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+Project Gutenberg's Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances, by Juliana Horatia Ewing
+
+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: Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances
+
+Author: Juliana Horatia Ewing
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2006 [EBook #17772]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S
+                            REMEMBRANCES.
+
+
+                                 BY
+                       JULIANA HORATIA EWING.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+              SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
+                     NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.
+                   NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO.
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.]
+
+
+
+
+                            TO MY HUSBAND
+                                 A.E.
+                          IN REMEMBRANCE OF
+                            1866 AND 1867
+                                       J.H.E.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+IDA
+
+MRS. MOSS
+
+THE SNORING GHOST
+
+REKA DOM
+
+KERGUELEN'S LAND
+
+
+
+
+IDA.
+
+... "Thou shall not lack
+    The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose."
+
+_Cymbeline._
+
+
+The little old lady lived over the way, through a green gate that
+shut with a click, and up three white steps. Every morning at eight
+o'clock the church bell chimed for Morning Prayer--chim! chime! chim!
+chime!--and every morning at eight o'clock the little old lady came
+down the white steps, and opened the gate with a click, and went where
+the bells were calling.
+
+About this time also little Ida would kneel on a chair at her nursery
+window in the opposite house to watch the old lady come out and go.
+The old lady was one of those people who look always the same. Every
+morning her cheeks looked like faded rose-leaves, and her white hair
+like a snow-wreath in a garden laughing at the last tea-rose. Every
+morning she wore the same black satin bonnet, and the same white
+shawl; had delicate gloves on the smallest of hands, and gathered her
+skirt daintily up from the smallest of feet. Every morning she carried
+a clean pocket-handkerchief, and a fresh rose in the same hand with
+her Prayer-book; and as the Prayer-book, being bound up with the
+Bible, was very thick, she seemed to have some difficulty in so doing.
+Every morning, whatever the weather might be, she stood outside the
+green gate, and looked up at the sky to see if this were clear, and
+down at the ground to see if that were dry; and so went where the
+bells were calling.
+
+Ida knew the little old lady quite well by sight, but she did not know
+her name. Perhaps Ida's great-uncle knew it; but he was a grave,
+unsociable man, who saw very little of his neighbours, so perhaps he
+did not; and Ida stood too much in awe of him to trouble him with idle
+questions. She had once asked Nurse, but Nurse did not know; so the
+quiet orphan child asked no more. She made up a name for the little
+old lady herself, however, after the manner of Mr. John Bunyan, and
+called her Mrs. Overtheway; and morning after morning, though the
+bread-and-milk breakfast smoked upon the table, she would linger at
+the window, beseeching--
+
+"One minute more, dear Nurse! Please let me wait till Mrs. Overtheway
+has gone to church."
+
+And when the little old lady had come out and gone, Ida would creep
+from her perch, and begin her breakfast. Then, if the chimes went on
+till half the basinful was eaten, little Ida would nod her head
+contentedly, and whisper--
+
+"Mrs. Overtheway was in time."
+
+Little Ida's history was a sad one. Her troubles began when she was
+but a year old, with the greatest of earthly losses--for then her
+mother died, leaving a sailor husband and their infant child. The
+sea-captain could face danger, but not an empty home; so he went back
+to the winds and the waves, leaving his little daughter with
+relations. Six long years had he been away, and Ida had had many
+homes, and yet, somehow, no home, when one day the postman brought her
+a large letter, with her own name written upon it in a large hand.
+This was no old envelope sealed up again--no make-believe epistle to
+be put into the post through the nursery door: it was a real letter,
+with a real seal, real stamps, and a great many post-marks; and when
+Ida opened it there were two sheets written by the Captain's very own
+hand, in round fat characters, easy to read, with a sketch of the
+Captain's very own ship at the top, and--most welcome above all!--the
+news that the Captain's very own self was coming home.
+
+"I shall have a papa all to myself very soon, Nurse," said Ida. "He
+has written a letter to me, and made me a picture of his ship; it is
+the 'Bonne Esperance,' which he says means Good Hope. I love this
+letter better than anything he has ever sent me."
+
+Nevertheless, Ida took out the carved fans and workboxes, the beads,
+and handkerchiefs, and feathers, the dainty foreign treasures the
+sailor-father had sent to her from time to time; dusted them, kissed
+them, and told them that the Captain was coming home. But the letter
+she wore in her pocket by day, and kept under her pillow by night.
+
+"Why don't you put your letter into one of your boxes, like a tidy
+young lady, Miss Ida?" said Nurse. "You'll wear it all to bits doing
+as you do."
+
+"It will last till the ship comes home," said Miss Ida.
+
+It had need then to have been written on the rock, graven with an iron
+pen for ever; for the "Bonne Esperance" (like other earthly hopes) had
+perished to return no more. She foundered on her homeward voyage, and
+went down into the great waters, whilst Ida slept through the stormy
+night, with the Captain's letter beneath her pillow.
+
+Alas! Alas! Alas!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two or three months had now passed away since Ida became an orphan.
+She had become accustomed to the crape-hung frock; she had learnt to
+read the Captain's letter as the memorial of a good hope which it had
+pleased God to disappoint; she was fairly happy again. It was in the
+midst of that new desolation in her lonely life that she had come to
+stay with her great-uncle, and had begun to watch the doings of the
+little old lady who lived over the way. When dolls seemed vanity, and
+Noah's Ark a burden, it had been a quiet amusement, demanding no
+exertion, to see what little she could see of the old lady's life, and
+to speculate about what she could not; to wonder and fancy what Mrs.
+Overtheway looked like without her bonnet, and what she did with
+herself when she was not at church. Ida's imagination did not carry
+her far. She believed her friend to be old, immeasurably old,
+indefinitely old; and had a secret faith that she had never been
+otherwise. She felt sure that she wore a cap indoors, and that it was
+a nicer one than Nurse's; that she had real tea, with sugar and cream,
+instead of milk-and-water, and hot toast rather than bread-and-treacle
+for tea; that she helped herself at meals, and went to bed according
+to her own pleasure and convenience; was--perhaps on these very
+grounds--utterly happy, and had always been so.
+
+"I am only a little girl," said Ida, as she pressed her face sadly to
+the cold window-pane. "I am only a little girl, and very sad, you
+know, because Papa was drowned at sea; but Mrs. Overtheway is very
+old, and always happy, and so I love her."
+
+And in this there was both philosophy and truth.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that the happiness of others is always a
+distasteful sight to the sad at heart. There are times in which life
+seems shorn of interests and bereaved of pleasure, when it is a
+relief, almost amounting to consolation, to believe that any one is
+happy. It is some feeling of this nature, perhaps, which makes the
+young so attractive to the old. It soothes like the sound of
+harmonious music, the sight of harmonious beauty. It witnesses to a
+conviction lying deep even in the most afflicted souls that (come what
+may), all things were created good, and man made to be blessed; before
+which sorrow and sighing flee away.
+
+This was one of many things which formed the attraction for Ida in the
+little old lady who lived over the way. That green gate shut in a life
+of which the child knew nothing, and which might be one of mysterious
+delights; to believe that such things could be was consoling, and to
+imagine them was real entertainment. Ida would sometimes draw a chair
+quietly to the table beside her own, and fancy that Mrs. Overtheway
+was having tea with her. She would ask the old lady if she had been in
+time for church that morning, beg her to take off her bonnet, and
+apologise politely for the want of hot tea and toast. So far all was
+well, for Ida could answer any of these remarks on Mrs. Overtheway's
+behalf; but it may be believed that after a certain point this
+one-sided conversation flagged. One day Nurse overheard Ida's low
+murmurs.
+
+"What are you talking about, Miss Ida?" said she.
+
+"I am pretending to have Mrs. Overtheway to tea," said Ida.
+
+"Little girls shouldn't pretend what's not true," replied Nurse, in
+whose philosophy fancy and falsehood were not distinguished. "Play
+with your dolls, my dear, and don't move the chairs out of their
+places."
+
+With which Nurse carried off the chair into a corner as if it had been
+a naughty child, and Ida gave up her day-dream with a sigh; since to
+have prolonged the fancy that Mrs. Overtheway was present, she must
+have imagined her borne off at the crisis of the meal after a fashion
+not altogether consistent with an old lady's dignity.
+
+Summer passed, and winter came on. There were days when the white
+steps looked whiter than usual; when the snowdrift came halfway up the
+little green gate, and the snowflakes came softly down with a
+persistency which threatened to bury the whole town. Ida knew that on
+such days Mrs. Overtheway could not go out; but whenever it was
+tolerably fine the old lady appeared as usual, came daintily down the
+steps, and went where the bells were calling. Chim! chime! chim!
+chime! They sounded so near through the frosty air, that Ida could
+almost have fancied that the church was coming round through the snowy
+streets to pick up the congregation.
+
+Mrs. Overtheway looked much the same in winter as in summer. She
+seemed as fresh and lively as ever, carried her Prayer-book and
+handkerchief in the same hand, was only more warmly wrapped up, and
+wore fur-lined boots, which were charming. There was one change,
+however, which went to Ida's heart. The little old lady had no longer
+a flower to take to church with her. At Christmas she took a sprig of
+holly, and after that a spray of myrtle, but Ida felt that these were
+poor substitutes for a rose. She knew that Mrs. Overtheway had flowers
+somewhere, it is true, for certain pots of forced hyacinths had passed
+through the little green gate to the Christmas church decorations; but
+one's winter garden is too precious to be cropped as recklessly as
+summer rose-bushes, and the old lady went flowerless to church and
+enjoyed her bulbs at home. But the change went to Ida's heart.
+
+Spring was early that year. At the beginning of February there was a
+good deal of snow on the ground, it is true, but the air became milder
+and milder, and towards the end of the month there came a real spring
+day, and all the snow was gone.
+
+"You may go and play in the garden, Miss Ida," said Nurse, and Ida
+went.
+
+She had been kept indoors for a long time by the weather and by a
+cold, and it was very pleasant to get out again, even when the only
+amusement was to run up and down the shingly walks and wonder how soon
+she might begin to garden, and whether the gardener could be induced
+to give her a piece of ground sufficiently extensive to grow a crop of
+mustard-and-cress in the form of a capital I. It was the kitchen
+garden into which Ida had been sent. At the far end it was cut off
+from the world by an overgrown hedge with large gaps at the bottom,
+through which Ida could see the high road, a trough for watering
+horses, and beyond this a wood. The hedge was very thin in February,
+and Ida had a good view in consequence, and sitting on a stump in the
+sunshine she peered through the gap to see if any horses came to
+drink. It was as good as a peep-show, and indeed much better.
+
+"The snow has melted," gurgled the water, "here I am." It was
+everywhere. The sunshine made the rich green mosses look dry, but in
+reality they were wet, and so was everything else. Slish! slosh! Put
+your feet where you would, the water was everywhere. It filled the
+stone trough, which, being old and grey and steady, kept it still, and
+bade it reflect the blue sky and the gorgeous mosses; but the trough
+soon overflowed, and then the water slipped over the side, and ran off
+in a wayside stream. "Winter is gone!" it spluttered as it ran.
+"Winter is gone, winter-is-gone, winterisgone!" And, on the principle
+that a good thing cannot be said too often, it went on with this all
+through the summer, till the next winter came and stopped its mouth
+with icicles. As the stream chattered, so the birds in the wood
+sang--Tweet! tweet! chirrup! throstle! Spring! Spring! Spring!--and
+they twittered from tree to tree, and shook the bare twigs with
+melody; whilst a single blackbird sitting still upon a bough below,
+sang "Life!" "Life!" "Life!" with the loudest pipe of his throat,
+because on such a day it was happiness only to be alive.
+
+It was like a wonderful fairy-tale, to which Ida listened with clasped
+hands.
+
+Presently another song came from the wood: it was a hymn sung by
+children's voices, such as one often hears carolled by a troop of
+little urchins coming home from school. The words fell familiarly on
+Ida's ears:
+
+    "Quite through the streets with silver sound,
+      The flood of life doth flow;
+    Upon whose banks on every side
+      The wood of life doth grow.
+
+    "Thy gardens and thy gallant walks
+      Continually are green;
+    There grow such sweet and pleasant flowers
+      As nowhere else are seen.
+
+    "There trees for evermore bear fruit,
+      And evermore do spring;
+    There evermore the Angels sit,
+      And evermore do sing."
+
+Here the little chorus broke off, and the children came pouring out of
+the wood with chattering and laughter. Only one lingered, playing
+under a tree, and finishing the song. The child's voice rose shrill
+and clear like that of the blackbird above him. He also sang of
+Life--Eternal life--knowing little more than the bird of the meaning
+of his song, and having little less of that devotion of innocence in
+which happiness is praise.
+
+But Ida had ceased to listen to the singing. Her whole attention was
+given to the children as they scampered past the hedge, dropping bits
+of moss and fungi and such like woodland spoil. For, tightly held in
+the grubby hands of each--plucked with reckless indifference to bud
+and stalk, and fading fast in their hot prisons--were primroses. Ida
+started to her feet, a sudden idea filling her brain. The birds were
+right, Spring had come, and there were flowers--_flowers for Mrs.
+Overtheway_.
+
+Ida was a very quiet, obedient little girl, as a general rule; indeed,
+in her lonely life she had small temptation to pranks or mischief of
+any kind. She had often been sent to play in the back garden before,
+and had never thought of straying beyond its limits; but to-day a
+strong new feeling had been awakened by the sight of the primroses.
+
+"The hole is very large," said Ida, looking at the gap in the hedge;
+"if that dead root in the middle were pulled up, it would be
+wonderfully large."
+
+She pulled the root up, and, though wonderful is a strong term, the
+hole was certainly larger.
+
+"It is big enough to put one's head through," said Ida, and, stooping
+down, she exemplified the truth of her observation.
+
+"Where the head goes, the body will follow," they say, and Ida's
+little body was soon on the other side of the hedge; the adage says
+nothing about clothes, however, and part of Ida's dress was left
+behind. It had caught on the stump as she scrambled through. But
+accidents will happen, and she was in the road, which was something.
+
+"It is like going into the world to seek one's fortune," she thought;
+"thus Gerda went to look for little Kay, and so Joringel sought for
+the enchanted flower. One always comes to a wood."
+
+And into the wood she came. Dame Nature had laid down her new green
+carpets, and everything looked lovely; but, as has been before said,
+it certainly was damp. The little singer under the tree cared no more
+for this, however, than the blackbird above him.
+
+"Will you tell me, please, where you got your primroses?" asked Ida.
+
+The child made a quaint, half-military salute; and smiled.
+
+"Yonder," he said laconically, and, pointing up the wood, he went on
+with the song that he could not understand:
+
+    "Ah, my sweet home, Jerusalem,
+      Would God I were in thee!
+     Would God my woes were at an end,
+      Thy joys that I might see!"
+
+Ida went on and on, looking about her as she ran. Presently the wood
+sloped downwards, and pretty steeply, so that it was somewhat of a
+scramble; yet still she kept a sharp look-out, but no primroses did
+she see, except a few here and there upon the ground, which had been
+plucked too close to their poor heads to be held in anybody's hands.
+These showed the way, however, and Ida picked them up in sheer pity
+and carried them with her.
+
+"This is how Hop-o'-my-Thumb found his way home," she thought.
+
+At the bottom of the hill ran a little brook, and on the opposite side
+of the brook was a bank, and on the top of the bank was a hedge, and
+under the hedge were the primroses. But the brook was between!
+
+Ida looked and hesitated. It was too wide to jump across, and here, as
+elsewhere, there was more water than usual. To turn back, however, was
+out of the question. Gerda would not have been daunted in her search
+by coming to a stream, nor would any one else that ever was read of in
+fairy tales. It is true that in Fairy-land there are advantages which
+cannot always be reckoned upon by commonplace children in this
+commonplace world. When the straw, the coal, and the bean came to a
+rivulet in their travels, the straw laid himself across as a bridge
+for the others, and had not the coal been a degree too hot on that
+unlucky occasion, they might (for anything Ida knew to the contrary)
+still have been pursuing their journey in these favourable
+circumstances. But a travelling-companion who expands into a bridge on
+an emergency is not to be met with every day; and as to poor Ida--she
+was alone. She stood first on one leg, and then on the other, she
+looked at the water, and then at the primroses, and then at the water
+again, and at last perceived that in one place there was a large,
+flat, moss-covered stone in the middle of the stream, which stood well
+out of the water, and from which--could she but reach it--she might
+scramble to the opposite bank. But how to reach it? that nice, large,
+secure, comfortable-looking stone.
+
+"I must put some more stones," thought Ida. There were plenty in the
+stream, and Ida dragged them up, and began to make a ford by piling
+them together. It was chilly work, for a cloud had come over the sun;
+and Ida was just a little bit frightened by the fresh-water shrimps,
+and some queer, many-legged beasts, who shot off the stones as she
+lifted them. At last the ford was complete. Ida stepped daintily over
+the bridge she had made, and jumped triumphantly on to the big stone.
+Alas! for trusting to appearances. The stone that looked so firm, was
+insecurely balanced below, and at the first shock one side went down
+with a splash, and Ida went with it. What a triumph for the shrimps!
+She scrambled to the bank, however, made up a charming bunch of
+primroses, and turned to go home. Never mind how she got back across
+the brook. We have all waded streams before now, and very good fun it
+is in June, but rather chilly work in February; and, in spite of
+running home, Ida trembled as much with cold as with excitement when
+she stood at last before Mrs. Overtheway's green gate.
+
+Click! Ida went up the white steps, marking them sadly with her wet
+feet, and gave a valiant rap. The door was opened, and a tall, rather
+severe-looking housekeeper asked:
+
+"What do you want, my dear?"
+
+A shyness, amounting to terror, had seized upon Ida, and she could
+hardly find voice to answer.
+
+"If you please, I have brought these for--"
+
+For whom? Ida's pale face burnt crimson as she remembered that after
+all she did not know the little old lady's name. Perhaps the severe
+housekeeper was touched by the sight of the black frock, torn as it
+was, for she said kindly:
+
+"Don't be frightened, my dear. What do you want?"
+
+"These primroses," said Ida, who was almost choking. "They are for
+Mrs. Overtheway to take to church with her. I am very sorry, if you
+please, but I don't know her name, and I call her Mrs. Overtheway
+because, you know, she lives over the way. At least--" Ida added,
+looking back across the road with a sudden confusion in her ideas,
+"at least--I mean--you know--_we_ live over the way." And overwhelmed
+with shame at her own stupidity, Ida stuffed the flowers into the
+woman's hand, and ran home as if a lion were at her heels.
+
+"Well! Miss Ida," began Nurse, as Ida opened the nursery door
+(and there was something terrible in her "well"); "if I ever--" and
+Nurse seized Ida by the arm, which was generally premonitory of her
+favourite method of punishment--"a good shaking." But Ida clung close
+and flung her arms round Nurse's neck.
+
+"Don't shake me, Nursey, dear," she begged, "my head aches so. I have
+been very naughty, I know. I've done everything you can think of; I've
+crept through the hedge, and been right through the wood, and made a
+ford, and tumbled into the brook, and waded back, and run all the way
+home, and been round by the town for fear you should see me. And I've
+done something you could never, never think of if you tried till next
+Christmas, I've got some flowers for Mrs. Overtheway, only I did it so
+stupidly; she will think me a perfect goose, and perhaps be angry,"
+and the tears came into Ida's eyes.
+
+"She'll think you a naughty, troublesome child, as you are," said
+Nurse, who seldom hesitated to assume the responsibility of any
+statement that appeared to be desirable; "you're mad on that old lady,
+I think. Just look at that dress!"
+
+Ida looked, but her tears were falling much too fast for her to have a
+clear view of anything, and the torn edges of the rent seemed fringed
+with prismatic colours.
+
+To crown all she was sent to bed. In reality, this was to save the
+necessity of wearing her best frock till the other was mended, and
+also to keep her warm in case she should have caught cold; but Nurse
+spoke of it as a punishment, and Ida wept accordingly. And this was a
+triumph of that not uncommon line of nursery policy which consists in
+elaborately misleading the infant mind for good.
+
+Chim! chime! went the bells next morning, and Mrs. Overtheway came
+down the white steps and through the green gate with a bunch of
+primroses in her hand. She looked up as usual, but not to the sky. She
+looked to the windows of the houses over the way, as if she expected
+some one to be looking for her. There was no face to be seen, however;
+and in the house directly opposite, one of the upper blinds was drawn
+down. Ida was ill.
+
+How long she was ill, and of what was the matter with her, Ida had no
+very clear idea. She had visions of toiling through the wood over and
+over again, looking vainly for something that could never be found; of
+being suddenly surrounded and cut off by swollen streams; and of
+crawling, unclean beasts with preternatural feelers who got into her
+boots. Then these heavy dreams cleared away in part, and the stream
+seemed to ripple like the sound of church bells, and these chimed out
+the old tune
+
+    "Quite through the streets, with silver sound," &c.
+
+And then, at last, she awoke one fine morning to hear the sweet
+chim-chiming of the church bells, and to see Nurse sitting by her
+bedside. She lay still for a few moments to make quite sure, and then
+asked in a voice so faint that it surprised herself:
+
+"Has Mrs. Overtheway gone to church?"
+
+On which, to her great astonishment, Nurse burst into tears. For this
+was the first reasonable sentence that poor Ida had spoken for several
+days.
+
+To be very ill is not pleasant; but the slow process of getting back
+strength is often less pleasant still. One afternoon Ida knelt in her
+old place at the window. She was up, but might not go out, and this
+was a great grief. The day had been provokingly fine, and even now,
+though the sun was setting, it seemed inclined to make a fresh start,
+so bright was the rejuvenated glow with which it shone upon the
+opposite houses, and threw a mystic glory over Mrs. Overtheway's white
+steps and green railings. Oh! how Ida had wished to go out that
+afternoon! How long and clear the shadows were! It seemed to Ida that
+whoever was free to go into the open air could have nothing more to
+desire. "Out of doors" looked like Paradise to the drooping little
+maid, and the passers-by seemed to go up and down the sunny street in
+a golden dream. Ida gazed till the shadows lengthened, and crept over
+the street and up the houses; till the sunlight died upon the
+railings, and then upon the steps, and at last lingered for half an
+hour in bright patches among the chimney-stacks, and then went out
+altogether, and left the world in shade.
+
+Twilight came on and Ida sat by the fire, which rose into importance
+now that the sunshine was gone; and, moreover, spring evenings are
+cold.
+
+Ida felt desolate, and, on the whole, rather ill-used. Nurse had not
+been upstairs for hours, and though she had promised real tea and
+toast this evening, there were no signs of either as yet. The poor
+child felt too weak to play, and reading made her eyes ache. If only
+there were some one to tell her a story.
+
+It grew dark, and then steps came outside the door, and a fumbling
+with the lock which made Ida nervous.
+
+"Do come in, Nursey!" she cried.
+
+The door opened, and someone spoke; but the voice was not the voice of
+Nurse. It was a sweet, clear, gentle voice; musical, though no longer
+young; such a voice as one seldom hears and never forgets, which came
+out of the darkness, saying:
+
+"It is not Nurse, my dear; she is making the tea, and gave me leave
+to come up alone. I am Mrs. Overtheway."
+
+And there in the firelight stood the little old lady, as she has been
+before described, except that instead of her Prayer-book she carried a
+large pot hyacinth in her two hands.
+
+"I have brought you one of my pets, my dear," said she. "I think we
+both love flowers."
+
+The little old lady had come to tea. This was charming. She took off
+her bonnet, and her cap more than fulfilled Ida's expectations,
+although it was nothing smarter than a soft mass of tulle, tied with
+white satin strings. But what a face looked out of it! Mrs.
+Overtheway's features were almost perfect. The beauty of her eyes was
+rather enhanced by the blue shadows that Time had painted round them,
+and they were those good eyes which remind one of a clear well, at the
+bottom of which he might see truth. When young she must have been
+exquisitely beautiful, Ida thought. She was lovely still.
+
+In due time Nurse brought up tea, and Ida could hardly believe that
+her fancies were realized at last; indeed more than realized--for no
+bread and treacle diminished the dignity of the entertainment; and
+Nurse would as soon have thought of carrying off the Great Mogul on
+his cushions, as of putting Mrs. Overtheway and her chair into the
+corner.
+
+But there is a limit even to the space of time for which one can
+enjoy tea and buttered toast. The tray was carried off, the hyacinth
+put in its place, and Ida curled herself up in an easy chair on one
+side of the fire, Mrs. Overtheway being opposite.
+
+"You see I am over the way still," laughed the little old lady. "Now,
+tell me all about the primroses." So Ida told everything, and
+apologized for her awkward speeches to the housekeeper.
+
+"I don't know your name yet," said she.
+
+"Call me Mrs. Overtheway still, my dear, if you please," said the
+little old lady. "I like it."
+
+So Ida was no wiser on this score.
+
+"I was so sorry to hear that you had been made ill on my account,"
+said Mrs. Overtheway. "I have been many times to ask after you, and
+to-night I asked leave to come to tea. I wish I could do something to
+amuse you, you poor little invalid. I know you must feel dull."
+
+Ida's cheeks flushed.
+
+"If you would only tell me a story," she said, "I do so like hearing
+Nurse's stories. At least she has only one, but I like it. It isn't
+exactly a story either, but it is about what happened in her last
+place. But I am rather tired of it. There's Master Henry--I like him
+very much, he was always in mischief; and there's Miss Adelaide, whose
+hair curled naturally--at least with a damp brush--I like her; but I
+don't have much of them; for Nurse generally goes off about a quarrel
+she had with the cook, and I never could tell what they quarrelled
+about, but Nurse said cook was full of malice and deceitfulness, so
+she left. I'm rather tired of it."
+
+"What sort of a story shall I tell you?" asked Mrs. Overtheway.
+
+"A true one, I think," said Ida. "Something that happened to you
+yourself, if you please. You must remember a great many things, being
+so old."
+
+And Ida said this in simple good-faith, believing it to be a
+compliment.
+
+"It is quite true," said Mrs. Overtheway, "that one remembers many
+things at the end of a long life, and that they are often those things
+which happened a long while ago, and which are sometimes so slight in
+themselves that it is wonderful that they should not have been
+forgotten. I remember, for instance, when I was about your age, an
+incident that occurred which gave me an intense dislike to a special
+shade of brown satin. I hated it then, and at the end of more than
+half a century, I hate it still. The thing in itself was a mere folly;
+the people concerned in it have been dead for many years, and yet at
+the present time I should find considerable difficulty in seeing the
+merits of a person who should dress in satin of that peculiar hue.
+
+"What was it?" asked Ida.
+
+"It was not amber satin, and it was not snuff-coloured satin; it was
+one of the shades of brown known by the name of feuille-morte, or
+dead-leaf colour. It is pretty in itself, and yet I dislike it."
+
+"How funny," said Ida, wriggling in the arm-chair with satisfaction.
+"Do tell me about it."
+
+"But it is not funny in the least, unfortunately," said Mrs.
+Overtheway, laughing. "It isn't really a story, either. It is not even
+like Nurse's experiences. It is only a strong remembrance of my
+childhood, that isn't worth repeating, and could hardly amuse you."
+
+"Indeed, indeed, it would," said Ida. "I like the sound of it. Satin
+is so different from cooks."
+
+Mrs. Overtheway laughed.
+
+"Still, I wish I could think of something more entertaining," said
+she.
+
+"Please tell me that," said Ida, earnestly; "I would rather hear
+something about you than anything else."
+
+There was no resisting this loving argument. Ida felt she had gained
+her point, and curled herself up into a listening attitude
+accordingly. The hyacinth stood in solemn sweetness as if it were
+listening also; and Mrs. Overtheway, putting her little feet upon the
+fender to warm, began the story of ----
+
+
+
+
+MRS. MOSS.
+
+    "It did not move my grief, to see
+      The trace of human step departed,
+      Because the garden was deserted,
+     The blither place for me!
+
+    "Friends, blame me not! a narrow ken
+      Hath childhood 'twixt the sun and sward:
+      We draw the moral afterward--
+     We feel the gladness then."
+
+E. BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+
+"I remember," said Mrs. Overtheway, "old as I am, I remember
+distinctly many of the unrecognized vexations, longings, and
+disappointments of childhood. By unrecognized, I mean those vexations,
+longings, and disappointments which could not be understood by nurses,
+are not confided even to mothers, and through which, even in our
+cradles, we become subject to that law of humanity which gives to
+every heart its own secret bitterness to be endured alone. These are
+they which sometimes outlive weightier memories, and produce life-long
+impressions disproportionate to their value; but oftener, perhaps, are
+washed away by the advancing tide of time--the vexations, longings,
+and disappointments of the next period of our lives. These are they
+which are apt to be forgotten too soon to benefit our children, and
+which in the forgetting make childhood all bright to look back upon,
+and foster that happy fancy that there is one division of mortal life
+in which greedy desire, unfulfilled purpose, envy, sorrow, weariness
+and satiety, have no part, by which every man believes himself at
+least to have been happy as a child.
+
+"My childhood, on the whole, was a very happy one. The story that I am
+about to relate is only a fragment of it.
+
+"As I look into the fire, and the hot coals shape themselves into a
+thousand memories of the past, I seem to be staring with childish eyes
+at a board that stares back at me out of a larch plantation, and gives
+notice that 'This House is to Let.' Then, again, I seem to peep
+through rusty iron gates at the house itself--an old red house, with
+large windows, through which one could see the white shutters that
+were always closed. To look at this house, though only with my mind's
+eye, recalls the feeling of mysterious interest with which I looked at
+it fifty years ago, and brings back the almost oppressive happiness of
+a certain day, when Sarah, having business with the couple who kept
+the empty manor, took me with her, and left me to explore the grounds
+whilst she visited her friends.
+
+"Next to a companion with that rare sympathy of mind to mind, that
+exceptional coincidence of tastes, which binds some few friendships in
+a chain of mesmeric links, supplanting all the complacencies of love
+by intuition, is a companion whose desires and occupations are in
+harmony, if not in unison, with one's own. That friend whom the long
+patience of the angler does not chafe, the protracted pleasures of the
+sketcher do not weary, because time flies as swiftly with him whilst
+he pores over his book, or devoutly seeks botanical specimens through
+the artist's middle distance; that friend, in short--that valuable
+friend--who is blessed with the great and good quality of riding a
+hobby of his own, and the greater and better quality of allowing other
+people to ride theirs.
+
+"I did not think out all this fifty years ago, neither were the tastes
+of that excellent housemaid, Sarah, quite on a level with those of
+which I have spoken; but I remember feeling the full comfort of the
+fact that Sarah's love for friendly gossip was quite as ardent as mine
+for romantic discovery; that she was disposed to linger quite as long
+to chat as I to explore; and that she no more expected me to sit
+wearily through her kitchen confidences, than I imagined that she
+would give a long afternoon to sharing my day-dreams in the gardens of
+the deserted manor.
+
+"We had ridden our respective hobbies till nearly tea-time before she
+appeared.
+
+"'I'm afraid you must be tired of waiting, Miss Mary,' said she.
+
+"'Tired!' I exclaimed, 'not in the least. I have been so happy, and I
+am so much obliged to you, Sarah.'
+
+"Need I say why I was so happy that afternoon? Surely most people have
+felt--at least in childhood--the fascination of deserted gardens,
+uninhabited houses, ruined churches. They have that advantage over
+what is familiar and in use that undiscovered regions have over the
+comfortable one that the traveller leaves to explore them, that the
+secret which does not concern me has over the facts which do, that
+what we wish for has over what we possess.
+
+"If you, my dear, were to open one of those drawers, and find Nurse's
+Sunday dress folded up in the corner, it would hardly amuse you; but
+if, instead thereof, you found a dress with a long stiff bodice,
+square at the neck, and ruffled round the sleeves, such as you have
+seen in old pictures, no matter how old or useless it might be, it
+would shed round it an atmosphere of delightful and mysterious
+speculations. This curiosity, these fancies, roused by the ancient
+dress, whose wearer has passed away, are awakened equally by empty
+houses where someone must once have lived, though his place knows him
+no more. It was so with the manor. How often had I peeped through the
+gates, catching sight of garden walks, and wondering whither they led,
+and who had walked in them; seeing that the shutters behind one window
+were partly open, and longing to look in.
+
+"To-day I had been in the walks and peeped through the window. This
+was the happiness.
+
+"Through the window I had seen a large hall with a marble floor and
+broad stone stairs winding upwards into unknown regions. By the walks
+I had arrived at the locked door of the kitchen garden, at a small
+wood or wilderness of endless delights (including a broken swing), and
+at a dilapidated summer-house. I had wandered over the spongy lawn,
+which was cut into a long green promenade by high clipt yew-hedges,
+walking between which, in olden times, the ladies grew erect and
+stately, as plants among brushwood stretch up to air and light.
+
+"Finally, I had brought away such relics as it seemed to me that
+honesty would allow. I had found half a rusty pair of scissors in the
+summer-house. Perhaps some fair lady of former days had lost them
+here, and swept distractedly up and down the long walks seeking them.
+Perhaps they were a present, and she had given a luck-penny for them,
+lest they should cut love. Sarah said the housekeeper might have
+dropped them there; but Sarah was not a person of sentiment. I did not
+show her the marble I found by the hedge, the acorn I picked up in the
+park, nor a puny pansy which, half way back to a wild heartsease, had
+touched me as a pathetic memorial of better days. When I got home, I
+put the scissors, the marble, and the pansy into a box. The acorn I
+hung in a bottle of water--it was to be an oak tree.
+
+"Properly speaking, I was not at home just then, but on a visit to my
+grandmother and a married aunt without children who lived with her. A
+fever had broken out in my own home, and my visit here had been
+prolonged to keep me out of the way of infection. I was very happy and
+comfortable except for one single vexation, which was this:
+
+"I slept on a little bed in what had once been the nursery, a large
+room which was now used as a workroom. A great deal of sewing was done
+in my grandmother's house, and the sewing-maid and at least one other
+of the servants sat there every evening. A red silk screen was put
+before my bed to shield me from the candlelight, and I was supposed
+to be asleep when they came upstairs. But I never remember to have
+been otherwise than wide awake, nervously awake, wearily awake. This
+was the vexation. I was not a strong child, and had a very excitable
+brain; and the torture that it was to hear those maids gossiping on
+the other side of the dim red light of my screen I cannot well
+describe, but I do most distinctly remember. I tossed till the clothes
+got hot, and threw them off till I got cold, and stopped my ears, and
+pulled the sheet over my face, and tried not to listen, and listened
+in spite of all. They told long stories, and made many jokes that I
+couldn't understand; sometimes I heard names that I knew, and fancied
+I had learnt some wonderful secret. Sometimes, on the contrary, I made
+noises to intimate that I was awake, when one of them would rearrange
+my glaring screen, and advise me to go to sleep; and then they talked
+in whispers, which was more distracting still.
+
+"One evening--some months after my ramble round the manor--the maids
+went out to tea, and I lay in peaceful silence watching the shadows
+which crept noiselessly about the room as the fire blazed, and wishing
+Sarah and her colleagues nothing less than a month of uninterrupted
+tea-parties. I was almost asleep when Aunt Harriet came into the room.
+She brought a candle, put up my screen (the red screen again!), and
+went to the work-table. She had not been rustling with the work things
+for many minutes when my grandmother followed her, and shut the door
+with an air which seemed to promise a long stay. She also gave a
+shove to my screen, and then the following conversation began:
+
+"'I have been to Lady Sutfield's to-day, Harriet.'
+
+"'Indeed, ma'am.' But my aunt respectfully continued her work, as I
+could hear by the scraping of the scissors along the table.
+
+"'I heard some news there. The manor is let.'
+
+"I almost jumped in my bed, and Aunt Harriet's scissors paused.
+
+"'Let, ma'am! To whom!'
+
+"'To a Mrs. Moss. You must have heard me speak of her. I knew her
+years ago, when we were both young women. Anastatia Eden, she was
+then.'
+
+"I could hear my aunt move to the fire, and sit down.
+
+"'The beautiful Miss Eden? Whom did she marry at last? Was there not
+some love-affair of hers that you knew about?'
+
+"'Her love-affairs were endless. But you mean Mr. Sandford. She
+treated him very ill--very ill.'
+
+"There was a pause, while the fire crackled in the silence; and then,
+to the infinite satisfaction of my curiosity, Aunt Harriet said:
+
+"'I've forgotten the story, ma'am. He was poor, was he not?'
+
+"'He had quite enough to marry on,' my grandmother answered,
+energetically; 'but he was not a great match. It was an old story, my
+dear. The world! The world! The world! I remember sitting up with
+Anastatia after a ball, where he had been at her side all the evening.
+We sipped hot posset, and talked of our partners. Ah, dear!' and here
+my grandmother heaved a sigh; partly, perhaps, because of the follies
+of youth, and partly, perhaps, because youth had gone, and could come
+back no more.
+
+"'Anastatia talked of him,' she continued. 'I remember her asking me
+if "her man" were not a pretty fellow, and if he had not sweet blue
+eyes and the greatest simplicity I ever knew but in a child. It was
+true enough; and he was a great deal more than that--a great deal more
+than she ever understood. Poor Anastatia! I advised her to marry him,
+but she seemed to look on that as impossible. I remember her saying
+that it would be different if she were not an acknowledged beauty; but
+it was expected that she would marry well, and he was comparatively
+poor, and not even singular. He was accomplished, and the soul of
+honour, but simple, provokingly simple, with no pretensions to carry
+off the toast of a county. My dear, if he had been notorious in any
+way--for dissipation, for brawling, for extravagance--I believe it
+would have satisfied the gaping world, and he would have had a chance.
+But there was nothing to talk about, and Anastatia had not the courage
+to take him for himself. She had the world at her feet, and paid for
+it by being bound by its opinion.'
+
+"Here my grandmother, who was apt to moralize, especially when
+relating biographies of young ladies, gave another sigh.
+
+"'Then why did she encourage him?' inquired Aunt Harriet; who also
+moralized, but with more of indignation and less of philosophy.
+
+"'I believe she loved him in spite of herself; but at the last, when
+he offered, she turned prudent and refused him.'
+
+"'Poor man! Did he ever marry?'
+
+"'Yes, and very happily--a charming woman. But the strange part of the
+story is, that he came quite unexpectedly into a large property that
+was in his family.'
+
+"'Did he? Then he would have been as good a match as most of her
+admirers?'
+
+"'Better. It was a fine estate. Poor Anastatia!'
+
+"'Serve her right,' said my aunt, shortly.
+
+"'She was very beautiful,' my grandmother gently recommenced. She said
+this, not precisely as an excuse, but with something of the sort in
+her tone. 'Very beautiful! How stately she did look that night, to be
+sure! She did not paint, and her complexion (a shade too high by day)
+was perfection by candlelight. I can see her now, my dear, as she
+stood up for a minuet with him. We wore hoops, then; and she had a
+white brocade petticoat, embroidered with pink rosebuds, and a train
+and bodice of pea-green satin, and green satin shoes with pink heels.
+You never saw anything more lovely than that brocade. A rich old aunt
+had given it to her. The shades of the rosebuds were exquisite. I
+embroidered the rosebuds on that salmon-coloured cushion downstairs
+from a piece that Anastatia gave me as a pattern. Dear me! What a
+dress it was, and how lovely she looked in it! Her eyes were black, a
+thing you rarely see, and they shone and glittered under her powdered
+hair. She had a delicately curved nose; splendid teeth, too, and
+showed them when she smiled. Then such a lovely throat, and
+beautifully-shaped arms! I don't know how it is, my dear Harriet,'
+added my grandmother, thoughtfully, 'but you don't see the splendid
+women now-a-days that there were when I was young. There are plenty of
+pretty, lively girls (rather too lively, in my old-fashioned
+judgment), but not the real stately beauty that it was worth a twenty
+miles' drive there and back, just to see, at one of the old county
+balls.'
+
+"My aunt sniffed, partly from a depressing consciousness of being one
+of a degenerate generation, and of a limited experience in the matter
+of county balls; partly also to express her conviction that principle
+is above beauty. She said:
+
+"'Then Miss Eden married, ma'am?'
+
+"'Yes, rather late, Mr. Moss; a wealthy Indian merchant, I believe.
+She lost all her children, I know, one after another, and then he
+died. Poor Anastatia! It seems like yesterday. And to think she should
+be coming here!'
+
+"My grandmother sighed again, and I held my breath, hoping for some
+further particulars of the lovely heroine of this romance. But I was
+disappointed. My uncle's voice at this moment called loudly from
+below, and Aunt Harriet hurried off with a conscious meritoriousness
+about her, becoming a lady who had married the right man, and took
+great care of him.
+
+"'Supper, ma'am. I think,' she said, as she left the room.
+
+"My grandmother sat still by the fire, sighing gently now and then,
+and I lay making up my mind to brave all and tell her that I was
+awake. In the first place (although I was not intentionally
+eavesdropping, and my being awake was certainly not my fault), I felt
+rather uneasy at having overheard what I knew was not intended for my
+hearing. Besides this, I wanted to hear some more stories of the
+lovely Mrs. Moss, and to ask how soon she would come to the manor.
+After a few seconds my grandmother rose and toddled across the room.
+I made an effort, and spoke just above my breath:
+
+"'Granny!'
+
+"But my grandmother was rather deaf. Moreover, my voice may have been
+drowned in the heavy sigh with which she closed the nursery door.
+
+"The room was empty again; the glare of the red screen was tenderly
+subdued in the firelight; but for all this I did not go to sleep. I
+took advantage of my freedom to sit up in bed, toss my hair from my
+forehead, and clasping my knees with my arms, to rock myself and
+think. My thoughts had one object; my whole mind was filled with one
+image--Mrs. Moss. The future inhabitant of my dear deserted manor
+would, in any circumstances, have been an interesting subject for my
+fancies. The favoured individual whose daily walk might be between the
+yew-hedges on that elastic lawn; who should eat, drink, and sleep
+through the commonplace hours of this present time behind those
+mystical white shutters! But when the individual added to this
+felicitous dispensation of fortune the personal attributes of
+unparalleled beauty and pea-green satin; of having worn hoops, high
+heels, and powder; of countless lovers, and white brocade with pink
+rosebuds--well might I sit, my brain whirling with anticipation, as I
+thought: 'She is coming here: I shall see her!' For though, of
+course, I knew that having lived in those (so to speak) pre-historic
+times when my grandmother was young, Mrs. Moss must now be an old
+woman; yet, strange as it may seem, my dear, I do assure you that I
+never realized the fact. I thought of her as I had heard of her--young
+and beautiful--and modelled my hopes accordingly.
+
+"Most people's day-dreams take, sooner or later, a selfish turn. I
+seemed to identify myself with the beautiful Anastatia. I thought of
+the ball as one looks back to the past. I fancied myself moving
+through the _minuet de la cour_, whose stately paces scarcely made the
+silken rosebuds rustle. I rejected _en masse_ countless suitors of
+fabulous wealth and nobility; but when it came to Mr. Sandford, I
+could feel with Miss Eden no more. My grandmother had said that she
+loved him, that she encouraged him, and that she gave him up for
+money. It was a mystery! In her place, I thought, I would have danced
+every dance with him! I would have knitted for him in winter, and
+gathered flowers for him in the summer hedges. To whom should one be
+most kind, if not to those whom one most loves? To love, and take
+pleasure in giving pain--to balance a true heart and clear blue eyes
+against money, and prefer money--was not at that time comprehensible
+by me. I pondered, and (so to speak) spread out the subject before my
+mind, and sat in judgment upon it.
+
+"Money--that is, golden guineas (my grandmother had given me one on
+my birthday), crowns, shillings, sixpences, pennies, halfpennies,
+farthings; and when you come to consider how many things a guinea
+judiciously expended in a toy-shop will procure, you see that money is
+a great thing, especially if you have the full control of it, and are
+not obliged to spend it on anything useful.
+
+"On the other hand, those whom you love and who love you--not in
+childhood, thank God, the smallest part of one's acquaintance.
+
+"I made a list on my own account. It began with my mother, and ended
+with my yellow cat. (It included a crusty old gardener, who was at
+times, especially in the spring, so particularly cross that I _might_
+have been tempted to exchange _him_ for the undisputed possession of
+that stock of seeds, tools, and flower-pots which formed our chief
+subject of dispute. But this is a digression.) I took the lowest.
+Could I part with Sandy Tom for any money, or for anything that money
+could buy? I thought of a speaking doll, a miniature piano, a tiny
+carriage drawn by four yellow mastiffs, of a fairy purse that should
+never be empty, with all that might thereby be given to others or kept
+for oneself: and then I thought of Sandy Tom--of his large, round,
+soft head; his fine eyes (they were yellow, not blue, and glared with
+infinite tenderness); his melodious purr; his expressive whiskers; his
+incomparable tail.
+
+"Love rose up as an impulse, an instinct; it would not be doubted, it
+utterly refused to be spread out to question.
+
+"'Oh, Puss?' I thought, 'if you could but leap on to the bed at this
+moment I would explain it all to our mutual comprehension and
+satisfaction. 'My dear Sandy,' I would say, 'with you to lie on the
+cushioned seat, a nice little carriage, and four yellow mastiffs,
+would be perfection; but as to comparing what I love--to wit, you,
+Sandy!--with what I want--to wit, four yellow mastiffs and a great
+many other things besides--I should as soon think of cutting off your
+tail to dust the dolls' house with.' Alas! Sandy Tom was at home; I
+could only imagine the gentle rub of the head with which he would have
+assented. Meanwhile, I made up my mind firmly on one point. My
+grandmother was wrong. Miss Anastatia Eden had not loved Mr. Sandford.
+
+"Smash! The fire, which had been gradually becoming hollow, fell in at
+this moment, and I started to find myself chilly and cramped, and so
+lay down. Then my thoughts took another turn. I wondered if I should
+grow up beautiful, like Mrs. Moss. It was a serious question. I had
+often looked at myself in the glass, but I had a general idea that I
+looked much like other little girls of my age. I began gravely to
+examine myself in detail, beginning from the top of my head. My hair
+was light, and cropped on a level with the lobes of my ears; this,
+however, would amend itself with time; and I had long intended that my
+hair should be of raven blackness, and touch the ground at least; 'but
+that will not be till I am grown up,' thought I. Then my eyes: they
+were large; in fact, the undue proportions they assumed when I looked
+ill or tired formed a family joke. If size were all that one requires
+in eyes, mine would certainly pass muster. Moreover, they had long
+curly lashes. I fingered these slowly, and thought of Sandy's
+whiskers. At this point I nearly fell asleep, but roused myself to
+examine my nose. My grandmother had said that Mrs. Moss's nose was
+delicately curved. Now, it is certainly true that a curve may be
+either concave or convex; but I had heard of the bridge of a nose, and
+knew well enough which way the curve should go; and I had a shrewd
+suspicion that if so very short a nose as mine, with so much and so
+round a tip, could be said to be curved at all, the curve went the
+wrong way; at the same time I could not feel sure. For I must tell you
+that to lie in a comfortable bed, at an hour long beyond the time when
+one ought naturally to be asleep, and to stroke one's nose, is a
+proceeding not favourable to forming a clear judgment on so important
+a point as one's personal appearance. The very shadows were still as
+well as silent, the fire had ceased to flicker, a delicious quietude
+pervaded the room, as I stroked my nose and dozed, and dozed and
+stroked my nose, and lost all sense of its shape, and fancied it a
+huge lump growing under my fingers. The extreme unpleasantness of this
+idea just prevented my falling asleep; and I roused myself and sat up
+again.
+
+"'It's no use feeling,' I thought, 'I'll look in the glass.'
+
+"There was one mirror in the room. It hung above the mantelpiece. It
+was old, deeply framed in dark wood, and was so hung as to slope
+forwards into the room.
+
+"In front of the fire stood an old-fashioned, cushioned arm-chair,
+with a very high back, and a many-frilled chintz cover. A footstool
+lay near it. It was here that my grandmother had been sitting. I
+jumped out of bed, put the footstool into the chair that I might get
+to a level with the glass, and climbed on to it. Thanks to the slope
+of the mirror, I could now see my reflection as well as the dim
+firelight would permit.
+
+"'What a silly child!' you will say, Ida. Very silly, indeed, my dear.
+And how one remembers one's follies! At the end of half a century, I
+recall my reflection in that old nursery mirror more clearly than I
+remember how I looked in the glass before which I put on my bonnet
+this evening to come to tea with you: the weird, startled glance of my
+eyes, which, in their most prominent stage of weariness, gazed at me
+out of the shadows of the looking glass, the tumbled tufts of hair,
+the ghostly effect of my white night-dress. As to my nose, I could
+absolutely see nothing of its shape; the firelight just caught the
+round tip, which shone like a little white toadstool from the gloom,
+and this was all.
+
+"'One can't see the shape, full face,' I thought. 'If I had only
+another looking-glass.'
+
+"But there was not another. I knew it, and yet involuntarily looked
+round the room. Suddenly I exclaimed aloud, 'Mr. Joseph will do!'
+
+"Who was Mr. Joseph?--you will ask. My dear Ida, I really do not know.
+I have not the least idea. I had heard him called Mr. Joseph, and I
+fancy he was a connection of the family. All I knew of him was his
+portrait, a _silhouette_, elegantly glazed and framed in black wood,
+which hung against the nursery wall. I was ignorant of his surname and
+history. I had never examined his features. But I knew that happily he
+had been very stout, since his ample coat and waistcoat, cut out in
+black paper, converted the glass which covered them into an excellent
+mirror for my dolls.
+
+"Worthy Mr. Joseph! Here he was coming in useful again. How much we
+owe to our forefathers! I soon unhooked him, and climbing back into
+the chair, commenced an examination of my profile by the process of
+double reflection. But all in vain! Whether owing to the dusty state
+of the mirror, or to the dim light, or to the unobliging shapeliness
+of Mr. Joseph's person, I cannot say, but, turn and twist as I would,
+I could not get a view of my profile sufficiently clear and complete
+to form a correct judgment upon. I held Mr. Joseph, now high, now low;
+I stooped, I stood on tiptoe, I moved forward, I leant backward. It
+was this latest manoeuvre that aggravated the natural topheaviness
+of the chair, and endangered its balance. The fore-legs rose, my
+spasmodic struggle was made in the wrong direction, and I, the
+arm-chair, and Mr. Joseph fell backwards together.
+
+"Two of us were light enough, and happily escaped unhurt. It was the
+arm-chair which fell with such an appalling crash, and whether it were
+any the worse or no, I could not tell as it lay. As soon as I had a
+little recovered from the shock, therefore, I struggled to raise it,
+whilst Mr. Joseph lay helplessly upon the ground, with his waistcoat
+turned up to the ceiling.
+
+"It was thus that my aunt found us.
+
+"If only Mr. Joseph and I had fallen together, no one need have been
+the wiser; but that lumbering arm-chair had come down with a bump that
+startled the sober trio at supper in the dining-room below.
+
+"'What _is_ the matter?' said Aunt Harriet.
+
+"I was speechless.
+
+"'What have you been doing?'
+
+"I couldn't speak; but accumulating misfortune was gradually
+overpowering me, and I began to cry.
+
+"'Get into bed,' said Aunt Harriet.
+
+"I willingly obeyed, and Aunt Harriet seated herself at the foot.
+
+"'Now, think before you speak, Mary,' she said quietly, 'and then tell
+me the truth. What have you been doing?'
+
+"One large tear rolled over my nose and off the tip as I feebly
+began--
+
+"'I got into the chair--'
+
+"'Well?' said Aunt Harriet.
+
+"'--to look in the glass.'
+
+"'What for?' said Aunt Harriet.
+
+"Tears flowed unrestrainedly over my face as I howled in self-abasement--
+
+"'To look at the shape of my nose.'
+
+"At this point Aunt Harriet rose, and, turning her back rather
+abruptly, crossed the room, and picked up Mr. Joseph. (I have since
+had reason to believe that she was with difficulty concealing a fit of
+laughter.)
+
+"'What have you had this picture down for?' she inquired, still with
+her back to me.
+
+"'I couldn't see,' I sobbed, 'and I got Mr. Joseph to help me.'
+
+"My aunt made no reply, and, still carefully concealing her face,
+restored Mr. Joseph to his brass nail with great deliberation.
+
+"There is nothing like full confession. I broke the silence.
+
+"'Aunt Harriet, I was awake when you and Granny were here, and heard
+what you said.'
+
+"'You are a very silly, naughty child,' my aunt severely returned.
+'Why don't you go to sleep when you are sent to bed?'
+
+"'I can't,' I sobbed, 'with talking and candles.'
+
+"'You've got the screen,' said Aunt Harriet; and I cannot tell why,
+but somehow I lacked courage to say that the red screen was the chief
+instrument of torture!
+
+"'Well, go to sleep now,' she concluded, 'and be thankful you're not
+hurt. You might have killed yourself.'
+
+"Encouraged by the gracious manner in which she tucked me up, I took a
+short cut to the information which I had failed to attain through Mr.
+Joseph.
+
+"'Aunt Harriet,' I said, 'do you think I shall ever be as beautiful as
+Mrs. Moss?'
+
+"'I'm ashamed of you,' said Aunt Harriet.
+
+"I climbed no more into the treacherous arm-chair. I eschewed the
+mirror. I left Mr. Joseph in peace upon the wall. I took no further
+trouble about the future prospects of my nose. But night and day I
+thought of Mrs. Moss. I found the old cushion, and sat by it, gazing
+at the faded tints of the rosebuds, till I imagined the stiff brocade
+in all its beauty and freshness. I took a vigorous drawing fit; but it
+was only to fill my little book with innumerable sketches of Mrs.
+Moss. My uncle lent me his paint-box, as he was wont; and if the fancy
+portraits that I made were not satisfactory even to myself, they
+failed in spite of cheeks blushing with vermilion, in spite of eyes as
+large and brilliant as lamp-black could make them, and in spite of the
+most accurately curved noses that my pencil could produce. The amount
+of gamboge and Prussian blue that I wasted in vain efforts to produce
+a satisfactory pea-green, leaves me at this day an astonished admirer
+of my uncle's patience. At this time I wished to walk along no other
+road than that which led to my dear manor, where the iron gates were
+being painted, the garden made tidy, and the shutters opened; but,
+above all, the chief object of my desires was to accompany my
+grandmother and aunt in their first visit to Mrs. Moss.
+
+"Once I petitioned Aunt Harriet on this subject. Her answer was--
+
+"'My dear, there would be nothing to amuse you; Mrs. Moss is an old
+woman.'
+
+"'Granny said she was so beautiful,' I suggested.
+
+"'So she was, my dear, when your grandmother was young.'
+
+"These and similar remarks I heard and heeded not. They did not add
+one wrinkle to my ideal of Mrs. Moss: they in no way whatever lessened
+my desire of seeing her. I had never seen my grandmother young, and
+her having ever been so seemed to me at the most a matter of
+tradition; on the other hand, Mrs. Moss had been presented to my
+imagination in the bloom of youth and beauty, and, say what they
+would, in the bloom of youth and beauty I expected to see her still.
+
+"One afternoon, about a week after the arrival of Mrs. Moss, I was
+busy in the garden, where I had been working for an hour or more, when
+I heard carriage wheels drive up and stop at our door. Could it be
+Mrs. Moss? I stole gently round to a position where I could see
+without being seen, and discovered that the carriage was not that of
+any caller, but my uncle's. Then Granny and Aunt Harriet were going
+out. I rushed up to the coachman, and asked where they were going. He
+seemed in no way overpowered by having to reply--'To the manor, Miss.'
+
+"That was to Mrs. Moss, and I was to be left behind! I stood
+speechless in bitter disappointment, as my grandmother rustled out in
+her best silk dress, followed by Aunt Harriet and my uncle, who, when
+he saw me, exclaimed:
+
+"'Why, there's my little Mary! Why don't you take her? I'll be bound
+she wants to go.'
+
+"'I do, indeed!' I exclaimed, in Cinderella-like tones.
+
+"'But Mrs. Moss is such an old lady,' said Aunt Harriet, whose ideas
+upon children were purely theoretical, and who could imagine no
+interests for them apart from other children, from toys or definite
+amusements--'What could the child do with herself?'
+
+"'Do!' said my uncle, who took a rough and cheery view of life, 'why,
+look about her, to be sure. And if Mrs. M. is an old lady, there'll be
+all the more Indian cabinets and screens, and japanned tables, and
+knick-knacks, and lap-dogs. Keep your eyes open, Miss Mary. I've never
+seen the good lady or her belongings, but I'll stake my best hat on
+the japan ware and the lap-dog. Now, how soon can you be dressed?'
+
+"Later in life the selfish element mixes more largely with our
+admirations. A few years thence, and in a first interview with the
+object of so many fancies, I should have thought as much of my own
+appearance on the occasion, as of what I was myself to see. I should
+have taken some pains with my toilette. At that time, the desire to
+see Mrs. Moss was too absorbing to admit of any purely personal
+considerations. I dashed into the nursery, scrubbed my hands and face
+to a raw red complexion, brushed my hair in three strokes, and secured
+my things with one sweep. I hastily pocketed a pincushion of red
+cloth, worked with yellow silk spots, in the likeness of a strawberry.
+It was a pet treasure of mine, and I intended it as an offering to
+Mrs. Moss. I tied my hood at the top of the stairs, fastened my tippet
+in the hall, and reached the family coach by about three of those
+bounds common to all young animals.
+
+"'Halloa!' said my uncle, with his face through the carriage door.
+'You've not thanked me yet.'
+
+"I flung my arms round his starched neck-cloth.
+
+"'You're a darling!' I exclaimed, with an emphatic squeeze.
+
+"'You're another,' he replied, returning the embrace upon my hood.
+
+"With this mutual understanding we parted, and I thought that if Mrs.
+Moss were not certain to fulfil my ideal, I should have wished her to
+be as nearly like Uncle James as the circumstances of the case would
+permit. I watched his yellow waistcoat and waving hands till they
+could be seen no longer, and then I settled myself primly upon the
+back seat, and ventured upon a shy conciliating promise to be 'very
+good.'
+
+"'You're quite welcome to come, child,' said Aunt Harriet; 'but as I
+said, there are neither children nor playthings for you.'
+
+"Children or playthings! What did I want with either? I put my arm
+through the loop by the window and watched the fields as they came and
+vanished, with vacant eyes, and thought of Mrs. Moss. A dozen times
+had I gone through the whole scene in my mind before we drove through
+the iron gates. I fancied myself in the bare, spacious hall, at which
+I had peeped; I seemed to hear a light laugh, and to see the beautiful
+face of Mrs. Moss look over the banisters; to hear a rustle, and the
+scraping of the stiff brocade, as the pink rosebuds shimmered, and the
+green satin shoes peeped out, and tap, tap, tap, the high pink heels
+resounded from the shallow stairs.
+
+"I had dreamed this day-dream many times over before the carriage
+stopped with a shake, and Aunt Harriet roused me, asking if I were
+asleep. In another minute or so we were in the hall, and here I met
+with my first disappointment.
+
+"To begin with, I had seen the hall unfurnished, and had not imagined
+it otherwise. I had pictured Mrs. Moss in her beauty and rose brocade,
+the sole ornament of its cold emptiness. Then (though I knew that my
+grandmother and aunt must both be present) I had really fancied myself
+the chief character in this interview with Mrs. Moss. I had thought of
+myself as rushing up the stairs to meet her, and laying the pincushion
+at her green satin feet. And now that at last I was really in the
+hall, I should not have known it again. It was carpeted from end to
+end. Fragrant orange-trees stood in tubs, large hunting-pictures hung
+upon the walls, below which stood cases of stuffed birds, and over all
+presided a footman in livery, who himself looked like a stuffed
+specimen of the human race with unusually bright plumage.
+
+"No face peeped over the banisters, and when we went upstairs, the
+footman went first (as seemed due to him), then my grandmother,
+followed by my aunt, and lastly I, in the humblest insignificance,
+behind them. My feet sank into the soft stair-carpets, I vacantly
+admired the elegant luxury around me, with an odd sensation of
+heartache. Everything was beautiful, but I had wanted nothing to be
+beautiful but Mrs. Moss.
+
+"Already the vision began to fade. That full-fed footman troubled my
+fancies. His scarlet plush killed the tender tints of the rosebuds in
+my thoughts, and the streaky powder upon his hair seemed a mockery of
+the _toupee_ I hoped to see, whose whiteness should enhance the lustre
+of rare black eyes. He opened the drawing-room door and announced my
+grandmother and aunt. I followed, and (so far as one may be said to
+face anything when one stands behind the skirts of two intervening
+elders) I was face to face with Mrs. Moss.
+
+"That is, I was face to face with a tall, dark, old woman, with
+stooping shoulders, a hooked nose, black eyes that smouldered in their
+sunken sockets, and a distinct growth of beard upon her chin. Mr. Moss
+had been dead many years, and his widow had laid aside her weeds. She
+wore a dress of _feuille-morte_ satin, and a black lace shawl. She had
+a rather elaborate cap, with a tendency to get on one side, perhaps
+because it would not fit comfortably on the brown front with bunchy
+curls which was fastened into its place by a band of broad black
+velvet.
+
+"And this was Mrs. Moss! This was the end of all my fancies! There was
+nothing astonishing in the disappointment; the only marvel was that I
+should have indulged in so foolish a fancy for so long. I had been
+told more than once that Mrs. Moss was nearly as old as my
+grandmother. As it was, she looked older. Why--I could not tell then,
+though I know now.
+
+"My grandmother, though never a beauty, had a sweet smile of her own,
+and a certain occasional kindling of the eyes, the outward signs of a
+character full of sentiment and intelligence; and these had outlasted
+youth. She had always been what is called 'pleasing,' and she was
+pleasing still. But in Mrs. Moss no strength, no sentiment, no
+intellect filled the place of the beauty that was gone. Features that
+were powerful without character, and eyes that glowed without
+expression, formed a wreck with little to recall the loveliness that
+had bewildered Mr. Sandford--and me.
+
+"There is not much more to tell, Ida. This was the disappointment.
+This is the cause of my dislike for a certain shade of _feuille-morte_
+satin. It disappointed me of that rose brocade which I was never to
+see. You shall hear how I got through the visit, however. This
+meeting, which (like so many meetings) had proved the very reverse of
+what was hoped.
+
+"Through an angle of Aunt Harriet's pelisse, I watched the meeting
+between my grandmother and Mrs. Moss. They kissed and then drew back
+and looked at each other, still holding hands. I wondered if my
+grandmother felt as I felt. I could not tell. With one of her smiles,
+she bent forward, and, kissing Mrs. Moss again, said:
+
+"'God bless you, Anastatia.'
+
+"'God bless you, Elizabeth.'
+
+"It was the first time Mrs. Moss had spoken, and her voice was rather
+gruff. Then both ladies sat down, and my grandmother drew out her
+pocket-handkerchief and wiped her eyes. Mrs. Moss began (as I thought)
+to look for hers, and, not finding it, called,
+
+"'Metcalfe!'
+
+on which a faded little woman, with a forefinger in a faded-looking
+book, came out from behind some window-curtains, and, rummaging Mrs.
+Moss's chair with a practised hand, produced a large silver
+snuff-box, from which Mrs. Moss took a pinch, and then offered it to
+Granny, who shook her head. Mrs. Moss took another and a larger pinch.
+It was evident what made her voice so gruff.
+
+"Aunt Harriet was introduced as 'My daughter Harriet,' and made a
+stiff curtsey as Mrs. Moss smiled, and nodded, and bade her 'sit down,
+my dear.' Throughout the whole interview she seemed to be looked upon
+by both ladies as a child, and played the part so well, sitting prim
+and silent on her chair, that I could hardly help humming as I looked
+at her:
+
+    'Hold up your head,
+    Turn out your toes,
+    Speak when you're spoken to,
+    Mend your clothes.'
+
+I was introduced, too, as 'a grandchild,' made a curtsey the shadow of
+Aunt Harriet's, received a nod, the shadow of that bestowed upon her,
+and got out of the way as soon as I could, behind my aunt's chair,
+where, coming unexpectedly upon three fat pug-dogs on a mat, I sat
+down among them and felt quite at home.
+
+"The sight of the pugs brought Uncle James to my mind, and when I
+looked round the room, it seemed to me that he must be a conjuror at
+least, so true was everything he had said. A large Indian screen hid
+the door; japanned boxes stood on a little table to correspond in
+front of it, and there were two cabinets having shallow drawers with
+decorated handles, and a great deal of glass, through which odd
+teacups, green dragons, Indian gods, and Dresden shepherdesses were
+visible upon the shelves. The room was filled with knick-knacks, and
+here were the pug-dogs, no less than three of them! They were very
+fat, and had little beauty except as to their round heads and black
+wrinkled snouts, which I kissed over and over again.
+
+"'Do you mind Mrs. Moss's being old, and dressing in that hideous
+brown dress?' I asked in a whisper at the ear of one of these round
+heads. 'Think of the rosebuds on the brocade, and the pea-green satin,
+and the high-heeled shoes. Ah!' I added, 'you are only a pug, and pugs
+don't think.' Nevertheless, I pulled out the pincushion, and showed it
+to each dog in turn, and the sight of it so forcibly reminded me of my
+vain hopes, that I could not help crying. A hot tear fell upon the
+nose of the oldest and fattest pug, which so offended him that he
+moved away to another mat at some distance, and as both the others
+fell fast asleep, I took refuge in my own thoughts.
+
+"The question arose why should not Mrs. Moss have the pincushion
+after all? I had expected her to be young and beautiful, and she had
+proved old and ugly, it is true; but there is no reason why old and
+ugly people should not have cushions to keep their pins in. It was a
+struggle to part with my dear strawberry pincushion in the
+circumstances, but I had fairly resolved to do so, when the rustle of
+leave-taking began, and I had to come out of my corner.
+
+"'Bid Mrs. Moss good-day, Mary,' said my grandmother; and added, 'the
+child has been wild to come and see you, Anastatia.'
+
+"Mrs. Moss held out her hand good-naturedly. 'So you wanted to see me,
+my dear?' said she.
+
+"I took my hand out of my pocket, where I had been holding the
+pincushion, and put both into Mrs. Moss's palm.
+
+"'I brought this for you ma'am,' I said. 'It is not a real strawberry;
+it is emery; I made it myself.'
+
+"And the fact of having sacrificed something for Mrs. Moss made me
+almost fond of her. Moreover, there was an expression in her eyes at
+that moment which gave them beauty. She looked at my grandmother and
+laid her hand on my head.
+
+"'I lost all mine, Elizabeth.'
+
+"I thought she was speaking of her pincushions, and being in a
+generous mood, said hastily,
+
+"When that is worn out, ma'am, I will make you another.'
+
+"But she was speaking of her children. Poor Mrs. Moss! She took
+another huge pinch of snuff, and called, 'Metcalfe.'
+
+"The faded little woman appeared once more.
+
+"'I must give you a keepsake in return, my dear,' said Mrs. Moss. 'The
+china pug, Metcalfe!'
+
+"Metcalfe (whose face always wore a smile that looked as if it were
+just about to disappear, and who, indeed, for that matter, always
+looked as if she were just about to disappear herself) opened one of
+the cabinets, and brought out a little toy pug in china, very
+delicately coloured, and looking just like one of my friends on the
+mat. I fell in love with it at once, and it was certainly a handsome
+exchange for the strawberry pincushion.
+
+"'You will send the child to see me now and then, Elizabeth?' said
+Mrs. Moss as we retired.
+
+"In the end Mrs. Moss and I became great friends. I put aside my dream
+among the 'vain fancies' of life, and took very kindly to the manor in
+its new aspect. Even the stuffed footman became familiar, and learnt
+to welcome me with a smile. The real Mrs. Moss was a more agreeable
+person than I have, I fear, represented her. She had failed to grasp
+solid happiness in life, because she had chosen with the cowardice of
+an inferior mind; but she had borne disappointment with dignity, and
+submitted to heavy sorrows with patience; and a greater nature could
+not have done more. She was the soul of good humour, and the love of
+small chat, which contrasted so oddly with her fierce appearance, was
+a fund of entertainment for me, as I fed my imagination and stored my
+memory with anecdotes of the good old times in the many quiet evenings
+we spent together. I learnt to love her more heartily, I confess, when
+she bought a new gown and gave the _feuille-morte_ satin to Mrs.
+Metcalfe.
+
+"Mrs. Metcalfe was 'humble companion' to Mrs. Moss. She was in reality
+single, but she exacted the married title as a point of respect. At
+the beginning of our acquaintance I called her 'Miss Metcalfe,' and
+this occasioned the only check our friendship ever received. Now I
+would, with the greatest pleasure, have addressed her as 'My Lord
+Archbishop,' or in any other style to which she was not entitled, it
+being a matter of profound indifference to me. But the question was a
+serious one to her, and very serious she made it, till I almost
+despaired of our ever coming to an understanding on the subject.
+
+"On every other point she was unassuming almost to non-entity. She was
+weak-minded to the verge of mental palsy. She was more benevolent in
+deed, and more wandering in conversation, than any one I have met with
+since. That is, in ordinary life. In the greenhouse or garden (with
+which she and the head-gardener alone had any real acquaintance) her
+accurate and profound knowledge would put to shame many professed
+garden botanists I have met with since. From her I learnt what little
+I know of the science of horticulture, and with her I spent many happy
+hours over the fine botanical works in the manor library, which she
+alone ever opened.
+
+"And so I became reconciled to things as they were, though to this day
+I connect with that shade of _feuille-morte_ satin a disappointment
+not to be forgotten."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It is a dull story, is it not, Ida?" said the little old lady,
+pausing here. She had not told it in precisely these words, but this
+was the sum and substance of it.
+
+Ida nodded. Not that she had thought the story dull, so far as she had
+heard it, and whilst she was awake; but she had fallen asleep, and so
+she nodded.
+
+Mrs. Overtheway looked back at the fire, to which, indeed, she had
+been talking for some time past.
+
+"A child's story?" she thought. "A tale of the blind, wilful folly of
+childhood? Ah, my soul! Alas, my grown-up friends! Does the moral
+belong to childhood alone? Have manhood and womanhood no passionate,
+foolish longings, for which we blind ourselves to obvious truth, and
+of which the vanity does not lessen the disappointment? Do we not
+still toil after rosebuds, to find _feuilles-mortes_?"
+
+No voice answered Mrs. Overtheway's fanciful questions. The hyacinth
+nodded fragrantly on its stalk, and Ida nodded in her chair. She was
+fast asleep--happily asleep--with a smile upon her face.
+
+The shadows nodded gently on the walls, and like a shadow the little
+old lady stole quietly away.
+
+When Ida awoke, she found herself lying partly in the arm-chair, and
+partly in the arms of Nurse, who was lifting her up. A candle flared
+upon the table, by the fire stood an empty chair, and the heavy scent
+that filled the room was as sweet as the remembrance of past
+happiness. The little old lady had vanished, and, but for the
+hyacinth, Ida would almost have doubted whether her visit had not been
+a dream.
+
+"Has Mrs. Overtheway been long gone, Nursey?" she asked, keeping her
+eyes upon the flowerpot.
+
+"Ever so long!" said Nurse, "and here you've been snoring away, and
+the old lady's been downstairs, telling me how comfortably you were
+asleep, and she's coming again to-morrow evening, if you're good."
+
+It was precisely twelve minutes since Mrs. Overtheway left the house,
+but Nurse was of a slightly exaggerative turn of mind, and few people
+speak exactly on the subject of time, especially when there is an
+opportunity of triumphing over someone who has been asleep before
+bed-time. The condition of Ida's being good was also the work of
+Nurse's own instructive fancy, but Ida caught eagerly at the welcome
+news of another visit.
+
+"Then she is not angry with me for falling asleep, Nursey? I was so
+comfortable, and she has such a nice voice, I couldn't help it; I
+think I left off about the pugs. I wish I had a pug with a wrinkled
+black snout, don't you, Nursey?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't, Miss Ida. My father kept all sorts of pigs, and we
+used to have one with a black snout and black spots, but it was as
+ugly as ugly could be; and I never could fancy the bacon would be fit
+to eat. You must have been dreaming, I'm sure; the old lady would
+never tell you about such rubbish, I know."
+
+"It's pugs, not pigs, Nursey; and they're dogs, you know," said Ida,
+laughing. "How funny you are! And indeed she did tell me, I couldn't
+have dreamt it; I never dreamt anything so nice in my life."
+
+"And never will, most likely," said Nurse, who was very skilful in
+concluding a subject which she did not want to discuss, and who was
+apt to do so by a rapid twist in the line of argument, which Ida would
+find somewhat bewildering. "But, dear Miss Ida," she continued, "do
+leave off clutching at that chair-arm, when I'm lifting you up; and
+your eyes 'll drop out of your head, if you go on staring like that."
+
+Ida relaxed the nervous grasp, to which she had been impelled by her
+energy on the subject of the pugs, let down her eyebrows, and
+submitted to be undressed. The least pleasant part of this ceremony
+may be comprised in the word curl-papers. Ida's hair was dark, and
+soft, and smooth, but other little girls wore ringlets, and so this
+little girl must wear ringlets too. To that end her hair was every
+night put into curl-papers, with much tight twisting and sharp
+jerking, and Ida slept upon an irregular layer of small paper parcels,
+which made pillows a mockery. With all this, however, a damp day, or a
+good romp, would sometimes undo the night's work, to the great disgust
+of Nurse. In her last place, the young lady's hair had curled with a
+damp brush, as Ida well knew, and Nurse made so much of her own
+grievance, in having to use the curl-papers, that no place was left
+for Ida's grievance in having to sleep upon them. She submitted this
+night therefore, as other nights, in patience, and sat swinging her
+feet and accommodating her head to the sharp tugs, which always seemed
+to come from unexpected quarters. Perhaps, however, her mind may have
+been running a little upon grievances, which made her say:
+
+"You know, Nursey, how you are always telling me I ought to be
+thankful for having things, and not having things, and--"
+
+"I wish you'd talk sense, and not give way with your head so when I
+pull, Miss Ida," retorted Nurse, "having things, and not having
+things; I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Well, you know, Nursey, the other day when I said I didn't like
+bread-and-treacle treacled so long before, and soaked in, and you said
+I ought to be thankful that I had bread-and-treacle at all, and that I
+hadn't a wooden leg, and to eat anything I could get, like the old
+sailor man at the corner; well, do you know, I've thought of something
+I _am_ so thankful for, and that is that I haven't a red screen to my
+bed."
+
+"I really do think, Miss Ida," said Nurse, "that you'll go out of your
+mind some day, with your outlandish fancies. And where you get them, I
+can't think. I'm sure _I_ never put such things into your head."
+
+Ida laughed again.
+
+"Never mind, Nursey, it all belongs to the pug story. Am I done now?
+And when you've tucked me up, please, would you mind remembering to
+put the flower where I can see it when I wake?"
+
+Nurse did as she was asked, and Ida watched the hyacinth till she fell
+asleep; and she slept well.
+
+In the morning she took her old post at the window. The little old
+lady had never seemed so long in making her appearance, nor the bells
+so slow to begin. Chim! chime! chim! chime! There they were at last,
+and there was Mrs. Overtheway. She looked up, waved a bunch of
+snowdrops, and went after the bells. Ida kissed her hand, and waved it
+over and over again, long after the little old lady was out of sight.
+
+"There's a kiss for you, dear Mrs. Overtheway," she cried, "and kisses
+for your flowers, and your house, and everything belonging to you, and
+for the bells and the church, and everybody in it this morning, and--"
+
+But, at this point of universal benevolence, Nurse carried her off to
+breakfast.
+
+The little old lady came to tea as before. She looked as well as ever,
+and Nurse was equally generous in the matter of tea and toast. Mrs.
+Overtheway told over again what Ida had missed in the story of Mrs.
+Moss, and Ida apologized, with earnest distress, for her uncivil
+conduct in falling asleep.
+
+"There I was snoring away, when you were telling me such a delightful
+story!" she exclaimed, penitently.
+
+"Not snoring exactly, my dear," smiled the little old lady, "but you
+looked very happy."
+
+"I thought Nursey said so," said Ida. "Well, I'm very glad. It would
+have been too rude. And you know I don't know how it was, for I _am_
+so fond of stories; I like nothing so well."
+
+"Well, shall I try again?" said Mrs. Overtheway. "Perhaps I may find a
+more amusing one, and if it does put you to sleep, it won't do any
+harm. Indeed, I think the doctor will say I'm very good company for
+you."
+
+"You are very good! That _I_ can tell him," said Ida, fervently, "and
+please let it be about yourself again, if you can remember anything. I
+like true stories."
+
+"Talking of snoring," said Mrs. Overtheway, "reminds me of something
+that happened in my youth, and it is true, though, do you know, it is
+a ghost story."
+
+Ida danced in her chair.
+
+"That is just what I should like!" she exclaimed. "Nurse has a ghost
+story, belonging to a farm-house, which she tells the housemaid, but
+she says she can't tell me till I am older, and I should so like to
+hear a ghost story, if it isn't too horrid."
+
+"This ghost story isn't too horrid, I think," laughed the little old
+lady, "and if you will let me think a few minutes, and then forgive my
+prosy way of telling it, you shall have it at once."
+
+There was a pause. The little old lady sat silent, and so sat Ida
+also, with her eyes intently fixed on Mrs. Overtheway's face, over
+which an occasional smile was passing.
+
+"It's about a ghost who snored," said the little old lady, doubtfully.
+
+"Delicious!" responded Ida. The two friends settled themselves
+comfortably, and in some such words as these was told the following
+story:--
+
+
+
+
+THE SNORING GHOST.
+
+     _Clown._ Madman, thou errest: I say there is no darkness but
+     Ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians
+     in their fog.... What is the opinion of Pythagoras
+     concerning wild fowl?
+
+     _Malvolio._ That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit
+     a bird.
+
+     _Clown._ What thinkest thou of his opinion?
+
+     _Malvolio_. I think nobly of the soul, and in no way approve
+     his opinion.
+
+     _Twelfth Night_, iv. 2.
+
+
+"I remember," said Mrs. Overtheway, "I remember my first visit. That
+is, I remember the occasion when I and my sister Fatima did, for the
+first time in our lives, go out visiting without our mother, or any
+grown-up person to take care of us."
+
+"Do you remember your mother?" asked Ida.
+
+"Quite well, my dear, I am thankful to say. The best and kindest of
+mothers!"
+
+"Was your father alive, too?" Ida asked, with a sigh.
+
+The old lady paused, pitying the anxious little face opposite, but
+Ida went on eagerly:
+
+"Please tell me what _he_ was like."
+
+"He was a good deal older than my mother, who had married very early.
+He was a very learned man. His tastes and accomplishments were many
+and various, and he was very young-hearted and enthusiastic in the
+pursuit of them all his life. He was apt to take up one subject of
+interest after another, and to be for the time completely absorbed in
+it. And, I must tell you, that whatever the subject might be, so long
+as his head was full of it, the house seemed full of it too. It
+influenced the conversation at meals, the habits of the household, the
+names of the pet animals, and even of the children. I was called Mary,
+in a fever of chivalrous enthusiasm for the fair and luckless Queen of
+Scotland, and Fatima received her name when the study of Arabic had
+brought about an eastern mania. My father had wished to call her
+Shahrazad, after the renowned sultana of the 'Arabian Nights' but when
+he called upon the curate to arrange for the baptism, that worthy man
+flatly rebelled. A long discussion ended in my father's making a list
+of eastern names, from which the curate selected that of Fatima as
+being least repugnant to the sobriety of the parish registers. So
+Fatima she was called, and as she grew up pale, and moon-faced, and
+dark-eyed, the name became her very well."
+
+"Was it this Fatima who went out visiting with you?" asked Ida.
+
+"Yes, my dear; and now as to the visit. The invitation came on my
+thirteenth birthday.
+
+"One's birthday is generally a day of some importance. A very notable
+day whilst one is young, but less so when one is old, when one is
+being carried quickly through the last stages of life, and when it
+seems hardly worth while to count time so near the end of the journey.
+Even in youth, however some birthdays are more important than others.
+I remember looking forward to my tenth birthday as to a high point of
+dignity and advancement; and the just pride of the occasion on which I
+first wrote my age with more figures than one. With similar feelings,
+I longed to be thirteen. The being able to write my age with two
+figures had not, after all, shed any special lustre upon life; but
+when I was 'in my teens' it must 'feel different somehow.' So I
+thought. Moreover, this birthday was really to bring with it solid
+advantages. I was now to be allowed to read certain books of a more
+grown-up character than I had read hitherto, and to sit up till nine
+o'clock. I was to wear sandals to my shoes. My hair was henceforth to
+grow as long as I and the Fates would permit, and the skirts of my
+frocks were to take an inch in the same direction. 'In four more
+years,' I said to Fatima, as we sat on the eve of my birthday,
+discussing its manifold advantages, 'in four more years I shall be
+grown up. Miss Ansted was introduced at seventeen.' The prospect was
+illimitable.
+
+"'Do people always grow much on their birthdays?' asked one of the
+little ones. I had boasted in the nursery, that when I was thirteen I
+should be 'nearly grown up,' and I myself had hardly outlived the idea
+that on one's birthday one was a year older than on the previous day,
+and might naturally expect to have made a year's growth during the
+night.
+
+"This birthday, however, produced no such striking change. As usual,
+the presents were charming; the wreath as lovely as Fatima's deft
+fingers could make it, the general holiday and pleasure-making almost
+too much of a good thing. Otherwise, there was little to mark it from
+other days in the year.
+
+"Towards evening we were all sitting on the grass, the boys with their
+heads on the sisters' laps, and there had been an outcry for a story,
+to which no one had responded; partly, perhaps, because the exquisite
+air of evening seemed a sufficient delight, the stillness too profound
+to be lightly disturbed. We had remained for some time without
+speaking, and the idea was becoming general among the girls that the
+boys were napping, when the summer silence was broken by the distant
+footfalls of a horse upon the high road.
+
+"'Trotting!' observed one of the supposed sleepers. We were not, as a
+family, given to explanations, and we drew a few more breaths of the
+evening air in silence. Then someone said:
+
+"'We might make a story out of _that_, and fancy all sorts of things.
+Who is it? Where does he come from, and where is he going to?'
+
+"'It is a messenger from the seat of war,' drawled the boy in my lap,
+without moving. Then, lifting his curly head for a moment, he cried,
+'To horse! gentlemen, to horse! The enemy will be at Carter's Mill by
+midnight!'
+
+"There was a pause; the solitary footfalls came nearer through the
+evening mists, and a small brother, of a quaint turn of mind, much
+given to the study of the historical portions of the Old Testament,
+sat up and said, slowly:
+
+"'It is one of Job's messengers. _The Chaldeans made out three bands,
+and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain
+the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone
+to tell thee._'
+
+"The others boys laughed, but he lay down again, as solemnly as he had
+risen.
+
+"'That was a foot-messenger,' said my boy, contemptuously.
+
+"'It doesn't say so,' retorted the small brother.
+
+"'Well, any way, the camels had been carried off--so what did he ride
+upon?'
+
+"A squabble was imminent. I covered my boy's face with a handkerchief,
+to keep him quiet.
+
+"'Listen!' I said. 'It's the post. The mail from the north was stopped
+on the highway, but he has saved the bags, and is riding hard for
+London.'
+
+"'It's--'
+
+"But the new suggestion was drowned in a general shout of--
+
+"'It's coming up the lane!'
+
+"The footfalls had diverged from the main road, and were coming up the
+sandy lane that skirted our wall. The boys lifted their heads, and we
+sat expectant. There was a pause, and a familiar gate-click, and then
+the footfalls broke upon the carriage-road, close by us. A man in
+livery, upon a well-groomed horse--nothing more, but rather an
+uncommon sight with us. Moreover, the man and his livery were strange,
+and the horse looked tired.
+
+"This event broke up the sitting, and we were strolling up to the
+house, when a maid met us, saying that my mother wished to see me and
+Fatima.
+
+"We found my mother sewing, with an opened letter beside her. It was
+written on one of the large quarto sheets then in use, and it was
+covered and crossed, at every available corner, in a vague, scratchy
+hand.
+
+"'I have heard from an old friend of mine, Mary,' said my mother.
+'She has come to live about twelve miles from here. There is
+something in the letter about you and Fatima, and you may read that
+part aloud, if you can. The top of the last page.'
+
+"I found the place, and, with some difficulty, deciphered: 'The dear
+Major was all delicacy and consideration--'
+
+"'No, no!' said my mother, 'the next sentence.'
+
+"'Dear Cecilia was all sweetness. The dress was--'
+
+"My mother took the letter, and found the right place herself, and
+then I read:
+
+"'If you cannot come yourself, at least let us renew acquaintance in
+our children. I think you have two girls about thirteen? My Lucy, a
+dear child just fifteen, feels keenly the loss of her only sister, and
+some young companions would be a boon, as all our company will be
+_elders_. Pray send them. They can come by the coach, and shall be met
+at Durnford, at the Elephant and Castle.'
+
+"'Is the other sister dead?' asked Fatima, pityingly, when we had
+discussed our personal interest in the subject.
+
+"'Oh, no! only married,' said my mother.
+
+"It was decided that we should go. This decision was not arrived at at
+once, or without some ups and downs. My mother could not go herself,
+and had some doubts as to our being old enough, as yet, to go out
+visiting alone. It will be believed that I made much of being able to
+say--'But you know, I am thirteen, now.'
+
+"Next day, in the evening, my father was busy in his study, and my
+mother sat at the open window, with Fatima and me at her feet. The
+letter of acceptance had been duly sent by the messenger, but she had
+yet a good deal of advice to give, and some doubts to express. She was
+one of those people who cannot sit with idle fingers, and as she
+talked she knitted. We found it easy enough to sit idle upon two
+little footstools, listening to the dear kind voice, and watching two
+little clouds, fragments of a larger group, which had detached
+themselves, and were sailing slowly and alone across the heavens.
+
+"'They are like us two,' Fatima had whispered to me; 'perhaps they are
+going to see some other clouds.'
+
+"'I have observed two things which are apt to befall young people who
+go out visiting,' said my mother, as she turned a row in her knitting,
+'one is, that they neglect little good habits while they are away, and
+the other is, that they make themselves very disagreeable when they
+come back.'
+
+"The clouds drifted on, and my mother continued her knitting, arming
+us with many wise counsels on small matters connected with this great
+event; to which Fatima and I gratefully gave half our minds, whilst
+with the other half we made rosy pictures of unparalleled excellence
+under trying circumstances, by which, hereafter, we should prove these
+warnings and counsels to have been, in our case, unnecessary and
+superfluous.
+
+"'Most families and most people,' said my mother, 'have little good
+habits and customs of their own which they feel bound to keep,
+although they are not among the great general duties which bind every
+one. So long as young people are at home, these matters are often
+simple enough, but when they go away certain difficulties arise. They
+go amongst people whose little habits are not the same as those to
+which they have been accustomed. Sometimes they come to very
+uncharitable conclusions upon their friends' characters in
+consequence. And, I must say, that I have never met with any one who
+could be more severe than young people of your age are apt to be. I
+remember it of myself, and I have seen it in so many other girls. Home
+is naturally the standard, and whatever is different seems wrong. As
+life goes on, these young critics learn (or should learn) to
+distinguish between general and particular duties; and also coming to
+know a larger number of people, they find that all good persons are
+not cut to the same pattern, and that one's friends' little ways are
+not therefore absurd, because one does not happen to be used to them.
+On the other hand, if going amongst other people may tempt you to be
+critical of their little habits, it is also apt to make you neglect
+your own. Perhaps you think this cannot much matter, as they are not
+the great duties, and as other people seem to get on quite well
+without them. But one learns in the end, that no character of any
+value is formed without the discipline of individual rules, and that
+rules are of no use that are not held to against circumstances.
+"Charitable to others, severe to himself," seems a maxim for grown-up
+people in grown-up things; but, I believe, my little daughters, that
+the doubts and difficulties of life begin very early, earlier than
+they are commonly provided against; I think that innumerable girls
+struggle miserably in the practice of duty, from a radical ignorance
+of its principles, and that the earlier these are learnt, the smaller
+is the burden of regret one heaps together to oppress the future, and
+the sooner one finds that peace of mind which is not common even
+amongst the young, and should-be light-hearted.'
+
+"In these, or words to this effect, my dear mother prepared us for our
+first plunge into society. We discussed the little good habits we were
+to maintain, and, amongst others, certain little Sunday customs--for
+we were to be away for a week.
+
+"'We can't take all our good habits with us, if you won't come,' I
+said. 'What is to become of the Sunday readings?'
+
+"For my mother used to read to us every Sunday evening, and we were
+just in the middle of that book of wondrous fascination--'The
+Pilgrim's Progress.'
+
+"'If it were not for the others, and if you would trust us with it,'
+said Fatima, thoughtfully, 'we might take the book with us, and Mary
+might read to me, if she would--I like her reading.'
+
+"My mother consented. There was another copy in the house, and though
+this volume was a favourite, she said it was time we learnt to take
+care of valuable books. So it was settled. We talked no more that
+evening; and the clouds drifted out of sight.
+
+"'They have gone to bed in a big dark cloud on the other side' said
+Fatima, yawning; and we went to bed also.
+
+"My story wanders, Ida; this is because it is an old woman's tale. Old
+people of my age become prosy, my dear. They love to linger over
+little remembrances of youth, and to recall the good counsels of kind
+voices long silent. But I must not put you to sleep a second time, so
+I will not describe the lists of good habits which Fatima and I drew
+up in fine Roman characters, and which were to be kept as good
+resolutions had never been kept before. We borrowed the red ink, to
+make them the more impressive to the eye, and, unfortunately, spilt
+it. A bad beginning, as many of our rules had reference to tidiness.
+Neither will I give you the full account of how we packed. How our
+preparations began at once, and were only stopped by the necessity of
+setting off when the day arrived. How we emptied all our drawers and
+cupboards, and disarranged both our bookshelves; and, in making ready
+for the life of order and tidiness we were to live abroad, passed that
+week at home with our room in such chaos as it had never been before.
+How we prepared against an amount of spare time, that experience
+eventually teaches one is not to be found out visiting; and, with this
+object, took more sewing than we should have performed in a month at
+home; books, that we had not touched for years; drawings, that were
+fated to be once touched, and no more.
+
+"I will not describe the big box, which my father lent to us, nor the
+joys of packing it. How Fatima's workbox dove-tailed with my desk. How
+the books (not having been chosen with reference to this great event)
+were of awkward sizes, and did not make comfortable paving for the
+bottom of the trunk; whilst folded stockings may be called the
+packer's delight, from their usefulness to fill up corners. How,
+having packed the whole week long, we were barely ready, and a good
+deal flurried at the last moment; and how we took all our available
+property with us, and left the key of the trunk behind. Fancy for
+yourself, how the green coach picked us up at the toll-bar, and how,
+as it jingled on, we felt the first qualm of home-sickness, and,
+stretching our heads and hands out of the window, waved adieux and
+kisses innumerable to Home, regardless of our fellow-traveller in the
+corner, an old gentleman, with a yellow silk handkerchief on his head,
+who proved in the end a very pleasant companion. I remember that we
+told him our family history, with minutest particulars, and conjugated
+four regular Latin verbs by his orders; and that he rewarded our
+confidences and learning with the most clear, the most sweet, the most
+amber-coloured sticks of barley-sugar I have ever had the good fortune
+to meet with. I remember also how, in the warmth of our new
+friendship, Fatima unveiled to him the future, which, through some
+joke of my father's, we had laid out for ourselves.
+
+"I am to marry a Sultan, for I am moon-faced; but Mary is to be a
+linguist, for she has large eyes.'
+
+"'Then Miss Mary is not to marry?' said the old gentleman, with a grim
+smile.
+
+"I shook my head in sage disdain. 'When I am sixteen, I shall be an
+Amazon.'
+
+"Precisely what I meant by this I don't think I knew myself, but my
+dreams were an odd compound of heroic and fairy lore, with a love and
+ambition for learning that were simply an inheritance. Many a night
+did I fancy myself master of all the languages of the world, hunting
+up and down the windy hills in a dress of Lincoln green. I had a
+mighty contempt for men, and a high respect for myself, that was the
+greatest of my many follies.
+
+"After these interesting revelations we had barley-sugar all round,
+and the coach rattled into Durnford.
+
+"Shall I tell you how we were met at the Elephant and Castle by a
+footman of most gentlemanlike appearance (his livery excepted), who,
+with a sagacity which somewhat puzzled us, discovered that we were
+'the young ladies that were expected,' and led us to the carriage,
+firmly opposing my efforts to fulfil the last home orders I had
+received, to 'look after the box?' How in the carriage we found a lady
+handsomely dressed in black, who came out to meet us, and seemed so
+anxious for our comfort, and so much interested in our arrival, that
+we naturally supposed her to be the lady who had invited us, till we
+discovered that she was a lady's maid; and on arriving found our
+hostess quite another sort of person, with no appearance at all of
+being particularly interested in our arrival, which I have since found
+to be the case with the heads of some other country houses.
+
+"It was a large house, reminding me of the Manor within, but prettier
+outside; old and irregularly built, with mullioned windows, and odd
+wings and corners. A glowing, well-kept garden contrasted prettily
+with the grey stone, and the grounds seemed magnificent to our eyes.
+
+"We were shown into the drawing-room, where the real lady of the house
+sat at a dainty writing-table, scratching away at a letter that was no
+doubt as affectionate as the one which my mother had received. She was
+shortsighted, which seemed to be the case also with most of the other
+ladies in the room; this, perhaps, was why they stared so hard at us,
+and then went on with the elaborate pieces of needlework on which all
+of them were engaged. It seemed to take our hostess a second or two to
+see us, and another second or two to recall who we were; then she came
+forward very kindly, showed us where to sit, and asked after my
+mother. Whilst I was replying, she crossed to the fire-place, and rang
+the bell; and I felt slightly surprised by her seeming to wish for no
+further news of her old friend. She asked if we had had a pleasant
+journey, and Fatima had hardly pronounced a modest yes, before she
+begged we would allow her to finish her letter, and went back to the
+spindle-legged table. Whilst she scratched we looked around us. Three
+or four ladies were in the room, more or less young, more or less
+pretty, more or less elegantly dressed, and all with more or less
+elaborate pieces of needlework. There was one gentleman, young and
+dark, with large brown eyes, who seemed to be employed in making paper
+pellets of an old letter, chatting the while in a low voice to a young
+lady with a good deal of red hair. We afterwards found out that he was
+an Irishman, familiarly called 'Pat' by some of the young ladies, who
+seemed to be related to him. We had seen all this when the man-servant
+appeared at the door.
+
+"'Where is Miss Lucy, Thompson?' our hostess asked, sharply.
+
+"'I will inquire, ma'am,' Thompson replied, with the utmost softness,
+and vanished.
+
+"The scratching began again, the Irishman went on gently chatting, and
+it all felt very like a horrid dream. Then Thompson reappeared.
+
+"'Miss Lucy is out, ma'am.'
+
+"'Did she know what time these young ladies were to arrive?'
+
+"'Miss Lucy knew that the carriage had gone to meet them, ma'am.'
+
+"'Very thoughtless! Very thoughtless indeed!' said the lady. Thompson
+paused respectfully, as if to receive the full weight of the remark,
+and then vanished noiselessly as before.
+
+"There was an awkward pause. Our hostess left off scratching, and
+looked very cross; the Irishman fired one of his pellets across the
+room, and left off chatting, and the red-haired young lady got up, and
+rustled across to us. I remember her so well, Ida, for we fell deeply
+in love with her and her kindness. I remember her green and white
+dress. She had a fair round face, more pleasant than really pretty, a
+white starlike forehead, almost too firm a mouth, but a very gentle
+voice, at least, so we thought, when she said:
+
+"'As Lucy is out, may I take these young ladies to their room?'
+
+"Our hostess hesitated, and murmured something about Bedford, who was
+the lady's maid. The starlike forehead contracted, and the red-haired
+young lady said, rather emphatically:
+
+"'As Lucy is not in to receive her friends, I thought I might perhaps
+supply her place.'
+
+"'Well, my dear Kate, if you will be so kind,' said our hostess, 'I
+must finish these letters.'
+
+"'The yellow room?' said the young lady, abruptly, and swept us off
+without further parley. The Irish gentleman opened the door for us,
+staring with a half-puzzled, half-amused look at the lofty air with
+which the young lady passed out. He followed us into the hall, where
+we left him discharging his remaining pellets at the furniture, and
+whistling 'Kathleen Mavourneen,' as clearly as a bird.
+
+"The yellow room was a large airy one, with white painted wainscoting,
+a huge four-post bed with yellow curtains, and a pretty view from the
+windows. In the middle of the floor we saw our box standing in all its
+dignity, uncorded, and ready. Then it was the terrible fact broke upon
+our minds that the key was left behind. My sufferings during the few
+seconds before I found courage to confide this misfortune to our new
+friend were considerable. When I did tell her, the calmness and good
+nature with which she received the confession were both surprising and
+delightful.
+
+"'The lock doesn't look a very uncommon one, she said, as she opened
+the door. 'I dare say I may find a key to fit it.'
+
+"'What's the matter?' said a voice outside. It was the Irish
+gentleman. She explained.
+
+"'Keys?' said the Irish gentleman; 'got lots in my pocket, besides
+their being totally unnecessary, as I'm a capital hand at
+lock-picking. Let me see.'
+
+"With which he slipped in, seeming quite as much at his ease as in the
+drawing-room, and in another second had squatted upon the floor before
+our box, where he seemed to be quite as comfortable as in the
+arm-chair he had left. Here he poked, and fitted, and whistled, and
+chatted without a pause.
+
+"'I've locks and keys to everything I possess' he cheerfully remarked;
+'and as I never lock up anything, there's no damage done if the keys
+are left behind, which is a good thing, you see, as I always leave
+everything everywhere.'
+
+"'Do you make a principle of it?' asked the young lady, coldly.
+
+"'I'm afraid I make a practice of it.' He had opened the box, and was
+leaning against the bed-post, with a roguish twinkle in his brown
+eyes, which faded, however, under the silent severity of the
+red-haired young lady, and gave place to a look of melancholy that
+might have melted granite, as he added:
+
+"'I'm all alone, you see, that's what does it. I believe I'm the
+neatest creature breathing, if I'd only somebody to keep me up to it.'
+
+"Neither his hardened untidiness nor his lonely lot seemed, however,
+to weigh heavily on his mind; for he withdrew whistling, and his notes
+were heard about the passages for some little time. When they had died
+away in a distant part of the house, the red-haired young lady left us
+also.
+
+"I shall not give you a lengthened account of our unpacking, dear Ida;
+though it was as enjoyable, but less protracted than the packing-up
+had been. How we revelled in the spacious drawers and cupboards, over
+which we were queens, and how strictly we followed one of our mother's
+wise counsels--'unpack to the bottom of your box at once, however
+short your visit may be; it saves time in the end.' We did unpack to
+the lowest book (an artificial system of memory, which I had long been
+purposing to study, which I thought to find spare moments to get up
+here, and which, I may as well confess, I did not look at during the
+visit, and have not learnt to this day). We divided shelves and pegs
+with all fairness, and as a final triumph found a use for the
+elaborate watch-pockets that hung above our pillows. They were rich
+with an unlimited expenditure of quilled ribbon, and must have given a
+great deal of trouble to someone who had not very many serious
+occupations in this life. Fatima and I wished that we had watches to
+put in them, till the happy thought suddenly struck one of us, that we
+could keep in them our respective papers of good habits.
+
+"Bedford came in whilst we were in the midst of our labours, and
+warmly begged us to leave everything to her, as she would put our
+things away for us. The red-haired young lady had sent her, and she
+became a mainstay of practical comfort to us during our visit. She
+seemed a haven of humanity after the conventions of the drawing-room.
+From her we got incidental meals when we were hungry, spirits of wine
+when Fatima's tooth ached, warnings when we were near to being late
+for breakfast, little modern and fashionable turns to our hair and
+clothes, and familiar anecdotes of this household and of others in
+which she had lived. I remember her with gratitude.
+
+"Miss Lucy came home before our putting away was fairly finished, and
+we had tea with her in the schoolroom. She was a slight, sharp, lively
+young lady, looking older than fifteen to us, rather pretty, and very
+self-possessed. She scanned us from head to foot when we first met,
+and I felt as if her eyes had found defects innumerable, which seemed
+the less likely, as she also was shortsighted. As her governess was
+away visiting a sick relative, Miss Lucy did the honours of the
+schoolroom. She was cold and inattentive at first, became patronizing
+at tea, and ended by being gracious. In her gracious mood she was both
+affectionate and confidential. She called us 'my dear girls,' put her
+arms round us as we sat in the dark, and chattered without a pause
+about herself, her governesses, her sister, and her sister's husband.
+
+"'A wedding in the house,' she observed, 'is very good fun,
+particularly if you take a principal part in it. I was chief
+bride's-maid, you know, my dear girls. But I'll tell you the whole
+affair from the first. You know I had never been bride's-maid before,
+and I couldn't make up my mind about how I should like the dresses,'
+etc., etc. And we had got no further in the story than Miss Lucy's own
+costume, when we were called to dress and go downstairs.
+
+"'What are you going to put on?' she asked, balancing herself at our
+door and peering in.
+
+"'White muslin!' we said with some pride, for they were new frocks,
+and splendid in our eyes.
+
+"'I have had so many muslins, I am tired of them,' she said; 'I shall
+wear a pink silk to-night. The trimming came from London. Perhaps I
+may wear a muslin to-morrow; I have an Indian one. But you shall see
+my dresses to-morrow, my dear girls.'
+
+"With which she left us, and we put on our new frocks (which were to
+be _the_ evening dresses of our visit) in depressed spirits. This was
+owing to the thought of the pink silk, and of the possibility of a
+surfeit of white muslin.
+
+"During the evening we learnt another of Miss Lucy's peculiarities.
+Affectionate as she had been when we were alone together, she was no
+sooner among the grown-up young ladies downstairs than she kept with
+them as much as she was permitted, and seemed to forget us altogether.
+Perhaps a fit of particularly short sight attacked her; for she seemed
+to look over us, away from us, on each side of us, anywhere but at us,
+and to be quite unconscious of our existence. The red-haired young
+lady had made her fetch us a large scrap-book, and we sat with this
+before our eyes, and the soft monotonous chit-chat of our hostess in
+our ears, as she talked and worked with some elder ladies on the sofa.
+It seemed a long gossip, with no particular end or beginning, in which
+tatting, trimmings, military distinction, linens, servants, honourable
+conduct, sentiment, settlements, expectations, and Bath waters, were
+finely blended. From the constant mention of Cecilia and the dear
+major, it was evident that the late wedding was the subject of
+discourse; indeed, for that matter, it remained the prime topic of
+conversation during our stay.
+
+"Cecilia and the dear major were at Bath, and their letters were read
+aloud at the breakfast-table. I remember wondering at the deep
+interest that all the ladies seemed to take in the bride's pretty flow
+of words about the fashions, the drives, and the pump-room, and the
+long lists of visitors' names; this, too, without any connection
+between the hearers and the people and places mentioned. When anybody
+did recognize a name, however, about which she knew anything, it
+seemed like the finding of a treasure. All the ladies bore down upon
+it at once, dug up the family history to its farthest known point, and
+divided the subject among them. Miss Lucy followed these letters
+closely, and remembered them wonderfully, though (as I afterwards
+found) she had never seen Bath, and knew no more of the people
+mentioned than the little hearsay facts she had gathered from former
+letters.
+
+"It is a very useful art, my dear Ida, and one in which I have sadly
+failed all my life, to be able to remember who is related to whom,
+what watering-place such a family went to the summer before last, and
+which common friends they met there, etc. But, like other arts, it
+demands close attention, forbids day-dreaming, and takes up a good
+deal of time.
+
+"'_Wasn't_ it odd,' said Miss Lucy, one morning after breakfast, 'that
+Cecilia and the major should meet those Hicksons!'
+
+"'Who are the Hicksons?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh! my dear girl, don't you remember, in Cecilia's last letter, her
+telling us about the lady she met in that shop when they were in town,
+buying a shawl the counterpart of her own? and it seems so odd they
+should turn up in Bath, and be such nice people! Don't you remember
+mamma said it must be the same family as that Colonel Hickson who was
+engaged to a girl with one eye, and she caught the small-pox and got
+so much marked, and he broke it off?'
+
+"'Small-pox and one eye would look very ugly,' Fatima languidly
+observed; and this subject drifted after the rest.
+
+"One afternoon, I remember, it chanced that we were left alone with
+our hostess in the drawing-room. No one else happened to be in the way
+to talk to, and the good lady talked to us. We were clever girls for
+our age, I fancy, and we had been used to talk a good deal with our
+mother; at any rate we were attentive listeners, and I do not think
+our hostess required much more of us. I think she was glad of anybody
+who had not heard the whole affair from beginning to end, and so she
+put up her feet on the sofa, and started afresh with the complete
+history of her dear Cecilia from the cradle; and had gone on to the
+major, his military exploits abroad, his genteel connections at home,
+and the tendency to gout in the family which troubled him at times,
+and was a sad anxiety to her dear child, when visitors were announced.
+
+"Our intelligent attention had gained favour for us; and we were
+introduced to these ladies as 'daughters of a very dear friend of
+mine, whom I have not seen for years,' on which one lady gave a sweet
+glance and a tight smile and murmured:
+
+"'So pleasant to renew acquaintance in the children;' and the other
+ladies gave sweet glances, and tight smiles also, and echoed:
+
+"'So pleasant!'
+
+"'Such sensible girls!' said our hostess, as if we were not there;
+'like women of fifty. So like their dear mother! Such treasures to my
+little Lucy! You know she has lost her dear sister,' etc., etc.
+
+"For then the ladies drew together, and our hostess having got a fresh
+audience, we retired to distant arm-chairs, a good deal bewildered.
+
+"But to return to our first evening.
+
+"Miss Lucy and we retired together, and no sooner had the drawing-room
+door closed behind us, than she wound her arms round our waists, and
+became as devoted as if we had been side by side the whole evening.
+
+"'I'll tell you what I'll do, my dear girls,' she said when we
+reached our room; 'I'll come and sleep with you (there's lots of room
+for three), and then I can go on about Cecilia's affair, and if we
+don't finish to-night we can go on to-morrow morning before we get up.
+I always wake early, so I can call you. I'll come back when I'm ready
+for bed.'
+
+"And she vanished.
+
+"We were in bed when she returned. Her hair had been undergoing some
+wonderful process, and was now stowed away under a large and elaborate
+night-cap.
+
+"'Bedford was so slow,' said she; 'and then, you know, I got into bed,
+and let her tidy the room, and then when she was fairly gone, out I
+got, and here I am. We shall be as comfortable as possible; I'll be in
+the middle, and then I can have you on each side of me, my dear
+girls;' and in she sprang.
+
+"'Did you notice this?' she asked, holding up her hand, and pointing
+out the edging on the sleeve of her night-dress; 'it's a new pattern;
+do you know it? Oh! my dears, the yards and yards of tatting that
+Cecilia had for her trousseau!'
+
+"Fatima and I were not rich in tatting edges, and rejoiced when the
+conversation took another turn.
+
+"'About the proposal,' she rambled on; 'do you know I don't really
+know whereabouts Henry (that is the major, my brother-in-law,' she
+added, with one of the little attacks of dignity to which she was
+subject) 'proposed or what he said. I asked Cecy, but she wouldn't
+tell me. She was very cross, often; I'm very glad she's married. I
+think sisters ought to marry off as fast as they can; they never get
+on well in a house together, you know.'
+
+"I fairly gasped at this idea, and Fatima said bluntly:
+
+"'There are lots of us, and we get on.'
+
+"'Ah!' said Miss Lucy, in tones of wisdom; 'wait till you're a little
+older, and you'll see. Cecy was at school with two sisters who hated
+each other like poison, and they were obliged to dress alike, and the
+younger wore out her things much faster than the other one, but she
+was obliged to wear them till her sister's were done. She used to wish
+so her sister would marry, Cecy said, and the best fun is, now they're
+both in love with the same man. He's the curate of the church they go
+to.'
+
+"'Which of them is he in love with?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh, neither that I know of,' said Miss Lucy, composedly. 'They don't
+know him, you know; but they sit close under the pulpit, and they have
+such struggles about which shall get into the corner of the pew that's
+nearest. Cecy and I weren't like that; but still I'm very glad she's
+married. Now wasn't it stupid of her not to tell me? I should never
+have told anybody, you know. And don't you wonder what gentlemen do
+say, and how they say it? He couldn't propose sitting, and I think
+standing would be very awkward. I suppose he knelt. Aunt Maria doesn't
+approve of gentlemen kneeling; she says it's idolatry. I think they
+must look very silly. Cecy wouldn't even tell me what he said. She
+said he spoke to mamma, and mamma said his conduct was highly
+honourable; but I think it was very stupid. Do you know, my dears, I
+have a cousin who was really married at Gretna Green? She married an
+officer. He was splendidly handsome; but people said things against
+him, and her parents objected. So they eloped, and then went to Wales,
+to such a lovely place! Wasn't it romantic? They quarrelled afterwards
+though; he lives abroad now. People ought to be careful. I shall be
+very careful myself; I mean to refuse the first few offers I get.'
+
+"And so Miss Lucy rambled on, perfectly unconscious of the melancholy
+and yet ludicrous way in which she degraded serious subjects, which
+she was not old enough to understand, or wise enough to reverence. We
+were too young then to see it fully, but her frivolity jarred upon us,
+though she amused us, and excited our curiosity. She was not worse
+than many other girls, with plenty of inquisitiveness and sharp sense,
+and not too much refinement and feeling; whose accomplishments are
+learnt from the 'first masters,' and whose principles are left to be
+picked up from gossip, servants, and second-rate books; digested by
+ignorant, inquisitive, and undisciplined minds.
+
+"I won't try to recall any more of it, dear Ida. I remember it was a
+continuous stream of unedifying gossip, varied by small boastings
+about her own family. We've so many connections, was a favourite
+phrase of Miss Lucy's, and it seemed to mean a great deal. 'Do you
+like making trees?' she asked. I was getting sleepy, and without much
+thought replied, 'I love trees beyond anything, and I like growing oak
+trees in bottles.' Miss Lucy's, 'My dear girl, I mean family trees,
+genealogical trees,' was patronizing to scorn. 'Ours is in the spring
+drawer of the big oak cabinet in the drawing-room,' she added. 'We are
+descended from King Stephen.'
+
+"I believe I was the first to fall asleep that night. The last words I
+remember hearing were: 'We've so many connections.'
+
+"The next day's post brought news from Bath of more general interest
+to the household. The plans of Cecilia and the major were changed;
+they were coming to her mother's on the following Monday.
+
+"'My dear girls, I _am_ so glad!' said Miss Lucy; 'you'll see them.
+But you will have to move out of your room, I'm sorry to say.'
+
+"And for the next twelve hours Miss Lucy was more descriptive of her
+family glories in general, and of the glories of her sister and
+brother-in-law in particular, than ever.
+
+"Sunday was a day of mixed experiences to us; some pleasant and some
+the reverse. Miss Lucy in her best clothes was almost intolerably
+patronizing, and a general stiffness seemed to pervade everything, the
+ladies' silk dresses included. After breakfast we dawdled about till
+it was time to dress for church, and as most of the ladies took about
+five minutes more than they had allowed for, it seemed likely that we
+should be late. At the last moment, Miss Lucy lost her Prayer Book,
+and it was not till another five minutes had gone in the search that
+she remembered having left it in church the Sunday before. This being
+settled we all stowed away in the carriages and drove off. It was only
+a short drive; but when we came in sight of the quaint little church
+there was no sound of bells, and it became evident that we were late.
+In the porch we shook out our dresses, the Irishman divided the burden
+of Prayer Books he had been gallantly bearing, our hostess turned back
+from the half-open door to say in a loud and encouraging whisper,
+'It's only the Confession;' and we swept up the little church into a
+huge square pew.
+
+"My dear Ida, I must tell you that we had been brought up to have a
+just horror of being late for service, this being a point on which my
+father was what is called 'very particular.' Fatima and I therefore
+felt greatly discomposed by our late and disturbing entrance, though
+we were in no way to blame. We had also been taught to kneel during
+the prayers, and it was with a most uncomfortable sensation of doubt
+and shame-facedness that we saw one lady after another sit down and
+bend her bonnet over her lap, and hesitated ourselves to follow our
+own customs in the face of such a majority. But the red-haired young
+lady seemed fated to help us out of our difficulties. She sank at once
+on her knees in a corner of the pew, her green silk falling round her;
+we knelt by her side, and the question was settled. The little
+Irishman cast a doubtful glance at her for a moment, and then sat
+down, bending his head deeply into his hat. We went through a similar
+process about responding, which did not seem to be the fashion with
+our hostess and her friends. The red-haired young lady held to her own
+customs, however, and we held with her. Our responses were the less
+conspicuous, as they were a good deal drowned by the voice of an old
+gentleman in the next pew. Diversity seemed to prevail in the manners
+of the congregation. This gentleman stood during prayers, balancing a
+huge Prayer Book on the corner of the pew, and responding in a loud
+voice, more devout than tuneful, keeping exact time with the parson
+also, as if he had a grudge against the clerk and felt it due to
+himself to keep in advance of him. I remember, Ida, that as we came
+in, he was just saying, 'those things which we ought _not_ to have
+done,' and he said it in so terrible a voice, and took such a glance
+at us over his gold-rimmed spectacles, that I wished the massive
+pulpit-hangings would fall and bury my confusion. When the text of
+the sermon had been given out, our hostess rustled up, and drew the
+curtains well round our pew. Opposite to me, however, there was a gap
+through which I could see the old gentleman. He had settled himself
+facing the pulpit, and sat there gazing at the preacher with a rigid
+attention which seemed to say--'Sound doctrine, if you please; I have
+my eye on you.'
+
+"We returned as we came.
+
+"'Is there afternoon service?' I asked Miss Lucy.
+
+"'Oh, yes!' was the reply, 'the servants go in the afternoon.'
+
+"'Don't you?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh, no!' said Miss Lucy, 'once is enough. You can go with the maids,
+if you want to, my dears,' she added, with one of the occasional
+touches of insolence in which she indulged.
+
+"Afternoon arrived, and I held consultation with Fatima as to what we
+were to do.
+
+"When once roused, Fatima was more resolute than I.
+
+"'Of course we'll go,' said she; 'what's the use of having written out
+all our good rules and sticking at this? We always go twice at home.
+Let's look for Bedford.'
+
+"On which mission I set forth, but when I reached the top of the
+stairs I caught sight of the red-haired young lady, in her bonnet and
+shawl, standing at the open door, a Prayer Book in her hand. I dashed
+downstairs, and entered the hall just as the Irishman came into it by
+another door. In his hand was a Prayer Book also, and he picked up his
+hat, and went smiling towards her. But as he approached the young
+lady, she looked so much annoyed--not to say cross--that I hesitated
+to go forwards.
+
+"'Are you going to church?' said the little Irishman, with a pleased
+look.
+
+"'I don't know,' said the young lady, briefly, 'are you?'
+
+"'I was--' he began, and stopped short, looking puzzled and vexed.
+
+"'Is no else going?' he asked, after a moment's pause.
+
+"'No one else ever does go,' she said, impatiently, and moved into the
+hall.
+
+"The Irishman coloured.
+
+"'I am in the habit of going twice myself, though you may not think
+it,' he said, quietly; 'my poor mother always did. But I do not
+pretend to go to such good purpose as she did, or as you would, so if
+it is to lie between us--' and, without finishing his sentence, he
+threw his book (not too gently) on to the table, and, just lifting his
+hat as he passed her, dashed out into the garden.
+
+"I did not at all understand this little scene, but, as soon as he was
+gone, I ran up to ask our friend if she were going to church, and
+would take us. She consented, and I went back in triumph to Fatima. As
+there was no time to lose, we dressed quickly enough; so that I was
+rather surprised, when we went down, to find the Irish gentleman, with
+his face restored to its usual good humour, standing by our friend,
+and holding her Prayer Book as well as his own. The young lady did not
+speak, but, cheerfully remarking that we had plenty of time before us,
+he took our books also, and we all set forth.
+
+"I remember that walk so well, Ida! The hot, sweet summer
+afternoon--the dusty plants by the pathway--the clematis in the hedges
+(I put a bit into my Prayer Book, which was there for years)--the
+grasshoppers and flies that our dresses caught up from the long grass,
+and which reappeared as we sat during the sermon.
+
+"The old gentleman was in his pew, but his glance was almost
+benevolent, as, in good time, we took our places. We (literally)
+_followed_ his example with much heartiness in the responses; and, if
+he looked over into our pew during prayers (and from his position he
+could hardly avoid it), he must have seen that even the Irishman had
+rejected compromises, and that we all knelt together.
+
+"There was one other feature of that service not to be forgotten. When
+the sermon was ended, and I had lost sight of the last grasshopper in
+my hasty rising, we found that there was to be a hymn. It was the old
+custom of this church so to conclude Evening Prayer. No one seemed to
+use a book--it was Bishop Ken's evening hymn, which everyone knew,
+and, I think, everyone sang. But the feature of it to us was when the
+Irishman began to sing. From her startled glance, I think not even the
+red-haired young lady had known that he possessed so beautiful a
+voice. It had a clearness without effort, a tone, a truth, a pathos,
+such as I have not often heard. It sounded strangely above the nasal
+tones of the school-children, and the scraping of a solitary fiddle.
+Even our neighbour, who had lustily followed the rhythm of the tune,
+though without much varying from the note on which he responded,
+softened his own sounds and turned to look at the Irishman, who sang
+on without noticing it, till, in the last verse, he seemed disturbed
+to discover how many eyes were on him. Happily, self-consciousness had
+come too late. The hymn was ended.
+
+"We knelt again for the Benediction, and then went back through the
+summer fields.
+
+"The red-haired young lady talked very little. Once she said:
+
+"'How is it we have never heard you sing?'
+
+"To which the Irishman replied:
+
+"'I don't understand music, I sing by ear; and I hate 'company'
+performances. I will sing to you whenever you like.'
+
+"'Mary,' said Fatima, when we were in our room again, 'I believe those
+two will marry each other some day.'
+
+"'So do I,' I answered; 'but don't say anything about it to Lucy.'
+
+"'No, indeed!' said Fatima, warmly. So we kept this idea sacred from
+Miss Lucy's comments--why, I do not think either of us could have told
+in words.
+
+'Pity, that pleasant impressions--pity, that most impressions--pass
+away so soon!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The evening was not altogether so satisfactory as the afternoon had
+been. First, Miss Lucy took us to see her sister's wedding-presents,
+most of which were still here in her mother's keeping. They were
+splendid, and Miss Lucy was eloquent. From them we dawdled on into her
+room, where she displayed her own treasures, with a running commentary
+on matters of taste and fashion, which lasted till it was time to
+dress for the evening, when she made the usual inquiry, 'What shall
+you put on to-night, my dear girls?' and we blushed to own that there
+was nothing further of our limited toilettes to reveal.
+
+"In the drawing-room, similar subjects of conversation awaited us. Our
+hostess and her friends did not seem to care much for reading, and, as
+they did not work on Sunday evening, they talked the more. The chatter
+ran chiefly upon the Bath fashions, and upon some ball which had been
+held somewhere, where somebody had been dressed after a manner that it
+appeared needful to protest against; whilst somebody else (a cousin of
+our hostess) was at all points so perfectly attired, that it seemed as
+if she should have afforded ample consolation for the other lady's
+defects.
+
+"Upon the beauty of this cousin, her father's wealth, and her
+superabundant opportunities of matrimony, Miss Lucy enlarged to us, as
+we sat in a corner. Another of her peculiarities, by-the-by, was this.
+By her own account, all her relatives and friends were in some sense
+beautiful. The men were generally 'splendidly handsome;' the ladies,
+'the loveliest creatures.' If not 'lovely,' they were 'stylish;' if
+nothing else, they were 'charming.' For those who were beyond the
+magic circle, this process was reversed. If pretty, they 'wanted
+style.' If the dress was beyond criticism, the nose, the complexion,
+the hand was at fault. I have met with this _trait_ in other cliques,
+since then.
+
+"My dear Ida, I wish to encourage no young lady of the hoydenish age
+of thirteen, in despising nice dressing and pretty looks and manners;
+or in neglecting to pick up any little hints which she may glean in
+such things from older friends. But there are people to whom these
+questions seem of such first importance, that to be with them when you
+are young and impressionable, is to feel every defect in your own
+personal appearance to be a crime, and to believe that there is
+neither worth, nor love, nor happiness (no life, in fact, worth living
+for) connected with much less than ten thousand a year, and
+'connections.' Through some such ordeal we passed that evening, in
+seeing and hearing of all the expensive luxuries without which it
+seemed impossible to feed, dress, sleep, go out--in fact, exist; and
+all the equally expensive items of adornment, without which it
+appeared to be impossible to have (or at any rate retain) the respect
+and affection of your friends.
+
+"Meanwhile, the evening slipped by, and our Sunday reading had not
+been accomplished. We had found little good habits less easy to
+maintain in a strange household than we had thought, and this one
+seemed likely to follow some others that had been allowed to slip.
+The red-haired young lady had been absent for about half an hour, and
+the Irishman had been prowling restlessly round the room, performing
+murderous-looking fidgets with the paper-knives, when she returned
+with a book in her hand, which she settled herself resolutely to read.
+The Irishman gave a comical glance at the serious-looking volume, and
+then, seating himself on a chair just behind her, found apparent peace
+in the effort to sharpen a flat ruler on his knees. The young lady
+read on. It was evident that her Sunday customs were not apt to be
+disturbed by circumstances.
+
+"I began to feel uncomfortable. Fatima was crouched down near Lucy,
+listening to the history of a piece of lace. I waited some little time
+to catch her eye, and then beckoned her to me.
+
+"'We haven't read,' I whispered.
+
+"'Dare you go?' asked Fatima.
+
+"'We ought,' I said.
+
+"It required more daring than may appear. To such little people as
+ourselves it _was_ rather an undertaking to cross the big
+drawing-room, stealing together over the soft carpet; to attack the
+large, smooth handle, open the heavy door, and leave the room in the
+face of the company. We did it, however, our confusion being much
+increased by the Irish gentleman, who jumped up to open the door for
+us. We were utterly unable to thank him, and, stumbling over each
+other in the passage, flew up to our own room like caged birds set
+free.
+
+"Fatima drew out the pillows from the bed, and made herself easy on
+the floor. I found the book, and climbed into the window-seat. The sun
+was setting, the light would not last much longer; yet I turned over
+the pages slowly, to find the place, which was in the second part,
+thinking of the conversation downstairs. Fatima heaved a deep sigh
+among her cushions, and said: 'I wish we were rich.'
+
+"'I wish we were at home,' I answered.
+
+"'When one's at home,' Fatima continued, in doleful tones, 'one
+doesn't feel it, because one sees nobody; but when one goes among
+other people, it _is_ wretched not to have plenty of money and things.
+And it's no good saying it isn't,' she added, hurriedly, as if to
+close the subject.
+
+"'It's getting dark,' I said.
+
+"'I beg your pardon: go on,' sighed Fatima.
+
+"I lifted up my voice, and read till I could see no longer. It was
+about the Valley of Humiliation through which Mr. Greatheart led
+Christiana and her children. The 'green valley, beautified with
+lilies,' in whose meadows the air was pleasant; where 'a man shall be
+free from the noise and from the hurryings of this life;' and where
+'in former times men have met with angels.'
+
+"The last streaks of crimson were fading in the sky when I read the
+concluding lines of the shepherd-boy's song--
+
+    'Fulness to such a burden is,
+    That go on pilgrimage,
+    Here little, and hereafter bliss,
+    Is best from age to age.'
+
+"'Here little, and hereafter bliss!'
+
+"It is not always easy to realize what one believes. One needs
+sometimes to get away from the world around, 'from the noise and from
+the hurryings of this life,' and to hear, read, see, or do something
+to remind one that there is a standard which is not of drawing-rooms;
+that petty troubles are the pilgrimage of the soul; that great and
+happy lives have been lived here by those who have had but little; and
+that satisfying bliss is not here, but hereafter.
+
+"We went downstairs slowly, hand in hand.
+
+"'I wonder what mother is doing?' said Fatima.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The next day Miss Lucy very good-naturedly helped us to move our
+belongings into the smaller room we were now to occupy. It was in
+another part of the house, and we rather enjoyed the running to and
+fro, especially as Miss Lucy was gracious and communicative in the
+extreme.
+
+"'This is the oldest part of the house,' she said, as we sat on the
+bed resting from our labours, for the day was sultry; 'and it breaks
+off here in an odd way. There are no rooms beyond this. There were
+some that matched the other side of the house, but they were pulled
+down.'
+
+"'Why?' we asked.
+
+"'Well, there's a story about it, in the family,' said Miss Lucy,
+mysteriously. 'But it's a ghost story. I'll tell you, if you like. But
+some people are afraid of ghost stories. I'm not; but if you are, I
+won't tell it.'
+
+"Of course we declared we were not afraid. Sitting there together, on
+a sunny summer's afternoon, perhaps we were not.
+
+"'It's years and years ago,' began Miss Lucy; 'you know the place has
+belonged to another branch of our family for generations. Well, at
+last it came down to an old Mr. Bartlett, who had one daughter, who,
+of course, was to be the heiress. Well, she fell in love with a man
+whose name I forget, but he was of inferior family, and very queer
+character; and her father would not hear of it, and swore that if she
+married him he would disinherit her. She would have married the man in
+spite of this, though; but what he wanted was her money; so, when he
+found that the old man was quite resolute, and that there was no
+chance of his dying soon, he murdered him.'
+
+"We both exclaimed; for this sudden catastrophe fairly took away our
+breath. Miss Lucy's nerves were not sensitive, however, and she
+rattled on.
+
+"'He smothered him in bed, and, as he was a very old man, and might
+easily have died in the night some other way, and as nothing could be
+proved, he got off. Well, he married the daughter, and got the
+property; but the very first evening after he took possession, as he
+was passing the door of the old man's room, he heard somebody
+breathing heavily inside, and when he looked in, there was the old
+father asleep in his bed.'
+
+"'Not really?' we said.
+
+"'Of course not really,' said Miss Lucy, 'but so it was said. That's
+the ghost part of it. Well, do what he would, he never could get rid
+of the old man, who was always there asleep; so he pulled the rooms
+down, and at last he went abroad, and there both he and his wife died,
+and the property went to a cousin, who took the name of Bartlett.'
+
+"'How awful!' we murmured. But Miss Lucy laughed, and told us other
+family anecdotes, and the ghost story somewhat passed from our minds,
+especially as a little later we heard wheels, and, peeping from the
+landing window, beheld a post-chaise drive up.
+
+"'It's Cecilia!' screamed Miss Lucy, and left us at once.
+
+"I may as well say here, my dear Ida, that Cecilia and the major
+proved altogether different from our expectations. Cecilia, in
+travelling gear, taking off an old bonnet, begging for a cup of tea,
+and complaining in soft accents that butter was a halfpenny a pound
+dearer in Bath than at home, seemed to have no connection with that
+Cecilia into the trimmings of whose dresses bank-notes had recklessly
+dissolved. The major, an almost middle-aged man, of roughish exterior,
+in plain clothes, pulling his moustache over a letter that had arrived
+for him, dispelled our visions of manly beauty and military pomp even
+more effectually. Later on, we discovered that Cecilia was really
+pretty, soft, and gentle, a good deal lectured by her mother, and
+herself more critical of Miss Lucy's dress and appearance than that
+young lady had been of ours. The major proved kind and sensible. He
+was well-to-do and had 'expectations,' which facts shed round him a
+glory invisible to us. They seemed a happy couple; more like the rest
+of the world than we had been led to suppose.
+
+"The new-comers completely absorbed our attention during the evening,
+and it was not till we were fairly entering the older part on the
+house on our way to bed, that the story of the old man's ghost
+recurred to my mind. It was a relief to meet Bedford at this point, to
+hear her cheerful good-night, and to see her turn into a room only two
+doors from ours. Once while we were undressing I said:
+
+"'What a horrid story that was that Lucy told us.'
+
+"To which sensible Fatima made answer: 'Don't talk about it.'
+
+"We dismissed the subject by consent, got into bed, and I fell asleep.
+I do not quite know how far on it was into the night when I was roused
+by Fatima's voice repeating my name over and over again, in tones of
+subdued terror. I know nothing more irritatingly alarming, when one is
+young and nervous, than to be roused thus by a voice in which the
+terror is evident and the cause unknown.
+
+"'What's the matter?' I asked.
+
+"'Don't you hear?' gasped Fatima, in a whisper.
+
+"If she had said at once that there was a robber under the bed, a
+burglar at the window, or a ghost in the wardrobe, I should have
+prepared for the worst, and it would have been less alarming than this
+unknown evil.
+
+"'I hear nothing,' I said, pettishly. 'I wish you'd go to sleep,
+Fatima.'
+
+"'There!--now!' said Fatima.
+
+"I held my breath, and in the silence heard distinctly the sound of
+some one snoring in an adjoining apartment.
+
+"'It's only some one snoring,' I said.
+
+"'Where?' asked Fatima, with all the tragedy in her voice unabated.
+
+"'In the room behind us, of course,' I said, impatiently. 'Can't you
+hear?'
+
+"Fatima's voice might have been the voice of a shadow as she answered:
+'_There is no room there._'
+
+"And then a cold chill crept over me also; for I remembered that the
+wall from behind which the snoring unmistakably proceeded was an outer
+wall. There had been the room of old Mr. Bartlett, which his
+son-in-law and murderer had pulled down. There he had been heard
+'breathing heavily,' and had been seen asleep upon his bed, long after
+he was smothered in his own pillows, and his body shut up in the
+family vault. At least, so it was said, and at that particular moment
+we felt no comfort from the fact that Miss Lucy had said that 'of
+course it wasn't true.' I said something, to which Fatima made no
+reply, and I could feel her trembling, and hear a half-choked sob. I
+think fear for her overpowered my other alarm, and gave me a sort of
+strength.
+
+"'Don't, dear,' I begged. 'Let's be brave. It must be something else.
+And there's nothing in the room. Let's go to Bedford. She's next door
+but one.'
+
+"Fatima could speak no more. By the moonlight through the blind, I
+jumped up, and half dragged, half helped her out of bed and across the
+room. Opening the door was the worst. To touch anything at such a
+moment is a trial. We groped down the passage; I felt the handle of
+the first door, and turned that of the second, and in we went. The
+window-blind of this room was drawn up, and the moonlight streamed
+over everything. A nest of white drapery covered one chair, a muslin
+dress lay like a sick ghost over a second, some little black satin
+shoes and web-like stockings were on the floor, a gold watch and one
+or two feminine ornaments lay on the table; and in the bed
+reposed--not Bedford, but our friend Kate, fast asleep, with one arm
+over the bed-clothes, and her long red hair in a pigtail streaming
+over the pillow. I climbed up and treated her as Fatima had treated
+me, calling her in low, frightened tones over and over again. She woke
+at last, and sat up.
+
+"'You sprites! What is the matter?' she exclaimed.
+
+"I stumbled through an account of our misfortunes, in the middle of
+which the young lady lay down, and before it was ended I believe she
+was asleep again. Poor Fatima, who saw nothing before us but to return
+to our room with all its terrors, here began to sob violently, which
+roused our friend once more, and she became full of pity.
+
+"'You poor children!' she said, 'I'm so sleepy. I cannot get up and
+go after the ghost now; besides, one might meet somebody. But you may
+get into bed if you like; there's plenty of room, and nothing to
+frighten you.'
+
+"In we both crept, most willingly. She gave us the long tail of her
+hair, and said, 'If you want me, pull. But go to sleep, if you
+can!'--and, before she had well finished the sentence, her eyes closed
+once more. In such good company a snoring ghost seemed a thing hardly
+to be realized. We held the long plait between us, and, clinging to it
+as drowning men to a rope, we soon slept also.
+
+"When we returned to our room next day, there was no snoring to be
+heard, and in the full sunshine of a summer morning our fright seemed
+so completely a thing of the past, that I persuaded myself to suggest
+that it might have been 'fancy' (Kate had already expressed her
+deliberate opinion to this effect), to which Fatima, whose convictions
+were of a more resolute type than mine, replied, 'What's the use of
+trying to believe what's not true? I heard it; and shall know that I
+heard it, if I live till I'm a hundred.'
+
+"In all correct ghost stories, when the hero comes down in the
+morning, valiant, but exhausted from the terrors of the night, to
+breakfast, his host invariably asks him how he slept. When we came
+down, we found Kate and the Irishman alone together in the
+breakfast-room. Now it certainly was in keeping with our adventure
+when he stepped forward, and, bowing profoundly, asked how we had
+passed the night; but, in spite of the gravity of his face, there was
+a twinkle in the big brown eyes which showed us that we were being
+made fun of; and I felt slightly indignant with our friend, who had
+faithfully promised not to betray us to Miss Lucy, and might, I
+thought, have saved us from the ridicule of the Irishman. The rest of
+the company began to assemble, however, and to our relief the subject
+was dropped. But though the Irishman kept our secret, we had every
+reason to suspect that he did not forget it; he looked terribly
+roguish through breakfast, and was only kept in order by Kate's severe
+glances.
+
+"'Always breathe through the nose,' he suddenly began. 'It moderates
+the severity of the air, is less trying to the lungs, and prevents
+snoring.'
+
+"'Very true,' said the major, who was sensible, and liked instructive
+observations.
+
+"'It may be laid down as an axiom,' continued the Irishman, gravely,
+'that the man who snores is sure to disturb somebody; and also that
+the man who doesn't snore till he dies, is not likely to live to be a
+snoring ghost when he is dead.'
+
+"Kate looked daggers. The major laughed, and said, 'Let me give you
+some beef.' When he didn't understand a remark he always laughed, and
+generally turned the conversation to eatables, in which he was pretty
+safe; for food is common ground, and a slight laugh answers most
+remarks, unless at a serious meeting or a visit of condolence. A
+little later the Irishman asked: 'What's the origin of the expression
+to stir up with a long pole?' which turned the conversation to wild
+beasts. But he presently inquired: 'What's the meaning of putting a
+thing up the spout?'
+
+"'Pawning it,' said the major, promptly.
+
+"'People pawn their family jewels sometimes,' said Pat. 'Did you ever
+hear of anybody pawning the family ghosts?' he asked, suddenly turning
+to me. I gave a distressed 'No,' and he continued in a whisper, 'You
+never saw a ghost up the spout?'
+
+"But, before I could answer, he caught Kate's eye, and, making a
+penitent face, became silent.
+
+"We were in the drawing-room after breakfast, when the Irishman passed
+the window outside, whistling 'Kathleen Mavourneen.' We were sitting
+at Kate's feet, and she got up, and whispering, 'He's got something to
+show you, but he wouldn't let me tell,' went out into the garden, we
+following her.
+
+"There we found the Irishman, with a long pole, which he was waving
+triumphantly in the air. He bowed as we approached.
+
+"'This, young ladies,' he said, 'is the original long pole spoken of
+at the breakfast-table. With this I am about to stir up and bring
+forth for your inspection the living and identical ghost whose snoring
+disturbed your repose last night.'
+
+"The little Irishman's jokes reassured me. I guessed that he had
+found some clue to our mysterious noise; but with Fatima it was
+otherwise. She had been too deeply frightened to recover so easily.
+She clung tremblingly to me, as I was following him, and whispered
+'I'd rather not.'
+
+"On her behalf I summoned courage to remonstrate.
+
+"'If you please, sir,' I said, 'Fatima would rather not; and, if you
+please, don't tease us any more.'
+
+"The young lady added her entreaties, but they were not needed. The
+good-natured little gentleman no sooner saw Fatima's real distress
+than he lowered his pole, and sank upon his knees on the grass, with a
+face of genuine penitence.
+
+"'I _am_ so sorry I've been tormenting you so!' he exclaimed. 'I
+forgot you were really frightened, and you see I knew it wasn't a
+ghost.'
+
+"'I heard it,' murmured Fatima resolutely, with her eyes half shut.
+
+"'So did I,' said the Irishman, gaily; 'I've heard it dozens of times.
+It's the owls.'
+
+"We both exclaimed.
+
+"'Ah!' he said, comically, 'I see you don't believe me! That's what
+comes of telling so many small fibs. But it's true, I assure you. (And
+the brown eyes did look particularly truthful.) Barn-door owls do make
+a noise that is very like the snoring of an old man. And there are
+some young ones who live in the spout at the corner of the wall of
+your room. They're snoring and scrambling in and out of that spout all
+night.'
+
+"It was quite true, Ida, as we found, when Fatima was at last
+persuaded to visit the corner where the rooms had been pulled down,
+and where, decorated with ivy, the old spout formed a home for the
+snoring owls. By the aid of the long pole he brought out a young one
+to our view--a shy, soft, lovely, shadow-tinted creature, ghostly
+enough to behold, who felt like an impalpable mass of fluff, utterly
+refused to be kissed, and went savagely blinking back into his spout
+at the earliest possible opportunity. His snoring alarmed us no more."
+
+"And the noise really was that?" said Ida.
+
+"It really was, my dear."
+
+"It's a splendid story," said Ida; "you see, I didn't go to sleep
+_this_ time. And what became of everybody, please? Did the red-haired
+young lady marry the Irishman?"
+
+"Very soon afterwards, my dear," said Mrs. Overtheway. "We kept up
+our friendship, too, in after life; and I have many times amused their
+children with the story of the Snoring Ghost."
+
+
+
+
+REKA DOM.
+
+    "What is home, and where, but with the loving?"
+
+FELICIA HEMANS.
+
+
+At last Ida was allowed to go out. She was well wrapped up, and
+escorted by Nurse in a short walk for the good of her health. It was
+not very amusing, but the air was fresh and the change pleasant,
+although the street did not prove quite that happy region it had
+looked from the nursery windows. Moreover, however strong one may
+fancy one has become indoors, the convalescent's first efforts out of
+doors are apt to be as feeble as those of a white moth that has just
+crept from the shelter of its cocoon, giddy with daylight, and
+trembling in the open air. By-and-by this feeling passed away, and one
+afternoon Ida was allowed to go by herself into the garden, "just for
+a run."
+
+The expression was metaphorical, for she was far from being able to
+run; but she crept quietly up and down the walks, and gathered some
+polyanthuses, putting them to her face with that pleasure which the
+touch of fresh flowers gives to an invalid. Then she saw that the
+hedge was budding, and that the gap through which she had scrambled
+was filled up. Ida thought of the expedition and smiled. It had
+certainly made her very ill, but--it had led to Mrs. Overtheway.
+
+The little old lady did not come that day, and in the evening Ida was
+sent for by her uncle. She had not been downstairs in the evenings
+since her illness. These interviews with the reserved old gentleman
+were always formal, uncomfortable affairs, from which Ida escaped with
+a sense of relief, and that evening--being weak with illness and
+disappointed by Mrs. Overtheway's absence--her nervousness almost
+amounted to terror.
+
+Nurse did her best in the way of encouragement. It was true that Ida's
+uncle was not a merry gentleman, but there was such a nice dessert!
+What could a well-behaved young lady desire more than to wear her best
+frock, and eat almonds and raisins in the dining-room, as if she were
+the lady of the house?
+
+"Though I am sorry for the child," Nurse confided to the butler when
+she had left Ida with her uncle, "for his looks are enough to frighten
+a grown person, let alone a little girl. And do you go in presently,
+like a good soul, if you can find an excuse, and let her see a
+cheerful face."
+
+But before the kind-hearted old man-servant could find a plausible
+pretext for intruding into the dining-room, and giving an encouraging
+smile from behind his master's chair, Ida was in the nursery once
+more.
+
+She had honestly endeavoured to be good. She had made her curtsey at
+the door without a falter--weak as she was. She had taken her place at
+the head of the table with all dignity, and had accepted the almonds
+and raisins with sufficiently audible thanks. She had replied prettily
+enough to her uncle's inquiries after her health; and, anxious to keep
+up the conversation, had told him that the hedge was budding.
+
+"_What's_ the matter with the hedge?" he had asked rather sharply; and
+when Ida repeated her bit of spring news, he had not seemed to be
+interested. It was no part of the gardener's work.
+
+Ida relapsed into silence, and so did her uncle. But this was not all.
+He had sharp eyes, and fierce bushy eyebrows, from under which he was
+apt to scrutinize Ida in a way that seemed to scatter all her presence
+of mind. This night of all nights she found his eyes upon her oftener
+than usual. Whenever she looked up he was watching her, and her
+discomfort increased accordingly. At last he broke the silence
+abruptly by saying:
+
+"You were very sorry, child, were you not, when the news came of your
+father's death?"
+
+The sudden introduction of this sacred subject made Ida's head reel.
+
+"What?" she cried, and could get no further.
+
+"Have you forgotten already?" the old gentleman said, almost
+reprovingly. "You did not know him, it is true; but you must remember
+hearing that your poor father had been drowned at sea?"
+
+Ida's only reply was such a passionate outburst of weeping that her
+uncle rang the bell in helpless dismay, and was thankful when the old
+butler lifted the child tenderly in his arms and carried her back to
+Nurse. The old gentleman's feelings were more kindly than his looks,
+and he was really as much concerned as puzzled by the effect of his
+remarks. When the butler returned with the report that Ida was going
+quietly to bed, he sent her his "love" (the word seemed to struggle
+with some difficulty from behind his neck-cloth), and all the
+remaining almonds and raisins.
+
+"I can't eat them," said Ida, smiling feebly, for her head was aching,
+"but it is very kind of him; and please tell Brown to tell him that I
+am very sorry, and please put the almonds and raisins into my box. I
+will make a dolls feast with them, if ever I make dolls' feasts
+again."
+
+With which the weary little maid turned upon her pillow, and at last
+forgot her troubles in sleep.
+
+The next morning Brown delivered a similar message from the old
+gentleman. He had gone away by an early train on business, but had
+left Ida his love.
+
+"It's very kind of him," said Ida, again. But she went sadly on with
+some paper she was cutting into shapes. She was in low spirits this
+morning.
+
+Comfort was at hand, however. In the course of the day there came a
+message from Mrs. Overtheway, asking Nurse to allow Ida to go to tea
+with her that evening. And Nurse consented.
+
+Ida could hardly believe her senses when she found herself by the
+little old lady's own fireside. How dainty her room was! How full the
+bookshelves were! How many pictures hung upon the walls!
+
+Above a little table, on which were innumerable pretty things, hung
+two pictures. One of these was a portrait of a man who, from his
+apparent age, might have been the old lady's son, but that he was not
+at all like her. He might have been good-looking, though, Ida thought,
+and he had a kind, intelligent face, full of energy and
+understanding, and that is better still. Close under his portrait hung
+a little sketch. It was of a road running by a river. Opposite to the
+river was a house and some trees. It was a pretty sketch, Ida thought,
+and the road looked interesting, as some roads do in pictures--making
+one wish to get into the frame and walk down them to see whither they
+lead. Below the sketch were some curious-looking characters written in
+ink, and of these Ida could make nothing.
+
+Tea was soon ready. It was spread out on a little table by itself. The
+white cloth seemed to Ida the whitest she had ever seen, the silver
+and glass glittered, the china was covered with a rosebud pattern, and
+a reading-lamp threw a clear soft light over all. The tea, the cream,
+the brown bread and butter, the fresh eggs, and the honey--all were of
+the very best--even the waiting-maid was pretty, and had something of
+the old lady's smile.
+
+When she had finished her duties by taking away the things, and
+putting the tea-table into a corner, the two friends drew up to the
+fire.
+
+"You look better for tea, my child," said the little old lady. "Do you
+eat enough at home?"
+
+"As much as I can," said Ida, "but I am more hungry when somebody
+else has tea with me. There very seldom was anybody till you came
+though. Only once or twice Lady Cheetham's housekeeper has been to
+tea. She is Nurse's father's first cousin, and 'quite the lady,' Nurse
+says. So she won't let her have tea in the kitchen, so both she and
+Nurse have tea in the nursery, and we have lots of tea-cakes and jam,
+and Nurse keeps saying, 'Help yourself, Miss Ida! Make yourself at
+home, Mrs. Savory!' And, you know, at other times, she's always
+telling me not to be all night over my tea. So I generally eat a good
+deal then, and I often laugh, for Nurse and Mrs. Savory are so funny
+together. But Mrs. Savory's very kind, and last time she came she
+brought me a pincushion, and the time before she gave me a Spa mug and
+two apples."
+
+Mrs. Overtheway laughed, too, at Ida's rambling account, and the two
+were in high good-humour.
+
+"What shall I do to amuse you?" asked the little old lady.
+
+"You couldn't tell me another story?" said Ida, with an accent that
+meant, "I hope you can!"
+
+"I would, gladly, my dear, but I don't know what to tell you about;"
+and she looked round the room as if there were stories in the
+furniture which perhaps there were. Ida's eyes followed her, and then
+she remembered the picture, and said:
+
+"Oh! would you please tell me what the writing means under that pretty
+little sketch?"
+
+The little old lady smiled rather sadly, and looked at the sketch in
+silence for a few moments. Then she said:
+
+"It is Russian, my dear. Their letters are different from ours. The
+words are 'Reka Dom' and they mean 'River House.'"
+
+Ida gazed at the drawing with increased interest.
+
+"Oh, do you remember anything about it? If you would tell me about
+_that_!" she cried.
+
+But Mrs. Overtheway was silent again. She was looking down, and
+twisting some of the rings upon her little hand, and Ida felt ashamed
+of having asked.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said, imploringly. "I was very rude, dear
+Mrs. Overtheway; tell me what you like, please."
+
+"You are a good child," said the little old lady, "a very good child,
+my dear. I _do_ remember so much about that house, that I fall into
+day-dreams when I look at it. It brings back the memories of a great
+deal of pleasure and a great deal of pain. But it is one advantage of
+being old, little Ida, that Time softens the painful remembrances, and
+leaves us the happy ones, which grow clearer every day."
+
+"Is it about yourself?" Ida asked, timidly. She had not quite
+understood the little old lady's speech; indeed, she did not
+understand many things that Mrs. Overtheway said, but they were very
+satisfactory companions for all that.
+
+"Yes, it is about myself. And since there is a dear child who cares
+about old Mrs. Overtheway, and her prosy stories, and all that befell
+her long ago," said the little old lady, smiling affectionately at
+Ida, "I will tell her the story--my story--the story of Reka Dom."
+
+"Oh, how good of you!" cried Ida.
+
+"There is not much merit in it," said the little old lady. "The story
+is as much for myself as you. I tell myself bits of it every evening
+after tea, more so now than I used to do. I look far back, and I
+endeavour to look far forward. I try to picture a greater happiness,
+and companionship more perfect than any I have known; and when I shall
+be able to realize them, I shall have found a better Home than Reka
+Dom."
+
+Ida crept to the little old lady's feet, and softly stroked the
+slipper that rested on the fender. Then, while the March wind howled
+beyond the curtains, she made herself a cosy corner by the fire, and
+composed herself to hear the story.
+
+"I remember," said Mrs. Overtheway. "I remember Reka Dom. It was our
+new home.
+
+"Circumstances had made it necessary that we should change our
+residence, and the new home was to be in a certain quiet little town,
+not much bigger than some big villages--a town of pebble streets and
+small shops, silent, sunny, and rather dull--on the banks of a river.
+
+"My health at this time was far from robust; but there is compensation
+even for being delicate in that spring-time of youth, when the want of
+physical strength is most irksome. If evening parties are forbidden,
+and long walks impossible, the fragile member of the family is, on the
+other hand, the first to be considered in the matter of small
+comforts, or when there is an opportunity for 'change of air.' I
+experienced this on the occasion when our new home was chosen. It had
+been announced to us that our father and mother were going away for
+one night, and that we were to be very good in the absence of those
+authorized keepers of the peace. We had not failed ourselves to
+enlarge this information by the discovery that they were going to the
+little town by the river, to choose the house that was to be our home;
+but it was not till the night before their departure that I was told
+that I was to go with them. I had been unusually drooping, and it was
+supposed that the expedition would revive me. My own joy was
+unbounded, and that of my brothers and sisters was hardly less. They
+were generously glad for my sake, and they were glad, also, that one
+of the nursery conclave should be on the spot when the great choice
+was made. We had a shrewd suspicion that in the selection of a house
+our elders would be mainly influenced by questions of healthy
+situation, due drainage, good water supply, moderate rent, and so
+forth; to the neglect of more important considerations, such as odd
+corners for hide-and-seek, deep window-seats, plenty of cupboards, and
+a garden adapted to the construction of bowers rather than to the
+cultivation of vegetables. I do not think my hopes of influencing the
+parental decision were great; but still we all felt that it was well
+that I should be there, and my importance swelled with every piece of
+advice I received from the rest of the party.
+
+"'It must be a big house, but, of course, that adds to the expense,'
+said one of the older boys, who prided himself upon being more
+grown-up in his views than the rest, and considering the question from
+an elderly point of view. 'But if you don't take it out one way, you
+have it another,' he continued. A manly-sounding sentence, which
+impressed us all. 'Don't think about smartness, Mary,' he went on,
+with a grand air of renouncing vanities; 'fine entrance, you know, and
+front door. But a good back yard, if possible, and some empty
+outhouses for carpenters' shops; and if you could meet with a place
+with a few old boxes and barrels lying about, for rafts on the river
+and so forth, it would be a good thing.'
+
+"'I want a tidy box for a new baby-house, _dreadfully_,' added a
+sister.
+
+"'I hope there'll be deep window-places,' sighed the luxurious Fatima,
+'with print patchwork cushions, like those at the farm. And I hope
+some of them will face west, for the sunsets.'
+
+"'Above all'--and it was the final and most impressive charge I
+received--'whatever else is wanting, let us have two tall trees for a
+swing.'
+
+"Laden with responsibility, but otherwise light-hearted enough, I set
+out with my parents by the early coach, which was to put us down about
+mid-day in the little town by the river.
+
+"I liked travelling with my father. What a father he was! But, indeed,
+he was an object of such special devotion to me, and his character
+exercised so strong an influence over my young days, that I think, my
+dear Ida, that I must take the old woman's privilege of
+discursiveness, and tell you something about him.
+
+"I remember that he was a somewhat mysterious personage in our young
+eyes. We knew little of his early life, and what we did know only
+enhanced the romantic mystery which we imagined to hang round it. We
+knew that he had seen many foreign lands, and in those days much
+travelling was rare. This accounted for the fact that, absent and
+somewhat unpractical as he was at home, he was invaluable on a
+journey, making arrangements, and managing officials with the
+precision of old habit. Where he had learnt his peculiar courtesy and
+helpfulness with those under his charge was less obvious. My mother
+said he had been accustomed to 'good society' in his youth, though we
+lived quietly enough now. We knew that, as a lad, he had been at sea,
+and sailors are supposed to be a handy and gentle-mannered race with
+the weak and dependent. Where else he had been, and what he had done,
+we did not exactly know; but I think we vaguely believed him to have
+been concerned in not a few battles by land and sea; to be deep in
+secrets of state, and to have lived on terms of intimacy with several
+kings and queens. His appearance was sufficiently striking to favour
+our dreams on his behalf. He had a tall, ungainly figure, made more
+ungainly by his odd, absent ways; but withal he was an unmistakable
+gentleman. I have heard it said of him that he was a man from whom no
+errors in taste could be feared, and with whom no liberties could ever
+be taken. He had thick hair of that yellow over which age seems to
+have no power, and a rugged face, wonderfully lighted up by eyes of
+rare germander blue. His hair sometimes seemed to me typical of his
+mind and tastes, which Time never robbed of their enthusiasm.
+
+"With age and knowledge the foolish fancies I wove about my father
+melted away, but the peculiar affection I felt for him, over and above
+my natural love as a daughter, only increased as I grew up. Our tastes
+were harmonious, and we always understood each other; whereas Fatima
+was apt to be awed by his stateliness, puzzled by his jokes, and at
+times provoked by his eccentricities. Then I was never very robust in
+my youth; and the refined and considerate politeness which he made a
+point of displaying in his own family were peculiarly grateful to me.
+That good manners (like charity) should begin at home, was a pet
+principle with him, and one which he often insisted upon to us.
+
+"'If you will take my advice, young people,' he would say, 'you will
+be careful never to let your sisters find other young gentlemen more
+ready and courteous, nor your brothers find other young ladies more
+gentle and obliging than those at home.'
+
+"My father certainly practised what he preached, and it would not have
+been easy to find a more kind and helpful travelling companion than
+the one with whom my mother and I set forth that early morning in
+search of our new abode.
+
+"I was just becoming too much tired to care to look any longer out of
+the window, when the coach rumbled over the pebbly street into the
+courtyard of the 'Saracen's Head.'
+
+"I had never stayed at an inn before. What a palace of delights it
+seemed to me! It is true that the meals were neither better nor better
+cooked than those at home, and that the little room devoted to my use
+was far from being as dainty as that which Fatima and I habitually
+shared; but the keen zest of novelty pervaded everything, and the
+faded chintz and wavy looking-glass of No. 25 are pleasant memories
+still. Moreover, it had one real advantage over my own bedroom. High
+up, at the back of the house, it looked out and down upon the river.
+How the water glittered and sparkled! The sun was reflected from its
+ripples as if countless hosts of tiny naiads each held a mirror to
+catch his rays. My home had been inland, and at some distance from a
+river, and the sight of water was new and charming to me. I could see
+people strolling along the banks; and then a boat carrying sails of a
+rich warm brown came into view and passed slowly under my eye, with a
+stately grace and a fair wind. I was watching her with keen interest,
+when I was summoned to dinner.
+
+"Here, again, novelty exercised its charm. At home I think I may say
+that the nursery party without exception regarded dinner in the light
+of a troublesome necessity of existence. We were apt to grudge the
+length and formalities of the meal; to want to go out, or not to want
+to come in; or possibly the dining-room had been in use as a kite
+manufactory, or a juvenile artist's studio, or a doll's dressmaker's
+establishment, and we objected to make way for the roast meat and
+pudding. But on this occasion I took an interest in the dignities of
+the dinner-table, and examined the plates and dishes, and admired the
+old-fashioned forks and spoons, and puzzled over the entwined initials
+on their handles.
+
+"After dinner we went out into the town, and looked through several
+houses which were to let. My high hopes and eager interest in the
+matter were soon quenched by fatigue; but faithful to my promise, I
+examined each house in turn. None of them proved satisfactory to my
+parents, and they were even less so to me. They were all new, all
+commonplace, and all equally destitute of swing-trees, interesting
+corners, deep window-seats, or superannuated boxes. Heat, fatigue, and
+disappointment at last so overpowered me that my pale face attracted
+notice, and my father brought me back to the inn. He carried me
+upstairs to the sofa, and, pointing out a bookshelf for my amusement,
+and telling me to order tea if I wished for it, went back to my
+mother.
+
+"It was a shabby little collection of volumes, that parlour library in
+the 'Saracen's Head.' There was an old family Bible, a torn copy of
+'Culpepper's 'Herbal,' the Homilies in inexpressibly greasy black
+calf, a book of songs, a volume called 'Evelina,' which seemed chiefly
+remarkable for dashes and notes of admiration, and--the book I chose.
+
+"The book I chose would look very dull in your eyes, I dare say, my
+dear Ida; you who live in an age of bright, smart story-books, with
+clear type, coloured pictures, and gorgeous outsides. You don't know
+what small, mean, inartistic 'cuts' enlivened your grandmother's
+nursery library, that is, when the books were illustrated at all. You
+have no idea how very little amusement was blended with the
+instruction, and how much instruction with the amusement in our
+playbooks then, and how few there were of them, and how precious those
+few were! You can hardly imagine what a treasure I seemed to have
+found in a volume which contained several engravings the size of the
+page, besides many small wood-cuts scattered through the letter-press.
+I lost sight alike of fatigue and disappointment, as I pored over the
+pictures, and read bits here and there.
+
+"And such charming pictures there were! With quaint anglers in
+steeple-crowned hats, setting forth to fish, or breakfasting under a
+tree (untrammelled by the formalities of a nursery meal), or bringing
+their spoils to a wayside inn with a painted fish upon the sign-board,
+and a hostess in a high hat and a stiff-bustled dress at the door.
+Then there were small wood-cuts which one might have framed for a
+doll's house; portraits of fish of all kinds, not easily
+distinguishable by the unpractised eye; and nicer wood-cuts still of
+country scenes, and country towns, and almost all of these with a
+river in them. By the time that my father and mother returned, I had
+come to the conclusion that the bank of a river was, of all
+situations, the most desirable for one's home, and had built endless
+bowers in the air like that in which the anglers are seated in the
+picture entitled 'The Farewell;' and had imagined myself in a tall hat
+and a stiff-bustled dress cooking fish for my favourite brothers after
+the recipes in Walton and Cotton's 'Complete Angler.'
+
+"They came back with disappointment on their faces. They had not got
+a house, but my mother had got a headache, and we sat down to tea a
+dispirited party.
+
+"It is sometimes fortunate as well as remarkable, how soon everybody
+knows everything about everybody else, especially in a small town. As
+the tea-things went downstairs, our landlord came up to help us in our
+difficulty. Had the gentleman succeeded in obtaining a house? If none
+of the new lot suited him, the landlord believed that one or more of
+older date were to let near the river. It was not the fashionable
+quarter, but there had been well-to-do people and some good
+substantial residences there.
+
+"Our hopes rose again, and the idea of an old and substantial
+residence in an unfashionable quarter was so much more favourable to
+nursery interests than the smart gimcrack houses at which we had been
+looking, that I should have been anxious to explore that part of the
+town to which he directed us, even if it had not possessed a charm
+that was now pre-eminent in my eyes. It was near the river.
+
+"My mother was too much tired to attempt further investigations, but I
+had completely recovered from my fatigues, and was allowed to go with
+my father on the new search. He and I were very good company, despite
+the difference in age between us. We were never in each other's way,
+and whether we chatted or did not speak, we were happy together, and
+enjoyed ourselves in our respective fashions.
+
+"It was a lovely evening. Hand in hand we turned out of the 'Saracen's
+Head' into the shingly street, took the turning which led to the
+unfashionable quarter, and strolled on and on, in what Scott calls
+'social silence.' I was very happy. It was not only a lovely
+evening--it was one of these when the sunlight seems no longer mere
+sunlight, but has a kind of magical glow, as if a fairy spell had been
+cast over everything; when all houses look interesting--all country
+lanes inviting--when each hedge, or ditch, or field seems a place made
+to play in at some wonderful game that should go on for years.
+
+"As we wandered on, we passed a line of small bright-looking houses,
+which strongly caught my fancy. Each had its gay little garden, its
+shrubbery of lilac, holly, or laurustinus, and its creeper-covered
+porch. They looked so compact and cosy, so easy to keep tidy, so snug
+and sunny, that one fancied the people who lived in them must be
+happy, and wondered who they were.
+
+"'Oh, father!' I exclaimed, 'what delightful houses!'
+
+"'They are very pretty, my dear,' he answered; 'but they are much too
+small for us; besides which, they are all occupied.'
+
+"I sighed, and we were passing on, when I held him back with another
+exclamation.
+
+"'Oh! _look_ at the carnations!' For in one of the gardens large
+clumps of splendid scarlet cloves caught my eye.
+
+"My father humoured me, and we drew near to the laurustinus hedge, and
+looked over into the gay little garden. As we looked, we became
+conscious of what appeared like a heap or bundle of clothing near one
+of the beds, which, on lifting itself up, proved to be a tall slender
+lady of middle age, who, with her dress tucked neatly round her, a big
+print hood on her head, and a trowel in her hand, was busily
+administering such tender little attentions as mothers will lavish on
+their children, and garden lovers on their flowers. She was not alone
+in the garden, as we soon perceived. A shorter and stouter and younger
+lady sat knitting by the side of a gentleman in a garden-chair, who
+from some defect in his sight, wore a large green shade, which hid the
+greater part of his face. The shade was made of covered pasteboard,
+and was large and round, and so very like a lamp shade, that I hardly
+ever look at one of those modern round globe lamps, my dear, if it
+has a green shade, without being reminded of old Mr. Brooke.
+
+"'Was that his name?' Ida asked.
+
+"'Yes, my dear; but that we did not know till afterwards. When the
+good lady lifted herself up, she saw us, and seemed startled. My
+father raised his hat, and apologized politely. 'My little girl was so
+much taken with your carnations, madam,' he said, 'that we made bold
+to come near enough to look at them, not knowing that any one was in
+the garden.'
+
+"She seemed rather flustered, but pushed back her hood, and made a
+stiff little curtsey in answer to my father's bow, and murmured
+something about our being welcome.
+
+"'Would you care to have some, my dear?' she added, looking at me. I
+gave a delighted assent, and she had gathered two lovely carnations,
+when we heard a quavering voice from under the green shade inquire--
+
+"'What is it?'
+
+"Our friend was at the old gentleman's side in a moment, speaking very
+distinctly into his ear, as if he were deaf, whereby we heard her
+answer,
+
+"'It's a gentleman and his little daughter, James, admiring our
+carnations, and I am gathering a few for the young lady, dear James.'
+
+"'Quite right, quite right,' he croaked. 'Anything that we have.
+Anything that we have.'
+
+"It was a great satisfaction to me afterwards to remember that my
+father had thanked these good people 'properly,' as I considered. As
+for myself, I had only been able to blush and stammer out something
+that was far from expressing my delight with the lovely nosegay I
+received. Then the slender lady went back to her gardening. Her sister
+took up the knitting which she had laid down, the old gentleman nodded
+his lamp-shade in the direction where he supposed us to be and said,
+'Good evening, sir, Good evening, miss;' and we went our way.
+
+"The road wound on and on, and down and down, until we found ourselves
+on the edge of the river. A log lay conveniently on the bank, and
+there we seated ourselves. The tide was out, and the river bed was a
+bed of mud except for a narrow stream of water that ran down the
+middle. But, ah! how the mud glistened in the evening sunshine which
+was reflected on it in prismatic colours. Little figures were dotted
+here and there over its surface, and seawards the masts of some
+vessels loomed large through the shining haze.
+
+"'How beautiful everything looks this evening!' I exclaimed.
+
+"'I see them walking in an air of glory,' murmured my father,
+dreamily.
+
+"He was quoting from a favourite old poem, which begins--
+
+    'They are all gone into a world of light,
+    And I alone sit lingering here.'
+
+"This 'air of glory,' indeed, was over everything. The mud and the
+tide pools, the dark human figures, the black and white seagulls that
+sat like onyx pebbles on the river bed, the stream that spread
+seawards like a silver scroll, the swans that came sailing, sailing
+down the stream with just such a slow and stately pace as white-winged
+ships might have come down the river with the tide, to pass (as the
+swans did pass) into that 'world of light,' that shining seaward haze,
+where your eye could not follow them unless shaded by your hand.
+
+"I do not quite know how long we sat gazing before us in silent
+enjoyment. Neither do I know what my father's thoughts were, as he sat
+with his hands clasped on his knees and his blue eyes on the river.
+For my own part, I fancied myself established in one of the little
+houses as 'hostess,' with a sign-board having a fish painted upon it
+hanging outside the door, and a bower of woodbine, sweet-briar,
+jessamine, and myrtle commanding a view of the river. The day dream
+was broken by my father's voice.
+
+"'Mary, my dear, we must go about our business, or what will your
+mother say to us? We must see after these houses. We can't live on the
+river's bank.'
+
+"'I wish we could,' I sighed; and though he had risen and turned away,
+I lingered still. At this moment my father exclaimed--
+
+"'Bless my soul!' and I jumped up and turned round.
+
+"He was staring at a wall with a gateway in it, enclosing a house and
+garden on the other side of the road. On the two gateposts were
+printed in black Roman letters two words that I could not
+understand--_Reka Dom_.
+
+"'What does it mean?' I asked.
+
+"'Reka Dom?' said my father thoughtfully (and he pronounced it _Rayka
+Dome_). 'It is Russian. It means River House. Very curious! I suppose
+the people who live here are Russians. It's a nice situation--a lovely
+view--_lovely_!' and he had turned round to the river, but I caught
+his arm.
+
+"'Father, dear, no one lives here. Look!' and I pointed to a board
+beyond the gateway, which stated in plain English that the house was
+to let.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"By the time that we returned to my mother, Reka Dom was to all
+intents and purposes our home.
+
+"It is true that the house was old, rambling, and out of repair, and
+that what we heard of the landlord was not encouraging. He was rich,
+we were told, but miserly; and 'a very queer old gentleman,' whose
+oddness almost amounted to insanity. He had 'made himself so
+unpleasant' to various people who had thought of taking the house,
+that they drew back, and Reka Dom had been untenanted for some time.
+The old woman who took care of it, and from whom we got this
+information, prophesied further that he would 'do nothing to the old
+place. He'd let it fall about his ears first.'
+
+"It is also true that standing in the garden (which in its rambling,
+disorderly way was charming, and commanded a lovely view), my father
+rubbed his head ruefully, and said:
+
+"'You know, Mary, your mother's chief objection to our latest home
+was that the grounds were so much too large for our means of keeping
+them in order; and this garden is the larger of the two, I fear.'
+
+"And he did not seem to derive proportionate comfort from my reply.
+
+"'But, father dear, you know you needn't keep it in order, and then we
+can have it to play in.'
+
+"And yet we took Reka Dom.
+
+"The fact is that my father and I took a fancy to the place. On my
+side this is easily to be accounted for. If all the other houses at
+which we had looked had proved the direct reverse of what I (on behalf
+of myself and my brothers and sisters) was in search of, Reka Dom in a
+remarkable degree answered our requirements. To explore the garden was
+like a tour in fairy land. It was oddly laid out. Three grass-plots or
+lawns, one behind another, were divided by hedges of honeysuckle and
+sweet-briar. The grass was long, the flower-borders were borders of
+desolation, where crimson paeonies and some other hardy perennials made
+the best of it, but the odour of the honeysuckle was luxuriously sweet
+in the evening air. And what a place for bowers! The second lawn had
+greater things in store for me. There, between two tall elm trees hung
+a swing. With a cry of delight I seated myself, seized the ropes, and
+gave a vigorous push. But the impetus was strong, and the ropes were
+rotten, and I and the swing came to the ground together. This did not
+deter me, however, from exploring the third lawn, where I made a
+discovery to which that of the swing was as nothing.
+
+"It was not merely that a small path through the shrubbery led me into
+a little enclosed piece of ground devoted to those many-shaped,
+box-edged little flower-beds characteristic of 'children's
+gardens,'--it was not alone that the beds were shaped like letters,
+and that there was indisputably an M among them--but they were six in
+number. Just one apiece for myself and my brothers and sisters! And
+though families of six children are not so very uncommon as to make it
+improbable that my father's predecessor should have had the same
+number of young ones as himself, the coincidence appeared to my mind
+almost supernatural. It really seemed as if some kind old fairy had
+conjured up the whole place for our benefit. And--bless the good
+godmother!--to crown all, there were two old tea-chests and a
+bottomless barrel in the yard.
+
+"Doubtless many causes influenced my father in _his_ leaning towards
+Reka Dom, and he did not confide them to me. But I do truly believe
+that first and foremost of the attractions was its name. To a real
+hearty lover of languages there is a charm in the sight of a strange
+character, new words, a yet unknown tongue, which cannot be explained
+to those who do not share the taste. And perhaps next to the mystic
+attraction of words whose meaning is yet hidden, is to discover traces
+of a foreign language in some unexpected and unlikely place. Russian
+is not extensively cultivated; my father's knowledge of it was but
+slight, and this quiet little water-side town an unlikely place for an
+inscription in that language. It was curious, and then interesting,
+and then the quaint simple title of the house took his fancy. Besides
+this, though he could not but allow that there was reason in my
+mother's views on the subject of large grounds in combination with one
+man-of-all-work, he liked plenty of space and shrubbery where he could
+wander about--his hands behind his back--without being disturbed; and
+for his own part he had undoubtedly felt more pleasure in the
+possession of large grounds than annoyance at seeing them neglected.
+So the garden tempted him. Finally, there was a room opening upon a
+laurel walk, which had at one time been a library. The shelves--old,
+common, dirty and broken--were still there, and on the most secure of
+them the housekeeper kept her cheese and candles, and an old shawl and
+bonnet.
+
+"'The place is made for us!' I exclaimed on my return from discovering
+the old barrel and tea-chests. My father was standing in the library
+looking out upon the garden, and he did not say No.
+
+"From the old woman we learnt something of the former tenants. She was
+a good-natured old soul, with an aggrieved tone of voice, due probably
+to the depressing effects of keeping an empty house for a cantankerous
+landlord. The former tenant's name was Smith, she said (unmistakably
+English this!). But his lady was a _Roosian_, she believed. They had
+lived in _Roosia_, and some of the children, having been born there,
+were little _Roosians_, and had _Roosian_ names. She could not speak
+herself, having no knowledge of the country, but she had heard that
+the _Roosians_ were heathens, though Mr. Smith and his family went
+regularly to church. They had lived by a river, she believed, and
+their old home was called by the same outlandish name they had given
+to this. She had heard that it meant a house by the water-side, but
+could not say, knowing no language but her own, and having (she was
+thankful to say) found it sufficient for all purposes. She knew that
+before Mr. Smith's time the house was called Montague Mount, and there
+was some sense in that name. Though what the sense was, she did not
+offer to explain.
+
+"'Please, please take it!' I whispered in a pause of the conversation!
+'there are six little gardens, and--'
+
+"My father broke in with mock horror on his face: 'Don't speak of six
+gardens!' he exclaimed. 'The one will condemn the place, I fear, but
+we must go home and consult your mother.'
+
+"I suppose we did consult her.
+
+"I know we described all the charms of the house and garden, and
+passed rather a poor examination as to their condition, and what might
+be expected from the landlord. That my father endeavoured to conceal
+his personal bias, and that I made no secret of mine. At last my
+mother interrupted some elaborately practical details by saying in
+her gentle voice--
+
+"'I think choosing a home is something like choosing a companion for
+life. It is chiefly important to like it. There must be faults
+everywhere. Do you take to the place, my dear?'
+
+"'I like it certainly,' said my father. 'But the question is not what
+I like, but what you like.'
+
+"Then I knew it was settled, and breathed freely. For though my father
+always consulted my mother's wishes, she generally contrived to choose
+what she knew he would prefer. And she chose Reka Dom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Henceforward good luck seemed to follow our new home.
+
+"First, as to the landlord. The old woman had certainly not
+exaggerated his oddity. But one of his peculiarities was a most
+fortunate one for us. He was a bibliomaniac--a lover and collector of
+valuable and curious books. When my father called on him to arrange
+about the house, he found him sitting almost in rags, apparently
+dining upon some cheese-parings, and surrounded by a library, the
+value of which would have fed and clothed him with comfort for an
+almost indefinite period. Upon the chair behind him sat a large black
+cat with yellow eyes.
+
+"When my father was ushered in, he gazed for a moment in silent
+astonishment at the unexpected sight. Books in shelf after shelf up to
+the ceiling, and piled in heaps upon the floor. As he stood
+speechless, the little old man put down the plate, gathered his ragged
+dressing-gown about him, and, followed by the cat, scrambled across
+the floor and touched his arm.
+
+"'You look at books as if you loved them?' he said.
+
+"My father sighed as if a spell had been broken.
+
+"'I am nearly half a century old,' he said, 'and I do not remember the
+day when I did not love them.'
+
+"He confessed afterwards to my mother that not less than two hours
+elapsed before Reka Dom was so much as spoken of. Then his new
+acquaintance was as anxious to secure him for a tenant as he had been
+to take the house.
+
+"'Put down on paper what you think wants doing, and it shall be done,'
+was the old gentleman's liberal order on the subject of repairs.
+'Lord! Lord!' he went on, 'it's one thing to have you, and another
+thing to put the house right for men who don't know an Elzevir from an
+annual in red silk. One fellow came here who would have given me five
+pounds more than I wanted for the place; but he put his vile hat upon
+my books. Lord! Lord!'
+
+"The old man's strongest effort in my father's favour, however, was
+the proposal of a glass of wine. He seemed to have screwed himself up
+to the offer, and to be proportionately relieved when it was declined.
+
+"'You're quite right,' he said, frankly; 'my wine is not so good as my
+books. Come and see them, whenever you like.'
+
+"'The bookshelves shall be repaired, sir,' was his final promise in
+answer to a hint from my father, who (it being successful, and he
+being a very straight-forward man) was ever afterwards ashamed of this
+piece of diplomacy. 'And the fire-place must be seen to. Lord! Lord! A
+man can live anywhere, but valuable books must be taken care of. Would
+you believe it? I have a fire in this room three times a week in bad
+weather. And fuel is terribly dear, terribly dear. And that slut in
+the kitchen burns as much as if she had the care of the Vatican
+Library. She said she couldn't roast the meat without. "Then give me
+cold meat!" I said; but she roasts and boils all the same. So last
+week I forbade the butcher the house, and we've lived on cheese ever
+since, and _that's_ eightpence a pound. Food is terribly dear here,
+sir; everything is dear. It's enough to ruin a man. And you've got a
+family. Lord! Lord! How a man can keep a family and books together, I
+can't imagine. However, I suppose children live chiefly on porridge.'
+
+"Which supposition served for long as a household joke against my
+brothers, whose appetite for roast meat was not less than that of
+other healthy boys of the period.
+
+"It was a happy moment when my father came back from this interview,
+and Reka Dom was fairly ours. But a more delightful one was that in
+which I told the successful result of my embassy to the nursery
+conclave. I certainly had not the remotest claim to credit in the
+matter, but I received an ovation proportionate to the good news I
+brought. I told my story skilfully, and made the six gardens the
+crowning point; at which climax my brother and sisters raised a shout
+that so far exceeded the average of even nursery noises, that my
+mother hurried to the spot, where our little sister Phil flung herself
+into her arms, and almost sobbing with excitement, cried--
+
+"'Oh, Mother dear! we're _hooraying_ for Reka Dom!'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It was sagely prophesied by our nurse and others that we should soon
+be tired of our new fancy, and find 'plenty to complain of' in Reka
+Dom as elsewhere. (It is nursery wisdom to chasten juvenile enthusiasm
+by such depressing truths.) And undoubtedly both people and places are
+apt to disappoint one's expectations on intimate acquaintance; but
+there are people and places who keep love always, and such an one was
+Reka Dom.
+
+"I hardly know what to tell you of it, Ida. The happy years we spent
+there were marked by no wonderful occurrences, and were not enlivened
+by any particular gaiety. Beyond our own home our principal treat was
+to take tea in the snug little house where we made our first
+acquaintances. Those good ladies proved kind friends to us. Their buns
+were not to be surpassed, and they had pale albums, and faded
+treasures of the preceding generation, which it was our delight to
+overhaul. The two sisters lived with their invalid brother, and that
+was the household. Their names were Martha and Mary, and they
+cherished a touching bit of sentiment in reference to the similarity
+between their circumstances and those of the Family of Bethany.
+
+"'I think it reminds us of what we ought to be, my dear,' Miss Mary
+said to me one day. 'Only it is I who should have been called Martha,
+for Martha is far more spiritually minded.' Humility was the most
+prominent virtue in the character of these good ladies, and they
+carried it almost to excess.
+
+"I remember, as a child, thinking that even the holy sisters of
+Bethany could hardly have been more good than the Misses Brooke, but I
+was quite unable to connect any sentiment with the invalid brother. He
+spoke little and did less, and yet his sisters continually quoted his
+sayings and criticisms, and spoke of his fine taste and judgment; but
+of all that he was supposed to say, only a few croaking common-places
+ever met our ears.
+
+"'Dear James was so much pleased with that little translation you
+showed me,' or 'Dear James hopes that his young friends keep up their
+practising. He considers music such a resource,' etc., etc.
+
+"I believe they did hold conversations with him in which he probably
+assented to their propositions, and they persuaded themselves that he
+was very good company. And, indeed, he may have been all that they
+believed; I can only say that to me dear James's remarks never
+exceeded, 'Good-day, Miss. How are your excellent parents?' or some
+similar civility. I really was afraid of him. There is something
+appalling in a hoarse voice coming from under a green shade, and
+connected with eyes you cannot meet, and features that are always
+hidden. Beyond that shade we never saw to the day of his death.
+
+"This occurred about four years after we first knew them. I well
+remember the visit of condolence on which I accompanied my mother, the
+bitter grief of the sisters, and the slow dropping of Miss Mary's
+tears on to her black dress. Wonderful indeed is love! The most
+talented and charming companion in the world could not have filled to
+them the place of the helpless, uninteresting invalid who had passed
+away.
+
+"The Misses Brooke caused a commotion in the gossiping world of our
+little town by going to the funeral. It was not the custom for ladies
+to go to funerals, and, as a general rule, the timid sisters would not
+have ventured to act against public opinion; but on this occasion they
+were resolute. To hear the voice of authority meet them with the very
+words wherewith Divine lips had comforted those other sisters, would
+comfort them, as nothing else could. I remember how from a window we
+watched the funeral with childish awe and curiosity--the thrill with
+which we heard a maid announce 'the coffin,' and caught sight of the
+flapping pall, and tried to realize that old Mr. Brooke was
+underneath. Then close behind it came the two figures we knew so well,
+veiled, black, and bent, and clinging together in the agony of that
+struggle between faith and loss which every loving soul is some time
+called on to endure. As we leant out of the open window, crying
+bitterly in sympathy with them, and with the gloomy excitement of the
+occasion, they raised themselves a little and walked more steadily.
+The Rector's clear voice was cutting the air with the pathos of an
+unusual sympathy.
+
+     'I am the Resurrection and the Life--saith the Lord.'
+
+"I understood then, and have never wondered since, how it was that the
+Misses Brooke braved the gossip of the neighbourhood, and followed
+their brother's body to the grave.
+
+"These good people were, as I have said, our chief friends; but Reka
+Dom itself afforded us ample amusement. The six children who had lived
+there before us were a source of unfailing interest. The old woman of
+the house remained about the place for a short time in the capacity of
+charwoman, and she suffered many inquiries on our part as to the
+names, ages, and peculiarities of our predecessors. As she had
+'charred' for them, she was able to satisfy our curiosity to a
+considerable extent, and then great was the pleasure of retailing to
+our mother, as she sat knitting in the twilight, the anecdotes we had
+collected of 'the little Russians.'
+
+"'The Little Russians' certainly did much to cement our attachment to
+Reka Dom. Their history was the history of our home. It was the
+romance of the walks we played in, the swing we sat in, the gardens we
+tended every day. To play at being the little Russians superseded all
+other games. To 'pretend' that the little Russians were with us, and
+to give dolls' entertainments in their honour, supplanted all former
+fancies. Their gardens, by-the-by, were not allotted to their
+successors without some difficulty, and the final decision involved a
+disappointment to me. It seemed as if there could not be two opinions
+as to the propriety of my having the letter M. But on further
+consideration it appeared that as the remaining letters did not fit
+the names of my brothers and sisters, some other way of distributing
+them must be found. My mother at last decided that the letters of the
+six beds were to be written on six separate bits of paper, and put in
+a bag, and that one was to be drawn by each in turn. I still hoped
+that I might draw the letter M, but it was not to be. That large and
+sunny bed fell to my youngest brother, and I drew the letter I. Now
+not only was the bed little more than a fourth of the size of that
+which I had looked on as my own, but being very much in the shade, it
+was not favourable to flowers. Then the four divisions of the letter M
+afforded some scope for those effective arrangements which haunt one's
+spring dreams for the coming summer; but what could be done with a
+narrow strip with two narrower ends where the box-edging almost met,
+and where nothing would blossom but lilies of the valley?
+
+("Capricious things those lilies are! So obdurate under coaxing when
+transplanted to some place they do not like, so immovably flourishing
+in a home that suits them!)
+
+"What I did was to make the best of my fate. After trying to reduce
+the lilies of the valley to one neat group, and to cultivate gayer
+flowers in the rest of the bed, and after signally failing in both
+attempts, I begged a bit of spare ground in the big garden for my
+roses and carnations, and gave up my share of the Russian plat to the
+luxuriant lilies.
+
+"It had belonged to the eldest boy. One of those born in Russia, and
+with the outlandish names of which the charwoman spoke. His name was
+Ivan. Many a time did I wish it had been William or Matthew, and once,
+I remember, I dreamt a tantalizing dream of discovering that it was
+Oliver, and of digging up the middle of the O, and effecting a round
+bed of unrivalled brilliancy, with a white rose for the centre-piece
+and crown. Once in the year, however, I had my revenge. In spring my
+lilies of the valley were the finest to be seen. We had a custom that
+all through the flower season a bouquet was laid by my mother's plate
+before she came down to breakfast, and very proud we were when they
+came from our own gardens. There were no horticultural wonders in
+these nosegays, but in my short season of triumph, the size and
+fragrance of my flowers never failed to excite admiration; and many
+grown-up people besides my mother were grateful for bouquets from my
+narrow bed. Credit in the matter I deserved none, for Ivan's lilies
+took care of themselves.
+
+"Having learnt the names of the little Russians, we had no difficulty
+in discovering to which of them the respective letter beds had
+belonged; and one of our amusements was that each should endeavour to
+carry out what (so far as we could learn) had been the habits and
+customs of the little Russian to whose garden he had succeeded. Then
+we had a whole class of partisan games which gave us wonderful
+entertainment. Sometimes we pretended to be Scottish chieftains, or
+feudal barons of England, or chiefs of savage tribes. Our gardens
+were always the lands we had inherited or conquered, and we called
+ourselves by the names of the little Russians. When we were Highland
+chiefs, I remember, we put Mac indiscriminately before all the names;
+in some cases with a comical, and in others with a very satisfactory
+effect. As chief of the MacIvans I felt justly proud of my title, but
+a brother who represented the MacElizabeths was less fortunate. In the
+sham battles our pet animals (we each had one) did duty for retainers,
+much to their bewilderment. The dogs, indeed, would caper about, and
+bark round the opposing parties in a way that was at least
+inspiriting; but my Sandy Tom brandished his tail and took flying
+leaps upon no principle whatever; and as to Fatima's tortoise, it
+never budged from the beginning of the conflict to the end. Once,
+indeed, by strewing dandelion heads in the direction of the enemy's
+ground she induced him to advance, and at the cry of 'Forward,
+MacPeters!' he put forth a lazy leg, and with elephantine dignity led
+the attack, on the way to his favourite food. But (in spite of the
+fable) his slow pace was against him, and in the ensuing _melee_ he
+was left far behind.
+
+"I could not learn much about Ivan, but of what I did discover some
+things were easy enough for me to follow. He was fond of boating, a
+taste I was not allowed to cultivate; but also he was fond of books,
+the old woman said, and fond of sitting in the swing and reading, and
+I heartily approved his choice in this respect.
+
+"In helping to unpack my father's library, I had discovered a copy of
+Walton and Cotton's 'Angler,' similar in every respect, but its good
+condition, to the one that had charmed me at the inn. Sometimes the
+precious volume was lent to me, and with it in my lap, and my arms
+round the ropes of the swing, I passed many a happy hour. What fancies
+I wove after studying those quaint, suggestive old prints! As sweet as
+that 'contexture of woodbines, sweet-briar, and myrtle' in which the
+anglers sat and sipped orange punch at Tottenham. The characters of
+_Piscater_, _Venater_, and _Auceps_, and the style of their
+conversations by the wayside, I found by no means unlike those of the
+Pilgrim's Progress. The life-like descriptions of nature (none the
+less attractive at my age from being quaintly mixed with fable and
+symbolism, and pointed with pious morals) went straight to my heart;
+and though I skipped many of the fish chapters, I re-read many of the
+others, and 'The Complete Angler' did not a little to feed my strong
+natural love for out-door life and country pleasures, to confirm my
+habit of early rising, and to strengthen my attachment to the
+neighbourhood of a river.
+
+"But my father's library furnished another volume for my garden
+studies. From him I inherited some of that taste which finds a magic
+attraction in dictionaries and grammars; and I only wish that I had
+properly mastered about half the languages in which it was the delight
+of my girlhood to dabble. As yet, however, I only looked at the
+'grammar corner' with ambitious eyes, till one day there came upon me
+the desire to learn Russian. I asked my father for a Russian grammar,
+and he pointed out the only one that he possessed. My father seldom
+refused to lend us his books, and made no inquiries as to why we
+wanted them; but he was intensely strict about their proper treatment,
+so that we early learnt to turn over leaves from the top, to avoid
+dogs' ears, and generally to treat books properly and put them away
+punctually. Thus I got the grammar, and carried it off to the swing.
+Alas! it was not even Russian and English. It was a fat old French
+edition, interleaved for notes. The notes were my father's, and in
+English, which was of some assistance, and I set myself resolutely to
+learn the alphabet. But my progress was slow, and at last I got my
+father to write _Reka Dom_ for me in Russian character, as I had
+determined to master these few letters first and then proceed. I soon
+became familiar with them, and was not a little proud of the
+achievement. I made a large copy to fasten upon the nursery wall; I
+wrote it in all my books; and Fatima, who could not be induced to
+attack the fat grammar with me, became equally absorbed on her part in
+the effort to reduce the inscription to cross-stitch for the benefit
+of her sampler.
+
+"I borrowed the fat grammar again, and, in spite of my father's
+warnings that it was too difficult for me as yet, I hoped soon to be
+proficient in the language of the little Russians. But warnings from
+one's elders are apt to come true, and after a few vain efforts I left
+the tough old volume in its corner and took to easier pastimes.
+
+"I had always an inventive turn, and was, as a rule, the
+director-in-chief of our amusements. I know I was often very tiresome
+and tyrannical in the ensuing arrangements, and can only hope the
+trouble I took on these occasions on behalf of my brothers and
+sisters, served in their eyes to balance my defects. I remember one
+device of mine that proved particularly troublesome.
+
+"When sham battles had ended in real quarrels, and following in the
+footsteps of the little Russians was becoming irksome--(especially to
+Fatima, whose predecessor--Peter--had been of a military turn, and had
+begun fortifications near the kitchen garden which she was incompetent
+to carry out) a new idea struck me. I announced that letters properly
+written and addressed to the little Russians, 'Reka Dom, Russia,' and
+posted in the old rhubarb-pot by the tool-house, would be duly
+answered. The replies to be found in a week's time at the same office.
+
+"The announcement was received with delight, and no doubt was ever
+expressed as to the genuineness of the answers which I regularly
+supplied, written, by the by, in excellent English, but with Reka Dom
+neatly effected in Russian characters on the note-paper. In the first
+place, I allowed no awkward inquiries into the machinery of my little
+plots for the benefit of the rest; and in the second, we had all, I
+think, a sort of half-and-half belief, a wilful credulity in reference
+to our many fancies (such as fairies and the like), of which it is
+impossible to give the exact measure. But when, the six weekly letters
+having become rather burdensome, I left off writing answers from Ivan
+to myself, the others began to inquire why Ivan never wrote now. As
+usual, I refused to give any explanations, and after inventing several
+for themselves which answered for awhile, they adopted by general
+consent an idea put forth by little Phillis. The child was sitting one
+day with her fat cheek on her hand, and her eyes on the rhubarb-pot,
+waiting for her share of the correspondence to be read aloud to her,
+when the fancy seemed to strike her, and she said quietly, but with an
+air of full conviction--
+
+"'_I___ know what it is--_Ivan is dead_.'
+
+"The idea took strange hold of us all. We said, 'Perhaps he is dead,'
+and spoke and thought of him as dead, till I think we were fully
+persuaded of it. No chair was set for him at the dolls' feasts, and I
+gained a sort of melancholy distinction as being without a partner
+now. 'You know Mary has no little Russian, since Ivan is dead.'
+
+"When our visible pets died, we buried them with much pomp, to the
+sound of a drum and a tin trumpet, in a piece of ground by the
+cabbage-bed; but in the present instance that ceremony was impossible.
+We resolved, however, to erect a gravestone to the memory of our fancy
+friend in his own garden. I had seen letters cut on stone, and was
+confident that with a chisel and hammer nothing could be easier. These
+the nursery tool-box furnished. I wrote out an elaborate inscription
+headed by Reka Dom in Russian characters, and we got a stone and set
+to work. The task, however, was harder than we had supposed. My long
+composition was discarded, and we resolved to be content with this
+simple sentence, _To the memory of Ivan_. But 'brevity is the soul of
+wit,' and the TO took so long to cut, that we threw out three more
+words, and the epitaph finally stood thus:
+
+TO IVAN.
+
+"In a rude fashion this was accomplished; and with crape on our arms
+and the accustomed music we set up the stone among the lilies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"In time, Ida, we grew up, as it is called. Almost before we knew it,
+and whilst we still seemed to be looking forward to our emancipation
+from nursery authority and childish frocks, Fatima and I found
+ourselves grown-up young ladies, free to fashion our costume to our
+own tastes, and far from Reka Dom. Yes, we had changed our home again.
+The River House was ours no longer. Childhood also had slipped from
+our grasp, but slowly as the years had seemed to pass, they had not
+sufficed to accomplish every project we had made in them. Not one of
+those long summers by the river had seen that gorgeous display of
+flowers in our garden which in all good faith and energy we planned
+with every spring. I had not learnt Russian. Years had gone by since I
+first took up the fat grammar, but I had acquired little since that
+time beyond the familiar characters of the well-beloved name, Reka
+Dom.
+
+"The country town that circumstances had now made our home possessed
+at least one attraction for us. It was here that our old friends the
+Misses Brooke had settled when their brother's death broke up the
+quiet little household. I was very fond of the good ladies; not less
+so now than I had been as a child, when their home-made buns and faded
+albums made an evening festive, and were looked forward to as a treat.
+They were good women, severe to themselves and charitable to others,
+who cultivated the grace of humility almost in excess. One little
+weakness, however, in their otherwise estimable characters had at
+times disturbed the even course of our friendship. I hardly know what
+to call it. It was not want of candour. More truthful women do not
+exist than they were, and I believe they never wilfully deceived
+anyone. I can only describe it as a habit of indulging in small plots
+and suspicions; a want of trust in other people, partly traceable,
+perhaps, to a lack of due confidence in themselves, but which was very
+provoking to one as young, eager, and sincerely affectionate as I was.
+I was indignant to discover little plots laid to test my sincerity;
+and to find my genuine (if not minutely measured) expressions of
+feeling doubted. If this peculiarity had been troublesome in the early
+stages of our acquaintance, it was doubly so when we met again, after
+the lapse of some years. For one thing, the dear ladies were older,
+and fidgety, foolish little weaknesses of this kind sometimes increase
+with years. Then I was older also, and if they had doubted their own
+powers of entertainment when I was a child, they would still less
+believe that I could enjoy their society now that I was a 'young
+lady.' Whereas the truth was, that though my taste for buns and my
+reverence for smooth pencil drawings in impossible perspective had
+certainly diminished, my real enjoyment of a quiet evening with my old
+friends was greater than before. I liked to take my sewing to their
+undisturbed fireside, and not a few pieces of work which had flagged
+under constant interruptions at home were rapidly finished as I
+chatted with them. I liked to draw out the acquirements which they
+would not believe that they possessed. I enjoyed rubbing my modern and
+desultory reading against their old-fashioned but solid knowledge. I
+admired their high and delicate principles, and respected their almost
+fatiguing modesty. At an age when religious questions move and often
+seriously trouble girls' minds, I drew comfort from their piety, which
+(although as quiet and modest as all their other virtues) had been for
+years, under my eyes, the ruling principle of all they did, the only
+subject on which they had the courage to speak with decision, the
+crown of their affections and pleasures, and the sufficient
+consolation of their sorrow. In addition to all this, when I went to
+them, I knew that my visit gave pleasure.
+
+"It seemed hard that they could not always repose a similar confidence
+in me. And yet so it was. The consistent affection of years had failed
+to convince them that 'a young, pretty, lively girl' (as they were
+pleased to call me) could find pleasure in the society of 'two dull
+old women.' So they were apt to suspect either a second motive for my
+visit, or affectation in my appearance of enjoyment. At times I was
+chafed almost beyond my powers of endurance by these fancies; and on
+one occasion my vexation broke all bounds of respect.
+
+"'You think me uncandid, ma'am,' I cried; 'and what are you? If you
+were to hear that I had spoken of you, elsewhere, as two dull old
+women, you would be as much astonished as angered. You know you would.
+You know you don't think I think so. I can't imagine why you say it!'
+
+"And my feelings being as much in the way of my logic as those of most
+other women, I got no further, but broke down into tears.
+
+"'She says we're uncandid, Mary' sobbed Miss Martha.
+
+"'So we are, I believe,' said Miss Mary, and then we all cried
+together.
+
+"I think the protracted worry of this misunderstanding (which had been
+a long one) had made me almost hysterical. I clearly remember the
+feeling of lying with my face against the horsehair sofa in the little
+dining-room, feebly repeating, 'You shouldn't, you know. You
+shouldn't!' amid my tears, my hair being softly stroked the while by
+the two sisters, who comforted me, and blamed themselves with a depth
+of self-abasement that almost made me laugh. It had hardly seemed
+possible that their customary humility could go lower. The affair was
+wound up with a good deal of kissing, and tea, and there were no more
+suspicions for a long time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There had been peace, as I said, for long. But as, at the best of
+times, the Misses Brooke never gave us an invitation without going
+through the form of apologizing for the probable dulness of the
+entertainment, I was not surprised one morning to find myself invited
+to tea at Belle Vue Cottage for the following evening, on the strict
+condition that I should refuse the invitation if I felt disinclined to
+go. I had met the good ladies as we came out of church. There was
+Morning Prayer on Wednesdays and Fridays at one church in the town,
+and if the two little straw bonnets of the Misses Brooke had not been
+seen bending side by side at every service, the rest of the scanty
+congregation would have been as much astonished as if every one in the
+town who had time and opportunity for public worship had availed
+themselves of the privilege. On this day they had been there as usual,
+and when we turned up the street together, the invitation was given.
+
+"'And could you induce your respected father to come with you, Mary
+dear?' added Miss Mary. 'You know our rooms are small, or we should be
+so glad to see Fatima. But we have a few friends coming, and she will
+understand.'
+
+"'Only a few,' Miss Martha said, hastily. 'Don't make her think
+there's anything worth coming for, Mary. And mind, Mary dear, if you
+don't care to come, that you say so. There's no need for "excuses"
+with us. And you know exactly what our tea-parties are.'
+
+"'Now, Miss Martha,' I said, shaking my fist at her, 'I won't bear
+it!'
+
+"'Well, my dear, you know it's true. And if you should have an
+invitation to the Lodge between now and to-morrow night, mind you
+throw us over. There's no dancing and heavy supper at the Cottage.'
+
+"'I'll eat a pound of beefsteak and have a private hornpipe to fortify
+me before I come, ma'am. And if the Lightfoots should ask me between
+now and then, I'll think about throwing over my oldest friends to
+oblige you!'
+
+"'You're very clever, my dear,' sighed Miss Martha, 'and it's easy to
+laugh at a stupid old woman like me.'
+
+"Now this was rather unfair, for I had only taken to banter on these
+occasions because a serious treatment of the subject had failed. I
+made my peace, however, by grave and affectionate assurances that I
+wished to come, and would like to come; and by adding a solemn promise
+that if I felt averse from it when the time came, I would stay at
+home.
+
+"I was vexed to find symptoms of the old misunderstanding arising. The
+good ladies were evidently in a fidgety humour to-day, and going home
+full of it, I poured out my vexation to Fatima.
+
+"Fatima's composure was not so easily ruffled as mine. She was apt to
+sit in easy, graceful attitudes, looking very idle, but getting
+through a wonderful amount of exquisite needlework, and listening to
+my passing grievances without being much disturbed herself.
+
+"'I don't think I would worry myself,' she said, as she rapidly sorted
+the greens for a leaf in her embroidery. 'My idea is, that you will
+find the party more lively than usual. I have often noticed that when
+the old ladies are particularly full of apologies, something or
+somebody is expected.'
+
+"'I didn't want anything or anybody,' I said, dolefully; 'but I wish
+they wouldn't take fancies, and I wish they wouldn't put one through
+such cross-examinations about nothing. As to the party, who could
+there be, but the old set?'
+
+"'Nobody, I suppose. There'll be the Wilkinsons, of course;' and
+Fatima marked the fact with an emphatic stitch. 'And Mr. Ward, I
+suppose, and Dr. Brown, and the Jones's girls, and--'
+
+"'Oh, the rooms wouldn't hold more!' I said.
+
+"'There's always room for one more--for a gentleman at any rate; and,
+depend upon it, it is as I say.'
+
+"Fatima was not so fond of the Misses Brooke as I was. She did not
+scruple to complain of the trouble it cost to maintain intimate
+relations with the excellent but touchy old ladies, and of the hot
+water about trifles into which one must perpetually fall.
+
+"'I hope I am pretty trustworthy,' she would say, 'and I am sure you
+are, Mary. And if we are not, let them drop our acquaintance. But they
+treat their friends as we used to treat our flowers at Reka Dom! They
+are always taking them up to see how they are going on, and I like to
+vegetate in peace.'
+
+"I could not have criticized my dear and respected old friends so
+freely; but yet I knew that Fatima only spoke the truth.
+
+"The subject was unexpectedly renewed at dinner.
+
+"'Mary,' said my father, 'is there any mystery connected with this
+tea-party at Miss Brooke's?'
+
+"Fatima gave me a mischievous glance.
+
+"'If there is, sir,' said I, 'I am not in the secret.'
+
+"'I met them in the town,' he went on, 'and they were good enough to
+invite me; and as I must see Ward about some registers, I ventured to
+ask if he were to be of the party (thinking to save my old legs a walk
+to his place). The matter was simple enough, but Miss Martha seemed to
+fancy that I wanted to know who was going to be there. I fully
+explained my real object, but either she did not hear or she did not
+believe me, I suppose, for she gave me a list of the expected
+company.'
+
+"'I am sure she would have believed you, sir, if she had realized what
+you were saying,' I said. 'I know the sort of thing, but I think that
+they are generally so absorbed in their own efforts to do what they
+think you want, they have no spare attention for what you say.'
+
+"'A very ingenious bit of special pleading, my dear, but you have not
+heard all. I had made my best bow and was just turning away, when
+Miss Martha, begging me to excuse her, asked with a good deal of
+mystery and agitation if _you_ had commissioned me to find out who was
+to be at the party. I said I had not seen you since breakfast, but
+that I was quite able to assure her that if you had wished to find out
+anything on the subject, you would have gone direct to herself, with
+which I repeated my best bow in my best style, and escaped.'
+
+"I was too much hurt to speak, and Fatima took up the conversation
+with my father.
+
+"'You will go, sir?' she said.
+
+"'Of course, my dear, if Mary wishes it. Besides, Ward _is_ to be
+there. I learnt so much.'
+
+"'You learnt more, sir,' said Fatima, 'and please don't leave us to
+die of curiosity. Who is to be there, after all?'
+
+"'The Wilkinsons, and Miss Jones and her sister, and Ward, and an old
+friend of Miss Brooke's, a merchant.'
+
+"'But his name, please!' cried Fatima, for my father was retreating to
+his study.
+
+"'Smith--John Smith,' he answered laughing, and we were left alone.
+
+"I was very much disposed to be injured and gloomy, but Fatima would
+not allow it. She was a very successful comforter. In the first place,
+she was thoroughly sympathetic; and in the second, she had a great
+dislike to any disturbance of the general peace and harmony, and at
+last, her own easy, cheerful view of things became infectious where no
+very serious troubles were concerned.
+
+"'People must have their little weaknesses,' she said, 'and I am sure
+they haven't many failings.'
+
+"'This weakness is so unworthy of them,' I complained.
+
+"'All good people's weaknesses are unworthy of them, my dear. And the
+better they are, the more unworthy the weakness appears. Now, Mary, do
+be reasonable! You know at the bottom how true they are, and how fond
+of you. Pray allow them a few fidgety fancies, poor old dears. No
+doubt we shall be just as fidgety when we are as old. I'm sure I shall
+have as many fancies as hairs in my wig, and as to you, considering
+how little things weigh on your mind now--'
+
+"Fatima's reasoning was not conclusive, but I think I came at last to
+believe that Miss Brooke's distrust was creditable to herself, and
+complimentary to me--so it certainly must have been convincing.
+
+"'And now,' she concluded, 'come upstairs and forget it. For I have
+got two new ideas on which I want your opinion. The first is a new
+stitch, in which I purpose to work some muslin dresses for us both. I
+thought of it in bed this morning. The second is a new plan for
+braiding your hair, which came into my head whilst father was reading
+aloud that speech to us last night. I had just fastened up the last
+plait when he laid down the paper.'
+
+"'You absurd Fatima!' I cried. 'How could you! And it was so
+interesting!'
+
+"'Don't look shocked,' said Fatima. 'I shall never be a politician. Of
+all studies, that of politics seems to me the most disturbing and
+uncomfortable. If some angel, or inspired person would tell me which
+side was in the right, and whom to believe in, I could be a capital
+partisan. As it is, I don't worry myself with it; and last night when
+you were looking flushed and excited at the end of the speech, I was
+calmly happy--'
+
+"'But, Fatima,' I broke in, 'you don't mean to say--'
+
+"'If it had lasted five minutes longer,' said Fatima, 'I should have
+comfortably decided whether ferns or ivy would combine better with the
+loops.'
+
+"'But, Fatima! were you really not listening when--'
+
+"'On the whole I decide for ivy,' said Fatima, and danced out of the
+room, I following and attempting one more remonstrance in the hall.
+
+"'But, Fatima!--'
+
+"'With perhaps a suspicion of white chrysanthemums,' she added over
+the banisters.
+
+"Both the new ideas promised to be successful, and the following
+evening my hair was dressed in what Fatima now called the political
+plaits. From the first evening of my introduction into society she had
+established herself as my lady's maid. She took a generous delight in
+dressing me up, and was as clever as she was kind about it. This
+evening she seemed to have surpassed herself, as I judged by the
+admiring exclamations of our younger sister Phillis--a good little
+maid, who stood behind my chair with combs and pins in her hand as
+Fatima's aide-de-camp. Finally, the dexterous fingers interwove some
+sprays of ivy with the hair, and added white rosebuds for lack of
+chrysanthemums.
+
+"'Perfect!' Fatima exclaimed, stepping backwards with gestures of
+admiration that were provokingly visible in the glass before which I
+sat. 'And to think that it should be wasted on an uninteresting
+tea-party! You will not wear your new muslin, of course?'
+
+"'Indeed, I shall,' I answered. 'You know I always make myself smart
+for the Cottage.' Which was true, and my reason for it was this. I
+had once gone there to a quiet tea-party in a dress that was rather
+too smart for the occasion, and which looked doubly gay by contrast
+with the sombre costume of the elderly friends whom I met. I was
+feeling vexed with myself for an error in taste, when Miss Mary came
+up to me, and laying her hands affectionately on me, and smoothing my
+ribbons, thanked me for having come in such a pretty costume.
+
+"'You come in, my dear,' she said, 'like a fresh nosegay after winter.
+You see we are old women, my love, and dress mostly in black, since
+dear James's death; and our friends are chiefly elderly and
+sombre-looking also. So it is a great treat to us to look at something
+young and pretty, and remember when we were girls, and took pains with
+such things ourselves.'
+
+"'I was afraid I was too smart, Miss Mary,' I said.
+
+"'To be sure it is a waste to wear your pretty things here,' Miss Mary
+added; 'but you might let us know sometimes when you are going to a
+grand party, and we will come and look at you.'
+
+"I was touched by the humble little lady's speech, and by the thought
+of how little one is apt to realize the fact that faded, fretful,
+trouble-worn people in middle life have been young, and remember their
+youth.
+
+"Thenceforward I made careful toilettes for the Cottage, and this
+night was not an exception to the rule.
+
+"I was dressed early; my father was rather late, and we three girls
+had nearly an hour's chat before I had to go.
+
+"We began to discuss the merchant who was to vary the monotony of our
+small social circle. Phillis had heard that a strange gentleman had
+arrived in the town this afternoon by the London stage. Fatima had an
+idea on the subject which she boldly stated. One of the Misses Brooke
+was going to be married--to this London merchant. We were just at an
+age when a real life romance is very attractive, and the town was not
+rich in romances--at least, in our little society. So Fatima's idea
+found great favour with us, and, as she described it, seemed really
+probable. Here was an old friend, a friend of their youth, and
+probably a lover, turned up again, and the sisters were in a natural
+state of agitation. (It fully accounted for Miss Martha's suspicious
+sensitiveness yesterday, and I felt ashamed of having being
+aggrieved.) Doubtless the lovers had not been allowed to marry in
+early life because he was poor. They had been parted, but had remained
+faithful. He had made a fortune, like Dick Whittington, and now, a
+rich London merchant, had come back to take his old love home. Being
+an old friend, it was obviously a youthful attachment; and being a
+merchant, he must be very rich. This happy combination--universal in
+fiction, though not invariable in real life--was all that could be
+desired, and received strong confirmation from the fact of his coming
+from London; for in those days country girls seldom visited the
+metropolis, and we regarded the great city with awe, as the centre of
+all that was wealthy and wonderful. It was a charming story, and
+though we could not but wish that he had returned before Miss Martha
+took to a 'front' and spectacles, yet we pictured a comfortable
+domestic future for them; and Fatima was positive that 'worlds' might
+be done for the appearance of the future Mrs. Smith by more tasteful
+costume, and longed ardently to assume the direction of her toilette.
+
+"'I don't believe that she need wear a front,' she pleaded. 'I daresay
+she has plenty of pretty grey hair underneath. Spectacles are
+intellectual, if properly worn; which, by the by, they need not be at
+meals when your husband is looking at you across the table; and as to
+caps--'
+
+"But here my father knocked at the door, and I put on my cloak and
+hood, and went with him.
+
+"The Misses Brooke received us affectionately, but I thought with some
+excitement, and a flush on Miss Martha's cheeks almost made me smile.
+I could not keep Fatima's fancy out of my head. Indeed, I was
+picturing my old friend in more cheerful and matronly costume
+presiding over the elegant belongings of a stout, well-to-do,
+comfortable Mr. John Smith, as I moved about in the little room, and
+exchanged mechanical smiles and greetings with the familiar guests. I
+had settled the sober couple by their fireside, and was hesitating
+between dove-colour and lavender-grey for the wedding silk, when Miss
+Martha herself disturbed me before I had decided the important
+question. I fancied a slight tremor in her voice as she said--
+
+"'Mr. John Smith.'
+
+"I dropped a more formal curtsey than I had hitherto done, as was due
+to a stranger and a gentleman, and looked once at the object of my
+benevolent fancies, and then down again at my mittens. His head was
+just coming up from a low bow, and my instantaneous impression was,
+'He wears a brown wig.' But in a moment more he was upright, and I saw
+that he did not. And--he certainly was not suitable in point of age. I
+took one more glance to make sure, and meeting his eyes, turned
+hastily, and plunged into conversation with my nearest neighbour, not
+noticing at the instant who it was. As I recovered from my momentary
+confusion, I became aware that I was talking to the rector's wife, and
+had advanced some opinions on the subject of the weather which she was
+energetically disputing. I yielded gracefully, and went back to my
+thoughts. I hope Miss Martha did not feel as I did the loss of that
+suitable, comfortable, middle-aged partner my fancy had provided for
+her. It did seem a pity that he had no existence. I thought that
+probably marriage was the happiest condition for most people, and felt
+inclined to discuss the question with the rector's wife, who had had
+about twenty-two years' exemplary experience of that state. Then I
+should like to have helped to choose the silk--
+
+"At this point I was asked to play.
+
+"I played some favourite things of Miss Brooke's and some of my own,
+Mr. Smith turning over the leaves of my music; and then he was asked
+to sing, and to my astonishment, prepared to accompany himself. Few
+English gentlemen (if any) could accompany their own songs on the
+pianoforte in my youth, Ida; most of them then had a wise idea that
+the pianoforte was an instrument 'only fit for women,' and would have
+as soon thought of trying to learn to play upon it as of studying the
+spinning-wheel. I do not know that I had ever heard one play except my
+father, who had lived much abroad. When Mr. Smith sat down at the
+instrument, I withdrew into a corner, where Miss Martha followed me as
+if to talk. But when he began, I think every one was silent.
+
+"The song he sang is an old one now, Ida, but it was comparatively new
+then, and it so happened that very few of us had heard it before. It
+was 'Home, Sweet Home.' He had a charming voice, with a sweet pathetic
+ring about it, and his singing would have redeemed a song of far
+smaller merit, and of sentiment less common to all his hearers. As it
+was, our sympathies were taken by storm. The rector's wife sobbed
+audibly, but, I believe, happily, with an oblique reference to the ten
+children she had left at home; and poor Miss Martha, behind me,
+touched away tear after tear with her thin finger-tips, and finally
+took to her pocket-handkerchief, and thoughts of the dear dead
+brother, and the little house and garden, and I know not what earlier
+home still. As for me, I thought of Reka Dom.
+
+"We had had many homes, but that was _the_ home _par excellence_--the
+beloved of my father, the beloved of us all. And as the clear voice
+sang the refrain, which sounded in some of our ears like a tender cry
+of recall to past happiness,
+
+     'Home--Home--sweet, sweet Home!'
+
+I stroked Miss Martha's knee in silent sympathy, and saw Reka Dom
+before my eyes. The river seemed to flow with the melody. I swung to
+the tune between the elm-trees, with Walton and Cotton on my lap. What
+would Piscator have thought of it, had the milkmaid sung him this
+song? I roamed through the three lawns that were better to me than
+pleasures and palaces, and stood among the box-edged gardens. Then the
+refrain called me back again--
+
+     'Home--Home--sweet, sweet Home!'
+
+I was almost glad that it ended before I, too, quite broke down.
+
+"Everybody crowded round the singer with admiration of the song, and
+inquiries about it.
+
+"'I heard it at a concert in town the other day,' he said, 'and it
+struck me as pretty, so I got a copy. It is from an English opera
+called "Clari," and seems the only pretty thing in it.'
+
+"'Do you not like it?' Miss Jones asked me; I suppose because I had
+not spoken.
+
+"'I think it is lovely,' I said, 'as far as I can judge; but it
+carries one away from criticism; I do not think I was thinking of the
+music; I was thinking of Home.'
+
+"'Exactly.'
+
+"It was not Miss Jones who said 'Exactly,' but the merchant, who was
+standing by her; and he said it, not in that indefinite tone of polite
+assent with which people commonly smile answers to each other's
+remarks at evening parties, but as if he understood the words from
+having thought the thought. We three fell into conversation about the
+song--about 'Clari'--about the opera--the theatre--about London; and
+then Dr. Brown, who had been educated in the great city, joined us,
+and finally he and Miss Jones took the London subject to themselves,
+and the merchant continued to talk to me. He was very pleasant
+company, chiefly from being so alive with intelligence that it was
+much less trouble to talk with him than with any one I had ever met,
+except my father. He required so much less than the average amount of
+explanation. It hardly seemed possible to use too few words for him to
+seize your meaning by both ends, so to speak; the root your idea
+sprang from, and conclusion to which it tended.
+
+"We talked of music--of singing--of the new song, and of the subject
+of it--home. And so of home-love, and patriotism, and the characters
+of nations in which the feeling seemed to predominate.
+
+"'Like everything else, it depends partly on circumstances, I
+suppose,' he said. 'I sometimes envy people who have only one
+home--the eldest son of a landed proprietor, for instance. I fancy I
+have as much home-love in me as most people, but it has been divided;
+I have had more homes than one.'
+
+"'_I_ have had more homes than one,' I said; 'but with me I do not
+think it has been divided. At least, one of the homes has been so much
+dearer than the others.'
+
+"'Do you not think so because it is the latest, and your feelings
+about it are freshest?' he asked.
+
+"I laughed. 'A bad guess. It is not my present home. This one was near
+a river.'
+
+"'Exactly.'
+
+"This time the 'exactly' did not seem so appropriate as before, and I
+explained further.
+
+"'For one thing we were there when I was at an age when attachment to
+a place gets most deeply rooted, I think. As a mere child one enjoys
+and suffers like a kitten from hour to hour. But when one is just old
+enough to form associations and weave dreams, and yet is still a
+child--it is then, I fancy, that a home gets almost bound up with
+one's life.'
+
+"He simply said 'Yes,' and I went on. Why, I can hardly tell, except
+that to talk on any subject beyond mere current chit-chit, and be
+understood, was a luxury we did not often taste at the tea-parties of
+the town.
+
+"'And yet I don't know if my theory will hold good, even in our case,'
+I went on, 'for my father was quite as much devoted to the place as we
+were, and fell in love with it quite as early. But the foreign name
+was the first attraction to him, I think.'
+
+"'It was abroad, then?' he asked.
+
+"I explained, and again I can hardly tell why, but I went on talking
+till I had given him nearly as full a history of Reka Dom as I have
+given to you. For one thing he seemed amazingly interested in the
+recital, and drew out many particulars by questions; and then the song
+had filled my head with tender memories, and happy little details of
+old times, and it was always pleasant to prose about the River Home,
+as indeed, my child, it is pleasant still.
+
+"We were laughing over some childish reminiscence, when Miss Martha
+tapped me on the shoulder and said rather louder than usual--
+
+"'Dear Mary, there are some engravings here, my love, I should like
+you to look at.'
+
+"I felt rather astonished, for I knew every book and picture in the
+house as well as I knew my own, but I followed her to a table, when
+she added, in a fluttering whisper--
+
+"'You'll excuse my interrupting you, my love, I'm sure; but it was
+becoming quite particular.'
+
+"I blushed redder than the crimson silk binding of the 'Keepsake'
+before me. I wished I could honestly have misunderstood Miss Martha's
+meaning. But I could not. Had I indeed talked too much and too long to
+a gentleman and a stranger? (It startled me to reflect how rapidly we
+had passed that stage of civil commonplace which was the normal
+condition of my intercourse with the gentlemen of the town.) I was
+certainly innocent of any intentional transgression of those bounds of
+reticence and decorum which are a young lady's best friends, but as to
+the length of my conversation with the merchant I felt quite uncertain
+and unspeakably alarmed.
+
+"I was indulging a few hasty and dismal reflections when Miss Martha
+continued--
+
+"'When I was young, dear Mary, I remember a valuable piece of advice
+that was given me by my excellent friend and schoolmistress, Miss
+Peckham, "If you are only slightly acquainted with a gentleman, talk
+of indifferent matters. If you wish to be friendly but not
+conspicuous, talk of _his_ affairs; but only if you mean to be very
+intimate, speak of yourself;"' and adding, 'I'm sure you'll forgive
+me, my love,' Miss Martha fluttered from the table.
+
+"At the moment I was feeling provoked both with her and with myself,
+and did not feel so sure about the forgiveness as she professed to be;
+but of one thing I felt perfectly certain. Nothing but sheer necessity
+should induce me to speak another syllable to the London merchant.
+
+"Circumstances did not altogether favour my resolution. I scrupulously
+avoided so much as a look at Mr. Smith, though in some mysterious way
+I became conscious that he and my father were having a long
+_tete-a-tete_ conversation in a corner. I devoted myself exclusively
+to the rector's wife till supper, and then I carefully chose the
+opposite side of the table to that to which the merchant seemed to be
+going. But when I was fairly seated, for some reason he gave up his
+place to someone else, and when it was impossible for me to change my
+seat, he took the one next to it. It was provoking, but I steadily
+resisted his attempts to talk, and kept my face as much averted as
+possible. Once or twice he helped me to something on the table, but I
+barely thanked him, and never lifted my eyes to his face. I could
+not, however, avoid seeing the hand that helped me, and idly noticing
+a ring that I had remarked before, when he was playing. It was a fine
+blue stone, a lapis lazuli, curiously and artistically set. 'Rich
+merchants can afford such baubles!' I thought. It was very tasteful,
+however, and did not look like English work. There was something
+engraven upon it, which did not look like English either. Was it
+Greek? I glanced at it with some curiosity, for it reminded me of--but
+that was nonsense, a fancy that came because the subject was in my
+mind. At this moment the hand and ring were moved close to me and I
+looked again.
+
+"It was not a fancy. There was no mistaking the inscription this time.
+I had learnt it too thoroughly--written it too often--loved it too
+well--it was _Reka Dom_.
+
+"For a moment I sat in blind astonishment. Then the truth suddenly
+flashed upon me. The merchant's name was the name of our predecessors
+at Reka Dom. True, it was such a common one that I had met more than
+one family of Smiths since then without dreaming of any connection
+between them and the River House. And yet, of course, it was there
+that the Misses Brooke had known him. Before our time. Which could he
+be? He was too young to be the father, and there was no John among the
+little Russians--unless, yes, it was the English version of one of the
+Russian names--and this was Ivan.
+
+"It crowned my misfortunes. What would Miss Martha say if she knew
+what had been the subject of our conversation? Would that that
+excellent rule which had been the guide of her young ladyhood had
+curtailed the conversational propensities of mine! I thought of the
+three degrees of intimacy with a shudder. Why had we not been
+satisfied with discussing the merits of the song?
+
+"We had gone on to talk of him and his homes, and as if that were not
+enough, had proceeded further to me and mine. I got red as I sat
+listening to some civil chat from Mr. Ward the curate (eminently in
+the most innocent stage of the first degree), and trying to recall
+what we had not spoken of in connection with that Home which had been
+so beloved of both of us, and that Ivan whose lilies I had tended for
+years.
+
+"I grew nearly frantic as I thought that he must think that I had
+known who he was, and wildly indignant with the fancy for small
+mysteries which had kept Miss Brooke from telling us whom we were
+going to meet.
+
+"At last the evening came to an end. I was cloaking myself in the hall
+when the merchant came up and offered his help, which I declined. But
+he did not go, and stood so that I could not help seeing a distressed
+look in his eyes, and the nervous way in which he was turning the blue
+ring upon his finger.
+
+"'I have so wanted to speak to you again,' he said. 'I wanted to
+say--'
+
+"But at this moment I caught Miss Martha's eye in the parlour doorway,
+and, dropping a hasty curtsey, I ran to my father.
+
+"'A very nice young fellow,' my father observed, as I took his arm
+outside; 'a superior, sensible, well informed gentleman, such as you
+don't meet with every day.'
+
+"I felt quite unequal to answering the remark, and he went on:
+
+"'What funny little ways your old friends have, my dear, to be sure.
+Considering how few strangers come to the place, it would have been
+natural for them to tell us all about the one they asked us to meet;
+and as they had known both him and us, as tenants of Reka Dom, it was
+doubly natural that they should speak of him to us, and of us to him.
+But he told me that we were just the people present of whom he had not
+heard a word. He seems both fond of them and to appreciate their
+little oddities. He told me he remembers, as a boy, that they never
+would call him Ivan, which is as much his name as any by which a man
+was ever baptized. They thought it might give him a tendency to
+affectation to bear so singular a name in England. They always called
+him John, and keep up the discipline still. When he arrived yesterday
+they expressed themselves highly satisfied with the general
+improvement in him, and he said he could hardly help laughing as Miss
+Martha added, 'And you seem to have quite shaken off that little habit
+of affectation which--you'll excuse me, dear John--you had as a boy.'
+He says that, to the best of his belief, his only approach to
+affectation consisted in his being rather absent and ungainly, and in
+a strong aversion from Mr. Brooke.'
+
+"'Did the old gentleman wear that frightful shade in his time?' I
+asked.
+
+"'Not always,' he says, 'but he looked worse without it. He told me a
+good deal about him that I had never heard. He remembered hearing it
+spoken of as a boy. It appears that the brother was very wild and
+extravagant in his youth; drank, too, I fancy, and gave his poor
+sisters a world of trouble, after breaking the heart of the widowed
+mother who had spoiled him. When she died the sisters lived together,
+and never faltered in their efforts to save him--never shut their
+doors against him when he would return--and paid his debts over and
+over again. He spent all his own fortune, and most of theirs, besides
+being the means of breaking off comfortable marriages for both. Mr.
+Smith thinks that a long illness checked his career, and eventually he
+reformed.'
+
+"'I hope he was grateful to his poor sisters,' I said.
+
+"'One naturally thinks that he must have been so, but Smith's remark
+was very just. He said, "I fancy he was both penitent and grateful as
+far as he was able, but I believe he had been too long accustomed to
+their unqualified self-sacrifice to feel it very sensitively!" And I
+believe he is right. Such men not seldom reform in conduct if they
+live long enough, but few eyes that have been blinded by years of
+selfishness are opened to see clearly in this world.'
+
+"'It ought to make one very tender with the good ladies' little
+weaknesses,' I said, self-reproachfully; and I walked home in a more
+peaceful state of mind. I forgave poor Miss Martha; also I was
+secretly satisfied that my father had found the merchant's
+conversation attractive. It seemed to give me some excuse for my
+breach of Miss Peckham's golden rule. Moreover, little troubles and
+offences which seemed mountains at Bellevue Cottage were apt to
+dwindle into very surmountable molehills with my larger-minded
+parents. I was comparatively at ease again. My father had evidently
+seen nothing unusual in my conduct, so I hoped that it had not been
+conspicuous. Possibly I might never meet Mr. Smith any more. I rather
+hoped not. Life is long, and the world wide, and it is sometimes
+possible to lose sight of people with whom one has disagreeable
+associations. And then it was a wholesome lesson for the future.
+
+"'And what was the old gentleman like?' was Fatima's first question,
+when I came upstairs. I had just been talking of Mr. Brooke, and no
+other old gentleman occurred to my memory at that moment.
+
+"'What old gentleman?' I asked dreamily.
+
+"'Miss Martha's old gentleman, the merchant--wasn't he there, after
+all?'
+
+"I blushed at my stupidity, and at a certain feeling of guiltiness in
+connection with the person alluded to.
+
+"'Oh, yes, he was there,' I answered; 'but he is not an old
+gentleman.'
+
+"'What is he, then?' Fatima asked, curiously.
+
+"It is undoubtedly a luxury to be the bearer of a piece of startling
+intelligence, and it is well not to spoil the enjoyment of it by over
+haste. I finished unsnapping my necklace, and said, very
+deliberately--
+
+"'He is one of the little Russians.'
+
+"Fatima's wit jumped more quickly than mine had done. It was she who
+added--
+
+"'Then he is Ivan.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"My hopes in reference to Mr. Smith were disappointed. I had not seen
+the last of him. My mother was at this time from home, and I was
+housekeeper in her absence. It was on the morning following the
+Bellevue tea-party that my father said to me--
+
+"'Mr. Smith is coming up to refer to a book of mine to-day, my dear;
+and I asked him to stay to dinner. I suppose it will be convenient?'
+
+"I said, 'Certainly, sir.'
+
+"I could plead no domestic inconvenience; but I thought that Mr.
+Smith might have gone quietly back to London by the early coach, and
+spared me the agitation which the prospect of seeing him again
+undoubtedly excited. He came, however. It was the first visit, but by
+no means the last; and he lingered in the town, greatly to my father's
+satisfaction (who had taken a strong fancy for him), but not,
+apparently, to that of the Misses Brooke.
+
+"As I afterwards found the clue to the somewhat strange conduct of our
+old friends at this time, I may as well briefly state how it was.
+
+"When the merchant first announced to them his proposed business visit
+to the town, and his intention of calling on them, the good ladies (in
+their affection for me, and having a high opinion of him) planned a
+kindly little romance of which he and I were to be the hero and
+heroine, and which was to end in our happy marriage. With this view
+they arranged for our meeting at the tea-party, and avoided all
+mention of each to the other, that we might meet in the (so to speak)
+incidental way characteristic of real love stories. With that
+suspiciousness of people in general, and of young people in
+particular, which haunted Miss Martha, she attributed my ready
+acceptance of the invitation to my having heard of Mr. Smith's
+arrival, and to the unusual attraction of an eligible gentleman at the
+tea-party. Little did she guess the benevolent plans which on my part
+I had formed for her, and which the merchant's youthful appearance had
+dashed to the ground.
+
+"It is sometimes the case, my dear Ida, that people who make these
+kind plans for their friends, become dissatisfied with the success of
+their arrangements if they themselves cease to be the good genii of
+the plot. If, that is, matters seem likely to fall out as they wish,
+but without their assistance. It was so with the Misses Brooke, and
+especially with Miss Martha. Fully aware of the end which she in her
+own mind proposed to our acquaintance, my long conversation with the
+merchant struck her as an indelicate readiness to accept attentions
+which had matrimony in her perspective, and which she had designed to
+be the gradual result of sundry well-chaperoned and studiously
+incidental interviews at the Cottage. And when, so far from thankfully
+accepting these incidental meetings, the merchant took upon himself to
+become an almost daily visitor at our house, and delayed his return to
+London far beyond the time proposed for his departure, the good lady's
+view underwent a decided change. It was 'a pity' that a young man like
+John Smith should neglect his business. It was also 'a pity' that dear
+Mary's mother was not at home. And when I took occasion casually to
+allude to the fact that Mr. Smith's visits were paid to my father, and
+(with the exception of an occasional meal) were passed in the study
+amongst German pamphlets, my statement was met by kind, incredulous
+smiles, and supplemented with general and somewhat irritating
+observations on the proper line of conduct for young ladies at certain
+crises of life. Nothing could be kinder than Miss Martha's intentions,
+and her advice might have been a still greater kindness if she would
+have spoken straight-forwardly, and believed what I said. As it was, I
+left off going to Bellevue Cottage, and ardently wished that the
+merchant would go back to his merchandise, and leave our quiet little
+town to its own dull peace.
+
+"Sometimes I thought of the full-grown man whose intelligent face, and
+the faintly foreign accent of whose voice were now familiar in our
+home--the busy merchant, the polite and agreeable gentleman. And then
+I thought of the Ivan I seemed to have known so much better so long
+ago! The pale boy wandering by the water--reading in the swing--dead
+by that other river--buried beneath the lilies. Oh! why had he lived
+to come back in this new form to trouble me?
+
+"One day he came to my father as usual, and I took the opportunity to
+call on my old friends. I felt ashamed of having neglected them, and
+as I knew that Mr. Smith was at our house, I could not be suspected of
+having hoped to meet him at theirs. But I called at an unfortunate
+moment. Miss Martha had just made up her mind that in the absence of
+my mother, and the absentness of my father, it was the duty of old
+friends like herself to give me a little friendly counsel. As she took
+a great deal of credit for being 'quite candid, my dear,' and quietly,
+but persistently refused to give me credit for the same virtue, I was
+too much irritated to appreciate the kindness which led her to
+undertake the task of interference in so delicate a matter; and found
+her remarks far from palatable. In the midst of them the merchant was
+announced.
+
+"If I could have looked innocent it would have done me no good. As it
+was, I believe I looked very guilty. After sitting for a few minutes
+longer I got up to go, when to my horror the merchant rose also. The
+old ladies made no effort to detain him, but Miss Martha's face spoke
+volumes as we left the house. Half mad with vexation, I could hardly
+help asking him why he was stupid enough to come away just at the
+moment I had chosen for leaving; but he forestalled the inquiry by a
+voluntary explanation. He wished to speak to me. He had something to
+say.
+
+"When he had said it, and had asked me to marry him, my cup was full.
+I refused him with a vehemence which must have surprised him, modest
+as he was, and rushed wildly home.
+
+"For the next few days I led a life of anything but comfort. First as
+to Ivan. My impetuous refusal did not satisfy him, and he wrote me a
+letter over which I shed bitter tears of indescribable feeling.
+
+"Then as to my father. The whole affair took him by surprise. He was
+astonished, and very much put out, especially as my mother was away.
+So far from its having been, as with the Misses Brooke, the first
+thing to occur to him, he repeatedly and emphatically declared that it
+was the very last thing he should have expected. He could neither
+imagine what had made the merchant think of proposing to me, nor what
+had made me so ready to refuse him. Then they were in the very middle
+of a crabbed pamphlet, in which Ivan's superior knowledge of German
+had been invaluable. It was most inconvenient.
+
+"'Why didn't I like poor Ivan?'
+
+"Ah, my child, did I not like him!
+
+"'Then why was I so cross to him?'
+
+"Indeed, Ida, I think the old ladies' 'ways' were chiefly to blame for
+this. Their well-meant but disastrous ways of making you feel that you
+were doing wrong, or in the wrong, over matters the most
+straight-forward and natural. But I was safe under the wing of my
+mother, before I saw Ivan again; and--many as were the years he and I
+were permitted to spend together--I think I may truthfully say that I
+was never cross to him any more.
+
+"'What did he say in that letter that made me cry?'
+
+"He asked to be allowed to make himself better known to me, before I
+sent him quite away. And this developed an ingenious notion in my
+father's brain, that no better opportunity could, from every point of
+view, be found for this, than that I should be allowed to sit with
+them in the study whilst he and Ivan went on with the German pamphlet.
+
+"The next call I paid at Bellevue Cottage was to announce my
+engagement, and I had some doubt of the reception my news might meet
+with. But I had no kinder or more loving congratulations than those of
+the two sisters. Small allusion was made to bygones. But when Miss
+Martha murmured in my ear--
+
+"'You'll forgive my little fussiness and over-anxiety, dear Mary. One
+would be glad to guard one's young friends from some of the
+difficulties and disappointments one has known oneself--' I thought of
+the past life of the sisters, and returned her kiss with tenderness.
+Doubtless she had feared that the merchant might be trifling with my
+feelings, and that a thousand other ills might happen when the little
+love affair was no longer under her careful management. But all ending
+well, was well; and not even the Bellevue cats were more petted by the
+old ladies than we two were in our brief and sunny betrothal.
+
+"Sunny, although for the most part it was winter time. When we would
+sit by the fireside in the privileged idleness of lovers, sometimes at
+home, sometimes in the Cottage parlour; and Ivan would tell of the
+Russian Reka Dom, and of all the winter beauties and pleasures of that
+other river which was for months a frozen highway, with gay sleighs
+flying, jingling over the snow roads, and peasants wrapped in
+sheepskin crossing from the country to market in the town. How dogs
+and children rolled together in snow so dry from intense cold that it
+hardly wet them more than sand. And how the river closed, and when it
+opened, with all the local traditions connected with these events; and
+of the stratagems resorted to to keep Jack Frost out of the houses,
+and of the stores laid up against the siege of the Winter King.
+
+"But through the most interesting of his narratives Fatima's hands
+were never idle. She seemed to have concentrated all her love for me
+into those beautiful taper fingers, which laboured ceaselessly in
+exquisite needlework on my wedding clothes.
+
+"And when the lilies of the valley were next in blossom, Ivan and I
+were married.
+
+"The blue-stoned ring was cut down to fit my finger, and was, by my
+desire, my betrothal ring, and I gave Ivan another instead of it.
+Inside his was engraven the inscription we had cut upon his tombstone
+at Reka Dom,--
+
+"'TO IVAN.'"
+
+It was a long story, and Nurse had been waiting some little time in
+the old lady's kitchen when it came to an end.
+
+"And is Ivan--?" Ida hesitatingly began.
+
+"Dead. Many years since, my child," said the little old lady; "you
+need not be afraid to speak of him, my dear. All that is past. We used
+to hope that we should neither of us long outlive the other, but God
+willed it otherwise. It was very bitter at first, but it is different
+now. The days and hours that once seemed to widen our separation are
+now fast bringing us together again."
+
+"Was he about papa's age when he died?" Ida gently asked.
+
+"He was older than your father can have been, my love, I think. He was
+a more than middle-aged man. He died of fever. It was in London, but
+in his delirium he fancied that the river was running by the windows,
+and when I bathed his head he believed that the cooling drops were
+from the waters of his old home.'
+
+"Didn't he know you?" Ida asked, with sudden sympathy.
+
+"He knew the touch of my hands always, my dear. It was my greatest
+comfort. That, and the short time of perfect reason before he sank to
+rest. We had been married thirty years, and I had worn my silver
+wedding-ring with even more pride than the golden one. There have been
+lilies on the grave of the true Ivan for half that time, and will be,
+perhaps, for yet a little while, till I also am laid beneath them.
+
+"So ends the story, my dear," the little old lady added, after a
+pause.
+
+"I should like to know what became of the old landlord, please," Ida
+said.
+
+"If you will ask an old woman like me the further history of the
+people she knew in her youth," said Mrs. Overtheway, smiling, "you
+must expect to hear of deaths. Of course he is dead many a long year
+since. We became very intimate with him whilst we were his tenants,
+and, I believe, cheered the close of his life. He and my father were
+fast friends, but it was to my mother that he became especially
+devoted. He said she was an exception to her sex, which from his point
+of view was a high compliment. He had unbounded confidence in her
+judgment, and under her influence, eventually modified many of his
+peculiar habits. She persuaded him to allot a very moderate sum to
+housekeeping expenses, and to indulge in the economical luxury of a
+trustworthy servant. He consented to take into use a good suit of
+clothes which he possessed, and in these the old man was wont at last
+to accompany us to church, and to eat his Sunday dinner with us
+afterwards. I do not think he was an illiberal man at heart, but he
+had been very poor in his youth--('So poor, ma'am,' he said one day
+to my mother, 'that I could not live with honour and decency in the
+estate of a gentleman. I did not live. I starved--and bought
+books,')--and he seemed unable to shake off the pinching necessity of
+years. A wealthy uncle who had refused to help him whilst he lived,
+bequeathed all his money to him when he died. But when late in life
+the nephew became rich, habits of parsimony were a second nature, and
+seemed to have grown chronic and exaggerated under the novel anxieties
+of wealth. He still 'starved--and bought books.' During the last years
+of his life he consulted my mother (and, I fancy, other people also)
+on the merits of various public charities in the place and elsewhere;
+so that we were not astonished after his death to learn from his will
+that he had divided a large part of his fortune amongst charitable
+institutions. With the exception of a few trifling legacies to
+friends, the rest of his money was divided in equal and moderate
+bequests to relatives. He left some valuable books to my father, and
+the bulk of his library to the city where he was born."
+
+"Was your mother with him when he died?" Ida asked.
+
+"She was, my dear. But, sadly enough, only at the very last. We were
+at the seaside when he was seized by his last illness, and no one told
+us, for indeed it is probable that few people knew. At last a letter
+from the servant announced that he was dying, and had been most
+anxious to see my mother, and she hastened home. The servant seemed
+relieved by her arrival, for the old gentleman was not altogether an
+easy patient to nurse. He laughed at the doctor, she said, and
+wouldn't touch a drop of his medicine, but otherwise was as patient as
+a sick gentleman could be, and sat reading his Bible all the day long.
+It was on the bed when my mother found him, but his eyes were dimming
+fast. He held out his hands to my mother, and as she bent over him
+said something of which she could only catch three words--'the true
+riches.' He never spoke again."
+
+"Poor man?" said Ida: "I think he was very nice. What became of his
+cat?"
+
+"Dead--dead--dead!" said the little old lady; "Ida, my child, I will
+answer no more questions."
+
+"One more, please," said Ida! "where is that dear, dear Fatima?"
+
+"No, my child, no! Nothing more about her. Dear, dear Fatima, indeed!
+And yet I will just tell you that she married, and that her husband
+(older even than I am, and very deaf) is living still. He and I are
+very fond of each other, though, having been a handsome man he is
+sensitive about his personal appearance, and will not use a trumpet,
+which I consider weak. But we get on very well. He smells my flowers,
+and smiles and nods to me, and says something in a voice so low that I
+can't hear it; and I stick a posy in his buttonhole, and smile and nod
+to him, and say something in a voice so loud that _he_ can't hear it;
+and so we go on. One day in each year we always spend together, and go
+to church. The first of November."
+
+"That is--?" said Ida.
+
+"The Feast of All Saints, my child."
+
+"Won't you tell me any more?" Ida asked.
+
+"No, my dear. Not now, at any rate. Remember I am old, and have
+outlived almost all of those I loved in my youth. It is right and
+natural that death should be sad in your eyes, my child, and I will
+not make a tragedy of the story of Reka Dom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Then your real name," said Ida, as she gave the old lady a farewell
+kiss, "is--"
+
+"Mary Smith, my dear," said Mrs. Overtheway.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning the little old lady went to church as usual, and Ida was
+at the window when she returned. When the child had seen her old
+friend into the house she still kept her place, for the postman was
+coming down the street, and it was amusing to watch him from door to
+door, and to see how large a bundle of letters he delivered at each.
+At Mrs. Overtheway's he delivered one, a big one, and an odd curiosity
+about this letter took possession of Ida. She wished she knew what it
+was about, and from whom it came, though, on the face of it, it was
+not likely she would be much the wiser if she did. She was still at
+the window when the door of the opposite house was opened, and the
+little old lady came hurriedly out. She had only her cap upon her
+head, and she held an open letter in her hand; _the_ letter, it was
+evident. When she reached the little green gate she seemed to
+recollect herself, and, putting her hand to her head, went back into
+the house. Ida waited anxiously to see if she would come out again,
+and presently she appeared, this time in her bonnet, but still with
+the letter in her hand. She crossed the street, and seemed to be
+coming to the house. Then the bell rang, and in she came. Ida's
+curiosity became intense, and was not lessened by the fact that the
+little old lady did not come to her, but stayed below talking with
+some one. The old gentleman had not returned, so it must be Nurse.
+
+At last the conversation came to an end, and Mrs. Overtheway came
+upstairs.
+
+She kissed Ida very tenderly, and inquired after her health; but
+though she seemed more affectionate than usual, Ida felt persuaded
+that something was the matter. She drew a chair to the fire, and the
+old lady sat down, saying--
+
+"May I stay a little with you, my dear?"
+
+"Oh, thank you?" said Ida, and put a footstool for the old lady's
+feet.
+
+Mrs. Overtheway stroked her head tenderly for some time in silence,
+and then said, in a gentle voice--
+
+"I have something to tell you, my dear."
+
+"Another story?" Ida asked. "Oh, thank you, if it is another story."
+
+The old lady was silent, but at last she said, as if to herself--
+
+"Perhaps best so," and added: "yes, my love, I will tell you a story."
+
+Ida thanked her warmly, and another pause ensued.
+
+"I hardly know where to begin, or what to tell you of this story,"
+said the little old lady at last, seeming to falter for the first time
+in her Scharazad-like powers of narration.
+
+"Let it be about a Home, please; if you can," said Ida.
+
+"A home!" said the old lady, and strangely enough, she seemed more
+agitated than when she had spoken of Reka Dom--"It should have begun
+with a broken home, but it shall not. It should end with a united
+home, God willing. A home! I must begin with a far-away one, a strange
+one, on the summit of high cliffs, the home of fearless, powerful
+creatures, white-winged like angels."
+
+"It's a fairy tale," said Ida.
+
+"No, my child, it is true."
+
+"It sounds like a fairy tale," Ida said.
+
+"It shall be a tale of that description, if you like," said the old
+lady, after a pause, "but, as I said, the main incidents are true."
+
+"And the white-winged creatures?" Ida asked. "Were they fairies?"
+
+"No, my love; birds. But if to see snowy albatrosses with their huge
+white wings wheeling in circles about a vessel sailing in mid ocean be
+anything like what I have read of and heard described, fairyland could
+hardly show anything more beautiful and impressive."
+
+"Do they fly near ships, then?" Ida asked.
+
+"Yes, my child. I remember my husband describing them to me as he had
+once seen them in southern seas. He said that when he saw them,
+great, white, and majestic, holding no intercourse with anyone on
+board the ship, and yet spreading their wings above her day and night
+for hundreds of miles over the ocean, with folded feet, the huge white
+pinions, except for an occasional flap, outstretched in steady sail,
+never resting, and seemingly never weary, they looked like guardian
+angels keeping watch over the crew."
+
+"I wonder if they are sorry for the ships that go down?" said Ida,
+thoughtfully.
+
+Mrs. Overtheway took her hand.
+
+"Do you think it unkind in me to talk of ships, my love?" she asked.
+
+"No, no, no!" Ida exclaimed, "I don't mind _your_ talking about it. I
+wish I could talk to the birds that saw papa's ship go down, if there
+were any, and ask them how it was, and if he minded it much, and if he
+remembered me. I used to wish I had been with him, and one night I
+dreamed about it; but when the water touched me, I was frightened, and
+screamed, and woke; and then I was glad I hadn't been there, for
+perhaps he wouldn't have loved me so much if he had seen that I wasn't
+brave."
+
+The little old lady kissed her tenderly.
+
+"And now the story, please," said Ida, after a pause.
+
+And Mrs. Overtheway began the following story:
+
+
+
+
+KERGUELEN'S LAND.
+
+    "'Down in the deep, with freight and crew,
+      Past any help she lies,
+    And never a bale has come to shore
+      Of all thy merchandise.
+
+    'For cloth o' gold and comely frieze,'
+       Winstanley said, and sigh'd,
+    'For velvet coif, or costly coat,
+       They fathoms deep may bide.
+
+    'O thou, brave skipper, blithe and kind,
+       O mariners bold and true,
+    Sorry at heart, right sorry am I,
+       A-thinking of yours and you.'"
+
+"WINSTANLEY" (JEAN INGELOW).
+
+
+"Father Albatross had been out all day, and was come home to the
+island which gives its name to this story. He had only taken a short
+flight, for his wife was hatching an egg, and he kept comparatively
+near the island where her nest was situated. There was only one egg,
+but parental affection is not influenced by numbers. There is always
+love enough for the largest family, and everything that could be
+desired in an only child, and Mother Albatross was as proud as if she
+had been a hen sitting on a dozen.
+
+"The Father Albatross was very considerate. Not only did he deny
+himself those long flights which he and his mate had before so greatly
+enjoyed, but he generally contrived to bring back from his shorter
+trips some bits of news for her amusement. Their island home lay far
+out of the common track of ships, but sometimes he sighted a distant
+vessel, and he generally found something to tell of birds or fish,
+whales or waterspouts, icebergs or storms. When there was no news he
+discussed the winds and waves, as we talk of the weather and the
+crops.
+
+"Bits of news, like misfortunes, are apt to come together. The very
+day on which the egg hatched, Father Albatross returned from his
+morning flight so full of what he had seen, that he hardly paid any
+attention to his mate's announcement of the addition to his family.
+
+"'Could you leave the nest for a quarter of an hour, my dear?' he
+asked.
+
+"'Certainly not,' said Mother Albatross; 'as I have told you, the egg
+is hatched at last.'
+
+"'These things always happen at the least convenient moments,' said
+the father bird. 'There's a ship within a mere wing-stretch, untold
+miles out of her course, and going down. I came away just as she was
+sinking, that you might have a chance of seeing her. It is a horrible
+sight.'
+
+"'It must be terrible to witness', she replied, 'and I would give
+worlds to see it; but a mother's first duty is the nest, and it is
+quite impossible for me to move. At the same time I beg that you will
+return, and see whatever there is to be seen.'
+
+"'It is not worth while,' he answered; 'there was not a moment to
+lose, and by this time she must be at the bottom with all belonging to
+her.'
+
+"'Could none of them fly away?' the Mother Albatross asked.
+
+"'No men have wings,' replied her mate, 'nor, for that matter, fins
+or scales either. They are very curious creatures. The fancy they have
+for wandering about between sea and sky, when Nature has not enabled
+them to support themselves in either, is truly wonderful. Go where you
+will over the ocean and you meet men, as you meet fish and birds. Then
+if anything disables these ships that they contrive to go about in,
+down they go, and as the men can neither float nor fly, they sink to
+the bottom like so many stones.'
+
+"'Were there many on the ship you saw?' the mother bird asked.
+
+"'More than one likes to see drowned in a batch,' said Father
+Albatross 'and I feel most sorry for the captain. He was a fine
+fellow, with bright eyes and dark curly plumage, and would have been a
+handsome creature if he had had wings. He was going about giving
+orders with desperate and vain composure, and wherever he went there
+went with him a large dog with dark bright curls like his own. I have
+seen the ship before, and I know the dog. His name is Carlo. He is the
+captain's property, and the ship's pet. Usually he is very quiet, and
+sometimes, when it blows, he is ill; but commonly he was on deck,
+blinking with the most self-sufficient air you can imagine. However,
+to-day, from the moment that danger was imminent, he seemed to be
+aware of it, and to have only one idea on the subject, to keep close
+to his master. He got in front of him as he moved about, sat down at
+his feet when he stood still, jumped on him when he shouted his
+orders, and licked his hands when he seized the ropes. In fact, he
+was most troublesome. But what can you expect of a creature that
+requires four legs to go about with, and can't rise above the earth
+even with these, and doesn't move as many yards in a day as I go miles
+in an hour? He _can_ swim, but only for a certain length of time.
+However, he is probably quiet enough now; and perhaps some lucky
+chance has rolled him to his master's feet below the sea.'
+
+"'Have men no contrivance for escaping on these occasions?' the mother
+bird inquired.
+
+"'They have boats, into which they go when the ship will hold them no
+longer. It is much as if you should put out the little one to fly in a
+storm against which your own wings failed.'
+
+"'Perhaps the boats are in good order when the ship is not,' said
+Mother Albatross, who had a practical gift. 'Were there boats to this
+one?'
+
+"'There were. I saw one lowered, and quickly filled with men, eager to
+snatch this last chance of life.
+
+"'Was the captain in it?' she asked.
+
+"'No. He stayed on the ship and gave orders. The dog stayed with him.
+Another boat was lowered and filled just as the ship went down.'
+
+"'Was the captain in it?'
+
+"'Again, no. He stayed with the vessel and some others with him. They
+were just sinking as I came for you. With the last glance I gave I saw
+the captain standing quite still near the wheel. The dog was sitting
+on his feet. They were both looking in one direction--away over the
+sea. But why should you distress yourself? It is all over long since.
+Think of the little one, and let us be thankful that we belong to a
+superior race. We might have been born without wings, like poor
+sailors.'
+
+"'I cannot help grieving for the captain,' said Mother Albatross.
+'When you spoke of his bright eyes and handsome plumage I thought of
+you; and how should I feel if you were to die? I wish he had gone in
+the boats.'
+
+"'I doubt if he would have fared better,' said the father bird. 'The
+second boat must have been swamped in the sinking of the ship; and it
+is far from probable that the other will get to land.'
+
+"'Nevertheless, I hope you will fly in that direction to-morrow,' she
+said, 'and bring me word whether there are any traces of the
+catastrophe.'
+
+"The following morning Father Albatross set off as he was desired. The
+ship had foundered quite near to the other side of the island, and
+including a little excursion to see if the first boat were still above
+water, he expected to be back very shortly.
+
+"He returned even sooner than the Mother Albatross had hoped, and
+descended to the side of their nest with as much agitation as his
+majestic form was capable of displaying.
+
+"'Wonders will never cease!' he exclaimed. 'What do you think are on
+the island?'
+
+"'I couldn't guess if I were to try from now till next hatching
+season,' said his mate; 'and I beg you will not keep me in suspense. I
+am not equal to the slightest trial of the nerves. It is quite enough
+to be a mother.'
+
+"'The captain and one or two more men are here,' said the albatross.
+'What do you think of that? You will be able to see him for yourself,
+and show the youngster what men are like into the bargain. It's very
+strange how they have escaped; and that lazy, self-sufficient dog is
+with them.'
+
+"'I cannot possibly leave our young one at present,' said the Mother
+Albatross, 'and he certainly cannot get so far. It will be very
+provoking if the men leave the island before I can see them.'
+
+"'There is not much to fear of that,' her mate answered. 'A lucky wave
+has brought them to shore, but it will take a good many lucky waves to
+bring a ship to carry them home.'
+
+"Father Albatross was right; but his mate saw the strangers sooner
+than she expected. Her nest, though built on the ground, was on the
+highest point of the island, and to this the shipwrecked men soon made
+their way; and there the Mother Albatross had ample chance of seeing
+the bright eyes of the captain as they scanned the horizon line with
+keen anxiety. Presently they fell upon the bird herself.
+
+"'What splendid creatures they are!' he said to his companion; 'and so
+grandly fearless. I was never on one of these islands where they breed
+before. What a pity it is that they cannot understand one! That fellow
+there, who is just stretching his noble wings, might take a message
+and bring us help.'
+
+"'He is a fine creature,' said the Mother Albatross, peeping at the
+captain from her nest; 'that is, he would be if he had wings, and
+could speak properly, instead of making that unmusical jabbering like
+a monkey.'
+
+"'I would give a good deal to one of them for a report of the first
+boat,' the captain went on. 'Heaven knows I would be content to die
+here if I could know that it was safe. But I'm afraid--I'm afraid; oh!
+dear!'
+
+"And the captain paced up and down, the other consoling him.
+
+"'He doesn't seem as tame as one might expect,' said the Mother
+Albatross, 'he's so restless. But possibly he is hungry.'
+
+"Truly it was a great amusement for the mother bird to watch the
+strangers from her nest, and to question her mate on their
+peculiarities.
+
+"'What is he doing now?' she asked on one occasion, when the captain
+was reading a paper which he had taken from the note-book in his
+pocket.
+
+"'That is a letter,' said the Father Albatross. 'And from the look of
+it I gather that, like ourselves, he has got a young one somewhere,
+wherever his nest may be.'
+
+"'How do you gather that?' his mate inquired.
+
+"'Because the writing is so large,' answered the Father Albatross. 'It
+is one of the peculiarities of these creatures that the smaller they
+are the larger they write. That letter is from a young one; probably
+his own.'
+
+"'Very remarkable indeed,' said the Mother Albatross. 'And what is he
+doing _now_?'
+
+"'Now he is writing himself,' said her mate; 'and if you observe you
+will see my statement confirmed. See how much smaller he writes!'
+
+"The captain had indeed torn a sheet from his note-book, and was busy
+scribbling upon his knees. Whether the sight of papers was a familiar
+memory with Carlo, or whether he was merely moved by one of those
+doggish impulses we so little understand, it is impossible to say; but
+when the captain began to write, Carlo began to wag his tail, and he
+wagged it without pause or weariness till the captain had finished,
+keeping his nearest eye half open, and fixed upon the paper and the
+captain's moving hand. Once he sat up on his haunches and put his nose
+on the letter.
+
+"'That is right, old fellow, kiss it,' said the captain. 'I am just
+telling her about you. Heaven send she may ever read it, poor child!'
+
+"At this Carlo became so frantic, and so persistent in pushing his
+nose on to the paper, that the captain was fain to pocket his writing
+materials, and have a game at play with the 'ship's dog,' in which the
+latter condescendingly joined for a few minutes, and then lay down as
+before, shutting his eyes with an air which seemed to imply--
+
+"'I see, poor fellow, you don't understand me.'
+
+"The hardships endured by this small remnant of the ship's company
+were not very great. They managed to live. The weather was fine, and
+they did not at first trouble themselves about any permanent shelter.
+Perhaps, too, in spite of their seaman's knowledge of the position
+they were in, some dim hope of a ship out of her course as they had
+been, picking them off, buoyed them up with the fancy that 'it was not
+worth while.' But no ship appeared; and they built themselves a hut
+near the albatross's nest, and began to talk of other seasons, and
+provision for the future. They kept a look-out by turns through the
+daylight, and by night when the moon and stars made the distance
+visible. Every morning the sun rising above the sea met the captain's
+keen eyes scanning the horizon, and every evening that closed a day's
+fruitless watch, the sun's going down saw the captain's brown hands
+clasped together as he said, 'God's will be done!'
+
+"So days became weeks, and weeks ripened into months, and Carlo became
+used to his new home, and happy in it, and kept watch over his master,
+and took his ease as usual. But the men's appearance changed, and
+their clothes began to look shabby. In the first place they were
+wearing out, and, secondly, they seemed--as we say--to be 'getting too
+large' for them, and to hang loosely and untidily upon their gaunt
+frames. The captain's eyes looked larger and sadder, and his voice
+grew hollow at sunset, and threads of white began to show among his
+dark curls, and increased in number day by day.
+
+"'His plumage will be as white as your own very soon,' said the Mother
+Albatross. 'I suppose it's the climate that does it.'
+
+"'He is getting older,' said her mate; 'men, like ourselves, get white
+as they get old.'
+
+"'But he has been here so short a time,' said Mother Albatross.
+
+"'He is so much the older, however,' said the father bird, and his
+mate said no more; for she knew by the tone of his voice when he had
+got to the end of his available information on any subject, and that
+beyond this point he did not like to be pressed.
+
+"'It's hard, it's very hard, captain, and I can't submit as you do,'
+said one of the men one day. He and the captain were sitting side by
+side at the look out, their elbows on their knees, and their chins
+upon their hands.
+
+"'And yet it's harder for me than for you,' said the captain. 'One
+must die some day. It's not that. And you are a single man, Barker,
+without ties.'
+
+"The man stooped down, and taking one of Carlo's long ears in his
+hand, played absently with it, as he said--
+
+"'No, sir. I am not married, it's true, and have no children. I feel
+for you, sir, from my heart. But in a little house just out of
+Plymouth, that, God above knows, I can see this moment as clearly as I
+see you, there's a girl that has either forgotten me, or is breaking
+as good a heart as ever beat in woman's breast for the man that should
+have been her husband, and that's fast bound here upon a rock with
+sea-birds. The Lord knows best, captain, but it comes hard. We all
+have our troubles, sir.'
+
+"The captain laid his hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"'Forgive me,' he said. 'God comfort you! God bless you!' And, rising
+hurriedly, he went forward, the big tears breaking over his cheeks,
+and sea and sky dancing together before his eyes.
+
+"'What do you dream of at night, Barker?' said the captain, on
+another day.
+
+"'Home, sir,' said Barker.
+
+"'Strange!' said the captain. 'So do I. In all the time we have been
+here, I have never once dreamed of this island, or of our day's work,
+nor even of seeing a sail. I dream of England night after night.'
+
+"'It's the same with myself, sir,' said Barker. 'I'm in Plymouth half
+my time, I may say. And off and on I dream of my father's old home in
+Surrey.'
+
+"'Are the men going to change their feathers, do you think?' the
+Mother Albatross inquired of her mate. 'They have a most wretched
+appearance. Only the dog looks like himself.' (The first excitement of
+pity and curiosity had subsided, and the good couple were now
+naturally inclined to be critical.)
+
+"'I detest that dog,' said Father Albatross. 'His idleness and
+arrogance make me quite sick. I think I want exercise, too, and I mean
+to have a good flight to-day;' and, spreading his broad wings, the
+bird sailed away.
+
+"His excursion did not quite dispel his irritability. When he
+returned, he settled down by the captain, who was sitting listlessly,
+as usual, with Carlo at his feet.
+
+"'If you would only exert yourself,' began Father Albatross,
+'something might come of it. You are getting as bad as the dog. Spread
+out those arms of yours, and see what you can do with them! If you
+could only fly a matter of a few miles, you would see a sail--and
+that's more than we had any reason to expect.'
+
+"'What can be the matter with the birds to-day?' said the captain, who
+was in rather an irritable mood himself. 'They are silent enough
+generally'--for the voice of the albatross is rarely heard at sea.
+
+"'Move your arms, I tell you,' croaked the albatross. 'Up and
+down--so!--and follow me.'
+
+"'I shall have the dog going at them next,' muttered the captain.
+'Come along, Carlo.' And turning his back on Father Albatross, he
+moved away.
+
+"'He doesn't understand you,' said the Mother Albatross, who
+endeavoured, as is proper, to soothe her mate's irritability, and make
+peace. 'Couldn't you take a message to the ship yourself? It is
+nothing to your magnificent wings, and it is not his fault, poor
+creature, that he is not formed like you.'
+
+"'You speak very sensibly, my dear' said Father Albatross; and once
+more he took flight over the sea.
+
+"But he returned in even worse mood than before.
+
+"'Nothing can equal the stupidity of human beings,' he observed. 'I
+addressed myself to the captain. "There's an island with shipwrecked
+men on it a few miles to the north-east," said I. "We shall see land
+in about ten days, ma'am," says the captain to a lady on deck.
+"There's as big a fool as yourself wrecked on an island north-east by
+north," I cried. "If you had the skill of a sparrow you could see it
+with your own eyes in five minutes." "It's very remarkable," said the
+captain, "I never heard one of those albatross make a sound before."
+"And never will again," said I; "it's a waste of time to talk to you.
+It won't take long to put you and yours under water like the rest."
+And away I came.'
+
+"'I don't understand the cry of human beings myself,' said his mate,
+'and I'm rather glad I do not; it would only irritate me. Perhaps he
+did not understand you.'
+
+"'They are all stupid alike,' said the father bird; 'but I have done
+my best, and shall not disturb myself any more.'
+
+"The captain watched till sunset, and folded his hands, and bent his
+head as usual, and at last lay down to sleep. He dreamt of England,
+and of home--of a home that had been his long since, of a young wife,
+dead years ago. He dreamt that he lay, at early morning, in a sunny
+room in a little cottage where they had lived, and where, in summer,
+the morning sun awoke them not much later than the birds. He dreamt
+that his wife was by him, and that she thought that he was asleep, and
+that, so thinking, she put her arms round his neck to awaken him--that
+he lay still, and pretended to be slumbering on, and that, so lying,
+he saw her face bright with an unearthly beauty, and her eyes fixed
+on him with such intensity of expression that they held him like a
+spell. Then he felt her warm face come nearer to his, and she kissed
+his cheeks, and he heard her say, 'Wake up, my darling, I have
+something to show you.' Again she repeated vehemently, 'Awake! Awake!
+Look! Look!' and then he opened his eyes.
+
+"He was lying at the look-out, and Carlo was licking his face. It was
+a dream, and yet the voice was strong and clear in his ears, 'Awake!
+Awake! Look! Look!'
+
+"A heavier hand than his wife's was on his shoulder, and Barker's
+rough voice (hoarser than usual), repeated the words of his dream.
+
+"The captain's eyes followed the outstretched hand to the horizon; and
+then his own voice grew hoarse, as he exclaimed--
+
+"'My God! it is a sail!'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ida was not leaning on the little old lady's footstool now. She sat
+upright, her pale face whiter than its wont.
+
+"_Did_ the ship take them away?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Yes, my dear. Their signals were seen, and the ship took them home to
+their friends, who had believed them to be dead."
+
+"Do people who have been drowned--I mean who have been thought to be
+drowned--ever come home _really_?" the child asked.
+
+"Yes, really. Ida, my dear, I want you to remember that, as regards
+the captain and the crew, this is a true story."
+
+Ida clasped her hands passionately together.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Overtheway! Do you think Papa will ever come home?"
+
+"My child! my dear child!" sobbed the little old lady. "I think he
+will." ...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"And he _is_ alive--he is coming home!" Ida cried, as she recounted
+Mrs. Overtheway's story to Nurse, who knew the principal fact of it
+already. "And she told it to me in this way not to frighten me. I did
+cry and laugh though, and was very silly; but she said I must not be
+foolish, but brave like a captain's daughter, and that I ought to
+thank GOD for being so good to me, when the children of the
+other poor men who died will never have their fathers back in this
+world: and I am thankful, so thankful! Only it is like a mill going in
+my head, and I cannot help crying. And Papa wrote me a long letter
+when he was on the island, and he sent it to Mrs. Overtheway because
+Uncle Garbett told him that I was fond of her, and that she would tell
+me nicely, and she was to read it, and to give it to me when she had
+told me. And it is such a lovely letter, with all about the island,
+and poor Barker, and dear old Carlo, and about the beautiful birds,
+too, only Mrs. Overtheway made up a great deal of that herself. And
+please, Nursey, take off my black frock and never let me see it again,
+for the Captain is really coming home, and, oh! how I wish he would
+come!"
+
+The poor child was terribly excited, but her habits of obedience stood
+her in good stead, for though she was vehemently certain that she
+could not possibly go to sleep, in compliance with Nurse's wishes, she
+went to bed, and there at last slept heavily and long; so that when
+she awoke there was only just time to dress and be ready to meet her
+father. She was putting out her treasures for him to look at, the
+carved fans and workboxes, the beads and handkerchiefs and feathers,
+the new letter and the old one--when the Captain came.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week after the postman had delivered the letter which contained such
+wonderful news for Ida, he brought another to Mrs. Overtheway's green
+gate, addressed in the same handwriting--the Captain's. It was not
+from the Captain, however, but from Ida.
+
+     "MY DEAR, DEAR MRS. OVERTHEWAY,
+
+     "We got here on Saturday night, and are so happy. Papa says
+     when will you come and see us? I have got a little room to
+     myself, and I have got a glass case under which I keep all
+     the things that Papa ever sent me, and his letters. I bought
+     it with part of a sovereign Uncle Garbett gave me when I
+     came away. Do you know he was so very kind when I came away.
+     He kissed me, and said, 'GOD bless you, my dear!
+     You are a good child, a very good child;' and you know it
+     was very kind of him, for I don't think I ever was good
+     somehow with him. But he was so kind it made me cry, so I
+     couldn't say anything, but I gave him a great many kisses,
+     for I did not want him to know I love Papa the best. Carlo
+     will put his nose on my knee, and I can't help making blots.
+     He came with us in the railway carriage, and ate nearly all
+     my sandwiches. When he and Papa roll on the hearthrug
+     together, I mix their curls up and pretend I can't tell
+     which is which. Only really Papa's have got some grey hairs
+     in them: _we know why_. I always kiss the white hairs when I
+     find them, and he says he thinks I shall kiss the colour
+     into them again. He is so kind! I said I didn't like Nurse
+     to wear her black dress now, and she said it was the best
+     one she had, and she must wear it in the afternoon; so Papa
+     said he would get us all some bright things, for he says
+     English people dress in mud-colour, while people who live in
+     much sunnier, brighter countries wear gay clothes. So we
+     went into a shop this morning, and I asked him to get my
+     things all blue, because it is his favourite colour. But he
+     said he should choose Nurse's things himself. So he asked
+     for a very smart dress, and the man asked what kind; and I
+     said it was for a nurse, so he brought out a lot of prints,
+     and at last Papa chose one with a yellow ground and
+     carnations on it. He wanted very much to have got another
+     one with very big flowers, but the man said it was meant for
+     curtains, not for dresses, so I persuaded him not to get it;
+     but he says now he wishes he had, as it was much the best.
+     Then he got a red shawl, and a bonnet ribbon of a kind of
+     green tartan. Nurse was very much pleased, but she said they
+     were too smart by half. But Papa told her it was because she
+     knew no better, and had never seen the parrots in the East
+     Indian Islands. Yesterday we all went to church. Carlo came
+     too, and when we got to the porch, Papa put up his hand, and
+     said, 'Prayers, sir!' and Carlo lay down and stayed there
+     till we came out. Papa says that he used to do so when he
+     was going to say prayers on board ship, and that Carlo
+     always lay quietly on deck till the service was over. Before
+     we went to church Papa gave me a little parcel sealed up, to
+     put in the plate. I asked him what it was, and he said it
+     was a thankoffering. Before one of the prayers the clergyman
+     said something. I don't quite remember the words, but it
+     began, 'A sailor desires to thank GOD--' and oh! I
+     _knew_ who it was, and I squeezed his hand very tight, and I
+     tried to pray every word of that prayer, only once I began
+     to think of the island--but I _did_ try! And indeed I do try
+     to be very, very thankful, for I am so very happy! Papa got
+     a letter from Barker this morning, and we are going out to
+     choose him a wedding present. He sent a photograph of the
+     girl he is going to marry, and I was rather disappointed,
+     for I thought she would be very lovely, only, perhaps,
+     rather sad-looking; but she doesn't look very pretty, and is
+     sitting in rather a vulgar dress, with a photograph book in
+     her hand. Her dress is tartan, and queer-looking about the
+     waist, you know, like Nurse's, and it is coloured in the
+     picture, and her brooch is gilt. Papa laughs, and says
+     Barker likes colour, as he does; and he says he thinks she
+     has a nice face, and he knows she is very good, and very
+     fond of Barker, and that Barker thinks her beautiful. He
+     didn't write before he went to see her, like Papa. He just
+     walked up to the house, and found her sitting at the window
+     with his photograph in her hand. She said she had been so
+     restless all day, she could do nothing but sit and look at
+     it. Wasn't it funny? She had been very ill with thinking he
+     was dead, and Barker says she nearly died of the joy of
+     seeing him again. Papa sends you his love, and I send lots
+     and lots of mine, and millions of kisses. And please,
+     _please_ come and see us if you can, for I miss you every
+     morning, and I do love you, and am always your grateful and
+     affectionate
+
+     "IDA."
+
+     "P.S.--I am telling Papa all your stories by bits. And do
+     you know he went to sleep whilst I was telling him Mrs.
+     Moss!"
+
+Chim! chime! chim! chime! chim! chime!
+
+The story is ended, but the bells still call to Morning Prayer, and
+life goes on. The little old lady comes through the green gate, and
+looks over the way, but there is no face at that window now; something
+in it made her start for an instant, but it is only a looking-glass,
+for the smart toilette-table has been brought back to the window where
+Ida used to kneel, and the nursery is a spare bedroom once more. That
+episode in this dull house in the quiet street is over, and gone by.
+The old lady thinks so rather sadly as she goes where the bells are
+calling. The pale, eager, loving little face that turned to her in its
+loneliness, now brightens a happy home; but the remembrance of it is
+with the little old lady still, pleasant as the remembrance of flowers
+when winter has come. Yes, truly, not the least pleasant of Mrs.
+Overtheway's Remembrances.
+
+
+
+
+_The present Series of Mrs. Ewing's Works is the only authorized,
+complete, and uniform Edition published._
+
+_It will consist of 18 volumes, Small Crown 8vo, at 2s. 6d. per vol.,
+issued, as far as possible, in chronological order, and these will
+appear at the rate of two volumes every two months, so that the Series
+will be completed within 18 months. The device of the cover was
+specially designed by a Friend of Mrs. Ewing._
+
+_The following is a list of the books included in the Series--_
+
+1.   MELCHIOR'S DREAM, AND OTHER TALES.
+2.   MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES.
+3.   OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY-TALES.
+4.   A FLAT-IRON FOR A FARTHING.
+5.   THE BROWNIES, AND OTHER TALES.
+6.   SIX TO SIXTEEN.
+7.   LOB-LIE-BY-THE-FIRE, AND OTHER TALES.
+8.   JAN OF THE WINDMILL.
+9.   VERSES FOR CHILDREN, AND SONGS.
+10.  THE PEACE EGG--A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY--HINTS FOR PRIVATE
+       THEATRICALS, &c.
+11.  A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER TALES.
+12.  BROTHERS OF PITY, AND OTHER TALES OF BEASTS AND MEN.
+13.  WE AND THE WORLD, Part I.
+14.  WE AND THE WORLD, Part II.
+15.  JACKANAPES--DADDY DARWIN'S DOVECOTE--THE STORY OF A SHORT LIFE.
+16.  MARY'S MEADOW, AND OTHER TALES OF FIELDS AND FLOWERS.
+17.  MISCELLANEA, including The Mystery of the Bloody Hand--Wonder
+       Stories--Tales  of  the Khoja, and other translations.
+18.  JULIANA HORATIA EWING AND HER BOOKS, with a selection  from
+       Mrs. Ewing's Letters.
+
+S.P.C.K., NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances, by
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