless, listening. + After a long while he went away again with the same anxious care to + make no noise, and she, with a movement of utter abandonment to woe, + turned over and cried herself sick. +</p> +<p> + Till evening she lay there alone, and then the steps came up again, + accompanied this time by the tinkle of china and spoons. Priscilla was + sitting at the window looking on to the churchyard, staring into the + dark with its swaying branches and few faint stars, and when she heard + him outside the door listening again in anxious silence she got up and + opened it. +</p> +<p> + Fritzing held a plate of food in one hand and a glass of milk in the + other. The expression on his face was absurdly like that of a mother + yearning over a sick child. "<i>Mein liebes Kind</i>—<i>mein liebes Kind</i>," + he stammered when she came out, so woebegone, so crushed, so utterly + unlike any Priscilla of any one of her moods that he had ever seen + before. Her eyes were red, her eyelids heavy with tears, her face was + pinched and narrower, the corners of her mouth had a most piteous + droop, her very hair, pushed back off her forehead, seemed sad, and + hung in spiritless masses about her neck and ears. "<i>Mein liebes + Kind</i>," stammered poor Fritzing; and his hand shook so that he upset + some of the milk. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla leaned against the door-post. She was feeling sick and + giddy. "How dreadful this is," she murmured, looking at him with + weary, woeful eyes. +</p> +<p> + "No, no—all will be well," said Fritzing, striving to be brisk. + "Drink some milk, ma'am." +</p> +<p> + "Oh, I have been wicked." +</p> +<p> + "Wicked?" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing hastily put the plate and glass down on the floor, and + catching up the hand hanging limply by her side passionately kissed + it. "You are the noblest woman on earth," he said. +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla, turning away her head and shutting her eyes for + very weariness of such futile phrases. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, you are. I would swear it. But you are also a child, and so + you are ready at the first reverse to suppose you have done with + happiness for ever. Who knows," said Fritzing with a great show of + bright belief in his own prophecy, the while his heart was a stone, + "who knows but what you are now on the very threshold of it?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," murmured Priscilla, too beaten to do anything but droop her + head. +</p> +<p> + "It is insisting on the commonplace to remind you, ma'am, that the + darkest hour comes before dawn. Yet it is a well-known natural + phenomenon." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla leaned her head against the door-post. She stood there + motionless, her hands hanging by her side, her eyes shut, her mouth + slightly open, the very picture of one who has given up. +</p> +<p> + "Drink some milk, ma'am. At least endeavour to." +</p> +<p> + She took no heed of him. +</p> +<p> + "For God's sake, ma'am, do not approach these slight misadventures in + so tragic a spirit. You have done nothing wrong whatever. I know you + accuse yourself. It is madness to do so. I, who have so often scolded + you, who have never spared the lash of my tongue when in past years I + saw fair reason to apply it, I tell you now with the same reliable + candour that your actions in this village and the motives that + prompted them have been in each single case of a stainless nobility." +</p> +<p> + She took no heed of him. +</p> +<p> + He stooped down and picked up the glass. "Drink some milk, ma'am. A + few mouthfuls, perhaps even one, will help to clear the muddied vision + of your mind. I cannot understand," he went on, half despairing, half + exasperated, "what reasons you can possibly have for refusing to drink + some milk. It is a feat most easily accomplished." +</p> +<p> + She did not move. +</p> +<p> + "Do you perchance imagine that a starved and badly treated body can + ever harbour that most precious gift of the gods, a clear, sane mind?" +</p> +<p> + She did not move. +</p> +<p> + He looked at her in silence for a moment, then put down the glass. + "This is all my fault," he said slowly. "The whole responsibility for + this unhappiness is on my shoulders, and I frankly confess it is a + burden so grievous that I know not how to bear it." +</p> +<p> + He paused, but she took no notice. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I have loved you." +</p> +<p> + She took no notice. +</p> +<p> + "And the property of love, I have observed, is often to mangle and + kill the soul of its object." +</p> +<p> + She might have been asleep. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I have brought you to a sorry pass. I was old, and you were + young. I experienced, you ignorant. I deliberate, you impulsive. I a + man, you a woman. Instead of restraining you, guiding you, shielding + you from yourself, I was most vile, and fired you with desires for + freedom that under the peculiar circumstances were wicked, set a ball + rolling that I might have foreseen could never afterwards be stopped, + put thoughts into your head that never without me would have entered + it, embarked you on an enterprise in which the happiness of your whole + life was doomed to shipwreck." +</p> +<p> + She stirred a little, and sighed a faint protest. +</p> +<p> + "This is very terrible to me—of a crushing, killing weight. Let it + not also have to be said that I mangled your very soul, dimmed your + reason, impaired the sweet sanity, the nice adjustment of what I know + was once a fair and balanced mind." +</p> +<p> + She raised her head slowly and looked at him. "What?" she said. "Do + you think—do you think I'm going mad?" +</p> +<p> + "I think it very likely, ma'am," said Fritzing with conviction. +</p> +<p> + A startled expression crept into her eyes. +</p> +<p> + "So much morbid introspection," he went on, "followed by hours of + weeping and fasting, if indulged in long enough will certainly have + that result. A person who fasts a sufficient length of time invariably + parts piecemeal with valuable portions of his wits." +</p> +<p> + She stretched out her hand. +</p> +<p> + He mistook the action and bent down and kissed it. +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, "I want the milk." +</p> +<p> + He snatched it up and gave it to her, watching her drink with all the + relief, the thankfulness of a mother whose child's sickness takes a + turn for the better. When she had finished she gave him back the + glass. "Fritzi," she said, looking at him with eyes wide open now and + dark with anxious questioning, "we won't reproach ourselves then if we + can help it—" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly not, ma'am—a most futile thing to do." +</p> +<p> + "I'll try to believe what you say about me, if you promise to believe + what I say about you." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, I'll believe anything if only you will be reasonable." +</p> +<p> + "You've been everything to me—that's what I want to say. Always, ever + since I can remember." +</p> +<p> + "And you, ma'am? What have you not been to me?" +</p> +<p> + "And there's nothing, nothing you can blame yourself for." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am—" +</p> +<p> + "You've been too good, too unselfish, and I've dragged you down." +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am—" +</p> +<p> + "Well, we won't begin again. But tell me one thing—and tell me the + truth—oh Fritzi tell me the truth as you value your soul—do you + anywhere see the least light on our future? Do you anywhere see even a + bit, a smallest bit of hope?" +</p> +<p> + He took her hand again and kissed it; then lifted his head and looked + at her very solemnly. "No, ma'am," he said with the decision of an + unshakable conviction, "upon my immortal soul I do not see a shred." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXII +</h2> +<p> + Let the reader now picture Priscilla coming downstairs the next + morning, a golden Sunday morning full of Sabbath calm, and a Priscilla + leaden-eyed and leaden-souled, her shabby garments worn out to a + symbol of her worn out zeals, her face the face of one who has + forgotten peace, her eyes the eyes of one at strife with the future, + of one for ever asking "What next?" and shrinking with a shuddering + "Oh please not that," from the bald reply. +</p> +<p> + Out of doors Nature wore her mildest, most beneficent aspect. She very + evidently cared nothing for the squalid tragedies of human fate. Her + hills were bathed in gentle light. Her sunshine lay warm along the + cottage fronts. In the gardens her hopeful bees, cheated into thoughts + of summer, droned round the pale mauves and purples of what was left + of starworts. The grass in the churchyard sparkled with the fairy film + of gossamers. Sparrows chirped. Robins whistled. And humanity gave the + last touch to the picture by ringing the church bells melodiously to + prayer. +</p> +<p> + Without doubt it was a day of blessing, supposing any one could be + found willing to be blest. Let the reader, then, imagine this outward + serenity, this divine calmness, this fair and light-flooded world, + and within the musty walls of Creeper Cottage Priscilla coming down to + breakfast, despair in her eyes and heart. +</p> +<p> + They breakfasted late; so late that it was done to the accompaniment, + strangely purified and beautified by the intervening church walls and + graveyard, of Mrs. Morrison's organ playing and the chanting of the + village choir. Their door stood wide open, for the street was empty. + Everybody was in church. The service was, as Mrs. Morrison afterwards + remarked, unusually well attended. The voluntaries she played that day + were Dead Marches, and the vicar preached a conscience-shattering + sermon upon the text "Lord, who is it?" +</p> +<p> + He thought that Mrs. Jones's murderer must be one of his parishioners. + It was a painful thought, but it had to be faced. He had lived so long + shut out from gossip, so deaf to the ever-clicking tongue of rumour, + that he had forgotten how far even small scraps can travel, and that + the news of Mrs. Jones's bolster being a hiding-place for her money + should have spread beyond the village never occurred to him. He was + moved on this occasion as much as a man who has long ago given up + being moved can be, for he had had a really dreadful two days with + Mrs. Morrison, dating from the moment she came in with the news of the + boxing of their only son's ears. He had, as the reader will have + gathered, nothing of it having been recorded, refused to visit and + reprimand Priscilla for this. He had found excuses for her. He had + sided with her against his son. He had been as wholly, maddeningly + obstinate as the extremely good sometimes are. Then came Mrs. Jones's + murder. He was greatly shaken, but still refused to call upon + Priscilla in connection with it, and pooh-poohed the notion of her + being responsible for the crime as definitely as an aged saint of + habitually grave speech can be expected to pooh-pooh at all. He said + she was not responsible. He said, when his wife with all the emphasis + apparently inseparable from the conversation of those who feel + strongly, told him that he owed it to himself, to his parish, to his + country, to go and accuse her, that he owed no man anything but to + love one another. There was nothing to be done with the vicar. Still + these scenes had not left him scathless, and it was a vicar moved to + the utmost limits of his capacity in that direction who went into the + pulpit that day repeating the question "Who is it?" so insistently, so + appealingly, with such searching glances along the rows of faces in + the pews, that the congregation, shuffling and uncomfortable, looked + furtively at each other with an ever growing suspicion and dislike. + The vicar as he went on waxing warmer, more insistent, observed at + least a dozen persons with guilt on every feature. It darted out like + a toad from the hiding-place of some private ooze at the bottom of + each soul into one face after the other; and there was a certain youth + who grew so visibly in guilt, who had so many beads of an obviously + guilty perspiration on his forehead, and eyes so guiltily starting + from their sockets, that only by a violent effort of self-control + could the vicar stop himself from pointing at him and shouting out + then and there "Thou art the man!" +</p> +<p> + Meanwhile the real murderer had hired a waggonette and was taking his + wife for a pleasant country drive. +</p> +<p> + It was to pacify Fritzing that Priscilla came down to breakfast. Left + to herself she would by preference never have breakfasted again. She + even drank more milk to please him; but though it might please him, no + amount of milk could wash out the utter blackness of her spirit. He, + seeing her droop behind the jug, seeing her gazing drearily at nothing + in particular, jumped up and took a book from the shelves and without + more ado began to read aloud. "It is better, ma'am," he explained + briefly, glancing at her over his spectacles, "than that you should + give yourself over to gloom." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla turned vague eyes on to him. "How can I help gloom?" she + asked. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, yes, that may be. But nobody should be gloomy at breakfast. The + entire day is very apt, in consequence, to be curdled." +</p> +<p> + "It will be curdled anyhow," said Priscilla, her head sinking on to + her chest. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, listen to this." +</p> +<p> + And with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, from which he took + occasional hurried bites, and the other raised in appropriate varying + gesticulation, Fritzing read portions of the Persae of Æschylus to + her, first in Greek for the joy of his own ear and then translating it + into English for the edification of hers. He, at least, was off after + the first line, sailing golden seas remote and glorious, places where + words were lovely and deeds heroic, places most beautiful and brave, + most admirably, most restfully unlike Creeper Cottage. He rolled out + the sentences, turning them on his tongue, savouring them, reluctant + to let them go. She sat looking at him, wondering how he could + possibly even for an instant forget the actual and the present. +</p> +<p> + "'Xerxes went forth, Xerxes perished, Xerxes mismanaged all things in + the depths of the sea—'" declaimed Fritzing. +</p> +<p> + "He must have been like us," murmured Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "'O for Darius the scatheless, the protector! No woman ever mourned + for deed of his—'" +</p> +<p> + "What a nice man," sighed Priscilla. "'O for Darius!'" +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, if you interrupt how can I read? And it is a most beautiful + passage." +</p> +<p> + "But we do want a Darius badly," moaned Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "'The ships went forth, the grey-faced ships, like to each other as + bird is to bird, the ships and all they carried perished, the ships + perished by the hand of the Greeks. The king, 'tis said, escapes, but + hardly, by the plains of Thrace and the toilsome ways, and behind him + he leaves his first-fruits—sailors unburied on the shores of Salamis. + Then grieve, sting yourselves to grief, make heaven echo, howl like + dogs for the horror, for they are battered together by the terrible + waters, they are shredded to pieces by the voiceless children of the + Pure. The house has no master—'" +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi, I wish you'd leave off," implored Priscilla. "It's quite as + gloomy as anything I was thinking." +</p> +<p> + "But ma'am the difference is that it is also beautiful, whereas the + gloom at present enveloping us is mere squalor. 'The voiceless + children of the Pure—' how is that, ma'am, for beauty?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't even know what it means," sighed Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, it is an extremely beautiful manner of alluding to fish." +</p> +<p> + "I don't care," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "Ma'am, is it possible that the blight of passing and outward + circumstance has penetrated to and settled upon what should always be + of a sublime inaccessibility, your soul?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't care about the fish," repeated Priscilla listlessly. Then + with a sudden movement she pushed back her chair and jumped up. "Oh," + she cried, beating her hands together, "don't talk to me of fish when + I can't see an inch—oh not a single inch into the future!" +</p> +<p> + Fritzing looked at her, his finger on the page. Half of him was still + at the bottom of classic seas with the battered and shredded sailors. + How much rather would he have stayed there, have gone on reading + Æschylus a little, have taken her with him for a brief space of + serenity into that moist refuge from the harassed present, have + forgotten at least for one morning the necessity, the dreariness of + being forced to face things, to talk over, to decide. Besides, what + could he decide? The unhappy man had no idea. Nor had Priscilla. To + stay in Symford seemed impossible, but to leave it seemed still more + so. And sooner than go back disgraced to Kunitz and fling herself at + paternal feet which would in all probability immediately spurn her, + Priscilla felt she would die. But how could she stay in Symford, + surrounded by angry neighbours, next door to Tussie, with Robin coming + back for vacations, with Mrs. Morrison hating her, with Lady + Shuttleworth hating her, with Emma's father hating her, with the blood + of Mrs. Jones on her head? Could one live peacefully in such an + accursed place? Yet how could they go away? Even if they were able to + compose their nerves sufficiently to make new plans they could not go + because they were in debt. +</p> +<p> + "Fritzi," cried Priscilla with more passion than she had ever put into + speech before, "life's too much for me—I tell you life's too much for + me!" And with a gesture of her arms as though she would sweep it all + back, keep it from surging over her, from choking her, she ran out + into the street to get into her own room and be alone, pulling the + door to behind her for fear he should follow and want to explain and + comfort, leaving him with his Æschylus in which, happening to glance + sighing, he, enviable man, at once became again absorbed, and running + blindly, headlong, as he runs who is surrounded and accompanied by a + swarm of deadly insects which he vainly tries to out-distance, she ran + straight into somebody coming from the opposite direction, ran full + tilt, was almost knocked off her feet, and looking up with the + impatient anguish of him who is asked to endure his last straw her + lips fell apart in an utter and boundless amazement; for the person + she had run against was that Prince—the last of the series, + distinguished from the rest by his having quenched the Grand Duke's + irrelevant effervescence by the simple expedient of saying Bosh—who + had so earnestly desired to marry her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXIII +</h2> +<p> + "Hullo," said the Prince, who spoke admirable English. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla could only stare. +</p> +<p> + His instinct was to repeat the exclamation which he felt represented + his feelings very exactly, for her appearance—clothes, expression, + everything—astonished him, but he doubted whether it would well bear + repeating. "Is this where you are staying?" he inquired instead. +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "May I come in?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + He followed her into her parlour. He looked at her critically as she + walked slowly before him, from head to foot he looked at her + critically; at every inch of the shabby serge gown, at the little head + with its badly arranged hair, at the little heel that caught in an + unmended bit of braid, at the little shoe with its bow of frayed + ribbon, and he smiled broadly behind his moustache. But when she + turned round he was perfectly solemn. +</p> +<p> + "I suppose," said the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets and + gazing about the room with an appearance of cheerful interest, "this + is what one calls a snug little place." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla stood silent. She felt as though she had been shaken + abruptly out of sleep. Her face even now after the soul-rending time + she had been having, in spite of the shadows beneath the eyes, the + droop at the corners of the mouth, in spite, too, it must be said of + the flagrantly cottage fashion in which Annalise had done her hair, + seemed to the Prince so extremely beautiful, so absolutely the face of + his dearest, best desires, so limpid, apart from all grace of + colouring and happy circumstance of feature, with the light of a sweet + and noble nature, so manifestly the outward expression of an + indwelling lovely soul, that his eyes, after one glance round the + room, fixed themselves upon it and never were able to leave it again. +</p> +<p> + For a minute or two she stood silent, trying to collect her thoughts, + trying to shake off the feeling that she was being called back to life + out of a dream. It had not been a dream, she kept telling herself—bad + though it was it had not been a dream but the reality; and this man + dropped suddenly in to the middle of it from another world, he was the + dream, part of the dream she had rebelled against and run away from a + fortnight before. +</p> +<p> + Then she looked at him, and she knew she was putting off her soul with + nonsense. Never was anybody less like a dream than the Prince; never + was anybody more squarely, more certainly real. And he was of her own + kind, of her own world. He and she were equals. They could talk + together plainly, baldly, a talk ungarnished and unretarded by + deferences on the one side and on the other a kindness apt to become + excessive in its anxiety not to appear to condescend. The feeling that + once more after what seemed an eternity she was with an equal was of a + singular refreshment. During those few moments in which they stood + silent, facing each other, in spite of her efforts to keep it out, in + spite of really conscientious efforts, a great calm came in and spread + over her spirit. Yet she had no reason to feel calm she thought, + struggling. Was there not rather cause for an infinity of shame? What + had he come for? He of all people. The scandalously jilted, the + affronted, the run away from. Was it because she had been looking so + long at Fritzing that this man seemed so nicely groomed? Or at Tussie, + that he seemed so well put together? Or at Robin, that he seemed so + modest? Was it because people's eyes—Mrs. Morrison's, Lady + Shuttleworth's—had been so angry lately whenever they rested on her + that his seemed so very kind? No; she did remember thinking them that, + even being struck by them, when she saw him first in Kunitz. A dull + red crept into her face when she remembered that day and what + followed. "It isn't very snug," she said at last, trying to hide by a + careful coldness of speech all the strange things she was feeling. + "When it rains there are puddles by the door. The door, you see, opens + into the street." +</p> +<p> + "I see," said the Prince. +</p> +<p> + There was a silence. +</p> +<p> + "I don't suppose you really do," said Priscilla, full of strange + feelings. +</p> +<p> + "My dear cousin?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't know if you've come to laugh at me?" +</p> +<p> + "Do I look as if I had?" +</p> +<p> + "I dare say you think—because you've not been through it + yourself—that it—it's rather ridiculous." +</p> +<p> + "My dear cousin," protested the Prince. +</p> +<p> + Her lips quivered. She had gone through much, and she had lived for + two days only on milk. +</p> +<p> + "Do you wipe the puddles up, or does old Fritzing?" +</p> +<p> + "You see you <i>have</i> come to laugh." +</p> +<p> + "I hope you'll believe that I've not. Must I be gloomy?" +</p> +<p> + "How do you know Fritzing's here?" +</p> +<p> + "Why everybody knows that." +</p> +<p> + "Everybody?" There was an astonished pause. "How do you know we're + here—here, in Creeper Cottage?" +</p> +<p> + "Creeper Cottage is it? I didn't know it had a name. Do you have so + many earwigs?" +</p> +<p> + "How did you know we were in Symford?" +</p> +<p> + "Why everybody knows that." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was silent. Again she felt she was being awakened from a + dream. +</p> +<p> + "I've met quite a lot of interesting people since I saw you last," he + said. "At least, they interested me because they all knew you." +</p> +<p> + "Knew me?" +</p> +<p> + "Knew you and that old scound—the excellent Fritzing. There's an + extremely pleasant policeman, for instance, in Kunitz—" +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla, starting and turning red. She could not think of + that policeman without crisping her fingers. +</p> +<p> + "He and I are intimate friends. And there's a most intelligent + person—really a most helpful, obliging person—who came with you from + Dover to Ullerton." +</p> +<p> + "With us?" +</p> +<p> + "I found the conversation, too, of the ostler at the Ullerton Arms of + immense interest." +</p> +<p> + "But what—" +</p> +<p> + "And last night I slept at Baker's Farm, and spent a very pleasant + evening with Mrs. Pearce." +</p> +<p> + "But why—" +</p> +<p> + "She's an instructive woman. Her weakest point, I should say, is her + junkets." +</p> +<p> + "I wonder why you bother to talk like this—to be sarcastic." +</p> +<p> + "About the junkets? Didn't you think they were bad?" +</p> +<p> + "Do you suppose it's worth while to—to kick somebody who's down? And + so low down? So completely got to the bottom?" +</p> +<p> + "Kick? On my soul I assure you that the very last thing I want to do + is to kick you." +</p> +<p> + "Then why do you do it?" +</p> +<p> + "I don't do it. Do you know what I've come for?" +</p> +<p> + "Is my father round the corner?" +</p> +<p> + "Nobody's round the corner. I've muzzled your father. I've come quite + by myself. And do you know why?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, shortly, defiantly; adding before he could + speak, "I can't imagine." And adding to that, again before he could + speak, "Unless it's for the fun of hunting down a defenceless quarry." +</p> +<p> + "I say, that's rather picturesque," said the Prince with every + appearance of being struck. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla blushed. In spite of herself every word they said to each + other made her feel more natural, farther away from self-torment and + sordid fears, nearer to that healthy state of mind, swamped out of her + lately, when petulance comes more easily than meekness. The mere + presence of the Prince seemed to set things right, to raise her again + in her own esteem. There was undoubtedly something wholesome about the + man, something everyday and reassuring, something dependable and sane. + The first smile for I don't know how long came and cheered the corners + of her mouth. "I'm afraid I've grown magniloquent since—since—" +</p> +<p> + "Since you ran away?" +</p> +<p> + She nodded. "Fritzing, you know, is most persistently picturesque. I + think it's catching. But he's wonderful," she added quickly,—"most + wonderful in patience and goodness." +</p> +<p> + "Oh everybody knows he's wonderful. Where is the great man?" +</p> +<p> + "In the next room. Do you want him?" +</p> +<p> + "Good Lord, no. You've not told me what you suppose I've come for." +</p> +<p> + "I did. I told you I couldn't imagine." +</p> +<p> + "It's for a most saintly, really nice reason. Guess." +</p> +<p> + "I can't guess." +</p> +<p> + "Oh but try." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla to her extreme disgust felt herself turning very red. "I + suppose to spy out the nakedness of the land," she said severely. +</p> +<p> + "Now you're picturesque again. You must have been reading a tremendous + lot lately. Of course you would, with that learned old fossil about. + No my dear, I've come simply to see if you are happy." +</p> +<p> + She looked at him, and her flush slowly died away. +</p> +<p> + "Simply to convince myself that you are happy." +</p> +<p> + Her eyes filling with tears she thought it more expedient to fix them + on the table-cloth. She did fix them on it, and the golden fringe of + eyelashes that he very rightly thought so beautiful lay in long dusky + curves on her serious face. "It's extraordinarily nice of you if—if + it's true," she said. +</p> +<p> + "But it is true. And if you are, if you tell me you are and I'm able + to believe it, I bow myself out, dear cousin, and shall devote any + energies I have left after doing that to going on muzzling your + father. He shall not, I promise you, in any way disturb you. Haven't + I kept him well in hand up to this?" +</p> +<p> + She raised her eyes to his. "Was it you keeping him so quiet?" +</p> +<p> + "It was, my dear. He was very restive. You've no notion of all the + things he wanted to do. It wanted a pretty strong hand, and a light + one too, I can tell you. But I was determined you should have your + head. That woman Disthal—" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla started. +</p> +<p> + "You don't like her?" inquired the Prince sympathetically. +</p> +<p> + "No." +</p> +<p> + "I was afraid you couldn't. But I didn't know how to manage that part. + She's in London." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla started again. "I thought—I thought she was in bed," she + said. +</p> +<p> + "She was, but she got out again. Your—departure cured her." +</p> +<p> + "Didn't you tell me nobody was round the corner?" +</p> +<p> + "Well, you don't call London round the corner? I wouldn't let her come + any nearer to you. She's waiting there quite quietly." +</p> +<p> + "What is she waiting for?" asked Priscilla quickly. +</p> +<p> + "Come now, she's your lady in waiting you know. It seems natural + enough she should wait, don't it?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Priscilla, knitting her eyebrows. +</p> +<p> + "Don't frown. She had to come too. She's brought some of your women + and a whole lot"—he glanced at the blue serge suit and put his hand + up to his moustache—"a whole lot of clothes." +</p> +<p> + "Clothes?" A wave of colour flooded her face. She could not help it at + the moment any more than a starving man can help looking eager when + food is set before him. "Oh," she said, "I hope they're the ones I was + expecting from Paris?" +</p> +<p> + "I should think it very likely. There seem to be a great many. I never + saw so many boxes for one little cousin." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla made a sudden movement with her hands. "You can't think," + she said, "how tired I am of this dress." +</p> +<p> + "Yes I can," the Prince assured her. +</p> +<p> + "I've worn it every day." +</p> +<p> + "You must have." +</p> +<p> + "Every single day since the day I—I—" +</p> +<p> + "The day you ran away from me." +</p> +<p> + She blushed. "I didn't run away from you. At least, not exactly. You + were only the last straw." +</p> +<p> + "A nice thing for a man to be." +</p> +<p> + "I ran because—because—oh, it's a long story, and I'm afraid a very + foolish one." +</p> +<p> + A gleam came into the Prince's eyes. He took a step nearer her, but + immediately thinking better of it took it back again. "Perhaps," he + said pleasantly, "only the beginning was foolish, and you'll settle + down after a bit and get quite fond of Creeper Cottage." +</p> +<p> + She looked at him startled. +</p> +<p> + "You see my dear it was rather tremendous what you did. You must have + been most fearfully sick of things at Kunitz. I can well understand + it. You couldn't be expected to like me all at once. And if I had to + have that Disthal woman at my heels wherever I went I'd shoot myself. + What you've done is much braver really than shooting one's self. But + the question is do you like it as much as you thought you would?" +</p> +<p> + Priscilla gave him a swift look, and said nothing. +</p> +<p> + "If you don't, there's the Disthal waiting for you with all those + charming frocks, and all you've got to do is to put them on and go + home." +</p> +<p> + "But I can't go home. How can I? I am disgraced. My father would never + let me in." +</p> +<p> + "Oh I'd arrange all that. I don't think you'd find him angry if you + followed my advice very carefully. On the other hand, if you like + this and want to stay on there's nothing more to be said. I'll say + good-bye, and promise you shall be left in peace. You shall be left to + be happy entirely in your own way." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla was silent. +</p> +<p> + "You don't—look happy," he said, scrutinizing her face. +</p> +<p> + She was silent. +</p> +<p> + "You've got very thin. How did you manage that in such a little + while?" +</p> +<p> + "We've muddled things rather," she said with an ashamed sort of smile. + "On the days when I was hungry there wasn't anything to eat, and then + when there were things I wasn't hungry." +</p> +<p> + The Prince looked puzzled. "Didn't that old scamp—I mean didn't the + excellent Fritzing bring enough money?" +</p> +<p> + "He thought he did, but it wasn't enough." +</p> +<p> + "Is it all gone?" +</p> +<p> + "We're in debt." +</p> +<p> + Again he put his hand up to his moustache. "Well I'll see to all that, + of course," he said gravely. "And when that has been set right you're + sure you'll like staying on here?" +</p> +<p> + She summoned all her courage, and looked at him for an instant + straight in the face. "No," she said. +</p> +<p> + "No?" +</p> +<p> + "No." +</p> +<p> + There was another silence. He was standing on the hearthrug, she on + the other side of the table; but the room was so small that by putting + out his hand he could have touched her. A queer expression was in his + eyes as he looked at her, an expression entirely at variance with his + calm and good-natured talk, the exceedingly anxious expression of a + man who knows his whole happiness is quivering in the balance. She did + not see it, for she preferred to look at the table-cloth. +</p> +<p> + "Dreadful things have happened here," she said in a low voice. +</p> +<p> + "What sort?" +</p> +<p> + "Horrid sorts. Appalling sorts." +</p> +<p> + "Tell me." +</p> +<p> + "I couldn't bear to." +</p> +<p> + "But I think I know." +</p> +<p> + She looked at him astonished. +</p> +<p> + "Mrs. Pearce—" +</p> +<p> + "She told you?" +</p> +<p> + "What she knew she told me. Perhaps there's something she doesn't + know." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla remembered Robin, and blushed. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, she told me about that," said the Prince nodding. +</p> +<p> + "About what?" asked Priscilla, startled. +</p> +<p> + "About the squire intending to marry you." +</p> +<p> + "Oh," said Priscilla. +</p> +<p> + "It seems hard on him, don't it? Has it struck you that such things + are likely to occur pretty often to Miss Maria-Theresa Ethel + Neumann-Schultz?" +</p> +<p> + "I'm afraid you really have come only to laugh," said Priscilla, her + lips quivering. +</p> +<p> + "I swear it's only to see if you are happy." +</p> +<p> + "Well, see then." And throwing back her head with a great defiance she + looked at him while her eyes filled with tears; and though they + presently brimmed over, and began to drop down pitifully one by one, + she would not flinch but went on looking. +</p> +<p> + "I see," said the Prince quietly. "And I'm convinced. Of course, then, + I shall suggest your leaving this." +</p> +<p> + "I want to." +</p> +<p> + "And putting yourself in the care of the Disthal." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla winced. +</p> +<p> + "Only her temporary care. Quite temporary. And letting her take you + back to Kunitz." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla winced again. +</p> +<p> + "Only temporarily," said the Prince. +</p> +<p> + "But my father would never—" +</p> +<p> + "Yes my dear, he will. He'll be delighted to see you. He'll rejoice." +</p> +<p> + "Rejoice?" +</p> +<p> + "I assure you he will. You've only got to do what I tell you." +</p> +<p> + "Shall you—come too?" +</p> +<p> + "If you'll let me." +</p> +<p> + "But then—but then—" +</p> +<p> + "Then what, my dear?" +</p> +<p> + She looked at him, and her face changed slowly from white to red and + red to white again. Fritzing's words crossed her mind—"If you marry + him you will be undoubtedly eternally lost," and her very soul cried + out that they were folly. Why should she be eternally lost? What + cobwebs were these, cobwebs of an old brain preoccupied with shadows, + dusty things to be swept away at the first touch of Nature's vigorous + broom? Indeed she thought it far more likely that she would be + eternally found. But she was ashamed of herself, ashamed of all she + had done, ashamed of the disgraceful way she had treated this man, + terribly disillusioned, terribly out of conceit with herself, and she + stood there changing colour, hanging her head, humbled, penitent, + every shred of the dignity she had been trained to gone, simply + somebody who has been very silly and is very sorry. +</p> +<p> + The Prince put out his hand. +</p> +<p> + She pretended not to see it. +</p> +<p> + The Prince came round the table. "You know," he said, "our engagement + hasn't been broken off yet?" +</p> +<p> + Her instinct was to edge away, but she would not stoop to edging. "Was + it ever made?" she asked, not able to induce her voice to rise above a + whisper. +</p> +<p> + "Practically." +</p> +<p> + There was another silence. +</p> +<p> + "Why, then—" began Priscilla, for the silence had come to be more + throbbing, more intolerably expressive than any speech. +</p> +<p> + "Yes?" encouraged the Prince, coming very close. +</p> +<p> + She turned her head slowly. "Why, then—" said Priscilla again, her + face breaking into a smile, half touched, half mischievous, wholly + adorable. +</p> +<p> + "I think so too," said the Prince; and he shut her mouth with a kiss. +</p> +<hr class="short"> +<p> + "And now," said the Prince some time afterwards, "let us go to that + old sinner Fritzing." +</p> +<p> + Priscilla hung back, reluctant to deal this final blow to the heart + that had endured so many. "He'll be terribly shocked," she said. +</p> +<p> + But the Prince declared it had to be done; and hand in hand they went + out into the street, and opening Fritzing's door stood before him. +</p> +<p> + He was still absorbed in his Æschylus, had been sitting absorbed in + the deeds of the dead and departed, of the long dead Xerxes, the long + dead Darius, the very fish, voiceless but voracious, long since as + dead as the most shredded of the sailors,—he had been sitting + absorbed in these various corpses all the while that in the next room, + on the other side of a few inches of plaster and paper, so close you + would have thought his heart must have burned within him, so close you + would have thought he must be scorched, the living present had been + pulsing and glowing, beating against the bright bars of the future, + stirring up into alertness a whole row of little red-headed souls till + then asleep, souls with golden eyelashes, souls eager to come and be + princes and princesses of—I had almost revealed the mighty nation's + name. A shadow fell across his book, and looking up he saw the two + standing before him hand in hand. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla caught her breath: what white anguish was going to flash + into his face when he grasped the situation? Judge then of her + amazement, her hesitation whether to be pleased or vexed, to laugh or + cry, when, grasping it, he leaped to his feet and in tones of a most + limitless, a most unutterable relief, shouted three times running + "<i>Gott sei Dank</i>!" +</p> +<a name="2H_CONC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CONCLUSION +</h2> +<p> + So that was the end of Priscilla's fortnight,—according to the way + you look at it glorious or inglorious. I shall not say which I think + it was; whether it is better to marry a prince, become in course of + time a queen, be at the head of a great nation, be surfeited with + honour, wealth, power and magnificence till the day when Death with + calm, indifferent fingers strips everything away and leaves you at + last to the meek simplicity of a shroud; or whether toilsome paths, + stern resistances, buffetings bravely taken, battles fought inch by + inch, an ideal desperately clung to even though in clinging you are + slain, is not rather the part to be chosen of him whose soul would sit + attired with stars. Anyhow the goddess laughed, the goddess who had + left Priscilla in the lurch, when she heard the end of the adventure; + and her unpleasant sister, having nothing more to do in Creeper + Cottage, gathered up her rags and grinned too as she left it. At least + her claws had lacerated much over-tender flesh during her stay; and + though the Prince had interrupted the operation and forced her for the + moment to inactivity, she was not dissatisfied with what had been + accomplished. +</p> +<p> + Priscilla, it will readily be imagined, made no farewell calls. She + disappeared from Symford as suddenly as she had appeared; and Mrs. + Morrison, coming into Creeper Cottage on Monday afternoon to unload + her conscience yet more, found only a pleasant gentleman, a stranger + of mellifluous manners, writing out cheques. She had ten minutes talk + with him, and went home very sad and wise. Indeed from that day, her + spirit being the spirit of the true snob, the hectorer of the humble, + the devout groveller in the courtyards of the great, she was a + much-changed woman. Even her hair felt it, and settled down unchecked + to greyness. She no longer cared to put on a pink tulle bow in the + afternoons, which may or may not be a sign of grace. She ceased to + suppose that she was pretty. When the accounts of Priscilla's wedding + filled all the papers she became so ill that she had to go to bed and + be nursed. Sometimes to the vicar's mild surprise she hesitated before + expressing an opinion. Once at least she of her own accord said + she had been wrong. And although she never told any one of the + conversation with the gentleman writing cheques, when Robin came home + for Christmas and looked at her he knew at once what she knew. +</p> +<p> + As for Lady Shuttleworth, she got a letter from Priscilla; quite a + long one, enclosing a little one for Tussie to be given him if and + when his mother thought expedient. Lady Shuttleworth was not surprised + by what she read. She had suspected it from the moment Priscilla rose + up the day she called on her at Baker's Farm and dismissed her. Till + her marriage with the late Sir Augustus she had been lady-in-waiting + to one of the English princesses, and she could not be mistaken on + such points. She knew the sort of thing too well. But she never + forgave Priscilla. How could she? Was the day of Tussie's coming of + age, that dreadful day when he was nearest death, a day a mother could + ever forget? It had all been most wanton, most cruel. We know she was + full of the milk of human kindness: on the subject of Priscilla it was + unmixed gall. +</p> +<p> + As for Tussie,—well, you cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs, + and Tussie on this occasion was the eggs. It is a painful part to + play. He found it exquisitely painful, and vainly sought comfort in + the consolation that it had been Priscilla's omelette. The consolation + proved empty, and for a long while he suffered every sort of torment + known to the sensitive. But he got over it. People do. They will get + over anything if you give them time, and he being young had plenty of + it. He lived it down as one lives down every sorrow and every joy; and + when in the fulness of time, after a series of years in which he went + about listlessly in a soft felt hat and an unsatisfactory collar, he + married, it was to Priscilla's capital that he went for his honeymoon. + She, hearing he was there, sent for them both and was kind. +</p> +<p> + As for Annalise, she never got her twenty thousand marks. On the + contrary, the vindictive Grand Duke caused her to be prosecuted for + blackmailing, and she would undoubtedly have languished in prison if + Priscilla had not interfered and sent her back to her parents. Like + Mrs. Morrison, she is chastened. She does not turn up her nose so + much. She does not sing. Indeed her songs ceased from the moment she + caught sight through a crack in the kitchen door of the Prince's broad + shoulders filling up Fritzing's sitting-room. From that moment + Annalise swooned from one depth of respect and awe to the other. She + became breathlessly willing, meek to vanishing point. But Priscilla + could not forget all she had made her suffer; and the Prince, who had + thought of everything, suddenly producing her head woman from some + recess in Baker's Farm, where she too had spent the night, Annalise + was superseded, her further bitter fate being to be left behind + at Creeper Cottage in the charge of the gentleman with the + cheque-book—who as it chanced was a faddist in food and would allow + nothing more comforting than dried fruits and nuts to darken the + doors—till he should have leisure to pack her up and send her home. +</p> +<p> + As for Emma, she was hunted out by that detective who travelled down + into Somersetshire with the fugitives and who had already been so + useful to the Prince; and Priscilla, desperately anxious to make + amends wherever she could, took her into her own household, watching + over her herself, seeing to it that no word of what she had done was + ever blown about among the crowd of idle tongues, and she ended, I + believe, by marrying a lacquey,—one of those splendid persons with + white silk calves who were so precious in the sight of Annalise. + Indeed I am not sure that it was not the very lacquey Annalise had + loved most and had intended to marry herself. In this story at least, + the claims of poetic justice shall be strictly attended to; and + Annalise had sniffed outrageously at Emma. +</p> +<p> + As for the Countess Disthal, she married the doctor and was sorry ever + afterwards; but her sorrow was as nothing compared with his. +</p> +<p> + As for Fritzing, he is <i>Hofbibliothekar</i> of the Prince's father's + court library; a court more brilliant than and a library vastly + inferior to the one he had fled from at Kunitz. He keeps much in his + rooms, and communes almost exclusively with the dead. He finds the + dead alone truly satisfactory. Priscilla loves him still and will + always love him, but she is very busy and has little time to think. + She does not let him give her children lessons; instead he plays with + them, and grows old and patient apace. +</p> +<p> + And now having finished my story, there is nothing left for me to + do but stand aside and watch Priscilla and her husband walking + hand-in-hand farther and farther away from me up a path which I + suppose is the path of glory, into something apparently golden and + rosy, something very glowing and full of promise, that turns out on + closer scrutiny to be their future. It certainly seems radiant enough + to the superficial observer. Even I, who have looked into her soul + and known its hungers, am a little dazzled. Let it not however be + imagined that a person who has been truthful so long as myself is + going to lapse into easy lies at the last, and pretend that she was + uninterruptedly satisfied and happy for the rest of her days. She was + not; but then who is? +</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13141-h.txt or 13141-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/4/13141">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/4/13141</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/13141.txt b/old/13141.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ed6502 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13141.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9442 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight, by +Elizabeth von Arnim + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight + +Author: Elizabeth von Arnim + +Release Date: August 8, 2004 [eBook #13141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S +FORTNIGHT*** + + +E-text prepared by Cally Soukup, Janet Kegg, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Editorial note: We now know that "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" was + written by Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941). Born Mary + Annette Beauchamp in Australia, she grew up in England + and married a German, Count Henning August von + Arnim-Schlagenthin. After the couple moved to his country + estate she began writing children's books. Many of her + early books were published "By the Author of 'Elizabeth + and Her German Garden'," and later she published as + simply "Elizabeth." + + + + + +THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN" + +1905 + + + + + + + + "Oft habe ich die Welt durchwandert, und habe immer + gesehen, wie das Grosse am Kleinlichen scheitert, und das + Edle von dem aetzenden Gift des Alltaeglichen zerfressen wird." + FRITZING, "Erlebtes und Erlittenes." + + + + + + +I + + +Her Grand Ducal Highness the Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz was +up to the age of twenty-one a most promising young lady. She was not +only poetic in appearance beyond the habit of princesses but she was +also of graceful and appropriate behaviour. She did what she was told; +or, more valuable, she did what was expected of her without being +told. Her father, in his youth and middle age a fiery man, now an +irritable old gentleman who liked good food and insisted on strictest +etiquette, was proud of her on those occasions when she happened to +cross his mind. Her mother, by birth an English princess of an +originality uncomfortable and unexpected in a royal lady that +continued to the end of her life to crop up at disconcerting moments, +died when Priscilla was sixteen. Her sisters, one older and one +younger than herself, were both far less pleasing to look upon than +she was, and much more difficult to manage; yet each married a +suitable prince and each became a credit to her House, while as for +Priscilla,--well, as for Priscilla, I propose to describe her dreadful +conduct. + +But first her appearance. She was well above the average height of +woman; a desirable thing in a princess, who, before everything, must +impress the public with her dignity. She had a long pointed chin, and +a sweet mouth with full lips that looked most kind. Her nose was not +quite straight, one side of it being the least bit different from the +other,--a slight crookedness that gave her face a charm absolutely +beyond the reach of those whose features are what is known as +chiselled. Her skin was of that fairness that freckles readily in hot +summers or on winter days when the sun shines brightly on the snow, a +delicate soft skin that is seen sometimes with golden eyelashes and +eyebrows, and hair that is more red than gold. Priscilla had these +eyelashes and eyebrows and this hair, and she had besides beautiful +grey-blue eyes--calm pools of thought, the court poet called them, +when her having a birthday compelled him to official raptures; and +because everybody felt sure they were not really anything of the kind +the poet's utterance was received with acclamations. Indeed, a +princess who should possess such pools would be most undesirable--in +Lothen-Kunitz nothing short of a calamity; for had they not had one +already? It was what had been the matter with the deceased Grand +Duchess; she would think, and no one could stop her, and her life in +consequence was a burden to herself and to everybody else at her +court. Priscilla, however, was very silent. She had never expressed an +opinion, and the inference was that she had no opinion to express. She +had not criticized, she had not argued, she had been tractable, +obedient, meek. Yet her sisters, who had often criticized and argued, +and who had rarely been obedient and never meek, became as I have said +the wives of appropriate princes, while Priscilla,--well, he who runs +may read what it was that Priscilla became. + +But first as to where she lived. The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz lies +in the south of Europe; that smiling region of fruitful plains, +forest-clothed hills, and broad rivers. It is one of the first places +Spring stops at on her way up from Italy; and Autumn, coming down from +the north sunburnt, fruit-laden, and blest, goes slowly when she +reaches it, lingering there with her serenity and ripeness, her calm +skies and her windless days long after the Saxons and Prussians have +lit their stoves and got out their furs. There figs can be eaten off +the trees in one's garden, and vineyards glow on the hillsides. There +the people are Catholics, and the Protestant pastor casts no shadow of +a black gown across life. There as you walk along the white roads, you +pass the image of the dead Christ by the wayside; mute reminder to +those who would otherwise forget of the beauty of pitifulness and +love. And there, so near is Kunitz to the soul of things, you may any +morning get into the train after breakfast and in the afternoon find +yourself drinking coffee in the cool colonnades of the Piazza San +Marco at Venice. + +Kunitz is the capital of the duchy, and the palace is built on a hill. +It is one of those piled-up buildings of many windows and turrets and +battlements on which the tourist gazes from below as at the +realization of a childhood's dream. A branch of the river Loth winds +round the base of the hill, separating the ducal family from the +red-roofed town along its other bank. Kunitz stretches right round the +hill, lying clasped about its castle like a necklet of ancient stones. +At the foot of the castle walls the ducal orchards and kitchen gardens +begin, continuing down to the water's edge and clothing the base of +the hill in a garment of blossom and fruit. No fairer sight is to be +seen than the glimpse of these grey walls and turrets rising out of a +cloud of blossom to be had by him who shall stand in the market place +of Kunitz and look eastward up the narrow street on a May morning; and +if he who gazes is a dreamer he could easily imagine that where the +setting of life is so lovely its days must of necessity be each like a +jewel, of perfect brightness and beauty. + +The Princess Priscilla, however, knew better. To her unfortunately the +life within the walls seemed of a quite blatant vulgarity; pervaded by +lacqueys, by officials of every kind and degree, by too much food, too +many clothes, by waste, by a feverish frittering away of time, by a +hideous want of privacy, by a dreariness unutterable. To her it was a +perpetual behaving according to the ideas officials had formed as to +the conduct to be expected of princesses, a perpetual pretending not +to see that the service offered was sheerest lip-service, a perpetual +shutting of the eyes to hypocrisy and grasping selfishness. Conceive, +you tourist full of illusions standing free down there in the market +place, the frightfulness of never being alone a moment from the time +you get out of bed to the time you get into it again. Conceive the +deadly patience needed to stand passive and be talked to, amused, +taken care of, all day long for years. Conceive the intolerableness, +if you are at all sensitive, of being watched by eyes so sharp and +prying, so eager to note the least change of expression and to use the +conclusions drawn for personal ends that nothing, absolutely nothing, +escapes them. Priscilla's sisters took all these things as a matter of +course, did not care in the least how keenly they were watched and +talked over, never wanted to be alone, liked being fussed over by +their ladies-in-waiting. They, happy girls, had thick skins. But +Priscilla was a dreamer of dreams, a poet who never wrote poems, but +whose soul though inarticulate was none the less saturated with the +desires and loves from which poems are born. She, like her sisters, +had actually known no other states; but then she dreamed of them +continuously, she desired them continuously, she read of them +continuously; and though there was only one person who knew she did +these things I suppose one person is enough in the way of +encouragement if your mind is bent on rebellion. This old person, +cause of all the mischief that followed, for without his help +I do not see what Priscilla could have done, was the ducal +librarian--_Hofbibliothekar_, head, and practically master of the +wonderful collection of books and manuscripts whose mere catalogue +made learned mouths in distant parts of Europe water and learned lungs +sigh in hopeless envy. He too had officials under him, but they were +unlike the others: meek youths, studious and short-sighted, whose +business as far as Priscilla could see was to bow themselves out +silently whenever she and her lady-in-waiting came in. The librarian's +name was Fritzing; plain Herr Fritzing originally, but gradually by +various stages at last arrived at the dignity and sonorousness of Herr +Geheimarchivrath Fritzing. The Grand Duke indeed had proposed to +ennoble him after he had successfully taught Priscilla English +grammar, but Fritzing, whose spirit dwelt among the Greeks, could not +be brought to see any desirability in such a step. Priscilla called +him Fritzi when her lady-in-waiting dozed; dearest Fritzi sometimes +even, in the heat of protest or persuasion. But afterwards, leaving +the room as solemnly as she had come in, followed by her wide-awake +attendant, she would nod a formally gracious "Good afternoon, Herr +Geheimrath," for all the world as though she had been talking that way +the whole time. The Countess (her lady-in-waiting was the Countess +Irmgard von Disthal, an ample slow lady, the unmarried daughter of a +noble house, about fifty at this time, and luckily--or unluckily--for +Priscilla, a great lover of much food and its resultant deep slumbers) +would bow in her turn in as stately a manner as her bulk permitted, +and with a frigidity so pronounced that in any one less skilled in +shades of deportment it would have resembled with a singular +completeness a sniff of scorn. Her frigidity was perfectly justified. +Was she not a _hochgeboren_, a member of an ancient house, of luminous +pedigree as far back as one could possibly see? And was he not the son +of an obscure Westphalian farmer, a person who in his youth had sat +barefoot watching pigs? It is true he had learning, and culture, and a +big head with plenty of brains in it, and the Countess Disthal had a +small head, hardly any brains, no soul to speak of, and no education. +This, I say, is true; but it is also neither here nor there. The +Countess was the Countess, and Fritzing was a nobody, and the +condescension she showed him was far more grand ducal than anything in +that way that Priscilla could or ever did produce. + +Fritzing, unusually gifted, and enterprising from the first--which +explains the gulf between pig-watching and _Hofbibliothekar_--had +spent ten years in Paris and twenty in England in various capacities, +but always climbing higher in the world of intellect, and had come +during this climbing to speak English quite as well as most +Englishmen, if in a statelier, Johnsonian manner. At fifty he began +his career in Kunitz, and being a lover of children took over the +English education of the three princesses; and now that they had long +since learned all they cared to know, and in Priscilla's case all of +grammar at least that he had to teach, he invented a talent for +drawing in Priscilla, who could not draw a straight line, much less a +curved one, so that she should still be able to come to the library as +often as she chose on the pretext of taking a drawing-lesson. The +Grand Duke's idea about his daughters was that they should know a +little of everything and nothing too well; and if Priscilla had said +she wanted to study Shakespeare with the librarian he would have +angrily forbidden it. Had she not had ten years for studying +Shakespeare? To go on longer than that would mean that she was eager, +and the Grand Duke loathed an eager woman. + +But he had nothing to say against a little drawing; and it was during +the drawing-lessons of the summer Priscilla was twenty-one that the +Countess Disthal slept so peacefully. The summer was hot, and the vast +room cool and quiet. The time was three o'clock--immediately, that is, +after luncheon. Through the narrow open windows sweet airs and scents +came in from the bright world outside. Sometimes a bee would wander up +from the fruit-gardens below, and lazily drone round shady corners. +Sometimes a flock of pigeons rose swiftly in front of the windows, +with a flash of shining wings. Every quarter of an hour the cathedral +clock down in the town sent up its slow chime. Voices of people +boating on the river floated up too, softened to melodiousness. Down +at the foot of the hill the red roofs of the town glistened in the +sun. Beyond them lay the sweltering cornfields. Beyond them forests +and villages. Beyond them a blue line of hills. Beyond them, said +Priscilla to herself, freedom. She sat in her white dress at a table +in one of the deep windows, her head on its long slender neck, where +the little rings of red-gold hair curled so prettily, bent over the +drawing-board, her voice murmuring ceaselessly, for time was short and +she had a great many things to say. At her side sat Fritzing, +listening and answering. Far away in the coolest, shadiest corner of +the room slumbered the Countess. She was lulled by the murmured talk +as sweetly as by the drone of the bee. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness receives many criticisms and much advice on +the subject of drawing from the Herr Geheimrath?" she said one day, +after a lesson during which she had been drowsily aware of much talk. + +"The Herr Geheimrath is most conscientious," said Priscilla in the +stately, it-has-nothing-to-do-with-you sort of tone she found most +effectual with the Countess; but she added a request under her breath +that the _lieber Gott_ might forgive her, for she knew she had told a +fib. + +Indeed, the last thing that Fritzing was at this convulsed period of +his life was what his master would have called conscientious. Was he +not encouraging the strangest, wickedest, wildest ideas in the +Princess? Strange and wicked and wild that is from the grand ducal +point of view, for to Priscilla they seemed all sweetness and light. +Fritzing had a perfect horror of the Grand Duke. He was everything +that Fritzing, lean man of learning, most detested. The pleasantest +fashion of describing the Grand Duke will be simply to say that he was +in all things, both of mind and body, the exact opposite of Fritzing. +Fritzing was a man who spent his time ignoring his body and digging +away at his mind. You know the bony aspect of such men. Hardly ever is +there much flesh on them; and though they are often ugly enough, their +spirit blazes at you out of wonderful eyes. I call him old Fritzing, +for he was sixty. To me he seemed old; to Priscilla at twenty he +seemed coeval with pyramids and kindred hoarinesses; while to all +those persons who were sixty-one he did not seem old at all. Only two +things could have kept this restless soul chained to the service of +the Grand Duke, and those two things were the unique library and +Priscilla. For the rest, his life at Kunitz revolted him. He loathed +the etiquette and the fuss and the intrigues of the castle. He loathed +each separate lady-in-waiting, and every one of the male officials. He +loathed the vulgar abundance and inordinate length and frequency of +the meals, when down in the town he knew there were people a-hungered. +He loathed the lacqueys with a quite peculiar loathing, scowling at +them from under angry eyebrows as he passed from his apartment to the +library; yet such is the power of an independent and scornful spirit +that though they had heard all about Westphalia and the pig-days never +once had they, who made insolence their study, dared be rude to him. + +Priscilla wanted to run away. This, I believe, is considered an awful +thing to do even if you are only a housemaid or somebody's wife. If it +were not considered awful, placed by the world high up on its list of +Utter Unforgivablenesses, there is, I suppose, not a woman who would +not at some time or other have run. She might come back, but she would +surely have gone. So bad is it held to be that even a housemaid who +runs is unfailingly pursued by maledictions more or less definite +according to the education of those she has run from; and a wife who +runs is pursued by social ruin, it being taken for granted that she +did not run alone. I know at least two wives who did run alone. Far +from wanting yet another burden added to them by adding to their lives +yet another man, they were anxiously endeavouring to get as far as +might be from the man they had got already. The world, foul hag with +the downcast eyes and lascivious lips, could not believe it possible, +and was quick to draw its dark mantle of disgrace over their shrinking +heads. One of them, unable to bear this, asked her husband's pardon. +She was a weak spirit, and now lives prostrate days, crushed beneath +the unchanging horror of a husband's free forgiveness. The other took +a cottage and laughed at the world. Was she not happy at last, and +happy in the right way? I go to see her sometimes, and we eat the +cabbages she has grown herself. Strange how the disillusioned find +their peace in cabbages. + +Priscilla, then, wanted to run away. What is awful in a housemaid and +in anybody's wife became in her case stupendous. The spirit that could +resolve it, decide to do it without being dragged to it by such things +as love or passion, calmly looking the risks and losses in the face, +and daring everything to free itself, was, it must be conceded, at +least worthy of respect. Fritzing thought it worthy of adoration; the +divinest spirit that had ever burned within a woman. He did not +say so. On the contrary, he was frightened, and tried angrily, +passionately, to dissuade. Yet he knew that if she wavered he would +never forgive her; she would drop at once from her high estate into +those depths in his opinion where the dull average of both sexes +sprawled for ever in indiscriminate heaps. Priscilla never dreamed of +wavering. She, most poetic of princesses, made apparently of ivory and +amber, outwardly so cool and serene and gentle, was inwardly on fire. +The fire, I should add, burnt with a very white flame. Nothing in +the shape of a young man had ever had the stoking of it. It was +that whitest of flames that leaps highest at the thought of +abstractions--freedom, beauty of life, simplicity, and the rest. This, +I would remark, is a most rare light to find burning in a woman's +breast. What she was, however, Fritzing had made her. True the +material had been extraordinarily good, and for ten years he had +done as he liked with it. Beginning with the simpler poems of +Wordsworth--he detested them, but they were better than soiling her +soul with Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans--those lessons in English +literature, meant by the authorities to be as innocuous to her as to +her sisters, had opened her eyes in a way nothing else could have done +to the width of the world and the littleness of Kunitz. With that good +teacher, as eager to lead as she to follow, she wandered down the +splendid walks of culture, met there the best people of all ages, +communed with mighty souls, heard how they talked, saw how they lived, +and none, not one, lived and talked as they lived and talked at +Kunitz. + +Imagine a girl influenced for ten years, ten of her softest most +wax-like years, by a Fritzing, taught to love freedom, to see the +beauty of plain things, of quietness, of the things appertaining to +the spirit, taught to see how ignoble it is, how intensely, hopelessly +vulgar to spend on one's own bodily comforts more than is exactly +necessary, taught to see a vision of happiness possible only to those +who look to their minds for their joys and not to their bodies, +imagine how such a girl, hearing these things every afternoon almost +of her life, would be likely to regard the palace mornings and +evenings, the ceremonies and publicity, all those hours spent as +though she were a celebrated picture, forced everlastingly to stand in +an attitude considered appropriate and smile while she was being +looked at. + +"No one," she said one day to Fritzing, "who hasn't himself been a +princess can have the least idea of what it is like." + +"Ma'am, it would be more correct to say herself in place of himself." + +"Well, they can't," said Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, to begin a sentence with the singular and continue it with the +plural is an infraction of all known rules." + +"But the sentiments, Fritzi--what do you think of the sentiments?" + +"Alas, ma'am, they too are an infraction of rules." + +"What is not in this place, I should like to know?" sighed Priscilla, +her chin on her hand, her eyes on that distant line of hills beyond +which, she told herself, lay freedom. + +She had long ago left off saying it only to herself. I think she must +have been about eighteen when she took to saying it aloud to Fritzing. +At first, before he realized to what extent she was sick for freedom, +he had painted in glowing colours the delights that lay on the other +side of the hills, or for that matter on this side of them if you were +alone and not a princess. Especially had he dwelt on the glories of +life in England, glories attainable indeed only by the obscure such as +he himself had been, and for ever impossible to those whom Fate +obliges to travel in state carriages and special trains. Then he had +come to scent danger and had grown wary; trying to put her off with +generalities, such as the inability of human beings to fly from their +own selves, and irrelevancies such as the amount of poverty and +wretchedness to be observed in the east of London; refusing to discuss +France, which she was always getting to as the first step towards +England, except in as far as it was a rebellious country that didn't +like kings; pointing out with no little temper that she had already +seen England; and finishing by inquiring very snappily when her Grand +Ducal Highness intended to go on with her drawing. + +Now what Priscilla had seen of England had been the insides of +Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; of all insides surely the most +august. To and from these she had been conveyed in closed carriages +and royal trains, and there was so close a family likeness between +them and Kunitz that to her extreme discomfort she had felt herself +completely at home. Even the presence of the Countess Disthal had not +been wanting. She therefore regarded this as not seeing England at +all, and said so. Fritzing remarked tartly that it was a way of seeing +it most English people would envy her; and she was so unable to +believe him that she said Nonsense. + +But lately her desires had taken definite shape so rapidly that he had +come to dread the very word hill and turn cold at the name of England. +He was being torn in different directions; for he was, you see, still +trying to do what other people had decided was his duty, and till a +man gives up doing that he will certainly be torn. How great would be +the temptation to pause here and consider the mangled state of such a +man, the wounds and weakness he will suffer from, and how his soul +will have to limp through life, if it were not that I must get on with +Priscilla. + +One day, after many weeks of edging nearer to it, of going all round +it yet never quite touching it, she took a deep breath and told him +she had determined to run away. She added an order that he was to help +her. With her most grand ducal air she merely informed, ordered, and +forbade. What she forbade, of course, was the betrayal of her plans. +"You may choose," she said, "between the Grand Duke and myself. If you +tell him, I have done with you for ever." + +Of course he chose Priscilla. + +His agonies now were very great. Those last lacerations of conscience +were terrific. Then, after nights spent striding, a sudden calm fell +upon him. At length he could feel what he had always seen, that there +could not be two duties for a man, that no man can serve two masters, +that a man's one clear duty is to be in the possession of his soul and +live the life it approves: in other and shorter words, instead of +leading Priscilla, Priscilla was now leading him. + +She did more than lead him; she drove him. The soul he had so +carefully tended and helped to grow was now grown stronger than his +own; for there was added to its natural strength the tremendous daring +of absolute inexperience. What can be more inexperienced than a +carefully guarded young princess? Priscilla's ignorance of the outside +world was pathetic. He groaned over her plans--for it was she who +planned and he who listened--and yet he loved them. She was a divine +woman, he said to himself; the sweetest and noblest, he was certain, +that the world would ever see. + +Her plans were these: + +First, that having had twenty-one years of life at the top of the +social ladder she was now going to get down and spend the next +twenty-one at the bottom of it. (Here she gave her reasons, and I will +not stop to describe Fritzing's writhings as his own past teachings +grinned at him through every word she said.) + +Secondly, that the only way to get to the bottom being to run away +from Kunitz, she was going to run. + +Thirdly, that the best and nicest place for living at the bottom would +be England. (Here she explained her conviction that beautiful things +grow quite naturally round the bottom of ladders that cannot easily +reach the top; flowers of self-sacrifice and love, of temperance, +charity, godliness--delicate things, with roots that find their +nourishment in common soil. You could not, said Priscilla, expect soil +at the top of ladders, could you? And as she felt that she too had +roots full of potentialities, she must take them down to where their +natural sustenance lay waiting.) + +Fourthly, they were to live somewhere in the country in England, in +the humblest way. + +Fifthly, she was to be his daughter. + +"Daughter?" cried Fritzing, bounding in his chair. "Your Grand Ducal +Highness forgets I have friends in England, every one of whom is aware +that I never had a wife." + +"Niece, then," said Priscilla. + +He gazed at her in silence, trying to imagine her his niece. He had +two sisters, and they had stopped exactly at the point they were at +when they helped him, barefoot, to watch Westphalian pigs. I do not +mean that they had not ultimately left the little farm, gone into +stockings, and married. It is their minds I am thinking of, and these +had never budged. They were like their father, a doomed dullard; while +Fritzing's mother, whom he resembled, had been a rather extraordinary +woman in a rough and barbarous way. He found himself wholly unable to +imagine either of his sisters the mother of this exquisite young lady. + +These, then, baldly, were Priscilla's plans. The carrying of them out +was left, she informed him, altogether to Fritzing. After having spent +several anxious days, she told him, considering whether she ought to +dye her hair black in order to escape recognition, or stay her own +colour but disguise herself as a man and buy a golden beard, she had +decided that these were questions Fritzing would settle better than +she could. "I'd dye my hair at once," she said, "but what about my +wretched eyelashes? Can one dye eyelashes?" + +Fritzing thought not, and anyhow was decidedly of opinion that her +eyelashes should not be tampered with; I think I have said that they +were very lovely. He also entirely discouraged the idea of dressing as +a man. "Your Grand Ducal Highness would only look like an extremely +conspicuous boy," he assured her. + +"I could wear a beard," said Priscilla. + +But Fritzing was absolutely opposed to the beard. + +As for the money part, she never thought of it. Money was a thing she +never did think about. It also, then, was to be Fritzing's business. +Possibly things might have gone on much longer as they were, with a +great deal of planning and talking, and no doing, if an exceedingly +desirable prince had not signified his intention of marrying +Priscilla. This had been done before by quite a number of princes. +They had, that is, not signified, but implored. On their knees would +they have implored if their knees could have helped them. They were +however all poor, and Priscilla and her sisters were rich; and how +foolish, said the Grand Duke, to marry poor men unless you are poor +yourself. The Grand Duke, therefore, took these young men aside and +crushed them, while Priscilla, indifferent, went on with her drawing. +But now came this one who was so eminently desirable that he had no +need to do more than merely signify. There had been much trouble and a +great deal of delay in finding him a wife, for he had insisted on +having a princess who should be both pretty and not his cousin. Europe +did not seem to contain such a thing. Everybody was his cousin, except +two or three young women whom he was rude enough to call ugly. The +Kunitz princesses had been considered in their turn and set aside, for +they too were cousins; and it seemed as if one of the most splendid +thrones in Europe would either have to go queen-less or be sat upon by +somebody plain, when fate brought the Prince to a great public +ceremony in Kunitz, and he saw Priscilla and fell so violently in love +with her that if she had been fifty times his cousin he would still +have married her. + +That same evening he signified his intention to the delighted Grand +Duke, who immediately fell to an irrelevant praising of God. + +"Bosh," said the Prince, in the nearest equivalent his mother-tongue +provided. + +This was very bad. Not, I mean, that the Prince should have said Bosh, +for he was so great that there was not a Grand Duke in Europe to whom +he might not have said it if he wanted to; but that Priscilla should +have been in imminent danger of marriage. Among Fritzing's many +preachings there had been one, often repeated in the strongest +possible language, that of all existing contemptibilities the very +most contemptible was for a woman to marry any one she did not love; +and the peroration, also extremely forcible, had been an announcement +that the prince did not exist who was fit to tie her shoestrings. This +Priscilla took to be an exaggeration, for she had no very great notion +of her shoestrings; but she did agree with the rest. The subject +however was an indifferent one, her father never yet having asked her +to marry anybody; and so long as he did not do so she need not, she +thought, waste time thinking about it. Now the peril was upon her, +suddenly, most unexpectedly, very menacingly. She knew there was no +hope from the moment she saw her father's face quite distorted by +delight. He took her hand and kissed it. To him she was already a +queen. As usual she gave him the impression of behaving exactly as he +could have wished. She certainly said very little, for she had long +ago learned the art of being silent; but her very silences were +somehow exquisite, and the Grand Duke thought her perfect. She gave +him to understand almost without words that it was a great surprise, +an immense honour, a huge compliment, but so sudden that she would be +grateful to both himself and the Prince if nothing more need be said +about it for a week or two--nothing, at least, till formal +negotiations had been opened. "I saw him yesterday for the first +time," she pleaded, "so naturally I am rather overwhelmed." + +Privately she had thought, his eyes, which he had never taken off her, +kind and pleasant; and if she had known of his having said Bosh who +knows but that he might have had a chance? As it was, the moment she +was alone she sent flying for Fritzing. "What," she said, "do you say +to my marrying this man?" + +"If you do, ma'am," said Fritzing, and his face seemed one blaze of +white conviction, "you will undoubtedly be eternally lost." + + + + +II + + +They fled on bicycles in the dusk. The goddess Good Luck, who seems to +have a predilection for sinners, helped them in a hundred ways. +Without her they would certainly not have got far, for both were very +ignorant of the art of running away. Once flight was decided on +Fritzing planned elaborately and feverishly, got things thought out +and arranged as well as he, poor harassed man, possibly could. But +what in this law-bound world can sinners do without the help of Luck? +She, amused and smiling dame, walked into the castle and smote the +Countess Disthal with influenza, crushing her down helpless into her +bed, and holding her there for days by the throat. While one hand was +doing this, with the other she gaily swept the Grand Duke into East +Prussia, a terrific distance, whither, all unaware of how he was being +trifled with, he thought he was being swept by an irresistible desire +to go, before the business of Priscilla's public betrothal should +begin, and shoot the roebucks of a friend. + +The Countess was thrust into her bed at noon of a Monday in October. +At three the Grand Duke started for East Prussia, incognito in a +motor--you know the difficulty news has in reaching persons in +motors. At four one of Priscilla's maids, an obscure damsel who had +been at the mercy of the others and was chosen because she hated them, +tripped out of the castle with shining eyes and pockets heavy with +bribes, and caused herself to be whisked away by the afternoon express +to Cologne. At six, just as the castle guard was being relieved, two +persons led their bicycles through the archway and down across the +bridge. It was dark, and nobody recognized them. Fritzing was got up +sportingly, almost waggishly--heaven knows his soul was not feeling +waggish--as differently as possible from his usual sober clothes. +Somehow he reminded Priscilla of a circus, and she found it extremely +hard not to laugh. On his head he had a cap with ear-pieces that hid +his grey hair; round his neck a gaudy handkerchief muffled well about +his face; immense goggles cloaked the familiar overhanging eyebrows +and deep-set eyes, goggles curiously at variance with the dapper +briskness of his gaitered legs. The Princess was in ordinary blue +serge, short and rather shabby, it having been subjected for hours +daily during the past week to rough treatment by the maid now +travelling to Cologne. As for her face and hair, they were completely +hidden in the swathings of a motor-veil. + +The sentinels stared rather as these two figures pushed their bicycles +through the gates, and undoubtedly did for some time afterwards wonder +who they could have been. The same thing happened down below on the +bridge; but once over that and in the town all they had to do was to +ride straight ahead. They were going to bicycle fifteen miles to Ruehl, +a small town with a railway station on the main line between Kunitz +and Cologne. Express trains do not stop at Ruehl, but there was a slow +train at eight which would get them to Gerstein, the capital of the +next duchy, by midnight. Here they would change into the Cologne +express; here they would join the bribed maid; here luggage had been +sent by Fritzing,--a neat bag for himself, and a neat box for his +niece. The neat box was filled with neat garments suggested to him by +the young lady in the shop in Gerstein where he had been two days +before to buy them. She told him of many other articles which, she +said, no lady's wardrobe could be considered complete without; and the +distracted man, fearing the whole shop would presently be put into +trunks and sent to the station to meet them, had ended by flinging +down two notes for a hundred marks each and bidding her keep strictly +within that limit. The young lady became very scornful. She told him +that she had never heard of any one being clothed from head to foot +inside and out, even to brushes, soap, and an umbrella, for two +hundred marks. Fritzing, in dread of conspicuous masses of luggage, +yet staggered by the girl's conviction, pulled out a third hundred +mark note, but added words in his extremity of so strong and final a +nature, that she, quailing, did keep within this limit, and the box +was packed. Thus Priscilla's outfit cost almost exactly fifteen +pounds. It will readily be imagined that it was neat. + +Painfully the two fugitives rode through the cobbled streets of +Kunitz. Priscilla was very shaky on a bicycle, and so was Fritzing. +Some years before this, when it had been the fashion, she had bicycled +every day in the grand ducal park on the other side of the town. Then, +tired of it, she had given it up; and now for the last week or two, +ever since Fritzing had told her that if they fled it would have to be +on bicycles, she had pretended a renewed passion for it, riding every +day round and round a circle of which the chilled and astonished +Countess Disthal, whose duty it was to stand and watch, had been the +disgusted central point. But the cobbles of Kunitz are very different +from those smooth places in the park. All who bicycle round Kunitz +know them as trying to the most skilful. Naturally, then, the +fugitives advanced very slowly, Fritzing's heart in his mouth each +time they passed a brightly-lit shop or a person who looked at them. +Conceive how nearly this poor heart must have jumped right out of his +mouth, leaving him dead, when a policeman who had been watching them +strode suddenly into the middle of the street, put up his hand, and +said, "Halt." + +Fritzing, unstrung man, received a shock so awful that he obeyed by +falling off. Priscilla, wholly unused to being told to halt and +absorbed by the difficulties of the way, did not grasp that the order +was meant for her and rode painfully on. Seeing this, the policeman +very gallantly removed her from her bicycle by putting his arms round +her and lifting her off. He set her quite gently on her feet, and was +altogether a charming policeman, as unlike those grim and ghastly eyes +of the law that glare up and down the streets of, say, Berlin, as it +is possible to imagine. + +But Priscilla was perfectly molten with rage, insulted as she had +never been in her life. "How dare you--how dare you," she stammered, +suffocating; and forgetting everything but an overwhelming desire to +box the giant's ears she had actually raised her hand to do it, which +would of course have been the ruin of her plan and the end of my tale, +when Fritzing, recovering his presence of mind, cried out in tones of +unmistakable agony, "Niece, be calm." + +She calmed at once to a calm of frozen horror. + +"Now, sir," said Fritzing, assuming an air of brisk bravery and +guiltlessness, "what can we do for you?" + +"Light your lamps," said the policeman, laconically. + +They did; or rather Fritzing did, while Priscilla stood passive. + +"I too have a niece," said the policeman, watching Fritzing at work; +"but I light no lamps for her. One should not wait on one's niece. +One's niece should wait on one." + +Fritzing did not answer. He finished lighting the lamps, and then +held Priscilla's bicycle and started her. + +"I never did that for my niece," said the policeman. + +"Confound your niece, sir," was on the tip of Fritzing's tongue; but +he gulped it down, and remarking instead as pleasantly as he could +that being an uncle did not necessarily prevent your being a +gentleman, picked up his bicycle and followed Priscilla. + +The policeman shook his head as they disappeared round the corner. +"One does not light lamps for one's niece," he repeated to himself. +"It's against nature. Consequently, though the peppery Fraeulein may +well be somebody's niece she is not his." + +"Oh," murmured Priscilla, after they had ridden some way without +speaking, "I'm deteriorating already. For the first time in my life +I've wanted to box people's ears." + +"The provocation was great, ma'am," said Fritzing, himself shattered +by the spectacle of his Princess being lifted about by a policeman. + +"Do you think--" Priscilla hesitated, and looked at him. Her bicycle +immediately hesitated too, and swerving across the road taught her it +would have nothing looked at except its handles. "Do you think," she +went on, after she had got herself straight again, "that the way I'm +going to live now will make me want to do it often?" + +"Heaven forbid, ma'am. You are now going to live a most noble +life--the only fitting life for the thoughtful and the earnest. It +will be, once you are settled, far more sheltered from contact with +that which stirs ignoble impulses than anything your Grand Ducal +Highness has hitherto known." + +"If you mean policemen by things that stir ignoble impulses," said +Priscilla, "I was sheltered enough from them before. Why, I never +spoke to one. Much less"--she shuddered--"much less ever touched one." + +"Ma'am, you do not repent?" + +"Heavens, no," said Priscilla, pressing onward. + +Outside Ruehl, about a hundred yards before its houses begin, there is +a pond by the wayside. Into this, after waiting a moment peering up +and down the dark road to see whether anybody was looking, Fritzing +hurled the bicycles. He knew the pond was deep, for he had studied it +the day he bought Priscilla's outfit; and the two bicycles one after +the other were hurled remorsely into the middle of it, disappearing +each in its turn with a tremendous splash and gurgle. Then they walked +on quickly towards the railway station, infinitely relieved to be on +their own feet again, and between them, all unsuspected, walked the +radiant One with the smiling eyes, she who was half-minded to see this +game through, giving the players just so many frights as would keep +her amused, the fickle, laughing goddess Good Luck. + +They caught the train neatly at Ruehl. They only had to wait about the +station for ten minutes before it came in. Hardly any one was there, +and nobody took the least notice of them. Fritzing, after a careful +look round to see if it contained people he knew, put the Princess +into a second-class carriage labelled _Frauen_, and then respectfully +withdrew to another part of the train. He had decided that +second-class was safest. People in that country nearly always travel +second-class, especially women,--at all times in such matters more +economical than men; and a woman by herself in a first-class carriage +would have been an object of surmise and curiosity at every station. +Therefore Priscilla was put into the carriage labelled _Frauen_, and +found herself for the first time in her life alone with what she had +hitherto only heard alluded to vaguely as the public. + +She sat down in a corner with an odd feeling of surprise at being +included in the category _Frauen_, and giving a swift timid glance +through her veil at the public confronting her was relieved to find it +consisted only of a comfortable mother and her child. + +I know not why the adjective comfortable should so invariably be +descriptive of mothers in Germany. In England and France though you +may be a mother, you yet, I believe, may be so without being +comfortable. In Germany, somehow, you can't. Perhaps it is the +climate; perhaps it is the food; perhaps it is simply want of soul, or +that your soul does not burn with a fire sufficiently consuming. +Anyhow it is so. This mother had all the good-nature that goes with +amplitude. Being engaged in feeding her child with _belegte +Broedchen_--that immensely satisfying form of sandwich--she at once +offered Priscilla one. + +"No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking into her corner. + +"Do take one, Fraeulein," said the mother, persuasively. + +"No thank you," said Priscilla, shrinking. + +"On a journey it passes the time. Even if one is not hungry, thank God +one can always eat. Do take one." + +"No thank you," said Priscilla. + +"Why does she wear that black thing over her face?" inquired the +child. "Is she a witch?" + +"Silence, silence, little worthless one," cried the mother, +delightedly stroking his face with half a _Broedchen_. "You see he is +clever, Fraeulein. He resembles his dear father as one egg does +another." + +"Does he?" said Priscilla, immediately conceiving a prejudice against +the father. + +"Why don't she take that black thing off?" said the child. + +"Hush, hush, small impudence. The Fraeulein will take it off in a +minute. The Fraeulein has only just got in." + +"Mutti, is she a witch? Mutti, Mutti, is she a witch, Mutti?" + +The child, his eyes fixed anxiously on Priscilla's swathed head, began +to whimper. + +"That child should be in bed," said Priscilla, with a severity born +of her anxiety lest, to calm him, humanity should force her to put up +her veil. "Persons who are as intelligent as that should never be in +trains at night. Their brains cannot bear it. Would he not be happier +if he lay down and went to sleep?" + +"Yes, yes; that is what I have been telling him ever since we left +Kunitz"--Priscilla shivered--"but he will not go. Dost thou hear what +the Fraeulein says, Hans-Joachim?" + +"Why don't she take that black thing off?" whimpered the child. + +But how could the poor Princess, however anxious to be kind, take off +her veil and show her well-known face to this probable inhabitant of +Kunitz? + +"Do take it off, Fraeulein," begged the mother, seeing she made no +preparations to do so. "When he gets ideas into his head there is +never peace till he has what he wants. He does remind me so much of +his father." + +"Did you ever," said Priscilla, temporizing, "try him with a +little--just a little slap? Only a little one," she added hastily, for +the mother looked at her oddly, "only as a sort of counter-irritant. +And it needn't be really hard, you know--" + +"_Ach_, she's a witch--Mutti, she's a witch!" shrieked the child, +flinging his face, butter and all, at these portentous words, into his +mother's lap. + +"There, there, poor tiny one," soothed the mother, with an indignant +side-glance at Priscilla. "Poor tiny man, no one shall slap thee. The +Fraeulein does not allude to thee, little son. The Fraeulein is thinking +of bad children such as the sons of Schultz and thy cousin Meyer. +Fraeulein, if you do not remove your veil I fear he will have +convulsions." + +"Oh," said the unhappy Priscilla, getting as far into her corner as +she could, "I'm so sorry--but I--but I really can't." + +"She's a witch, Mutti!" roared the child, "I tell it to thee +again--therefore is she so black, and must not show her face!" + +"Hush, hush, shut thy little eyes," soothed the mother, putting her +hand over them. To Priscilla she said, with an obvious dawning of +distrust, "But Fraeulein, what reason can you have for hiding +yourself?" + +"Hiding myself?" echoed Priscilla, now very unhappy indeed, "I'm not +hiding myself. I've got--I've got--I'm afraid I've got a--an affection +of the skin. That's why I wear a veil." + +"_Ach_, poor Fraeulein," said the mother, brightening at once into +lively interest. "Hans-Joachim, sleep," she added sharply to her son, +who tried to raise his head to interrupt with fresh doubts a +conversation grown thrilling. "That is indeed a misfortune. It is a +rash?" + +"Oh, it's dreadful," said Priscilla, faintly. + +"_Ach_, poor Fraeulein. When one is married, rashes no longer matter. +One's husband has to love one in spite of rashes. But for a Fraeulein +every spot is of importance. There is a young lady of my acquaintance +whose life-happiness was shipwrecked only by spots. She came out in +them at the wrong moment." + +"Did she?" murmured Priscilla. + +"You are going to a doctor?" + +"Yes--that is, no--I've been." + +"Ah, you have been to Kunitz to Dr. Kraus?" + +"Y--es. I've been there." + +"What does he say?" + +"That I must always wear a veil." + +"Because it looks so bad?" + +"I suppose so." + +There was a silence. Priscilla lay back in her corner exhausted, and +shut her eyes. The mother stared fixedly at her, one hand mechanically +stroking Hans-Joachim, the other holding him down. + +"When I was a girl," said the mother, so suddenly that Priscilla +started, "I had a good deal of trouble with my skin. Therefore my +experience on the subject is great. Show me your face, Fraeulein--I +might be able to tell you what to do to cure it." + +"Oh, on no account--on no account whatever," cried Priscilla, sitting +up very straight and speaking with extraordinary emphasis. "I couldn't +think of it--I really positively couldn't." + +"But my dear Fraeulein, why mind a woman seeing it?" + +"But what do you want to see it for?" + +"I wish to help you." + +"I don't want to be helped. I'll show it to nobody--to nobody at all. +It's much too--too dreadful." + +"Well, well, do not be agitated. Girls, I know, are vain. If any one +can help you it will be Dr. Kraus. He is an excellent physician, is he +not?" + +"Yes," said Priscilla, dropping back into her corner. + +"The Grand Duke is a great admirer of his. He is going to ennoble +him." + +"Really?" + +"They say--no doubt it is gossip, but still, you know, he is a very +handsome man--that the Countess von Disthal will marry him." + +"Gracious!" cried Priscilla, startled, "what, whether he wants to or +not?" + +"No doubt he will want to. It would be a brilliant match for him." + +"But she's at least a hundred. Why, she looks like his mother. And he +is a person of no birth at all." + +"Birth? He is of course not noble yet, but his family is excellent. +And since it is not possible to have as many ailments as she has and +still be alive, some at least must be feigned. Why, then, should she +feign if it is not in order to see the doctor? They were saying in +Kunitz that she sent for him this very day." + +"Yes, she did. But she's really ill this time. I'm afraid the poor +thing caught cold watching--dear me, only see how sweetly your little +boy sleeps. You should make Levallier paint him in that position." + +"Ah, he looks truly lovely, does he not. Exactly thus does his dear +father look when asleep. Sometimes I cannot sleep myself for joy over +the splendid picture. What is the matter with the Countess Disthal? +Did Dr. Kraus tell you?" + +"No, no. I--I heard something--a rumour." + +"Ah, something feigned again, no doubt. Well, it will be a great match +for him. You know she is lady-in-waiting to the Princess Priscilla, +the one who is so popular and has such red hair? The Countess has an +easy life. The other two Princesses have given their ladies a world of +trouble, but Priscilla--oh, she is a model. Kunitz is indeed proud of +her. They say in all things she is exactly what a Princess should be, +and may be trusted never to say or do anything not entirely fitting +her station. You have seen her? She often drives through the town, and +then the people all run and look as pleased as if it were a holiday. +We in Gerstein are quite jealous. Our duchy has no such princess to +show. Do you think she is so beautiful? I have often seen her, and I +do not think she is. People exaggerate everything so about a princess. +My husband does not admire her at all. He says it is not what he calls +classic. Her hair, for instance--but that one might get over. And +people who are really beautiful always have dark eyelashes. Then her +nose--my husband often laughs, and says her nose--" + +"Oh," said Priscilla, faintly, "I've got a dreadful headache. I think +I'll try to sleep a little if you would not mind not talking." + +"Yes, that hot thing round your face must be very trying. Now if you +were not so vain--what does a rash matter when only women are present? +Well, well, I will not tease you. Do you know many of the Kunitzers? +Do you know the Levisohns well?" + +"Oh," sighed Priscilla, laying her distracted head against the +cushions and shutting her eyes, "who are they?" + +"Who are they? Who are the Levisohns? But dearest Fraeulein if you know +Kunitz you must know the Levisohns. Why, the Levisohns _are_ Kunitz. +They are more important far than the Grand Duke. They lend to it, and +they lead it. You must know their magnificent shop at the corner of +the Heiligengeiststrasse? Perhaps," she added, with a glance at the +Princess's shabby serge gown, "you have not met them socially, but you +must know the magnificent shop. We visit." + +"Do you?" said Priscilla wearily, as the mother paused. + +"And you know her story, of course?" + +"Oh, oh," sighed Priscilla, turning her head from side to side on the +cushions, vainly seeking peace. + +"It is hardly a story for the ears of Fraeuleins." + +"Please don't tell it, then." + +"No, I will not. It is not for Fraeuleins. But one still sees she must +have been a handsome woman. And he, Levisohn, was clever enough to see +his way to Court favour. The Grand Duke--" + +"I don't think I care to hear about the Levisohns," said Priscilla, +sitting up suddenly and speaking with great distinctness. "Gossip is a +thing I detest. None shall be talked in my presence." + +"Hoity-toity," said the astonished mother; and it will easily be +believed that no one had ever said hoity-toity to Priscilla before. + +She turned scarlet under her veil. For a moment she sat with flashing +eyes, and the hand lying in her lap twitched convulsively. Is it +possible she was thinking of giving the comfortable mother that +admonition which the policeman had so narrowly escaped? I know not +what would have happened if the merry goddess, seeing things rushing +to this dreadful climax, had not stopped the train in the nick of time +at a wayside station and caused a breathless lady, pushing parcels +before her, to clamber in. The mother's surprised stare was of +necessity diverted to the new-comer. A parcel thrust into Priscilla's +hands brought her back of necessity to her senses. + +"_Danke, Danke_," cried the breathless lady, though no help had been +offered; and hoisting herself in she wished both her fellow-passengers +a boisterous good evening. The lady, evidently an able person, +arranged her parcels swiftly and neatly in the racks, pulled up the +windows, slammed the ventilators, stripped off her cloak, flung back +her veil, and sitting down with a sigh of vast depth and length stared +steadily for five minutes without wavering at the other two. At the +end of that time she and the mother began, as with a common impulse, +to talk. And at the end of five minutes more they had told each other +where they were going, where they had been, what their husbands +were, the number, age, and girth of their children, and all the +adjectives that might most conveniently be used to describe their +servants. The adjectives, very lurid ones, took some time. +Priscilla shut her eyes while they were going on, thankful to be +left quiet, feeling unstrung to the last degree; and she gradually +dropped into an uneasy doze whose chief feature was the distressful +repetition, like hammer-strokes on her brain, of the words, "You're +deteriorating--deteriorating--deteriorating." + +"_Lieber Gott_," she whispered at last, folding her hands in her lap, +"don't let me deteriorate too much. Please keep me from wanting to box +people's ears. _Lieber Gott_, it's so barbarous of me. I never used to +want to. Please stop me wanting to now." + +And after that she dropped off quite, into a placid little slumber. + + + + +III + + +They crossed from Calais in the turbine. Their quickest route would +have been Cologne-Ostend-Dover, and every moment being infinitely +valuable Fritzing wanted to go that way, but Priscilla was determined +to try whether turbines are really as steady as she had heard they +were. The turbine was so steady that no one could have told it was +doing anything but being quiescent on solid earth; but that was +because, as Fritzing explained, there was a dead calm, and in dead +calms--briefly, he explained the conduct of boats in dead calms with +much patience, and Priscilla remarked when he had done that they might +then, after all, have crossed by Ostend. + +"We might, ma'am, and we would be in London now if we had," said +Fritzing. + +They had, indeed, lost several hours and some money coming by Calais, +and Fritzing had lost his temper as well. + +Fritzing, you remember, was sixty, and had not closed his eyes all +night. He had not, so far as that goes, closed his eyes for nights +without number; and what his soul had gone through during those nights +was more than any soul no longer in its first youth should be called +upon to bear. In the train between Cologne and Calais he had even, +writhing in his seat, cursed every single one of his long-cherished +ideals, called them fools, shaken his fist at them; a dreadful state +of mind to get to. He did not reveal anything of this to his dear +Princess, and talking to her on the turbine wore the clear brow of the +philosopher; but he did feel that he was a much-tried man, and he +behaved to the maid Annalise exactly in the way much-tried men do +behave when they have found some one they think defenceless. +Unfortunately Annalise was only apparently defenceless. Fritzing would +have known it if he had been more used to running away. He did, in his +calmer moments, dimly opine it. The plain fact was that Annalise held +both him and Priscilla in the hollow of her hand. + +At this point she had not realized it. She still was awestruck by her +promotion, and looked so small and black and uncertain among her new +surroundings on the turbine that if not clever of him it was at least +natural that he should address her in a manner familiar to those who +have had to do with men when they are being tried. He behaved, that +is, to Annalise, as he had behaved to his ideals in the night; he +shook his fist at her, and called her fool. It was because she had +broken the Princess's umbrella. This was the new umbrella bought by +him with so much trouble in Gerstein two days before, and therefore +presumably of a sufficient toughness to stand any reasonable treatment +for a time. There was a mist and a drizzle at Calais, and Priscilla, +refusing to go under shelter, had sent Fritzing to fetch her umbrella, +and when he demanded it of Annalise, she offered it him in two pieces. +This alone was enough to upset a wise man, because wise men are easily +upset; but Annalise declared besides that the umbrella had broken +itself. It probably had. What may not one expect of anything so cheap? +Fritzing, however, was maddened by this explanation, and wasted quite +a long time pointing out to her in passionate language that it was an +inanimate object, and that inanimate objects have no initiative and +never therefore break themselves. To which Annalise, with a stoutness +ominous as a revelation of character, replied by repeating her +declaration that the umbrella had certainly broken itself. Then it was +that he shook his fist at her and called her fool. So greatly was he +moved that, after walking away and thinking it over, he went to her a +second time and shook his fist at her and called her knave. + +I will not linger over this of the umbrella; it teems with lessons. + +While it was going on the Princess was being very happy. She was +sitting unnoticed in a deck-chair and feeling she was really off at +last into the Ideal. Some of us know the fascination of that feeling, +and all of us know the fascination of new things; and to be unnoticed +was for her of a most thrilling newness. Nobody looked at her. People +walked up and down the deck in front of her as though she were not +there. One hurried passenger actually tripped over her feet, and +passed on with the briefest apology. Everywhere she saw indifferent +faces, indifferent, oblivious faces. It was simply glorious. And she +had had no trials since leaving Gerstein. There Fritzing had removed +her beyond the range of the mother's eyes, grown at last extremely +cold and piercing; Annalise, all meek anxiety to please, had put her +to bed in the sleeping-car of the Brussels express; and in the morning +her joy had been childish at having a little tray with bad coffee on +it thrust in by a busy attendant, who slammed it down on the table and +hurried out without so much as glancing at her. How delicious that +was. The Princess laughed with delight and drank the coffee, grits and +all. Oh, the blessed freedom of being insignificant. It was as good, +she thought, as getting rid of your body altogether and going about an +invisible spirit. She sat on the deck of the apparently motionless +turbine and thought gleefully of past journeys, now for ever done +with; of the grand ducal train, of herself drooping inside it as +wearily as the inevitable bouquets drooping on the tables, of the +crowds of starers on every platform, of the bowing officials wherever +your eye chanced to turn. The Countess Disthal, of course, had been +always at her elbow, and when she had to go to the window and do the +gracious her anxiety lest she should bestow one smile too few had only +been surpassed by the Countess's anxiety lest she should bestow one +smile too many. Well, that was done with now; as much done with as a +nightmare, grisly staleness, is done with when you wake to a fair +spring morning and the smell of dew. And she had no fears. She was +sure, knowing him as she did, that when the Grand Duke found out she +had run away he would make no attempt to fetch her back, but would +simply draw a line through his remembrance of her, rub her out of his +mind, (his heart, she knew, would need no rubbing, because she had +never been in it,) and after the first fury was over, fury solely on +account of the scandal, he would be as he had been before, while +she--oh wonderful new life!--she would be born again to all the +charities. + +Now how can I, weak vessel whose only ballast is a cargo of +interrogations past which life swirls with a thunder of derisively +contradictory replies, pretend to say whether Priscilla ought to have +had conscience-qualms or not? Am I not deafened by the roar of +answers, all seemingly so right yet all so different, that the +simplest question brings? And would not the answering roar to anything +so complicated as a question about conscience-qualms deafen me for +ever? I shall leave the Princess, then, to run away from her home and +her parent if she chooses, and make no effort to whitewash any part of +her conduct that may seem black. I shall chronicle, and not comment. I +shall try to, that is, for comments are very dear to me. Indeed I see +I cannot move on even now till I have pointed out that though +Priscilla was getting as far as she could from the Grand Duke she was +also getting as near as she could to the possession of her soul; and +there are many persons who believe this to be a thing so precious that +it is absolutely the one thing worth living for. + +The crossing to Dover, then, was accomplished quite peacefully by +Priscilla. Not so, however, by Fritzing. He, tormented man, chief +target for the goddess's darts, spent his time holding on to the rail +along the turbine's side in order to steady himself; and as there was +a dead calm that day the reader will at once perceive that the tempest +must have been inside Fritzing himself. It was; and it had been raised +to hurricane pitch by some snatches of the talk of two Englishmen he +had heard as they paced up and down past where he was standing. + +The first time they passed, one was saying to the other, "I never +heard of anything so infamous." + +This ought not to have made Fritzing, a person of stainless life and +noble principles, start, but it did. He started; and he listened +anxiously for more. + +"Yes," said the other, who had a newspaper under his arm, "they +deserve about as bad as they'll--" + +He was out of ear-shot; but Fritzing mechanically finished the +sentence himself. Who had been infamous? And what were they going to +get? It was at this point that he laid hold of the handrail to steady +himself till the two men should pass again. + +"You can tell, of course, what steps our Government will take," was +the next snatch. + +"I shall be curious to see the attitude of the foreign papers," was +the next. + +"Anything more wanton I never heard of," was the next. + +"Of all the harmless, innocent creatures--" was the next. + +And the last snatch of all--for though they went on walking Fritzing +heard no more after it--was the brief and singular expression +"Devils." + +Devils? _What_ were they talking about? Devils? Was that, then, how +the public stigmatized blameless persons in search of peace? Devils? +What, himself and--no, never Priscilla. She was clearly the harmless +innocent creature, and he must be the other thing. But why plural? He +could only suppose that he and Annalise together formed a sulphurous +plural. He clung very hard to the rail. Who could have dreamed it +would get so quickly into the papers? Who could have dreamed the news +of it would call forth such blazing words? They would be confronted at +Dover by horrified authorities. His Princess was going to be put in a +most impossible position. What had he done? Heavens and earth, what +had he done? + +He clung to the rail, staring miserably over the side into the oily +water. Some of the passengers lingered to watch him, at first because +they thought he was going to be seasick with so little provocation +that it amounted to genius, and afterwards because they were sure he +must want to commit suicide. When they found that time passed and he +did neither, he became unpopular, and they went away and left him +altogether and contemptuously alone. + +"Fritzi, are you worried about anything?" asked Priscilla, coming to +where he still stood staring, although they had got to Dover. + +Worried! When all Europe was going to be about their ears? When he was +in the eyes of the world a criminal--an aider, abettor, lurer-away of +youth and impulsiveness? He loved the Princess so much that he cared +nothing for his own risks, but what about hers? In an agony of haste +he rushed to his ideals and principles for justification and comfort, +tumbling them over, searching feverishly among them. They had forsaken +him. They were so much lifeless rubbish. Nowhere in his mind could he +find a rag of either comfort or justification with which to stop up +his ears against the words of the two Englishmen and his eyes against +the dreadful sight he felt sure awaited them on the quay at Dover--the +sight of incensed authorities ready to pounce on him and drag him away +for ever from his Princess. + +Priscilla gazed at him in astonishment. He was taking no notice of +her, and was looking fearfully up and down the row of faces that were +watching the turbine's arrival. + +"Fritzi, if you are worried it must be because you've not slept," +said Priscilla, laying her hand with a stroking little movement on his +sleeve; for what but overwrought nerves could make him look so odd? It +was after all Fritzing who had behaved with the braveness of a lion +the night before in that matter of the policeman; and it was he who +had asked in stern tones of rebuke, when her courage seemed aflicker, +whether she repented. "You do not repent?" she asked, imitating that +sternness. + +"Ma'am--" he began in a low and dreadful voice, his eyes ceaselessly +ranging up and down the figures on the quay. + +"Sh--sh--Niece," interrupted Priscilla, smiling. + +He turned and looked at her as a man may look for the last time at the +thing in life that has been most dear to him, and said nothing. + + + + +IV + + +But nobody was waiting for them at Dover. Fritzing's agonies might all +have been spared. They passed quite unnoticed through the crowd of +idlers to the train, and putting Priscilla and her maid into it he +rushed at the nearest newspaper-boy, pouncing on him, tearing a +handful of his papers from him, and was devouring their contents +before the astonished boy had well finished his request that he should +hold hard. The boy, who had been brought up in the simple faith that +one should pay one's pennies first and read next, said a few things +under his breath about Germans--crude short things not worth +repeating--and jerking his thumb towards the intent Fritzing, winked +at a detective who was standing near. The detective did not need the +wink. His bland, abstracted eyes were already on Fritzing, and he was +making rapid mental notes of the goggles, the muffler, the cap pulled +down over the ears. Truly it is a great art, that of running away, and +needs incessant practice. + +And after all there was not a word about the Princess in the papers. +They were full, as the Englishmen on the turbine had been full, of +something the Russians, who at that time were always doing something, +had just done--something that had struck England from end to end into +a blaze of indignation and that has nothing to do with my story. +Fritzing dropped the papers on the platform, and had so little public +spirit that he groaned aloud with relief. + +"Shilling and a penny 'alfpenny, please, sir," said the newspaper-boy +glibly. "_Westminster Gazette_, sir, _Daily Mail_, _Sporting and +Dramatic_, one _Lady_, and two _Standards_." From which it will be +seen that Fritzing had seized his handful very much at random. + +He paid the boy without heeding his earnest suggestions that he should +try _Tit-Bits_, the _Saturday Review_, and _Mother_, to complete, said +the boy, in substance if not in words, his bird's-eye view over the +field of representative English journalism, and went back to the +Princess with a lighter heart than he had had for months. The +detective, apparently one of Nature's gentlemen, picked up the +scattered papers, and following Fritzing offered them him in the +politest way imaginable just as Priscilla was saying she wanted to see +what tea-baskets were like. + +"Sir," said the detective, taking off his hat, "I believe these are +yours." + +"Sir," said Fritzing, taking off his cap in his turn and bowing with +all the ceremony of foreigners, "I am much obliged to you." + +"Pray don't mention it, sir," said the detective, on whose brain the +three were in that instant photographed--the veiled Priscilla, the +maid sitting on the edge of the seat as though hardly daring to sit +at all, and Fritzing's fine head and mop of grey hair. + +Priscilla, as she caught his departing eye, bowed and smiled +graciously. He withdrew to a little distance, and fell into a +reverie: where had he seen just that mechanically gracious bow and +smile? They were very familiar to him. + +As the train slowly left the station he saw the lady in the veil once +more. She was alone with her maid, and was looking out of the window +at nothing in particular, and the station-master, who was watching the +train go, chanced to meet her glance. Again there was the same smile +and bow, quite mechanical, quite absent-minded, distinctly gracious. +The station-master stared in astonishment after the receding carriage. +The detective roused himself from his reverie sufficiently to step +forward and neatly swing himself into the guard's van: there being +nothing to do in Dover he thought he would go to London. + +I believe I have forgotten, in the heat of narration, to say that the +fugitives were bound for Somersetshire. Fritzing had been a great +walker in the days when he lived in England, and among other places +had walked about Somersetshire. It is a pleasant county; fruitful, +leafy, and mild. Down in the valleys myrtles and rhododendrons have +been known to flower all through the winter. Devonshire junkets and +Devonshire cider are made there with the same skill precisely as in +Devonshire; and the parts of it that lie round Exmoor are esteemed by +those who hunt. + +Fritzing quite well remembered certain villages buried among the +hills, miles from the nearest railway, and he also remembered the +farmhouses round about these villages where he had lodged. To one of +these he had caused a friend in London to write engaging rooms for +himself and his niece, and there he proposed to stay till they should +have found the cottage the Princess had set her heart on. + +This cottage, as far as he could gather from the descriptions she +gave him from time to time, was going to be rather difficult to +find. He feared also that it would be a very insect-ridden place, +and that their calm pursuits would often be interrupted by things +like earwigs. It was to be ancient, and much thatched and latticed +and rose-overgrown. It was, too, to be very small; the smallest of +labourers' cottages. Yet though so small and so ancient it was to +have several bathrooms--one for each of them, so he understood; +"For," said the Princess, "if Annalise hasn't a bathroom how can +she have a bath? And if she hasn't had a bath how can I let her +touch me?" + +"Perhaps," said Fritzing, bold in his ignorance of Annalise's real +nature, "she could wash at the pump. People do, I believe, in the +country. I remember there were always pumps." + +"But do pumps make you clean enough?" inquired the Princess, +doubtfully. + +"We can try her with one. I fancy, ma'am, it will be less difficult +to find a cottage that has only two bathrooms than one that has three. +And I know there are invariably pumps." + +Searching his memory he could recollect no bathrooms at all, but he +did not say so, and silently hoped the best. + +To the Somerset village of Symford and to the farm about a mile +outside it known as Baker's, no longer, however, belonging to Baker, +but rented by a Mr. Pearce, they journeyed down from Dover without a +break. Nothing alarming happened on the way. They were at Victoria by +five, and the Princess sat joyfully making the acquaintance of a +four-wheeler's inside for twenty minutes during which Fritzing and +Annalise got the luggage through the customs. Fritzing's goggles and +other accessories of flight inspired so much interest in the customs +that they could hardly bear to let him go and it seemed as if they +would never tire of feeling about in the harmless depths of +Priscilla's neat box. They had however ultimately to part from him, +for never was luggage more innocent; and rattling past Buckingham +Palace on the way to Paddington Priscilla blew it a cheerful kiss, +symbolic of a happiness too great to bear ill-will. Later on Windsor +Castle would have got one too, if it had not been so dark that she +could not see it. The detective, who felt himself oddly drawn towards +the trio, went down into Somersetshire by the same train as they did, +but parted from them at Ullerton, the station you get out at when you +go to Symford. He did not consider it necessary to go further; and +taking a bedroom at Ullerton in the same little hotel from which +Fritzing had ordered the conveyance that was to drive them their last +seven miles he went to bed, it being close on midnight, with Mr. +Pearce's address neatly written in his notebook. + +This, at present, is the last of the detective. I will leave him +sleeping with a smile on his face, and follow the dog-cart as it drove +along that beautiful road between wooded hills that joins Ullerton to +Symford, on its way to Baker's Farm. + +At the risk of exhausting Priscilla Fritzing had urged pushing on +without a stop, and Priscilla made no objection. This is how it came +about that the ostler attached to the Ullerton Arms found himself +driving to Symford in the middle of the night. He could not recollect +ever having done such a thing before, and the memory of it would be +quite unlikely to do anything but remain fixed in his mind till his +dying day. Fritzing was a curiously conspicuous fugitive. + +It was a clear and beautiful night, and the stars twinkled brightly +over the black tree-tops. Down in the narrow gorge through which the +road runs they could not feel the keen wind that was blowing up on +Exmoor. The waters of the Sym, whose windings they followed, gurgled +over their stones almost as quietly as in summer. There was a fresh +wet smell, consoling and delicious after the train, the smell of +country puddles and country mud and dank dead leaves that had been +rained upon all day. Fritzing sat with the Princess on the back seat +of the dog-cart, and busied himself keeping the rug well round her, +the while his soul was full of thankfulness that their journey should +after all have been so easy. He was weary in body, but very jubilant +in mind. The Princess was so weary in body that she had no mind at +all, and dozed and nodded and threatened to fall out, and would have +fallen out a dozen times but for Fritzing's watchfulness. As for +Annalise, who can guess what thoughts were hers while she was being +jogged along to Baker's? That they were dark I have not a doubt. No +one had told her this was to be a journey into the Ideal; no one had +told her anything but that she was promoted to travelling with the +Princess and that she would be well paid so long as she held her +tongue. She had never travelled before, yet there were some +circumstances of the journey that could not fail to strike the most +inexperienced. This midnight jogging in the dog-cart, for instance. It +was the second night spent out of bed, and all day long she had +expected every moment would end the journey, and the end, she had +naturally supposed, would be a palace. There would be a palace, and +warmth, and light, and food, and welcome, and honour, and appreciative +lacqueys with beautiful white silk calves--alas, Annalise's ideal, her +one ideal, was to be for ever where there were beautiful white silk +calves. The road between Ullerton and Symford conveyed to her mind no +assurance whatever of the near neighbourhood of such things; and as +for the dog-cart--"_Himmel_," said Annalise to herself, whenever she +thought of the dog-cart. + +Their journey ended at two in the morning. Almost exactly at that hour +they stopped at the garden gate of Baker's Farm, and a woman came out +with a lantern and helped them down and lighted them up the path to +the porch. The Princess, who could hardly make her eyes open +themselves, leaned on Fritzing's arm in a sort of confused dream, got +somehow up a little staircase that seemed extraordinarily steep and +curly, and was sound asleep in a knobbly bed before Annalise realized +she had done with her. Priscilla had forgotten all about the Ideal, +all about her eager aspirations. Sleep, dear Mother with the cool +hand, had smoothed them all away, the whole rubbish of those daylight +toys, and for the next twelve hours sat tenderly by her pillow, her +finger on her lips. + + + + +V + + +No better place than Symford can be imagined for those in search of a +spot, picturesque and with creepers, where they may spend quiet years +guiding their feet along the way of peace. It is one of the prettiest +of English villages. It does and has and is everything the ideal +village ought to. It nestles, for instance, in the folds of hills; it +is very small, and far away from other places; its cottages are old +and thatched; its little inn is the inn of a story-book, with a quaint +signboard and an apparently genial landlord; its church stands +beautifully on rising ground among ancient trees, besides being hoary; +its vicarage is so charming that to see it makes you long to marry a +vicar; its vicar is venerable, with an eye so mild that to catch it is +to receive a blessing; pleasant little children with happy morning +faces pick butter-cups and go a-nutting at the proper seasons and +curtsey to you as you pass; old women with clean caps and suitable +faces read their Bibles behind latticed windows; hearths are scrubbed +and snowy; appropriate kettles simmer on hobs; climbing roses and trim +gardens are abundant; and it has a lady bountiful of so untiring a +kindness that each of its female inhabitants gets a new flannel +petticoat every Christmas and nothing is asked of her in return but +that she shall, during the ensuing year, be warm and happy and good. +The same thing was asked, I believe, of the male inhabitants, who get +comforters, and also that they should drink seltzer-water whenever +their lower natures urged them to drink rum; but comforters are so +much smaller than petticoats that the men of Symford's sense of +justice rebelled, and since the only time they ever felt really warm +and happy and good was when they were drinking rum they decided that +on the whole it would be more in accordance with their benefactress's +wishes to go on doing it. + +Lady Shuttleworth, the lady from whom these comforters and petticoats +proceeded, was a just woman who required no more of others than she +required of herself, and who was busy and kind, and, I am sure happy +and good, on cold water. But then she did not like rum; and I suppose +there are few things quite so easy as not to drink rum if you don't +like it. She lived at Symford Hall, two miles away in another fold of +the hills, and managed the estate of her son who was a minor--at this +time on the very verge of ceasing to be one--with great precision and +skill. All the old cottages in Symford were his, and so were the farms +dotted about the hills. Any one, therefore, seeking a cottage would +have to address himself to the Shuttleworth agent, Mr. Dawson, who too +lived in a house so picturesque that merely to see it made you long +either to poison or to marry Mr. Dawson--preferably, I think, to +poison him. + +These facts, stripped of the redundances with which I have +garnished them, were told Fritzing on the day after his arrival +at Baker's Farm by Mrs. Pearce the younger, old Mr. Pearce's +daughter-in-law, a dreary woman with a rent in her apron, who +brought in the bacon for Fritzing's solitary breakfast and the chop +for his solitary luncheon. She also brought in a junket so liquid +that the innocent Fritzing told her politely that he always drank +his milk out of a glass when he did drink milk, but that, as he +never did drink milk, she need not trouble to bring him any. + +"Sir," said Mrs. Pearce in her slow sad voice, after a glance at his +face in search of sarcasm, "'tisn't milk. 'Tis a junket that hasn't +junked." + +"Indeed?" said Fritzing, bland because ignorant. + +Mrs. Pearce fidgeted a little, wrestling perhaps with her conscience, +before she added defiantly, "It wouldn't." + +"Indeed?" said Fritzing once more; and he looked at the junket through +his spectacles with that air of extreme and intelligent interest with +which persons who wish to please look at other people's babies. + +He was desirous of being on good terms with Symford, and had been very +pleasant all the morning to Mrs. Pearce. That mood in which, shaken +himself to his foundations by anxiety, he had shaken his fist to +Annalise, was gone as completely as yesterday's wet mist. The golden +sunshine of October lay beautifully among the gentle hills and seemed +to lie as well in Fritzing's heart. He had gone through so much for so +many weeks that merely to be free from worries for the moment filled +him with thankfulness. So may he feel who has lived through days of +bodily torture in that first hour when his pain has gone: beaten, +crushed, and cowed by suffering, he melts with gratitude because he is +being left alone, he gasps with a relief so utter that it is almost +abject praise of the Cruelty that has for a little loosened its hold. +In this abjectly thankful mood was Fritzing when he found his worst +agonies were done. What was to come after he really for the moment did +not care. It was sufficient to exist untormented and to let his soul +stretch itself in the privacy and peace of Baker's. He and his +Princess had made a great and noble effort towards the realization of +dreams that he felt were lofty, and the gods so far had been with +them. All that first morning in Symford he had an oddly restful, +unburdened feeling, as of having been born again and born aged +twenty-five; and those persons who used to be twenty-five themselves +will perhaps agree that this must have been rather nice. He did not +stir from the parlour lest the Princess should come down and want him, +and he spent the waiting hours getting information from Mrs. Pearce +and informing her mind in his turn with just that amount of knowledge +about himself and his niece that he wished Symford to possess. With +impressive earnestness he told her his name was Neumann, repeating it +three times, almost as if in defiance of contradiction; that his niece +was his deceased brother's child; that her Christian name--here he was +swept away by inspiration--was Maria-Theresa; that he had saved enough +as a teacher of German in London to retire into the country; and that +he was looking for a cottage in which to spend his few remaining +years. + +It all sounded very innocent. Mrs. Pearce listened with her head on +one side and with something of the air of a sparrow who doesn't feel +well. She complimented him sadly on the fluency of his English, and +told him with a sigh that in no cottage would he ever again find the +comforts with which Baker's was now surrounding him. + +Fritzing was surprised to hear her say so, for his impressions had +all been the other way. As far as he, inexperienced man, could +tell, Baker's was a singularly draughty and unscrubbed place. He +smelt that its fires smoked, he heard that its windows rattled, he +knew that its mattresses had lumps in them, and he saw that its +food was inextricably mixed up with objects of a black and gritty +nature. But her calm face and sorrowful assurance shook the +evidence of his senses, and gazing at her in silence over his +spectacles a feeling crept dimly across his brain that if the +future held many dealings with women like Mrs. Pearce he was going +to be very helpless. + +Priscilla appeared while he was gazing. She was dressed for going out +and came in buttoning her gloves, and I suppose it was a long time +since Baker's had seen anything quite so radiant in the way of nieces +within its dusty walls. She had on the clothes she had travelled in, +for a search among the garments bought by Fritzing had resulted in +nothing but a sitting on the side of the bed and laughing tears, so it +was clearly not the clothes that made her seem all of a sparkle with +lovely youth and blitheness. Kunitz would not have recognized its +ivory Princess in this bright being. She was the statue come to life, +the cool perfection kissed by expectation into a bewitching living +woman. I doubt whether Fritzing had ever noticed her beauty while at +Kunitz. He had seen her every day from childhood on, and it is +probable that his attention being always riveted on her soul he had +never really known when her body left off being lanky and freckled. He +saw it now, however; he would have been blind if he had not; and it +set him vibrating with the throb of a new responsibility. Mrs. Pearce +saw it too, and stared astonished at this oddly inappropriate niece. +She stared still more when Fritzing, jumping up from his chair, bent +over the hand Priscilla held out and kissed it with a devotion and +respect wholly absent from the manner of Mrs. Pearce's own uncles. +She, therefore, withdrew into her kitchen, and being a person of +little culture crudely expressed her wonder by thinking "Lor." To +which, after an interval of vague meanderings among saucepans, she +added the elucidation, "Foreigners." + +Half an hour later Lady Shuttleworth's agent, Mr. Dawson, was +disturbed at his tea by the announcement that a gentleman wished to +speak to him. Mr. Dawson was a bluff person, and something of a +tyrant, for he reigned supreme in Symford after Lady Shuttleworth, and +to reign supreme over anybody, even over a handful of cottagers, does +bring out what a man may have in him of tyrant. Another circumstance +that brings this out is the possession of a meek wife; and Mr. +Dawson's wife was really so very meek that I fear when the Day of +Reckoning comes much of this tyranny will be forgiven him and laid to +her account. Mr. Dawson, in fact, represented an unending series of +pitfalls set along his wife's path by Fate, into every one of which +she fell; and since we are not supposed, on pain of punishment, to do +anything but keep very upright on our feet as we trudge along the +dusty road of life, no doubt all those amiable stumblings will be +imputed to her in the end for sin. "This man was handed over to you +quite nice and kind," one can imagine Justice saying in an awful +voice; "his intentions to start with were beyond reproach. Do you not +remember, on the eve of your wedding, how he swore with tears he would +be good to you? Look, now, what you have made of him. You have +prevented his being good to you by your own excessive goodness to +him. You have spent your time nourishing his bad qualities. Though he +still swears, he never does it with tears. Do you not know the +enormous, the almost insurmountable difficulty there is in not +bullying meekness, in not responding to the cringer with a kick? Weak +and unteachable woman, away with you." + +Certainly it is a great responsibility taking a man into one's life. +It is also an astonishment to me that I write thus in detail of Mrs. +Dawson, for she has nothing whatever to do with the story. + +"Who is it?" asked Mr. Dawson; immediately adding, "Say I'm engaged." + +"He gave no name, sir. He says he wishes to see you on business." + +"Business! I don't do business at tea time. Send him away." + +But Fritzing, for he it was, would not be sent away. Priscilla had +seen the cottage of her dreams, seen it almost at once on entering the +village, fallen instantly and very violently in love with it +regardless of what its inside might be, and had sent him to buy it. +She was waiting while he bought it in the adjoining churchyard sitting +on a tombstone, and he could neither let her sit there indefinitely +nor dare, so great was her eagerness to have the thing, go back +without at least a hope of it. Therefore he would not be sent away. +"Your master's in," he retorted, when the maid suggested he should +depart, "and I must see him. Tell him my business is pressing." + +"Will you give me your card, sir?" said the maid, wavering before +this determination. + +Fritzing, of course, had no card, so he wrote his new name in pencil +on a leaf of his notebook, adding his temporary address. + +"Tell Mr. Dawson," he said, tearing it out and giving it to her, "that +if he is so much engaged as to be unable to see me I shall go direct +to Lady Shuttleworth. My business will not wait." + +"Show him in, then," growled Mr. Dawson on receiving this message; for +he feared Lady Shuttleworth every bit as much as Mrs. Dawson feared +him. + +Fritzing was accordingly shown into the room used as an office, and +was allowed to cool himself there while Mr. Dawson finished his tea. +The thought of his Princess waiting on a tombstone that must be +growing colder every moment, for the sun was setting, made him at last +so impatient that he rang the bell. + +"Tell your master," he said when the maid appeared, "that I am now +going to Lady Shuttleworth." And he seized his hat and was making +indignantly for the door when Mr. Dawson appeared. + +Mr. Dawson was wiping his mouth. "You seem to be in a great hurry," he +said; and glancing at the slip of paper in his hand added, "Mr. +Newman." + +"Sir," said Fritzing, bowing with a freezing dignity, "I am." + +"Well, so am I. Sit down. What can I do for you? Time's money, you +know, and I'm a busy man. You're German, ain't you?" + +"I am, sir. My name is Neumann. I am here--" + +"Oh, Noyman, is it? I thought it was Newman." And he glanced again at +the paper. + +"Sir," said Fritzing, with a wave of his hand, "I am here to buy a +cottage, and the sooner we come to terms the better. I will not waste +valuable moments considering niceties of pronunciation." + +Mr. Dawson stared. Then he said, "Buy a cottage?" + +"Buy a cottage, sir. I understand that practically the whole of +Symford is the property of the Shuttleworth family, and that you are +that family's accredited agent. I therefore address myself in the +first instance to you. Now, sir, if you are unable, either through +disinclination or disability, to do business with me, kindly state the +fact at once, and I will straightway proceed to Lady Shuttleworth +herself. I have no time to lose." + +"I'm blessed if I have either, Mr."--he glanced again at the +paper--"Newman." + +"Neumann, sir," corrected Fritzing irritably. + +"All right--Noyman. But why don't you write it then? You've written +Newman as plain as a doorpost." + +"Sir, I am not here to exercise you in the proper pronunciation of +foreign tongues. These matters, of an immense elementariness I must +add, should be and generally are acquired by all persons of any +education in their childhood at school." + +Mr. Dawson stared. "You're a long-winded chap," he said, "but I'm +blessed if I know what you're driving at. Suppose you tell me what +you've come for, Mr."--he referred as if from habit to the +paper--"Newman." + +"_Neu_mann, sir," said Fritzing very loud, for he was greatly +irritated by Mr. Dawson's manner and appearance. + +"_Noy_mann, then," said Mr. Dawson, equally loudly; indeed it was +almost a shout. And he became possessed at the same instant of what +was known to Fritzing as a red head, which is the graphic German way +of describing the glow that accompanies wrath. "Look here," he said, +"if you don't say what you've got to say and have done with it you'd +better go. I'm not the chap for the fine-worded game, and I'm hanged +if I'll be preached to in my own house. I'll be hanged if I will, do +you hear?" And he brought his fist down on the table in a fashion very +familiar to Mrs. Dawson and the Symford cottagers. + +"Sir, your manners--" said Fritzing, rising and taking up his hat. + +"Never mind my manners, Mr. Newman." + +"_Neu_mann, sir!" roared Fritzing. + +"Confound you, sir," was Mr. Dawson's irrelevant reply. + +"Sir, confound _you_," said Fritzing, clapping on his hat. "And let me +tell you that I am going at once to Lady Shuttleworth and shall +recommend to her most serious consideration the extreme desirability +of removing you, sir." + +"Removing me! Where the deuce to?" + +"Sir, I care not whither so long as it is hence," cried Fritzing, +passionately striding to the door. + +Mr. Dawson lay back in his chair and gasped. The man was plainly mad; +but still Lady Shuttleworth might--you never know with women--"Look +here--hie, you! Mr. Newman!" he called, for Fritzing had torn open the +door and was through it. + +"_Neu_mann, sir," Fritzing hurled back at him over his shoulder. + +"Lady Shuttleworth won't see you, Mr. Noyman. She won't on principle." + +Fritzing wavered. + +"Everything goes through my hands. You'll only have your walk for +nothing. Come back and tell me what it is you want." + +"Sir, I will only negotiate with you," said Fritzing down the +passage--and Mrs. Dawson hearing him from the drawing-room folded her +hands in fear and wonder--"if you will undertake at least to imitate +the manners of a gentleman." + +"Come, come, you musn't misunderstand me," said Mr. Dawson getting up +and going to the door. "I'm a plain man, you know--" + +"Then, sir, all I can say is that I object to plain men." + +"I say, who are you? One would think you were a duke or somebody, +you're so peppery. Dressed up"--Mr. Dawson glanced at the suit of +pedagogic black into which Fritzing had once more relapsed--"dressed +up as a street preacher." + +"I am not dressed up as anything, sir," said Fritzing coming in rather +hurriedly. "I am a retired teacher of the German tongue, and have come +down from London in search of a cottage in which to spend my remaining +years. That cottage I have now found here in your village, and I have +come to inquire its price. I wish to buy it as quickly as possible." + +"That's all very well, Mr.--oh all right, all right, I won't say it. +But why on earth don't you write it properly, then? It's this paper's +set me wrong. I was going to say we've got no cottages here for sale. +And look here, if that's all you are, a retired teacher, I'll trouble +you not to get schoolmastering me again." + +"I really think, sir," said Fritzing stretching his hand towards his +hat, "that it is better I should try to obtain an interview with Lady +Shuttleworth, for I fear you are constitutionally incapable of +carrying on a business conversation with the requisite decent +self-command." + +"Pooh--you'll get nothing out of her. She'll send you back to me. Why, +you'd drive her mad in five minutes with that tongue of yours. If you +want anything I'm your man. Only let's get at what you do want, +without all these confounded dictionary words. Which cottage is it?" + +"It is the small cottage," said Fritzing mastering his anger, +"adjoining the churchyard. It stands by itself, and is separated from +the road by an extremely miniature garden. It is entirely covered by +creeping plants which I believe to be roses." + +"That's a couple." + +"So much the better." + +"And they're let. One to the shoemaker, and the other to old mother +Shaw." + +"Accommodation could no doubt be found for the present tenants in some +other house, and I am prepared to indemnify them handsomely. Might I +inquire the number of rooms the cottages contain?" + +"Two apiece, and a kitchen and attic. Coal-hole and pig-stye in the +back yard. Also a pump. But they're not for sale, so what's the use--" + +"Sir, do they also contain bathrooms?" + +"Bathrooms?" Mr. Dawson stared with so excessively stupid a stare that +Fritzing, who heaver could stand stupidity, got angry again. + +"I said bathrooms, sir," he said, raising his voice, "and I believe +with perfect distinctness." + +"Oh, I heard you right enough. I was only wondering if you were trying +to be funny." + +"Is this a business conversation or is it not?" cried Fritzing, in his +turn bringing his fist down on the table. + +"Look here, what do you suppose people who live in such places want?" + +"I imagine cleanliness and decency as much as anybody else." + +"Well, I've never been asked for one with a bathroom in my life." + +"You are being asked now," said Fritzing, glaring at him, "but you +wilfully refuse to reply. From your manner, however, I conclude that +they contain none. If so, no doubt I could quickly have some built." + +"Some? Why, how many do you want?" + +"I have a niece, sir, and she must have her own." + +Mr. Dawson again stared with what seemed to Fritzing so deplorably +foolish a stare. "I never heard of such a thing," he said. + +"What did you never hear of, sir?" + +"I never heard of one niece and one uncle in a labourer's cottage +wanting a bathroom apiece." + +"Apparently you have never heard of very many things," retorted +Fritzing angrily. "My niece desires to have her own bathroom, and it +is no one's business but hers." + +"She must be a queer sort of girl." + +"Sir," cried Fritzing, "leave my niece out of the conversation." + +"Oh all right--all right. I'm sure I don't want to talk about your +niece. But as for the cottages, it's no good wanting those or any +others, for you won't get 'em." + +"And pray why not, if I offer a good price?" + +"Lady Shuttleworth won't sell. Why should she? She'd only have to +build more to replace them. Her people must live somewhere. And she'll +never turn out old Shaw and the shoemaker to make room for a couple of +strangers." + +Fritzing was silent, for his heart was sinking. "Suppose, sir," he +said after a pause, during which his eyes had been fixed thoughtfully +on the carpet and Mr. Dawson had been staring at him and whistling +softly but very offensively, "suppose I informed Lady Shuttleworth of +my willingness to build two new cottages--excellent new cottages--for +the tenants of these old ones, and pay her a good price as well for +these, do you think she would listen to me?" + +"I say, the schoolmastering business must be a rattling good one. I'm +blessed if I know what you want to live in 'em for if money's so +little object with you. They're shabby and uncomfortable, and an old +chap like you--I mean, a man of your age, who's made his little pile, +and wants luxuries like plenty of bathrooms--ought to buy something +tight and snug. Good roof and electric light. Place for horse and +trap. And settle down and be a gentleman." + +"My niece," said Fritzing, brushing aside these suggestions with an +angrily contemptuous wave of his hand, "has taken a fancy--I may say +an exceedingly violent fancy--to these two cottages. What is all this +talk of traps and horses? My niece wishes for these cottages. I shall +do my utmost to secure them for her." + +"Well, all I can say is she must be a--" + +"Silence, sir!" cried Fritzing. + +Mr. Dawson got up and opened the door very wide. + +"Look here," he said, "there's no use going on talking. I've stood +more from you than I've stood from any one for years. Take my advice +and get back home and keep quiet for a bit. I've got no cottages, and +Lady Shuttleworth would shut the door in your face when you got to the +bathroom part. Where are you staying? At the Cock and Hens? +Oh--ah--yes--at Baker's. Well, ask Mrs. Pearce to take great care of +you. Tell her I said so. And good afternoon to you, Mr. Noyman. You +see I've got the name right now--just as we're going to part." + +"Before I go," said Fritzing, glaring down at Mr. Dawson, "let me +tell you that I have seldom met an individual who unites in his +manner so singularly offensive a combination of facetiousness and +hectoring as yourself. I shall certainly describe your conduct to +Lady Shuttleworth, and not, I hope, in unconvincing language. Sir, +good afternoon." + +"By-bye," said Mr. Dawson, grinning and waving a pleasant hand. +Several bathrooms indeed! He need have no fears of Lady Shuttleworth. +"Good luck to you with Lady S.!" he called after him cheerily. Then he +went to his wife and bade her see to it that the servant never let +Fritzing in again, explaining that he was not only a foreigner but a +lunatic, and that the mixture was so bad that it hardly bore thinking +of. + + + + +VI + + +While Fritzing was losing his temper in this manner at the agent's, +Priscilla sat up in the churchyard in the sun. The Symford churchyard, +its church, and the pair of coveted cottages, are on a little eminence +rising like an island out of the valley. Sitting under the trees of +this island Priscilla amused herself taking in the quiet scene at her +feet and letting her thoughts wander down happy paths. The valley was +already in shadow, but the tops of the hills on the west side of it +were golden in the late afternoon sunshine. From the cottage chimneys +smoke went up straight and blue into the soft sky, rooks came and +settled over her head in the branches of the elms, and every now and +then a yellow leaf would fall slowly at her feet. Priscilla's heart +was filled with peace. She was going to be so good, she was going to +lead such a clean and beautiful life, so quiet, so helpful to the +poor, so hidden, so cleared of all confusions. Never again would she +need to pose; never again be forced into conflict with her soul. She +had chosen the better part; she had given up everything and followed +after wisdom; and her life would be her justification. Who but knows +the inward peace that descends upon him who makes good resolutions +and abides with him till he suddenly discovers they have all been +broken? And what does the breaking of them matter, since it is their +making that is so wholesome, so bracing to the soul, bringing with it +moments of such extreme blessedness that he misses much who gives it +up for fear he will not keep them? Such blessed moments of lifting up +of the heart were Priscilla's as she sat in the churchyard waiting, +invisibly surrounded by the most beautiful resolutions it is possible +to imagine. The Rev. Edward Morrison, the vicar of whom I have spoken +as venerable, coming slowly up the path leaning on his son's arm with +the intention of going into the church in search of a mislaid +sermon-book, saw Priscilla's thoughtful back under the elm-tree and +perceived at once that it was a back unknown to him. He knew all the +Symford backs, and tourists hardly ever coming there, and never at +that time of the year, it could not, he thought, be the back of a +tourist. Nor could it belong to any one staying with the +Shuttleworths, for he had been there that very afternoon and had found +Lady Shuttleworth rejoicing over the brief period of solitude she and +her son were enjoying before the stream of guests for the coming of +age festivities began. + +"Robin, what girl is that?" asked the vicar of his son. + +"I'm sure I don't know," said Robin. + +"She'll catch cold," said the vicar. + +"I dare say," said Robin. + +When they came out of the church ten minutes later Priscilla had not +moved. + +"She'll certainly catch cold," said the vicar, concerned. + +"I should think it very likely," said Robin, locking the door. + +"She's sitting on a stone." + +"Yes, on old Dawson's slab." + +"Unwise," said the vicar. + +"Profane," said Robin. + +The vicar took his boy's arm again--the boy, head and shoulders taller +than his father, was down from Cambridge for the vacation then drawing +to its close--and moved, I fear, by the same impulse of pure curiosity +they walked together down the path that would take them right in front +of the young woman on the slab. + +Priscilla was lost in the bright dreams she was weaving, and looked up +with the radiance of them still in her eyes at the two figures between +her and the sunset. + +"My dear young lady," said the vicar kindly, "are you not afraid of +catching cold? The evenings are so damp now, and you have chosen a +very cold seat." + +"I don't feel cold," said Priscilla, smiling at this vision of +benevolence. + +"But I do think you ought not to linger here," said the vicar. + +"I am waiting for my uncle. He's gone to buy a cottage, and ought to +be back, really, by now." + +"Buy a cottage?" repeated the vicar. "My dear young lady, you say +that in the same voice you might use to tell me your uncle had gone to +buy a bun." + +"What is a bun?" asked Priscilla. + +"A bun?" repeated the vicar bewildered, for nobody had ever asked him +that before. + +"Oh I know--" said Priscilla quickly, faintly flushing, "it's a thing +you eat. Is there a special voice for buns?" + +"There is for a thing so--well, so momentous as the buying of a +cottage." + +"Is it momentous? It seems to me so nice and natural." + +She looked up at the vicar and his son, calmly scrutinizing first one +and then the other, and they stood looking down at her; and each time +her eyes rested on Robin they found his staring at her with the +frankest expression of surprise and admiration. + +"Pardon me," said the vicar, "if I seem inquisitive, but is it one of +the Symford cottages your uncle wishes to buy? I did not know any were +for sale." + +"It's that one by the gate," said Priscilla, slightly turning her head +in its direction. + +"Is it for sale? Dear me, I never knew Lady Shuttleworth sell a +cottage yet." + +"I don't know yet if she wants to," said Priscilla; "but Fr--, my +uncle, will give any price. And I must have it. I shall--I shall be +ill if I don't." + +The vicar gazed at her upturned face in perplexity. "Dear me," he +said, after a slight pause. + +"We must live somewhere," remarked Priscilla. + +"Of course you must," said Robin, suddenly and so heartily that she +examined his eager face in more detail. + +"Quite so, quite so," said the vicar. "Are you staying here at +present?" + +"Never at the Cock and Hens?" broke in Robin. + +"We're at Baker's Farm." + +"Ah yes--poor Mrs. Pearce will be glad of lodgers. Poor soul, poor +soul." + +"She's a very dirty soul," said Robin; and Priscilla's eyes flashed +over him with a sudden sparkle. + +"Is she the soul with the holes in its apron?" she asked. + +"I expect there are some there. There generally are," said Robin. + +They both laughed; but the vicar gently shook his head. "Ah well, poor +thing," he said, "she has an uphill life of it. They don't seem +able--they don't seem to understand the art of making both ends meet." + +"It's a great art," said Robin. + +"Perhaps they could be helped," said Priscilla, already arranging in +her mind to go and do it. + +"They do not belong to the class one can help. And Lady Shuttleworth, +I am afraid, disapproves of shiftless people too much to do anything +in the way of reducing the rent." + +"Lady Shuttleworth can't stand people who don't look happy and don't +mend their apron," said Robin. + +"But it's her own apron," objected Priscilla. + +"Exactly," said Robin. + +"Well, well, I hope they'll make you comfortable," said the vicar; and +having nothing more that he could well say without having to confess +to himself that he was inquisitive, he began to draw Robin away. "We +shall see you and your uncle on Sunday in church, I hope," he said +benevolently, and took off his hat and showed his snow-white hair. + +Priscilla hesitated. She was, it is true, a Protestant, it having been +arranged on her mother's marriage with the Catholic Grand Duke that +every alternate princess born to them was to belong to the Protestant +faith, and Priscilla being the alternate princess it came about that +of the Grand Duke's three children she alone was not a Catholic. +Therefore she could go to church in Symford as often as she chose; but +it was Fritzing's going that made her hesitate, for Fritzing was what +the vicar would have called a godless man, and never went to church. + +"You are a member of the Church of England?" inquired the vicar, +seeing her hesitate. + +"Why, pater, she's not English," burst out Robin. + +"Not English?" echoed the vicar. + +"Is my English so bad?" asked Priscilla, smiling. + +"It's frightfully good," said Robin; "but the 'r's,' you know--" + +"Ah, yes. No, I'm not English. I'm German." + +"Indeed?" said the vicar, with all the interest that attaches to any +unusual phenomenon, and a German in Symford was of all phenomena the +most unusual. "My dear young lady, how remarkable. I don't remember +ever having met a German before in these parts. Your English is really +surprising. I should never have noticed--my boy's ears are quicker +than my old ones. Will you think me unpardonably curious if I ask what +made you pitch on Symford as a place to live in?" + +"My uncle passed through it years ago and thought it so pretty that he +determined to spend his old age here." + +"And you, I suppose, are going to take care of him." + +"Yes," said Priscilla, "for we only"--she looked from one to the other +and thought herself extremely clever--"we only have each other in the +whole wide world." + +"Ah, poor child--you are an orphan." + +"I didn't say so," said Priscilla quickly, turning red; she who had +always been too proud to lie, how was she going to lie now to this +aged saint with the snow-white hair? + +"Ah well, well," said the vicar, vaguely soothing. "We shall see you +on Sunday perhaps. There is no reason that I know of why a member of +the German Church should not assist at the services of the Church of +England." And he took off his hat again, and tried to draw Robin away. + +But Robin lingered, and Priscilla saw so much bright curiosity in his +eyes that she felt she was giving an impression of mysteriousness; and +this being the last thing she wanted to do she thought she had better +explain a little--always a dangerous course to take--and she said, "My +uncle taught languages for years, and is old now and tired, and we +both long for the country and to be quiet. He taught me +English--that's why it's as good as it is. His name"--She was carried +away by the desire to blow out that questioning light in Robin's +eyes--"his name is Schultz." + +The vicar bowed slightly, and Robin asked with an air of great +politeness but still with that light in his eyes if he were to address +her, then, as Miss Schultz. + +"I'm afraid so," said Priscilla, regretfully. It really sounded gross. +Miss Schultz? She might just as well have chosen something romantic +while she was about it, for Fritzing in the hurry of many cares had +settled nothing yet with her about a name. + +Robin stared at her very hard, her answer seemed to him so odd. He +stared still more when she looked up with the air of one who has a +happy thought and informed him that her Christian name was Ethel. + +"Ethel?" echoed Robin. + +"It's a very pretty name, I think," said Priscilla, looking pleased. + +"Our housemaid's called Ethel, and so is the little girl that wheels +the gardener's baby's perambulator," was Robin's impetuous comment. + +"That doesn't make it less pretty," said Priscilla, frowning. + +"Surely," interrupted the vicar mildly, "Ethel is not a German name?" + +"I was christened after my mother," said Priscilla gently; and this +was strictly true, for the deceased Grand Duchess had also been +Priscilla. Then a feeling came over her that she was getting into +those depths where persons with secrets begin to flounder as a +preliminary to letting them out, and seized with panic she got up off +the slab. + +"You are half English, then," said Robin triumphantly, his bright eyes +snapping. He looked very bold and masterful staring straight at her, +his head thrown back, his handsome face twinkling with interest. But a +person of Priscilla's training could not possibly be discomposed by +the stare of any Robin, however masterful; had it not been up to now +her chief function in life to endure being stared at with graceful +indifference? "I did not say so," she said, glancing briefly at him; +and including both father and son in a small smile composed +indescribably of graciousness and chill she added, "It really is damp +here--I don't think I'll wait for my uncle," and slightly bowing +walked away without more ado. + +She walked very slowly, her skirts gathered loosely in one hand, every +line of her body speaking of the most absolute self-possession and +unapproachableness. Never had the two men seen any one quite so calm. +They watched her in silence as she went up the path and out at the +gate; then Robin looked down at his father and drew his hand more +firmly through his arm and said with a slight laugh, "Come on, pater, +let's go home. We're dismissed." + +"By a most charming young lady," said the vicar, smiling. + +"By a very cool one," said Robin, shrugging his shoulders, for he did +not like being dismissed. + +"Yes--oddly self-possessed for her age," agreed the vicar. + +"I wonder if all German teacher's nieces are like that," said Robin +with another laugh. + +"Few can be so blest by nature, I imagine." + +"Oh, I don't mean faces. She is certainly prettier by a good bit than +most girls." + +"She is quite unusually lovely, young man. Don't quibble." + +"Miss Schultz--Ethel Schultz," murmured Robin; adding under his +breath, "Good Lord." + +"She can't help her name. These things are thrust upon one." + +"It's a beastly common name. Macgrigor, who was a year in Dresden, +told me everybody in Germany is called Schultz." + +"Except those who are not." + +"Now, pater, you're being clever again," said Robin, smiling down at +his father. + +"Here comes some one in a hurry," said the vicar, his attention +arrested by the rapidly approaching figure of a man; and, looking up, +Robin beheld Fritzing striding through the churchyard, his hat well +down over his eyes as if clapped on with unusual vigour, both hands +thrust deep in his pockets, the umbrella, without which he never, even +on the fairest of days, went out, pressed close to his side under his +arm, and his long legs taking short and profane cuts over graves and +tombstones with the indifference to decency of one immersed in +unpleasant thought. It was not the custom in Symford to leap in this +manner over its tombs; and Fritzing arriving at a point a few yards +from the vicar, and being about to continue his headlong career across +the remaining graves to the tree under which he had left Priscilla, +the vicar raised his voice and exhorted him to keep to the path. + +"Quaint-looking person," remarked Robin. "Another stranger. I say, it +can't be--no, it can't possibly be the uncle?" For he saw he was a +foreigner, yet on the other hand never was there an uncle and a niece +who had less of family likeness. + +Fritzing was the last man wilfully to break local rules or wound +susceptibilities; and pulled out of his unpleasant abstraction by the +vicar's voice he immediately desisted from continuing his short cut, +and coming onto the path removed his hat and apologized with the +politeness that was always his so long as nobody was annoying him. + +"My name is Neumann, sir," he said, introducing himself after the +German fashion, "and I sincerely beg your pardon. I was looking for a +lady, and"--he gave his spectacles a little adjusting shove as though +they were in fault, and gazing across to the elm where he had left +Priscilla sitting added with sudden anxiety--"I fear I do not see +her." + +"Do you mean Miss Schultz?" asked the vicar, looking puzzled. + +"No, sir, I do not mean Miss Schultz," said Fritzing, peering about +him at all the other trees in evident surprise and distress. + +"A lady left about five minutes ago," said Robin. + +"A tall young lady in a blue costume?" + +"Yes. Miss Schultz." + +Fritzing looked at him with some sternness. "Sir, what have I to do +with Miss Schultz?" he inquired. + +"Oh come now," said the cheerful Robin, "aren't you looking for her?" + +"I am in search of my niece, sir." + +"Yes. Miss Schultz." + +"No sir," said Fritzing, controlling himself with an effort, "not +Miss Schultz. I neither know Miss Schultz nor do I care a--" + +"Sir, sir," interposed the vicar, hastily. + +"I do not care a _pfenning_ for any Miss Schultz." + +The vicar looked much puzzled. "There was a young lady," he said, +"waiting under that tree over there for her uncle who had gone, she +said, to see Lady Shuttleworth's agent about the cottage by the gate. +She said her uncle's name was Schultz." + +"She said she was Miss Ethel Schultz," said Robin. + +"She said she was staying at Baker's Farm," said the vicar. + +Fritzing stared for a moment from one to the other, then clutching his +hat mechanically half an inch into the air turned on his heel without +another word and went with great haste out of the churchyard and down +the hill and away up the road to the farm. + +"Quaint, isn't he," said Robin as they slowly followed this flying +figure to the gate. + +"I don't understand it," said the vicar. + +"It does seem a bit mixed." + +"Did he not say his name was Neumann?" + +"He did. And he looked as if he'd fight any one who said it wasn't." + +"It is hardly credible that there should be two sets of German uncles +and nieces in Symford at one and the same time," mused the vicar. +"Even one pair is a most unusual occurrence." + +"If there are," said Robin very earnestly, "pray let us cultivate the +Schultz set and not the other." + +"I don't understand it," repeated the vicar, helplessly. + + + + +VII + + +Symford, innocent village, went to bed very early; but early as it +went long before it had got there on this evening it contained no +family that had not heard of the arrivals at Baker's Farm. From the +vicarage the news had filtered that a pretty young lady called Schultz +was staying there with her uncle; from the agent's house the news that +a lunatic called Neumann was staying there with his niece; and about +supper-time, while it was still wondering at this sudden influx of +related Germans, came the postmistress and said that the boy from +Baker's who fetched the letters knew nothing whatever of any one +called Schultz. He had, said the postmistress, grown quite angry and +forgotten the greater and by far the better part of his manners when +she asked him how he could stand there and say such things after all +the years he had attended Sunday-school and if he were not afraid the +earth would open and swallow him up, and he had stuck to it with an +obstinacy that had at length convinced her that only one uncle and +niece were at Baker's, and their name was Neumann. He added that there +was another young lady there whose name he couldn't catch, but who sat +on the edge of her bed all day crying and refusing sustenance. +Appeased by the postmistress's apologies for her first unbelief he +ended by being anxious to give all the information in his power, and +came back quite a long way to tell her that he had forgotten to say +that his mother had said that the niece's Christian name was +Maria-Theresa. + +"But what, then," said the vicar's wife to the vicar when this news +had filtered through the vicarage walls to the very sofa where she +sat, "has become of the niece called Ethel?" + +"I don't know," said the vicar, helplessly. + +"Perhaps she is the one who cried all day." + +"My dear, we met her in the churchyard." + +"Perhaps they are forgers," suggested the vicar's wife. + +"My dear?" + +"Or anarchists." + +"Kate?" + +The vicar's wife said no more, but silently made up her mind to go the +very next day and call at Baker's. It would be terrible if a bad +influence got into Symford, her parish that she had kept in such good +order for so long. Besides, she had an official position as the wife +of the vicar and could and ought to call on everybody. Her call would +not bind her, any more than the call of a district visitor would, to +invite the called-upon to her house. Perhaps they were quite decent, +and she could ask the girl up to the Tuesday evenings in the +parish-room; hardly to the vicarage, because of her daughter Netta. On +the other hand, if they looked like what she imagined anarchists or +forgers look like, she would merely leave leaflets and be out when +they returned her call. + +Robin, all unaware of his mother's thoughts, was longing to ask her to +go to Baker's and take him with her as a first step towards the +acquaintance after which his soul thirsted, but he refrained for +various discreet reasons based on an intimate knowledge of his +mother's character; and he spent the evening perfecting a plan that +should introduce him into the interior of Baker's without her help. +The plan was of a barbarous simplicity: he was going to choose an +umbrella from the collection that years had brought together in the +stand in the hall, and go boldly and ask the man Neumann if he had +dropped it in the churchyard. The man Neumann would repudiate the +umbrella, perhaps with secret indignation, but he would be forced to +pretend he was grateful, and who knew what luck might not do for him +after that? + +While Robin was plotting, and his mother was plotting, that the next +day would certainly see them inside Baker's, a third person was trying +to do exactly the same thing at Symford Hall; and this third person +was no other than Augustus, the hope of all the Shuttleworths. +Augustus--he was known to his friends briefly as Tussie--had been +riding homewards late that afternoon, very slowly, for he was an +anxious young man who spent much of his time dodging things like being +overheated, when he saw a female figure walking towards him along the +lonely road. He was up on the heath above Symford, a solitary place of +heather, and gorse bushes, and winding roads that lead with many +hesitations and delays to different parts of Exmoor, and he himself +with his back to that wild region and the sunset was going, as every +sensible person would be going at that time of the evening, in the +direction of the village and home. But where could the girl be going? +For he now saw it was a girl, and in a minute or two more that it was +a beautiful girl. With the golden glow of the sky the sun had just +left on her face Priscilla came towards him out of the gathering dusk +of approaching evening, and Tussie, who had a poetic soul, gazed at +the vision openmouthed. Seeing him, she quickened her steps, and he +took off his cap eagerly when she asked him to tell her where Symford +was. "I've lost it," she said, looking up at him. + +"I'm going through it myself," he answered. "Will you let me show you +the way?" + +"Thank you," said Priscilla; and he got off his horse and she turned +and walked beside him with the same unruffled indifference with which +she would have walked beside the Countess Disthal or in front of an +attending lacquey. Nor did she speak, for she was busy thinking of +Fritzing and hoping he was not being too anxious about her, and Tussie +(God defend his innocence) thought she was shy. So sure was he as the +minutes past that her silence was an embarrassed one that he put an +end to it by remarking on the beauty of the evening, and Priscilla who +had entirely forgotten Miss Schultz gave him the iciest look as a +reminder that it was not his place to speak first. It was lost on +Tussie as a reminder, for naturally it did not remind him of anything, +and he put it down at first to the girl's being ill at ease alone up +there with a strange man, and perhaps to her feeling she had better +keep him at arm's length. A glance at her profile however dispelled +this illusion once and for ever, for never was profile of a profounder +calm. She was walking now with her face in shadow, and the glow behind +her played strange and glorious tricks with her hair. He looked at +her, and looked, and not by the quiver of an eyelash did she show she +was aware of anybody's presence. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, +and she was deep in thought tinged with remorsefulness that she should +have come up here instead of going straight home to the farm, and by +losing her way and staying out so long have given Fritzing's careful +heart an unnecessary pang of anxiety. He had had so many, and all +because of her. But then it had been the very first time in her life +that she had ever walked alone, and if words cannot describe the joy +and triumph of it how was it likely that she should have been able to +resist the temptation to stray aside up a lovely little lane that +lured her on and on from one bend to another till it left her at last +high up, breathless and dazzled, on the edge of the heath, with +Exmoor rolling far away in purple waves to the sunset and all the +splendour of the evening sky in her face? She had gone on, fascinated +by the beauty of the place, and when she wanted to turn back found she +had lost herself. Then appeared Sir Augustus to set her right, and +with a brief thought of him as a useful person on a nice horse she +fell into sober meditations as to the probable amount of torture her +poor Fritzi was going through, and Augustus ceased to exist for her as +completely as a sign-post ceases to exist for him who has taken its +advice and passed on. + +He looked at her, and looked, and looked again. He had never seen any +one quite so beautiful, and certainly never any one with such an air +of extreme detachment. He was twenty-one and much inclined to poetry, +and he thought as she walked beside him so tall and straight and +aloof, with the nimbus of flaming hair and the noble little head and +slightly stern brow that she looked like nothing less than a young +saint of God. + +Tussie was not bold like Robin. He was a gentle youth who loved quiet +things, quiet places, placid people, kind dogs, books, canaries even, +if they did not sing too loud. He was sensitive about himself, being +small and weakly, and took, as I have said, great care of what he had +of health, such care indeed that some of his robust friends called him +Fussie. He hated the idea of coming of age and of having a great deal +of money and a great many active duties and responsibilities. His +dream was to be left in peace to write his verses; to get away into +some sweet impossible wilderness, and sit there singing with as much +of the spirit of Omar Kayyam as could reasonably be expected to +descend on a youth who only drank water. He was not bold, I say; and +after that one quelling glance from the young saint's eyes did not +dare speak again for a long while. But they were getting near Symford; +they were halfway down the hill; he could not let her slip away +perhaps suddenly from his side into the shadows without at least +trying to find out where she was staying. He looked at her soft kind +mouth and opened his own to speak. He looked at her stern level brows +and shut it again. At last, keeping his eyes on her mouth he blurted +out, growing red, "I know every soul in Symford, and every soul for +miles round, but I don't know--" He stopped. He was going to say +"you," but he stopped. + +Priscilla's thoughts were so far away that she turned her head and +gazed vaguely at him for a moment while she collected them again. Then +she frowned at him. I do not know why Robin should have had at least +several smiles and poor Tussie only frowns, unless it was that during +this walk the young person Ethel Schultz had completely faded from +Priscilla's mind and the Royal Highness was well to the fore. She +certainly frowned at Tussie and asked herself what could possess the +man to keep on speaking to her. Keep on speaking! Poor Tussie. Aloud +she said freezingly, "Did you say something?" + +"Yes," said Tussie, his eyes on her mouth--surely a mouth only made +for kindness and gentle words. "I was wondering whether you were +staying at the vicarage." + +"No," said Priscilla, "we're staying at Baker's Farm." And at the +mention of that decayed lodging the friendly Schultz expression crept +back, smiling into her eyes. + +Tussie stopped short. "Baker's Farm?" he said. "Why, then this is the +way; down here, to the right. It's only a few yards from here." + +"Were you going that way too?" + +"I live on the other side of Symford." + +"Then good-bye and thank you." + +"Please let me go with you as far as the high-road--it's almost dark." + +"Oh no--I can't lose myself again if it's only a few yards." + +She nodded, and was turning down the lane. + +"Are you--are you comfortable there?" he asked hurriedly, blushing. +"The Pearces are tenants of ours. I hope they make you comfortable?" + +"Oh, we're only going to be there a few days. My uncle is buying a +cottage, and we shall leave almost directly." + +The girl Ethel nodded and smiled and went away quickly into the dusk; +and Tussie rode home thoughtfully, planning elaborate plans for a +descent the next day upon Baker's Farm that should have the necessary +air of inevitableness. + +Fritzing was raging up and down the road in front of the gate when +Priscilla emerged, five minutes later, from the shadows of the lane. +She ran up to him and put her arm through his, and looked up at him +with a face of great penitence. "Dear Fritzi," she said, "I'm so +sorry. I've been making you anxious, haven't I? Forgive me--it was the +first taste of liberty, and it got into my feet and set them off +exploring, and then I lost myself. Have you been worrying?" + +He was immensely agitated, and administered something very like a +scolding, and he urged the extreme desirability of taking Annalise +with her in future wherever she went--("Oh nonsense, Fritzi," +interjected Priscilla, drawing away her arm)--and he declared in a +voice that trembled that it was a most intolerable thought for him +that two strange men should have dared address her in the churchyard, +that he would never forgive himself for having left her there +alone--("Oh, Fritzi, how silly," interjected Priscilla)--and he begged +her almost with tears to tell him exactly what she had said to them, +for her Grand Ducal Highness must see that it was of the first +importance they should both say the same things to people. + +Priscilla declared she had said nothing at all but what was quite +diplomatic, in fact quite clever; indeed, she had been surprised at +the way ideas had seemed to flow. + +"So please," she finished, "don't look at me with such lamentable +eyes." + +"Ma'am, did you not tell them our name is Schultz?" + +"But so it is." + +"It is not, ma'am. Our name is Neumann." + +Priscilla stared astonished. "Neumann?" she said. "Nonsense, Fritzi. +Why should it be Neumann? We're Schultz. I told these people we were. +It's all settled." + +"Settled, ma'am? I told the woman here as well as the estate agent +that you are my brother's child and that we are Neumann." + +Priscilla was aghast. Then she said severely, "It was your duty to ask +me first. What right have you to christen me?" + +"I intended to discuss it during our walk to the village this +afternoon. I admit I forgot it. On the other hand I could not suppose +your Grand Ducal Highness, left for a moment unprotected, would inform +two strange gentlemen that our name was Schultz." + +"You should certainly have asked me first," repeated Priscilla with +knitted brows. "Why should I have to be Neumann?" + +"I might inquire with equal reason why I should have to be Schultz," +retorted Fritzing. + +"But why Neumann?" persisted Priscilla, greatly upset. + +"Ma'am, why not?" said Fritzing, still more upset. Then he added, +"Your Grand Ducal Highness might have known that at the agent's I +would be obliged to give some name." + +"I didn't think any more than you did," said Priscilla stopping in +front of the gate as a sign he was to open it for her. He did, and +they walked through the garden and into the house in silence. Then she +went into the parlour and dropped into a horsehair armchair, and +leaning her head against its prickliness she sighed a doleful sigh. + +"Shall I send Annalise to you, ma'am?" asked Fritzing, standing in the +doorway. + +"What can we do?" asked Priscilla, her eyes fixed on the tips of her +shoes in earnest thought. "Come in, Fritzi, and shut the door," she +added. "You don't behave a bit like an uncle." Then an idea struck +her, and looking up at him with sudden gaiety she said, "Can't we have +a hyphen?" + +"A hyphen?" + +"Yes, and be Neumann-Schultz?" + +"Certainly we can," said Fritzing, his face clearing; how muddled he +must be getting not to have thought of it himself! "I will cause cards +to be printed at once, and we will be Neumann-Schultz. Ma'am, your +woman's wit--" + +"Fritzi, you're deteriorating--you never flattered me at Kunitz. Let +us have tea. I invite you to tea with me. If you'll order it, I'll +pour it out for you and practice being a niece." + +So the evening was spent in harmony; a harmony clouded at intervals, +it is true, first by Priscilla's disappointment about the cottage, +then by a certain restiveness she showed before the more blatant +inefficiencies of the Baker housekeeping, then by a marked and ever +recurring incapacity to adapt herself to her new environment, and +lastly and very heavily when Fritzing in the course of conversation +let drop the fact that he had said she was Maria-Theresa. This was a +very black cloud and hung about for a long while; but it too passed +away ultimately in a compromise reached after much discussion that +Ethel should be prefixed to Maria-Theresa; and before Priscilla went +to bed it had been arranged that Fritzing should go next morning +directly after a very early breakfast to Lady Shuttleworth and not +leave that lady's side and house till he had secured the cottage, and +the Princess for her part faithfully promised to remain within the +Baker boundaries during his absence. + + + + +VIII + + +Lady Shuttleworth then, busiest and most unsuspecting of women, was +whisking through her breakfast and her correspondence next morning +with her customary celerity and method, when a servant appeared and +offered her one of those leaves from Fritzing's note-book which we +know did duty as his cards. + +Tussie was sitting at the other end of the table very limp and sad +after a night of tiresome tossing that was neither wholly sleep nor +wholly wakefulness, and sheltered by various dishes with spirit-lamps +burning beneath them worked gloomily at a sonnet inspired by the girl +he had met the day before while his mother thought he was eating his +patent food. The girl, it seemed, could not inspire much, for beyond +the fourth line his muse refused to go; and he was beginning to be +unable to stop himself from an angry railing at the restrictions the +sonnet form forces upon poets who love to be vague, which would +immediately have concentrated his mother's attention on himself and +resulted in his having to read her what he had written--for she +sturdily kept up the fiction of a lively interest in his poetic +tricklings--when the servant came in with Fritzing's leaf. + +"A gentleman wishes to see you on business, my lady," said the +servant. + +"Mr. Neumann-Schultz?" read out Lady Shuttleworth in an inquiring +voice. "Never heard of him. Where's he from?" + +"Baker's Farm, my lady." + +At that magic name Tussie's head went up with a jerk. + +"Tell him to go to Mr. Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth. + +The servant disappeared. + +"Why do you send him away, mother?" asked Tussie. + +"Why, you know things must go through Dawson," said Lady Shuttleworth +pouncing on her letters again. "I'd be plagued to death if they +didn't." + +"But apparently this is the stranger within our gates. Isn't he +German?" + +"His name is. Dawson will be quite kind to him." + +"Dawson's rather a brute I fancy, when you're not looking." + +"Dearest, I always am looking." + +"He must be one of Pearce's lodgers." + +"Poor man, I'm sorry for him if he is. Of all the shiftless women--" + +"The gentleman says, my lady," said the servant reappearing with +rather an awestruck face, "that he wishes to speak to you most +particular." + +"James, did I not tell you to send him to Mr. Dawson?" + +"I delivered the message, my lady. But the gentleman says he's seen +Mr. Dawson, and that he"--the footman coughed slightly--"he don't want +to see any more of him, my lady." + +Lady Shuttleworth put on her glasses and stared at the servant. "Upon +my word he seems to be very cool," she said; and the servant, his gaze +fixed on a respectful point just above his mistress's head, reflected +on the extreme inapplicability of the adjective to anything so warm as +the gentleman at the door. + +"Shall I see him for you, mother?" volunteered Tussie briskly. + +"You?" said his mother surprised. + +"I'm rather a dab at German, you know. Perhaps he can't talk much +English"--the footman started--"evidently he wasn't able to say much +to Dawson. Probably he wants you to protect him from the onslaughts of +old Pearce's cockroaches. Anyhow as he's a foreigner I think it would +be kinder to see him." + +Lady Shuttleworth was astonished. Was Tussie going to turn over a new +leaf after all, now that he was coming of age, and interest himself in +more profitable things than verse-making? + +"Dearest," she said, quite touched, "he shall be seen if you think it +kinder. I'll see him--you haven't done breakfast yet. Show him into +the library, James." And she gathered up her letters and went out--she +never kept people waiting--and as she passed Tussie she laid her hand +tenderly for a moment on his shoulder. "If I find I can't understand +him I'll send for you," she said. + +Tussie folded up his sonnet and put it in his pocket. Then he ate a +few spoonfuls of the stuff warranted to give him pure blood, huge +muscles, and a vast intelligence; then he opened a newspaper and +stared vacantly at its contents; then he went to the fire and warmed +his feet; then he strolled round the table aimlessly for a little; and +then, when half an hour had passed and his mother had not returned, he +could bear it no longer and marched straight into the library. + +"I think the cigarettes must be here," said Tussie, going over to the +mantelpiece and throwing a look of eager interest at Fritzing. + +Fritzing rose and bowed ceremoniously. Lady Shuttleworth was sitting +in a straight-backed chair, her elbows on its arms, the tips of her +ten fingers nicely fitted together. She looked very angry, and yet +there was a sparkle of something like amusement in her eyes. Having +bowed to Tussie Fritzing sat down again with the elaboration of one +who means to stay a long while. During his walk from the farm he had +made up his mind to be of a most winning amiability and patience, +blended with a determination that nothing should shake. At the door, +it is true, he had been stirred to petulance by the foolish face and +utterances of the footman James, but during the whole of the time he +had been alone with Lady Shuttleworth he had behaved, he considered, +with the utmost restraint and tact. + +Tussie offered him a cigarette. + +"My dear Tussie," said his mother quickly, "we will not keep Mr. +Neumann-Schultz. I'm sure his time must be quite as valuable as mine +is." + +"Oh madam," said Fritzing with a vast politeness, settling himself yet +more firmly in his chair, "nothing of mine can possibly be of the same +value as anything of yours." + +Lady Shuttleworth stared--she had stared a good deal during the last +halfhour--then began to laugh, and got up. "If you see its value so +clearly," she said, "I'm sure you won't care to take up any more of +it." + +"Nay, madam," said Fritzing, forced to get up too, "I am here, as I +explained, in your own interests--or rather in those of your son, who +I hear is shortly to attain his majority. This young gentleman is, I +take it, your son?" + +Tussie assented. + +"And therefore the owner of the cottages?" + +"What cottages?" asked Tussie, eagerly. He was manifestly so violently +interested in Mr. Neumann-Schultz that his mother could only gaze at +him in wonder. He actually seemed to hang on that odd person's lips. + +"My dear Tussie, Mr. Neumann-Schultz has been trying to persuade me to +sell him the pair of cottages up by the church, and I have been trying +to persuade him to believe me when I tell him I won't." + +"But why won't you, mother?" asked Tussie. + +Lady Shuttleworth stared at him in astonishment. "Why won't I? Do I +ever sell cottages?" + +"Your esteemed parent's reasons for refusing," said Fritzing, "reasons +which she has given me with a brevity altogether unusual in one of her +sex and which I cannot sufficiently commend, do more credit, as was to +be expected in a lady, to her heart than to her head. I have offered +to build two new houses for the disturbed inhabitants of these. I have +offered to give her any price--any price at all, within the limits of +reason. Your interests, young gentleman, are what will suffer if this +business is not concluded between us." + +"Do you want them for yourself?" asked Tussie. + +"Yes, sir, for myself and for my niece." + +"Mother, why do you refuse to do a little business?" + +"Tussie, are we so poor?" + +"As far as I'm concerned," said Tussie airily to Fritzing, "you may +have the things and welcome." + +"Tussie?" + +"But they are not worth more than about fifty pounds apiece, and I +advise you not to give more for them than they're worth. Aren't they +very small, though? Isn't there any other place here you'd rather +have?" + +"Tussie?" + +"Do you mind telling me why you want them?" + +"Young man, to live in them." + +"And where are the people to live who are in them now?" asked Lady +Shuttleworth, greatly incensed. + +"Madam, I promised you to build." + +"Oh nonsense. I won't have new red-brick horrors about the place. +There's that nice good old Mrs. Shaw in one, so clean and tidy always, +and the shoemaker, a very good man except for his enormous family, in +the other. I will not turn them out." + +"Put 'em in the empty lodge at the north gate," suggested Tussie. +"They'd be delighted." + +Lady Shuttleworth turned angrily on Fritzing--she was indeed greatly +irritated by Tussie's unaccountable behaviour. "Why don't you build +for yourself?" she asked. + +"My niece has set her heart on these cottages in such a manner that I +actually fear the consequences to her health if she does not get +them." + +"Now, mother, you really can't make Mr. Neumann-Schultz's niece ill." + +"Dearest boy, have you suddenly lost your senses?" + +"Not unless it's losing them to be ready to do a kindness." + +"Well said, well said, young man," said Fritzing approvingly. + +"Tussie, have I ever shirked doing a kindness?" asked Lady +Shuttleworth, touched on her tenderest point. + +"Never. And that's why I can't let you begin now," said Tussie, +smiling at her. + +"Well said, well said, young man," approved Fritzing. "The woman up to +a certain age should lead the youth, and he should in all things +follow her counsels with respect and obedience. But she for her part +should know at what moment to lay down her authority, and begin, with +a fitting modesty, to follow him whom she has hitherto led." + +"Is that what your niece does?" asked Lady Shuttleworth quickly. + +"Madam?" + +"Is she following you into these cottages, or are you following her?" + +"You must pardon me, madam, if I decline to discuss my niece." + +"Do have a cigarette," said Tussie, delighted. + +"I never smoke, young man." + +"Something to drink, then?" + +"I never drink, young man." + +"If I decide to let you have these cottages--_if_ I do," said Lady +Shuttleworth, divided between astonishment at everything about +Fritzing and blankest amazement at her son's behaviour, "you will +understand that I only do it because my son seems to wish it." + +"Madam, provided I get the cottages I will understand anything you +like." + +"First that. Then I'd want some information about yourself. I +couldn't let a stranger come and live in the very middle of my son's +estate unless I knew all about him." + +"Why, mother--" began Tussie. + +"Is not the willingness to give you your own price sufficient?" +inquired Fritzing anxiously. + +"Not in the least sufficient," snapped Lady Shuttleworth. + +"What do you wish to know, madam?" said Fritzing stiffly. + +"I assure you a great deal." + +"Come, mother," said Tussie, to whom this was painful, for was not the +man, apart from his strange clothes and speeches, of a distinctly +refined and intellectual appearance? And even if he wasn't, was he not +still the uncle of that divine niece?--"these are things for Dawson to +arrange." + +Fritzing started at the hated name, and began to frown dreadfully. His +frown was always very impressive because of his bushy eyebrows and +deep-set eyes. "Dawson, as you call him," he said, "and he certainly +has no claim to any prefix of politeness, is not a person with whom I +will consent to arrange anything. Dawson is the most offensive +creature who ever walked this earth clad in the outer semblance of one +of God's creatures." + +This was too much for Lady Shuttleworth. "Really--" she said, +stretching out her hand to the bell. + +"Didn't I tell you so, mother?" cried Tussie triumphantly; and that +Tussie, her own dear boy, should in all things second this madman +completely overwhelmed her. "I knew he was a brute behind your back. +Let's sack him." + +"James, show this gentleman out." + +"Pardon me, madam, we have not yet arranged--" + +"Oh," interrupted Tussie, "the business part can be arranged between +you and me without bothering my mother. I'll come part of the way with +you and we'll talk it over. You're absolutely right about Dawson. He's +an outrageous mixture of bully and brute." And he hurried into the +hall to fetch his cap, humming _O dear unknown One with the stern +sweet face_, which was the first line of his sonnet in praise of +Priscilla, to a cheerful little tune of his own. + +"Tussie, it's so damp," cried his anxious mother after him--"you're +not really going out in this nasty Scotch mist? Stay in, and I'll +leave you to settle anything you like." + +"Oh, it's a jolly morning for a walk," called back Tussie gaily, +searching about for his cap--"_And eyes all beautiful with strenuous +thought_--Come on, sir." + +But Fritzing would not skimp any part of his farewell ceremonies. + +"Permit me, madam," he said, deeply bowing, "to thank you for your +extremely kind reception." + +"Kind?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, unable to stop herself from +smiling. + +"Yes, madam, kind, and before all things patient." + +"Yes, I do think I've been rather patient," agreed Lady Shuttleworth, +smiling again. + +"And let me," proceeded Fritzing, "join to my thanks my +congratulations on your possession of so unusually amiable and +promising a son." + +"Come on, sir--you'll make me vain," said Tussie, in the +doorway--"'_Hair like a web divine wherein is caught_,'"--he hummed, +getting more and more shrill and happy. + +Lady Shuttleworth put out her hand impulsively. Fritzing took it, bent +over it, and kissed it with much respect. + +"A most unusually promising young man," he repeated; "and, madam, I +can tell you it is not my habit to say a thing I do not mean." + +"'_The last reflection of God's daily grace_'"--chirped Tussie, +looking on much amused. + +"No, that I'm quite certain you don't," said Lady Shuttleworth with +conviction. + +"Don't say too many nice things about me," advised Tussie. "My mother +will swallow positively anything." + +But nevertheless he was delighted; for here were his mother and the +uncle--the valuable and highly to be cherished uncle--looking as +pleased as possible with each other, and apparently in the fairest way +to becoming fast friends. + + + + +IX + + +The cheerful goddess who had brought Fritzing and his Princess safely +over from Kunitz was certainly standing by them well. She it was who +had driven Priscilla up on to the heath and into the acquaintance of +Augustus Shuttleworth, without whom a cottage in Symford would have +been for ever unattainable. She it was who had sent the Morrisons, +father and son, to drive Priscilla from the churchyard before Fritzing +had joined her, without which driving she would never have met +Augustus. She it was who had used the trifling circumstance of a +mislaid sermon-book to take the vicar and Robin into the church at an +unaccustomed time, without which sermon-book they would never have met +Priscilla in the churchyard and driven her out of it. Thus are all our +doings ruled by Chance; and it is a pleasant pastime for an idle hour +to trace back big events to their original and sometimes absurd +beginnings. For myself I know that the larger lines of my life were +laid down once for all by--but what has this to do with Priscilla? +Thus, I say, are all our doings ruled by Chance, who loves to use +small means for the working of great wonders. And as for the gay +goddess's ugly sister, the lady of the shifty eye and lowering brow +called variously Misfortune and Ill Luck, she uses the same tools +exactly in her hammering out of lives, meanly taking little follies +and little weaknesses, so little and so amiable at first as hardly to +be distinguished from little virtues, and with them building up a +mighty mass that shall at last come down and crush our souls. Of the +crushing of souls, however, my story does not yet treat, and I will +not linger round subjects so awful. We who are nestling for the moment +like Priscilla beneath the warm wing of Good Fortune can dare to make +what the children call a face at her grey sister as she limps scowling +past. Shall we not too one day in our turn feel her claws? Let us when +we do at least not wince; and he who feeling them can still make a +face and laugh, shall be as the prince of the fairy tales, +transforming the sour hag by his courage into a bright reward, +striking his very griefs into a shining shower of blessing. + +From this brief excursion into the realm of barren musings, whither I +love above all things to wander and whence I have continually to fetch +myself back again by force, I will return to the story. + +At Tussie's suggestion when the business part of their talk was +over--and it took exactly five minutes for Tussie to sell and Fritzing +to buy the cottages, five minutes of the frothiest business talk ever +talked, so profound was the ignorance of both parties as to what most +people demand of cottages--Fritzing drove to Minehead in the +postmistress's son's two-wheeled cart in order to purchase suitable +furniture and bring back persons who would paper and paint. Minehead +lies about twenty miles to the north of Symford, so Fritzing could not +be back before evening. By the time he was back, promised Tussie, the +shoemaker and Mrs. Shaw should be cleared out and put into a place so +much better according to their views that they would probably make it +vocal with their praises. + +Fritzing quite loved Tussie. Here was a young man full of the noblest +spirit of helpfulness, and who had besides the invaluable gift of +seeing no difficulties anywhere. Even Fritzing, airy optimist, saw +more than Tussie, and whenever he expressed a doubt it was at once +brushed aside by the cheerfullest "Oh, that'll be all right." He was +the most practical, businesslike, unaffected, energetic young man, +thought Fritzing, that he had even seen. Tussie was surprised himself +at his own briskness, and putting the wonderful girl on the heath as +much as possible out of his thoughts, told himself that it was the +patent food beginning at last to keep its promises. + +He took Fritzing to the post-office and ordered the trap for him, +cautioned the postmistress's son, who was going to drive, against +going too fast down the many hills, for the bare idea of the priceless +uncle being brought back in bits or in any state but absolutely whole +and happy turned him cold, told Fritzing which shops to go to and +where to lunch, begged him to be careful what he ate, since hotel +luncheons were good for neither body nor soul, ordered rugs and a +mackintosh covering to be put in, and behaved generally with the +forethought of a mother. "I'd go with you myself," he said,--and the +postmistress, listening with both her ears, recognized that the +Baker's Farm lodgers were no longer persons to be criticised--"but I +can be of more use to you here. I must see Dawson about clearing out +the cottages. Of course it is very important you shouldn't stay a +moment longer than can be helped in uncomfortable lodgings." + +Here was a young man! Sensible, practical, overflowing with kindness. +Fritzing had not met any one he esteemed so much for years. They went +down the village street together, for Tussie was bound for Mr. Dawson +who was to be set to work at once, and Fritzing for the farm whither +the trap was to follow him as soon as ready, and all Symford, +curtseying to Tussie, recognized, as the postmistress had recognized, +that Fritzing was now raised far above their questionings, seated +firmly on the Shuttleworth rock. + +They parted at Mr. Dawson's gate, Mrs. Dawson mildly watching their +warmth over a wire blind. "When we are settled, young man," said +Fritzing, after eloquent words of thanks and appreciation, "you must +come in the evenings, and together we will roam across the splendid +fields of English literature." + +"Oh _thanks_" exclaimed Tussie, flushing with pleasure. He longed to +ask if the divine niece would roam too, but even if she did not, to +roam at all would be a delight, and he would besides be doing it under +the very roof that sheltered that bright and beautiful head. "Oh +_thanks_," cried Tussie, then, flushing. + +His extreme joy surprised Fritzing. "Are you so great a friend of +literature?" he inquired. + +"I believe," said Tussie, "that without it I'd have drowned myself +long ago. And as for the poets--" + +He stopped. No one knew what poetry had been to him in his sickly +existence--the one supreme interest, the one thing he really cared to +live for. + +Fritzing now loved him with all his heart. "_Ach Gott, ja_," he +ejaculated, clapping him on the shoulder, "the poets--_ja, +ja_--'Blessings be with them and eternal praise,' what? Young man," he +added enthusiastically, "I could wish that you had been my son. I +could indeed." And as he said it Robin Morrison coming down the street +and seeing the two together and the expression on Tussie's face +instantly knew that Tussie had met the niece. + +"Hullo, Tuss," he called across, hurrying past, for it would rather +upset his umbrella plan to be stopped and have to talk to the man +Neumann thus prematurely. But Tussie neither saw nor heard him, and +"By Jove, hasn't he just seen the niece though," said Robin to +himself, his eyes dancing as he strode nimbly along on long and +bird-like legs. The conviction seized him that when he and his +umbrella should descend upon Baker's that afternoon Tussie would +either be there already or would come in immediately afterwards. "Who +would have thought old Fuss would be so enterprising?" he wondered, +thinking of the extreme cordiality of Fritzing's face. "He's given +them those cottages, I'll swear." + +So Fritzing went to Minehead. I will not follow his painful footsteps +as they ranged about that dreary place, nor will I dwell upon his +purchases, which resolved themselves at last, after an infinite and +soul-killing amount of walking and bewilderment, into a sofa, a +revolving bookstand, and two beds. He forgot a bed for Annalise +because he forgot Annalise; and he didn't buy things like sheets +because he forgot that beds want them. On the other hand he spent +quite two hours in a delightful second-hand bookshop on his way to the +place where you buy crockery, and then forgot the crockery. He did, +reminded and directed by Mr. Vickerton, the postmistress's son, get to +a paperhanger's and order him and his men to come out in shoals to +Symford the next morning at daybreak, making the paperhanger vow, who +had never seen them, that the cottages should be done by nightfall. +Then, happening to come to the seashore, he stood for a moment +refreshing his nostrils with saltness, for he was desperately worn +out, and what he did after that heaven knows. Anyhow young Vickerton +found him hours afterwards walking up and down the shingle in the +dark, waving his arms about and crying-- + + "O, qui me gelidis convallibus Haemi + Sistat et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!" + +"Talking German out loud to himself," said young Vickerton to his +mother that night; and it is possible that he had been doing it all +the time. + +And while he was doing these things Priscilla was having calls paid +her. Nothing could exceed her astonishment when about four o'clock, as +she was sitting deep in thought and bored on the arm of a horsehair +chair, Mrs. Pearce opened the door and without the least warning let +in Mrs. Morrison. Priscilla had promised Fritzing for that one day to +stay quietly at the farm, and for the last two hours, finding the farm +of an intolerable dulness, she had been engaged in reflections of an +extremely complex nature on subjects such as Duty, Will, and +Personality. Her morning in the Baker fields and by the banks of that +part of the Sym that meanders through them had tuned her mind to +meditation. The food at one o'clock and the manner of its bringing in +by Annalise--Priscilla had relieved Mrs. Pearce of that office--tuned +it still more. The blended slipperiness and prickliness of all the +things she tried to sit on helped surprisingly; and if I knew how far +it is allowable to write of linen I could explain much of her state of +mind by a description of the garments in which she was clothed that +day. They were new garments taken straight from the Gerstein box. +They were not even linen,--how could they be for Fritzing's three +hundred marks? And their newness had not yet been exposed to the +softening influence of any wash-tub. Straight did they come, in all +their crackling stiffness, out of the shop and on to the Princess. +Annalise had been supposed to wash them or cause them to be washed the +day before, but Annalise had been far too busy crying to do anything +of the sort; and by four o'clock Priscilla was goaded by them into a +condition of mind so unworthy that she was thinking quite hard about +the Kunitz fine linen and other flesh-pots and actually finding the +recollection sweet. It was a place, Priscilla mused, where her body +had been exquisitely cared for. Those delicate meals, served in +spotlessness, surely they had been rather of the nature of poems? +Those web-like garments, soft as a kiss, how beautiful they had been +to touch and wear. True her soul had starved; yes, it had cruelly +starved. But was it then--she started at her own thought--was it then +being fed at Baker's? + +And into the middle of this question, a tremendous one to be asked on +the very threshold of the new life, walked Mrs. Morrison. + +"How d'y do," said Mrs. Morrison. "The vicar asked me to come and see +you. I hope the Pearces make you comfortable." + +"Well I never," thought Mrs. Pearce, lingering as was her custom on +the door-mat, and shaking her head in sorrow rather than in anger. + +Priscilla sat for a moment staring at her visitor. + +"You are Miss Schultz, are you not?" asked Mrs. Morrison rather +nervously. + +Priscilla said she was,--her name, that is, was Neumann-Schultz--and +got up. She had the vaguest notion as to how Miss Schultz would behave +under these trying circumstances, but imagined she would begin by +getting up. So she got up, and the sofa being a low one and her +movements leisurely, Mrs. Morrison told her husband afterwards there +seemed to be no end to the girl. The girl certainly was long, and when +at last unfolded and quite straightened out she towered over Mrs. +Morrison, who looked up uneasily at the grave young face. Why, Mrs. +Morrison asked herself, didn't the girl smile? It was the duty of a +Miss Schultz called upon by the vicar's wife to smile; so profound a +gravity on such an occasion was surely almost rude. Priscilla offered +her hand and hoped it was all right to do so, but still she did not +smile. "Are you Mrs. Morrison?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Morrison with an immense reserve in her voice. + +Then Priscilla suggested she should sit down. Mrs. Morrison was +already doing it; and Priscilla sank on to her sofa again and wondered +what she had better say next. She wondered so much that she became +lost in mazes of wonder, and there was so long a silence that Mrs. +Pearce outside the door deplored an inconsiderateness that could keep +her there for nothing. + +"I didn't know you had a double name," said Mrs. Morrison, staring at +Priscilla and trying to decide whether this was not a case for the +application of leaflets and instant departure. The girl was really +quite offensively pretty. She herself had been pretty--she thanked +heaven that she still was so--but never, never pretty--she thanked +heaven again--in this glaringly conspicuous fashion. + +"My name is Ethel Maria-Theresa Neumann-Schultz," said Priscilla, very +clearly and slowly; and though she was, as we know, absolutely +impervious to the steadiest staring, she did wonder whether this good +lady could have seen her photograph anywhere in some paper, her stare +was so very round and bright and piercing. + +"What a long name," said Mrs. Morrison. + +"Yes," said Priscilla; and as another silence seemed imminent she +added, "I have two hyphens." + +"Two what?" said Mrs. Morrison, startled; and so full was her head of +doubt and distrust that for one dreadful moment she thought the girl +had said two husbands. "Oh, hyphens. Yes. Germans have them a good +deal, I believe." + +"That sounds as if we were talking about diseases," said Priscilla, a +faint smile dawning far away somewhere in the depths of her eyes. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Morrison, fidgeting. + +Odd that Robin should have said nothing about the girl's face. Anyhow +she should be kept off Netta. Better keep her off the parish-room +Tuesdays as well. What in the world was she doing in Symford? She was +quite the sort of girl to turn the heads of silly boys. And so +unfortunate, just as Augustus Shuttleworth had taken to giving Netta +little volumes of Browning. + +"Is your uncle out?" she asked, some of the sharpness of her thoughts +getting into her voice. + +"He's gone to Minehead, to see about things for my cottage." + +"Your cottage? Have you got Mrs. Shaw's, then?" + +"Yes. She is being moved out to-day." + +"Dear me," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly struck. + +"Is it surprising?" + +"Most. So unlike Lady Shuttleworth." + +"She has been very kind." + +"Do you know her?" + +"No; but my uncle was there this morning." + +"And managed to persuade her?" + +"He is very eloquent," said Priscilla, with a demure downward sweep of +her eyelashes. + +"Just a little more," thought Mrs. Morrison, watching their dusky +golden curve, "and the girl would have had scarlet hair and +white-eyebrows and masses of freckles and been frightful." And she +sighed an impatient sigh, which, if translated into verse, would +undoubtedly have come out-- + + "Oh the little more and how much it is, + And the little less and what worlds away!" + +"And poor old Mrs. Shaw--how does she like being turned out?" + +"I believe she is being put into something that will seem to her a +palace." + +"Dear me, your uncle must really be very eloquent." + +"I assure you that he is," said Priscilla earnestly. + +There was a short pause, during which Mrs. Morrison staring straight +into those unfathomable pools, Priscilla's eyes, was very angry with +them for being so evidently lovely. "You are very young," she said, +"so you will not mind my questions--" + +"Don't the young mind questions?" asked Priscilla, for a moment +supposing it to be a characteristic of the young of England. + +"Not, surely, from experienced and--and married ladies," said Mrs. +Morrison tartly. + +"Please go on then." + +"Oh, I haven't anything particular to go on about," said Mrs. +Morrison, offended. "I assure you curiosity is not one of my faults." + +"No?" said Priscilla, whose attention had begun to wander. + +"Being human I have no doubt many failings, but I'm thankful to say +curiosity isn't one of them." + +"My uncle says that's just the difference between men and women. He +says women might achieve just as much as men if only they were curious +about things. But they're not. A man will ask a thousand questions, +and never rest till he's found out as much as he can about anything he +sees, and a woman is content hardly even to see it." + +"I hope your uncle is a Churchman," was Mrs. Morrison's unexpected +reply. + +Priscilla's mind could not leap like this, and she hesitated a moment +and smiled. ("It's the first time she's looked pleasant," thought Mrs. +Morrison, "and now it's in the wrong place.") + +"He was born, of course, in the Lutheran faith," said Priscilla. + +"Oh, a horrid faith. Excuse me, but it really is. I hope he isn't +going to upset Symford?" + +"Upset Symford?" + +"New people holding wrong tenets coming to such a small place do +sometimes, you know, and you say he is eloquent. And we are such a +simple and God-fearing little community. A few years ago we had a +great bother with a Dissenting family that came here. The cottagers +quite lost their heads." + +"I think I can promise that my uncle will not try to convert anybody," +said Priscilla. + +"Of course you mean pervert. It would be a pity if he did. It wouldn't +last, but it would give us a lot of trouble. We are very good +Churchmen here. The vicar, and my son too when he's at home, set +beautiful examples. My son is going into the Church himself. It has +been his dearest wish from a child. He thinks of nothing else--of +nothing else at all," she repeated, fixing her eyes on Priscilla with +a look of defiance. + +"Really?" said Priscilla, very willing to believe it. + +"I assure you it's wonderful how absorbed he is in his studies for it. +He reads Church history every spare moment, and he's got it so +completely on his mind that I've noticed even when he whistles it's +'The Church's One Foundation.'" + +"What is that?" inquired Priscilla. + +"Mr. Robin Morrison," announced Mrs. Pearce. + +The sitting-room at Baker's was a small, straightforward place, with +no screens, no big furniture, no plants in pots, nothing that could +for a moment conceal the persons already in it from the persons coming +in, and Robin entering jauntily with the umbrella under his arm fell +straight as it were into his mother's angry gaze. "Hullo mater, you +here?" he exclaimed genially, his face broadening with apparent +satisfaction. + +"Yes, Robin, I am here," she said, drawing herself up. + +"How do you do, Miss Schultz. I seem to have got shown into the wrong +room. It's a Mr. Neumann I've come to see; doesn't he live here?" + +Priscilla looked at him from her sofa seat and wondered what she had +done that she should be scourged in this manner by Morrisons. + +"You know my son, I believe?" said Mrs. Morrison in the stiffest +voice; for the girl's face showed neither recognition nor pleasure, +and though she would have been angry if she had looked unduly pleased +she was still angrier that she should look indifferent. + +"Yes. I met him yesterday. Did you want my uncle? His name is Neumann. +Neumann-Schultz. He's out." + +"I only wanted to give him this umbrella," said Robin, with a swift +glance at his mother as he drew it from under his arm. Would she +recognize it? He had chosen one of the most ancient; the one most +appropriate, as he thought, to the general appearance of the man +Neumann. + +"What umbrella is that, Robin?" asked his mother suspiciously. Really, +it was more than odd that Robin, whom she had left immersed in study, +should have got into Baker's Farm so quickly. Could he have been +expected? And had Providence, in its care for the righteous cause of +mothers, brought her here just in time to save him from this girl's +toils? The girl's indifference could not be real; and if it was not, +her good acting only betrayed the depths of her experience and +balefulness. "What umbrella is that?" asked Mrs. Morrison. + +"It's his," said Robin, throwing his head back and looking at his +mother as he laid it with elaborate care on the table. + +"My uncle's?" said Priscilla. "Had he lost it? Oh thank you--he would +have been dreadfully unhappy. Sit down." And she indicated with her +head the chair she would allow him to sit on. + +"The way she tells us to sit down!" thought Mrs. Morrison indignantly. +"As though she were a queen." Aloud she said, "You could have sent +Joyce round with it"--Joyce being that gardener whose baby's +perambulator was wheeled by another Ethel--"and need not have +interrupted your work." + +"So I could," said Robin, as though much struck by the suggestion. +"But it was a pleasure," he added to Priscilla, "to be able to return +it myself. It's a frightful bore losing one's umbrella--especially if +it's an old friend." + +"Uncle Fritzi's looks as if it were a very old friend," said +Priscilla, smiling at it. + +Mrs. Morrison glanced at it too, and then glanced again. When she +glanced a third time and her glance turned into a look that lingered +Robin jumped up and inquired if he should not put it in the passage. +"It's in the way here," he explained; though in whose way it could be +was not apparent, the table being perfectly empty. + +Priscilla made no objection, and he at once removed it beyond the +reach of his mother's eye, propping it up in a dark corner of the +passage and telling Mrs. Pearce, whom he found there that it was Mr. +Neumann's umbrella. + +"No it ain't," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"Yes it is," said Robin. + +"No it ain't. He's took his to Minehead," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"It is, and he has not," said Robin. + +"I see him take it," said Mrs. Pearce. + +"You did not," said Robin. + +This would have been the moment, Mrs. Morrison felt, for her to go and +to carry off Robin with her, but she was held in her seat by the +certainty that Robin would not let himself be carried off; and sooner +than say good-bye and then find he was staying on alone she would sit +there all night. Thus do mothers sacrifice themselves for their +children, thought Mrs. Morrison, for their all too frequently +thankless children. But though she would do it to any extent in order +to guard her boy she need not, she said to herself, be pleasant +besides,--she need not, so to speak, be the primroses on his path of +dalliance. Accordingly she behaved as little like a primrose as +possible, sitting in stony silence while he skirmished in the passage +with Mrs. Pearce, and the instant he came in again asked him where he +had found the umbrella. + +"I found it--not far from the church," said Robin, desiring to be +truthful as long as he could. "But mater, bother the umbrella. It +isn't so very noble to bring a man back his own. Did you get your +cottages?" he asked, turning quickly to Priscilla. + +"Robin, are you sure it is his own?" said his mother. + +"My dear mother, I'm never sure of anything. Nor are you. Nor is Miss +Schultz. Nor is anybody who is really intelligent. But I found the +thing, and Mr. Neumann--" + +"The name to-day is Neumann-Schultz," said Mrs. Morrison, in a voice +heavy with implications. + +"Mr. Neumann-Schultz, then, had been that way just before, and so I +felt somehow it must be his." + +"Your Uncle Cox had one just like it when he stayed with us last +time," remarked Mrs. Morrison. + +"Had he? I say, mater, what an eye you must have for an umbrella. That +must be five years ago." + +"Oh, he left it behind, and I see it in the stand every time I go +through the hall." + +"No! Do you?" said Robin, who was hurled by this statement into the +corner where his wits ended and where he probably would have stayed +ignominiously, for Miss Schultz seemed hardly to be listening and +really almost looked--he couldn't believe it, no girl had ever done it +in his presence yet, but she did undoubtedly almost look--bored, if +Mrs. Pearce had not flung open the door, and holding the torn portions +of her apron bunched together in her hands, nervously announced Lady +Shuttleworth. + +"Oh," thought Priscilla, "what a day I'm having." But she got up and +was gracious, for Fritzing had praised this lady as kind and +sensible; and the moment Lady Shuttleworth set her eyes on her the +mystery of her son's behaviour flashed into clearness. "Tussie's seen +her!" she exclaimed inwardly; instantly adding "Upon my word I can't +blame the boy." + +"My dear," she said, holding Priscilla's hand, "I've come to make +friends with you. See what a wise old woman I am. Frankly, I didn't +want you in those cottages, but now that my son has sold them I lose +no time in making friends. Isn't that true wisdom?" + +"It's true niceness," said Priscilla, smiling down at the little old +lady whose eyes were twinkling all over her. "I don't think you'll +find us in any way a nuisance. All we want is to be quiet." + +Mrs. Morrison sniffed. + +"Do you really?" said Lady Shuttleworth. "Then we shall get on +capitally. It's what I like best myself. And you've come too," she +went on, turning to Mrs. Morrison, "to make friends with your new +parishioner? Why, Robin, and you too?" + +"Oh, I'm only accidental," said Robin quickly. "Only a restorer of +lost property. And I'm just going," he added, beginning to make hasty +adieux; for Lady Shuttleworth invariably produced a conviction in him +that his clothes didn't fit and wanted brushing badly, and no young +man so attentive to his appearance as Robin could be expected to enjoy +that. He fled therefore, feeling that even Miss Schultz's loveliness +would not make up for Lady Shuttleworth's eyes; and in the passage, +from whence Mrs. Pearce had retreated, removing herself as far as +might be from the awful lady to whom her father-in-law owed rent and +who saw every hole, Robin pounced on his Uncle Cox's umbrella, tucked +is once more beneath his arm, and bore it swiftly back to the stand +where it had spent five peaceful years. "Really old women are rather +terrible things," he thought as he dropped it in again. "I wonder what +they're here for." + +"Ah, it's there, I see," remarked his mother that night as she passed +through the hall on her way to dinner. + +"What is?" inquired Robin who was just behind her. + +"Your Uncle Cox's umbrella." + +"Dear mater, why this extreme interest in my Uncle Cox's umbrella?" + +"I'm glad to see it back again, that's all. One gets so used to +things." + +Lady Shuttleworth and his mother--I shudder to think that it is +possible Robin included his mother in the reflection about old women, +but on the other hand one never can tell--had stayed on at the farm +for another twenty minutes after he left. They would have stayed +longer, for Lady Shuttleworth was more interested in Priscilla than +she had ever been in any girl before, and Mrs. Morrison, who saw this +interest and heard the kind speeches, had changed altogether from ice +to amiability, crushing her leaflets in her hand and more than once +expressing hopes that Miss Neumann-Schultz would soon come up to tea +and learn to know and like Netta--I repeat, they would have stayed +much longer, but that an extremely odd thing happened. + +Priscilla had been charming; chatting with what seemed absolute +frankness about her future life in the cottages, answering little +questionings of Lady Shuttleworth's with a discretion and plausibility +that would have warmed Fritzing's anxious heart, dwelling most, for +here the ground was safest, on her uncle, his work, his gifts and +character, and Lady Shuttleworth, completely fascinated, had offered +her help of every sort, help in the arranging of her little home, in +the planting of its garden, even in the building of those bathrooms +about which Tussie had been told by Mr. Dawson. She thought the desire +for many bathrooms entirely praiseworthy, and only a sign of lunacy in +persons of small means. Fritzing had assured Tussie that he had money +enough for the bathrooms; and if his poetic niece liked everybody +about her to be nicely washed was not that a taste to be applauded? +Perhaps Lady Shuttleworth expatiated on plans and probable +building-costs longer than Priscilla was able to be interested; +perhaps she was over-explanatory of practical details; anyhow +Priscilla's attention began to wander, and she gradually became very +tired of her callers. She answered in monosyllables, and her smile +grew vague. Then suddenly, at the first full stop Lady Shuttleworth +reached in a sentence about sanitation--the entire paragraph was never +finished--she got up with her usual deliberate grace, and held out her +hand. + +"It has been very kind of you to come and see me," she said to the +astounded lady, with a little gracious smile. "I hope you will both +come again another time." + +For an instant Lady Shuttleworth thought she was mad. Then to her own +amazement she found her body rising obediently and letting its hand be +taken. + +Mrs. Morrison did the same. Both had their hands slightly pressed, +both were smiled upon, and both went out at once and speechless. +Priscilla stood calmly while they walked to the door, with the little +smile fixed on her face. + +"Is it possible we've been insulted?" burst out Mrs. Morrison when +they got outside. + +"I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth, who looked extremely +thoughtful. + +"Do you think it can possibly be the barbarous German custom?" + +"I don't know," said Lady Shuttleworth again. + +And all the way to the vicarage, whither she drove Mrs. Morrison, she +was very silent, and no exclamations and conjectures of that indignant +lady's could get a word out of her. + + + + +X + + +Kunitz meanwhile was keeping strangely quiet. Not a breath, not a +whisper, had reached the newspapers from that afflicted little town of +the dreadful thing that had happened to it. It will be remembered that +the Princess ran away on a Monday, arrived at Baker's in the small +hours of Wednesday morning, and had now spent both Wednesday and +Thursday in Symford. There had, then, been ample time for Europe to +receive in its startled ears the news of her flight; yet Europe, +judging from its silence, knew nothing at all about it. In Minehead on +the Thursday evening Fritzing bought papers, no longer it is true with +the frenzy he had displayed at Dover when every moment seemed packed +with peril, but still with eagerness; and not a paper mentioned +Kunitz. On the Saturday he did find the laconic information in the +London paper he had ordered to be sent him every day that the Grand +Duke of Lothen-Kunitz who was shooting in East Prussia had been joined +there by that Prince--I will not reveal his august name--who had so +badly wanted to marry Priscilla. And on the Sunday--it was of course +the paper published in London on Saturday--he read that the Princess +Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, the second and only unmarried daughter of +the Grand Duke, was confined to her bed by a sharp attack of +influenza. After that there was utter silence. Fritzing showed +Priscilla the paragraph about her influenza, and she was at first very +merry over it. The ease with which a princess can shake off her +fetters the moment she seriously tries to surprised her, and amused +her too, for a little. It surprised Fritzing, but without amusing him, +for he was a man who was never amused. Indeed, I am unable to recall +any single occasion on which I saw him smile. Other emotions shook him +vigorously as we know, but laughter never visited him with its +pleasant ticklings under the ribs; it slunk away abashed before a task +so awful, and left him at his happiest to a mood of mild contentment. +"Your Royal Parent," he remarked to Priscilla, "has chosen that which +is ever the better part of valour, and is hushing the incident up." + +"He never loved me," said Priscilla, wistfully. On thinking it over +she was not quite sure that she liked being allowed to run away so +easily. Did nobody care, then, what became of her? Was she of +positively no value at all? Running away is all very well, but your +pride demands that those runned from shall at least show some sign of +not liking it, make some effort, however humble, to fetch you back. If +they do not, if they remain perfectly quiescent and resigned, not even +sending forth a wail that shall be audible, you are naturally +extremely crushed. "My father," said Priscilla bitterly, "doesn't +care a bit. He'll give out I'm dangerously ill, and then you'll see, +Fritzi--I shall either die, or be sent away for an interminable +yachting cruise with the Countess. And so dust will be thrown in +people's eyes. My father is very good at that, and the Countess is a +perfect genius. You'll see." + +But Fritzing never saw, for there was no more mention at all either of +Kunitz or of influenza. And just then he was so much taken up by his +efforts to get into the cottages as quickly as possible that after a +passing feeling of thankfulness that the Grand Duke should be of such +a convenient indifference to his daughter's fate it dropped from his +mind in the easy fashion in which matters of importance always did +drop from it. What was the use, briefly reflected this philosopher, of +worrying about what they were or were not thinking at Kunitz? There +would be time enough for that when they actually began to do +something. He felt very safe from Kunitz in the folds of the Somerset +hills, and as the days passed calmly by he felt still safer. But +though no dangers seemed to threaten from without there were certain +dangers within that made it most desirable for them to get away from +Baker's and into their own little home without a moment's unnecessary +delay. He could not always be watching his tongue, and he found for +instance that it positively refused to call the Princess Ethel. It had +an almost equal objection to addressing her as niece; and it had a +most fatal habit of slipping out Grand Ducal Highnesses. True, at +first they mostly talked German together, but the tendency to talk +English grew more marked every day; it was in the air they breathed, +and they both could talk it so fatally well. Up at the cottages among +the workmen, or when they were joined by Mr. Dawson, grown zealous to +help, or by either of the young men Robin and Tussie, who seemed +constantly to be passing, the danger too was great. Fritzing was so +conscious of it that he used to break out into perspirations whenever +Priscilla was with him in public, and his very perspirations were +conspicuous. The strain made his manner oddly nervous when speaking to +or of his niece, and he became the subject of much conjecture to the +observant Robin. Robin thought that in spite of her caressing ways +with her uncle the girl must be privately a dreadful tyrant. It seemed +difficult to believe, but Robin prided himself on being ready to +believe anything at a moment's notice, especially if it was the worst, +and he called it having an open mind. The girl was obviously the most +spoilt of girls. No one could help seeing that. Her least wish seemed +to be for the uncle a command that was not even to be talked about. +Yet the uncle was never openly affectionate to her. It almost seemed +as though she must have some secret hold over him, be in possession, +perhaps, of some fact connected with a guilty past. But then this girl +and guilty pasts! Why, from the look in her eyes she could never even +have heard of such things. Robin thought himself fairly experienced +in knowledge of human nature, but he had to admit that he had never +yet met so incomprehensible a pair. He wanted to talk to Tussie +Shuttleworth about them, but Tussie would not talk. To Tussie it +seemed impossible to talk about Priscilla because she was sacred to +him, and she was sacred to him because he adored her so. He adored her +to an extent that amazes me to think of, worshipping her beauty with +all the headlong self-abasement of a very young man who is also a +poet. His soul was as wax within him, softest wax punched all over +with little pictures of Priscilla. No mother is happy while her +child's soul is in this state, and though he was extremely decent, and +hid it and smothered it and choked it with all the energy he +possessed, Lady Shuttleworth knew very well what was going on inside +him and spent her spare time trying to decide whether to laugh or to +cry over her poor Tussie. "When does Robin go back to Cambridge?" she +asked Mrs. Morrison the next time she met her, which was in the front +garden of a sick old woman's cottage. + +Mrs. Morrison was going in with a leaflet; Lady Shuttleworth was going +in with a pound of tea. From this place they could see Priscilla's +cottage, and Robin was nailing up its creepers in the sight of all +Symford. + +"Ah--I know what you mean," said Mrs. Morrison quickly. + +"It is always such a pity to see emotions wasted," said Lady +Shuttleworth slowly, as if weighing each word. + +"Wasted? You do think she's an adventuress, then?" said Mrs. Morrison +eagerly. + +"Sh-sh. My dear, how could I think anything so unkind? But we who are +old"--Mrs. Morrison jerked up her chin--"and can look on calmly, do +see the pity of it when beautiful emotions are lavished and wasted. So +much force, so much time frittered away in dreams. And all so useless, +so barren. Nothing I think is so sad as waste, and nothing is so +wasteful as a one-sided love." + +Mrs. Morrison gave the pink tulle bow she liked to wear in the +afternoons at her throat an agitated pat, and tried to conceal her +misery that Augustus Shuttleworth should also have succumbed to Miss +Neumann-Schultz. That he had done so was very clear from Lady +Shuttleworth's portentous remarks, for it was not in human nature for +a woman to be thus solemn about the wasted emotions of other people's +sons. His doing so might save Robin's future, but it would ruin +Netta's. We all have our little plans for the future--dear rosy things +that we dote on and hug to our bosoms with more tenderness even than +we hug the babies of our bodies, and the very rosiest and best +developed of Mrs. Morrison's darling plans was the marriage of her +daughter Netta with the rich young man Augustus. It was receiving a +rude knock on its hopeful little head at this moment in old Mrs. +Jones's front garden, and naturally the author of its being winced. +Augustus, she feared, must be extremely far gone in love, and it was +not likely that the girl would let such a chance go. It was a +consolation that the marriage would be a scandal,--this person from +nowhere, this niece of a German teacher, carrying off the wealthiest +young man in the county. The ways of so-called Providence were quite +criminally inscrutable, she thought, in stark defiance of what a +vicar's wife should think; but then she was greatly goaded. + +Priscilla herself came out of Mrs. Jones's door at that moment with a +very happy face. She had succeeded in comforting the sick woman to an +extent that surprised her. The sick woman had cheered up so suddenly +and so much that Priscilla, delighted, had at once concluded that work +among the sick poor was her true vocation. And how easy it had been! A +few smiles, a few kind words, a five-pound note put gently into the +withered old hands, and behold the thing was done. Never was sick +woman so much comforted as Mrs. Jones. She who had been disinclined to +speak above a whisper when Priscilla went in was able at the end of +the visit to pour forth conversation in streams, and quite loud +conversation, and even interspersed with chuckles. All Friday +Priscilla had tried to help in the arranging of her cottage, and had +made herself and Fritzing so tired over it that on Saturday she let +him go up alone and decided that she would, for her part, now begin to +do good to the people in the village. It was what she intended to do +in future. It was to be the chief work of her new life. She was going +to live like the poor and among them, smooth away their sorrows and +increase their joys, give them, as it were, a cheery arm along the +rough path of poverty, and in doing it get down herself out of the +clouds to the very soil, to the very beginnings and solid elementary +facts of life. And she would do it at once, and not sit idle at the +farm. It was on such idle days as the day Fritzing went to Minehead +that sillinesses assailed her soul--shrinkings of the flesh from +honest calico, disgust at the cooking, impatience at Annalise's +swollen eyes. Priscilla could have cried that night when she went to +bed, if she had not held tears in scorn, at the sickliness of her +spirit, her spirit that she had thought more than able to keep her +body in subjection, that she had hoped was unalterably firm and brave. +But see the uses of foolishness,--the reaction from it is so great +that it sends us with a bound twice as far again along the right road +as we were while we were wise and picking our way with clean shoes +slowly among the puddles. Who does not know that fresh impulse, so +strong and gracious, towards good that surges up in us after a period +of sitting still in mud? What an experience it is, that vigorous shake +and eager turning of our soiled face once more towards the blessed +light. "I will arise and go to my Father"--of all the experiences of +the spirit surely this is the most glorious; and behold the prudent, +the virtuous, the steadfast--dogged workers in the vineyard in the +heat of the day--are shut out from it for ever. + +Priscilla had not backslided much; but short as her tarrying had been +among the puddles she too sprang forward after it with renewed +strength along the path she had chosen as the best, and having +completed the second of her good works--the first had been performed +just previously, and had been a warm invitation made personally from +door to door to all the Symford mothers to send their children to tea +and games at Baker's Farm the next day, which was Sunday--she came +away very happy from the comforted Mrs. Jones, and met the two +arriving comforters in the front garden. + +Now Priscilla's and Mrs. Jones's last words together had been these: + +"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Priscilla had asked, +leaning over the old lady and patting her arm in farewell. + +"No, deary--you've done enough already, God bless your pretty face," +said Mrs. Jones, squeezing the five-pound note ecstatically in her +hands. + +"But isn't there anything you'd like? Can't I get you anything? See, I +can run about and you are here in bed. Tell me what I can do." + +Mrs. Jones blinked and worked her mouth and blinked again and wheezed +and cleared her throat. "Well, I do know of something would comfort +me," she said at last, amid much embarrassed coughing. + +"Tell me," said Priscilla. + +"I don't like," coughed Mrs. Jones. + +"Tell me," said Priscilla. + +"I'll whisper it, deary." + +Priscilla bent down her head, and the old lady put her twitching mouth +to her ear. + +"Why, of course," said Priscilla smiling, "I'll go and get you some at +once." + +"Now God for ever bless your beautiful face, darlin'!" shrilled Mrs. +Jones, quite beside herself with delight. "The Cock and 'Ens, +deary--that's the place. And the quart bottles are the best; one gets +more comfort out of them, and they're the cheapest in the end." + +And Priscilla issuing forth on this errand met the arriving visitors +in the garden. + +"How do you do," she said in a happy voice, smiling gaily at both of +them. She had seen neither since she had dismissed them, but naturally +she had never given that strange proceeding a thought. + +"Oh--how do you do," said Lady Shuttleworth, surprised to see her +there, and with a slight and very unusual confusion of manner. + +Mrs. Morrison said nothing but stood stiffly in the background, +answering Priscilla's smile with a stern, reluctant nod. + +"I've been talking to poor old Mrs. Jones. Your son"--she looked at +Mrs. Morrison--"told me how ill she was." + +"Did he?" said Mrs. Morrison, hardly raising her eyes a moment from +the ground. This girl was her double enemy: bound, whatever she did, +to make either a fool of her son or of her daughter. + +"So I went in and tried to cheer her up. And I really believe I did." + +"Well that was very kind of you," said Lady Shuttleworth, smiling in +spite of herself, unable to withstand the charm of Priscilla's +personality. How supremely ridiculous of Mrs. Morrison to think that +this girl was an adventuress. Such are the depths of ignorance one can +descend to if one is buried long enough in the country. + +"Now," said Priscilla cheerfully, "she wants rum, and I'm just going +to buy her some." + +"Rum?" cried Lady Shuttleworth in a voice of horror; and Mrs. Morrison +started violently. + +"Is it bad for her?" said Priscilla, surprised. + +"Bad!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"It is," said Mrs. Morrison with her eyes on the ground, "poison for +both body and soul." + +"Dear me," said Priscilla, her face falling. "Why, she said it would +comfort her." + +"It will poison both her body and her soul," repeated Mrs. Morrison +grimly. + +"My dear," said Lady Shuttleworth, "our efforts are all directed +towards training our people to keep from drinking." + +"But she doesn't want to drink," said Priscilla. "She only wants to +taste it now and then. I'm afraid she's dying. Mustn't she die +happy?" + +"It is our duty," said Mrs. Morrison, "to see that our parishioners +die sober." + +"But I've promised," said Priscilla. + +"Did she--did she ask for it herself?" asked Lady Shuttleworth, a +great anxiety in her voice. + +"Yes, and I promised." + +Both the women looked very grave. Mrs. Jones, who was extremely old +and certainly dying--not from any special disease but from mere +inability to go on living--had been up to this a shining example to +Symford of the manner in which Christian old ladies ought to die. As +such she was continually quoted by the vicar's wife, and Lady +Shuttleworth had felt an honest pride in this ordered and seemly +death-bed. The vicar went every day and sat with her and said that he +came away refreshed. Mrs. Morrison read her all those of her leaflets +that described the enthusiasm with which other good persons behave in +a like case. Lady Shuttleworth never drove through the village without +taking her some pleasant gift--tea, or fruit, or eggs, or even little +pots of jam, to be eaten discreetly and in spoonfuls. She also paid a +woman to look in at short intervals during the day and shake up her +pillow. Kindness and attention and even affection could not, it will +be admitted, go further; all three had been heaped on Mrs. Jones with +generous hands; and in return she had expressed no sentiments that +were not appropriate, and never, never had breathed the faintest +suggestion to any of her benefactors that what she really wanted most +was rum. It shocked both the women inexpressibly, and positively +pained Lady Shuttleworth. Mrs. Morrison privately believed Priscilla +had put the idea into the old lady's head, and began to regard her in +something of the light of a fiend. + +"Suppose," said Priscilla, "we look upon it as medicine." + +"But my dear, it is not medicine," said Lady Shuttleworth. + +"It is poison," repeated Mrs. Morrison. + +"How can it be if it does her so much good? I must keep my promise. I +wouldn't disappoint her for the world. If only you'd seen her +delight"--they quivered--"you'd agree that she mustn't be +disappointed, poor old dying thing. Why, it might kill her. But +suppose we treat it as a medicine, and I lock up the bottle and go +round and give her a little myself three or four times a day--wouldn't +that be a good plan? Surely it couldn't hurt?" + +"There is no law to stop you," said Mrs. Morrison; and Lady +Shuttleworth stared at the girl in silent dismay. + +"I can try it at least," said Priscilla; "and if I find it's really +doing her harm I'll leave off. But I promised, and she's expecting it +now every minute. I can't break my promise. Do tell me--is the Cock +and Hens that inn round the corner? She told me it was best there." + +"But you cannot go yourself to the Cock and Hens and buy rum," +exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth, roused to energy; and her voice was full +of so determined a protest that the vicar's wife, who thought it +didn't matter at all where such a young woman went, received a fresh +shock. + +"Why not?" inquired Priscilla. + +"My dear, sooner than you should do that I'll--I'll go and buy it +myself," cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"Gracious heavens," thought Mrs. Morrison, perfectly staggered by this +speech. Had Lady Shuttleworth suddenly lost her reason? Or was she +already accepting the girl as her son's wife? Priscilla looked at her +a moment with grave eyes. "Is it because I'm a girl that I mustn't?" +she asked. + +"Yes. For one thing. But--" Lady Shuttleworth shut her mouth. + +"But what?" asked Priscilla. + +"Oh, nothing." + +"If it's not the custom of the country for a girl to go I'll send Mr. +Morrison," said Priscilla. + +"Send Mr. Morrison?" gasped the vicar's wife. + +"What, the vicar?" exclaimed Lady Shuttleworth. + +"No, no," said Priscilla smiling, "young Mr. Morrison. I see him over +there tying up my creepers. He's so kind. He'll go. I'll ask him." + +And nodding good-bye she hurried out of the garden and over to her +cottage, almost running in her desire not to keep Mrs. Jones any +longer in suspense. + +The two women, rooted to the ground, watched her as if fascinated, saw +her speak to Robin on his ladder, saw how he started and dropped his +nails, saw how nimbly he clambered down, and how after the shortest +parley the infatuated youth rushed away at once in the direction of +the Cock and Hens. The only thing they did not see from where they +stood was the twinkle in his eye. + +"I don't think," murmured Lady Shuttleworth, "I don't think, my dear, +that I quite care to go in to Mrs. Jones to-day. I--I think I'll go +home." + +"So shall I," said Mrs. Morrison, biting her lips to keep them steady. +"I shall go and speak to the vicar." + + + + +XI + + +What she meant by speaking to the vicar was a vigorous stirring of him +up to wrath; but you cannot stir up vicars if they are truly good. The +vicar was a pious and patient old man, practiced in forgiveness, in +overlooking, in waiting, in trying again. Always slow to anger, as the +years drew him more and more apart into the shadows of old age and he +watched from their clear coolness with an ever larger comprehension +the younger generations striving together in the heat, he grew at last +unable to be angered at all. The scriptural injunction not to let the +sun go down upon your wrath had no uses for him, for he possessed no +wrath for the sun to go down upon. He had that lovable nature that +sees the best in everything first, and then prefers to look no +further. He took for granted that people were at bottom good and +noble, and the assumption went a long way towards making them so. +Robin, for instance, was probably saved by his father's unclouded +faith in him. Mrs. Morrison, a woman who had much trouble with +herself, having come into the world with the wings of the angel in her +well glued down and prevented from spreading by a multitude of little +defects, had been helped without her knowing it by his example out of +many a pit of peevishness and passion. Who shall measure the influence +of one kind and blameless life? His wife, in her gustier moments, +thought it sheer weakness, this persistent turning away from evil, +this refusal to investigate and dissect, to take sides, to wrestle. +The evil was there, and it was making an ostrich or a vegetable of +one's self to go on being calm in the face of it. With the blindness +of wives, who are prevented from seeing clearly by the very closeness +of the object--the same remark exactly applies to husbands--she did +not see that the vicar was the candle shining in a naughty world, that +he was the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. And just as leaven +leavens by its mere presence in the lump, by merely passively being +there, and will go on doing it so long as there is a lump to leaven, +so had the vicar, more than his hardworking wife, more than the +untiring Lady Shuttleworth, more than any district visitor, parish +nurse, or other holy person, influenced Symford by simply living in it +in a way that would have surprised him had he known. There is a great +virtue in sweeping out one's own house and trimming its lamps before +starting on the house and lamps of a neighbour; and since new dust +settles every day, and lamps, I believe, need constant trimming, I +know not when the truly tidy soul will have attained so perfect a +spotlessness as to justify its issuing forth to attack the private +dust of other people. And if it ever did, lo, it would find the +necessity no longer there. Its bright untiringness would +unconsciously have done its work, and every dimmer soul within sight +of that cheerful shining been strengthened and inspired to go and do +likewise. + +But Mrs. Morrison, who saw things differently, was constantly trying +to stir up storms in the calm waters of the vicar's mind; and after +the episode in Mrs. Jones's front garden she made a very determined +effort to get him to rebuke Priscilla. Her own indignation was poured +out passionately. The vicar was surprised at her heat, he who was so +beautifully cool himself, and though he shook his head over Mrs. +Jones's rum he also smiled as he shook it. Nor was he more reasonable +about Robin. On the contrary, he declared that he would think mightily +little of a young man who did not immediately fall head over ears in +love with such a pretty girl. + +"You don't mind our boy's heart being broken, then?" questioned his +wife bitterly; of her plans for Netta she had never cared to speak. + +"My dear, if it is to be broken there is no young lady I would sooner +entrust with the job." + +"You don't mind his marrying an adventuress, then?" + +"My dear, I know of no adventuress." + +"You rather like our old people to be tempted to drink, to have it +thrust upon them on their very dying beds?" + +"Kate, are you not bitter?" + +"Psha," said his wife, drumming her foot. + +"Psha, Kate?" inquired the vicar mildly; and it is not always that +the saintly produce a soothing effect on their wives. + +It really seemed as if the girl were to have her own way in Symford, +unchecked even by Lady Shuttleworth, whose attitude was entirely +incomprehensible. She was to be allowed to corrupt the little hamlet +that had always been so good, to lead it astray, to lure it down paths +of forbidden indulgence, to turn it topsy turvy to an extent not even +reached by the Dissenting family that had given so much trouble a few +years before. It was on the Sunday morning as the church bells were +ringing, that Mrs. Morrison, prayer-book in hand, looked in at Mrs. +Jones's on her way to service and discovered the five-pound note. + +The old lady was propped up in bed with her open Bible on her lap and +her spectacles lying in it, and as usual presented to her visitor the +perfect realization of her ideal as to the looks and manners most +appropriate to ailing Christians. There was nowhere a trace of rum, +and the only glass in the room was innocently filled with the china +roses that flowered so profusely in the garden at Baker's Farm. But +Mrs. Morrison could not for all that dissemble the disappointment and +sternness of her heart, and the old lady glanced up at her as she came +in with a kind of quavering fearfulness, like that of a little child +who is afraid it may be going to be whipped, or of a conscientious dog +who has lapsed unaccountably from rectitude. + +"I have come to read the gospel for the day to you," said Mrs. +Morrison, sitting down firmly beside her. + +"Thank you mum," said Mrs. Jones with meekness. + +"My prayer-book has such small print--give me your Bible." + +A look of great anxiety came into Mrs. Jones's eyes, but the Bible was +drawn from between her trembling old hands, and Mrs. Morrison began to +turn its pages. She had not turned many before she came to the +five-pound note. "What is this?" she asked, in extreme surprise. + +Mrs. Jones gave a little gasp, and twisted her fingers about. + +"A five-pound note?" exclaimed Mrs. Morrison, holding it up. "How did +it come here?" + +"It's mine, mum," quavered Mrs. Jones. + +"Yours? Do you mean to say you have money hidden away and yet allow +Lady Shuttleworth to pay everything for you?" + +"It's the first I ever 'ad, mum," faintly murmured the old lady, her +eyes following every movement of Mrs. Morrison's hands with a look of +almost animal anxiety. + +"Where did it come from?" + +"The young lady give it me yesterday, mum." + +"The young lady?" Mrs. Morrison's voice grew very loud. "Do you mean +the person staying at the Pearces'?" + +Mrs. Jones gulped, and feebly nodded. + +"Most improper. Most wrong. Most dangerous. You cannot tell how she +came by it, and I must say I'm surprised at you, Mrs. Jones. It +probably is not a real one. It is unlikely a chit like that should be +able to give so large a sum away--" And Mrs. Morrison held up the note +to the light and turned it round and round, scrutinizing it from every +point of view, upside down, back to front, sideways, with one eye +shut; but it refused to look like anything but a good five-pound note, +and she could only repeat grimly "Most dangerous." + +The old lady watched her, a terrible anxiety in her eyes. Her worst +fears were fulfilled when the vicar's wife folded it up and said +decidedly, "For the present I shall take care of it for you. You +cannot lie here with so much money loose about the place. Why, if it +got round the village you might have some one in who'd murder you. +People have been murdered before now for less than this. I shall speak +to the vicar about it." And she put it in her purse, shut it with a +snap, and took up the Bible again. + +Mrs. Jones made a little sound between a gasp and a sob. Her head +rolled back on the pillow, and two tears dropped helplessly down the +furrows of her face. In that moment she felt the whole crushing misery +of being weak, and sick, and old,--so old that you have outlived your +claims to everything but the despotic care of charitable ladies, so +old that you are a mere hurdy-gurdy, expected each time any one in +search of edification chooses to turn your handle to quaver out tunes +of immortality. It is a bad thing to be very old. Of all the bad +things life forces upon us as we pass along it is the last and +worst--the bitterness at the bottom of the cup, the dregs of what for +many was after all always only medicine. Mrs. Jones had just enough of +the strength of fear left to keep quite still while the vicar's wife +read the Gospel in a voice that anger made harsh; but when she had +gone, after a parting admonition and a dreadful assurance that she +would come again soon, the tears rolled unchecked and piteous, and it +was a mercy that Priscilla also took it into her head to look in on +her way to church, for if she had not I don't know who would have +dried them for this poor baby of eighty-five. And I regret to say that +Priscilla's ideas of doing good were in such a state of crudeness that +she had no sooner mastered the facts brokenly sobbed out than she ran +to the cupboard and gave Mrs. Jones a tablespoonful of rum for the +strengthening of her body and then took out her purse and gave her +another five-pound note for the comforting of her soul. And then she +wiped her eyes, and patted her, and begged her not to mind. Such +conduct was, I suppose, what is called indiscriminate charity and +therefore blameworthy, but its effect was great. Priscilla went to +church with the reflection of the old lady's wonder and joy shining in +her own face. "Hide it," had been her last words at the door, her +finger on her lips, her head nodding expressively in the direction of +the vicarage; and by this advice she ranged herself once and for all +on the opposite side to Mrs. Morrison and the followers of obedience +and order. Mrs. Jones would certainly have taken her for an angel +working miracles with five-pound notes and an inexhaustible pocket if +it had not been for the rum; even in her rapture she did feel that a +genuine angel would be incapable of any really harmonious combination +with rum. But so far had she fallen from the kind of thinking that the +vicar's wife thought proper in a person so near her end that she +boldly told herself she preferred Priscilla. + +Now this was the day of Priscilla's children's party, and though all +Symford had been talking of it for twenty-four hours the news of it +had not yet reached Mrs. Morrison's ears. The reason was that Symford +talked in whispers, only too sure that the authorities would consider +it wrong for it to send its children a-merrymaking on a Sunday, and +desperately afraid lest the forbidden cup should be snatched from its +longing lips. But the news did get to Mrs. Morrison's ears, and it got +to them in the porch of the church as she was passing in to prayer. +She had it from an overgrown girl who was waiting outside for her +father, and who was really much too big for children's parties but had +got an invitation by looking wistful at the right moment. + +"Emma," said Mrs. Morrison in passing, "you have not returned the +book I lent you. Bring it up this afternoon." + +"Please mum, I'll bring it to-morrow, mum," said the girl, curtseying +and turning red. + +"No, Emma, you will do as I direct. One can never be too particular +about returning books. You have kept it an unconscionable time. You +will bring it to the vicarage at four o'clock." + +"Please mum, I--I can't at four o'clock." + +"And pray, Emma, what is to prevent you?" + +"I--I'm going to Baker's, mum." + +"Going to Baker's? Why are you going to Baker's, Emma?" + +So it all came out. + +The bells were just stopping, and Mrs. Morrison, who played the organ, +was forced to hurry in without having told Emma her whole opinion of +those who gave and those who attended Sunday parties, but the prelude +she played that day expressed the tumult of her mind very well, and +struck Tussie Shuttleworth, who had sensitive ears, quite cold. He was +the only person in the church acutely sensitive to sound, and it was +very afflicting to him, this plunging among the pedals, this angry +shrieking of stops no man ever yet had heard together. The very blower +seemed frightened, and blew in gasps; and the startled Tussie, +comparing the sounds to the clamourings of a fiend in pain, could not +possibly guess they were merely the musical expression of the state of +a just woman's soul. + +Mrs. Morrison's anger was perfectly proper. It had been the +conscientious endeavour of twenty-five solid years of her life to make +of Symford a model parish, and working under Lady Shuttleworth, whose +power was great since all the cottages were her son's and were lived +in by his own labourers, it had been kept in a state of order so +nearly perfect as to raise it to the position of an example to the +adjoining parishes. The church was full, the Sunday-school well +attended, the Sabbath was kept holy, the women were one and all sober +and thrifty, the men were fairly satisfactory except on Saturday +nights, there was no want, little sickness, and very seldom downright +sin. The expression downright sin is Mrs. Morrison's own,--heaven +forbid that I should have anything to do with such an expression--and +I suppose she meant by it thieving, murder, and other grossnesses that +would bring the sinner, as she often told her awe-struck Dorcas class, +to infallible gallows, and the sinner's parents' grey hairs to +sorrowful graves. "Please mum, will the parents go too?" asked a girl +one day who had listened breathlessly, an inquiring-minded girl who +liked to get to the root of things. + +"Go where, Bessie?" + +"With the grey hairs, mum." + +Mrs. Morrison paused a moment and fixed a searching gaze on Bessie's +face. Then she said with much dignity, "The parents, Bessie, will +naturally follow the hairs." And to a girl bred in the near +neighbourhood of Exmoor it sounded very sporting. + +Into this innocent, frugal, well-managed hamlet Priscilla dropped +suddenly from nowhere, trailing with her thunder-clouds of impulsive +and childish ideas about doing good, and holding in her hands the +dangerous weapon of wealth. It is hard to stand by and see one's +life-work broken up before one's eyes by an irresponsible stranger, a +foreigner, a girl, a young girl, a pretty girl; especially hard if one +was born with an unbending character, tough and determined, ambitious +and vain. These are not reproaches being piled up on the vicar's wife; +who shall dare reproach another? And how could she help being born so? +We would all if we could be born good and amiable and beautiful, and +remain so perpetually during our lives; and she too was one of God's +children, and inside her soul, behind the crust of failings that +hindered it during these years from coming out, sat her bright angel, +waiting. Meanwhile she was not a person to watch the destruction of +her hopes without making violent efforts to stop it; and immediately +she had played the vicar into the vestry after service that Sunday she +left the congregation organless and hurried away into the churchyard. +There she stood and waited for the villagers to question them about +this unheard of thing; and it was bad to see how they melted away in +other directions,--out at unused gates, making detours over the grass, +visiting the long-neglected graves of relatives, anywhere rather than +along the ordinary way, which was the path where the vicar's wife +stood. At last came Mrs. Vickerton the postmistress. She was deep in +conversation with the innkeeper's wife, and did not see the figure on +the path in time to melt away herself. If she had she certainly would +have melted, for though she had no children but her grown-up son she +felt very guilty; for it was her son who had been sent the afternoon +before to Minehead by Priscilla with a list as long as his arm of the +cakes and things to be ordered for the party. "Oh Mrs. Morrison, I +didn't see you," she exclaimed, starting and smiling and turning red. +She was a genteel woman who called no one mum. + +The innkeeper's wife slipped deftly away among graves. + +"Is it true that the children are going to Baker's Farm this +afternoon?" asked Mrs. Morrison, turning and walking grimly by Mrs. +Vickerton. + +"I did hear something about it, Mrs. Morrison," said Mrs. Vickerton, +hiding her agitation behind a series of smiles with sudden endings. + +"All?" + +"I did hear they pretty well all thought of it," said Mrs. Vickerton, +coughing. "Beautiful weather, isn't it, Mrs. Morrison." + +"They are to have tea there?" + +Mrs. Vickerton gazed pleasantly at the clouds and the tree-tops. "I +should think there might be tea, Mrs. Morrison," she said; and the +vision of that mighty list of cakes rising before her eyes made her +put up her hand and cough again. + +"Have the parents lost their senses?" + +"I couldn't say--I really couldn't say, Mrs. Morrison." + +"Have they forgotten the commandments?" + +"Oh I 'ope not, Mrs. Morrison." + +"And the vicar's teaching? And the good habits of years?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Morrison." + +"I never heard of anything more disgraceful. Disgraceful to the giver +and to those who accept. Wicked, scandalous, and unscriptural." + +"We all 'oped you'd see no harm in it, Mrs. Morrison. It's a fine day, +and they'll just have tea, and perhaps--sing a little, and they don't +get treats often this time of year." + +"Why, it's disgraceful--disgraceful anywhere to have a treat on a +Sunday; but in a parish like this it is scandalous. When Lady +Shuttleworth hears of it I quite expect she'll give everybody notice +to quit." + +"Notice to quit? Oh I hope not, Mrs. Morrison. And she do know about +it. She heard it last night. And Sir Augustus himself has promised the +young lady to go and help." + +"Sir Augustus?" + +"And we all think it so kind of him, and so kind of the young lady +too," said Mrs. Vickerton, gathering courage. + +"Sir Augustus?" repeated Mrs. Morrison. Then a horrid presentiment +laid cold fingers on her heart. "Is any one else going to help?" she +asked quickly. + +"Only the young lady's uncle, and--" + +Mrs. Vickerton hesitated, and looked at the vicar's wife with a +slightly puzzled air. + +"And who?" + +"Of course Mr. Robin." + + + + +XII + + +It is the practice of Providence often to ignore the claims of poetic +justice. Properly, the Symford children ought to have been choked by +Priscilla's cakes; and if they had been, the parents who had sent them +merrymaking on a Sunday would have been well punished by the +undeniable awfulness of possessing choked children. But nobody was +choked; and when in the early days of the following week there were in +nearly every cottage pangs being assuaged, they were so naturally the +consequence of the strange things that had been eaten that only Mrs. +Morrison was able to see in them weapons being wielded by Providence +in the cause of eternal right. She, however, saw it so plainly that +each time during the next few days that a worried mother came and +asked advice, she left her work or her meals without a murmur, and +went to the castor-oil cupboard with an alacrity that was almost +cheerful; and seldom, I suppose, have such big doses been supplied and +administered as the ones she prescribed for suffering Symford. + +But on this dark side of the picture I do not care to look; the +party, anyhow, had been a great success, and Priscilla became at +one stroke as popular among the poor of Symford as she had been in +Lothen-Kunitz. Its success it is true was chiefly owing to the +immense variety of things to eat she had provided; for the +conjuror, merry-go-round, and cocoa-nuts to be shied at that she +had told young Vickerton to bring with him from Minehead, had all +been abandoned on Tussie's earnest advice, who instructed her +innocent German mind that these amusements, undoubtedly admirable +in themselves and on week days, were looked upon askance in England +on Sundays. + +"Why?" asked Priscilla, in great surprise. + +"It's not keeping the day holy," said Tussie, blushing. + +"How funny," said Priscilla. + +"Oh, I don't know." + +"Why," said Priscilla, "in Kun--" but she pulled herself up just as +she was about to give him a description of the varied nature of Sunday +afternoons in Kunitz. + +"You must have noticed," said Tussie, "as you have lived so long in +London, that everything's shut on Sundays. There are no theatres and +things--certainly no cocoa-nuts." + +"No, I don't remember any cocoa-nuts," mused Priscilla, her memory +going over those past Sundays she had spent in England. + +Tussie tried to make amends for having obstructed her plans by +exerting himself to the utmost to entertain the children as far as +decorum allowed. He encouraged them to sing, he who felt every +ugliness in sound like a blow; he urged them to recite for prizes of +sixpences, he on whose soul Casabianca and Excelsior had much the +effect of scourges on a tender skin; he led them out into a field +between tea and supper and made them run races, himself setting the +example, he who caught cold so easily that he knew it probably meant a +week in bed. Robin helped too, but his exertions were confined to the +near neighbourhood of Priscilla. His mother had been very angry with +him, and he had been very angry with his mother for being angry, and +he had come away from the vicarage with a bad taste in his mouth and a +great defiance in his heart. It was the first time he had said hard +things to her, and it had been a shocking moment,--a moment sometimes +inevitable in the lives of parents and children of strong character +and opposed desires. He had found himself quite unable in his anger to +clothe his hard sayings in forms of speech that would have hidden +their brutal force, and he had turned his back at last on her +answering bitterness and fled to Baker's, thankful to find when he got +there that Priscilla's beauty and the interest of the mystery that +hung about her wiped out every other remembrance. + +Priscilla was in the big farm kitchen, looking on at the children +having tea. That was all she did at her party, except go round every +now and then saying pleasant little things to each child; but this +going round was done in so accomplished a manner, she seemed so used +to it, was so well provided with an apparently endless supply of +appropriate remarks, was so kind, and yet so--what was the word? +could it be mechanical?--that Robin for the hundredth time found +himself pondering over something odd, half-remembered, elusive about +the girl. Then there was the uncle; manifestly a man who had never +before been required to assist at a school-treat, manifestly on this +occasion an unhappy man, yet look how he worked while she sat idly +watching, look how he laboured round with cakes and bread-and-butter, +clumsily, strenuously, with all the heat and anxiety of one eager to +please and obey. Yes, that was what he did; Robin had hit on it at +last. This extraordinary uncle obeyed his niece; and Robin knew very +well that Germany was the last country in the world to produce men who +did that. Had he not a cousin who had married a German officer? A +whilom gay and sprightly cousin, who spent her time, as she dolefully +wrote, having her mind weeded of its green growth of little opinions +and gravelled and rolled and stamped with the opinions of her male +relations-in-law. "And I'd rather have weeds than gravel," she wrote +at the beginning of this process when she was still restive under the +roller, "for they at least are green." But long ago she had left off +complaining, long ago she too had entered into the rest that remaineth +for him who has given up, who has become what men praise as reasonable +and gods deplore as dull, who is tired of bothering, tired of trying, +tired of everything but sleep. Then there was the girl's maid. This +was the first time Robin had seen her; and while she was helping Mrs. +Pearce pour out cups of chocolate and put a heaped spoonful of whipped +cream on the top of each cup in the fashion familiar to Germans and +altogether lovely in the eyes of the children of Symford, Robin went +to her and offered help. + +Annalise looked at him with heavy eyes, and shook her head. + +"She don't speak no English, sir," explained Mrs. Pearce. "This one's +pure heathen." + +"No English," echoed Annalise drearily, who had at least learned that +much, "no English, no English." + +Robin gathered up his crumbs of German and presented them to her with +a smile. Immediately on hearing her own tongue she flared into life, +and whipping out a little pocket-book and pencil asked him eagerly +where she was. + +"Where you are?" repeated Robin, astonished. + +"_Ja, Ja_. The address. This address. What is it? Where am I?" + +"What, don't you know?" + +"Tell me--quick," begged Annalise. + +"But why--I don't understand. You must know you are in England?" + +"England! Naturally I know it is England. But this--where is it? What +is its address? For letters to reach me? Quick--tell me quick!" + +Robin, however, would not be quick. "Why has no one told you?" he +asked, with an immense curiosity. + +"_Ach_, I have not been told. I know nothing. I am kept in the dark +like--like a prisoner." And Annalise dragged her handkerchief out of +her pocket, and put it to her eyes just in time to stop her ready +tears from falling into the whipped cream and spoiling it. + +"There she goes again," sniffed Mrs. Pearce. "It's cry, cry, from +morning till night, and nothing good enough for her. It's a mercy she +goes out of this to-morrow. I never see such an image." + +"Tell me," implored Annalise, "tell me quick, before my mistress--" + +"I'll write it for you," said Robin, taking the note-book from her. +"You know you go into a cottage next week, so I'll put your new +address." And he wrote it in a large round hand and gave it to her +quickly, for Mrs. Pearce was listening to all this German and watching +him write with a look that made him feel cheap. So cheap did it make +him feel that he resisted for the present his desire to go on +questioning Annalise, and putting his hands in his pockets sauntered +away to the other end of the kitchen where Priscilla sat looking on. +"I'm afraid that really was cheap of me," he thought ruefully, when he +came once more into Priscilla's sweet presence; but he comforted +himself with the reflection that no girl ought to be mysterious, +and if this one chose to be so it was fair to cross her plans +occasionally. Yet he went on feeling cheap; and when Tussie who was +hurrying along with a cup of chocolate in each hand ran into him and +spilt some on his sleeve the sudden rage with which he said "Confound +you, Tussie," had little to do with the hot stuff soaking through to +his skin and a great deal with the conviction that Tussie, despised +from their common childhood for his weakness, smallness and ugliness, +would never have done what he had just done and betrayed what the girl +had chosen to keep secret from her maid. + +"But why secret? Why? Why?" asked Robin, torn with desire to find out +all about Priscilla. + +"I'm going to do this often," said Priscilla, looking up at him with a +pleased smile. "I never saw such easily amused little creatures. Don't +you think it is beautiful, to give poor people a few happy moments +sometimes?" + +"Very beautiful," said Robin, his eyes on her face. + +"It is what I mean to do in future," she said dreamily, her chin on +her hand. + +"It will be expensive," remarked Robin; for there were nearly two +hundred children, and Priscilla had collected the strangest things in +food on the long tables as a result of her method, when inviting, of +asking each mother what her child best liked to eat and then ordering +it with the lavishness of ignorance from Minehead. + +"Oh, we shall live so simply ourselves that there will be enough left +to do all I want. And it will be the most blessed change and +refreshment, living simply. Fritzi hated the fuss and luxury quite as +much as I did." + +"Did he?" said Robin, holding his breath. The girl was evidently off +her guard. He had not heard her call her uncle baldly Fritzi before; +and what fuss and luxury could a German teacher's life have known? + +"He it was who first made me see that the body is more than meat and +the soul than raiment," mused Priscilla. + +"Was he?" + +"He pulled my soul out of the flesh-pots. I'm a sort of Israel come +out of Egypt, but an Egypt that was altogether too comfortable." + +"Too comfortable? Can one be too comfortable?" + +"I was. I couldn't move or see or breathe for comfort. It was like a +feather bed all over me." + +"I wouldn't call that comfort," said Robin, for she paused, and he was +afraid she was not going on. "It sounds much more like torture." + +"So it was at last. And Fritzi helped me to shake it off. If he hadn't +I'd have smothered slowly, and perhaps if I'd never known him I'd have +done it as gracefully as my sisters did. Why, they don't know to this +day that they are dead." + +Robin was silent. He was afraid to speak lest anything he said should +remind her of the part she ought to be playing. He had no doubt now +at all that she was keeping a secret. A hundred questions were burning +on his lips. He hated himself for wanting to ask them, for being so +inquisitive, for taking advantage of the girl's being off her guard, +but what are you to do with your inherited failings? Robin's mother +was inquisitive and it had got into his blood, and I know of no moral +magnesia that will purify these things away. "You said the other day," +he burst out at last, quite unable to stop himself, "that you only had +your uncle in the world. Are your sisters--are they in London?" + +"In London?" Priscilla gazed at him a moment with a vague surprise. +Then fright flashed into her eyes. "Did I not tell you they were dead? +Smothered?" she said, getting up quickly, her face setting into the +frown that had so chilled Tussie on the heath. + +"But I took that as a parable." + +"How can I help how you took it?" + +And she instantly left him and went away round the tables, beginning +those little pleasant observations to the children again that struck +him as so strange. + +Well did he know the sort of thing. He had seen Lady Shuttleworth do +it fifty times to the tenants, to the cottagers, at flower-shows, +bazaars, on all occasions of public hospitality or ceremony; but +practised and old as Lady Shuttleworth was this girl seemed yet more +practised. She was a finished artist in the work, he said to himself +as he leaned against the wall, his handsome face flushed, his eyes +sulky, watching her. It was enough to make any good-looking young +man sulky, the mixture of mystery and aloofness about Miss +Neumann-Schultz. Extraordinary as it seemed, up to this point he had +found it quite impossible to indulge with her in that form of more or +less illustrated dialogue known to Symford youths and maidens as +billing and cooing. Very fain would Robin have billed and have cooed. +It was a practice he excelled in. And yet though he had devoted +himself for three whole days, stood on ladders, nailed up creepers, +bought and carried rum, had a horrible scene with his mother because +of her, he had not got an inch nearer things personal and cosy. Miss +Neumann-Schultz thanked him quite kindly and graciously for his +pains--oh, she was very gracious; gracious in the sort of way Lady +Shuttleworth used to be when he came home for the holidays and she +patted his head and uttered benignities--and having thanked, +apparently forgot him till the next time she wanted anything. + +"Fritzi," said Priscilla, when in the course of her progress down the +room she met that burdened man, "I'm dreadfully afraid I've said some +foolish things." + +Fritzing put the plate of cake he was carrying down on a dresser and +wiped his forehead. "Ma'am," he said looking worried, "I cannot watch +you and administer food to these barbarians simultaneously. If your +tongue is so unruly I would recommend complete silence." + +"I've said something about my sisters." + +"Sisters, ma'am?" said Fritzing anxiously. + +"Does it matter?" + +"Matter? I have carefully instructed the woman Pearce, who has +certainly informed, as I intended she should inform, the entire +village, that you were my brother's only child. Consequently, ma'am, +you have no sisters." + +Priscilla made a gesture of despair. "How fearfully difficult it is +not to be straightforward," she said. + +"Yes, ma'am, it is. Since we started on this adventure the whole race +of rogues has become the object of my sincerest admiration. What wits, +what quickness, what gifts--so varied and so deftly used--what skill +in deception, what resourcefulness in danger, what self-command--" + +"Yes but Fritzi what are we to do?" + +"Do, ma'am? About your royal sisters? Would to heaven I had been born +a rogue!" + +"Yes, but as you were not--ought I to go back and say they're only +half-sisters? Or step-sisters? Or sisters in law? Wouldn't that do?" + +"With whom were you speaking?" + +"Mr. Morrison." + +"Ma'am, let me beg you to be more prudent with that youth than with +any one. Our young friend Caesar Augustus is I believe harmlessness +itself compared with him. Be on your guard, ma'am. Curb that fatal +feminine appendage, your tongue. I have remarked that he watches us. +But a short time since I saw him eagerly conversing with your Grand +Ducal Highness's maid. For me he has already laid several traps that I +have only just escaped falling into by an extraordinary presence of +mind and a nimbleness in dialectic almost worthy of a born rogue." + +"Oh Fritzi," said the frightened Priscilla, laying her hand on his +sleeve, "do go and tell him I didn't mean what I said." + +Fritzing wiped his brow again. "I fail to understand," he said, +looking at Priscilla with worried eyes, "what there is about us that +can possibly attract any one's attention." + +"Why, there isn't anything," said Priscilla, with conviction. "We've +been most careful and clever. But just now--I don't know why--I began +to think aloud." + +"Think aloud?" exclaimed Fritzing, horrified. "Oh ma'am let me beseech +you never again to do that. Better a thousand times not to think at +all. What was it that your Grand Ducal Highness thought aloud?" + +And Priscilla, shamefaced, told him as well as she could remember. + +"I will endeavour to remedy it," said poor Fritzing, running an +agitated hand through his hair. + +Priscilla sighed, and stood drooping and penitent by the dresser while +he went down the room to where Robin still leaned against the wall. + +"Sir," said Fritzing--he never called Robin young man, as he did +Tussie--"my niece tells me you are unable to distinguish truth from +parable." + +"What?" said Robin staring. + +"You are not, sir, to suppose that when my niece described her sisters +as dead that they are not really so." + +"All right sir," said Robin, his eyes beginning to twinkle. + +"The only portion of the story in which my niece used allegory was +when she described them as having been smothered. These young ladies, +sir, died in the ordinary way, in their beds." + +"Feather beds, sir?" asked Robin briskly. + +"Sir, I have not inquired into the nature of the beds," said Fritzing +with severity. + +"Is it not rather unusual," asked Robin, "for two young ladies in one +family to die at once? Were they unhealthy young ladies?" + +"Sir, they did not die at once, nor were they unhealthy. They were +perfectly healthy until they--until they began to die." + +"Indeed," said Robin, with an interest properly tinged with regret. +"At least, sir," he added politely, after a pause in which he and +Fritzing stared very hard at each other, "I trust I may be permitted +to express my sympathy." + +"Sir, you may." And bowing stiffly Fritzing returned to Priscilla, and +with a sigh of relief informed her that he had made things right +again. + +"Dear Fritzi," said Priscilla looking at him with love and admiration, +"how clever you are." + + + + +XIII + + +It was on the Tuesday, the day Priscilla and Fritzing left Baker's and +moved into Creeper Cottage, that the fickle goddess who had let them +nestle for more than a week beneath her wing got tired of them and +shook them out. Perhaps she was vexed by their clumsiness at +pretending, perhaps she thought she had done more than enough for +them, perhaps she was an epicure in words and did not like a cottage +called Creeper; anyhow she shook them out. And if they had had eyes to +see they would not have walked into their new home with such sighs of +satisfaction and such a comfortable feeling that now at last the era +of systematic serenity and self-realization, beautifully combined with +the daily exercise of charity, had begun; for waiting for them in +Priscilla's parlour, established indeed in her easy-chair by the fire +and warming her miserable toes on the very hob, sat grey Ill Luck +horribly squinting. + +Creeper Cottage, it will be remembered, consisted of two cottages, +each with two rooms, an attic, and a kitchen, and in the back yard the +further accommodation of a coal-hole, a pig-stye, and a pump. Thanks +to Tussie's efforts more furniture had been got from Minehead. Tussie +had gone in himself, after a skilful questioning of Fritzing had made +him realize how little had been ordered, and had, with Fritzing's +permission, put the whole thing into the hands of a Minehead firm. +Thus there was a bed for Annalise and sheets for everybody, and the +place was as decent as it could be made in the time. It was so tiny +that it got done, after a great deal of urging from Tussie, by the +Tuesday at midday, and Tussie himself had superintended the storing of +wood in the coal-hole and the lighting of the fire that was to warm +his divine lady and that Ill Luck found so comforting to her toes. The +Shuttleworth horses had a busy time on the Friday, Saturday, and +Monday, trotting up and down between Symford and Minehead; and the +Shuttleworth servants and tenants, not being more blind than other +people, saw very well that their Augustus had lost his heart to the +lady from nowhere. As for Lady Shuttleworth, she only smiled a rueful +smile and stroked her poor Tussie's hair in silence when, having +murmured something about the horses being tired, he reproved her by +telling her that it was everybody's duty to do what they could for +strangers in difficulties. + +Priscilla's side of Creeper Cottage was the end abutting on the +churchyard, and her parlour had one latticed window looking south down +the village street, and one looking west opening directly on to the +churchyard. The long grass of the churchyard, its dandelions and +daisies, grew right up beneath this window to her wall, and a tall +tombstone half-blocked her view of the elm-trees and the church. Over +this room, with the same romantic and gloomy outlook, was her bedroom. +Behind her parlour was what had been the shoemaker's kitchen, but it +had been turned into a temporary bathroom. True no water was laid on +as yet, but the pump was just outside, and nobody thought there would +be any difficulty about filling the bath every morning by means of the +pump combined with buckets. Over the bathroom was the attic. This was +Annalise's bedroom. Nobody thought there would be any difficulty about +that either; nobody, in fact, thought anything about anything. It was +a simple place, after the manner of attics, with a window in its +sloping ceiling through which stars might be studied with great +comfort as one lay in bed. A frugal mind, an earnest soul, would have +liked the attic, would have found a healthy enjoyment in a place so +plain and fresh, so swept in windy weather by the airs of heaven. A +poet, too, would certainly have flooded any parts of it that seemed +dark with the splendour of his own inner light; a nature-lover, again, +would have quickly discovered the spiders that dwelt in its corners, +and spent profitable hours on all fours observing them. But an +Annalise--what was she to make of such a place? Is it not true that +the less a person has inside him of culture and imagination the more +he wants outside him of the upholstery of life? I think it is true; +and if it is, then the vacancy of Annalise's mind may be measured by +the fact that what she demanded of life in return for the negative +services of not crying and wringing her hands was nothing less filled +with food and sofas and servants than a grand ducal palace. + +But neither Priscilla nor Fritzing knew anything of Annalise's mind, +and if they had they would instantly have forgotten it again, of such +extreme unimportance would it have seemed. Nor would I dwell on it +myself if it were not that its very vacancy and smallness was the +cause of huge upheavals in Creeper Cottage, and the stone that the +builders ignored if they did not actually reject behaved as such +stones sometimes do and came down upon the builders' heads and crushed +them. Annalise, you see, was unable to appreciate peace, yet on the +other hand she was very able to destroy the peace of other people; and +Priscilla meant her cottage to be so peaceful--a temple, a holy place, +within whose quiet walls sacred years were going to be spent in doing +justly, in loving mercy, in walking humbly. True she had not as yet +made a nearer acquaintance with its inconveniences, but anyhow she +held the theory that inconveniences were things to be laughed at +and somehow circumvented, and that they do not enter into the +consideration of persons whose thoughts are absorbed by the burning +desire to live out their ideals. "You can be happy in any place +whatever," she remarked to Tussie on the Monday, when he was +expressing fears as to her future comfort; "absolutely any place will +do--a tub, a dingle, the top of a pillar--any place at all, if only +your soul is on fire." + +"Of course you can," cried Tussie, ready to kiss her feet. + +"And look how comfortable my cottage seems," said Priscilla, "directly +one compares it with things like tubs." + +"Yes, yes," agreed Tussie, "I do see that it's enough for free spirits +to live in. I was only wondering whether--whether bodies would find it +enough." + +"Oh bother bodies," said Priscilla airily. + +But Tussie could not bring himself to bother bodies if they included +her own; on the contrary, the infatuated young man thought it would be +difficult sufficiently to cherish a thing so supremely precious and +sweet. And each time he went home after having been in the frugal +baldness of Creeper Cottage he hated the superfluities of his own +house more and more, he accused himself louder and louder of being +mean-spirited, effeminate, soft, vulgar, he loathed himself for living +embedded in such luxury while she, the dear and lovely one, was ready +cheerfully to pack her beauty into a tub if needs be, or let it be +weather-beaten on a pillar for thirty years if by so doing she could +save her soul alive. Tussie at this time became unable to see a sleek +servant dart to help him take off his coat without saying something +sharp to him, could not sit through a meal without making bitter +comparisons between what they were eating and what the poor were +probably eating, could not walk up his spacious staircase and along +his lofty corridors without scowling; they, indeed, roused his +contemptuous wrath in quite a special degree, the reason being that +Priscilla's stairs, the stairs up and down which her little feet would +have to clamber daily, were like a ladder, and she possessed no +passages at all. But what of that? Priscilla could not see that it +mattered, when Tussie drew her attention to it. + +Both Fritzing's and her front door opened straight into their +sitting-rooms; both their staircases walked straight from the kitchens +up into the rooms above. They had meant to have a door knocked in the +dividing wall downstairs, but had been so anxious to get away from +Baker's that there was no time. In order therefore to get to Fritzing +Priscilla would have either to go out into the street and in again at +his front door, or go out at her back door and in again at his. Any +meals, too, she might choose to have served alone would have to be +carried round to her from the kitchen in Fritzing's half, either +through the backyard or through the street. + +Tussie thought of this each time he sat at his own meals, surrounded +by deft menials, lapped as he told himself in luxury,--oh, thought +Tussie writhing, it was base. His much-tried mother had to listen to +many a cross and cryptic remark flung across the table from the dear +boy who had always been so gentle; and more than that, he put his +foot down once and for all and refused with a flatness that silenced +her to eat any more patent foods. "Absurd," cried Tussie. "No wonder +I'm such an idiot. Who could be anything else with his stomach full of +starch? Why, I believe the stuff has filled my veins with milk instead +of good honest blood." + +"Dearest, I'll have it thrown out of the nearest window," said Lady +Shuttleworth, smiling bravely in her poor Tussie's small cross face. +"But what shall I give you instead? You know you won't eat meat." + +"Give me lentils," cried Tussie. "They're cheap." + +"Cheap?" + +"Mother, I do think it offensive to spend much on what goes into or +onto one's body. Why not have fewer things, and give the rest to the +poor?" + +"But I do give the rest to the poor; I'm always doing it. And there's +quite enough for us and for the poor too." + +"Give them more, then. Why," fumed Tussie, "can't we live decently? +Hasn't it struck you that we're very vulgar?" + +"No, dearest, I can't say that it has." + +"Well, we are. Everything we have that is beyond bare necessaries +makes us vulgar. And surely, mother, you do see that that's not a nice +thing to be." + +"It's a horrid thing to be," said his mother, arranging his tie with +an immense and lingering tenderness. + +"It's a difficult thing not to be," said Tussie, "if one is rich. +Hasn't it struck you that this ridiculous big house, and the masses of +things in it, and the whole place and all the money will inevitably +end by crushing us both out of heaven?" + +"No, I can't say it has. I expect you've been thinking of things like +the eyes of needles and camels having to go through them," said his +mother, still patting and stroking his tie. + +"Well, that's terrifically true," mused Tussie, reflecting ruefully on +the size and weight of the money-bags that were dragging him down into +darkness. Then he added suddenly, "Will you have a small bed--a little +iron one--put in my bedroom?" + +"A small bed? But there's a bed there already, dear." + +"That big thing's only fit for a sick woman. I won't wallow in it any +longer." + +"But dearest, all your forefathers wallowed, as you call it, in it. +Doesn't it seem rather--a pity not to carry on traditions?" + +"Well mother be kind and dear, and let me depart in peace from them. A +camp bed,--that's what I'd like. Shall I order it, or will you? And +did I tell you I've given Bryce the sack?" + +"Bryce? Why, what has he done?" + +"Oh he hasn't done anything that I know of, except make a sort of doll +or baby of me. Why should I be put into my clothes and taken out of +them again as though I hadn't been weaned yet?" + +Now all this was very bad, but the greatest blow for Lady Shuttleworth +fell when Tussie declared that he would not come of age. The cheerful +face with which his mother had managed to listen to his other +defiances went very blank at that; do what she would she could not +prevent its falling. "Not come of age?" she repeated stupidly. "But my +darling, you can't help yourself--you must come of age." + +"Oh I know I can't help being twenty-one and coming into all +this"--and he waved contemptuous arms--"but I won't do it blatantly." + +"I--I don't understand," faltered Lady Shuttleworth. + +"There mustn't be any fuss, mother." + +"Do you mean no one is to come?" + +"No one at all, except the tenants and people. Of course they are to +have their fun--I'll see that they have a jolly good time. But I won't +have our own set and the relations." + +"Tussie, they've all accepted." + +"Send round circulars." + +"Tussie, you are putting me in a most painful position." + +"Dear mother, I'm very sorry for that. I wish I'd thought like this +sooner. But really the idea is so revolting to me--it's so sickening +to think of all these people coming to pretend to rejoice over a worm +like myself." + +"Tussle, you are not a worm." + +"And then the expense and waste of entertaining them--the dreariness, +the boredom--oh, I wish I only possessed a tub--one single tub--or had +the pluck to live like Lavengro in a dingle." + +"It's quite impossible to stop it now," interrupted Lady Shuttleworth +in the greatest distress; of Lavengro she had never heard. + +"Yes you can, mother. Write and put it off." + +"Write? What could I write? To-day is Tuesday, and they all arrive on +Friday. What excuse can I make at the last moment? And how can a +birthday be put off? My dearest boy, I simply can't." And Lady +Shuttleworth, the sensible, the cheery, the resourceful, the +perennially brave, wrung her hands and began quite helplessly to cry. + +This unusual and pitiful sight at once conquered Tussie. For a moment +he stood aghast; then his arms were round his mother, and he promised +everything she wanted. What he said to her besides and what she sobbed +back to him I shall not tell. They never spoke of it again; but for +years they both looked back to it, that precious moment of clinging +together with bursting hearts, her old cheek against his young one, +her tears on his face, as to one of the most acutely sweet, acutely, +painfully, tender experiences of their joint lives. + +It will be conceded that Priscilla had achieved a good deal in the one +week that had passed since she laid aside her high estate and stepped +down among ordinary people for the purpose of being and doing good. +She had brought violent discord into a hitherto peaceful vicarage, +thwarted the hopes of a mother, been the cause of a bitter quarrel +between her and her son, brought out by her mysteriousness a prying +tendency in the son that might have gone on sleeping for ever, +entirely upset the amiable Tussie's life by rending him asunder with a +love as strong as it was necessarily hopeless, made his mother anxious +and unhappy, and, what was perhaps the greatest achievement of all, +actually succeeded in making that mother cry. For of course Priscilla +was the ultimate cause of these unusual tears, as Lady Shuttleworth +very well knew. Lady Shuttleworth was the deceased Sir Augustus's +second wife, had married him when she was over forty and well out of +the crying stage, which in the busy does not last beyond childhood, +had lost him soon after Tussie's birth, had cried copiously and most +properly at his funeral, and had not cried since. It was then +undoubtedly a great achievement on the part of the young lady from +nowhere, this wringing of tears out of eyes that had been dry for one +and twenty years. But the list of what Priscilla had done does not end +with this havoc among mothers. Had she not interrupted the decent +course of Mrs. Jones's dying, and snatched her back to a hankering +after the unfit? Had she not taught the entire village to break the +Sabbath? Had she not made all its children either sick or cross under +the pretence of giving them a treat? On the Monday she did something +else that was equally well-meaning, and yet, as I shall presently +relate, of disastrous consequences: she went round the village from +cottage to cottage making friends with the children's mothers and +leaving behind her, wherever she went, little presents of money. She +had found money so extraordinarily efficacious in the comforting of +Mrs. Jones that before she started she told Fritzing to fill her purse +well, and in each cottage it was made somehow so clear how badly +different things were wanted that the purse was empty before she was +half round the village and she had to go back for a fresh supply. She +was extremely happy that afternoon, and so were the visited mothers. +They, indeed, talked of nothing else for the rest of the day, +discussed it over their garden hedges, looked in on each other to +compare notes, hurried to meet their husbands on their return from +work to tell them about it, and were made at one stroke into something +very like a colony of eager beggars. And in spite of Priscilla's +injunction to Mrs. Jones to hide her five-pound note all Symford knew +of that as well, and also of the five-pound note Mrs. Morrison had +taken away. Nothing was talked of in Symford but Priscilla. She had in +one week created quite a number of disturbances of a nature fruitful +for evil in that orderly village; and when on the Tuesday she and +Fritzing moved into Creeper Cottage they were objects of the intensest +interest to the entire country side, and the report of their riches, +their recklessness, and their eccentric choice of a dwelling had +rolled over the intervening hills as far as Minehead, where it was the +subject of many interesting comments in the local papers. + +They got into their cottage about tea time; and the first thing +Priscilla did was to exclaim at the pleasant sight of the wood fire +and sit down in the easy-chair to warm herself. We know who was +sitting in it already; and thus she was received by Bad Luck at once +into her very lap, and clutched about securely by that unpleasant +lady's cold and skinny arms. She looked up at Fritzing with a shiver +to remark wonderingly that the room, in spite of its big fire and its +smallness, was like ice, but her lips fell apart in a frozen stare and +she gazed blankly past him at the wall behind his head. "Look," she +whispered, pointing with a horrified forefinger. And Fritzing, turning +quickly, was just in time to snatch a row of cheap coloured portraits +from the wall and fling them face downwards under the table before +Tussie came in to ask if he could do anything. + +The portraits were those of all the reigning princes of Germany and +had been put up as a delicate compliment by the representative of the +Minehead furnishers, while Priscilla and Fritzing were taking leave of +Baker's Farm; and the print Priscilla's eye had lighted on was the +portrait of her august parent, smiling at her. He was splendid in +state robes and orders, and there was a charger, and an obviously +expensive looped-up curtain, and much smoke as of nations furiously +raging together in the background, and outside this magnificence +meandered the unmeaning rosebuds of Priscilla's cheap wallpaper. His +smile seemed very terrible under the circumstances. Fritzing felt +this, and seized him and flung him with a desperate energy under the +table, where he went on smiling, as Priscilla remembered with a guilty +shudder, at nothing but oilcloth. "I don't believe I'll sleep if I +know he--he's got nothing he'd like better than oilcloth to look at," +she whispered with an awestruck face to Fritzing as Tussie came in. + +"I will cause them all to be returned," Fritzing assured her. + +"What, have those people sent wrong things?" asked Tussie anxiously, +who felt that the entire responsibility of this _menage_ was on his +shoulders. + +"Oh, only some cheap prints," said Priscilla hastily. "I think they're +called oleographs or something." + +"What impertinence," said Tussie hotly. + +"I expect it was kindly meant, but I--I like my cottage quite plain." + +"I'll have them sent back, sir," Tussie said to Fritzing, who was +rubbing his hands nervously through his hair; for the sight of his +grand ducal master's face smiling at him on whom he would surely never +wish to smile again, and doing it, too, from the walls of Creeper +Cottage, had given him a shock. + +"You are ever helpful, young man," he said, bowing abstractedly and +going away to put down his hat and umbrella; and Priscilla, with a +cold feeling that she had had a bad omen, rang the handbell Tussie's +thoughtfulness had placed on her table and ordered Annalise to bring +tea. + +Now Annalise had been standing on the threshold of her attic staring +at it in an amazement too deep for words when the bell fetched her +down. She appeared, however, before her mistress with a composed face, +received the order with her customary respectfulness, and sought out +Fritzing to inquire of him where the servants were to be found. "Her +Grand Ducal Highness desires tea," announced Annalise, appearing in +Fritzing's sitting-room, where he was standing absorbed in the bill +from the furnishers that he had found lying on his table. + +"Then take it in," said Fritzing impatiently, without looking up. + +"To whom shall I give the order?" inquired Annalise. + +"To whom shall you give the order?" repeated Fritzing, pausing +in his study to stare at her, the bill in one hand and his +pocket-handkerchief, with which he was mopping his forehead, in +the other. + +"Where," asked Annalise, "shall I find the cook?" + +"Where shall you find the cook?" repeated Fritzing, staring still +harder. "This house is so gigantic is it not," he said with an +enormous sarcasm, "that no doubt the cook has lost himself. Have you +perhaps omitted to investigate the coal-hole?" + +"Herr Geheimrath, where shall I find the cook?" asked Annalise tossing +her head. + +"Fraeulein, is there a mirror in your bedroom?" + +"The smallest I ever saw. Only one-half of my face can I see reflected +in it at a time." + +"Fraeulein, the half of that face you see reflected in it is the half +of the face of the cook." + +"I do not understand," said Annalise. + +"Yet it is as clear as shining after rain. You, _mein liebes Kind_, +are the cook." + +It was now Annalise's turn to stare, and she stood for a moment doing +it, her face changing from white to red while Fritzing turned his back +and taking out a pencil made little sums on the margin of the bill. +"Herr Geheimrath, I am not a cook," she said at last, swallowing her +indignation. + +"What, still there?" he exclaimed, looking up sharply. "Unworthy one, +get thee quickly to the kitchen. Is it seemly to keep the Princess +waiting?" + +"I am not a cook," said Annalise defiantly. "I was not engaged as a +cook, I never was a cook, and I will not be a cook." + +Fritzing flung down the bill and came and glared close into +Annalise's face. "Not a cook?" he cried. "You, a German girl, the +daughter of poor parents, you are not ashamed to say it? You do not +hide your head for shame? No--a being so useful, so necessary, so +worthy of respect as a cook you are not and never will be. I'll tell +you what you are,--I've told you once already, and I repeat it--you +are a knave, my Fraeulein, a knave, I say. And in those parts of your +miserable nature where you are not a knave--for I willingly concede +that no man or woman is bad all through--in those parts, I say, where +your knavishness is intermittent, you are an absolute, unmitigated +fool." + +"I will not bear this," cried Annalise. + +"Will not! Cannot! Shall not! Inept Negation, get thee to thy kitchen +and seek wisdom among the pots." + +"I am no one's slave," cried Annalise, "I am no one's prisoner." + +"Hark at her! Who said you were? Have I not told you the only two +things you are?" + +"But I am treated as a prisoner, I am treated as a slave," sobbed +Annalise. + +"Unmannerly one, how dare you linger talking follies when your royal +mistress is waiting for her tea? Run--run! Or must I show you how?" + +"Her Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, not budging, "told me also +to prepare the bath for her this evening." + +"Well, what of that?" cried Fritzing, snatching up the bill again and +adding up furiously. "Prepare it, then." + +"I see no water-taps." + +"Woman, there are none." + +"How can I prepare a bath without water-taps?" + +"O thou Inefficiency! Ineptitude garbed as woman! Must I then teach +thee the elements of thy business? Hast thou not observed the pump? Go +to it, and draw water. Cause the water to flow into buckets. Carry +these buckets--need I go on? Will not Nature herself teach thee what +to do with buckets?" + +Annalise flushed scarlet. "I will not go to the pump," she said. + +"What, you will not carry out her Grand Ducal Highness's orders?" + +"I will not go to the pump." + +"You refuse to prepare the bath?" + +"I will not go to the pump." + +"You refuse to prepare the tea?" + +"I will not be a cook." + +"You are rankly rebellious?" + +"I will not sleep in the attic." + +"What!" + +"I will not eat the food." + +"What!" + +"I will not do the work." + +"What!" + +"I will go." + +"Go?" + +"_Go_," repeated Annalise, stamping her foot. "I demand my wages, the +increased wages that were promised me, and I will go." + +"And where, Impudence past believing, will you go, in a country whose +tongue you most luckily do not understand?" + +Annalise looked up into Fritzing's furious eyes with the challenge +of him who flings down his trump card. "Go?" she cried, with a +defiance that was blood-curdling in one so small and hitherto so +silent, "I will first go to that young gentleman who speaks my +language and I will tell him all, and then, with his assistance, I +will go straight--but _straight_, do you hear?"--and she stamped +her foot again--"to Lothen-Kunitz." + + + + +XIV + + +Early in this story I pointed out what to the intelligent must have +been from the beginning apparent, that Annalise held Priscilla and +Fritzing in the hollow of her hand. In the first excitement of the +start she had not noticed it, but during those woeful days of +disillusionment at Baker's she saw it with an ever-growing clearness; +and since Sunday, since the day she found a smiling young gentleman +ready to talk German to her and answer questions, she was perfectly +aware that she had only to close her hand and her victims would +squeeze into any shape she liked. She proposed to do this closing at +the first moment of sheer intolerableness, and that moment seemed well +reached when she entered Creeper Cottage and realized what the attic, +the kitchen, and the pump really meant. + +It is always a shock to find one's self in the company of a worm that +turns, always a shock and an amazement; a spectacle one never, +somehow, gets used to. But how dreadful does it become when one is in +the power of the worm, and the worm is resentful, and ready to squeeze +to any extent. Fritzing reflected bitterly that Annalise might quite +well have been left at home. Quite well? A thousand times better. +What had she done but whine during her passive period? And now that +she was active, a volcano in full activity hurling forth hot streams +of treachery on two most harmless heads, she, the insignificant, the +base-born, the empty-brained, was actually going to be able to ruin +the plans of the noblest woman on earth. + +Thus thought Fritzing, mopping his forehead. Annalise had rushed away +to her attic after flinging her defiance at him, her spirit ready to +dare anything but her body too small, she felt, to risk staying within +reach of a man who looked more like somebody who meant to shake her +than any one she had ever seen. Fritzing mopped his forehead, and +mopped and mopped again. He stood where she had left him, his eyes +fixed on the ground, his distress so extreme that he was quite near +crying. What was he to do? What was he to say to his Princess? How was +he to stop the girl's going back to Kunitz? How was he to stop her +going even so far as young Morrison? That she should tell young +Morrison who Priscilla was would indeed be a terrible thing. It would +end their being able to live in Symford. It would end their being able +to live in England. The Grand Duke would be after them, and there +would have to be another flight to another country, another start +there, another search for a home, another set of explanations, +pretences, fears, lies,--things of which he was so weary. But there +was something else, something worse than any of these things, that +made Fritzing mop his forehead with so extreme a desperation: Annalise +had demanded the money due to her, and Fritzing had no money. + +I am afraid Fritzing was never meant for a conspirator. Nature never +meant him to be a plotter, an arranger of unpleasant surprises for +parents. She never meant him to run away. She meant him, probably, +to spend his days communing with the past in a lofty room with +distempered walls and busts round them. That he should be forced to +act, to decide, to be artful, to wrangle with maids, to make ends +meet, to squeeze his long frame and explosive disposition into a +Creeper Cottage where only an ill-fitting door separated him from the +noise and fumes of the kitchen, was surely a cruel trick of Fate, and +not less cruel because he had brought it on himself. That he should +have thought he could run away as well as any man is merely a proof of +his singleness of soul. A man who does that successfully is always, +among a great many other things, a man who takes plenty of money with +him and knows exactly where to put his hand on more when it is wanted. +Fritzing had thought it better to get away quickly with little money +than to wait and get away with more. He had seized all he could of his +own that was not invested, and Priscilla had drawn her loose cash from +the Kunitz bank; but what he took hidden in his gaiters after paying +for Priscilla's outfit and bribing Annalise was not more than three +hundred pounds; and what is three hundred pounds to a person who buys +and furnishes cottages and scatters five-pound notes among the poor? +The cottages were paid for. He had insisted on doing that at once, +chiefly in order to close his dealings with Mr. Dawson; but Mr. Dawson +had not let them go for less than a hundred and fifty for the two, in +spite of Tussie's having said a hundred was enough. When Fritzing told +Mr. Dawson what Tussie had said Mr. Dawson soon proved that Tussie +could not possibly have meant it; and Fritzing, knowing how rich +Priscilla really was and what vast savings he had himself lying over +in Germany in comfortable securities, paid him without arguing and +hastened from the hated presence. Then the journey for the three from +Kunitz had been expensive; the stay at Baker's Farm had been, strange +to say, expensive; Mrs. Jones's comforting had been expensive; the +village mothers had twice emptied Priscilla's purse of ten pounds; and +the treat to the Symford children had not been cheap. After paying for +this--the Minehead confectioner turned out to be a man of little faith +in unknown foreigners, and insisted on being paid at once--Fritzing +had about forty pounds left. This, he had thought, would do for food +and lights and things for a long while,--certainly till he had hit on +a plan by which he would be able to get hold of the Princess's money +and his own without betraying where they were; and here on his table, +the second unpleasant surprise that greeted him on entering his new +home (the first had been his late master's dreadful smile) was the +bill for the furnishing of it. To a man possessed of only forty pounds +any bill will seem tremendous. This one was for nearly two hundred; +and at the end of the long list of items, the biggest of which was +that bathroom without water that had sent Annalise out on strike, was +the information that a remittance would oblige. A remittance! Poor +Fritzing. He crushed the paper in his hand and made caustic mental +comments on the indecency of these people, clamouring for their money +almost before the last workman was out of the place, certainly before +the smell of paint was out of it, and clamouring, too, in the face of +the Shuttleworth countenance and support. He had not been a week yet +in Symford, and had been so busy, so rushed, that he had put off +thinking out a plan for getting his money over from Germany until he +should be settled. Never had he imagined people would demand payment +in this manner. Never, either, had he imagined the Princess would want +so much money for the poor; and never, of course, had he imagined that +there would be a children's treat within three days of their arrival. +Least of all had he dreamed that Annalise would so soon need more +bribing; for that was clearly the only thing to do. He saw it was the +only thing, after he had stood for some time thinking and wiping the +cold sweat from his forehead. She must be bribed, silenced, given in +to. He must part with as much as he possibly could of that last forty +pounds; as much, also, as he possibly could of his pride, and submit +to have the hussy's foot on his neck. Some day, some day, thought +Fritzing grinding his teeth, he would be even with her; and when that +day came he promised himself that it should certainly begin with a +sound shaking. "Truly," he reflected, "the foolish things of the world +confound the wise, and the weak things of the world confound the +things that are mighty." And he went out, and standing in the back +yard beneath Annalise's window softly called to her. "Fraeulein," +called Fritzing, softly as a dove wooing its mate. + +"Aha," thought Annalise, sitting on her bed, quick to mark the change; +but she did not move. + +"Fraeulein," called Fritzing again; and it was hardly a call so much as +a melodious murmur. + +Annalise did not move, but she grinned. + +"Fraeulein, come down one moment," cooed Fritzing, whose head was quite +near the attic window so low was Creeper Cottage. "I wish to speak to +you. I wish to give you something." + +Annalise did not move, but she stuffed her handkerchief into her +mouth; for the first time since she left Calais she was enjoying +herself. + +"If," went on Fritzing after an anxious pause, "I was sharp with you +just now--and I fear I may have been hasty--you should not take it +amiss from one who, like Brutus, is sick of many griefs. Come down, +Fraeulein, and let me make amends." + +The Princess's bell rang. At once habit impelled Annalise to that +which Fritzing's pleadings would never have effected; she scrambled +down the ladder, and leaving him still under her window presented +herself before her mistress with her usual face of meek respect. + +"I said tea," said Priscilla very distinctly, looking at her with +slightly lifted eyebrows. + +Annalise curtseyed and disappeared. + +"How fearfully polite German maids are," remarked Tussie. + +"In what way?" asked Priscilla. + +"Those curtseys. They're magnificent." + +"Don't English maids curtsey?" + +"None that I've ever seen. Perhaps they do to royalties." + +"Oh?" said Priscilla with a little jump. She was still so much +unnerved by the unexpected meeting with her father on the wall of +Creeper Cottage that she could not prevent the little jump. + +"What would German maids do, I wonder, in dealing with royalties," +said Tussie, "if they curtsey so beautifully to ordinary mistresses? +They'd have to go down on their knees to a princess, wouldn't they?" + +"How should I know?" said Priscilla, irritably, alarmed to feel she +was turning red; and with great determination she began to talk +literature. + +Fritzing was lying in wait for Annalise, and caught her as she came +into the bathroom. + +"Fraeulein," said the miserable man trying to screw his face into +persuasiveness, "you cannot let the Princess go without tea." + +"Yes I can," said Annalise. + +He thrust his hands into his pockets to keep them off her shoulders. + +"Make it this once, Fraeulein, and I will hire a woman of the village +to make it in future. And see, you must not leave the Princess's +service, a service of such great honour to yourself, because I chanced +to be perhaps a little--hasty. I will give you two hundred marks to +console you for the slight though undoubted difference in the mode of +living, and I will, as I said, hire a woman to come each day and cook. +Will it not be well so?" + +"No," said Annalise. + +"No?" + +Annalise put her hands on her hips, and swaying lightly from side to +side began to sing softly. Fritzing gazed at this fresh development in +her manners in silent astonishment. "_Jedermann macht mir die Cour, +c'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_," sang Annalise, her head one side, her +eyes on the ceiling. + +"_Liebes Kind_, are your promises of no value? Did you not promise to +keep your mouth shut, and not betray the Princess's confidence? Did +she not seek you out from all the others for the honour of keeping her +secrets? And you will, after one week, divulge them to a stranger? You +will leave her service? You will return to Kunitz? Is it well so?" + +"_C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_," sang Annalise, swaying. + +"Is it well so, Fraeulein?" repeated Fritzing, strangling a furious +desire to slap her. + +"Did you speak?" inquired Annalise, pausing in her song. + +"I am speaking all the time. I asked if it were well to betray the +secrets of your royal mistress." + +"I have been starved," said Annalise. + +"You have had the same fare as ourselves." + +"I have been called names." + +"Have I not expressed--regret?" + +"I have been treated as dirt." + +"Well, well, I have apologized." + +"If you had behaved to me as a maid of a royal lady should be behaved +to, I would have faithfully done my part and kept silence. Now give me +my money and I will go." + +"I will give you your money--certainly, _liebes Kind_. It is what I am +most desirous of doing. But only on condition that you stay. If you +go, you go without it. If you stay, I will do as I said about the cook +and will--" Fritzing paused--"I will endeavour to refrain from calling +you anything hasty." + +"Two hundred marks," said Annalise gazing at the ceiling, "is +nothing." + +"Nothing?" cried Fritzing. "You know very well that it is, for you, a +great sum." + +"It is nothing. I require a thousand." + +"A thousand? What, fifty English sovereigns? Nay, then, but there is +no reasoning with you," cried Fritzing in tones of real despair. + +She caught the conviction in them and hesitated. "Eight hundred, +then," she said. + +"Impossible. And besides it would be a sin. I will give you twenty." + +"Twenty? Twenty marks?" Annalise stared at him a moment then resumed +her swaying and her song--"_Jedermann macht mir die Cour_"--sang +Annalise with redoubled conviction. + +"No, no, not marks--twenty pounds," said Fritzing, interrupting what +was to him a most maddening music. "Four hundred marks. As much as +many a German girl can only earn by labouring two years you will +receive for doing nothing but hold your tongue." + +Annalise closed her lips tightly and shook her head. "My tongue cannot +be held for that," she said, beginning to sway again and hum. + +Adjectives foamed on Fritzing's own, but he kept them back. +"_Maedchen_," he said with the gentleness of a pastor in a confirmation +class, "do you not remember that the love of money is the root of all +evil? I do not recognize you. Since when have you become thus greedy +for it?" + +"Give me eight hundred and I will stop." + +"I will give you six hundred," said Fritzing, fighting for each of his +last precious pounds. + +"Eight." + +"Six." + +"I said eight," said Annalise, stopping and looking at him with lifted +eye-brows and exactly imitating the distinctness with which the +Princess had just said "I said tea." + +"Six is an enormous sum. Why, what would you do with it?" + +"That is my affair. Perhaps buy food," she said with a malicious +side-glance. + +"I tell you there shall be a cook." + +"A cook," said Annalise counting on her fingers,--"and a good cook, +observe--not a cook like the Frau Pearce--a cook, then, no more rude +names, and eight hundred marks. Then I stop. I suffer. I am silent." + +"It cannot be done. I cannot give you eight." + +"_C'est l'amour, c'est l'amour_.... The Princess waits for her tea. I +will prepare it for her this once. I am good, you see, at heart. But I +must have eight hundred marks. _Cest l'amo-o-o-o-o-our_." + +"I will give you seven," said Fritzing, doing rapid sums in his head. +Seven hundred was something under thirty-five pounds. He would still +have five pounds left for housekeeping. How long that would last he +admitted to himself that probably only heaven knew, but he hoped that +with economy it might be made to carry them over a fortnight; and +surely by the end of a fortnight he would have hit on a way of getting +fresh supplies from Germany? "I will give you seven hundred. That is +the utter-most. I can give no more till I have written home for money. +I have only a little more than that here altogether. See, I treat you +like a reasonable being--I set the truth plainly before you. More +than seven hundred I could not give if I would." + +"Good," said Annalise, breaking off her music suddenly. "I will take +that now and guarantee to be silent for fourteen days. At the end of +that time the Herr Geheimrath will have plenty more money and will, if +he still desires my services and my silence, give me the three hundred +still due to me on the thousand I demand. If the Herr Geheimrath +prefers not to, then I depart to my native country. While the +fortnight lasts I will suffer all there is to suffer in silence. Is +the Herr Geheimrath agreed?" + +"Shameless one!" mentally shrieked Fritzing, "Wait and see what will +happen to thee when my turn comes!" But aloud he only agreed. "It is +well, Fraeulein," he said. "Take in the Princess's tea, and then come +to my sitting-room and I will give you the money. The fire burns in +the kitchen. Utensils, I believe, are ready to hand. It should not +prove a task too difficult." + +"Perhaps the Herr Geheimrath will show me where the tea and milk is? +And also the sugar, and the bread and butter if any?" suggested +Annalise in a small meek voice as she tripped before him into the +kitchen. + +What could he do but follow? Her foot was well on his neck; and it +occurred to him as he rummaged miserably among canisters that if the +creature should take it into her head to marry him he might +conceivably have to let her do it. As it was it was he and not +Annalise who took the kettle out to the pump to fill it, and her face +while he was doing it would have rejoiced her parents or other persons +to whom she was presumably dear, it was wide with so enormous a +satisfaction. Thus terrible is it to be in the power of an Annalise. + + + + +XV + + +The first evening in Creeper Cottage was unpleasant. There was a +blazing wood fire, the curtains were drawn, the lamp shone rosily +through its red shade, and when Priscilla stood up her hair dusted the +oak beams of the ceiling, it was so low. The background, you see, was +perfectly satisfactory; exactly what a cottage background should be on +an autumn night when outside a wet mist is hanging like a grey curtain +across the window panes; and Tussie arriving at nine o'clock to help +consecrate the new life with Shakespeare felt, as he opened the door +and walked out of the darkness into the rosy, cosy little room, that +he need not after all worry himself with doubts as to the divine +girl's being comfortable. Never did place appear more comfortable. It +did not occur to him that a lamp with a red shade and the blaze of a +wood fire will make any place appear comfortable so long as they go on +shining, and he looked up at Priscilla--I am afraid he had to look up +at her when they were both standing--with the broadest smile of +genuine pleasure. "It _does_ look jolly," he said heartily. + +His pleasure was doomed to an immediate wiping out. Priscilla smiled, +but with a reservation behind her smile that his sensitive spirit felt +at once. She was alone, and there was no sign whatever either of her +uncle or of preparations for the reading of Shakespeare. + +"Is anything not quite right?" Tussie asked, his face falling at once +to an anxious pucker. + +Priscilla looked at him and smiled again, but this time the smile was +real, in her eyes as well as on her lips, dancing in them together +with the flickering firelight. "It's rather funny," she said. "It has +never happened to me before. What do you think? I'm hungry." + +"Hungry?" + +"Hungry." + +Tussie stared, arrested in the unwinding of his comforter. + +"Really hungry. _Dreadfully_ hungry. So hungry that I hate +Shakespeare." + +"But--" + +"I know. You're going to say why not eat? It does seem simple. But +you've no idea how difficult it really is. I'm afraid my uncle and I +have rather heaps to learn. We forgot to get a cook." + +"A cook? But I thought--I understood that curtseying maid of yours was +going to do all that?" + +"So did I. So did he. But she won't." + +Priscilla flushed, for since Tussie left after tea she had had +grievous surprises, of a kind that made her first indignant and then +inclined to wince. Fritzing had not been able to hide from her that +Annalise had rebelled and refused to cook, and Priscilla had not been +able to follow her immediate impulse and dismiss her. It was at this +point, when she realized this, that the wincing began. She felt +perfectly sick at the thought, flashed upon her for the first time, +that she was in the power of a servant. + +"Do you mean to say," said Tussie in a voice hollow with +consternation, "that you've had no dinner?" + +"Dinner? In a cottage? Why of course there was no dinner. There never +will be any dinner--at night, at least. But the tragic thing is there +was no supper. We didn't think of it till we began to get hungry. +Annalise began first. She got hungry at six o'clock, and said +something to Fritz--my uncle about it, but he wasn't hungry himself +then and so he snubbed her. Now he is hungry himself, and he's gone +out to see if he can't find a cook. It's very stupid. There's nothing +in the house. Annalise ate the bread and things she found. She's +upstairs now, crying." And Priscilla's lips twitched as she looked at +Tussie's concerned face, and she began to laugh. + +He seized his hat. "I'll go and get you something," he said, dashing +at the door. + +"I can't think what, at this time of the night. The only shop shuts at +seven." + +"I'll make them open it." + +"They go to bed at nine." + +"I'll get them out of bed if I have to shie stones at their windows +all night." + +"Don't go without your coat--you'll catch a most frightful cold." + +He put his arm through the door to take it, and vanished in the fog. +He did not put on the coat in his agitation, but kept it over his arm. +His comforter stayed in Priscilla's parlour, on the chair where he had +flung it. He was in evening dress, and his throat was sore already +with the cold that was coming on and that he had caught, as he +expected, running races on the Sunday at Priscilla's children's party. + +Priscilla went back to her seat by the fire, and thought very hard +about things like bread. It would of course be impossible that she +should have reached this state of famine only because one meal had +been missed; but she had eaten nothing all day,--disliked the Baker's +Farm breakfast too much even to look at it, forgotten the Baker's Farm +dinner because she was just moving into her cottage, and at tea had +been too greatly upset by the unexpected appearance of her father on +the wall to care to eat the bread and butter Annalise brought in. Now +she was in that state when you tremble and feel cold. She had told +Annalise, about half-past seven, to bring her the bread left from tea, +but Annalise had eaten it. At half-past eight she had told Annalise to +bring her the sugar, for she had read somewhere that if you eat enough +sugar it takes away the desire even of the hungriest for other food, +but Annalise, who had eaten the sugar as well, said that the Herr +Geheimrath must have eaten it. It certainly was not there, and neither +was the Herr Geheimrath to defend himself; since half-past seven he +had been out looking for a cook, his mind pervaded by the idea that if +only he could get a cook food would follow in her wake as naturally as +flowers follow after rain. Priscilla fretting in her chair that he +should stay away so long saw very clearly that no cook could help +them. What is the use of a cook in a house where there is nothing to +cook? If only Fritzing would come back quickly with a great many +loaves of bread! The door was opened a little way and somebody's +knuckles knocked. She thought it was Tussie, quick and clever as ever, +and in a voice full of welcome told him to come in; upon which in +stepped Robin Morrison very briskly, delighted by the warmth of the +invitation. "Why now this _is_ nice," said Robin, all smiles. + +Priscilla did not move and did not offer to shake hands, so he stood +on the hearthrug and spread out his own to the blaze, looking down at +her with bright, audacious eyes. He thought he had not yet seen her so +beautiful. There was an extraordinary depth and mystery in her look, +he thought, as it rested for a moment on his face, and she had never +yet dropped her eyelashes as she now did when her eyes met his. We +know she was very hungry, and there was no strength in her at all. +Not only did her eyelashes drop, but her head as well, and her hands +hung helplessly, like drooping white flowers, one over each arm of the +chair. + +"I came in to ask Mr. Neumann-Schultz if there's anything I can do for +you," said Robin. + +"Did you? He lives next door." + +"I know. I knocked there first, but he didn't answer so I thought he +must be here." + +Priscilla said nothing. At any other time she would have snubbed Robin +and got rid of him. Now she merely sat and drooped. + +"Has he gone out?" + +"Yes." + +Her voice was very low, hardly more than a whisper. Those who know the +faintness of hunger at this stage will also know the pathos that +steals into the voice of the sufferer when he is unwillingly made to +speak; it becomes plaintive, melodious with yearning, the yearning for +food. But if you do not know this, if you have yourself just come from +dinner, if you are half in love and want the other person to be quite +in love, if you are full of faith in your own fascinations, you are +apt to fall into Robin's error and mistake the nature of the yearning. +Tussie in Robin's place would have doubted the evidence of his senses, +but then Tussie was very modest. Robin doubted nothing. He saw, he +heard, and he thrilled; and underneath his thrilling, which was real +enough to make him flush to the roots of his hair, far down underneath +it was the swift contemptuous comment, "They're all alike." + +Priscilla shut her eyes. She was listening for the first sound of +Tussie's or Fritzing's footfall, the glad sound heralding the approach +of something to eat, and wishing Robin would go away. He was kind at +times and obliging, but on the whole a nuisance. It was a great pity +there were so many people in the world who were nuisances and did not +know it. Somebody ought to tell them,--their mothers, or other useful +persons of that sort. She vaguely decided that the next time she met +Robin and was strengthened properly by food she would say a few things +to him from which recovery would take a long while. + +"Are you--not well?" Robin asked, after a silence during which his +eyes never left her and hers were shut; and even to himself his voice +sounded deeper, more intense than usual. + +"Oh yes," murmured Priscilla with a little sigh. + +"Are you--happy?" + +Happy? Can anybody who is supperless, dinnerless, breakfastless, be +happy, Priscilla wondered? But the question struck her as funny, and +the vibrating tones in which it was asked struck her as rather funny +too, and she opened her eyes for a moment to look up at Robin with a +smile of amusement--a smile that she could not guess was turned by the +hunger within her into something wistful and tremulous. "Yes," said +Priscilla in that strange pathetic voice, "I--think so." And after a +brief glance at him down went her weary eyelids again. + +The next thing that happened was that Robin, who was trembling, +kissed her hand. This she let him do with perfect placidity. Every +German woman is used to having her hand kissed. It is kissed on +meeting, it is kissed on parting, it is kissed at a great many odd +times in between; she holds it up mechanically when she comes +across a male acquaintance; she is never surprised at the ceremony; +the only thing that surprises her is if it is left out. Priscilla +then simply thought Robin was going. "What a mercy," she said to +herself, glancing at him a moment through her eyelashes. But Robin +was not used to hand-kissing and saw things in a very different +light. He felt she made no attempt to draw her hand away, he heard +her murmuring something inarticulate--it was merely Good-bye--he +was hurled along to his doom; and stooping over her the unfortunate +young man kissed her hair. + +Priscilla opened her eyes suddenly and very wide. I don't know what +folly he would have perpetrated next, or what sillinesses were on the +tip of his tongue, or what meaning he still chose to read in her look, +but an instant afterwards he was brought down for ever from the giddy +heights of his illusions: Priscilla boxed his ears. + +I am sorry to have to record it. It is always sweeter if a woman does +not box ears. The action is shrewish, benighted, mediaeval, nay, +barbarous; and this box was a very hard one indeed, extraordinarily +hard for so little a hand and so fasting a girl. But we know she had +twice already been on the verge of doing it; and the pent-up vigour of +what the policeman had not got and what the mother in the train had +not got was added I imagine to what Robin got. Anyhow it was +efficacious. There was an exclamation--I think of surprise, for surely +a young man would not have minded the pain?--and he put his hand up +quickly to his face. Priscilla got up just as quickly out of her chair +and rang the handbell furiously, her eyes on his, her face ablaze. +Annalise must have thrown herself down the ladder, for they hardly +seemed to have been standing there an instant face to face, their eyes +on a level, he scarlet, she white, both deadly silent, before the maid +was in the room. + +"This person has insulted me," said Priscilla, turning to her and +pointing at Robin. "He never comes here again. Don't let me find you +forgetting that," she added, frowning at the girl; for she remembered +they had been seen talking eagerly together at the children's treat. + +"I never"--began Robin. + +"Will you go?" + +Annalise opened the door for him. He went out, and she shut it behind +him. Then she walked sedately across the room again, looking sideways +at the Princess, who took no notice of her but stood motionless by the +table gazing straight before her, her lips compressed, her face set +in a kind of frozen white rage, and having got into the bathroom +Annalise began to run. She ran out at the back door, in again at +Fritzing's back door, out at his front door into the street, and +caught up Robin as he was turning down the lane to the vicarage. "What +have you done?" she asked him breathlessly, in German. + +"Done?" Robin threw back his head and laughed quite loud. + +"Sh--sh," said Annalise, glancing back fearfully over her shoulder. + +"Done?" said Robin, subduing his bitter mirth. "What do you suppose +I've done? I've done what any man would have in my place--encouraged, +almost asked to do it. I kissed your young lady, _liebes Fraeulein_, +and she pretended not to like it. Now isn't that what a sensible girl +like you would call absurd?" + +But Annalise started back from the hand he held out to her in genuine +horror. "What?" she cried, "What?" + +"What? What?" mocked Robin. "Well then, what? Are you all such prudes +in Germany? Even you pretending, you little hypocrite?" + +"Oh," cried Annalise hysterically, pushing him away with both her +hands, "what have you done? _Elender Junge_, what have you done?" + +"I think you must all be mad," said Robin angrily. "You can't persuade +me that nobody ever kisses anybody over in Germany." + +"Oh yes they do--oh yes they do," cried Annalise, wringing her hands, +"but neither there nor anywhere else--in England, anywhere in the +world--do the sons of pastors--the sons of pastors--" She seemed to +struggle for breath, and twisted and untwisted her apron round her +hands in a storm of agitation while Robin, utterly astonished, stared +at her--"Neither there nor anywhere else do they--the sons of +pastors--kiss--kiss royal princesses." + +It was now Robin's turn to say "What?" + + + + +XVI + + +He went up to Cambridge the next morning. Term had not begun, but he +went; a Robin with all the briskness gone out of him, and if still +with something of the bird left only of a bird that is moulting. His +father was mildly surprised, but applauded the apparent desire for +solitary study. His mother was violently surprised, and tried hard +to get at his true reasons. She saw with the piercing eye of a +relation--that eye from which hardly anything can ever be hidden--that +something had happened and that the something was sobering and +unpleasant. She could not imagine what it was, for she did not know he +had been to Creeper Cottage the night before and all the afternoon and +at dinner he had talked and behaved as usual. Now he did not talk at +all, and his behaviour was limited to a hasty packing of portmanteaus. +Determined to question him she called him into the study just before +he started, and shut the door. + +"I must go mater," he said, pulling out his watch; he had carefully +avoided her since breakfast though she had laid many traps for him. + +"Robin, I want to tell you that I think you splendid." + +"Splendid? What on earth for? You were telling me a very different +sort of thing a day or two ago." + +"I am sorry now for what I said on Sunday." + +"I don't think a mother ought ever to say she's sorry," said Robin +gloomily. + +"Not if she is?" + +"She oughtn't to say so." + +"Well dear let us be friends. Don't go away angry with me. I do +appreciate you so much for going. You are my own dear boy." And she +put her hands on his shoulders. + +He took out his watch again. "I say, I must be off." + +"Don't suppose a mother doesn't see and understand." + +"Oh I don't suppose anything. Good-bye mater." + +"I think it so splendid of you to go, to turn your back on temptation, +to unwind yourself from that wretched girl's coils." + +"Coils?" + +"My Robin"--she stroked his cheek, the same cheek, as it happened, +Priscilla had smitten--"my Robin must not throw himself away. I am +ambitious where you are concerned, my darling. It would have broken my +heart for you to have married a nobody--perhaps a worse than nobody." + +Robin, who was staring at her with an indescribable expression on his +face, took her hands off his shoulders. "Look here mater," he +said--and he was seized by a desire to laugh terrifically--"there is +nothing in the world quite so amusing as the way people will talk +wisely of things they don't in the faintest degree understand. They +seem to feel wise in proportion to their ignorance. I expect you think +that's a funny speech for me to make. I can tell you I don't think it +half as funny as yours was. Good-bye. I shall miss my train you know +if you keep me, and then I'd be exposed again to those--what was the +word? ah, yes--coils. Coils!" He burst into loud laughter. "Good-bye +mater." + +She was staring at him blankly. He hastily brushed her forehead with +his moustache and hurried to the door, his face full of strange mirth. +"I say," he said, putting in his head again, "there's just one thing +I'd like to say." + +She made an eager step towards him. "Do say it my darling--say all +that is in your heart." + +"Oh it's not much--it's only God help poor Tuss." And that was the +last of him. She heard him chuckling all down the passage; but long +before his fly had reached Ullerton he had left off doing that and was +moulting again. + +It rained that day in Somersetshire, a steady, hopeless rain that +soaked many a leaf off the trees before its time and made the year +look suddenly quite old. From the windows of Creeper Cottage you could +see the water running in rivulets down the hill into the deserted +village, and wreaths of mist hanging about the downs beyond. The +dripping tombstone that blocked Priscilla's window grew danker and +blacker as the day went by. The fires in the cottage burnt badly, for +the wood had somehow got wet. The oilcloth and the wall-papers looked +very dismal in the grey daylight. Rain came in underneath the two +front doors and made puddles that nobody wiped away. + +Priscilla had got up very late, after a night spent staring into the +darkness, and then had sent for Fritzing and told him what Robin had +done. The unhappy man's horror will be easily imagined. She was in bed +the night before when he came in, quite cured of her hunger and only +wanting to be alone with her wrath. Fritzing had found no one in the +parlour but Tussie clasping an immense biscuit-tin in his arms, with a +face so tragic that Fritzing thought something terrible must have +happened. Tussie had returned joyfully, laden with biscuits and +sardines, to find the girl standing straight and speechless by the +table, her face rigid, her eyes ablaze. She had not so much as glanced +at the biscuits; she had not said a single word; her look rested on +him a moment as though she did not see him and then she went into the +next room and upstairs to bed. He knew she went upstairs to bed for in +Creeper Cottage you could hear everything. + +Fritzing coming in a few minutes later without the cook he had hoped +to find, was glad enough of Tussie's sardines and biscuits--they were +ginger biscuits--and while he ate them, abstractedly and together, +Tussie looked on and wondered in spite of his wretchedness what the +combination could possibly taste like. Then, after a late breakfast +on the Wednesday morning, Priscilla sent for Fritzing and told him +what Robin had done. The burdened man, so full already of anxieties +and worries, was shattered by the blow. "I have always held duelling +in extreme contempt," he said when at last he could speak, "but now I +shall certainly fight." + +"Fight? You? Fritzi, I've only told you because I--I feel so +unprotected here and you must keep him off if he ever tries to come +again. But you shall not fight. What, first he is to insult me and +then hurt or kill my Fritzi? Besides, nobody ever fights duels in +England." + +"That remains to be seen. I shall now go to his house and insult him +steadily for half an hour. At the expiration of that time he will +probably be himself anxious to fight. We might go to France--" + +"Oh Fritzi don't be so dreadful. Don't go to him--leave him +alone--nobody must ever know--" + +"I shall now go and insult him," repeated Fritzing with an +inflexibility that silenced her. + +And she saw him a minute later pass her window under his umbrella, +splashing indifferently through all the puddles, battle and +destruction in his face. + +Robin, however, was at Ullerton by the time Fritzing got to the +vicarage. He waved the servant aside when she told him he had gone, +and insisted on penetrating into the presence of the young man's +father. He waved Mrs. Morrison aside too when she tried to substitute +herself for the vicar, and did at last by his stony persistency get +into the good man's presence. Not until the vicar himself told him +that Robin had gone would Fritzing believe it. "The villain has fled," +he told Priscilla, coming back drenched in body but unquenchable in +spirit. "Your chastisement, ma'am, was very effectual." + +"If he's gone, then don't let us think about him any more." + +"Nay, ma'am, I now set out for Cambridge. If I may not meet him fairly +in duel and have my chance of honourably removing him from a world +that has had enough of him, I would fain in my turn box his ears." + +But Priscilla caught him by both arms. "Why, Fritzi," she cried, "he +might remove you and not you him--and from a world that hasn't had +nearly enough of you. Fritzi, you cannot leave me. I won't let you go. +I wish I had never told you. Don't let us talk of it ever again. It is +hateful to me. I--I can't bear it." And she looked into his face with +something very like tears in her eyes. + +Of course Fritzing stayed. How could he go away even for one hour, +even in search of a cook, when such dreadful things happened? He was +bowed down by the burden of his responsibilities. He went into his +sitting-room and spent the morning striding up and down it between the +street door and the door into the kitchen,--a stride and a half one +way, and a stride and a half back back again,--doing what all +evildoers have to do sooner or later, cudgelling his brains for a way +out of life's complications: and every now and then the terribleness +of what had happened to his Princess, his guarded Princess, his +unapproachable one, came over him with a fresh wave of horror and he +groaned aloud. + +In the kitchen sat the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid, a most accomplished +young person, listening to the groans and wondering what next. Tussie +had sent her, with fearful threats of what sort of character she would +get if she refused to go. She had at once given notice, but had been +forced all the same to go, being driven over in a dog-cart in the +early morning rain by a groom who made laboured pleasantries at her +expense. She could cook very well, almost as well as that great +personage the Shuttleworth cook, but she could only cook if there were +things to be cooked; and what she found at Creeper Cottage was the +rest of the ginger biscuits and sardines. Well, I will not linger over +that. Priscilla did get breakfast somehow, the girl, after trying +vainly to strike sparks of helpfulness out of Annalise, going to the +store and ordering what was necessary. Then she washed up, while +Annalise tripped in and out for the express purpose, so it seemed, of +turning up her nose; then she sat and waited and wondered what next. +For a long time she supposed somebody would send for her to come and +talk about luncheon; but nobody did. She heard the ceaseless +stridings in the next room, and every now and then the groans. The +rain on the kitchen window did not patter more ceaselessly than the +footsteps strode up and down, and the groans got very much on to the +girl's nerves. At last she decided that no person who was groaning +like that would ever want to order luncheon, and she had better go to +the young lady. She went out accordingly and knocked at Priscilla's +door. Priscilla was in her chair by the fire, lost in troublous +thought. She looked vaguely at the kitchenmaid for a moment, and then +asked her to go away. "I'm busy," explained Priscilla, whose hands +were folded in her lap. + +"Please miss, what do you wish for luncheon?" + +"Who are you?" + +"I'm the--assistant cook at the 'All, miss. Lady Shuttleworth's +assistant cook. Sir Augustus desired me to cook for you to-day." + +"Then please do it." + +"Yes miss. What do you wish for luncheon?" + +"Nothing." + +"Yes miss. And the gentleman--don't he want nothing neither?" + +"He'll probably tell you when he does." + +"Yes miss. It's as well to know a little beforehand, ain't it, miss. +There's nothing in the--a-hem--'ouse, and I suppose I'd have to buy +something." + +"Please do." + +"Yes miss. Perhaps if you'd tell me what the gentleman likes I could +go out and get it." + +"But I don't know what he likes. And wouldn't you get wet? Send +somebody." + +"Yes miss. Who?" + +Priscilla gazed at her a moment. "Ah yes--" she said, "I forgot. I'm +afraid there isn't anybody. I think you had better ask my uncle what +he wants, and then if you would--I'm very sorry you should have such +bad weather--but if you don't mind, would you go and buy the things?" + +"Yes miss." + +The girl went away, and Priscilla began for the first time to consider +the probability of her having in the near future to think of and order +three meals every day of her life; and not only three meals, but she +dimly perceived there would be a multitude of other dreary things to +think of and order,--their linen, for instance, must be washed, and +how did one set about that? And would not Fritzing's buttons presently +come off and have to be sewn on again? His socks, when they went into +holes, could be thrown out of the window and new ones bought, but even +Priscilla saw that you could not throw a whole coat out of a window +because its buttons had come off. There would, then, have to be some +mending done for Fritzing, and Annalise would certainly not be the one +to do it. Was the simple life a sordid life as well? Did it only look +simple from outside and far away? And was it, close, mere drudging? A +fear came over her that her soul, her precious soul, for whose sake +she had dared everything, instead of being able to spread its wings in +the light of a glorious clear life was going to be choked out of +existence by weeds just as completely as at Kunitz. + +The Shuttleworth kitchenmaid meanwhile, who was not hindered at every +turn by a regard for her soul, made her way to Fritzing as she had +been told and inquired of him what she should cook for his dinner. No +man likes to be interrupted in his groanings; and Fritzing, who was +not hungry and was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger in +his room asking him intimate questions, a person of whose presence in +the cottage he had been unaware, flew at her. "Woman, what have I to +do with you?" he cried, stopping in his walk and confronting her with +surprising fierceness. "Is it seemly to burst in on a man like this? +Have you no decency? No respect for another's privacy? Begone, I +command you--begone! Begone!" And he made the same movements with his +hands that persons do when they shoo away fowls or other animals in +flocks. + +This was too much for the Shuttleworth kitchenmaid. The obligations, +she considered, were all on the side of Creeper Cottage, and she +retreated in amazement and anger to the kitchen, put on her hat and +mackintosh, and at once departed, regardless of the rain and the +consequences, through two miles of dripping lanes to Symford Hall. +What would have happened to her there if she had been discovered by +Tussie I do not know, but I imagine it would have been something bad. +She was saved, however, by his being in bed, clutched by the throat by +a violent cold; and there he lay helpless, burning and shivering and +throbbing, the pains of his body increased a hundredfold by the +distraction of his mind about Priscilla. Why, Tussie asked himself +over and over again, had she looked so strange the night before? Why +had she gone starving to bed? What was she doing to-day? Was the +kitchenmaid taking proper care of her? Was she keeping warm and dry +this shocking weather? Had she slept comfortably the first night in +her little home? Poor Tussie. It is a grievous thing to love any one +too much; a grievous, wasteful, paralyzing thing; a tumbling of the +universe out of focus, a bringing of the whole world down to the mean +level of one desire, a shutting out of wider, more beautiful feelings, +a wrapping of one's self in a thick garment of selfishness, outside +which all the dear, tender, modest, everyday affections and +friendships, the wholesome, ordinary loves, the precious loves of use +and wont, are left to shiver and grow cold. Tussie's mother sat +outside growing very cold indeed. Her heart was stricken within her. +She, most orderly of women, did not in the least mind, so occupied was +she with deeper cares, that her household was in rebellion, her cook +who had been with her practically all her life leaving because she had +been commanded by Tussie, before he had to fall back on the +kitchenmaid, to proceed forthwith to Creeper Cottage and stay there +indefinitely; her kitchenmaid, also a valued functionary, leaving; +Bryce, Tussie's servant who took such care of him and was so clever in +sickness, gone suddenly in his indignation at having to go at +all,--all these things no longer mattered. Nor did it matter that the +coming of age festivities were thrown into hopeless confusion by +Tussie's illness, that the guests must all be telegraphed to and put +off, that the whole village would be aghast at such a disappointment, +that all her plans and preparations had been wasted. As the first day +and night of illness dragged slowly past she grew to be nothing but +one great ache of yearning over her sick boy, a most soul-rending +yearning to do what she knew was for ever impossible, to put her arms +so close round him, so close, so carefully, so tenderly, that nothing, +no evil, no pain, could get through that clasp of love to hurt him any +more. + +"Why don't you take better care of your only son?" said the doctor +grimly after he had seen Tussie that evening, who by that time was in +a very pitiable condition. + +Lady Shuttleworth stared at him, wide-eyed and speechless. + +"It's absurd, you know, to let him get into this state. I've often +warned you. He can't be allowed to play ducks and drakes with himself +like other young men. He's got no strength to fall back upon. I +consider you are directly responsible for this illness. Why do you +let him go out at night this time of year? Why do you let him +over-exert himself? I suppose," said the doctor, who had brought +Tussie into the world and was as brutal as he was clever, besides +being at that moment extremely angry, "I suppose you want to lose him, +eh?" + +How could she explain to him what she knew to be true, that the one +person responsible for Tussie's illness was Priscilla? She therefore +only stared, wide-eyed and speechless; and indeed her heart was very +nearly broken. + + + + +XVII + + +About three o'clock that afternoon Priscilla saw quite clearly what +she had dimly perceived in the morning, that if there was to be +domestic peace in Creeper Cottage she must bestir herself. She did not +like bestirring herself; at least, not in such directions. She would +go out and help the poor, talk to them, cheer them, nurse their babies +even and stir their porridge, but she had not up to this point +realized her own needs, and how urgent they could be and how +importunate. It was hunger that cleared her vision. The first time she +was hungry she had been amused. Now when it happened again she was +both surprised and indignant. "Can one's wretched body _never_ keep +quiet?" she thought impatiently, when the first twinges dragged her +relentlessly out of her dejected dreaming by the fire. She remembered +the cold tremblings of the night before, and felt that that state +would certainly be reached again quite soon if she did not stop it at +once. She rang for Annalise. "Tell the cook I will have some luncheon +after all," she said. + +"The cook is gone," said Annalise, whose eyes were more aggressively +swollen than they had yet been. + +"Gone where?" + +"Gone away. Gone for ever." + +"But why?" asked Priscilla, really dismayed. + +"The Herr Geheimrath insulted her. I heard him doing it. No woman of +decency can permit such a tone. She at once left. There has been no +dinner to-day. There will be, I greatly fear, n--o--o--supp--pper." +And Annalise gave a loud sob and covered her face with her apron. + +Then Priscilla saw that if life was to roll along at all it was her +shoulder that would have to be put to the wheel. Fritzing's shoulder +was evidently not a popular one among the lower classes. The vision of +her own doing anything with wheels was sufficiently amazing, but she +did not stop to gaze upon it. "Annalise," she said, getting up quickly +and giving herself a little shake, "fetch me my hat and coat. I'm +going out." + +Annalise let her apron drop far enough to enable her to point to the +deluge going on out of doors. "Not in this weather?" she faltered, +images of garments soaked in mud and needing much drying and brushing +troubling her. + +"Get me the things," said Priscilla. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness will be wet through." + +"Get me the things. And don't cry quite so much. Crying really is the +most shocking waste of time." + +Annalise withdrew, and Priscilla went round to Fritzing. It was the +first time she had been round to him. He was sitting at his table, his +head in his hands, staring at the furnisher's bill, and he started to +see her coming in unexpectedly through the kitchen, and shut the bill +hastily in a drawer. + +"Fritzi, have you had anything to eat to-day?" + +"Certainly. I had an excellent breakfast." + +"Nothing since?" + +"I have not yet felt the need." + +"You know the cook Lady Shuttleworth sent has gone again?" + +"What, that woman who burst in upon me was Lady Shuttleworth's cook?" + +"Yes. And you frightened her so she ran home." + +"Ma'am, she overstepped the limits of my patience." + +"Dear Fritzi, I often wonder where exactly the limits of your patience +are. With me they have withdrawn into infinite space--I've never been +able to reach them. But every one else seems to have a knack--well, +somebody must cook. You tell me Annalise won't. Perhaps she really +can't. Anyhow I cannot mention it to her, because it would be too +horrible to have her flatly refusing to do something I told her to do +and yet not be able to send her away. But somebody must cook, and I'm +going out to get the somebody. Hush"--she put up her hand as he opened +his mouth to speak--"I know it's raining. I know I'll get wet. Don't +let us waste time protesting. I'm going." + +Fritzing was conscience-stricken. "Ma'am," he said, "you must forgive +me for unwittingly bringing this bother upon you. Had I had time for +reflection I would not have been so sharp. But the woman burst upon +me. I knew not who she was. Sooner than offend her I would have cut +out my tongue, could I have foreseen you would yourself go in search +in the rain of a substitute. Permit me to seek another." + +"No, no--you have no luck with cooks," said Priscilla smiling. "I'm +going. Why I feel more cheerful already--just getting out of that +chair makes me feel better." + +"Were you not cheerful before?" inquired Fritzing anxiously. + +"Not very," admitted Priscilla. "But then neither were you. Don't +suppose I didn't see you with your head in your hands when I came in. +Cheerful people never seize their heads in that way. Now Fritzi I know +what's worrying you--it's that absurd affair last night. I've left off +thinking about it. I'm going to be very happy again, and so must you +be. We won't let one mad young man turn all our beautiful life sour, +will we?" + +He bent down and kissed her hand. "Permit me to accompany you at +least," he begged. "I cannot endure--" + +But she shook her head; and as she presently walked through the rain +holding Fritzing's umbrella,--none had been bought to replace hers, +broken on the journey--getting muddier and more draggled every +minute, she felt that now indeed she had got down to elementary +conditions, climbed right down out of the clouds to the place where +life lies unvarnished and uncomfortable, where Necessity spends her +time forcing you to do all the things you don't like, where the whole +world seems hungry and muddy and wet. It was an extraordinary +experience for her, this slopping through the mud with soaking shoes, +no prospect of a meal, and a heart that insisted on sinking in spite +of her attempts to persuade herself that the situation was amusing. It +did not amuse her. It might have amused somebody else,--the Grand +Duke, for instance, if he could have watched her now (from, say, a +Gothic window, himself dry and fed and taken care of), being punished +so naturally and inevitably by the weapons Providence never allows to +rust, those weapons that save parents and guardians so much personal +exertion if only they will let things take their course, those sharp, +swift consequences that attend the actions of the impetuous. I might, +indeed, if this were a sermon and there were a congregation unable to +get away, expatiate on the habit these weapons have of smiting with +equal fury the just and the unjust; how you only need to be a little +foolish, quite a little foolish, under conditions that seem to force +it upon you, and down they come, sure and relentless, and you are +smitten with a thoroughness that leaves you lame for years; how +motives are nothing, circumstances are nothing; how the motives may +have been aflame with goodness, the circumstances such that any other +course was impossible; how all these things don't matter in the +least,--you are and shall be smitten. But this is not a sermon. I have +no congregation. And why should I preach to a reader who meanwhile has +skipped? + +It comforted Priscilla to find that almost the whole village wanted to +come and cook for her, or as the women put it "do" for her. Their +cooking powers were strictly limited, and they proposed to make up for +this by doing for her very completely in other ways; they would scrub, +sweep, clean windows, wash,--anything and everything they would do. +Would they also sew buttons on her uncle's clothes? Priscilla asked +anxiously. And they were ready to sew buttons all over Fritzing if +buttons would make him happy. This eagerness was very gratifying, but +it was embarrassing as well. The extremely aged and the extremely +young were the only ones that refrained from offering their services. +Some of the girls were excluded as too weedy; some of the mothers +because their babies were too new; some of the wives because their +husbands were too exacting; but when Priscilla counted up the names +she had written down she found there were twenty-five. For a moment +she was staggered. Then she rose to the occasion and got out of the +difficulty with what she thought great skill, arranging, as it was +impossible to disappoint twenty-four of these, that they should take +it in turn, each coming for one day until all had had a day and then +beginning again with the first one. It seemed a brilliant plan. Life +at Creeper Cottage promised to be very varied. She gathered them +together in the village shop to talk it over. She asked them if they +thought ten shillings a day and food would be enough. She asked it +hesitatingly, afraid lest she were making them an impossibly frugal +offer. She was relieved at the cry of assent; but it was followed +after a moment by murmurs from the married women, when they had had +time to reflect, that it was unfair to pay the raw young ones at the +same rate as themselves. Priscilla however turned a deaf ear to their +murmurings. "The girls may not," she said, raising her hand to impose +silence, "be able to get through as much as you do in a day, but +they'll be just as tired when evening comes. Certainly I shall give +them the same wages." She made them draw lots as to who should begin, +and took the winner home with her then and there; she too, though the +day was far spent, was to have her ten shillings. "What, have you +forgotten your New Testaments?" Priscilla cried, when more murmurs +greeted this announcement. "Don't you remember the people who came at +the eleventh hour to labour in the vineyard and got just the same as +the others? Why should I try to improve on parables?" And there was +something about Priscilla, an air, an authority, that twisted the +women of Symford into any shape of agreement she chose. The +twenty-four went their several ways. The twenty-fifth ran home to put +on a clean apron, and got back to the shop in time to carry the eggs +and butter and bread Priscilla had bought. "I forgot to bring any +money," said Priscilla when the postmistress--it was she who kept the +village shop--told her how much it came to. "Does it matter?" + +"Oh don't mention it, Miss Neumann-Schultz," was the pleasant answer +of that genteel and trustful lady; and she suggested that Priscilla +should take with her a well-recommended leg of mutton she had that +day for sale as well. Priscilla shuddered at the sight of it and +determined never to eat legs of mutton again. The bacon, too, piled up +on the counter, revolted her. The only things that looked as decent +raw as when they were cooked were eggs; and on eggs she decided she +and Fritzing would in future live. She broke off a piece of the crust +of the bread Mrs. Vickerton was wrapping up and ate it, putting great +pressure on herself to do it carelessly, with a becoming indifference. + +"It's good bread," said Mrs. Vickerton, doing up her parcel. + +"Where in the world do you get it from?" asked Priscilla +enthusiastically. "The man must be a genius." + +"The carrier brings it every day," said Mrs. Vickerton, pleased and +touched by such appreciation. "It's a Minehead baker's." + +"He ought to be given an order, if ever man ought." + +"An order? For you regular, Miss Neumann-Schultz?" + +"No, no,--the sort you pin on your breast," said Priscilla. + +"Ho," smiled Mrs. Vickerton vaguely, who did not follow; she was so +genteel that she could never have enough of aspirates. And Priscilla, +giving the parcel to her breathless new help, hurried back to Creeper +Cottage. + +Now this help, or char-girl--you could not call her a charwoman she +was manifestly still so very young--was that Emma who had been obliged +to tell the vicar's wife about Priscilla's children's treat and who +did not punctually return books. I will not go so far as to say that +not to return books punctually is sinful, though deep down in my soul +I think it is, but anyhow it is a symptom of moral slackness. Emma was +quite good so long as she was left alone. She could walk quite +straight so long as there were no stones in the way and nobody to pull +her aside. If there were stones, she instantly stumbled; if somebody +pulled, she instantly went. She was weak, amiable, well-intentioned. +She had a widowed father who was unpleasant and who sometimes beat her +on Saturday nights, and on Sunday mornings sometimes, if the fumes of +the Cock and Hens still hung about him, threw things at her before she +went to church. A widowed father in Emma's class is an ill being to +live with. The vicar did his best to comfort her. Mrs. Morrison talked +of the commandments and of honouring one's father and mother and of +how the less there was to honour the greater the glory of doing it; +and Emma was so amiable that she actually did manage to honour him six +days out of the seven. At the same time she could not help thinking it +would be nice to go away to a place where he wasn't. They were +extremely poor; almost the poorest family in the village, and the +vision of possessing ten shillings of her very own was a dizzy one. +She had a sweetheart, and she had sent him word by a younger sister of +the good fortune that had befallen her and begged him to come up to +Creeper Cottage that evening and help her carry the precious wages +safely home; and at nine o'clock when her work was done she presented +herself all blushes and smiles before Priscilla and shyly asked her +for them. + +Priscilla was alone in her parlour reading. She referred her, as her +habit was, to Fritzing; but Fritzing had gone out for a little air, +the rain having cleared off, and when the girl told her so Priscilla +bade her come round in the morning and fetch the money. + +Emma's face fell so woefully at this--was not her John at that moment +all expectant round the corner?--that Priscilla smiled and got up to +see if she could find some money herself. In the first drawer she +opened in Fritzing's sitting-room was a pocket-book, and in this +pocket-book Fritzing's last five-pound note. There was nothing else +except the furnisher's bill. She pushed that on one side without +looking at it; what did bills matter? Bills never yet had mattered to +Priscilla. She pushed it on one side and searched for silver, but +found none. "Perhaps you can change this?" she said, holding out the +note. + +"The shop's shut now, miss," said Laura, gazing with round eyes at the +mighty sum. + +"Well then take it, and bring me the change in the morning." + +Emma took it with trembling fingers--she had not in her life touched +so much money--and ran out into the darkness to where her John was +waiting. Symford never saw either of them again. Priscilla never saw +her change. Emma went to perdition. Priscilla went back to her chair +by the fire. She was under the distinct and comfortable impression +that she had been the means of making the girl happy. "How easy it is, +making people happy," thought Priscilla placidly, the sweetest smile +on her charming mouth. + + + + +XVIII + + +Bad luck, it will be seen, dogged the footsteps of Priscilla. Never +indeed for a single hour after she entered Creeper Cottage did the +gloomy lady cease from her attentions. The place was pervaded by her +thick and evil atmosphere. Fritzing could not go out for an airing +without something of far-reaching consequence happening while he was +away. It was of course Bad Luck that made the one girl in Symford who +was easily swayed by passing winds of temptation draw the lot that put +the five-pound note into her hands; if she had come to the cottage +just one day later, or if the rain had gone on just half an hour +longer and kept Fritzing indoors, she would, I have no doubt whatever, +be still in Symford practising every feeble virtue either on her +father or on her John, by this time probably her very own John. As it +was she was a thief, a lost soul, a banished face for ever from the +ways of grace. + +Thus are we all the sport of circumstance. Thus was all Symford the +sport of Priscilla. Fritzing knew nothing of his loss. He had not told +Priscilla a word of his money difficulties, his idea being to keep +every cloud from her life as long and as completely as possible. +Besides, how idle to talk of these things to some one who could in no +way help him with counsel or suggestions. He had put the money in his +drawer, and the thought that it was still unchanged and safe comforted +him a little in the watches of the sleepless nights. + +Nothing particular happened on the Thursday morning, except that the +second of the twenty-five kept on breaking things, and Priscilla who +was helping Fritzing arrange the books he had ordered from London +remarked at the fifth terrific smash, a smash so terrific as to cause +Creeper Cottage to tremble all over, that more crockery had better be +bought. + +"Yes," said Fritzing, glancing swiftly at her with almost a guilty +glance. + +He felt very keenly his want of resourcefulness in this matter of +getting the money over from Germany, but he clung to the hope that a +few more wakeful nights would clear his brain and show him the way; +and meanwhile there was always the five-pound note in the drawer. + +"And Fritzi, I shall have to get some clothes soon," Priscilla went +on, dusting the books as he handed them to her. + +"Clothes, ma'am?" repeated Fritzing, straightening himself to stare at +her. + +"Those things you bought for me in Gerstein--they're delicious, +they're curiosities, but they're not clothes. I mean always to keep +them. I'll have them put in a glass case, and they shall always be +near me when we're happy again." + +"Happy again, ma'am?" + +"Settled again, I mean," quickly amended Priscilla. + +She dusted in silence for a little, and began to put the books she had +dusted in the shelves. "I'd better write to Paris," she said +presently. + +Fritzing jumped. "Paris, ma'am?" + +"They've got my measurements. This dress can't stand much more. It's +the one I've worn all the time. The soaking it got yesterday was very +bad for it. You don't see such things, but if you did you'd probably +get a tremendous shock." + +"Ma'am, if you write to Paris you must give your own name, which of +course is impossible. They will send nothing to an unknown customer in +England called Neumann-Schultz." + +"Oh but we'd send the money with the order. That's quite easy, isn't +it?" + +"Perfectly easy," said Fritzing in an oddly exasperated voice; at once +adding, still more snappily, "Might I request your Grand Ducal +Highness to have the goodness not to put my AEschylus--a most valuable +edition--head downwards on the shelf? It is a manner of treating books +often to be observed in housemaids and similar ignorants. But you, +ma'am, have been trained by me I trust in other and more reverent ways +of handling what is left to us of the mighty spirits of the past." + +"I'm sorry," said Priscilla, hastily turning the AEschylus right side +up again; and by launching forth into a long and extremely bitter +dissertation on the various ways persons of no intellectual +conscience have of ill-treating books, he got rid of some of his +agitation and fixed her attention for the time on questions less +fraught with complications than clothes from Paris. + +About half-past two they were still sitting over the eggs and bread +and butter that Priscilla ordered three times a day and that Fritzing +ate with unquestioning obedience, when the Shuttleworth victoria +stopped in front of the cottage and Lady Shuttleworth got out. +Fritzing, polite man, hastened to meet her, pushing aside the footman +and offering his arm. She looked at him vaguely, and asked if his +niece were at home. + +"Certainly," said Fritzing, leading her into Priscilla's parlour. +"Shall I inquire if she will receive you?" + +"Do," said Lady Shuttleworth, taking no apparent notice of the odd +wording of this question. "Tussie isn't well," she said the moment +Priscilla appeared, fixing her eyes on her face but looking as though +she hardly saw her, as though she saw past her, through her, to +something beyond, while she said a lesson learned by rote. + +"Isn't he? Oh I'm sorry," said Priscilla. + +"He caught cold last Sunday at your treat. He oughtn't to have run +those races with the boys. He can't--stand--much." + +Priscilla looked at her questioningly. The old lady's face was quite +set and calm, but there had been a queer catch in her voice at the +last words. + +"Why does he do such things, then?" asked Priscilla, feeling vaguely +distressed. + +"Ah yes, my dear--why? That is a question for you to answer, is it +not?" + +"For me?" + +"On Tuesday night," continued Lady Shuttleworth, "he was ill when he +left home to come here. He would come. It was a terrible night for a +delicate boy to go out. And he didn't stay here, I understand. He went +out to buy something after closing time, and stood a long while trying +to wake the people up." + +"Yes," said Priscilla, feeling guilty, "I--that was my fault. He went +for me." + +"Yes my dear. Since then he has been ill. I've come to ask you if +you'll drive back with me and see if--if you cannot persuade him that +you are happy. He seems to be much--troubled." + +"Troubled?" + +"He seems to be afraid you are not happy. You know," she added with a +little quavering smile, "Tussie is very kind. He is very unselfish. He +takes everybody's burdens on his shoulders. He seems to be quite +haunted by the idea that your life here is unendurably uncomfortable, +and it worries him dreadfully that he can't get to you to set things +straight. I think if he were to see you, and you were very cheerful, +and--and smiled, my dear, it might help to get him over this." + +"Get him over this?" echoed Priscilla. "Is he so ill?" + +Lady Shuttleworth looked at her and said nothing. + +"Of course I'll come," said Priscilla, hastily ringing the bell. + +"But you must not look unhappy," said Lady Shuttleworth, laying her +hand on the girl's arm, "that would make matters ten times worse. You +must promise to be as gay as possible." + +"Yes, yes--I'll be gay," promised Priscilla, while her heart became as +lead within her at the thought that she was the cause of poor Tussie's +sufferings. But was she really, she asked herself during the drive? +What had she done but accept help eagerly offered? Surely it was very +innocent to do that? It was what she had been doing all her life, and +people had been delighted when she let them be kind to her, and +certainly had not got ill immediately afterwards. Were you never to +let anybody do anything for you lest while they were doing it they +should get wet feet and things, and then their colds would be upon +your head? She was very sorry Tussie should be ill, dreadfully sorry. +He was so kind and good that it was impossible not to like him. She +did like him. She liked him quite as well as most young men and much +better than many. "I'm afraid you are very unhappy," she said suddenly +to Lady Shuttleworth, struck by the look on her face as she leaned +back, silent, in her corner. + +"I do feel rather at my wits' end," said Lady Shuttleworth. "For +instance, I'm wondering whether what I'm doing now isn't a great +mistake." + +"What you are doing now?" + +"Taking you to see Tussie." + +"Oh but I promise to be cheerful. I'll tell him how comfortable we +are. He'll see I look well taken care of." + +"But for all that I'm afraid he may--he may--" + +"Why, we're going to be tremendously taken care of. Even he will see +that. Only think--I've engaged twenty-five cooks." + +"Twenty-five cooks?" echoed Lady Shuttleworth, staring in spite of her +sorrows. "But isn't my kitchenmaid--?" + +"Oh she left us almost at once. She couldn't stand my uncle. He is +rather difficult to stand at first. You have to know him quite a long +while before you can begin to like him. And I don't think kitchenmaids +ever would begin." + +"But my dear, twenty-five cooks?" + +And Priscilla explained how and why she had come by them; and though +Lady Shuttleworth, remembering the order till now prevailing in the +village and the lowness of the wages, could not help thinking that +here was a girl more potent for mischief than any girl she had ever +met, yet a feeble gleam of amusement did, as she listened, slant +across the inky blackness of her soul. + +Tussie was sitting up in bed with a great many pillows behind him, +finding immense difficulty in breathing, when his mother, her bonnet +off and every trace of having been out removed, came in and said Miss +Neumann-Schultz was downstairs. + +"Downstairs? Here? In this house?" gasped Tussie, his eyes round with +wonder and joy. + +"Yes. She--called. Would you like her to come up and see you?" + +"Oh mother!" + +Lady Shuttleworth hurried out. How could she bear this, she thought, +stumbling a little as though she did not see very well. She went +downstairs with the sound of that Oh mother throbbing in her ears. + +Tussie's temperature, high already, went up by leaps during the few +minutes of waiting. He gave feverish directions to the nurse about a +comfortable chair being put exactly in the right place, about his +pillows being smoothed, his medicine bottles hidden, and was very +anxious that the flannel garment he was made to wear when ill, a +garment his mother called a nightingale--not after the bird but the +lady--and that was the bluest flannel garment ever seen, should be +arranged neatly over his narrow chest. + +The nurse looked disapproving. She did not like her patients to be +happy. Perhaps she was right. It is always better, I believe, to be +cautious and careful, to husband your strength, to be deadly prudent +and deadly dull. As you would poison, so should you avoid doing what +the poet calls living too much in your large hours. The truly prudent +never have large hours; nor should you, if you want to be comfortable. +And you get your reward, I am told, in living longer; in having, that +is, a few more of those years that cluster round the end, during which +you are fed and carried and washed by persons who generally grumble. +Who wants to be a flame, doomed to be blown out by the same gust of +wind that has first fanned it to its very brightest? If you are not a +flame you cannot, of course, be blown out. Gusts no longer shake you. +Tempests pass you by untouched. And if besides you have the additional +advantage of being extremely smug, extremely thick-skinned, you shall +go on living till ninety, and not during the whole of that time be +stirred by so much as a single draught. + +Priscilla came up determined to be so cheerful that she began to smile +almost before she got to the door. "I've come to tell you how +splendidly we're getting on at the cottage," she said taking Tussie's +lean hot hand, the shell of her smile remaining but the heart and +substance gone out of it, he looked so pitiful and strange. + +"Really? Really?" choked Tussie, putting the other lean hot hand over +hers and burning all the coolness out of it. + +The nurse looked still more disapproving. She had not heard Sir +Augustus had a _fiancee_, and even if he had this was no time for +philandering. She too had noticed the voice in which he had said Oh +mother, and she saw by his eyes that his temperature had gone up. Who +was this shabby young lady? She felt sure that no one so shabby could +be his _fiancee_, and she could only conclude that Lady Shuttleworth +must be mad. + +"Nurse, I'm going to stay here a little," said Lady Shuttleworth. +"I'll call you when I want you." + +"I think, madam, Sir Augustus ought not--" began the nurse. + +"No, no, he shall not. Go and have forty winks, nurse." + +And the nurse had to go; people generally did when Lady Shuttleworth +sent them. + +"Sit down--no don't--stay a moment like this," said Tussie, his breath +coming in little jerks,--"unless you are tired? Did you walk?" + +"I'm afraid you are very ill," said Priscilla, leaving her hand in his +and looking down at him with a face that all her efforts could not +induce to smile. + +"Oh I'll be all right soon. How good of you to come. You've not been +hungry since?" + +"No, no," said Priscilla, stroking his hands with her free hand and +giving them soothing pats as one would to a sick child. + +"Really not? I've thought of that ever since. I've never got your face +that night out of my head. What had happened? While I was away--what +had happened?" + +"Nothing--nothing had happened," said Priscilla hastily. "I was tired. +I had a mood. I get them, you know. I get angry easily. Then I like +to be alone till I'm sorry." + +"But what had made you angry? Had I--?" + +"No, never. You have never been anything but good and kind. You've +been our protecting spirit since we came here." + +Tussie laughed shrilly, and immediately was seized by a coughing fit. +Lady Shuttleworth stood at the foot of the bed watching him with a +face from which happiness seemed to have fled for ever. Priscilla grew +more and more wretched, caught, obliged to stand there, distractedly +stroking his hands in her utter inability to think of anything else to +do. + +"A nice protecting spirit," gasped Tussie derisively, when he could +speak. "Look at me here, tied down to this bed for heaven knows how +long, and not able to do a thing for you." + +"But there's nothing now to do. We're quite comfortable. We are +really. Do, do believe it." + +"Are you only comfortable, or are you happy as well?" + +"Oh, we're _very_ happy," said Priscilla with all the emphasis she +could get into her voice; and again she tried, quite unsuccessfully, +to wrench her mouth into a smile. + +"Then, if you're happy, why do you look so miserable?" + +He was gazing up into her face with eyes whose piercing brightness +would have frightened the nurse. There was no shyness now about +Tussie. There never is about persons whose temperature is 102. + +"Miserable?" repeated Priscilla. She tried to smile; looked helplessly +at Lady Shuttleworth; looked down again at Tussie; and stammering +"Because you are so ill and it's all my fault," to her horror, to her +boundless indignation at herself, two tears, big and not to be hidden, +rolled down her face and dropped on to Tussie's and her clasped hands. + +Tussie struggled to sit up straight. "Look, mother, look--" he cried, +gasping, "my beautiful one--my dear and lovely one--my darling--she's +crying--I've made her cry--now never tell me I'm not a brute +again--see, see what I've done!" + +"Oh"--murmured Priscilla, in great distress and amazement. Was the +poor dear delirious? And she tried to get her hands away. + +But Tussie would not let them go. He held them in a clutch that seemed +like hot iron in both his, and dragging himself nearer to them covered +them with wild kisses. + +Lady Shuttleworth was appalled. "Tussie," she said in a very even +voice, "you must let Miss Neumann-Schultz go now. You must be quiet +again now. Let her go, dear. Perhaps she'll--come again." + +"Oh mother, leave me alone," cried Tussie, lying right across his +pillows, his face on Priscilla's hands. "What do you know of these +things? This is my darling--this is my wife--dream of my spirit--star +of my soul--" + +"Never in this world!" cried Lady Shuttleworth, coming round to the +head of the bed as quickly as her shaking limbs would take her. + +"Yes, yes, come here if you like, mother--come close--listen while I +tell her how I love her. I don't care who hears. Why should I? If I +weren't ill I'd care. I'd be tongue-tied--I'd have gone on being +tongue-tied for ever. Oh I bless being ill, I bless being ill--I can +say anything, anything--" + +"Tussie, don't say it," entreated his mother. "The less you say now +the more grateful you'll be later on. Let her go." + +"Listen to her!" cried Tussie, interrupting his kissing of her hands +to look up at Priscilla and smile with a sort of pitying wonder, "Let +you go? Does one let one's life go? One's hope of salvation go? One's +little precious minute of perfect happiness go? When I'm well again I +shall be just as dull and stupid as ever, just such a shy fool, not +able to speak--" + +"But it's a gracious state"--stammered poor Priscilla. + +"Loving you? Loving you?" + +"No, no--not being able to speak. It's always best--" + +"It isn't. It's best to be true to one's self, to show honestly what +one feels, as I am now--as I am now--" And he fell to kissing her +hands again. + +"Tussie, this isn't being honest," said Lady Shuttleworth sternly, +"it's being feverish." + +"Listen to her! Was ever a man interrupted like this in the act of +asking a girl to marry him?" + +"Tussie!" cried Lady Shuttleworth. + +"Ethel, will you marry me? Because I love you so? It's an absurd +reason--the most magnificently absurd reason, but I know there's no +other why you should--" + +Priscilla was shaken and stricken as she had never yet been; shaken +with pity, stricken with remorse. She looked down at him in dismay +while he kissed her hands with desperate, overwhelming love. What was +she to do? Lady Shuttleworth tried to draw her away. What was she to +do? If Tussie was overwhelmed with love, she was overwhelmed with +pity. + +"Ethel--Ethel--" gasped Tussie, kissing her hands, looking up at her, +kissing them again. + +Pity overcame her, engulfed her. She bent her head down to his and +laid her cheek an instant on the absurd flannel nightingale, tenderly, +apologetically. + +"Ethel--Ethel," choked Tussie, "will you marry me?" + +"Dear Tussie," she whispered in a shaky whisper, "I promise to answer +you when you are well. Not yet. Not now. Get quite well, and then if +you still want an answer I promise to give you one. Now let me go." + +"Ethel," implored Tussie, looking at her with a wild entreaty in his +eyes, "will you kiss me? Just once--to help me to live--" + +And in her desire to comfort him she stooped down again and did kiss +him, soberly, almost gingerly, on the forehead. + +He let her hands slide away from between his and lay back on his +pillows in a state for the moment of absolute beatitude. He shut his +eyes, and did not move while she crept softly out of the room. + +"What have you done?" asked Lady Shuttleworth trembling, when they +were safely in the passage and the door shut behind them. + +"I can't think--I can't think," groaned Priscilla, wringing her hands. +And, leaning against the balusters, then and there in that most +public situation she began very bitterly to cry. + + + + +XIX + + +Priscilla went home dazed. All her suitors hitherto had approached her +ceremoniously, timidly, through the Grand Duke; and we know they had +not approached very near. But here was one, timid enough in health, +who was positively reckless under circumstances that made most people +meek. He had proposed to her arrayed in a blue flannel nightingale, +and Priscilla felt that headlong self-effacement could go no further. +"He must have a great soul," she said to herself over and over again +during the drive home, "a great, _great_ soul." And it seemed of +little use wiping her tears away, so many fresh ones immediately took +their place. + +She ached over Tussie and Tussie's mother. What had she done? She felt +she had done wrong; yet how, except by just existing? and she did feel +she couldn't help doing that. Certainly she had made two kind hearts +extremely miserable,--one was miserable now, and the other didn't yet +know how miserable it was going to be. She ought to have known, she +ought to have thought, she ought to have foreseen. She of all persons +in the world ought to have been careful with young men who believed +her to be of their own class. Contrition and woe took possession of +Priscilla's soul. She knew it was true that she could not help +existing, but she knew besides, far back in a remote and seldom +investigated corner of her mind, a corner on which she did not care to +turn the light of careful criticism, that she ought not to be existing +in Symford. It was because she was there, out of her proper sphere, in +a place she had no business to be in at all, that these strange and +heart-wringing scenes with young men occurred. And Fritzing would +notice her red eyes and ask what had happened; and here within two +days was a second story to be told of a young man unintentionally +hurried to his doom. Would Fritzing be angry? She never knew +beforehand. Would he, only remembering she was grand ducal, regard it +as an insult and want to fight Tussie? The vision of poor Tussie, +weak, fevered, embedded in pillows, swathed in flannel, receiving +bloodthirsty messages of defiance from Fritzing upset her into more +tears. Fritzing, she felt at that moment, was a trial. He burdened her +with his gigantic efforts to keep her from burdens. He burdened her +with his inflated notions of how burdenless she ought to be. He was +admirable, unselfish, devoted; but she felt it was possible to be too +admirable, too unselfish, too devoted. In a word Priscilla's mind +was in a state of upheaval, and the only ray of light she saw +anywhere--and never was ray more watery--was that Tussie, for the +moment at least, was content. The attitude of his mother, on the +other hand, was distressing and disturbing. There had been no more My +dears and other kind ways. She had watched her crying on the stairs in +stony silence, had gone down with her to the door in stony silence, +and just at the last had said in an unmistakably stony voice, "All +this is very cruel." + +Priscilla was overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. The world was +too much with her, she felt, a very great deal too much. She sent the +Shuttleworth carriage away at the entrance to the village and went in +to sit with Mrs. Jones a little, so that her eyes might lose their +redness before she faced Fritzing; and Mrs. Jones was so glad to see +her, so full of praises of her unselfish goodness in coming in, that +once again Priscilla was forced to be ashamed of herself and of +everything she did. + +"I'm not unselfish, and I'm not good," she said, smoothing the old +lady's coverlet. + +Mrs. Jones chuckled faintly. "Pretty dear," was her only comment. + +"I don't think I'm pretty and I know I'm not a dear," said Priscilla, +quite vexed. + +"Ain't you then, deary," murmured Mrs. Jones soothingly. + +Priscilla saw it was no use arguing, and taking up the Bible that +always lay on the table by the bed began to read aloud. She read and +read till both were quieted,--Mrs. Jones into an evidently sweet +sleep, she herself into peace. Then she left off and sat for some time +watching the old lady, the open Bible in-her lap, her soul filled +with calm words and consolations, wondering what it could be like +being so near death. Must it not be beautiful, thought Priscilla, to +slip away so quietly in that sunny room, with no sound to break the +peace but the ticking of the clock that marked off the last minutes, +and outside the occasional footstep of a passer-by still hurrying on +life's business? Wonderful to have done with everything, to have it +all behind one, settled, lived through, endured. The troublous joys +as well as the pains, all finished; the griefs and the stinging +happinesses, all alike lived down; and now evening, and sleep. In the +few days Priscilla had known her the old lady had drawn visibly nearer +death. Lying there on the pillow, so little and light that she hardly +pressed it down at all, she looked very near it indeed. And how kind +Death was, rubbing away the traces of what must have been a sordid +existence, set about years back with the usual coarse pleasures and +selfish hopes,--how kind Death was, letting all there was of spirit +shine out so sweetly at the end. There was an enlarged photograph of +Mrs. Jones and her husband over the fireplace, a photograph taken for +their silver wedding; she must have been about forty-five; how kind +Death was, thought Priscilla, looking from the picture to the figure +on the bed. She sighed a little, and got up. Life lay before her, an +endless ladder up each of whose steep rungs she would have to clamber; +in every sort of weather she would have to clamber, getting more +battered, more blistered with every rung.... She looked wistfully at +the figure on the bed, and sighed a little. Then she crept out, and +softly shut the door. + +She walked home lost in thought. As she was going up the hill to her +cottage Fritzing suddenly emerged from it and indulged in movements so +strange and complicated that they looked like nothing less than a +desperate dancing on the doorstep. Priscilla walked faster, staring in +astonishment. He made strange gestures, his face was pale, his hair +rubbed up into a kind of infuriated mop. + +"Why, what in the world--" began the amazed Priscilla, as soon as she +was near enough. + +"Ma'am, I've been robbed," shouted Fritzing; and all Symford might +have heard if it had happened to be listening. + +"Robbed?" repeated Priscilla. "What of?" + +"Of all my money, ma'am. Of all I had--of all we had--to live on." + +"Nonsense, Fritzi," said Priscilla; but she did turn a little paler. +"Don't let us stand out here," she added; and she got him in and shut +the street door. + +He would have left it open and would have shouted his woes through +it as through a trumpet down the street, oblivious of all things +under heaven but his misfortune. He tore open the drawer of the +writing-table. "In this drawer--in the pocket-book you see in this +drawer--in this now empty pocket-book, did I leave it. It was there +yesterday. It was there last night. Now it is gone. Miscreants from +without have visited us. Or perhaps, viler still, miscreants from +within. A miscreant, I do believe, capable of anything--Annalise--" + +"Fritzi, I took a five-pound note out of that last night, if that's +what you miss." + +"You, ma'am?" + +"To pay the girl who worked here her wages. You weren't here. I +couldn't find anything smaller." + +"_Gott sei Dank! Gott sei Dank_!" cried Fritzing, going back to German +in his joy. "Oh ma'am, if you had told me earlier you would have +spared me great anguish. Have you the change?" + +"Didn't she bring it?" + +"Bring it, ma'am?" + +"I gave it to her last night to change. She was to bring it round this +morning. Didn't she?" + +Fritzing stared aghast. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. In a +moment he was back again. "She has not been here," he said, in a voice +packed once more with torment. + +"Perhaps she has forgotten." + +"Ma'am, how came you--" + +"Now you're going to scold me." + +"No, no--but how is it possible that you should have trusted--" + +"Fritzi, you _are_ going to scold me, and I'm so tired. What else has +been taken? You said all your money--" + +He snatched up his hat. "Nothing else, ma'am, nothing else. I will go +and seek the girl." And he clapped it down over his eyes as he always +did in moments of great mental stress. + +"What a fuss," thought Priscilla wearily. Aloud she said, "The girl +here to-day will tell you where she lives. Of course she has +forgotten, or not been able to change it yet." And she left him, and +went out to get into her own half of the house. + +Yes, Fritzi really was a trial. Why such a fuss and such big words +about five pounds? If it were lost and the girl afraid to come and say +so, it didn't matter much; anyhow nothing like so much as having one's +peace upset. How foolish to be so agitated and talk of having been +robbed of everything. Fritzing's mind, she feared, that large, +enlightened mind on whose breadth and serenity she had gazed +admiringly ever since she could remember gazing at all, was shrinking +to dimensions that would presently exactly match the dimensions of +Creeper Cottage. She went upstairs disheartened and tired, and +dropping down full length on her sofa desired Annalise to wash her +face. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness has been weeping," said Annalise, whisking +the sponge in and out of corners with a skill surprising in one who +had only practised the process during the last ten days. + +Priscilla opened her eyes to stare at her in frankest surprise, for +never yet had Annalise dared make a remark unrequested. Annalise, by +beginning to wash them, forced her to shut them again. + +Priscilla then opened her mouth to tell her what she thought of her. +Immediately Annalise's swift sponge stopped it up. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness," said Annalise, washing Priscilla's mouth +with a thoroughness and an amount of water suggestive of its not +having been washed for months, "told me only yesterday that weeping +was a terrible--_schreckliche_--waste of time. Therefore, since your +Grand Ducal Highness knows that and yet herself weeps, it is easy to +see that there exists a reason for weeping which makes weeping +inevitable." + +"Will you--" began Priscilla, only to be stopped instantly by the +ready sponge. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness is unhappy. 'Tis not to be wondered at. +Trust a faithful servant, one whose life-blood is at your Grand Ducal +Highness's disposal, and tell her if it is not then true that the Herr +Geheimrath has decoyed you from your home and your Grossherzoglicher +Herr Papa?" + +"Will you--" + +Again the pouncing sponge. + +"My heart bleeds--indeed it bleeds--to think of the Herr Papa's +sufferings, his fears, his anxieties. It is a picture on which I +cannot calmly look. Day and night--for at night I lie sleepless on my +bed--I am inquiring of myself what it can be, the spell that the Herr +Geheimrath has cast over your Grand Ducal--" + +"Will you--" + +Again the pouncing sponge; but this time Priscilla caught the girl's +hand, and holding it at arm's length sat up. "Are you mad?" she asked, +looking at Annalise as though she saw her for the first time. + +Annalise dropped the sponge and clasped her hands. "Not mad," she +said, "only very, very devoted." + +"No. Mad. Give me a towel." + +Priscilla was so angry that she did not dare say more. If she had said +a part even of what she wanted to say all would have been over between +herself and Annalise; so she dried her face in silence, declining to +allow it to be touched. "You can go," she said, glancing at the door, +her face pale with suppressed wrath but also, it must be confessed, +very clean; and when she was alone she dropped once again on to the +sofa and buried her head in the cushion. How dared Annalise? How dared +she? How dared she? Priscilla asked herself over and over again, +wincing, furious. Why had she not thought of this, known that she +would be in the power of any servant they chose to bring? Surely there +was no limit, positively none, to what the girl might do or say? How +was she going to bear her about her, endure the sight and sound of +that veiled impertinence? She buried her head very deep in the +cushion, vainly striving to blot out the world and Annalise in its +feathers, but even there there was no peace, for suddenly a great +noise of doors going and legs striding penetrated through its +stuffiness and she heard Fritzing's voice very loud and near--all +sounds in Creeper Cottage were loud and near--ordering Annalise to ask +her Grand Ducal Highness to descend. + +"I won't," thought Priscilla, burying her head deeper. "That poor Emma +has lost the note and he's going to fuss. I won't descend." + +Then came Annalise's tap at her door. Priscilla did not answer. +Annalise tapped again. Priscilla did not answer, but turning her head +face upwards composed herself to an appearance of sleep. + +Annalise tapped a third time. "The Herr Geheimrath wishes to speak to +your Grand Ducal Highness," she called through the door; and after a +pause opened it and peeped in. "Her Grand Ducal Highness sleeps," she +informed Fritzing down the stairs, her nose at the angle in the air it +always took when she spoke to him. + +"Then wake her! Wake her!" cried Fritzing. + +"Is it possible something has happened?" thought Annalise joyfully, +her eyes gleaming as she willingly flew back to Priscilla's +door,--anything, anything, she thought, sooner than the life she was +leading. + +Priscilla heard Fritzing's order and sat up at once, surprised at such +an unprecedented indifference to her comfort. Her heart began to beat +faster; a swift fear that Kunitz was at her heels seized her; she +jumped up and ran out. + +Fritzing was standing at the foot of the stairs. + +"Come down, ma'am," he said; "I must speak to you at once." + +"What's the matter?" asked Priscilla, getting down the steep little +stairs as quickly as was possible without tumbling. + +"Hateful English tongue," thought Annalise, to whom the habit the +Princess and Fritzing had got into of talking English together was a +constant annoyance and disappointment. + +Fritzing preceded Priscilla into her parlour, and when she was in he +shut the door behind her. Then he leaned his hands on the table to +steady himself and confronted her with a twitching face. Priscilla +looked at him appalled. Was the Grand Duke round the corner? +Lingering, perhaps, among the very tombs just outside her window? +"What is it?" she asked faintly. + +"Ma'am, the five pounds has disappeared for ever." + +"Really Fritzi, you are too absurd about that wretched five pounds," +cried Priscilla, blazing into anger. + +"But it was all we had." + +"All we--?" + +"Ma'am, it was positively our last penny." + +"I--don't understand." + +He made her understand. With paper and pencil, with the bills and his +own calculations, he made her understand. His hands shook, but he +went through with it item by item, through everything they had spent +from the moment they left Kunitz. They were in such a corner, so +tightly jammed, that all efforts to hide it and pretend there was no +corner seemed to him folly. He now saw that such efforts always had +been folly, and that he ought to have seen to it that her mind on this +important point was from the first perfectly clear; then nothing would +have happened. "You have had the misfortune, ma'am, to choose a fool +for your protector in this adventure," he said bitterly, pushing the +papers from him as though he loathed the sight of them. + +Priscilla sat dumfoundered. She was looking quite straight for the +first time at certain pitiless aspects of life. For the first time she +was face to face with the sternness, the hardness, the relentlessness +of everything that has to do with money so soon as one has not got +any. It seemed almost incredible to her that she who had given so +lavishly to anybody and everybody, who had been so glad to give, who +had thought of money when she thought of it at all as a thing to be +passed on, as a thing that soiled one unless it was passed on, but +that, passed on, became strangely glorified and powerful for good--it +seemed incredible that she should be in need of it herself, and unable +to think of a single person who would give her some. And what a little +she needed: just to tide them over the next week or two till they had +got theirs from home; yet even that little, the merest nothing +compared to what she had flung about in the village, was as +unattainable as though it had been a fortune. "Can we--can we not +borrow?" she said at last. + +"Yes ma'am, we can and we must. I will proceed this evening to Symford +Hall and borrow of Augustus." + +"No," said Priscilla; so suddenly and so energetically that Fritzing +started. + +"No, ma'am?" he repeated, astonished. "Why, he is the very person. In +fact he is our only hope. He must and shall help us." + +"No," repeated Priscilla, still more energetically. + +"Pray ma'am," said Fritzing, shrugging his shoulders, "are these +women's whims--I never comprehended them rightly and doubt if I ever +shall--are they to be allowed to lead us even in dangerous crises? To +lead us to certain shipwreck, ma'am? The alternatives in this case are +three. Permit me to point them out. Either we return to Kunitz--" + +"Oh," shivered Priscilla, shrinking as from a blow. + +"Or, after a brief period of starvation and other violent discomfort, +we are cast into gaol for debt--" + +"Oh?" shivered Priscilla, in tones of terrified inquiry. + +"Or, I borrow of Augustus." + +"No," said Priscilla, just as energetically as before. + +"Augustus is wealthy. Augustus is willing. Ma'am, I would stake my +soul that he is willing." + +"You shall not borrow of him," said Priscilla. "He--he's too ill." + +"Well then, ma'am," said Fritzing with a gesture of extreme +exasperation, "since you cannot be allowed to be cast into gaol there +remains but Kunitz. Like the dogs of the Scriptures we will return--" + +"Why not borrow of the vicar?" interrupted Priscilla. "Surely he would +be glad to help any one in difficulties?" + +"Of the vicar? What, of the father of the young man who insulted your +Grand Ducal Highness and whom I propose to kill in duel my first +leisure moment? Ma'am, there are depths of infamy to which even a +desperate man will not descend." + +Priscilla dug holes in the tablecloth with the point of the pencil. "I +can't conceive," she said, "why you gave Annalise all that money. So +_much_." + +"Why, ma'am, she refused, unless I did, to prepare your Grand Ducal +Highness's tea." + +"Oh Fritzi!" Priscilla looked up at him, shaking her head and smiling +through all her troubles. Was ever so much love and so much folly +united in one wise old man? Was ever, for that matter, so expensive a +tea? + +"I admit I permitted the immediate, the passing, moment to blot out +the future from my clearer vision on that occasion." + +"On that occasion? Oh Fritzi. What about all the other occasions? +When you gave me all I asked for--for the poor people, for my party. +You must have suffered tortures of anxiety. And all by yourself. Oh +Fritzi. It was dear of you--perfectly, wonderfully, dear. But you +ought to have been different with me from the beginning--treated me +exactly as you would have treated a real niece--" + +"Ma'am," cried Fritzing, jumping up, "this is waste of time. Our case +is very urgent. Money must be obtained. You must allow me to judge in +this matter, however ill I have acquitted myself up to now. I shall +start at once for Symford Hall and obtain a loan of Augustus." + +Priscilla pushed back her chair and got up too. "My dear Fritzi, +please leave that unfortunate young man out of the question," she +said, flushing. "How can you worry a person who is ill in bed with +such things?" + +"His mother is not ill in bed and will do quite as well. I am +certainly going." + +"You are not going. I won't have you ask his mother. I--forbid you to +do anything of the sort. Oh Fritzi," she added in despair, for he had +picked up the hat and stick he had flung down on coming in and was +evidently not going to take the least notice of her commands--"oh +Fritzi, you can't ask Tussie for money. It would kill him to know we +were in difficulties." + +"Kill him, ma'am? Why should it kill him?" shouted Fritzing, +exasperated by such a picture of softness. + +"It wouldn't only kill him--it would be simply too dreadful besides," +said Priscilla, greatly distressed. "Why, he asked me this +afternoon--wasn't going to tell you, but you force me to--he asked me +this very afternoon to marry him, and the dreadful part is that I'm +afraid he thinks--he hopes--that I'm going to." + + + + +XX + + +The only inhabitant of Creeper Cottage who slept that night was +Annalise. Priscilla spent it walking up and down her bedroom, and +Fritzing on the other side of the wall spent it walking up and down +his. They could hear each other doing it; it was a melancholy sound. +Once Priscilla was seized with laughter--a not very genial mirth, but +still laughter--and had to fling herself on her bed and bury her face +in the pillows lest Fritzing should hear so blood-curdling a noise. It +was when their steps had fallen steadily together for several turns +and the church clock, just as she was noticing this, had struck three. +Not for this, to tramp up and down their rooms all night, not for this +had they left Kunitz. The thought of all they had dreamed life in +Creeper Cottage was going to be, of all they had never doubted it was +going to be, of peaceful nights passed in wholesome slumber, of days +laden with fruitful works, of evenings with the poets, came into her +head and made this tormented marching suddenly seem intensely droll. +She laughed into her pillow till the tears rolled down her face, and +the pains she had to take to keep all sounds from reaching Fritzing +only made her laugh more. + +It was a windy night, and the wind sighed round the cottage and +rattled the casements and rose every now and then to a howl very +dreary to hear. While Priscilla was laughing a great gust shook the +house, and involuntarily she raised her head to listen. It died away, +and her head dropped back on to her arms again, but the laughter was +gone. She lay solemn enough, listening to Fritzing's creakings, and +thought of the past day and of the days to come till her soul grew +cold. Surely she was a sort of poisonous weed, fatal to every one +about her? Fritzing, Tussie, the poor girl Emma--oh, it could not be +true about Emma. She had lost the money, and was trying to gather +courage to come and say so; or she had simply not been able to change +it yet. Fritzing had jumped to the conclusion, because nothing had +been heard of her all day at home, that she had run away with it. +Priscilla twisted herself about uneasily. It was not the loss of the +five pounds that made her twist, bad though that loss was in their +utter poverty; it was the thought that if Emma had really run away +she, by her careless folly, had driven the girl to ruin. And then +Tussie. How dreadful that was. At three in the morning, with the +wailing wind rising and falling and the room black with the inky +blackness of a moonless October night, the Tussie complication seemed +to be gigantic, of a quite appalling size, threatening to choke her, +to crush all the spring and youth out of her. If Tussie got well she +was going to break his heart; if Tussie died it would be her fault. +No one but herself was responsible for his illness, her own selfish, +hateful self. Yes, she was a poisonous weed; a baleful, fatal thing, +not fit for great undertakings, not fit for a noble life, too foolish +to depart successfully from the lines laid down for her by other +people; wickedly careless; shamefully shortsighted; spoiling, ruining, +everything she touched. Priscilla writhed. Nobody likes being forced +to recognize that they are poisonous weeds. Even to be a plain weed is +grievous to one's vanity, but to be a weed and poisonous as well is a +very desperate thing to be. She passed a dreadful night. It was the +worst she could remember. + +And the evening too--how bad it had been; though contrary to her +expectations Fritzing showed no desire to fight Tussie. He was not so +unreasonable as she had supposed; and besides, he was too completely +beaten down by the ever-increasing weight and number of his +responsibilities to do anything in regard to that unfortunate youth +but be sorry for him. More than once that evening he looked at +Priscilla in silent wonder at the amount of trouble one young woman +could give. How necessary, he thought, and how wise was that plan at +which he used in his ignorance to rail, of setting an elderly female +like the Disthal to control the actions and dog the footsteps of the +Priscillas of this world. He hated the Disthal and all women like her, +women with mountainous bodies and minimal brains--bodies self-indulged +into shapelessness, brains neglected into disappearance; but the +nobler and simpler and the more generous the girl the more did she +need some such mixture of fleshliness and cunning constantly with her. +It seemed absurd, and it seemed all wrong; yet surely it was so. He +pondered over it long in dejected musings, the fighting tendency gone +out of him completely for the time, so dark was his spirit with the +shadows of the future. + +They had borrowed the wages--it was a dreadful moment--for that day's +cook from Annalise. For their food they decided to run up a bill at +the store; but every day each fresh cook would have to be paid, and +every day her wages would have to be lent by Annalise. Annalise lent +superbly; with an air as of giving freely, with joy. All she required +was the Princess's signature to a memorandum drawn up by herself by +which she was promised the money back, doubled, within three months. +Priscilla read this, flushed to her hair, signed, and ordered her out +of the room. Annalise, who was beginning to enjoy herself, went +upstairs singing. In the parlour Priscilla broke the pen she had +signed with into quite small pieces and flung them on to the fire,--a +useless demonstration, but then she was a quick-tempered young lady. +In the attic Annalise sat down and wrote a letter breathing lofty +sentiments to the Countess Disthal in Kunitz, telling her she could no +longer keep silence in the face of a royal parent's anxieties and she +was willing to reveal the address of the Princess Priscilla and so +staunch the bleeding of a noble heart if the Grand Duke would forward +her or forward to her parents on her behalf the sum of twenty thousand +marks. Gladly would she render this service, which was at the same +time her duty, for nothing, if she had not the future to consider and +an infirm father. Meanwhile she gave the Symford post-office as an +address, assuring the Countess that it was at least fifty miles from +the Princess's present hiding-place, the address of which would only +be sent on the conditions named. Then, immensely proud of her +cleverness, she trotted down to the post-office, bought stamps, and +put the letter herself in the box. + +That evening she sang in the kitchen, she sang in the bath-room, she +sang in the attic and on the stairs to the attic. What she sang, +persistently, over and over again, and loudest outside Fritzing's +door, was a German song about how beautiful it is at evening when the +bells ring one to rest, and the refrain at the end of each verse was +ding-dong twice repeated. Priscilla rang her own bell, unable to +endure it, but Annalise did not consider this to be one of those that +are beautiful and did not answer it till it had been rung three times. + +"Do not sing," said Priscilla, when she appeared. + +"Your Grand Ducal Highness objects?" + +Priscilla turned red. "I'll give no reasons," she said icily. "Do not +sing." + +"Yet it is a sign of a light heart. Your Grand Ducal Highness did not +like to see me weep--she should the more like to hear me rejoice." + +"You can go." + +"My heart to-night is light, because I am the means of being of use +to your Grand Ducal Highness, of showing my devotion, of being of +service." + +"Do me the service of being quiet." + +Annalise curtseyed and withdrew, and spent the rest of the evening +bursting into spasmodic and immediately interrupted song,--breaking +off after a few bars with a cough of remembrance and apology. When +this happened Fritzing and Priscilla looked at each other with grave +and meditative eyes; they knew how completely they were in her power. + +Fritzing wrote that night to the friend in London who had engaged the +rooms for him at Baker's Farm, and asked him to lend him fifty pounds +for a week,--preferably three hundred (this would cover the +furnisher's bill), but if he could lend neither five would do. The +friend, a teacher of German, could as easily have lent the three +hundred as the five, so poor was he, so fit an object for a loan +himself; but long before his letter explaining this in words eloquent +of regret (for he was a loyal friend) reached Fritzing, many things +had happened to that bewildered man to whom so many things had +happened already, and caused him to forget both his friend and his +request. + +This, then, was how the afternoon and evening of Thursday were +passed; and on Friday morning, quite unstrung by their sleepless +night, Priscilla and Fritzing were proposing to go up together on +to the moor, there to seek width and freshness, be blown upon by +moist winds, and forget for a little the crushing narrowness and +perplexities of Creeper Cottage, when Mrs. Morrison walked in. She +opened the door first and then, when half of her was inside, knocked +with her knuckles, which were the only things to knock with on +Priscilla's simple door. + +Priscilla was standing by the fire dressed to go out, waiting for +Fritzing, and she stared at this apparition in great and unconcealed +surprise. What business, said Priscilla's look more plainly than any +words, what business had people to walk into other people's cottages +in such a manner? She stood quite still, and scrutinized Mrs. Morrison +with the questioning expression she used to find so effective in +Kunitz days when confronted by a person inclined to forget which, +exactly, was his proper place. But Mrs. Morrison knew nothing of +Kunitz, and the look lost half its potency without its impressive +background. Besides, the lady was not one to notice things so slight +as looks; to keep her in her proper place you would have needed +sledge-hammers. She came in without thinking it necessary to wait to +be asked to, nodded something that might perhaps have represented a +greeting and of which Priscilla took no notice, and her face was the +face of somebody who is angry. + +"How wearing for the vicar," thought Priscilla, "to have a wife who +is angry at ten o'clock in the morning." + +"I've come in the interests--" began Mrs. Morrison, whose voice was +quite as angry as her face. + +"I'm just going out," said Priscilla. + +"--Of religion and morality." + +"Are they distinct?" asked Priscilla, drawing on her gloves. + +"You can imagine that nothing would make me pay you a visit but the +strongest sense of the duty I owe to my position in the parish." + +"Why should I imagine it?" + +"Of course I expect impertinence." + +"I'm afraid you've come here to be rude." + +"I shall not be daunted by anything you may say from doing my duty." + +"Will you please do it, then, and get it over?" + +"The duties of a clergyman's wife are often very disagreeable." + +"Probably you've got hold of a perfectly wrong idea of what yours +really are." + +"It is a new experience for me to be told so by a girl of your age." + +"I am not telling you. I only suggest." + +"I was prepared for rudeness." + +"Then why did you come?" + +"How long are you going to stay in this parish?" + +"You don't expect me to answer that?" + +"You've not been in it a fortnight, and you have done more harm than +most people in a lifetime." + +"I'm afraid you exaggerate." + +"You have taught it to drink." + +"I gave a dying old woman what she most longed for." + +"You've taught it to break the Sabbath." + +"I made a great many little children very happy." + +"You have ruined the habits of thrift we have been at such pains to +teach and encourage for twenty-five years." + +"I helped the poor when they asked me to." + +"And now what I want to know is, what has become of the Hancock girl?" + +"Pray who, exactly, is the Hancock girl?" + +"That unfortunate creature who worked here for you on Wednesday." + +Priscilla's face changed. "Emma?" she asked. + +"Emma. At this hour the day before yesterday she was as good a girl as +any in the village. She was good, and dutiful, and honest. Now what is +she and where is she?" + +"Has she--isn't she in her home?" + +"She never went home." + +"Then she did lose the money?" + +"Lose it? She has stolen it. Do you not see you have deliberately made +a thief out of an honest girl?" + +Priscilla gazed in dismay at the avenging vicar's wife. It was true +then, and she had the fatal gift of spoiling all she touched. + +"And worse than that--you have brought a good girl to ruin. He'll +never marry her now." + +"He?" + +"Do you not know the person she was engaged to has gone with her?" + +"I don't know anything." + +"They walked from here to Ullerton and went to London. Her father came +round to us yesterday after your uncle had been to him making +inquiries, and it is all as clear as day. Till your uncle told him, he +did not know about the money, and had been too--not well enough that +day to notice Emma's not having come home. Your uncle's visit sobered +him. We telegraphed to the police. They've been traced to London. +That's all. Except," and she glared at Priscilla with all the wrath of +a prophet whose denunciations have been justified, "except that one +more life is ruined." + +"I'm very sorry--very, very sorry," said Priscilla, so earnestly, so +abjectly even, that her eyes filled with tears. "I see now how +thoughtless it was of me." + +"Thoughtless!" + +"It was inexcusably thoughtless." + +"Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison again. + +"If you like, it was criminally thoughtless." + +"Thoughtless!" cried Mrs. Morrison a third time. + +"But it wasn't more than thoughtless. I'd give anything to be able to +set it right. I am most truly grieved. But isn't it a little hard to +make me responsible?" + +Mrs. Morrison stared at her as one who eyes some strange new monster. +"How amazingly selfish you are," she said at last, in tones almost of +awe. + +"Selfish?" faltered Priscilla, who began to wonder what she was not. + +"In the face of such total ruin, such utter shipwreck, to be thinking +of what is hard on you. You! Why, here you are with a safe skin, free +from the bitter anxieties and temptations poor people have to fight +with, with so much time unoccupied that you fill it up with mischief, +with more money than you know what to do with"--Priscilla pressed her +hands together--"sheltered, free from every care"--Priscilla opened +her lips but shut them again--"and there is that miserable Emma, +hopeless, branded, for ever an outcast because of you,--only because +of you, and you think of yourself and talk of its being hard." + +Priscilla looked at Mrs. Morrison, opened her mouth to say something, +shut it, opened it again, and remarked very lamely that the heart +alone knows its own bitterness. + +"Psha," said Mrs. Morrison, greatly incensed at having the Scriptures, +her own speciality, quoted at her. "I'd like to know what bitterness +yours has known, unless it's the bitterness of a bad conscience. Now +I've come here to-day"--she raised her voice to a note of warning--"to +give you a chance. To make you think, by pointing out the path you +are treading. You are young, and it is my duty to let no young person +go downhill without one warning word. You have brought much evil on +our village--why you, a stranger, should be bent on making us all +unhappy I can't imagine. You hypocritically try to pretend that what +plain people call evil is really good. But your last action, forcing +Emma Hancock to be a thief and worse, even you cannot possibly defend. +You have much on your conscience--far, far more than I should care to +have on mine. How wicked to give all that money to Mrs. Jones. Don't +you see you are tempting people who know she is defenceless to steal +it from her? Perhaps even murder her? I saved her from that--you did +not reckon with me, you see. Take my advice--leave Symford, and go +back to where you came from"--Priscilla started--"and get something to +do that will keep you fully occupied. If you don't, you'll be laying +up a wretched, perhaps a degraded future for yourself. Don't +suppose,"--her voice grew very loud--"don't suppose we are fools here +and are not all of us aware of the way you have tried to lure young +men on"--Priscilla started again--"in the hope, of course, of getting +one of them to marry you. But your intentions have been frustrated +luckily, in the one case by Providence flinging your victim on a bed +of sickness and in the other by your having altogether mistaken the +sort of young fellow you were dealing with." + +Mrs. Morrison paused for breath. This last part of her speech had been +made with an ever accumulating rage. Priscilla stood looking at her, +her eyebrows drawn down very level over her eyes. + +"My son is much too steady and conscientious, besides being too much +accustomed to first-rate society, to stoop to anything so vulgar--" + +"As myself?" inquired Priscilla. + +"As a love-affair with the first stray girl he picks up." + +"Do you mean me?" + +"He saw through your intentions, laughed at them, and calmly returned +to his studies at Cambridge." + +"I boxed his ears." + +"What?" + +"I boxed his ears." + +"You?" + +"I boxed his ears. That's why he went. He didn't go calmly. It wasn't +his studies." + +"How dare you box--oh, this is too horrible--and you stand there and +tell me so to my face?" + +"I'm afraid I must. The tone of your remarks positively demands it. +Your son's conduct positively demanded that I should box his ears. So +I did." + +"Of all the shameless--" + +"I'm afraid you're becoming like him--altogether impossible." + +"You first lure him on, and then--oh, it is shameful!" + +"Have you finished what you came for?" + +"You are the most brazen--" + +"Hush. Do be careful. Suppose my uncle were to hear you? If you've +finished won't you go?" + +"Go? I shall not go till I have said my say. I shall send the vicar to +you about Robin--such conduct is so--so infamous that I can't--I +can't--I can't--" + +"I'm sorry if it has distressed you." + +"Distressed me? You are the most--" + +"Really I think we've done, haven't we?" said Priscilla hurriedly, +dreadfully afraid lest Fritzing should come in and hear her being +called names. + +"To think that you dared--to think that my--my noble boy--" + +"He wasn't very noble. Mothers don't ever really know their sons, I +think." + +"Shameless girl!" cried Mrs. Morrison, so loud, so completely beside +herself, that Priscilla hastily rang her bell, certain that Fritzing +must hear and would plunge in to her rescue; and of all things she had +learned to dread Fritzing's plunging to her rescue. "Open the door for +this lady," she said to Annalise, who appeared with a marvellous +promptitude; and as Mrs. Morrison still stood her ground and refused +to see either Annalise or the door Priscilla ended the interview by +walking out herself, with great dignity, into the bathroom. + + + + +XXI + + +And now I have come to a part of my story that I would much rather not +write. Always my inclination if left alone is to sit in the sun and +sing of things like crocuses, of nothing less fresh and clean than +crocuses. The engaging sprightliness of crocuses; their dear little +smell, not to be smelled except by the privileged few; their luminous +transparency--I am thinking of the white and the purple; their kind +way of not keeping hearts sick for Spring waiting longer than they can +just bear; how pleasant to sit with a friend in the sun, a friend who +like myself likes to babble of green fields, and talk together about +all things flowery. But Priscilla's story has taken such a hold on me, +it seemed when first I heard it to be so full of lessons, that I feel +bound to set it down from beginning to end for the use and warning of +all persons, princesses and others, who think that by searching, by +going far afield, they will find happiness, and do not see that it is +lying all the while at their feet. They do not see it because it is so +close. It is so close that there is a danger of its being trodden on +or kicked away. And it is shy, and waits to be picked up. Priscilla, +we know, went very far afield in search of hers, and having +undertaken to tell of what befell her I must not now, only because I +would rather, suppress any portion of the story. Besides, it is a +portion vital to the catastrophe. + +In Minehead, then, there lived at this time a murderer. He had not +been found out yet and he was not a murderer by profession, for he was +a bricklayer; but in his heart he was, and that is just as bad. He had +had a varied career into the details of which I do not propose to go, +had come three or four years before to live in the West of England +because it was so far from all the other places he had lived in, had +got work in Minehead, settled there respectably, married, and was a +friend of that carrier who brought the bread and other parcels every +day to the Symford store. At this time he was in money difficulties +and his wife, of whom he was fond, was in an expensive state of +health. The accounts of Priscilla's generosity and wealth had reached +Minehead as I said some time ago, and had got even into the local +papers. The carrier was the chief transmitter of news, for he saw Mrs. +Vickerton every day and she was a woman who loved to talk; but those +of the Shuttleworth servants who were often in Minehead on divers +errands ratified and added to all he said, and embellished the tale +besides with what was to them the most interesting part, the +unmistakable signs their Augustus showed of intending to marry the +young woman. This did not interest the murderer. Sir Augustus and the +lady he meant to marry were outside his sphere altogether; too well +protected, too powerful. What he liked to hear about was the money +Priscilla had scattered among the cottagers, how much each woman had +got, whether it had been spent or not, whether she had a husband, or +grown-up children; and best of all he liked to hear about the money +Mrs. Jones had got. All the village, and therefore Mrs. Vickerton and +the carrier, knew of it, knew even the exact spot beneath the bolster +where it was kept, knew it was kept there for safety from the +depredations of the vicar's wife, knew the vicar's wife had taken away +Priscilla's first present. The carrier knew too of Mrs. Jones's age, +her weakness, her nearness to death. He remarked that such a sum +wasn't of much use to an old woman certain to die in a few days, and +that it might just as well not be hers at all for all the spending it +got. The murderer, whose reputation in Minehead was so immaculate that +not a single fly had ever dared blow on it, said kindly that no doubt +just to have it in her possession was cheering and that one should not +grudge the old their little bits of comfort; and he walked over to +Symford that night, and getting there about one o'clock murdered Mrs. +Jones. I will not enter into details. I believe it was quite simple. +He was back by six next morning with the five pounds in his pocket, +and his wife that day had meat for dinner. + +That is all I shall say about the murderer, except that he was never +found out; and nothing shall induce me to dwell upon the murder. But +what about the effect it had on Priscilla? Well, it absolutely crushed +her. + +The day before, after Mrs. Morrison's visit, she had been wretched +enough, spending most of it walking very fast, as driven spirits do, +with Fritzing for miles across the bleak and blowy moor, by turns +contrite and rebellious, one moment ready to admit she was a miserable +sinner, the next indignantly repudiating Mrs. Morrison's and her own +conscience's accusations, her soul much beaten and bent by winds of +misgiving but still on its feet, still defiant, still sheltering +itself when it could behind plain common sense which whispered at +intervals that all that had happened was only bad luck. They walked +miles that day; often in silence, sometimes in gusty talk--talk gusty +with the swift changes of Priscilla's mood scudding across the leaden +background of Fritzing's steadier despair--and they got back tired, +hungry, their clothes splashed with mud, their minds no nearer light +than when they started. She had, I say, been wretched enough; but what +was this wretchedness to that which followed? In her ignorance she +thought it the worst day she had ever had, the most tormented; and +when she went to bed she sought comfort in its very badness by telling +herself that it was over and could never come again. It could not. But +Time is prolific of surprises; and on Saturday morning Symford woke +with a shudder to the murder of Mrs. Jones. + +Now such a thing as this had not happened in that part of +Somersetshire within the memory of living man, and though Symford +shuddered it was also proud and pleased. The mixed feeling of horror, +pleasure, and pride was a thrilling one. It felt itself at once raised +to a position of lurid conspicuousness in the county, its name would +be in every mouth, the papers, perhaps even the London papers, would +talk about it. At all times, in spite of the care and guidance it had +had from the clergy and gentry, the account of a murder gave Symford +more pure pleasure than any other form of entertainment; and now here +was one, not at second-hand, not to be viewed through the cooling +medium of print and pictures, but in its midst, before its eyes, at +its very doors. Mrs. Jones went up strangely in its estimation. The +general feeling was that it was an honour to have known her. Nobody +worked that day. The school was deserted. Dinners were not cooked. +Babies shrieked uncomforted. All Symford was gathered in groups +outside Mrs. Jones's cottage, and as the day wore on and the news +spread, visitors from the neighbouring villages, from Minehead and +from Ullerton, arrived with sandwiches and swelled them. + +Priscilla saw these groups from her windows. The fatal cottage was at +the foot of the hill in full view both of her bedroom and her parlour. +Only by sitting in the bathroom would she be able to get away from it. +When the news was brought her, breathlessly, pallidly, by Annalise in +the early morning with her hot water, she refused to believe it. +Annalise knew no English and must have got hold of a horrible wrong +tale. The old lady was dead no doubt, had died quietly in her sleep as +had been expected, but what folly was all this about a murder? Yet she +sat up in bed and felt rather cold as she looked at Annalise, for +Annalise was very pallid. And then at last she had to believe it. +Annalise had had it told her from beginning to end, with the help of +signs, by the charwoman. She had learned more English in those few +crimson minutes than in the whole of the time she had been in England. +The charwoman had begun her demonstration by slowly drawing her finger +across her throat from one ear to the other, and Annalise repeated the +action for Priscilla's clearer comprehension. How Priscilla got up +that day and dressed she never knew. Once at least during the process +she stumbled back on to the bed and lay with her face on her arms, +shaken by a most desperate weeping. That fatal charity; those fatal +five-pound notes. Annalise, panic-stricken lest she who possessed so +many should be the next victim, poured out the tale of the missing +money, of the plain motive for the murder, with a convincingness, a +naked truth, that stabbed Priscilla to the heart with each clinching +word. + +"They say the old woman must have cried out--must have been awakened, +or the man would have taken the money without--" + +"Oh don't--oh leave me--" moaned Priscilla. + +She did not go downstairs that day. Every time Annalise tried to come +in she sent her away. When she was talked to of food, she felt sick. +Once she began to pace about the room, but the sight of those eager +black knots of people down the street, of policemen and other +important and official-looking persons going in and out of the +cottage, drove her back to her bed and its sheltering, world-deadening +pillow. Indeed the waters of life had gone over her head and swallowed +her up in hopeless blackness. She acknowledged herself wrong. She gave +in utterly. Every word Mrs. Morrison--a dreadful woman, yet dreadful +as she was still a thousand times better than herself--every word she +had said, every one of those bitter words at which she had been so +indignant the morning before, was true, was justified. That day +Priscilla tore the last shreds of self-satisfaction from her soul and +sat staring at it with horrified eyes as at a thing wholly repulsive, +dangerous, blighting. What was to become of her, and of poor Fritzing, +dragged down by her to an equal misery? About one o'clock she heard +Mrs. Morrison's voice below, in altercation apparently with him. At +this time she was crying again; bitter, burning tears; those scorching +tears that follow in the wake of destroyed illusions, that drop, hot +and withering, on to the fragments of what was once the guiding glory +of an ideal. She was brought so low, was so humbled, so uncertain of +herself, that she felt it would bring her peace if she might go down +to Mrs. Morrison and acknowledge all her vileness; tell her how wrong +she had been, ask her forgiveness for her rudeness, beg her for pity, +for help, for counsel. She needed some kind older woman,--oh she +needed some kind older woman to hold out cool hands of wisdom and show +her the way. But then she would have to make a complete confession of +everything she had done, and how would Mrs. Morrison or any other +decent woman look upon her flight from her father's home? Would they +not turn away shuddering from what she now saw was a hideous +selfishness and ingratitude? The altercation going on below rose +rapidly in heat. Just at the end it grew so heated that even through +the pillow Priscilla could hear its flaming conclusion. + +"Man, I tell you your niece is to all intents and purposes a +murderess, a double murderess," cried Mrs. Morrison. "Not only has she +the woman's murder to answer for, but the ruined soul of the murderer +as well." + +Upon which there was a loud shout of "Hence! Hence!" and a great +slamming of the street door. + +For some time after this Priscilla heard fevered walking about in her +parlour and sounds as of many and muffled imprecations; then, when +they had grown a little more intermittent, careful footsteps came up +her stairs, footsteps so careful, so determined not to disturb, that +the stairs cracked and wheezed more than they had ever yet been known +to do. Arrived at the top they paused outside her door, and Priscilla, +checking her sobs, could hear how Fritzing stood there wrestling with +his body's determination to breathe too loud. He stood there listening +for what seemed to her an eternity. She almost screamed at last as the +minutes passed and she knew he was still there, motionless, listening. +After a long while he went away again with the same anxious care to +make no noise, and she, with a movement of utter abandonment to woe, +turned over and cried herself sick. + +Till evening she lay there alone, and then the steps came up again, +accompanied this time by the tinkle of china and spoons. Priscilla was +sitting at the window looking on to the churchyard, staring into the +dark with its swaying branches and few faint stars, and when she heard +him outside the door listening again in anxious silence she got up and +opened it. + +Fritzing held a plate of food in one hand and a glass of milk in the +other. The expression on his face was absurdly like that of a mother +yearning over a sick child. "_Mein liebes Kind_--_mein liebes Kind_," +he stammered when she came out, so woebegone, so crushed, so utterly +unlike any Priscilla of any one of her moods that he had ever seen +before. Her eyes were red, her eyelids heavy with tears, her face was +pinched and narrower, the corners of her mouth had a most piteous +droop, her very hair, pushed back off her forehead, seemed sad, and +hung in spiritless masses about her neck and ears. "_Mein liebes +Kind_," stammered poor Fritzing; and his hand shook so that he upset +some of the milk. + +Priscilla leaned against the door-post. She was feeling sick and +giddy. "How dreadful this is," she murmured, looking at him with +weary, woeful eyes. + +"No, no--all will be well," said Fritzing, striving to be brisk. +"Drink some milk, ma'am." + +"Oh, I have been wicked." + +"Wicked?" + +Fritzing hastily put the plate and glass down on the floor, and +catching up the hand hanging limply by her side passionately kissed +it. "You are the noblest woman on earth," he said. + +"Oh," said Priscilla, turning away her head and shutting her eyes for +very weariness of such futile phrases. + +"Ma'am, you are. I would swear it. But you are also a child, and so +you are ready at the first reverse to suppose you have done with +happiness for ever. Who knows," said Fritzing with a great show of +bright belief in his own prophecy, the while his heart was a stone, +"who knows but what you are now on the very threshold of it?" + +"Oh," murmured Priscilla, too beaten to do anything but droop her +head. + +"It is insisting on the commonplace to remind you, ma'am, that the +darkest hour comes before dawn. Yet it is a well-known natural +phenomenon." + +Priscilla leaned her head against the door-post. She stood there +motionless, her hands hanging by her side, her eyes shut, her mouth +slightly open, the very picture of one who has given up. + +"Drink some milk, ma'am. At least endeavour to." + +She took no heed of him. + +"For God's sake, ma'am, do not approach these slight misadventures in +so tragic a spirit. You have done nothing wrong whatever. I know you +accuse yourself. It is madness to do so. I, who have so often scolded +you, who have never spared the lash of my tongue when in past years I +saw fair reason to apply it, I tell you now with the same reliable +candour that your actions in this village and the motives that +prompted them have been in each single case of a stainless nobility." + +She took no heed of him. + +He stooped down and picked up the glass. "Drink some milk, ma'am. A +few mouthfuls, perhaps even one, will help to clear the muddied vision +of your mind. I cannot understand," he went on, half despairing, half +exasperated, "what reasons you can possibly have for refusing to drink +some milk. It is a feat most easily accomplished." + +She did not move. + +"Do you perchance imagine that a starved and badly treated body can +ever harbour that most precious gift of the gods, a clear, sane mind?" + +She did not move. + +He looked at her in silence for a moment, then put down the glass. +"This is all my fault," he said slowly. "The whole responsibility for +this unhappiness is on my shoulders, and I frankly confess it is a +burden so grievous that I know not how to bear it." + +He paused, but she took no notice. + +"Ma'am, I have loved you." + +She took no notice. + +"And the property of love, I have observed, is often to mangle and +kill the soul of its object." + +She might have been asleep. + +"Ma'am, I have brought you to a sorry pass. I was old, and you were +young. I experienced, you ignorant. I deliberate, you impulsive. I a +man, you a woman. Instead of restraining you, guiding you, shielding +you from yourself, I was most vile, and fired you with desires for +freedom that under the peculiar circumstances were wicked, set a ball +rolling that I might have foreseen could never afterwards be stopped, +put thoughts into your head that never without me would have entered +it, embarked you on an enterprise in which the happiness of your whole +life was doomed to shipwreck." + +She stirred a little, and sighed a faint protest. + +"This is very terrible to me--of a crushing, killing weight. Let it +not also have to be said that I mangled your very soul, dimmed your +reason, impaired the sweet sanity, the nice adjustment of what I know +was once a fair and balanced mind." + +She raised her head slowly and looked at him. "What?" she said. "Do +you think--do you think I'm going mad?" + +"I think it very likely, ma'am," said Fritzing with conviction. + +A startled expression crept into her eyes. + +"So much morbid introspection," he went on, "followed by hours of +weeping and fasting, if indulged in long enough will certainly have +that result. A person who fasts a sufficient length of time invariably +parts piecemeal with valuable portions of his wits." + +She stretched out her hand. + +He mistook the action and bent down and kissed it. + +"No," said Priscilla, "I want the milk." + +He snatched it up and gave it to her, watching her drink with all the +relief, the thankfulness of a mother whose child's sickness takes a +turn for the better. When she had finished she gave him back the +glass. "Fritzi," she said, looking at him with eyes wide open now and +dark with anxious questioning, "we won't reproach ourselves then if we +can help it--" + +"Certainly not, ma'am--a most futile thing to do." + +"I'll try to believe what you say about me, if you promise to believe +what I say about you." + +"Ma'am, I'll believe anything if only you will be reasonable." + +"You've been everything to me--that's what I want to say. Always, ever +since I can remember." + +"And you, ma'am? What have you not been to me?" + +"And there's nothing, nothing you can blame yourself for." + +"Ma'am--" + +"You've been too good, too unselfish, and I've dragged you down." + +"Ma'am--" + +"Well, we won't begin again. But tell me one thing--and tell me the +truth--oh Fritzi tell me the truth as you value your soul--do you +anywhere see the least light on our future? Do you anywhere see even a +bit, a smallest bit of hope?" + +He took her hand again and kissed it; then lifted his head and looked +at her very solemnly. "No, ma'am," he said with the decision of an +unshakable conviction, "upon my immortal soul I do not see a shred." + + + + +XXII + + +Let the reader now picture Priscilla coming downstairs the next +morning, a golden Sunday morning full of Sabbath calm, and a Priscilla +leaden-eyed and leaden-souled, her shabby garments worn out to a +symbol of her worn out zeals, her face the face of one who has +forgotten peace, her eyes the eyes of one at strife with the future, +of one for ever asking "What next?" and shrinking with a shuddering +"Oh please not that," from the bald reply. + +Out of doors Nature wore her mildest, most beneficent aspect. She very +evidently cared nothing for the squalid tragedies of human fate. Her +hills were bathed in gentle light. Her sunshine lay warm along the +cottage fronts. In the gardens her hopeful bees, cheated into thoughts +of summer, droned round the pale mauves and purples of what was left +of starworts. The grass in the churchyard sparkled with the fairy film +of gossamers. Sparrows chirped. Robins whistled. And humanity gave the +last touch to the picture by ringing the church bells melodiously to +prayer. + +Without doubt it was a day of blessing, supposing any one could be +found willing to be blest. Let the reader, then, imagine this outward +serenity, this divine calmness, this fair and light-flooded world, +and within the musty walls of Creeper Cottage Priscilla coming down to +breakfast, despair in her eyes and heart. + +They breakfasted late; so late that it was done to the accompaniment, +strangely purified and beautified by the intervening church walls and +graveyard, of Mrs. Morrison's organ playing and the chanting of the +village choir. Their door stood wide open, for the street was empty. +Everybody was in church. The service was, as Mrs. Morrison afterwards +remarked, unusually well attended. The voluntaries she played that day +were Dead Marches, and the vicar preached a conscience-shattering +sermon upon the text "Lord, who is it?" + +He thought that Mrs. Jones's murderer must be one of his parishioners. +It was a painful thought, but it had to be faced. He had lived so long +shut out from gossip, so deaf to the ever-clicking tongue of rumour, +that he had forgotten how far even small scraps can travel, and that +the news of Mrs. Jones's bolster being a hiding-place for her money +should have spread beyond the village never occurred to him. He was +moved on this occasion as much as a man who has long ago given up +being moved can be, for he had had a really dreadful two days with +Mrs. Morrison, dating from the moment she came in with the news of the +boxing of their only son's ears. He had, as the reader will have +gathered, nothing of it having been recorded, refused to visit and +reprimand Priscilla for this. He had found excuses for her. He had +sided with her against his son. He had been as wholly, maddeningly +obstinate as the extremely good sometimes are. Then came Mrs. Jones's +murder. He was greatly shaken, but still refused to call upon +Priscilla in connection with it, and pooh-poohed the notion of her +being responsible for the crime as definitely as an aged saint of +habitually grave speech can be expected to pooh-pooh at all. He said +she was not responsible. He said, when his wife with all the emphasis +apparently inseparable from the conversation of those who feel +strongly, told him that he owed it to himself, to his parish, to his +country, to go and accuse her, that he owed no man anything but to +love one another. There was nothing to be done with the vicar. Still +these scenes had not left him scathless, and it was a vicar moved to +the utmost limits of his capacity in that direction who went into the +pulpit that day repeating the question "Who is it?" so insistently, so +appealingly, with such searching glances along the rows of faces in +the pews, that the congregation, shuffling and uncomfortable, looked +furtively at each other with an ever growing suspicion and dislike. +The vicar as he went on waxing warmer, more insistent, observed at +least a dozen persons with guilt on every feature. It darted out like +a toad from the hiding-place of some private ooze at the bottom of +each soul into one face after the other; and there was a certain youth +who grew so visibly in guilt, who had so many beads of an obviously +guilty perspiration on his forehead, and eyes so guiltily starting +from their sockets, that only by a violent effort of self-control +could the vicar stop himself from pointing at him and shouting out +then and there "Thou art the man!" + +Meanwhile the real murderer had hired a waggonette and was taking his +wife for a pleasant country drive. + +It was to pacify Fritzing that Priscilla came down to breakfast. Left +to herself she would by preference never have breakfasted again. She +even drank more milk to please him; but though it might please him, no +amount of milk could wash out the utter blackness of her spirit. He, +seeing her droop behind the jug, seeing her gazing drearily at nothing +in particular, jumped up and took a book from the shelves and without +more ado began to read aloud. "It is better, ma'am," he explained +briefly, glancing at her over his spectacles, "than that you should +give yourself over to gloom." + +Priscilla turned vague eyes on to him. "How can I help gloom?" she +asked. + +"Yes, yes, that may be. But nobody should be gloomy at breakfast. The +entire day is very apt, in consequence, to be curdled." + +"It will be curdled anyhow," said Priscilla, her head sinking on to +her chest. + +"Ma'am, listen to this." + +And with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, from which he took +occasional hurried bites, and the other raised in appropriate varying +gesticulation, Fritzing read portions of the Persae of AEschylus to +her, first in Greek for the joy of his own ear and then translating it +into English for the edification of hers. He, at least, was off after +the first line, sailing golden seas remote and glorious, places where +words were lovely and deeds heroic, places most beautiful and brave, +most admirably, most restfully unlike Creeper Cottage. He rolled out +the sentences, turning them on his tongue, savouring them, reluctant +to let them go. She sat looking at him, wondering how he could +possibly even for an instant forget the actual and the present. + +"'Xerxes went forth, Xerxes perished, Xerxes mismanaged all things in +the depths of the sea--'" declaimed Fritzing. + +"He must have been like us," murmured Priscilla. + +"'O for Darius the scatheless, the protector! No woman ever mourned +for deed of his--'" + +"What a nice man," sighed Priscilla. "'O for Darius!'" + +"Ma'am, if you interrupt how can I read? And it is a most beautiful +passage." + +"But we do want a Darius badly," moaned Priscilla. + +"'The ships went forth, the grey-faced ships, like to each other as +bird is to bird, the ships and all they carried perished, the ships +perished by the hand of the Greeks. The king, 'tis said, escapes, but +hardly, by the plains of Thrace and the toilsome ways, and behind him +he leaves his first-fruits--sailors unburied on the shores of Salamis. +Then grieve, sting yourselves to grief, make heaven echo, howl like +dogs for the horror, for they are battered together by the terrible +waters, they are shredded to pieces by the voiceless children of the +Pure. The house has no master--'" + +"Fritzi, I wish you'd leave off," implored Priscilla. "It's quite as +gloomy as anything I was thinking." + +"But ma'am the difference is that it is also beautiful, whereas the +gloom at present enveloping us is mere squalor. 'The voiceless +children of the Pure--' how is that, ma'am, for beauty?" + +"I don't even know what it means," sighed Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, it is an extremely beautiful manner of alluding to fish." + +"I don't care," said Priscilla. + +"Ma'am, is it possible that the blight of passing and outward +circumstance has penetrated to and settled upon what should always be +of a sublime inaccessibility, your soul?" + +"I don't care about the fish," repeated Priscilla listlessly. Then +with a sudden movement she pushed back her chair and jumped up. "Oh," +she cried, beating her hands together, "don't talk to me of fish when +I can't see an inch--oh not a single inch into the future!" + +Fritzing looked at her, his finger on the page. Half of him was still +at the bottom of classic seas with the battered and shredded sailors. +How much rather would he have stayed there, have gone on reading +AEschylus a little, have taken her with him for a brief space of +serenity into that moist refuge from the harassed present, have +forgotten at least for one morning the necessity, the dreariness of +being forced to face things, to talk over, to decide. Besides, what +could he decide? The unhappy man had no idea. Nor had Priscilla. To +stay in Symford seemed impossible, but to leave it seemed still more +so. And sooner than go back disgraced to Kunitz and fling herself at +paternal feet which would in all probability immediately spurn her, +Priscilla felt she would die. But how could she stay in Symford, +surrounded by angry neighbours, next door to Tussie, with Robin coming +back for vacations, with Mrs. Morrison hating her, with Lady +Shuttleworth hating her, with Emma's father hating her, with the blood +of Mrs. Jones on her head? Could one live peacefully in such an +accursed place? Yet how could they go away? Even if they were able to +compose their nerves sufficiently to make new plans they could not go +because they were in debt. + +"Fritzi," cried Priscilla with more passion than she had ever put into +speech before, "life's too much for me--I tell you life's too much for +me!" And with a gesture of her arms as though she would sweep it all +back, keep it from surging over her, from choking her, she ran out +into the street to get into her own room and be alone, pulling the +door to behind her for fear he should follow and want to explain and +comfort, leaving him with his AEschylus in which, happening to glance +sighing, he, enviable man, at once became again absorbed, and running +blindly, headlong, as he runs who is surrounded and accompanied by a +swarm of deadly insects which he vainly tries to out-distance, she ran +straight into somebody coming from the opposite direction, ran full +tilt, was almost knocked off her feet, and looking up with the +impatient anguish of him who is asked to endure his last straw her +lips fell apart in an utter and boundless amazement; for the person +she had run against was that Prince--the last of the series, +distinguished from the rest by his having quenched the Grand Duke's +irrelevant effervescence by the simple expedient of saying Bosh--who +had so earnestly desired to marry her. + + + + +XXIII + + +"Hullo," said the Prince, who spoke admirable English. + +Priscilla could only stare. + +His instinct was to repeat the exclamation which he felt represented +his feelings very exactly, for her appearance--clothes, expression, +everything--astonished him, but he doubted whether it would well bear +repeating. "Is this where you are staying?" he inquired instead. + +"Yes," said Priscilla. + +"May I come in?" + +"Yes," said Priscilla. + +He followed her into her parlour. He looked at her critically as she +walked slowly before him, from head to foot he looked at her +critically; at every inch of the shabby serge gown, at the little head +with its badly arranged hair, at the little heel that caught in an +unmended bit of braid, at the little shoe with its bow of frayed +ribbon, and he smiled broadly behind his moustache. But when she +turned round he was perfectly solemn. + +"I suppose," said the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets and +gazing about the room with an appearance of cheerful interest, "this +is what one calls a snug little place." + +Priscilla stood silent. She felt as though she had been shaken +abruptly out of sleep. Her face even now after the soul-rending time +she had been having, in spite of the shadows beneath the eyes, the +droop at the corners of the mouth, in spite, too, it must be said of +the flagrantly cottage fashion in which Annalise had done her hair, +seemed to the Prince so extremely beautiful, so absolutely the face of +his dearest, best desires, so limpid, apart from all grace of +colouring and happy circumstance of feature, with the light of a sweet +and noble nature, so manifestly the outward expression of an +indwelling lovely soul, that his eyes, after one glance round the +room, fixed themselves upon it and never were able to leave it again. + +For a minute or two she stood silent, trying to collect her thoughts, +trying to shake off the feeling that she was being called back to life +out of a dream. It had not been a dream, she kept telling herself--bad +though it was it had not been a dream but the reality; and this man +dropped suddenly in to the middle of it from another world, he was the +dream, part of the dream she had rebelled against and run away from a +fortnight before. + +Then she looked at him, and she knew she was putting off her soul with +nonsense. Never was anybody less like a dream than the Prince; never +was anybody more squarely, more certainly real. And he was of her own +kind, of her own world. He and she were equals. They could talk +together plainly, baldly, a talk ungarnished and unretarded by +deferences on the one side and on the other a kindness apt to become +excessive in its anxiety not to appear to condescend. The feeling that +once more after what seemed an eternity she was with an equal was of a +singular refreshment. During those few moments in which they stood +silent, facing each other, in spite of her efforts to keep it out, in +spite of really conscientious efforts, a great calm came in and spread +over her spirit. Yet she had no reason to feel calm she thought, +struggling. Was there not rather cause for an infinity of shame? What +had he come for? He of all people. The scandalously jilted, the +affronted, the run away from. Was it because she had been looking so +long at Fritzing that this man seemed so nicely groomed? Or at Tussie, +that he seemed so well put together? Or at Robin, that he seemed so +modest? Was it because people's eyes--Mrs. Morrison's, Lady +Shuttleworth's--had been so angry lately whenever they rested on her +that his seemed so very kind? No; she did remember thinking them that, +even being struck by them, when she saw him first in Kunitz. A dull +red crept into her face when she remembered that day and what +followed. "It isn't very snug," she said at last, trying to hide by a +careful coldness of speech all the strange things she was feeling. +"When it rains there are puddles by the door. The door, you see, opens +into the street." + +"I see," said the Prince. + +There was a silence. + +"I don't suppose you really do," said Priscilla, full of strange +feelings. + +"My dear cousin?" + +"I don't know if you've come to laugh at me?" + +"Do I look as if I had?" + +"I dare say you think--because you've not been through it +yourself--that it--it's rather ridiculous." + +"My dear cousin," protested the Prince. + +Her lips quivered. She had gone through much, and she had lived for +two days only on milk. + +"Do you wipe the puddles up, or does old Fritzing?" + +"You see you _have_ come to laugh." + +"I hope you'll believe that I've not. Must I be gloomy?" + +"How do you know Fritzing's here?" + +"Why everybody knows that." + +"Everybody?" There was an astonished pause. "How do you know we're +here--here, in Creeper Cottage?" + +"Creeper Cottage is it? I didn't know it had a name. Do you have so +many earwigs?" + +"How did you know we were in Symford?" + +"Why everybody knows that." + +Priscilla was silent. Again she felt she was being awakened from a +dream. + +"I've met quite a lot of interesting people since I saw you last," he +said. "At least, they interested me because they all knew you." + +"Knew me?" + +"Knew you and that old scound--the excellent Fritzing. There's an +extremely pleasant policeman, for instance, in Kunitz--" + +"Oh," said Priscilla, starting and turning red. She could not think of +that policeman without crisping her fingers. + +"He and I are intimate friends. And there's a most intelligent +person--really a most helpful, obliging person--who came with you from +Dover to Ullerton." + +"With us?" + +"I found the conversation, too, of the ostler at the Ullerton Arms of +immense interest." + +"But what--" + +"And last night I slept at Baker's Farm, and spent a very pleasant +evening with Mrs. Pearce." + +"But why--" + +"She's an instructive woman. Her weakest point, I should say, is her +junkets." + +"I wonder why you bother to talk like this--to be sarcastic." + +"About the junkets? Didn't you think they were bad?" + +"Do you suppose it's worth while to--to kick somebody who's down? And +so low down? So completely got to the bottom?" + +"Kick? On my soul I assure you that the very last thing I want to do +is to kick you." + +"Then why do you do it?" + +"I don't do it. Do you know what I've come for?" + +"Is my father round the corner?" + +"Nobody's round the corner. I've muzzled your father. I've come quite +by myself. And do you know why?" + +"No," said Priscilla, shortly, defiantly; adding before he could +speak, "I can't imagine." And adding to that, again before he could +speak, "Unless it's for the fun of hunting down a defenceless quarry." + +"I say, that's rather picturesque," said the Prince with every +appearance of being struck. + +Priscilla blushed. In spite of herself every word they said to each +other made her feel more natural, farther away from self-torment and +sordid fears, nearer to that healthy state of mind, swamped out of her +lately, when petulance comes more easily than meekness. The mere +presence of the Prince seemed to set things right, to raise her again +in her own esteem. There was undoubtedly something wholesome about the +man, something everyday and reassuring, something dependable and sane. +The first smile for I don't know how long came and cheered the corners +of her mouth. "I'm afraid I've grown magniloquent since--since--" + +"Since you ran away?" + +She nodded. "Fritzing, you know, is most persistently picturesque. I +think it's catching. But he's wonderful," she added quickly,--"most +wonderful in patience and goodness." + +"Oh everybody knows he's wonderful. Where is the great man?" + +"In the next room. Do you want him?" + +"Good Lord, no. You've not told me what you suppose I've come for." + +"I did. I told you I couldn't imagine." + +"It's for a most saintly, really nice reason. Guess." + +"I can't guess." + +"Oh but try." + +Priscilla to her extreme disgust felt herself turning very red. "I +suppose to spy out the nakedness of the land," she said severely. + +"Now you're picturesque again. You must have been reading a tremendous +lot lately. Of course you would, with that learned old fossil about. +No my dear, I've come simply to see if you are happy." + +She looked at him, and her flush slowly died away. + +"Simply to convince myself that you are happy." + +Her eyes filling with tears she thought it more expedient to fix them +on the table-cloth. She did fix them on it, and the golden fringe of +eyelashes that he very rightly thought so beautiful lay in long dusky +curves on her serious face. "It's extraordinarily nice of you if--if +it's true," she said. + +"But it is true. And if you are, if you tell me you are and I'm able +to believe it, I bow myself out, dear cousin, and shall devote any +energies I have left after doing that to going on muzzling your +father. He shall not, I promise you, in any way disturb you. Haven't +I kept him well in hand up to this?" + +She raised her eyes to his. "Was it you keeping him so quiet?" + +"It was, my dear. He was very restive. You've no notion of all the +things he wanted to do. It wanted a pretty strong hand, and a light +one too, I can tell you. But I was determined you should have your +head. That woman Disthal--" + +Priscilla started. + +"You don't like her?" inquired the Prince sympathetically. + +"No." + +"I was afraid you couldn't. But I didn't know how to manage that part. +She's in London." + +Priscilla started again. "I thought--I thought she was in bed," she +said. + +"She was, but she got out again. Your--departure cured her." + +"Didn't you tell me nobody was round the corner?" + +"Well, you don't call London round the corner? I wouldn't let her come +any nearer to you. She's waiting there quite quietly." + +"What is she waiting for?" asked Priscilla quickly. + +"Come now, she's your lady in waiting you know. It seems natural +enough she should wait, don't it?" + +"No," said Priscilla, knitting her eyebrows. + +"Don't frown. She had to come too. She's brought some of your women +and a whole lot"--he glanced at the blue serge suit and put his hand +up to his moustache--"a whole lot of clothes." + +"Clothes?" A wave of colour flooded her face. She could not help it at +the moment any more than a starving man can help looking eager when +food is set before him. "Oh," she said, "I hope they're the ones I was +expecting from Paris?" + +"I should think it very likely. There seem to be a great many. I never +saw so many boxes for one little cousin." + +Priscilla made a sudden movement with her hands. "You can't think," +she said, "how tired I am of this dress." + +"Yes I can," the Prince assured her. + +"I've worn it every day." + +"You must have." + +"Every single day since the day I--I--" + +"The day you ran away from me." + +She blushed. "I didn't run away from you. At least, not exactly. You +were only the last straw." + +"A nice thing for a man to be." + +"I ran because--because--oh, it's a long story, and I'm afraid a very +foolish one." + +A gleam came into the Prince's eyes. He took a step nearer her, but +immediately thinking better of it took it back again. "Perhaps," he +said pleasantly, "only the beginning was foolish, and you'll settle +down after a bit and get quite fond of Creeper Cottage." + +She looked at him startled. + +"You see my dear it was rather tremendous what you did. You must have +been most fearfully sick of things at Kunitz. I can well understand +it. You couldn't be expected to like me all at once. And if I had to +have that Disthal woman at my heels wherever I went I'd shoot myself. +What you've done is much braver really than shooting one's self. But +the question is do you like it as much as you thought you would?" + +Priscilla gave him a swift look, and said nothing. + +"If you don't, there's the Disthal waiting for you with all those +charming frocks, and all you've got to do is to put them on and go +home." + +"But I can't go home. How can I? I am disgraced. My father would never +let me in." + +"Oh I'd arrange all that. I don't think you'd find him angry if you +followed my advice very carefully. On the other hand, if you like +this and want to stay on there's nothing more to be said. I'll say +good-bye, and promise you shall be left in peace. You shall be left to +be happy entirely in your own way." + +Priscilla was silent. + +"You don't--look happy," he said, scrutinizing her face. + +She was silent. + +"You've got very thin. How did you manage that in such a little +while?" + +"We've muddled things rather," she said with an ashamed sort of smile. +"On the days when I was hungry there wasn't anything to eat, and then +when there were things I wasn't hungry." + +The Prince looked puzzled. "Didn't that old scamp--I mean didn't the +excellent Fritzing bring enough money?" + +"He thought he did, but it wasn't enough." + +"Is it all gone?" + +"We're in debt." + +Again he put his hand up to his moustache. "Well I'll see to all that, +of course," he said gravely. "And when that has been set right you're +sure you'll like staying on here?" + +She summoned all her courage, and looked at him for an instant +straight in the face. "No," she said. + +"No?" + +"No." + +There was another silence. He was standing on the hearthrug, she on +the other side of the table; but the room was so small that by putting +out his hand he could have touched her. A queer expression was in his +eyes as he looked at her, an expression entirely at variance with his +calm and good-natured talk, the exceedingly anxious expression of a +man who knows his whole happiness is quivering in the balance. She did +not see it, for she preferred to look at the table-cloth. + +"Dreadful things have happened here," she said in a low voice. + +"What sort?" + +"Horrid sorts. Appalling sorts." + +"Tell me." + +"I couldn't bear to." + +"But I think I know." + +She looked at him astonished. + +"Mrs. Pearce--" + +"She told you?" + +"What she knew she told me. Perhaps there's something she doesn't +know." + +Priscilla remembered Robin, and blushed. + +"Yes, she told me about that," said the Prince nodding. + +"About what?" asked Priscilla, startled. + +"About the squire intending to marry you." + +"Oh," said Priscilla. + +"It seems hard on him, don't it? Has it struck you that such things +are likely to occur pretty often to Miss Maria-Theresa Ethel +Neumann-Schultz?" + +"I'm afraid you really have come only to laugh," said Priscilla, her +lips quivering. + +"I swear it's only to see if you are happy." + +"Well, see then." And throwing back her head with a great defiance she +looked at him while her eyes filled with tears; and though they +presently brimmed over, and began to drop down pitifully one by one, +she would not flinch but went on looking. + +"I see," said the Prince quietly. "And I'm convinced. Of course, then, +I shall suggest your leaving this." + +"I want to." + +"And putting yourself in the care of the Disthal." + +Priscilla winced. + +"Only her temporary care. Quite temporary. And letting her take you +back to Kunitz." + +Priscilla winced again. + +"Only temporarily," said the Prince. + +"But my father would never--" + +"Yes my dear, he will. He'll be delighted to see you. He'll rejoice." + +"Rejoice?" + +"I assure you he will. You've only got to do what I tell you." + +"Shall you--come too?" + +"If you'll let me." + +"But then--but then--" + +"Then what, my dear?" + +She looked at him, and her face changed slowly from white to red and +red to white again. Fritzing's words crossed her mind--"If you marry +him you will be undoubtedly eternally lost," and her very soul cried +out that they were folly. Why should she be eternally lost? What +cobwebs were these, cobwebs of an old brain preoccupied with shadows, +dusty things to be swept away at the first touch of Nature's vigorous +broom? Indeed she thought it far more likely that she would be +eternally found. But she was ashamed of herself, ashamed of all she +had done, ashamed of the disgraceful way she had treated this man, +terribly disillusioned, terribly out of conceit with herself, and she +stood there changing colour, hanging her head, humbled, penitent, +every shred of the dignity she had been trained to gone, simply +somebody who has been very silly and is very sorry. + +The Prince put out his hand. + +She pretended not to see it. + +The Prince came round the table. "You know," he said, "our engagement +hasn't been broken off yet?" + +Her instinct was to edge away, but she would not stoop to edging. "Was +it ever made?" she asked, not able to induce her voice to rise above a +whisper. + +"Practically." + +There was another silence. + +"Why, then--" began Priscilla, for the silence had come to be more +throbbing, more intolerably expressive than any speech. + +"Yes?" encouraged the Prince, coming very close. + +She turned her head slowly. "Why, then--" said Priscilla again, her +face breaking into a smile, half touched, half mischievous, wholly +adorable. + +"I think so too," said the Prince; and he shut her mouth with a kiss. + + * * * * * + +"And now," said the Prince some time afterwards, "let us go to that +old sinner Fritzing." + +Priscilla hung back, reluctant to deal this final blow to the heart +that had endured so many. "He'll be terribly shocked," she said. + +But the Prince declared it had to be done; and hand in hand they went +out into the street, and opening Fritzing's door stood before him. + +He was still absorbed in his AEschylus, had been sitting absorbed in +the deeds of the dead and departed, of the long dead Xerxes, the long +dead Darius, the very fish, voiceless but voracious, long since as +dead as the most shredded of the sailors,--he had been sitting +absorbed in these various corpses all the while that in the next room, +on the other side of a few inches of plaster and paper, so close you +would have thought his heart must have burned within him, so close you +would have thought he must be scorched, the living present had been +pulsing and glowing, beating against the bright bars of the future, +stirring up into alertness a whole row of little red-headed souls till +then asleep, souls with golden eyelashes, souls eager to come and be +princes and princesses of--I had almost revealed the mighty nation's +name. A shadow fell across his book, and looking up he saw the two +standing before him hand in hand. + +Priscilla caught her breath: what white anguish was going to flash +into his face when he grasped the situation? Judge then of her +amazement, her hesitation whether to be pleased or vexed, to laugh or +cry, when, grasping it, he leaped to his feet and in tones of a most +limitless, a most unutterable relief, shouted three times running +"_Gott sei Dank_!" + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +So that was the end of Priscilla's fortnight,--according to the way +you look at it glorious or inglorious. I shall not say which I think +it was; whether it is better to marry a prince, become in course of +time a queen, be at the head of a great nation, be surfeited with +honour, wealth, power and magnificence till the day when Death with +calm, indifferent fingers strips everything away and leaves you at +last to the meek simplicity of a shroud; or whether toilsome paths, +stern resistances, buffetings bravely taken, battles fought inch by +inch, an ideal desperately clung to even though in clinging you are +slain, is not rather the part to be chosen of him whose soul would sit +attired with stars. Anyhow the goddess laughed, the goddess who had +left Priscilla in the lurch, when she heard the end of the adventure; +and her unpleasant sister, having nothing more to do in Creeper +Cottage, gathered up her rags and grinned too as she left it. At least +her claws had lacerated much over-tender flesh during her stay; and +though the Prince had interrupted the operation and forced her for the +moment to inactivity, she was not dissatisfied with what had been +accomplished. + +Priscilla, it will readily be imagined, made no farewell calls. She +disappeared from Symford as suddenly as she had appeared; and Mrs. +Morrison, coming into Creeper Cottage on Monday afternoon to unload +her conscience yet more, found only a pleasant gentleman, a stranger +of mellifluous manners, writing out cheques. She had ten minutes talk +with him, and went home very sad and wise. Indeed from that day, her +spirit being the spirit of the true snob, the hectorer of the humble, +the devout groveller in the courtyards of the great, she was a +much-changed woman. Even her hair felt it, and settled down unchecked +to greyness. She no longer cared to put on a pink tulle bow in the +afternoons, which may or may not be a sign of grace. She ceased to +suppose that she was pretty. When the accounts of Priscilla's wedding +filled all the papers she became so ill that she had to go to bed and +be nursed. Sometimes to the vicar's mild surprise she hesitated before +expressing an opinion. Once at least she of her own accord said +she had been wrong. And although she never told any one of the +conversation with the gentleman writing cheques, when Robin came home +for Christmas and looked at her he knew at once what she knew. + +As for Lady Shuttleworth, she got a letter from Priscilla; quite a +long one, enclosing a little one for Tussie to be given him if and +when his mother thought expedient. Lady Shuttleworth was not surprised +by what she read. She had suspected it from the moment Priscilla rose +up the day she called on her at Baker's Farm and dismissed her. Till +her marriage with the late Sir Augustus she had been lady-in-waiting +to one of the English princesses, and she could not be mistaken on +such points. She knew the sort of thing too well. But she never +forgave Priscilla. How could she? Was the day of Tussie's coming of +age, that dreadful day when he was nearest death, a day a mother could +ever forget? It had all been most wanton, most cruel. We know she was +full of the milk of human kindness: on the subject of Priscilla it was +unmixed gall. + +As for Tussie,--well, you cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs, +and Tussie on this occasion was the eggs. It is a painful part to +play. He found it exquisitely painful, and vainly sought comfort in +the consolation that it had been Priscilla's omelette. The consolation +proved empty, and for a long while he suffered every sort of torment +known to the sensitive. But he got over it. People do. They will get +over anything if you give them time, and he being young had plenty of +it. He lived it down as one lives down every sorrow and every joy; and +when in the fulness of time, after a series of years in which he went +about listlessly in a soft felt hat and an unsatisfactory collar, he +married, it was to Priscilla's capital that he went for his honeymoon. +She, hearing he was there, sent for them both and was kind. + +As for Annalise, she never got her twenty thousand marks. On the +contrary, the vindictive Grand Duke caused her to be prosecuted for +blackmailing, and she would undoubtedly have languished in prison if +Priscilla had not interfered and sent her back to her parents. Like +Mrs. Morrison, she is chastened. She does not turn up her nose so +much. She does not sing. Indeed her songs ceased from the moment she +caught sight through a crack in the kitchen door of the Prince's broad +shoulders filling up Fritzing's sitting-room. From that moment +Annalise swooned from one depth of respect and awe to the other. She +became breathlessly willing, meek to vanishing point. But Priscilla +could not forget all she had made her suffer; and the Prince, who had +thought of everything, suddenly producing her head woman from some +recess in Baker's Farm, where she too had spent the night, Annalise +was superseded, her further bitter fate being to be left behind +at Creeper Cottage in the charge of the gentleman with the +cheque-book--who as it chanced was a faddist in food and would allow +nothing more comforting than dried fruits and nuts to darken the +doors--till he should have leisure to pack her up and send her home. + +As for Emma, she was hunted out by that detective who travelled down +into Somersetshire with the fugitives and who had already been so +useful to the Prince; and Priscilla, desperately anxious to make +amends wherever she could, took her into her own household, watching +over her herself, seeing to it that no word of what she had done was +ever blown about among the crowd of idle tongues, and she ended, I +believe, by marrying a lacquey,--one of those splendid persons with +white silk calves who were so precious in the sight of Annalise. +Indeed I am not sure that it was not the very lacquey Annalise had +loved most and had intended to marry herself. In this story at least, +the claims of poetic justice shall be strictly attended to; and +Annalise had sniffed outrageously at Emma. + +As for the Countess Disthal, she married the doctor and was sorry ever +afterwards; but her sorrow was as nothing compared with his. + +As for Fritzing, he is _Hofbibliothekar_ of the Prince's father's +court library; a court more brilliant than and a library vastly +inferior to the one he had fled from at Kunitz. He keeps much in his +rooms, and communes almost exclusively with the dead. He finds the +dead alone truly satisfactory. Priscilla loves him still and will +always love him, but she is very busy and has little time to think. +She does not let him give her children lessons; instead he plays with +them, and grows old and patient apace. + +And now having finished my story, there is nothing left for me to +do but stand aside and watch Priscilla and her husband walking +hand-in-hand farther and farther away from me up a path which I +suppose is the path of glory, into something apparently golden and +rosy, something very glowing and full of promise, that turns out on +closer scrutiny to be their future. It certainly seems radiant enough +to the superficial observer. Even I, who have looked into her soul +and known its hungers, am a little dazzled. Let it not however be +imagined that a person who has been truthful so long as myself is +going to lapse into easy lies at the last, and pretend that she was +uninterruptedly satisfied and happy for the rest of her days. She was +not; but then who is? + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS PRISCILLA'S FORTNIGHT*** + + +******* This file should be named 13141.txt or 13141.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/4/13141 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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